The sixth annual University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) Women’s History Month Conference, “Intersectionality on the Border,” highlighted gender and sexuality in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. Held on the UTEP campus Wednesday and Thursday, April 6-7, the event included over fifty panels, roundtables, and presentations featuring undergraduate and graduate students, community activists, and scholars of all ranks. Among these, a panel “Gender, Sexuality, and Violence in the Borderlands,” featured borderlands historians Daniel Santana, Carolina Monsivais, and Jennifer Urban-Flores. Other panels discussed Trans issues on the border, the intersection of gender and religion in El Paso, and borderland health disparities. On Wednesday afternoon, the conference offered a ceremony recognizing renowned UTEP border studies scholar Dr. Kathleen Staudt. In her “legacy lecture” Staudt reflected on her more than three decades of scholarship and service in the frontera. On Thursday, a keynote address by University of California, Santa Cruz Latin American and Latino Studies professor Dr. Patricia Zavella described the Nuestro Texas Project, a Latina health initiative aimed at improving reproductive services in Rio Grande Valley.
The UTEP Women’s History Month conference is an annual event co-sponsored by the university’s Women’s and Gender Studies program and the Triota honor society. More information is available by calling (915) 747-6132.
Borderlands History 