The first lecture of the Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies yearly speaker series, “Self-Care: Are You Breathing,” takes place Sept. 4 at noon in the East Tennessee room of the D.P. Culp Center. The event’s speaker Khia Hudgins-Smith will focus on the importance of self-care and ways to take care of oneself.

The program director of the Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Stacey Williams, shared that Hudgins-Smith was selected by Williams and WGSS staff due to her impact on campus. “Khia does amazing work, working with our student population,” said Williams. “We saw her as someone that students, faculty and staff look up to for guidance.”

Hudgin-Smith’s talk is perfect for this time in the school year, shared Williams. “September is a great time period to be talking about self care, to set ourselves up for a good, strong academic year,” said Williams.

Williams hopes the event will have a strong turnout so people can internalize Hudgin-Smith’s impactful message. “She’s going to offer us something that’s really grounded in her profession,” said Williams.

(Contributed/ETSU)

The next lecture event is Oct. 2, featuring Trena M. Paulus from the Department of Sociology and Anthropology. Paulus’ speech will cover qualitative research and artificial intelligence.

Another WGSS event taking place on Oct. 2 is “Speaking Queerly,” an LGBTQ+ poetry night that will uplift voices from the transgender community. The WGSS fall book club will be focusing on transgender voices as well by reading “Side Effects” by Hill Malatino. “The campus community is invited to read the book and come to our three meetings that we’ll have in our space to talk about it to learn together,” said Williams.

This semester includes the celebration of The Notable Women of ETSU award, an annual accolade highlighting women’s contributions on campus. WGSS is hosting a diverse array of events this semester with numerous ways for students to be involved.

“It’s a very exciting time to be part of WGSS, and we just invite students to get active,” said Williams.

If students want more information about WGSS or their events, they are encouraged to visit https://www.etsu.edu/cas/women-gender-sexuality/.

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