The 33rd IU Women’s and Gender Studies Undergraduate Conference will be hosted by Indiana University East.

Denise Bullock

The virtual conference, “Women’s and Gender Studies as a Site of Strength: Growth and Resilience” is April 16 to May 1. The conference is open to all Indiana University faculty and students to attend. Registration is available online at iue.edu/event/wgs-conference.html.

Edwina Helton is the planning committee chair for the conference. She is the director and advisor for Women’s and Gender Studies and professor of English at IU East.

“We are honored to host Indiana University’s longest-running research conference in support of our talented undergraduate students across IU,” Helton said. “IU East’s support of the conference shows support for inclusion and diversity initiatives. Diversity and inclusion are hallmarks of the interdisciplinary women’s and gender studies program.”

The keynote speaker is Denise Bullock, Ph.D., professor of sociology at IU East. Bullock is the chair of Sociology, Anthropology, and Geography for the IU East School of Humanities and Social Sciences.

Edwina Helton

Bullock’s keynote, “Managing the (Un)Becoming Body: A Transformative Identity Analysis of Gender Non-Conformity,” is at 1 p.m. on April 16. She will present live on Zoom.

The presentation is will also be available to watch on IU East Facebook Premiere at https://www.facebook.com/iueast/videos/139481124795096/.

Bullock was born and raised in rural areas of Southern Missouri. She attended the University of Missouri-Columbia for her Ph.D. in Sociology.

Theoretically, she is a symbolic interactionist and a postmodernist. Her primary research areas of emphasis are Sexualities; Identity; Gender; Social Inequality; Social Control and Deviance. Her current research focuses on gender and sexual identity transitions as well as continued research on early pornography.

Carrie Longley, associate professor of fine arts at IU East, is the featured artist. The virtual artshow is titled “Femina Botanica.”

Carrie Longley

Longley is a studio artist and educator. She holds a B.A. in Studio Art from Wittenberg University and a M.F.A. from Indiana University in Bloomington.

Her artwork investigates the relationship between the art object and scientific specimen, celebrating the space between illusion and reality.

Longley exhibits her work extensively throughout the United States and has received numerous awards including “Emerging Craftsman” from Ohio Designer Craftsman, “The Bobby Kadis Award” at the Penland School of Crafts, and the William and Dorothy Yeck “Young Sculptor’s Award.”