Celebrating Women’s History Month through interdisciplinary research

As a filmmaker, Ky’Johnna Jamison strives to highlight and uplift marginalized voices with her work. One example of her efforts is a new research podcast, “Star Stories.” Made possible through her internship at the Smithsonian American Women's History Museum, the podcast highlights the barriers Black women face when pursuing a degree and career in astrophysics.

For the first episode, Jamison, a first-year film and animation – production option student, is interviewing her childhood role model: Aomawa Shields, an astronomer and astrobiologist who explores the climate and habitability of small exoplanets. The episode will share details about Shields’ academic journey, her unique experiences in science education and entertainment, the discrimination and barriers she faced in STEM, and how she succeeded despite these barriers.

“Directly addressing discrimination is the only way those issues can be solved. When we ignore it, it creates lasting issues for everyone. Not just those in marginalized groups,” said Jamison, a Rochester native. “Positive media representation is essential to combatting discrimination against underrepresented groups and building empathy between communities.”

She added, “I hope this story will resonate with young BIPOC girls who may otherwise struggle to see themselves pursuing STEM careers.”

Jamison will share insights she gained while working on this project during the inaugural Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) symposium on Friday, March 28. Hosted in conjunction with Women’s History Month, RIT’s WGSS program crafted the symposium to feature original work by individuals from across the RIT community.

With a theme of “women, gender, sexuality, and technologies,” the symposium will celebrate interdisciplinary research efforts by students and faculty from the College of Engineering Technology; College of Liberal Arts; College of Art and Design; Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences; College of Science; Kate Gleason College of Engineering; College of Health Sciences and Technology; National Technical Institute for the Deaf; School of Individualized Study; and RIT Libraries.

“A major goal of our program is to demonstrate that WGSS is applicable to every major here at RIT. Developing the theme to include technologies was a no-brainer,” said Shay Ryan Olmstead, co-organizer of the symposium and lecturer in the WGSS program. “Student and faculty presentations connect WGSS with video games, computer science, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and many other technologies.”

Silvia Benso, professor of philosophy and director of the WGSS program, added that she and Olmstead organized the symposium with the goal of sparking conversations on campus and inspiring more interdisciplinary research related to WGSS.

“Our historical times show us that we need to continue to highlight the immense contributions made by women and gender minorities to our social lives, past and present,” said Benso. “The reality and existences of human beings are multiple, pluralistic, and diverse. WGSS take these pluralities of experiences into account and apply them to various areas of life and career paths. Complexity may be hard to handle, but it is not to be fought or eliminated.”

A common theme for the symposium presentations is exploring the intersection of gender and gaming.

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Liam Olson

The above frame from Olson’s film shows an example of the type of 3D avatars people can use in VRChat.

Raising awareness about the freedoms virtual reality (VR) offers to those exploring their gender identity is the subject of Liam Olson’s research. The first-year graphic design student from Evanston, Ill., will screen his short film, “Queer & Trans Identity through Social VR: VRChat,” during the symposium.

VRChat is an online virtual world platform that allows users to interact with each other using customizable 3D avatars. Olson explains that there are entire communities in VRChat where transgender people can log on and be themselves without fear of ostracization—and finding these communities helped Olson better understand his own gender identity.

“Having a persona that’s private gives you a chance to learn about yourself and understand and progress with your identity as a whole without being judged,” said Olson. “There are people who want to present differently, but they feel intimidated by it. Places like VRChat allow for a zone where there is less judgement than there is in real life.”

His film features interviews with people who frequent these VR chatrooms and delves into the positive and negative impacts platforms like VRChat can have on socialization in trans and queer communities. Olson’s goal is to increase scholarship around this topic, as it’s currently understudied.

Another gaming-centric project featured at the symposium focuses on trans representation in media.

Using the game Deltarune as an example, Maya Gopoian Heatley’s research proposes guidelines on how to read games “trans*ly.” Heatley, a third-year WGSS student, explains that the concept is similar to queer reading—which is an interpretive approach that analyzes text through a lens that challenges normative ideas about gender and sexuality—but with a specific focus on trans identities and perspectives.

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Toby Fox

Above is a screenshot from Deltarune, the subject of Heatley’s research project.

Her interest in the topic started with a class project and has evolved into her undergraduate thesis. Prior to presenting at the upcoming symposium, Heatley presented an earlier iteration of the project at the Honors Research & Creativity symposium in 2024.

“Getting a chance to present my research as an undergraduate student, and grow with the project, is very special. My plan is to go to graduate school and eventually become an academic in this field, so I’ll hopefully be doing more things like this in the future,” said Heatley, from Queens, N.Y.

These projects are just three examples of the unique WGSS and technologies research happening across campus. Go to the symposium’s website for the full event schedule and additional information about the presenters.

The symposium is sponsored by the College of Liberal Arts’ Dean’s Office. The WGSS Program Council assisted with planning and organization of the event.