Ithaca College

Women's and Gender Studies (WGST)and the Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival (FLEFF) announce the second event of a new on-going collaboration, F2F:  Faculty to Faculty Salons, on Tuesday October 13 at 7:30 p.m.

The second F2F salon features an interview with Dr. Natasha Bharj, Assistant Professor of Psychology and Women’s and Gender Studies. Dr. Claire Gleitman, Professor of English and  Coordinator of the WGST Program, introduces this event. 

Dr. Natasha Bharj is Assistant Professor of Psychology and Women's and Gender Studies. Her publications include "A Postcolonial Feminist critique of harem analogies in psychological science" in Journal of Social and Political Psychology, which examined the use of anthropomorphic analogies in evolutionary psychology as reinforcing colonial representations of gender in the Middle East.

She has published on feminist methodologies in psychology, decolonial feminist interventions within psychology, sub-typing within Islamophobic discourse, and racial components of sexual objectification.

Her research probes the intersections between decolonial feminism, cultural psychology, impact of racialized sexual stereotypes on bias in understandings of women's sexuality, the treatment of survivors of sexual violence, racial components of sexual objectification, and the ideological function of historical representations. A former Diversity Scholar at Ithaca College, her recent awards include the Bernstein Award for Future Faculty and a Summer Research Scholarship Grant, both from the University of Kansas.

Employing the master class model, these engaging participatory salons feature senior faculty members interviewing early and mid-career WGST-affiliated faculty members about their research and their journeys to becoming scholars. Each semester will feature four salons with different faculty interviewers and interviewees.

The purpose of the salons is to showcase our feminist, anti-racist, decolonialist faculty on the Ithaca College campus, with a focus on their scholarship.  We are inviting students to enter into the discipline of Women's and Gender Studies by listening to the faculty discussing their work and current debates and controversies in their disciplines.

The 75-minute salons will employ a master class model of guided conversation and then engagement with questions from attendees. They will wrap up with takeaways from participants both live and in the chat.

During the pandemic, “F2F” has emerged as an acronym for face-to-face or embodied instruction or meetings.  Our salons will expand “F2F” to unfold other meanings and possibilities, such as Feminist to Feminist, Field to Field, Festival to Festival, Friend to Friend.

Current students, faculty, and staff at Ithaca College can secure the Zoom link for second salon by contacting Dr. Claire Gleitman, Director of WGST, at gleitman@ithaca.edu.

For further information, contact Dr. Claire Gleitman, gleitman@ithaca.edu or Dr. Patricia Zimmermann, patty@ithaca.edu