Joshua Allen presented his paper "Racial Empires of Sensation: Sense and Sentimentality at the 1901 Pan-American Expo in Buffalo, New York" at the Milton Plesur Conference in March and at UB's Celebration of Student Academic Excellence's Student Showcase in late April.
Alongside Ellis McDaniel an Africana and American Studies student, Josh received a grant from UB's Office of International Education to establish a Queer and Trans Asias reading group for the 2026-27 academic year.
Last but not least UB Libraries/Poetry Collection chose a selection of Josh's poems for this year's Dan Liberthson Poetry Prize.
Senay Imre had a book chapter published and launched the book at a UN CSW event in March. See linked news article about the book and the event: "UB scholars launch new book on democracy, climate crisis, gender at UN event"
Senay has also contributed to a booklet titled "Transnational Women’s Solidarity" funded by the European Union and UN Women. The volume includes chapters from civil society actors and academia in Turkey who participated in the 30th anniversary assessment of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the 69th session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. Her chapter, titled "Beijing to CSW69: Gender Equality at a Crossroads of Power, Technology, and Resistance", assesses 30 years of progress, highlights the risks of exclusionary politics in AI-related decision-making processes, and emphasizes the importance of transnational alliances and stronger collaboration between academia and civil society to push back on the global backlash.
Senay Imre was also selected by a Turkish civil society organization to serve as an ECOSOC-accredited NGO representative. Through this role, she has been granted an annual UN grounds pass, which provides access to UN Headquarters in New York City to attend high-level meetings, participate in official sessions and side events, engage with delegates and stakeholders, and contribute to policy discussions and multilateral processes. As part of these engagements, Senay had official meetings with Melanne Verveer, the first-ever U.S. Ambassador for Global Women’s Issues and the current head of Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security.
Joyce Jekayinoluwa has been recognized by the University of Alabama National Alumni Association via their 18 Under 31 Young Alumni Awards.
Jessica Mason was an invited Special Events Speaker at the Northeast Modern Language Association Conference, and gave a talk titled, "The Angry Daffodils: A Queer Mad Feminist Poetry Reading for Radicalizing Times" and co-chaired a roundtable session titled "Mad Echoes in Contemporary Regenerations."
Jessica was an invited reader at the, and read from her book of poetry, A New Flora: Sapphic Poems from the Garden of Lesbos, published by Finishing Line Press in August 2025.
She is finishing her second year as a research assistant on the Communities of Care project, a Mellon-funded project run through the Center for Disability Studies and the Gender Institute at UB.
Jessica Mason launched a new three-years-long workshop, "Memoirs in the Attic", a partnership between Madwomen in the Attic and Herstory Writers Network, as the facilitator of the workshop, which is free to the public, held virtually, and offered to people affected by the mental health system and psychiatric diagnosis.
Sammi Maza was awarded the Global Research Scholar Community Grant to support the project "Feminist, Queer, and Trans Jewish Studies Reading Group and Symposium," which will take place in the 2026-2027 school year.
Kailey McDonald, through her work, was accepted to present a poster with a team of volunteers from her free clinic at the UB Community Health Equity Research Institute Annual Research Day. The presentation is titled, "Bridging the Cardiovascular Risk Gap: Lp(a) screening in a low resource community clinic" by Andrew Gaddi, DO, Kailey McDonald, PhD Candidate, Katie Holzmacher, Taran Devgun, and Aisha Makama.
Dr. Yige Dong published a co-authored essay, "Feminism: Made in China," in The Ideas Letter.
Dr. Melinda Lemke associate professor of Educational Policy and GGSS faculty affiliate, is first editor of and first author on an article in the peer reviewed special issue, "Beyond Now: Feminist Politics, Policy, and Research Futures in Education." The special issue examines plural feminisms, solidarities, and struggles in international and domestic educational research and praxis; the citation is: Lemke, M., Miles Nash, A., Mackey, H., & Young, M. D. (Eds.) (2025). Beyond now: Feminist politics, policy, and research futures in education. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education (QSE), 38(8), 1095-1291.
Dr. Lemke recently published the following co-authored publications with UB, SUNY Ph.D. students: Lemke, M. & Hna, N. (2025). "Human trafficking and exploitation in Southeast Asia: Applying AsianCrit to context, policy, and educational possibilities". In M. K. Kapardis, C. Clark, A. Warria, & M. Dion (Eds.), The Palgrave handbook of modern slavery (pp. 111-136); Lemke, M.,Jekayinoluwa, J., Petko, D., Sharma, V., & LiPuma, K. (2025). Gender-based violence and the politics of sex education in the United States: Expanding medically accurate and comprehensive policy and programming. Youth, 5(4), 127-50. https://doi.org/10.3390/youth5040127.
Finally, this spring Dr. Lemke co-facilitated and participated in the UB Gender Institute’s, "Beyond Now," a virtual panel dialogue between special issue editors and authors; she gave an invited keynote lecture titled, "The Politics of U.S. Public Schooling: Tinkering Toward and away from Dystopia, as part of the Robert H. Jackson Center’s 25th Anniversary Celebration; she also co-presented the following with UB, SUNY Ph.D. students: Healy, K., Sajjad, A., & Lemke, M. (2026, March). University level policies on artificial intelligence: Lacking training and guidance [Paper]. Student Research Symposium, Graduate School of Education, University at Buffalo, SUNY; Lemke, M., Sharma, V., Jekayinoluwa, J., Petko, D., & LiPuma, K. (2025, December). Gender-based violence in the United States: Expanding medically accurate comprehensive sex education policy and programming. [Paper]. Research on Women in Education AERA SIG Virtual Conference.
Dr. Libby Otto's book, "Haunted Bauhaus: A Global Perspective" sold out and MIT Press republished an updated paperback of it in February of this year. She also received the happy news that Academic Studies Press will be doing a Russian-language translation of the book. Haunted Bauhaus: A Global Perspective was translated into Chinese as well, see link for a blog review!
Recently, "Archival Absences: Towards an Incomplete History of Photography," her co-edited, open-access special edition of the Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte (Journal of Art History), came out.
Dr. Otto is also stepping into the co-editorship of an important and long-running book series: Social History, Popular Culture, and Politics in Germany.
Dr. Katja Praznik will deliver a guest lecture at the Culturelink – Centre for Research in Cultural Policy, Development and Cooperation in Zagreb, Croatia on May 19, 2026, as part of the Culturelink Guest Lecture Series:
"Comrades or Colleagues? The Class Challenges of Participatory Research and Policy Advocacy for Cultural Workers"
The lecture critically examines the limits of decades of policy advocacy and asks whether researchers are positioned as expert colleagues or as comrades in struggle.
Dr. Praznik has published a chapter titled "How to Move Things with Unions: Labour Organizing of Art Workers in Post-Yugoslav Context" in the new volume Creative and Cultural Work in Europe (Routledge, 2026), edited by Bård Kleppe, Jaka Primorac, Miikka Pyykkönen, and David Wright.
The book presents empirical case studies from across Europe examining the tension between the promise of the creative economy and the lived precarity of cultural workers. Dr. Praznik's chapter draws on organizing experiences with art workers' unions in Slovenia and Croatia to argue for collective action over policy advocacy alone.
Dr. Kari Winter was appointed to the National Women’s History Museum's Scholars Advisory Council.
Dr Winter continues to serve as a frequent commentator for the HuffPost. Below are some of her most recent contributions.
"Megyn Kelly’s Latest Trump Rant Exposes a Glaring Problem We Can’t Ignore." Kimberly Richards. HuffPost. April 24, 2026.
"Markwayne Mullin Had an ‘Aggressive’ Moment with Al Green—It Says a Lot, Expert Says." Kimberly Richards. HuffPost. March 20, 2026.
“’Impulsive’: Markwayne Mullin’s Response to this Renee Good Question is Disturbing Experts.” Kimberly Richards. HuffPost. March 19, 2026.
Andrea J. Pitts, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature/Global Gender & Sexuality Studies published a book review, “World-building with Gloria Anzaldúa and AnaLouise Keating.” in Radical Philosophy Review 28, no. 1 (2025): 131-136.
Pitts published a book chapter: “Estamos todas en la línea”: La formación de coaliciones entre las mujeres de color de los EE. UU. a través del giro hacia lo digital.” In Comunidades digitales: Perspectivas interdisciplinarias sobre y desde América Latina, edited by David García León, Javier García León, and David Dalton. Raleigh: Editorial A Contracorriente, 2025. ISBN 9781469695914
They were a commentator for The Neal A. Maxwell Lecture in Political Theory and Contemporary Politics with Cristina Beltrán, “Beauty, Brokenness, and All That Remains: A Rasquache Ethos of Abundance," at the University of Utah, October 23, 2025
Pitts organized "Fighting Back: Trans Affirmation, Care & Futures," at the Trans Studies Film Screening & Symposium, University at Buffalo, October 26-27, 2025.
They were also a panelist, Beyond the Fight for Existence: Trans* Knowledge on Life, Care, and Repair Symposium, Syracuse University, October 28, 2025.
On October 24, 2025, Sammi Maza (PhD student in Global Gender Studies) presented a paper titled "Jewish Lesbian Feminist Coalition Work" at the Sinister Wisdom Journal Lesbian Lives Conference in New York City.
Jessica Lowell Mason, PhD Candidate was invited as Special Events Speaker, “The Angry Daffodils: A Queer Mad Feminist Poetry Reading for Radicalizing Times,” Co-sponsored by the Women’s and Gender Studies Caucus and the Pedagogy and Professionalism Caucus, the Northeast Modern Language Association’s 2026th Annual Convention. Pittsburg, PA, March 2026.
She is the co-chair of and Presenter at "Mad Echoes in Contemporary Regeneration(s)" at the Northeast Modern Language Association's 2026 Annual Convention.
Mason is also an invited reader and speaker, "Poems from and Reflections on A New Flora," for The Screening Room Poetry Series in March 2026.
Mark Rifkin, professor of Global Gender and Sexuality Studies, published a book: The Cambridge Introduction to Queer and Trans Studies
Marla Segol, professor of Global Gender and Sexuality Studies, was an invited speaker at the Westboro Church in Buffalo, New York, in September 2025, speaking on "The Magic Mirror of Ritual: Three and a Half Weddings of the Waters and the Grand Celebrations of the Erie Canal."
She gave the communal address, "Ritual Mirrors," at the Tree Planing Rituals in Buffalo, Baldwinsville, and Canajoharie, NY in September and October 2025.
Segol also published "From My Flesh, I See God: Spiritual Pregnancy and the Boundaries of Kabbalah," in Mysticism in the Margins, Palgrave, November 2025
Hannah Gordon, PhD Student in GGS, Adjunct Faculty, UB College of Arts and Sciences, was awarded Best Graduate Student Paper by the New York College English Association in October 2025.