Mary Washburn Willets Award for Excellence in the Social Sciences – Shahana Munazir
Shahana Munazir, a graduate student in University of Wisconsin – Madison’s Department of Anthropology, She holds a Bachelor’s in History from the University of Delhi and Master of Science and Master of Philosophy from the University of Oxford. Her dissertation is titled “Daughters of Destiny: Politics of ‘Gharelu’ Muslim Women in India” described in the abstract below:
In a twelve-month ethnographic study, my work will understand how Muslim women habitually attend to others in their daily lives, the politics of relatedness that ensues from such care, social worlds that demand care-giving responses from women, and the meanings that women attach to religious vocabulary as motivations for acts of caregiving. It will highlight that being gharelu is an alluring habitus and an ongoing process of self-improvement aided by caregiving. In so doing, my study will reveal the significance that Muslim women attach to destiny or future time and the way they frame their personal desires and social worlds. In highlighting these eschatological concerns of destiny and quotidian responsibilities of care, within a decolonial framework, my project extends research on the shifting dynamics and meanings of care in localized contexts in India, as well as nuance the simplistic perceptions of aspirations of a ‘modern’ Muslim woman to provoke a reconsideration of the everyday that is morally and ethically contested.
The Worcester/Whatley/Leavitt Award – Orion Risk
Orion Lee Risk is a PhD student in Interdisciplinary Theatre Studies and MA Student in Gender
and Women’s Studies. Through performance research and community outreach, Orion weaves
the theory and practice of care with attention to particular health experiences and vulnerabilities
of marginalized genders. First, Orion invests in trans health and community care through health
education and activism. Second, as a researcher in performance studies and feminist care theory,
they investigate performance as a research method for 1) creating caring encounters and 2)
creating activist moments around gender and health.
Orion’s activist work in gender and health includes: serving on the advisory committee of the
UnityPoint Cedar Falls LGBTQ Clinic, working as a Standardized Patient with the
UW–Madison School of Medicine and Public Health, and presenting on transgender health needs
to new students on their first day of medical school at the UW SMPH. Their performance
research work surfaces conversations and investigates performance-based caring interventions at
the intersection of marginalized gender and health. Orion’s practice-based scholarship through
the UW–Madison Center for the Humanities explored virtual theatre and care between
transgender people—a population with specific health oppressions—during the Covid-19
pandemic. An article co-authored with Dr. Christine Garlough, in press with Performance
Research, analyzes the GenderTalks research for insights into trans care and performance. A
second paper examining GenderTalks was presented as a Top Student Paper at the Performance
Studies Division of the National Communication Association.
Hyde Dissertation Research Award – Khrysta Evans
Khrysta A. Evans is a PhD student in Educational Policy Studies in the Social Sciences concentration at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Originally from the Bronx, NY, she earned her BA in sociology from the University of Maryland, and her MA in educational studies from the University of Michigan. Before coming back to the academy for her PhD, Khrysta spent several years working in student support roles in schools and non-profit organizations. As a doctoral student, Khrysta is excited to learn about Black girls’ knowledge production and the various strategies they employ to navigate their schooling experiences.
Her dissertation investigates how Black West Indian (e.g. Jamaican or Trinidadian) girls’ peer groups and spatial knowledge—how they learn to navigate space—are influenced by their schools’ organizational routines. Specifically, her dissertation asks: (1) What spatial knowledge and peer networks do Black West Indian girls develop to navigate their school contexts? (2) How do schools’ organizational contexts, and in particular their organizational routines, shape Black West Indian girls’ school experiences and their development of spatial knowledge and peer networks? her dissertation has important implications for education stakeholders as she explores the interplay between race, ethnicity, gender, education, and place, and offer new epistemological, theoretical, and methodological lenses to examine Black girls’ school experiences.