SRU faculty, students present at AWP Conference
April 10, 2020
Thirteen Slippery Rock University faculty and students either attended and presented or authored a presentation at the Association for Women in Psychology Conference in Austin, Texas, March 5-8.
AWP is a diverse feminist community of psychologists and allied professionals invested in the integration of personal, professional and political power in the service of social justice.
The following were presentations and workshops involving SRU faculty and students:
"Beyond She and He: Does Pronoun Usage Affect Inclusivity?" Sydney Kresconko, a senior psychology major from Kennedy, New York; Kourtney Kotvas, a senior dual psychology and interdisciplinary programs major from Pittsburgh; and Amanda Reichert, a junior psychology major from Erie, presented research that compared perceptions of an advertisement using gender inclusive or exclusive pronouns and found that, compared to men, women reported greater ostracism, less motivation and less identification with gender exclusive pronouns.
"Masculinity and Femininity: Testing Segregation Based on Gendered Trait Expression" Emily Keener, associate professor of psychology; Emily Dodge, a senior psychology major from Chagrin Falls, Ohio; Cassandra Oleksak, a senior psychology major from Fairview; and Kailey Berdar, a junior psychology major from New Eagle, presented research about how college students' current and retrospective friend groups are segregated based on gender-typed expression. Dilrukshika Singhabahu, assistant professor of mathematics and statistics, and Rebecca Nicholson, a senior mathematics major from Willoughby, Ohio, co-authored the research but did not present.
"Unacknowledged Rape, Sexual Assault, and Epistemic Injustice" Katherine Cooklin, professor of philosophy, presented in a paper session about issues in rape culture. Her paper focused on the difference between neglecting to use available conceptual resources to identify acts of sexual violence and the genuine impoverishment of conceptual resources which make it difficult to render one’s own experience intelligible as sexual violence.
"Queering your Pedagogy: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Engaging the University in Feminist Approaches to Teaching" Keener; Conklin; Katherine Mickle, associate professor of art; and Rhonda Clark, instructor of management and marketing, served as workshop panelists discussing a faculty learning community about queer pedagogy, highlighting strategies for engaging colleagues/students across disciplines. Cindy LaCom, professor of interdisciplinary programs, was a co-author who did not attend.
Keener also served as a panelist with AWP attendees from other universities for workshops titled "Sexual Assault on Campus: AWP Leads the Way" and "Teaching the Psychology of Women in the Age of Trump and #MeToo."