From: Out in STEM
Date: September 27, 2023
Subject: Conference Form Due + Las culturas que traicionan


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Queers Read This!

Party? [reply]

    Hi, queer! We are on week 5 of classes and Fall is starting to creep in, aka hoodie season!! Actually, nvm just checked next week’s weather, it was fun while it lasted (2 business days). Anyways, GMM updates, conference form, Ellie’s queer news, and a slay Hispanic Heritage Month-inspired highlight below. 

Last Week

    During our last GMM last Friday, we covered some E-Board changes, debriefed the O4UD conference, and went into more detail about our national oSTEM conference in November. In case you missed it, here are the slides. Dr. Jon Boualavong, a guest speaker from our Spring Speaker Series last semester (re: NL 16: including his bio), updated us on how he’s doing and shared an exciting opportunity for rising grad students, read more about it through the slides and if you are interested feel free to reach out to us.

Coming Up

Updates
- oSTEM Conference: Interest Form due TONIGHT!!
    With the 2023 oSTEM Conference around the corner, we are working hard in the background to work out travel logistics/finances to ensure strong UR representation for our first ever national conference! The conference this year will be in Anaheim, CA from November 9-12. 
    You can also submit your research through their Call for Posters to showcase at the conference, due September 30, 2023. Don’t forget to let us know that you submitted a poster in the Interest Form above!
oSTEM
- GMM Schedule Update
    Because Meliora Weekend is next week, we will be moving our GMM to the week after, so our next GMM will be on October 13!! Going forward, our GMMs will be bi-weekly based on that GMM, so the ones after will be on October 27 and then November 10, etc. 
- 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!
Outside
- RES Scholarship: Applications due December 15, 2023
    The Rochester Engineering Society’s (RES) scholarship program is open to current juniors/seniors majoring in STEM with a 3.0/4.0 minimum GPA. The program bundles 7 scholarships (varying amounts of students awarded per scholarship) each for $1.5k. The application asks for your transcript, resume, 1-page letter, and 2 letters of recommendation. All materials are due by December 15, 2023, but the interview period closes on December 8.

In The News: Ellie's Week

TW: This section includes coverage of news relating to violence against queer people.
    Hey gays! It’s club president and Bean’s mom coming to you live in the oSTEM email. Jk, our emails are not produced live, it’s a terrible strain on our secretary's wrist. But anyhoo, super excited to share some stories with ya this week! Don’t forget, feel free to send us a suggestion of a story to cover through this Google form!
• Increase in Bomb Threats at LGBTQ+ Events: Them.us Story
    As the LGBTQ+ community becomes a larger target for legislation and internet hatred, the threat on queer lives grows across the nation. Just this past weekend, there were three more bomb threats at queer events; a public health center, and two drag queen story times. Luckily, no active threats were found at these locations, but the threats still sparked numerous evacuations and fear for people’s safety. Drag queens and queer clinics have not been the only targets. Over the past few months, hundreds of threats have been made to a variety of queer events, including media premieres, art installations, and even events on college campuses. 
    While we must never give into fear, these threats are a constant reminder to stay safe when attending both public and private queer events. oSTEM recommends attending with friends, having one (or more) designated sober persons, sharing phone locations with people on- and off-site, and having an emergency plan in place. Stay safe queers!!
• Tennessee’s First Transgender Lawmaker: Advocate Article
    While I am always a Southern California girlie at heart, for the past 3 years my family has called the Nashville, TN area our home. As a lesbian with a gender non-conforming girlfriend, this is often very difficult! Lately, Tennessee has been making the news for its repeated attacks on trans youth and drag queens, but last week, there was a ray of light! Olivia Hill is now officially the first transgender lawmaker for the state, as she won a seat on the Metropolitan Council for Nashville and Davidson County! While our community continues to come under attack, we all still have the power to make change and pursue a better future for ourselves and the next generation! 

Las culturas que traicionan: Borderlands of Culture

“And I thought, how apt. Fear of going home. And of not being taken in. We're afraid of being abandoned by the mother, the culture, la Raza, for being unacceptable, faulty, damaged. Most of us unconsciously believe that if we reveal this unacceptable aspect of the self our mother/culture/race will totally reject us. To avoid rejection, some of us conform to the values of the culture, push the unacceptable parts into the shadows.”
- Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa, La Frontera: The New Mestiza

    Author, Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa examines Chicano & Latino experiences through the lens of socio-political issues like gender, sexuality, and colonialism in Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza (specifically, I’ll be referencing Chapter 2: Movimientos de rebeldía y las culturas que traicionan). Anzaldúa starts building her notion of the borderland by using the U.S.-Mexican border, illustrating it as a wound across the body of both America and her. These unnatural boundaries split artificially defined worlds and she clarifies the borderland’s inhabitants trapped in a ‘constant state of precarious transition’ were assigned there.
    Anzaldúa expands the concept of borderlands, labeling borders resulting from political power rooted in white supremacy as one manifestation of the biopolitical consolidation of power in designating un/safe spaces (re: NL 12: Bio/Necropolitics). Because the forces that construct the borders render its inhabitants illegitimate, Anzaldúa clarifies she did not betray her mother (mom & culture) by choosing to be queer, they betrayed her. Reframing her relationship with her culture as an individual one helps disconnect its legacy from the broader community that betrayed and expelled her. 

    As someone who’s also at the borderlands of Mexican, American, and indigenous cultures, Anzaldúa’s evaluation of their betrayal hit close to home. By carrying her home with her, Anzaldúa makes herself impossible to exile, and she also suggests that it is possible to negotiate multiple cultural legacies within the places one chooses for oneself (re: S&A). Anzaldúa also points to queerness as an example of flourishing alternative cultures rooted solely in the borderlands, likely muted and stigmatized because it threatens its designated ‘other’ status.
 
See you at our next GMM! <3