About the Series
The first annual Women Studies colloquium was held March 22-24, 2000. With the support of the Alice McLellan Birney Women Studies Fund, the cross-disciplinary study area in Women, Gender, & Sexuality presents a colloquium each spring in connection with Women’s History Month. Since 2000, the WGSX Colloquium has become an established tradition at St. Mary’s College. This very successful annual program has regularly drawn large audiences to events that have offered powerful interdisciplinary combinations of scholarly discourse and artistic expression (including film screenings, theatrical performances, and exhibitions) to discuss a topic critical to the lives of women.
2026 Colloquium
This Year's Theme – Speaking back: Language as Rebellion.
The WGSX Colloquium (March 25–26, 2026) centers on “Speaking Back: Language as Rebellion,” examining the power of language—understood broadly as speech, narrative, embodiment, symbolism, aesthetics, and cultural practice—as a catalyst for social change. The colloquium explores how language in its many forms shapes and reinforces gendered identities, cultural norms, and social hierarchies, while also highlighting how women and gender-diverse individuals strategically “speak back” to systems that marginalize or silence them.
Through critical dialogue and the sharing of scholarly, activist, and artistic perspectives, the event interrogates language’s dual role as both a tool of oppression and a powerful site of resistance, celebrating the creative ways communities reimagine meaning-making in their ongoing struggles for equity, justice, and freedom.
For more information, contact the 2026 WGSX Colloquium Committee: Argelia González Hurtado and Samantha Wrisley (co-chairs), Stephanie Reyes, and Brian Smithson.
Events
Speaker: Jenny Davis
Wednesday, March 25 | 4:45 – 6:00 pm
Cole Cinema, Campus Center
Speaker: Glorimar Marrero
Wednesday, March 25 | 7:30 – 9:00 pm
Cole Cinema, Campus Center
Speaker: Dozandri C. Mendoza
Thursday, March 26 | 4:45 – 6:00 pm
Cole Cinema, Campus Center
SMCM’s students and the guest speakers
Thursday, March 26 | 7:30 – 9:00 pm
Cole Cinema, Campus Center
2025 WGSX Colloquium
The Joy of Resistance: Finding Hope in Activism
The colloquium (March 19-20, 2025) will focus on transformative justice and pleasure activism. While activism is often paired with organized mass protest, a topic we have addressed during previous colloquia, this time we propose to explore the question of “how do we find hope and joy in the face of hopelessness and injustice?” Our starting point is Grace Lee Bogg’s motto, “We must transform ourselves to transform the world.” 2025 WGSX Colloquium Committee: Ximena Postigo-Guzman and Betül Basaran (co-chairs) WGSX Coordinator: Argelia González HurtadoEVENTS
“Mycelial Methodologies: What fungi teach us about interconnected approaches to collaborative and creative practices”
Yasmine Ostendorf-Rodriguez Wednesday, March 19 | 4:45 - 6:00 pm Cole Cinema, Campus Center“Resentment and Repair”
Sukaina Hirji Wednesday, March 19 | 7:30 - 9:00 pm Cole Cinema, Campus CenterMargaret Brent Lecture and Award Ceremony: "Already Free: The Courage and Joy of Fugitive Practice"
Autumn Brown Thursday, March 20| 4:45 - 6:00 pm Nancy R. and Norton T. Dodge Performing Arts Center Recital Hall What if a vibrant, multiracial movement for justice is within our grasp? What practices make it possible for us to not only build this movement, but to be its courageous membership? In this lecture, Autumn Brown will illuminate a pathway to cultivate mutual resilience in our organizing and community work, so that we can more effectively resist the ideology of racial capitalism and racial practice. From her depthful study of fugitivity, Brown will offer a set of practices for moving in formation, sustaining human connection as we navigate a time of rapid change, and most importantly, refusing the politics of despair.Student Talkback
SMCM's students and the guest speakers Thursday, March 20 | 7:30 - 9:00 pm Cole Cinema, Campus Center2024 WGSX Colloquium
VISIBILITY OF DISABILITY: EXPLORING THE INTERSECTIONALITY OF DISABILITY, RACE AND GENDER
The 2024 Colloquium continues the program’s tradition of engaging with critical intellectual themes, this time focusing on disability visibility. This topic is not only timely given the current political landscape, but is of interest and relevance to the students, faculty and staff at SMCM. This topic, in part was inspired by student activism (i.e., Disability Speak Out event on March 3, 2023, where students with disabilities expressed their honest opinion and personal experiences regarding accessibility on campus, and at the same time, provided a place for students, faculty, staff, and other entities allies to listen). In September 2023, the National Institutes of Health designated people with disabilities as a population with health disparities. The "designation, new research program and update to NIH mission are actions to ensure inclusion of people with disabilities." As we aim to build a more welcoming and inclusive campus, this is an urgent topic to address. It provides an ideal opportunity to model the intersection of academic study, social engagement, and social justice activism, which defines the WGSX Program curriculum.
2024 WGSX Colloquium Committee: Gili Freedman and Brian Smithson (co chairs), Angie Draheim
2024-25 WGSX Program Coordinator: Betül Basaran
EVENTS
"Care at the End of the World: Health/care Infrastructure and Wild Disability Justice Life-Writing"
Jina Kim
Wednesday, March 20 | 4:30 pm
Cole Cinema
"Reproductive Care and Disability"
Angelica Vega
Wednesday, March 20 | 7:30 pm
Cole Cinema
"Mental Health, Memories, and the Earth"
Cherish Marquez
Thursday, March 21 | 4:30 pm
Cole Cinema
Students Talkback
SMCM's students and the guest speakers Jina Kim, Angelica Vega and Cherish Marquez
Thursday, March 21 | 7:30 pm
Cole Cinema
2023 WGSX Colloquium
EXPANDING GENDER: TRANS EXPERIENCE AND ACTIONS
The 2023 Colloquium continues the program’s tradition of engaging with critical intellectual themes, this time focusing on transgender and gender non-conforming populations. In 2020, nearly 80 different anti-transgender legislatures were introduced. In 2021, that number nearly doubled with approximately 150 proposals. In 2022, activists identified about 280 bills currently filed to restrict transgender individuals’ access to healthcare, bathrooms, education, and athletics. Further, violence toward the transgender and gender-non-conforming community highlights intersectionality, with fatal violence disproportionately impacting transgender women of color. This year’s speakers will focus on the experiences and issues facing transgender and gender non-conforming individuals today.
We believe this topic is not only timely given the current political landscape but will be relevant to the students, faculty, and staff at St. Mary’s. This topic, in part, was inspired by student activism on campus (i.e., the Call Us By Our Names movement) and upcoming SMCM policy changes (e.g., changes in Open Housing, Name Change Policy, reinstating of the LGBTQ+ Student Affairs Advisory Committee).
EVENTS
“We Have Never Been Queer: Contested Politics of Queer Humanitarianism in Neoliberal Ghana”
Kwame Edwin Otu
Wednesday, April 5 | 4:30pm
Cole Cinema
"Trans Liberation in our Lifetime - past, present and future"
Margaret Brent Lecture
Isa Noyola
Wednesday, April 5 | 7:30pm
Auerbach Auditorium/St. Mary's Hall
"Exploring Black Queer Joy (Even When it Feels Hopeless)"
Aurora Higgs
Thursday, April 6 | 4:30pm
Nancy R. & Norton T. Dodge Performing Arts Center Recital Hall
Round table: Students Talkback
SMCM's students and the guest speakers Aurora Higgs, Isa Noyola and Kwame Edwin Otu
Thursday, April 6 | 7:30pm
Nancy R. & Norton T. Dodge Performing Arts Center