Dr. Jamie J. Hagen talks queerphobia and gender ideologies
RWU has been active about supporting and protecting diversity and the LGBTQ community. Sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression are included in the university’s non-discrimination policy.
On Tuesday, Feb. 26, RWU organizations came together to host a guest speaker to talk about queerphobia, gender ideologies and the Colombian Peace Referendum.
Dr. Jamie J. Hagen, the featured speaker, is the International Studies Association James N. Rosenau Postdoctoral Fellow for 2018-2019, an affiliated scholar at Brown University at the Pembroke Center, and a visiting scholar at the LSE Centre for Women, Peace and Security for spring 2019, according to the university website.
Hagen talked about the challenges minority communities face, what roles politics play and what peace looks like on a global level.
“LGBTQ people are so marginalized in certain spaces,” she said. “It’s true in the United States and certainly in other places where same-sex marriage is not legal or people that understand that if they’re out at work, they could risk losing their jobs.”
In her presentation, Hagen defined “queerphobia” as fear and violence committed against LGBTQ people. She said it may occur as backlash to progress such as the legalization of same-sex marriage.
She defined “gender ideology” as a phrase “used to discredit attention to sexual and gender rights.”
Hagen spends a lot of time during her work making sure that more people are aware that LGBTQ people exist. She said that politics for LGBTQ people is still in a space where visibility is part of the politics, like being out a work is a political choice.
“I really appreciated that I was able to speak to so many organizations on campus,” she said. “My work bridges women’s rights activism, LGBTQ activism and Latin American politics. It was nice to bring conversations together that don’t always necessarily overlap.”
The event was co-sponsored by the Department of Politics and International Relations, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Latin American and Latino Studies, Multicultural Student Union, Sexuality and Gender Alliance, Hispanic and Latino Student Association, Fem Society, Queer and Trans Resource Advocacy Center, and the Feinstein School of Social and Natural Sciences Office of the Dean.
Following the conclusion of her presentation, Hagen answer questions students and faculty members of the audience.
“She spoke so broadly about the issues with gender,” said student Madeline Leahy. “Personally, what I took away from this was a more radical point of view where I feel like there is more that we should be doing internally to now only fix ourselves but the world around us.”
