Whitewashing Race Studies

Posted on by Dr Zuleyka Zevallos
In the lower half is a white background, with the spines of two white books on the right handside. At the top is the title: whitewashing race studies

How does a White male student with no expertise in critical race studies, with little sociological training, publish a peer reviewed article in one of the most prestigious journals in our field? How is this possible when the paper misrepresents the Black Lives Matter movement and intersectionality theory? How does this paper make it through peer review to publication in less than six months? ‘Black Lives Matter at Five: Limits and Possibilities,’ by Adam Szetela, was submitted to Ethnic and Racial Studies on 24 January 2019, accepted for publication on 21 June 2019 and published online on 18 July. The expediency of the peer review process, given the content of the article, warrants strong evaluation.

I express my gratitude to Dr Shantel Gabrieal Buggs, who brought this to public attention, and who led a robust discussion on Twitter with sociologists and scholars from other fields. I’m using this and other examples as a case study of whiteness in academic publishing.

Continue reading Whitewashing Race Studies

Visual Sociology of Resistance

Posted on by Dr Zuleyka Zevallos
A building has a roller door with colourful street art. Drawn in a cartoon style from The Planet of the Apes, a purple figure in a military-style helmet says: It's time to end colonial power'

Below is my visual sociology for the first quarter of the year, from January to March, 2019. Take a journey from the Central Coast to Melbourne, and back to Sydney. This is part of my Weekends With a Sociologist series. Much of the imagery feature elements of social justice, protest or resistance, perfectly encapsulating what fuels my perseverance as a blogger and visual sociologist. More coming very soon. Enjoy!

Something for everybody

The year started hot and creative. Having gotten yet another tattoo for my birthday only a month earlier, I went back to Japanese-Australian artist, Hitome, from Broadway Tattoo, to get my next piece. I had long been looking for a woman of colour artist to entrust my intricate pieces, and she was wonderful, smart and easy to work with.

The parlour features a large black and white framed poster with art by Good Time Charlie and a quote from Leonard “Stoney” St Clair (below).  2-4 January 2019

“I am in the business of rendering a service to this community for the small group of people who choose to have their bodies decorated in some way or another. I choose my intelligence and skill, wishing not to offend anyone, but instead with my love of mankind, do what good I can before I die.”

Continue reading Visual Sociology of Resistance

Stop Forced Adoptions

Posted on by Dr Zuleyka Zevallos
Protesters gather out the front of the Parliament of New South Wales. A lage Aboriginal flag hangs over the gates. An Aboriginal man is signing translation in Auslan. There are camera crews and photographers.

Today marks the 11th anniversary of former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s Apology to the Stolen Generations. From 1910 to 1970, up to one third of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children (100,000 children) were forcibly removed from their families and sent away from their communities. They were classified according to their skin colour and put into Christian missionaries where they suffered abuse and neglect, or they were placed with White foster families who did not understand their needs. These children were forced to forget their language, culture and spirituality, and in many cases they were not told of their Indigenous heritage.

The Bringing Them Home report of 1997 gathered evidence of the impact this cultural genocide had on Indigenous Australians, showing that it led to intergenerational trauma, poor health, and socio-economic issues. The report made 54 important recommendations to end the cycle of violence against Indigenous Australians.

Twenty years later, Indigenous children are being removed from their families up to four times the rate.

Join the Grandmothers Against Removals, protesting forced adoptions law in NSW. Their ethos is that: ‘The best care for kids is community.’ Below are my live-tweeted comments, beginning at the Archibald Fountain in Sydney.

Continue reading Stop Forced Adoptions

Invasion Day 2019

Posted on by Dr Zuleyka Zevallos

This past weekend was the Australia Day long weekend. The holiday marks the genocide and dispossession of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. This day will never be inclusive or live up to ideals of multiculturalism, as it is a Day of Mourning for First Nations people. We need to not just change the date but also #ChangeTheNation. This is time for truth-telling of our national history, a Voice to Parliament and Makarrata (treaty), as outlined in the Uluru Statement From the Heart.

On 26 January, beginning at 11am, we marched at the Invasion Day rally from Hyde Park South to the Yabun Festival. The rally starts with speeches, smoking ceremony and dance commentating survival. Remembering the Waterloo Creek massacre.

Continue reading Invasion Day 2019

Don’t Ever Forget Where You Come From

Posted on by Dr Zuleyka Zevallos

Our visual sociology for August 2018 gives us the gift of union-inspired art, 130 years of contemporary works and a blue zebra.

State of the Union

Exhibition at the Ian Potter Museum of Art, about student and workers’ industrial action (mostly at Melbourne University and local industrial rights movements). Very interesting look at social protest and solidarity across groups. Banner art has been a staple element of the union movement, but eventually waned. The artform rose once more in the 1980s. One of the quotes is by Melbourne Union alumni, Christos Tsiolkas, who was the first in his Greek migrant family to graduate from university. His uncle pointed out that his working class labour made the university buildings possible. He warned his soon-to-be successful nephew, ‘Don’t ever forget where you come from.’ 9 August

Continue reading Don’t Ever Forget Where You Come From

Invasion Day 2018

Posted on by Dr Zuleyka Zevallos

The 26 January is a public holiday nationally known as Australia Day, however, for decades, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have protested against this day, as it commemorates genocide and dispossession. Last year’s Invasion Day rallies were attended by over 61,000 people around Australia. This year’s rally had around 80,000 people marching across all capital cities, including 60,000 people in Naarm (Melbourne) and between 15,000 to 20,000 people in Gadigal (Sydney).

A child holds a sign showing the ongoing significance of the Day of Mourning

This year marks 230 years since the British invaded Australia, leading to the decimation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, with inequities continuing to this day. It is also the 80 year anniversary of the Day of Mourning protests, organised by the Australian Aboriginal Progressive League.

Today’s post reflects on the protests on the lands of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation (Gadigal is the city now known as Sydney). I then provide a visual sociology of the culmination of the protest march, which ended at the Yabun Festival.

Continue reading Invasion Day 2018

Marriage Equality Rally

Posted on by Dr Zuleyka Zevallos

I marched at the Marriage Equality rally in Sydney on 10 November, among with 30,000 people! It was the biggest LGBTQIA protest in Australian history and also the biggest rally ever in Sydney. Over three quarters of Australians participated in the voluntary postal vote on marriage rights. The Opposition and most other major parties opposed the postural vote as it is very expensive ($121 million) and unnecessary (the vote should have been held in Parliament, where it likely would’ve passed by majority conscience vote).

To paraphrase Senator Penny Wong: we didn’t want to be here, but now we are here, let’s get this done! Continue reading Marriage Equality Rally

Homelessness Protest

Posted on by Dr Zuleyka Zevallos

In the iconic Martin Place in central Sydney, people who are homeless are camped out in protest over the lack of housing for the city’s underprivileged groups. The not-for-profit initiative also provided food, clothes, books and other support to protesters. In a press release on their Facebook account, #247StreetKitchenSafeSpace, emphasised that services need to better cater to the material reality of Sydney’s homeless as well as providing appropriately priced and positioned housing options, rather than prioritising rich developers.

As long as poverty and inequality persist in our world…

Protecting Activist Academics Against Public Harassment

Posted on by Dr Zuleyka Zevallos
Two women of colour sit at a desk reading a laptop

There have been an increased number of public attacks on underrepresented academics for their education and activism on social media. The term “activist academic” describes the longstanding tradition across nations where intellectuals engage in conscious protest in support of social justice and dissent against the status quo. Activism by academics asserts that the university has a social function beyond the provision of education and scholarly critique. Activist academics see that their role serves a social purpose to provide independent social criticism through volunteering, program interventions, public engagement outside academia, protests, and beyond. In some circles, the profile of activist academics has declined, particularly amongst White academics from majority groups. This led to the misperception that recent international protests by scientists were novel. This is misguided, as minority academics are often inextricably activist in their pedagogy, not-for-profit service work, and activities.

Sociology is centrally concerned with activism, especially in applied contexts. Our social justice focus is misconceived as bias or as an attack to those not used to having history, culture and politics viewed through a critical lens. Sociology is centrally concerned with social transformation. We do not merely observe the world; we aim to challenge existing power structures and to reduce inequity. Having said that, women academics in general are penalised for their work, and the outcomes are even worse for minority sociologists as they seek senior roles. The stakes for minority activist academics is therefore higher, as I will show below.

One of our first aims must be to collectively reconfigure what ‘counts’ as academic work while simultaneously challenging whether ‘counting’ is necessarily the best way to ensure the efficient use of public resources in any part of the education sector
Activist academics: what ‘counts’ as academic work? – Dr Sandra Grey

Continue reading Protecting Activist Academics Against Public Harassment

Publication: Making the Most of Diversity Lessons

Posted on by Dr Zuleyka Zevallos

This article was first published on Women’s Policy Action Tank on 24 April 2017.

Despite its special focus on diversity, the evolution of the March for Science shows that diversity has been an afterthought. Science and academia continually places scientists from underrepresented groups in the position of arguing for our rights. The issues for the global March for Science, as well as the national marches in Australia, are fundamental to issues of diversity in STEM around the world. The march is a microcosm of the battle to create a more inclusive culture in STEM that truly values and promotes diversity. 

Over the weekend, thousands participated in the March for Science, both in Australia and globally. Influenced by the Women’s March, the March for Science has struggled with reflecting the highly diverse scientific community. In today’s post, sociologist Zuleyka Zevallos provides a brief history of the controversies, explains why diversity in science is important, and provides practical suggestions for moving forward on stronger footing. 

March for Science crowd at Martins Place Sydney

Diversity is a quintessential tool in science

Continue reading Publication: Making the Most of Diversity Lessons