Feminist Research on Gender and Sexuality Group
The Feminist Research on Gender and Sexuality (FROGS) Group focuses on cutting edge, critical research that prioritizes the study of social identities like gender, race, class, and sexuality as examined through a feminist lens. Specifically, the group focuses on research in three areas: critical body studies, radical sexuality studies, and activism/rebellion.
Members of the FROGS group include select undergraduate and graduate students at Arizona State University as well as faculty, community, and postdoctoral collaborators across multiple universities. Our goals are multiple: we want to inject a feminist perspective into traditional or even anti-feminist spaces; unite activist, pedagogical, and scholarly work; subvert the assumed hierarchies of "what counts" as feminist research; engage in creative and inspired forms of resistance; collaborate in new and imaginative ways; work in a permanant statement of opposition to Trump's policies of xenophobia, sexism, racism, and classism; and, finally, to engage, on multiple levels, the question of how to fight against inequalities, oppression, and injustices enacted onto the body and into the political and social sphere.
NEWS
---Upcoming presentations at Society for Menstrual Cycle Research conference in Colorado Springs (June 2019)
---New book chapter (with Kimberly) in Bisexuality: Theory, Research, and Recommendations for the Invisible Sexuality (March 2018)
---New articles: Virus article (with Michael), "Cycling Together" in Women's Reproductive Health (with Jax, Rose, and Stephanie); and "Friends with Benefits?" (with Adrielle) in Personal Relationships
CURRENT CORE GROUP
Breanne Fahs is the director and founder of the research group and is currently Professor of Women and Gender studies at Arizona State University. Her work focuses on women's sexuality and sexual subjectivities, radical feminist histories, critical embodiment, and political activism. She has published dozens of articles on these topics as well as six books: Performing Sex (2011, SUNY Press), Valerie Solanas (2014, Feminist Press), The Moral Panics of Sexuality (2013, Palgrave), Out for Blood (2016, SUNY Press), Firebrand Feminism (2018, University of Washington Press), and Transforming Contagion (2018, Rutgers University Press).
Ayanna Shambe is an undergraduate student at Arizona State University double majoring in Women and Gender Studies and Biology. Her research interest include: women’s health, power roles, and social stigmas that face women and the history behind them, especially how the intersection of race and gender intersect with stigma. Upon graduation, Ayanna wishes to go on to medical school or pursue a Ph.D. in women and gender studies.
Decker Dunlop is an undergraduate student at Arizona State University pursuing a major in Women and Gender Studies. Their interests include investigating the covert character of whiteness, the relationship between globalization and neocolonialism, the assimilation of disruptive, transgressive acts into the mainstream, and the implementation of radical bathroom politics. After graduating, they intend to explore communities dedicated to sustainable living and abolishing oppressive systems.
Claire Halling is an undergraduate student at Arizona State University, majoring in Women and Gender Studies. Her research interests include the portrayal of women’s bodies and sexualities in popular culture and global feminist movements. Her interests also include the intersection of race, class, sexuality, and ability, and how these impact women's identities. Upon graduation, Claire plans to pursue a masters in Elementary Education.
Mam Marie Sanyang is an undergraduate at Arizona State University double majoring in Women and Gender Studies and Social Justice and Human Rights. Her research interests include the male gaze throughout history, sex work’s effect on individuals and societies, as well as hyper-masculinity and its influence on men. Her interests also include international humanitarian work particularly optimal ways to empower marginalized people around the world. Upon graduation, Mam Marie plans to pursue a masters degree in women and gender studies.
Jakob Salazar is an undergraduate at Arizona State University majoring in Sociology and minoring in Women & Gender Studies. His research interests include mainstream domestic politics, radical political movements, the history and nature of patriarchy, the philosophy of gender and sexuality; and the role of government in effecting social change. Upon graduation he plans to attend law school for a J.D. degree.
Atlas Pillar is a senior undergraduate student at Arizona State University, majoring in Nonprofit Leadership & Management, with a Certificate in Women & Gender Studies. His research interests include: the use of slurs (reclaimed/sustained); manners in which the LGBTQ community inhabits feminist spaces; transgender and nonbinary transience; the concept of "passing"; LGBTQ language; appropriation; use of privilege in the LGBTQ community; and rankism/hierarchies. Following his pending graduation in 2019, Atlas anticipates emerging in the nonprofit field and partnering with organizations devoted to minority communities and social justice causes
Michaela Collins is an undergraduate at Arizona State University majoring in Queer and Sexuality Studies. Their research interests include how pornography and other highly sexualized media influence the expectations of relationships and sex lives; how queer identities are labeled and presented in daily life; radical feminist thought; feminist veganism and vegetarianism and animal rights; how social expectations construct false personas and the role of embarrassment and humiliation that functions to oppress the true self. Upon graduation, Michaela plans to pursue a masters degree.
ILLUSTRIOUS FROGS ALUMNI
Adrielle Munger graduated from Arizona State University in 2013 with a major in English Literature. She works as a research assistant for the Redstockings Women's Liberation Archives for Action in New York City under the direction of Kathie Sarachild, and is a freelance researcher and copyeditor. Adrielle is a member of National Women's Liberation and Redstockings, and also organizes to fight the exploitation of unpaid interns in the Intern Worker Alliance. She is currently interviewing trans women about sexism to facilitate an analysis of gender and male supremacy between trans women and radical feminists. She is also drafting an art book on the Faust Myth and the Internet - a continuation of her undergraduate honors thesis and a project started in Dr. Fahs's class "Hate Speech, Manifestos, and Radical Writings." She lives in Brooklyn, NY.
Stephanie Robinson (Voelker) graduated with her B.A. in Psychology and minor in Women and Gender Studies from Arizona State University in 2013. Her research interests include: menstrual activism, alternative menstrual products, and reproductive justice in underserved populations. Together with Jax Gonzalez, she founded the Menstrual Activist Research Collective (M.A.R.C.) and has developed a series of workshops for faculty, students, and activists about how to promote alternative menstrual products and new menstrual narratives. Check out their work (and get involved) at: http://menarchists.wordpress.com/. Stephanie continues to develop menstrual health and sex ed curriculum in conjunction with Planned Parenthood Arizona and Arizona Family Health Partnership. She currently works for a non-profit organization that serves youth who are aging out of the Arizona foster care system. Stephanie is also currently pursuing her master's degree in Social Work at Arizona State University.
Jax J. Gonzalez received their Masters in Sociology and Women’s, Gender & Sexuality studies at Brandeis University in 2016. As a first-generation college student and queer activist interested in personal identity at the intersection of education, embodiment, and health, their research project came about as a concern with examining how adolescents are socialized in the classroom to understand their bodies. Their masters research continued their undergraduate work with Dr. Breanne Fahs explored the impact of educator subjectivities in elementary school health curricula and how educators manage “teaching the taboo.” Their current project centers the experiences of trans and gender expansive youth to better understand how school settings impact their ability to thrive. Together with Stephanie Robinson, she founded the Menstrual Activist Research Collective (M.A.R.C) and had developed a series of workshops and literature on menstrual activism for faculty, students and activists.
Rose Coursey is a 2014 graduate of Arizona State University with a B.A. in women and gender studies. Her research interests include: radical feminisms, trans subjectivities, body politics, the question of agency as gendered and sexualized subjects, the intersection between feminism and anarchism, social justice movements, and menstrual activism. She wrote her thesis project about the often contentious interplay between radical feminism and the trans community. Rose is currently working as a domestic violence advocate and pursuing certification as a yoga therapist before eventually pursuing her masters degree in feminist therapy.
Alexis Starks is a graduate student in the M.A. program in Communications at Arizona State University. She graduated in May of 2017 with a B.A. in Communication from ASU. She is interested in narratives of rape and the way that sexual violence against women gets erased in contemporary culture. Her other interests include social rhetoric, objectification of the female body in advertising and entertainment, women as weapons of war, LGBTQ rights, and dichotomization in social narratives.
Natali Blazevic graduated from Arizona State University in the spring of 2015 with a Bachelors Degree in Psychology and a minor in Women and Gender Studies. Her current research interests include: the portrayal of women in media and how media affects women viewers, women's affective experiences of disgust and how it impacts their body image as well as their psychological health, and the management of the female body by individuals and the culture at large. She is currently a graduate student in the field of School Psychology at the University of Arizona.
Ela Przybylo is a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow and Ruth Wynn Woodward Postdoctoral Fellow in Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies at Simon Fraser University. Ela’s work on asexuality has appeared in GLQ, TSQ, Sexualities, Psychology & Sexuality, Feminism & Psychology, and in Asexualities: Feminist and Queer Perspectives and Introducing the New Sexuality Studies, Third Edition. Ela has co-written work forthcoming on topics such as crip approaches to menstrual pain (with Breanne Fahs, forthcoming in Feminist Formations), the confessional in feminist blogging (with Veronika Novoselova, forthcoming in the book I Confess, McGill Press), and post state-socialist sex education (forthcoming in the book Memories of (Post)socialist Childhood and Schooling, Palgrave Macmillan). Ela is the co-editor (with Derritt Mason) of a special issue of English Studies in Canada titled “Hysteria Manifest: Cultural Lives of a Great Disorder” and of the forthcoming book collection On the Politics of Ugliness, forthcoming with Palgrave (with Sara Rodrigues). Ela is a proud Founding and Advisory Editor of the peer reviewed, open access, intermedia online journal, Feral Feminisms (http://feralfeminisms.com).
Michael Karger is a doctoral student in Justice Studies at Arizona State University. He completed his master's degree in Social Justice and Human Rights in 2016 and his undergraduate degree at ASU in political science in 2013. His research interests include: popular political discourses of suburban America and their impact on underprivileged classes; critical middle-class studies; sovereignty and citizenship; the relationship between technology, fantasy, and the state; and bisexuality studies.
Tatiana Crespo is a recent (2017) graduate of Arizona State University with a major in Interdisciplinary Arts and Performance. She is a composer whose songs reflect the Female Hispanic American experience through a variety of Latin rhythms on the accordion. She is also working on an installation project that deals with issues encompassing waste, femininity, and her experience as a Costa Rican immigrant in Arizona.
Madison Carlyle is a recent 2017 graduate of Arizona State University's M.A. in Social Justice and Human Rights program. In Spring 2015, she graduated with a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Oklahoma. Her interests include: knowledge production, radical movements, manifestos, and feminist theory. She plans to pursue a Ph.D. in Sociology and currently resides in Seattle, WA.
Kimberly Koerth is a graduate student at Arizona State University pursuing master's degrees in English literature and women and gender studies. They graduated from ASU in 2016 with three bachelor's degrees. They wrote their undergraduate honors thesis on the portrayal of bisexuality in Netflix drama shows. Their other research interests include: first experiences with menstruation, non-binary gender identities, and women and queer people's experiences in cultural spaces.
Crystal Zaragoza graduated from Arizona State University with a Master of Arts in Social Justice and Human Rights in May 2018, and a Bachelor of Arts in Women and Gender Studies with an LGBT certificate in May 2016. She is a first generation queer woman of color that organizes with LGBTQ+ undocumented communities of color to transform oppressive health systems. Crystal is currently the Health Justice Coordinator at Trans Queer Pueblo, a local organization in Phoenix, Arizona that builds community power and autonomous systems for the liberation of trans and queer migrant/undocumented communities of color. She plans to continue working with grassroots movements and possibly pursue a Ph.D. in the near future.
Emma DiFrancesco is a current JD candidate at Arizona State University. She graduated from Arizona State University in May 2017 with an M.A. in Social Justice and Human Rights and in 2015 with a B.A. in Sociology with a minor in Psychology. Her research interests include: corporate personhood and crime, the oppressive issues which surround capitalism, social inequality, and radical feminist thought.
Laisa Schweigert is a graduate student pursuing an M.A. in Social Justice and Human Rights. She graduated from ASU in 2016 with a B.A. in Psychology. Her research interests include current social justice movements and feminist theory; her masters thesis examines radical feminist group WITCH and its contemporary manifestations. Upon graduation, she plans to pursue a Ph.D. in Sociology.
Liz Wallace graduated from Arizona State University in May 2016 with a B.A. in Women and Gender Studies and again in May 2018 with a M.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies with a focus on cultural studies and gender studies. Her research interests include: everyday forms of women’s resistance in relation to the body, the environment, and mental health; storytelling and poetry as means of political action as well as expression of voice; and the power/value system that measures women’s labor.
Chelsea Pixler Charbonneau graduated from Old Dominion University in May 2018 with a Masters in Humanities and a graduate certificate in Women’s Studies. In December 2013, she graduated with a B.A. in Women and Gender Studies along with a minor in Sociology from Arizona State University. She recently completed an internship with NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia, where she served as the Community Organizing Intern in Hampton Roads, VA. Her research interests include: taboos surrounding abortion, menstruation, body hair, and breastfeeding in public; the importance of self-care for activists; and ethical fashion as an eco-feminist issue.
Corie Cisco graduated from Arizona State University in May 2016 with a Master's in Interdisciplinary Studies with an emphasis in Literature and Gender Studies. In December 2013, she graduated with a Bachelor's in English and Creative Writing from Arizona State University. Her interests include: gender representation in literature and popular culture, the performance of identity, equitable access to information and proactively serving diverse populations. She is pursuing an additional Master's degree in Library and Information Science with a concentration in academic librarianship at the University of Arizona. She is currently working as a Graduate Coordinator at The Design School and utilizing her research experience to better serve the multi-faceted population of students at Arizona State University.
Carissa Cunningham is a doctoral student at Rutgers University in Political Science. She recently completed her undergraduate degree in political science at Arizona State University in 2017. Her research interests include: female combatants in freedom fighter or terrorist organizations, feminism as it relates to political studies, and homeless youth in the Phoenix area.
Eva Sisko is a 2014 graduate of Arizona State University who majored in women and gender studies. Her research interests include: the divisive nature of the sex positive vs. radical feminist dichotomy, the importance of radical feminist activism, and how female sex workers define and navigate their personal relationships at the interface of political/legal body policing. She plans to pursue graduate study in women and gender studies in 2017.
Laura Martinez is a recent (2016) graduate of the Social Justice and Human Rights. She also received her B.A. in women and gender studies at Arizona State University in 2015. She was recently accepted to the Information and Library Science masters program and will graduate in Fall 2018 with her second masters degree.
Amanda Garcia graduated from Northern Arizona University in 2015 with a major in Humanities and minor in Sociology. Her research interests include: interpersonal relationship violence (particularly public education and prevention awareness) and gender-neutral parenting. She plans to work in the field of domestic violence victim advocacy before ultimately pursuing graduate study in Social Justice and Human Rights.
Marisa Loiacono graduated with her B.S. degree in Psychology from Arizona State University in May 2013. She worked for two years for the State of Arizona as a case manager for the Department of Child Safety, where she helped parents struggling with substance abuse, mental illness, and poverty get the services they need to provide safe and appropriate environments for their children. She also worked with families within the foster care and family court system until 2015, when she moved to counseling as her main focus. She is now providing counseling services to the terminally ill and to geriatric patients as an employee of AZ FACTS of Life Behavioral Health, a nonprofit based in Phoenix, AZ.
Yessica del Rincón graduated from Arizona State University in 2014 with a B.A. in communication, minor in political science, and certificate in philosophy, rhetoric, and literature. She recently worked for UC San Diego's Career Services Center where she assisted in engaging the campus community centers and underrepresented student population with professional development resources. Yessica also worked for Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona on public policy issues, communications, and voter outreach. She is also a co-founder of Entre NosOtr@s, a Phoenix-based collaborative project that bridges academia and activism by creating public cultural events that focus on Chican@, Latin@, and indigenous social justice issues. Yessica's research interests focus on the ways in which language exists as an ethico-political space. She plans on pursuing a Ph.D. in communication with an emphasis in rhetoric and cultural studies.
