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
---The entire frogs group presented their work on manifestos at the upcoming National Women's Studies Association conference in Montreal, Canada (November 2016).
---Kimberly and Breanne each presented work at the recent Trans Studies conference in Tucson (September 2016).
---New articles: "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 an associate 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 four books: Performing Sex (2011, SUNY Press), Valerie Solanas (2014, Feminist Press), The Moral Panics of Sexuality (2013, Palgrave), and Out for Blood (2016, SUNY Press). She has two forthcoming books: Firebrand Feminism (University of Washington Press) and Transforming Contagion (Rutgers University Press).
Ela Przybylo is delighted to be undertaking a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship at ASU. Her work develops a queer feminist asexual analytic for rethinking the countours of biopolitical sex and imagining asexual pleasure and erotics. She has published or is forthcoming in GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, Sexualities, Feminism and Psychology, TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly, in Asexualities: Feminist and Queer Perspectives, and in Introducing the New Sexuality Studies, 3rd edition. She is also the coeditor of a special issue of English Studies in Canada (ESC) entitled “Hysteria Manifest: Cultural Lives of a Great Disorder” and a proud Founding Editor of the online open access journal Feral Feminisms (http://www.feralfeminisms.com). Read her work on academia.edu: https://yorku.academia.edu/ElaPrzybylo.
Kimberly Koerth is a graduate student at Arizona State University pursuing master's degrees in English literature and women and gender studies. She graduated from ASU in 2016 with three bachelor's degrees. She wrote her undergraduate honors thesis on the portrayal of bisexuality in Netflix drama shows. Her other research interests include: first experiences with menstruation, non-binary gender identities, and women and queer people's experiences in cultural spaces.
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.
Emma DiFrancesco is a graduate student at Arizona State University working on her Master’s in Social Justice and Human Rights. She graduated in 2015 with a B.S. in Sociology and a minor in Psychology from Arizona State University. Her research interests include: corporate personhood, corporate crime, the oppressive issues which surround capitalism, and radical feminist thought.
Madison Carlyle is a graduate student at Arizona State University pursuing an M.A. in Social Justice and Human Rights. 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 following the completion of her masters degree.
Carissa Cunningham is an undergraduate student at Arizona State University majoring in Political Science. 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. She plans to pursue her Ph.D. in Political Science or Sociology in order to eventually have a research career at a university.
Alexis Starks will graduate in May of 2017 with a B.A. in Communication. 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. After graduation, she intends to continue her education with a Master's degree in Communication at Arizona State University.
Tatiana Crespo is an undergraduate student at ASU majoring 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.
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 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 will be pursuing her master's degree in Public Health in the spring of 2017.
Jax J. Gonzalez is a Ph.D. student at the University of Colorado, Boulder in the department of Sociology. She received her Masters from Brandeis University in Sociology and Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies in Fall 2016 and her B.A. in Sociology from Arizona State University in Spring 2014. As a first generation college student and queer activist interested in the multiplicities of personal identity at the intersection of education, embodiment, and health; her research project came about as a concern with examining how adolescents are socialized in the classroom to understand their bodies. Her masters research continued her undergraduate work with Dr. Breanne Fahs and explored how educators in the Southwest and Northeast navigate teaching puberty curriculum in elementary schools. Together with Stephanie Robinson-Cestaro, 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.
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 intends to pursue graduate study in the field of School Psychology for this upcoming 2017 year.
Liz Wallace graduated from Arizona State University in May 2016 with a Bachelor's degree in Women and Gender Studies. She is currently working towards a graduate degree in the Master's in Interdisciplinary Studies program with a focus in both gender studies and cultural studies at Arizona State University. Her research interests include: feminist themes and theories in popular fiction (particularly new media), women's reproductive health, and sex trafficking and life after trauma.
Michael Karger is a doctoral student in Justice Studies at Arizona State University and is working concurrently in the fall of 2016 to complete his Master’s in Social Justice and Human Rights. He is a graduate (2013) of ASU majoring in Political Science. 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.
Chelsea Pixler Charbonneau graduated in December 2013 with her B.A. in Women and Gender Studies along with a minor in Sociology from Arizona State University. She is currently pursuing her M.A. in Humanities at Old Dominion University (ODU) in Norfolk, Virginia. Chelsea also works at ODU as a Graduate Research Assistant in the Women’s Studies and Gay/Cultural Studies Departments. Her research interests include: taboos surrounding abortion, menstruation, body hair, and breastfeeding in public. In her spare time she volunteers at a local domestic violence shelter.
Corie Cisco graduated from Arizona State University in May 2016 with a Masters in Interdisciplinary Studies, emphasizing in Literature and Gender Studies. In December 2013, she graduated with a B.A. in English and Creative Writing from Arizona State University. Her interests include: gender representation in literature and popular culture, abject bodies, trans experiences, and the performance of identity. She plans to pursue a Ph.D. eventually, but would like to continue to travel the world as time persists. Currently, she is working as a counselor at a local university and further developing the concept of feminism in her students.
Crystal Zaragoza is a graduate student in the Master's Program in Social Justice and Human Rights at ASU. She graduated with a B.A. in Women and Gender Studies with an LGBT Studies Certificate in May 2016. Crystal is currently working on research about queering the menstrual cycle, particularly around trans and queer people of color experiences of menstruation. She is also a health Promotor@ at Trans Queer Pueblo, a local Phoenix organization that helps trans and queer people of color/undocumented in various ways. She plans to work with LGBTQ+ youth of color, as well a career in advocacy and public policy for these populations.
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 and also received her B.A. in women and gender studies at Arizona State University in 2015. She is currently collaborating on a project about learning and unlearning sexual narratives and has a strong interest in sexual education and schooling. She plans to pursue work in education later on.
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.
