[Opening slide with a blue background and a window showing Sue Lanser. A presentation is played in the background.
The text on the slide reads:
WGS
Mini Commencement Program
Welcome — Professor Sarah Lamb, Chair of WGS
Undergraduate Speakers — Dannie Brice and Karina Wen
Graduate Speaker — Cara DuBois
Presentation of Prizes & Awards — Professor Sue Lanser, Professor Emerita of WGS
Undergraduate Degrees — Professor Jill Greenlee, Undergraduate Advising Head
Graduate Degrees — Professor ChaeRan Freeze, Director of Graduate Studies
Concluding Remarks — Professor Sarah Lamb, Chair of WGS
Faculty Farewells — WGS Faculty & Staff]
[Slide shows cheerful Prof. Sarah Lamb at her house commencing the celebration]
Prof. Sarah: Good afternoon. Welcome. I am Sarah Lamb, chair of the Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies Department, and I am honored and delighted to welcome you to our virtual commencement ceremony to celebrate together the graduating class of 2020. So, before we begin our main program, we would like to share a short introductory video featuring scenes of WGS at Brandeis. Please enjoy and I'll be back after two minutes.
[Introduction video begins with "Pomp and Circumstance" playing in the background. Prof. Lamb's small video thumbnail is at the upper right corner throughout the video.
Prof. Sarah: Good afternoon again, welcome. If you are just joining, I'm Sarah Lamb, the chair of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies, and a professor of anthropology and of WGS here at Brandeis. It is my honor, privilege and pleasure to preside over the events today. So let me begin by letting you know who is here live on stage, so to speak, as we all become accustomed to this virtual celebration format. You will be able to see live soon several faculty colleagues who will be presenting the prizes and degrees. And most importantly, you'll see the graduating students and prize winners themselves of whom we were all so proud. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank those who have worked very hard to make this virtual celebration possible. Thanks go especially to our WGS administrator, Alix Brandon, and our behind-the-scenes media and technology services technician, Bo Kennedy.
I and my colleagues also send profound thanks to all of the kin out there, the parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles, siblings, and friends who have supported our student graduates along their life journeys to make it possible for them to reach this exciting moment. There are few occasions more important for faculty than the opportunity to recognize the achievements of our students, and few events more poignant than commencement, which represents a new beginning for all of you graduates and also a moment for us to say goodbye to each other. I congratulate you all on this moment of your life.
Some of you in the audience may be wondering just what exactly is WGS as a field of study? Why did my child choose to receive a major, minor, or a master's degree in this interdisciplinary field of women's, gender, and sexuality studies?
At Brandeis, WGS is a locus of research and education that explores and expands our understanding of how gender and sexuality, as these intersect with race, class, culture, and religion, form a crucial dimension of identity, society, and politics in all cultural and historical settings. We call upon the arts, the humanities, and social sciences to interrogate complex questions of women, gender, sexuality, and social inequality across time and place. Given the rapidly shifting changes in how we understand human identity and experience and the prevalence and perniciousness of social inequality, few areas of study can be considered more dynamic or relevant than the field of women's, gender and sexuality studies today. Our undergraduate and graduate programs draw enthusiastic and diverse students who seek intellectual challenges and are committed to social justice. Yet, today, as we gather here to celebrate, it is also impossible to ignore the suffering in our nation around us.
You graduates are inheriting a country that is in despair, denial, and contradiction. As the New York Times reports this morning, there are parallel plagues ravaging America, the coronavirus and racial injustice starkly visible in the tragic killings of black men and women, the twin crises of violence against black people and of COVID-19, which as you know has also disproportionately killed black and brown people in shocking numbers. These twin crises expose the entrenched racial and socioeconomic inequalities of our nation. You graduates were also here at Brandeis studying when the Me Too Movement took off and when President Trump was elected. I recall that many of you were in my classes that very semester when you were freshmen. This has been a very painful time. But if there is one thing that women's, gender, and sexuality studies teach us, it is that we need not and must not accept passively the world that we receive. The critical lens of WGS makes visible what we often, what often seems invisible, and by making visible we have the chance to motivate change. We cannot change what we cannot see and WGS helps us see.
Each of us, of you, has the capacity to work for change. Audre Lorde, Black American writer, feminist and civil rights activist, proclaimed in her commencement address to the Oberlin college students in May 1989:
"To face the realities of our lives is not a reason for despair. Despair is a tool of your enemies. Facing the realities of our lives gives us motivation for action. For you are not powerless and this—your diploma, your education—is a piece of your power."
We, those of us in this WGS community, we'll do everything within our power to take action where we can, to stand up against the perniciousness and pervasiveness of racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia, hate and injustice, to work harder than ever to build a better future. So whether you go on to become professionals specializing in the fields of women's, gender and sexuality studies, or whether you use your WGS education to become better physicians, public health workers, lawyers, businessmen, computer scientists, businesswomen, political leaders, parents, community members, and friends, we know that your WGS lens will help you better understand yourself and the world around you, recognize injustice and inequities, and strive for justice.
And if you would like to help now to get involved in supporting our Brandeis community and the national protests for racial justice, our WGS undergraduate department representatives, Izzy Hochman and Cassipea Stith are inviting you to contact them with your ideas, questions, and offers of support. And we'll be sending out communication to our Brandeis community, including alums, about how to get involved in these ways. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "We cannot walk alone." If you need help or if you would like to offer help, we are here for each other.
Let me close my opening remarks by saying that graduating during a pandemic under quarantine and having a virtual commencement celebration over Zoom is I am sure not what you expected you would be doing just now. But let me say that you, the graduates of 2020, are making history. You will share this unprecedented moment with your children and grandchildren in years to come. And I am so proud of your many accomplishments and of your resilience.
So now let's turn to my favorite part of any commencement, the student speeches. We will hear from three students today. First, Danny Brice and Karina Wen who are graduates from the WGS class of 2020, two of our Majors, and then from Cara DuBois, graduating with a joint master's degree in English and Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies. So the speeches were prerecorded and unfortunately, Dannie, our first speaker, cannot attend in person today, but after we hear all three speeches, we will spotlight both Karina and Cara live, so that they may be applauded. So I'm excited now to turn to the students' speeches.
[Slide shows video of Karina Wen, one of the undergraduate speaker]
Karina Wen: My women's gender and sexuality studies major is a collection of nine classes, most of which I took just because I wanted to. It's hard to pinpoint what they all had in common and it feels impossible to summarize what I learned, but there are a couple of memories that I think to capture what WGS has meant to me.
During my first semester of college, the day after Donald Trump was elected president, my professor in one of the classes I had the next day pretty much abandoned her lesson plan and we all sat in a circle and went around just talking about our feelings and processing them. This was an upper-level AAAS class that was cross-listed in WGS and I was totally out of my element in it. My contribution to that conversation was, and I quote, "All of the SNL sketches said that he would lose." But my older and wiser classmates had much better things to say, and I think was a moment when I started to realize how much I was going to learn, not only from my professors but also from my classmates at Brandeis.
Two years later during the Brett Kavanaugh hearings, a group of WGS students and faculty gathered in Shiffman 219 and listened to Professor Anita Hill talk about her experience during the Clarence Thomas hearings in 1991, and the ways in which it paralleled and differed from that of Christine Blasey Ford. Most of my WGS classes had been small seminars, and I don't think I had ever seen so many WGS students and faculty all packed together like that. It was moving to see the community come together as unpleasant as the circumstances surrounding the gathering were.
I don't think either of those memories happened in a WGS related environment by coincidence. Studying gender and sexuality forces us to name and theorize our own identities and experiences and the everyday injustices of our lives and the world. There is no line between the theories we study in class and the experiences we have outside of class and the events we read about in the news. Moreover, the WGS Department is full of incredibly smart and compassionate people who understand the importance of supporting one another and having the space to talk about the things that are happening to us and around us.
There have been brief moments when it has felt paradoxical, even a little hypocritical, to sit in a classroom and talk about centering the most marginalized within higher education, a system which is inherently elitist. But I think there is tremendous value in WGS students, many of whom are women and non-binary people and queer people and people of color getting together and talking about how messed up everything is. Learning to question the structures that we've been taught are normal, and aspiring to hopefully take those skills and to make things a tiny bit better. I'm always reminding myself that this work is exhausting because it is so deeply personal. Our bodies and our lived experiences are implicated in it, but that's also what makes it worth doing. Congratulations everyone and thank you for making WGS a really great place to learn.
[Slide shows a video of Dannie Brice, the other undergraduate speaker]
Dannie Brice: To my colleagues, classmates, professors, advisors, affiliated faculty and the people who maintain our departmental space, to all I say hello and send my greetings. I'm incredibly grateful that in spite of this pandemic, we're able to convene and continue our conversations through technology. Throughout my undergraduate tenure as a WGS major, I've been granted the utmost privilege of being surrounded by some of the most rigorous and enriching minds at Brandeis University. The productive mentorship, intellectual nurturing, and the magical teachings of WGS faculties, such as Professor Faith Smith, Professor Aliyyah Abdur-Rahman, Professor Harleen Singh and Professor Thomas King, has had an incredible impact on my time at Brandeis for which I'm most grateful. From my first year in the departments to my last, WGS has always welcomed me to fashion a department which I can call home.
To quote and borrow the words of Nobel prize winner and the First Lady of American Letters, Toni Morrison says, "When you get these jobs that you have been so brilliantly trained for, just remember that your real job is that if you' re free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else." And so the same words encompass my experience at the WGS department in which I've been given the power of language, the power of analysis, the power of sisterhood, love, and friendship, that I will take with me onwards and empower our communal spaces and academic communities. At Brandeis, the subtle touch of recognition that women of color share amongst each other in a WGS department has to see me comparatively and has been an experience that I will cherish beyond my undergraduate career.
The unwavering foundation I've had from Dr. Faith Smith has changed my life and taught me the true meaning of mentorship in ways I've never experienced before. My senior thesis, "Performing Sovereignty and Staging Creolisation in Theaters of Revolt," has been the most fulfilling experience of my undergraduate career, as it fueled me and cemented my passion for learning in greater ways. In so doing, Dr. Smith's investment in me with time, resources, and guidance has prepared me and equipped me to go forth in important work in Caribbean scholarship.
Lastly, to my colleagues and classmates, I am very proud of you, and I believe that your training in women, gender and sexuality studies has prepared you, and I'm excited to see how the tools that the department has supplied will transform your views of the world. Thank you.
[Slide shows video of Cara DuBois, the graduate speaker]
Cara DuBois: Good afternoon. My name is Cara DuBois and I am the joint master's student in English and women's gender and sexuality studies. When I thought about what I wanted to say today, I kept returning to the first article that our cohort read together when we arrived at Brandeis, which doesn't feel that long ago somehow. But it was bell hooks theory of the Liberatory Practice. Professor Szobel, if you're here, thank you. And I'd like to read the beginning of that piece. She writes,
"Let me begin by saying that I came to theory because I was hurting. Pain within me was so intense that I could not go on living. I came to theory, desperate, wanting to comprehend, to grasp what was happening around them within me. Most importantly, I wanted to make the hurt go away. I saw in theory then a location for healing"
Hooks is writing about the pain that we experienced in relation to larger social structures like racism, sexism, classism, and experiences like abuse. But this is also very relevant when we consider the trauma of what we're going through today, in this global crisis.
I encourage you to go back to those moments throughout your time at Brandeis that have made you excited to be a gender studies scholar, those pieces, or those conversations with friends that have motivated you to consider different futures or look at the world in a new way.
And I wanna say congratulations for all of your hard work and for getting to this point. And you should be so proud of yourself and celebrate this achievement. So thank you very much and I am wishing all of you the best.
[Slide shows Prof. Sarah back on the screen]
Prof. Sarah: So now if all the panelists would like to unmute themselves, let's give a round of applause.
[A huge round of applause]
[Slide shows the screen of the student speakers]
Prof. Sarah: What beautiful speeches. I'm so proud of you, . Wow, way to go. Thank you very much Cara and Dannie. That was really special. What a treat! Yay!
[Woman]: Thank you.
Prof. Sarah: So, thank you very much. And now it is my pleasure to introduce my colleague, Professor Sue Lanser who is Professor Emerita of English and Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies and former chair of WGS and she will be presenting the prizes and awards.
[Slide shows Prof. Sue Lanser sitting in her study]
Prof. Sue Lanser: Thank you. Good afternoon everyone. It's my honor and pleasure to announce the winners of this year's WGS prizes and grants. We have quite a few of them, so I'm gonna ask you to hold your applause till the very end and we'll unmute again and have a round of applause. Each of these prizes has been a gift of a Brandeis board member, parent, or alumnae. And together the prizes give us a window on the exciting and important work our students have been doing during this past year. So I'm going to tell you a little bit about each prize and why it was created before I announce the winner. And some of the people who created this prize are here and we will spotlight them.
So our first prize goes to a continuing student. The Ellen Raskin Award was created in 1997 by Richard Raskin and Judy Blumenthal Asuleen, class of 1975 in memory of Ellen Ilana Raskin, class also of 1975. It's awarded annually to a rising sophomore or junior who has worked to advance women' s rights, human rights, or the creative arts. This year's awardee is Cassipea Stith, a rising junior in WGS, and a dedicated undergraduate department representative. Cass along with rising junior Maria Aranibar also received a summer internship grant endowed by our board member Renee Rapaporte to enable them to pursue an otherwise unpaid volunteer internship. Cass will be an intern this summer with Charis Circle Books in Decatur, Georgia, the South's oldest independent feminist bookstore. So Cass, congratulations to you. Are you spotlighted? I can't quite tell that.
[Slide shows Cassipea with a grey wall in the background]
Cassipea Stith: Thank you so much. Yeah, I guess I am now. I see myself twice. Thanks so much for the award. Well, I don't have much to say, yeah, I'm a junior. I'm a Posse scholar so I originally come from Atlanta, so I'm in Atlanta now. I was born to Arkansas too. I say that 'cause that matters to me and I was just there two weeks ago. But yeah, I started my internship this week. I'm working with Charis Circle, just helping them spread their programming information and resources for the community. So we're also standing in solidarity with Sister Song as far as the demands that we requested from Keisha Lance Bottoms.
It's been quite a lot going on in Atlanta from, I arrived Friday, we're driving back and I couldn't even get on the highway because of the traffic and protests were still going on. I'm here also trying to figure out what I can do here. And like was mentioned earlier for people who were here before four. As a UDR, I'm trying to work with the department, asking students, figuring out what we can do on the ground for students who are still on campus at Brandeis, who've gone back home but may still need things. And I'm sure that it's some students, lots of students still want to address some of the concerns that haven't been answered as far as with BranPo and just other sources of power and hierarchy that obviously are oppressing people.
Prof. Lanser: Cass, congratulations, and also thank you so much and you're welcome to put anything in the chat that you want, any links, or anything you'd like our students to be aware of going forward. Also, everybody, that we have a chat and it's a great thing to use and you can save it. It doesn't disappear at the end of our conversation together.
Okay, so our next grant is the graduate research grant established in 1986 by the Sagan family, and Rachel Sagan is here as a family member and a member of our board.
[Rachel Sagan, a family member of the grant offered, appears and waves]
And this grant recognizes an outstanding research project in the field of WGS. The graduate grant this year is going to Sari Fein. A PhD student in Near Eastern and Judaic studies for her project "Conceiving motherhood: The reception of biblical mothers in the early Jewish imagination." Sari.
[Slide shows Sari Fein, Sagan sponsored Grant winner]
Sari Fein: Well thank you so much for having me and for choosing me as the recipient of this grant. It's a huge honor. I'm very grateful to the WGS department and the Sagan family. My daughter is turning three next week. I'd like to dedicate this to her. I do not think she will accept it as a birthday present, but I will try. She makes getting work done difficult, but she inspires everything I do. Thank you.
Prof. Lanser: Thank you, and congratulations. By the way, if you' re muted, this works. Okay. Our next award is the Richard Saber Undergraduate Research Grant established by Brian Saber-class of 1984. Brian is also with us today. He's a former member of the WGS national board and he established this prize in memory of his father, Richard. And Brian I, remember you're saying that it was your father who taught you to be a feminist. So that's a wonderful honor to your father. The grant is awarded to a Brandeis undergraduate to support an original research project in WGS. And this year's winner is Eli Wasserman, who is graduating with a double major in Anthropology and HSSP Health Science, Society and Policy. The Saber Award supported research for his thesis, the impact of non-inclusive sex education on the rates of sexually transmitted infections, teen pregnancy, and young people's mental and emotional health. And Eli received high honors for this work.
[Slide shows Brian Saber, a family member of the grant offered]
[Slide shows Eli Wasserman, Saber sponsored grant winner]
Eli Wasserman: First of all, thank you to Brian Saber, the Saber family, for this generous grant. It really helped deepen the strength of my project, helped me gain more subject interviews, and ultimately made the thesis what it is. Thank you, Professor Lamb, for being my incredible thesis advisor at the SSP, Anthropology, and WGS departments. I really have had an incredible Brandeis experience and it was amazing to round it out with such a profound, and really meaningful to me, particularly researching the LGBT community was incredible, and looking at how sex education really impacts young people in the United States was incredible. So thank you to everybody here, family, friends, and the generous faculty at Brandeis. It's been a pleasure.
Prof. Lanser: Thank you and congratulations, Eli.
Now we come to the Chris Lerman Prize, which was established by Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer, class of 1969, to honor her mother Rosalie Chris Lerman, a survivor of Auschwitz, who with her husband, Miles, helped to found the U.S. Holocaust Museum. And in her daughter's words, "Chris measured her achievements in terms of nurturing those she loved, making it possible for them to dream big." And I just wanna say, Jeanette really dreamed big herself. If you love the opera and you know Met at the Movies or the streaming right now of the metropolitan opera, you can thank Jeanette Lerman and the Lerman-Neubauer Foundation for that wonderful gift to the world. This prize was created to promote scholarship about women who have lived extraordinary lives however well or little known and express their wisdom, talents, vision, and courage in a variety of ways.
This year's winner of the Chris Lerman prize is Hannah Kressel, majoring in Art History and European Cultural Studies with a minor in Near Eastern and Judaic studies for her paper "Beyond the Balaboosta: Nurturance, Spirituality, and the Body in the Art of Jewish Women." Hannah.
[Slide shows happy Hannah Kressel, winner of the Lerman Grant]
Hannah Kressel: Thank you, everyone. Thank you to the Lerman family. It was so exciting to get this award. It was amazing working on the project and getting to talk to Professor Freeze and Professor Calvin and Professor Corey about it. So it was really, really exciting. Also, congrats on becoming a department everyone. That was so exciting to hear.
Prof. Lanser: Okay, congratulations and thank you, Hannah. Our next prize was actually established by the faculty to honor the memory, the memory of Esther Kartiganer, class of 1959, a founding member of our national board and a pioneer in investigative journalism who became a senior executive producer at CBS News and produced award-winning segments of 60 Minutes over the course of a long career. The prize honors an undergraduate for involvement in social activism and for outstanding academic achievement. Our recipient this year is Karina Wen, a major in WGS and Theater Arts who is also receiving highest honors in Theater for her extraordinary thesis, "Asian Amnesia: Representations of Asian Women in American Theater." Karina.
Karina Wen: Thank you so much to the faculty. This is such an honor. You've already heard me talk for three minutes, so I will just say thank you. Thank you so much.
Prof. Lanser: Okay, congratulations. And by the way, you notice that we have people receiving high and highest honors and you're gonna hear more of that. That is not typical at Brandeis. We are an extraordinary, now, department for our scholarly achievements.
Okay, and I am now also pleased to announce the awarding of high honors in WGS to graduating senior Victoria Richardson. Victoria's award recognizes both her outstanding coursework in WGS and the excellent thesis she wrote for her two majors, WGS and African and African-American studies. And the title of her thesis is, "For Black Girls, Too Fast, Too Furious: Black Girlhood in School Discipline." Congratulations to Victoria.
Victoria Richardson: Thank you so much. I had such a good time working on this thesis because it's deeply personal. I've been a black girl. I live to teach and work for black girls. So I think that I am so honored to have worked with Professor Shoniqua Roach, to work on this thesis and I am happy that it is what it is. Thank you so much for this honor.
Prof. Lanser: Okay, congratulations to you, Victoria. We have three more prizes and so I'm going to announce the next one and that is the Giller-Sagan prize. It's awarded each year for the finest senior paper in the field of women's gender and sexuality studies. The prize was created by Eli and Frimi Sagan, the parents of Rachel Sagan, in the year after their daughter Susannah graduated in the first class of WGS students, and that was way back in 1981.
The prize is named for Susannah and Rachel's grandmothers, Sadie Giller and Esther Sagan, who left the shtetl in their teens and came to America to lead full and complex lives. And we are delighted that Rachel Sagan, our board member and Susannah's sister, is with us today.
This year's prize goes to Polina Potochevska,
[Polina Potochevska, winner of the Giller-Sagan Prize, appears, wearing a Brandeis hoodie]
majoring in English and Creative Writing and minoring in Russian and WGS. That's a lot! For her senior thesis on, "The Dangers of Female Reading in the Nineteenth Century," Polina's project brings together original analysis of literary texts by Austin Flaubert and Tolstoy, with creative interpretations of artworks depicting women reading. The selection committee considered Polina's work exquisitely written, and her scholarship worthy of a PhD student — I don't know if you've heard that, Polina — [Polina smiles] presenting a delicious feast of insights about the power of reading that leaves you eager to pick up your next novel. So congratulations, Polina.
Polina Potochevska: Thank you so much. Thank you to Rachel Sagan and the Sagan family, the WGS department — it's a department! — and also to my thesis advisor, Robin Miller, and my family for supporting me. I'm really, really honored, thank you.
Prof. Lanser: Okay, thank you, and congratulations again, Polina. Our next prize was also created to honor a woman's studies alumna, Rachel Oliveri, who is also here with us today. She is a member of the class of 1995 and her parents created this award to commend a senior for extraordinary service and dedication to WGS. That's an award Rachel would have received in her year if there had been such an award. So we're delighted to have Rachel with us today and to celebrate this year's winner of the Oliveri prize. And she is Makayla Richards, an extraordinary staff member for the WGS program and an advocate for the WGS community. Makayla also received the highest honors in the independent interdisciplinary major she designed in Black Women's Studies for which she wrote an extraordinary thesis, "A Strong and Interactive Zine on Radical Reimaginings Relationships, Volume One: Self." So Makayla, are you here? I don't see her.
So we'll congratulate Makayla and if she turns up we'll be delighted. All right. And last but very much not least, we now award the Isak Kazes Prize for Academic Excellence to a graduating master's student in WGS. This prize was created by Valya Kazes Shapiro, and Valya I know is here. She is a Wean Scholar of the Class of 1961 and a founding member of our board. And she created this prize in memory of her father and honor of Jeanette Lerman class of '69. The Kazes Prize recognizes a student of outstanding achievement, integrity, and passion for learning. And we are very delighted that Valya is with us today to help us honor this year's recipient of the Kazes prize, Nicole Veneto. Nicole.
[Slide shows Rachel Oliveri, alumna in whose honor the Oliveri prize was created]
[Slide shows Valya Shapiro, a family member of the Izak Kazes prize grantors]
[Slide shows Nicole Veneto, winner of Isak Kazes Prize, with her niece]
Nicole Veneto: Unmute myself. Hi Dad, come over here, 'cause I don't have any sort of speech plan, but I came into Brandeis knowing what I wanna to do with my master's. I wanna thank my Dad for letting me live at his house for the first year. My step-niece, Ellie Grace, my family, my friends give everyone a shout out and ACAB.
Prof. Lanser: Okay, thank you so much, Nicole, and congratulations. And now I invite all of the panelists to unmute yourself and congratulate resoundingly all of the prize winners who are also the first prize winners in the department.
[Loud Cheering and Applause]
Prof. Sarah: So now the moment we were all waiting for — the awarding of degrees. And to begin this part of our ceremony, I would like to introduce professor Jill Greenlee who is our Undergraduate Advising Head and a Professor in Politics and Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies.
[Slide shows Prof. Jill Greenlee, undergraduate advising head]
Prof. Jill Greenlee: Hello everybody. It's my great privilege to recognize all of our graduates. First I will read the names of the WGS majors along with your majors, minors, and prizes. Then I'll recognize the WGS minors and then the sexuality and queer studies minors. And as you're all familiar with now, you'll have about 10 seconds where you'll be spotlighted to share your thoughts with everybody. And it's been great to hear from everyone, so I hope everyone will take advantage of that. And when you' re done, just say thank you or give me some sign so that I don't interrupt you. Let's begin.
The first-degree recipient is Zoe Beatrice Applbaum, Bachelor of arts cum laude with majors in Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies, and English.
[Zoe Applbaum appears in an outdoor setting with lots of trees behind her]
Zoe Applbaum: Hi, thank you so much. I just wanna say thank you to my family and my friends and all the professors that have been wonderful over the past four years in this now department. Thanks.
Prof. Greenlee: Thanks, Zoe. Our next graduate is Dannie Brice. Dannie is receiving a bachelor's of arts, cum laude with majors in Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies and History and African and African-American studies with highest honors, a minor in English, and has won the prize, Dr. Jacques and Diana Cohen endowed award in interdisciplinary studies. Congratulations Dannie.
Our next recipient, degree recipient is Sierra C. Dana.
[Sierra appears on screen wearing a gray t-shirt, seated in front of a curtain]
He's receiving a bachelor of arts cum laude with a major in Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies and Politics, minors in Sexuality and Queer Studies, and Social Justice and Social Policy. Winning the prize, the Joseph and Lindsay Endowed Athletic Fellowship Award.
Sierra Dana: What's up everybody? I'm at work right now. Thank you, guys. Thanks, WGS just for being a department. Yeah, thanks to my mom, grandma, if you're watching. Love you guys, thank you.
Prof. Greenlee: Next is Sara E. Ernst, earning a bachelor of arts, summa cum laude with majors in Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies and history with high honors, a minor in Near Eastern and Judaic studies. Sarah won the Shamsky prize for research on Jewish and Family Life.
Sara Ernst: Hi, so I just wanna thank everyone, friends, and family who's watching as well as all my professors. I've loved the WGS major and I can't wait to see where it takes me in the future. So thank you.
Prof. Greenlee: Next is Debora Gabriela Gonzalez Anavisca Gabby,
[Debora Gabriela appears seated in front of 2 sofas in a living room]
who's earned a bachelor of arts with majors in Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies and Anthropology and Psychology.
Gabriela: I first wanna say something in Spanish for my family
(speaks in Spanish)
Gabriela: and for everyone in the school who has supported me, thank you so much, Professor Greenlee, Professor Lamb, and every other professor I had in my journey. Thank you. You all have taught me so much. And just to come to the better version of myself. And for every single classmate or peer that I had in school, all of you helped me to have better discussions and become just a better scholar, and thank you for everything.
Prof. Greenlee: Next is Marleny Nunez, with a bachelor of science with majors in Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies and Health Science, Society, and Policy.
Marleny Nunez: Hey everyone, thank you so much. I just wanna say I'm excited to continue to use this education as a tool for advocacy and protecting black and brown lives now more than ever. So thank you so much for everyone who was able to offer me that support.
Prof. Greenlee: Next is Makayla Rebecca Richards with a bachelor of arts cum laude majors in Black Women's Studies with highest honors, minor in Social Justice and Social Policy. MK won a number of prizes, the Oliveri Family Prize in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Maurice J. and Fay B. Karpf and Ari Hahn Peace Award. And the WEB DuBois Award for Academic Achievement in African and African-American Studies. Next is Victoria B. Richardson graduating with a bachelor of arts cum laude, majors in Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies, with high honors. And African and African-American Studies with high honors. Minor in Education Studies. Victoria won the Angela Davis '65 prize for Commitment to Disciplinary Service and Activism in African and African-American Studies.
Victoria Richardson: Thank you so much. First congratulations to WGS for being a department. I think it was really important for me to study both AAAS and WGS and with the knowledge that I've learned from both, I feel equipped to go on and make the difference that I want to make in the world for people who look like me who are like me. So thank you.
Prof. Greenlee: Next is Sisay Elizabeth Shannon-Tamrat graduating with a bachelor of arts cum laude majors in Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies, and Sociology minor in African and African-American Studies. I'm not sure Sisay is with us.
Karina Moellmann Wen, graduating with a bachelor of arts summa cum laude majors in Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies, and theater arts with the highest honors. Karina won the Esther Kartiganer '59 prize for social activism and academic achievement and the Dr. Joseph Garrison Parker Prize.
Karina Wen: Congratulations, everyone and thank you.
Prof. Greenlee: And now the WGS minors.
Miriam Berro Krugman. Graduating with a bachelor of arts summa cum laude, major in Sociology with high honors, minors in Social Justice and Social Policy, Peace Conflict, and Coexistence Studies and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Miriam won the Elise Boulding Sociology and Social Activism Award.
Miriam Krugman: Hi everyone. Thank you so much to everyone who put this together. And I would just like to say that the perspectives that the WGS department and classes have provided me are something that I will carry with me forever in my social-justice-oriented career. And, congratulations. Thank you.
Prof. Greenlee: Next is Rebecca Ann Orbach graduating with a bachelor of arts magna cum laude with a major in Politics and minors in Social Justice and Social Policy, International and Global Studies and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.
Rebecca Orbach: Hi everyone. I just wanna say thank you so much to all my professors who've been so amazing the past four years. Thank you to my family and congratulations everyone.
Prof. Greenlee: Liliana Martine Porto graduating with a bachelor of arts with majors in American Studies and Politics with a minor in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.
Liliana Porto: I just wanna thank, firstly, the department for not only educating me these past few years but also challenging my ideals. In addition, I'd like to thank my friends that I've made throughout Brandeis that have supported my career in addition to my family. My minor goes out to my mom who is a single parent and I'm a first-generation student, so congrats to the rest of first-generation college students. And I can't wait to see what the rest of the class of 2020 has in store for the world. Thank you.
Prof. Greenlee: Next is Polina S. Potochevska with a bachelor's of arts, summa cum laude majors in English with high honors and Creative Writing, minors in Russian studies and Women's, Gender and Sexuality studies winning the prize of the Giller-Sagan Senior Paper Prize in Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies.
Polina Potochevska: Hi everyone. Congratulations to everyone who's graduating. I just wanna say thank you again to everyone and especially the professors. Every class that I've taken has been really inspiring and has changed my perspectives on a lot of things, which I think is really important. So thank you.
Prof. Greenlee: And finally our Sexuality and Queer Studies Minors.
Lin-ye Kaye is graduating with a bachelor of science cum laude with a major in Computer Science and minors in English and Sexuality and Queer Studies. I'm not sure that Lin-ye is with us.
And then finally Brian Andrew Mintz graduating with a bachelor of science, summa cum laude with majors in Mathematics with high honors Computer Science and a minor in Sexuality and Queer Studies.
[Slide shows Brian Mintz with his dog]
Brian Mintz: Hi I'd like to thank my friends and family and all the professors. I found the courses really meaningful. I'd also like to give a shout out to my dog, Kara, one of the best parts of being at home. She is very happy for the ceremony.
Prof. Greenlee: Great, congratulations to all of the graduates and let's unmute ourselves and make some noise and cheer.
[Everyone Cheers and Claps]
Prof. Sarah: Wonderful. It's so inspiring to see you all. You do give us all hope. And now we also want to celebrate our graduating master's students. So to do that I will introduce my colleague, Professor Jill Greenlee, who's our Director of Graduate Studies and also a Professor of WGS and Near Eastern and Judaic studies.
Prof. Greenlee: I think you meant…
Prof. Sarah: Did I say Jill?
[Prof. Sarah chuckles]
Prof. Sarah: ChaeRan Freeze, director of graduate studies and a Professor of Near East and WGS. Welcome, ChaeRan.
Prof. ChaeRan Freeze: Thank you so much. Hello everybody. So I am delighted to announce this year's outstanding graduate degree recipients and recognize their academic excellence and commitment to redressing the systems of oppression, inequality, and privilege, which we desperately need at this moment. So today I will read the names and the titles of the MA papers.
The 2020 recipients are Michelle Guaman, master of arts in Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies. Her MA paper is titled, "Desire, Consent, and Agency: Moving Beyond Discussions of the Birds and the Bees Assessing the State of Health Education in the United States." Congratulations, Michelle. Do you wanna unmute yourself?
Michelle Guaman: Yeah thank you, everyone. Congratulations everyone here and thank you for everything. Professor Kerey Luis, you were an awesome advisor and this is a lovely ceremony.
Prof. Freeze: Thank you. Our next recipient is E.M. Kelly, master of arts in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Their MA paper is entitled, "Queer Pre-College Programs in a University Setting: A Pedagogy for Moving Forward."
Em Kelly: He,y I just wanted to say thanks to all my professors and shout out to Wendy and Shannon for working with me on QAA. That was one of the best parts of this program. And also thanks to my entire family, but especially my parents for their never-ending acceptance, love, and support. Thank you.
Prof. Freeze: Congratulations. Our next recipient is Nicole Veneto, master of arts and Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies. Nicole's MA paper is entitled, "Moe Fantasies: Bishōjo, Affect, Otaku Escapism, and the Anime Nazis of the Alt-Right."
Nicole Veneto: Hi, I'm not gonna take too much time up again. But thank you so much to my family. I wanna dedicate my thesis specifically to my mom [inaudible]. Thank you so much to my advisor, Ellen Schattschneider, my second thesis reader, Kerry Lewis. Thank you so much to my whole cohort and the Brandeis graduate program. This has been a weirdly fast two years and I'm immensely proud of the work I've achieved. Thank you.
Prof. Freeze: Okay, thank you. Our next recipient is Anne Marie Foley, a master of arts in Sociology and Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies. Her MA paper is entitled, "From the British Contagious Diseases Act of 1864 to the United States White-Slave Traffic Act of 1910: The Ghost of the Quote White Slave."
Anne Marie Foley: Hi, I just wanna say thank you to my family and my friends and also thank you to my adviser Gowri for helping me write this paper and congratulations to everyone for graduating and making it through. Thank you.
Prof. Freeze: Congratulations. Our next recipient is Marissa Hall with a master of arts and Sociology, Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Her MA paper is entitled, "I'm not a racist But: Perceptions of White Privilege Among White College Democrats."
Marissa Hall: Hi everyone. I hope everyone's having a great day. Just thanks to all my friends and family, for who's watching and congrats.
Prof. Freeze: Thank you. And our final recipient is Cara DuBois, master of arts in English and Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies. Their MA paper is entitled, "Getting Gritty with It: The Politics of Cultural Production under Late Capitalism."
Cara Dubois: I just wanna say thank you to my friends and family, all of the professors who have taught me so much and to my cohort, definitely. I wouldn't have learned as much without all of you there. So congratulations everyone and thank you so much.
Prof. Freeze: Thank you. And let's all unmute and give a round of applause for these very talented graduate recipients.
[Loud cheering and clapping]
Prof. Sarah: So I saw that MK Richards arrived cause he made a comment on the chat. MK, are you, here as a panelist? If so, we could spotlight you to congratulate you, but if Bo doesn't see you as a panelist then I'm glad you're in the audience. And so you can, oh, he has to come back as a panelist. So we might be able to see you later. Anyway, we were so thrilled to congratulate you and all of the graduates on this really exciting occasion.
And I did also want to take this opportunity to announce the milestone that many of you have referenced already. So we just became a department of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies about a week or two ago. We're very excited about that. So this spring, the faculty, the Dean, the Provost, and the Board of Trustees voted to establish WGS as a fully constituted department at Brandeis, not merely an interdepartmental program, which we were before. And this move brings stature to our community and signals importantly the university's recognition of WGS as a vital field of study. So we're really delighted with that move and a thank you to all of you out there who made this possible and supported us.
So now I want to turn to the final two parts of our celebration. We have two brief short videos. So we have a lovely short video sharing greetings from our faculty and staff, and then a short slideshow featuring one slide for each graduating student also. And then at the very end, I'll say goodbye and let you know what to do next. But first, let's watch these two inspiring short videos.
[Slide shows a video of Professors congratulating the graduate students. The slide with a blue background, Brandeis Seal and, music playing in the background. The text on the slide reads:
Brandeis University
WGS/SQS
Celebrating the Class of 2020]
[Slide with a blue background. The text on the slide reads:
(Music is playing in the background)
Wendy Cadge
Barbara Mandel Professor of Humanities and Humanistic Social Sciences;
Professor of Sociology and Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies;
Social Sciences Division Head;
Senior Associate Dean for Strategic Initiatives]
Prof. Wendy Cadge: Congratulations, graduates of the Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies program. May the insights that we've gained together go with you as you move on from Brandeis, and may we always remain in the conversation as we work together to be the teams we wanna build and see in the world. Congratulations.
[Slide with a blue background reads:
(Music is playing in the background)
V. Varun Chaudhry
Assistant Professor of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies]
Prof. V. Varun Chaudhry: Congratulations to the class of 2020. We're so proud of you.
[Slide with a blue background reads:
(Music is playing in the background)
Yuri Doolan
Assistant Professor of History & Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies]
Prof. Yuri Doolan: Congratulations WGS class of 2020. We are all so proud of you and I've got to give an extra special shout out to all the first-generation college students graduating today. As a first generation college student myself, I know what an incredible journey this has been and what this moment means to you and your families. So big congratulations again to our amazing WGS graduates. We cannot wait to see the ways that you are going to change the world.
[Slide with a blue background reads:
(Music is playing in the background)
ChanRae Freeze
Director of Graduate Studies;
Frances and Max Elkan Chair in Modern Jewish History;
Professor of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies & Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies]
Prof. ChanRae Freeze: Hello I'm ChaeRan Freeze, Director of Graduate Studies. Last spring our Lubin Symposium speaker was indigenous writer, Therese Mailhot. In the recent essay she wrote, "Thunder is a liberator, and liberating is hard and thankless work. It shakes and reforms the composition of the space that it occupies and lightning is the product of its music." I urge you all to be the disruptive thunder that you were born to be. Congratulations.
[Slide with a blue background reads:
(Music playing in the background)
Jill Greenlee
Undergraduate Advising Head;
Associate Professor of Politics & Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies]
Prof. Jill Greenlee: Congratulations, class of 2020. This is Jill Greenlee in the Politics Department and WGS and congratulations to you all.
[Slide with a blue background reads:
(Music playing in the background)
Anita Hill
University Professor of Social Policy, Law, & Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies]
Prof. Anita Hill: WGS class of 2020, congratulations. You make all of us in WGS and throughout Brandeis University proud.
[Slide with a blue background reads:
(Music Playing in the background)
Sarah Lamb
Chair, Women's, Gender & Sexuality Studies;
Barbara Mandel Professor of Humanities and Humanistic Social Studies;
Professor of Anthropology & Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies]
[Slide shows Prof. Sarah Lamb with her two dogs]
Prof. Sarah: Hey WGS graduates of 2020, I'm back here with my cheering team to congratulate you on your amazing accomplishments. Go forward, take WGS into the world, and make it a better place.
[Slide with a blue background reads:
(Music Playing in the background)
Keridwen Luis
Lecturer in Anthropology & Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies]
[Slide shows Prof. Luis wearing robes and a cat in her hand]
Prof. Keridwen Luis: My very best congratulations to all the new graduates in Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies, otherwise known as Defense Against the Dark Arts. Lord Peter Wimsy, who would also like to offer his most sincere congratulations. Don't you Lord Peter? Would you like to say anything? There. All my best wishes go out to you as you enter your new fantastic careers. Thank you.
[Slide with a blue background reads:
(Music Playing in the background)
Shoniqua Roach
Assistant Professor of African and African-American Studies & Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies]
Prof. Shoniqua Roach: Hi everyone. I'm Shoniqua Roach, Assistant Professor of African and African-American Studies and Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies. Congratulations, you've made it. Now I'm sure this is not the world you thought you'd be entering into when you matriculated here at Brandeis. But I'm confident that the work you've done both inside and outside of this department has equipped you with the necessary tools and skills so desperately needed to aid in what we need to see as a global transformation. Congratulations. I'm so deeply excited for each and every one of you.
[Slide with a blue background reads:
(Music Playing in the background)
Harleen Singh
Associate Professor of Literature & Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies]
Harleen Singh: Congratulations class of 2020. I hope your days ahead are filled with sunshine and spring flowers. Congratulations again.
[Slide with a blue background reads:
(Music Playing in the background)
Faith Smith
Associate Professor of African and African-American Studies, English & American Literature]
Prof. Faith Smith: Hello Brandeis Senior. This is Faith Smith wishing you all the best as you go out into this strange world. I guess I want to thank you for reminding me — every generation of students reminds me — that there's the world that we have, and we spend time reading about that world and about how it has come to be. But then, of course all, of you always remind me that that world doesn't have to be the one that we keep, that we have the power to change it. And I guess that every classroom I've shared with you is a reminder of that and it has helped me to live in these strange times with some degree of imagination and, I guess, hope. So I want to thank you even at this moment where it often seems like there's no hope. I want to you wish you all the best and I want to ask you to keep in touch with us. Congratulations and all the best.
[Slide with a blue background reads:
(Music Playing in the background)
Gowri Vijayakumar
Assistant Professor of Sociology & Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies]
[Slide shows Prof. Gowri with her kid]
Prof. Gowri Vijayakumar: Congratulations to the class of 2020 in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. We wish for you the critical eye to see injustice wherever you are and the creativity and imagination to envision a better world. Congratulations.
[Kid]: Congratulations. Goodbye.
[Slide with a blue background reads:
(Music Playing in the background)
Shannon Kearns
Associate Director of Operations, Administration and Budget]
Prof. Shannon Kearns: Hello to all my WGS Grads. I am so proud of you for all you accomplished. I know you're gonna be change-makers in the world and I can't wait to see where you end up. Thanks for being in the community with me. I'll miss you.
[Slide shows a video of graduating students and their details]
Prof. Sarah: So very inspiring to see all of you graduates and our faculty messages. Makayla Richards is with us now. We would like to spotlight her, give her a chance in the spotlight. She is our student who received the highest honors for her independent and disciplinary major in Black Women's Studies and many other awards at Brandeis. Go, Makayla.
Makayla Richards: Hi everyone. I'm so glad to be here. Sorry for being so late. Actually I was asleep. I had my first day of work today, so I've rolled straight out of Brandeis straight into a position back home with an organization called URGE, which is Unite for Reproductive Gender and Equity as their Georgia State Organizer. So yeah, I started work today and I was very tired. Thank you all so much. I'm really grateful for WGS. Obviously WGS was foundational to my time at Brandeis and the relationships I had with the professorate and Shannon Kearns really made Brandeis what it was for me, so I'm really glad. And I'm also really happy to have received the Oliveri Family Award, so thank you all so much for that. Yeah.
Prof. Sarah: Thank you, Makayla, congratulations. So this concludes our ceremony. We do invite everyone to visit individual faculty Zoom rooms, and we also have a Zoom room for the WGS National Board. If you have trouble knowing where those Zoom links are, then email Alix Brandon or me. I can try to pay attention to that too for the links, but the students would have received them. You can come with your family if you want. You can take a screenshot and, I just wanna say please, to the graduates, please bask in your accomplishments. I know you will have bright, impactful futures. Thanks to you all for participating and congratulations. Good luck.