About

I am a professor of Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality studies at Eastern Washington University, where I teach courses in feminism and gender studies, gender and media, sexuality studies, gender health issues, and related topics. My pronouns are she and her.

My research focuses primarily on women’s health, bodies, and feminism, and especially how these issues are represented in media. I recently collaborated with a dream team of co-editors to produce the massive Palgrave Handbook of Critical Menstruation Studies, which is available open access, thanks to a grant from Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council. My book about abortion activism and social media, From a Whisper to a Shout, was published in 2018 by Repeater Books. As the author of Capitalizing on the Curse and related articles, I am best known for my research on media representations of menstruation.

During the Fall 2020 term, I hosted a short series on Critical Menstruation Studies, based on the Palgrave Handbook of Critical Menstruation Studies. Thanks to Lisa Logan, manager of the Women’s and Gender Education (WAGE) Center at EWU, and four excellent work-study students, these sessions were all recorded.

December 3, 2020 – Menstrual Activism and Menstrual Equity, featuring Inga Winkler and Milena Bacalja Perianes 

Recommended Reading from HCMS

    • Chris Bobel and Breanne Fahs, The Messy Politics of Menstrual Activism
    • Maria Carmen Punzi and Mirjam Werner, Challenging the Menstruation Taboo One Sale at a Time: The Role of Social Entrepreneurs in the Period Revolution
    • Berkley D. Conner, Menstrual Trolls: The Collective Rhetoric of Periods for Pence
    • Jennifer Weiss-Wolf, U.S. Policymaking to Address Menstruation: Advancing an Equity Agenda

November 12, 2020 – Menstrual Injustice, featuring Tom-Ann Roberts and Elizabeth Kissling

Recommended Reading from HCMS

    • Tomi-Ann Roberts, Bleeding in Jail: Objectification, Self-Objectification, and Menstrual Injustice
    • Chandra Bozelko, Opinion: Prisons that Withhold Menstrual Pads Humiliate Women and Violate Basic Rights
    • Milena Bacalja Perianes and Tomi-Ann Roberts, Transnational Engagements: From Debasement, Disability, and Disaster to Dignity—Stories of Menstruation Under Challenging Conditions
    • Ingrid Johnston-Robledo and Joan C. Chrisler, The Menstrual Mark: Menstruation as Social Stigma

    October 29, 2020 – Menstruation Without Gender, featuring Miren Guilló-Arakistain, Klara RydströmRecommended Reading from HCMS

    • Klara Rydström, Degendering Menstruation: Making Trans Menstruators Matter
    • Miren Guilló-Arakistain, Challenging Menstrual Normativity: Nonessentialist Body Politics and Feminist Epistemologies of Health
    • E. Frank and Jac Dellaria, Navigating the Binary: A Visual Narrative of Trans and Genderqueer Menstruation
    • Ela Przybylo and Breanne Fahs, Empowered Bleeders and Cranky Menstruators: Menstrual Positivity and the “Liberated” Era of New Menstrual Product Advertisements

    October 15, 2020 – Introduction to Critical Menstruation Studies, featuring Breanne FahsRecommended Reading from HCMS

    • Chris Bobel, Introduction: Menstruation as Lens—Menstruation as Opportunity
    • Inga T. Winkler, Introduction: Menstruation as Fundamental
    • Tomi-Ann Roberts, Introduction: Menstruation as Embodied
    • Breanne Fahs, Introduction: Menstruation as Rationale
    • Inga T. Winkler, Introduction: Menstruation as Structural
    • Katie Ann Hasson, Introduction: Menstruation as Material
    • Elizabeth Arveda Kissling, Introduction: Menstruation as Narrative

    Photo at top from Max Pixel, used with CC0 Public Domain License