From: Out in STEM Date: January 17 Subject: Welcome Back! + Activities Fair
Queers Read This!
Hi Unlabled! Classes are already in action, but as always, I’m manifesting a syllabus week so real assignments won’t start until next week. I’ll keep this email short and sweet (like me)!
This Week
Visit us at the Winter Activities Fairthis Friday at the Goergen Athletic Center (GAC) from 12:30 - 2 pm! Help us brag about oSTEM, get some lil jolly ranchers, meet the E-Board, and witness the poster that students and staff have described as “definitely captivating” (derogatory? we’re still not sure, and we’re too afraid to ask). See you there!
Coming Up
Updates
- Addressing Privacy Practices & Norms Understanding that being ‘Out’ in STEM looks different for each of us, we proactively work towards making oSTEM spaces respectful, accessible, and safe for all in attendance. This semester we are advancing these privacy standards as E-Board and will be sharing some specifics about them next week. In the meantime, below are some reminders of continued norms for oSTEM spaces. Camera Use: Please refrain from taking pictures/videos in oSTEM spaces (GMMs, speaker events, study hours, etc.) unless given explicit permission by E-Board and relevant members/guests. If E-Board will take pictures (ie. publicity) or stream a meeting (ie. Zoom guest), we will let you know beforehand! Pronouns: Default to using they/them pronouns exclusively when referring to someone whose pronouns you don’t know. Some people are in a tricky place with their gender identity, avoid asking others for their pronouns. Feel free to share your pronouns as a soft prompting for theirs, but if they don’t specify, keep to they/them! - Spring Meetings Schedule
Our Spring General Member Meetings this semester will be on Wednesdays from 7-8 pm at Douglass 401 (still on a bi-weekly schedule), starting with our General Interest Meeting next week (January 24).
- Newsletter Changes
Along with our new GMM schedule this semester, our newsletters will now be sent on Mondays. They will still be sent weekly but will only include the In the News and Queer Highlight sections on weeks without a GMM (basically bi-weekly). I’d like to pass this semester of senior design and make sure our spring events serve c*nt so I have to cut back, on the bright side, now some of our newsletters might be less than 1000 words! - Website
Browse through our CCC website to take advantage of our compiled Resources & Opportunities (scholarships, conferences, etc.), read more about our iconic E-Board, and find other general oSTEM links. The website is regularly updated, if you spot any issues or know of an R&O we haven’t included, our Feedback Form is always open!
University
- UR Libraries Summer Internships: Due Early February (varies per role)
The UR Libraries Summer Internship Program just posted 10 different listings for paid summer internships (~$15-20/hr) that also offer students on-campus room and board. The program specifies a preference for (not required) rising sophomores and juniors. Apparently, they won’t go out to the larger student body until next week through the Career Office (woah exclusiveee), but you can read more and apply here.
In the News
• GBLT’s Digital Queeriosities: GBLT’s Online Archive
As mentioned in our last newsletter, the GLBT Historical Society’s Online Resources website makes queer archives accessible online, showing LGBTQ+ history and culture through exhibits, articles, interviews, etc. Hopefully, your queer curiosity led you to wormholes through their Online Exhibits over the break (if not, use it as a brain break this semester)! Their Queeriosities exhibition features a range of objects tied to queer history, artivism, and cultures. The exhibit features visually striking & diverse objects like dildos, gay Monopoly, poppers, and media artifacts that stand out, even online, because they cement a material culture not often preserved for queer visibility.
Ebika Bya ba Kuchu mu Buganda: Leilah Babirye
And then Ebisiyaga takes us back to our history of the fact that as an artist now I'm trying to find out where do we belong in our history? And we have this term which means it's lived before us. It's lived many, many years, even before we lived. And it's a term that was got by our great grandparents, to mean it's basically a sugar cane husks. And those are the worst, non-recyclable. I don't know if they're even recyclable. Not even insects recycle them because there's nothing sweet about them. So that was a term. It's in our language. So it means Ebisiyaga is in our history. It meant gay people, they're rubbish, they're trash. So as a creative person, that also… That's why I pick the trash to beauty. So my earlier works, even when you look at my works now, it's been a journey.
Hi, everypony! ^_^ This is Leila, The Social Chair™, with my first ever Queer Highlight! For this, I wanted to highlight another Leila(h) and her contributions to queer art through the lens of reclaiming what it means to be queer in a culture that does not accept queerness in any form. While I have been somewhat lucky to be born in a country where being queer does not automatically equal prison or death, I can still relate as the culture I grew up in considers queerness to be a punishable crime. As Leilah experienced, coming out to those from my primary, North African culture would not spell a good fate and could result in being kicked out or worse. Nevertheless, we both feel that being true to ourselves is worth the pain of others not agreeing, even if it means leaving home to be safer.
Leilah Babirye is a Ugandan artist based in New York, with a multidisciplinary approach to her art. What she is most known for, however, is the sculptures that she makes with discarded, or non-recyclable material—the material used directly reflects the way Ugandan queers are seen in society. Despite this, she reclaims this “rubbish” and uses it to portray the intersection of queer topics and Ugandan (and as a whole, African) culture; Ugandan and African queers exist and it is necessary to highlight this positively, as there is a lack of such representation.
In one of her exhibitions, Ebika Bya ba Kuchu mu Buganda (Kuchu Clans of Buganda) II uses her background of being a member of the Buganda kingdom to create an alternate reality—one of a community of Bugandans that is inclusive and accepting of one another. This is especially important in the face of the Ugandan anti-homosexuality act, which criminalizes being gay and not reporting people who are known to be gay. Leilah uses her sculptures to prove that there is an alternative to hate for Ugandans; queer Ugandans exist and are normal. The sculptures and paintings in this exhibit, made of trashed materials that are turned into beautiful artworks, represent many themes and are encouraged to be left up to the viewer. Even still, there are some common themes represented, primarily those of staying true to oneself even if faced with rejection and playing with gender norms.
Like in many cultures, names are very important to Ugandan culture as they represent the clan one is born in; to be born with the name of a clan means to respect and represent said clan. However, as queerness is seen as wrong, many Ugandans are pressured to leave their names behind to not sully it. With Leilah’s art, the people represented by them do not leave their names, but embrace them with pride; as Leilah says, “No matter how much our parents denounce us, throw us out of their families, throw us out of their houses, and stop talking to us, they cannot detach these names from us” (Reclaiming Queer Community).
Also featured is an intentional play with gender and gender expression; none of her works have a specified gender and all are androgynous in a way. For example, her piece Nakalyowa from the Kuchu Banjaza (Reed-Buck) Clan, presents both feminine and masculine traits—such as a beard, a masculine name, jewelry, and long hair—which can be seen as taboo in many societies. Despite this, Leilah takes this “taboo” in pride and demonstrates similar features throughout all of her works.
Most importantly, all of these artworks have the title of Kuchu in them, which refers to a word only a few Ugandans know and use; queer. The term acts as a sort of secret indicator between queer Ugandans, and Leilah has chosen to use it in all of her works in this exhibition, which shows that they are undeniably queer.
I hope my highlight sufficiently fills y’all’s need for queer information, and prepares y’all for a slay first week of classes! In the meantime, Leila(no ‘h’) will be relaxing at home with Florida's lovely warm weather and forgetting about the impending doom of homework.
