Embracing the Label “Ungovernable” through Queer and Feminist Resistance

In the mid-1970s, the activism of students, faculty, staff, and community members in Portland led to the establishment of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) at Portland State University, making the program one of the first of its kind in the Pacific Northwest region. 

More recently, Portland has been an ongoing site of civic activity—particularly starting in 2020, when a concerted effort in the community to push back against historic police violence led some to label the city as “ungovernable.” 

Under the belief that activism is an essential tool to achieve equity, WGSS is embracing inflammatory characterizations like “ungovernable” as a sign that the work rightfully defies what the department calls “dominant culture’s call for compliance.” Molly Benitez, assistant professor of women, gender, and sexuality studies at Portland State, was hired during the initial phase of the grant work. Benitez explained, “Whether in response to the prevalence of anti-LGBTQ+ policies and continuing attacks on racial justice in the United States or war and displacement globally, our focus on transformational approaches to feminist and queer resistance, activism, and social justice . . . builds the world we want to live in as we break down the old.” 

With the help of a $100K Mellon grant, WGSS is working within and beyond the classroom to create spaces where activism is encouraged—and where the identity affirmation, collective care, and knowledge sharing that supports it can flourish. Under the name “Build as We Fight: Radically Reimagining Social Justice,” a series of speaker events and workshops will give a platform for leading scholars and activists to explore topics like abolition and imagination. (The first slated speaker is disability activist Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha.) Additionally, community gatherings will engage WGSS’s network of over 20 community partners—including the Gay and Lesbian Archive of the Pacific Northwest, the Q-Center, and the Sexual Assault Resource Center—to exchange research insights.  

For Benitez, the intended purpose of the activities goes back to community building: “When these activities come to fruition, WGSS will have deeper roots that link our students, faculty, and communities in the Portland metro area and the larger world.”