October 13, 2016
Gender, women, and sexuality studies assistant professor Gabriela Díaz de Sabatés presents paper at conference in Argentina
Submitted by Gabriela Diaz de Sabates
Gabriela Díaz de Sabatés, assistant professor in the gender, women, and sexuality studies department, presented "It is Exactly as I'm Telling You: Intersecting Gender, Race, Class, and Migratory Status When Reflecting on the Oral Testimonies of Migrant Latina Undergraduate Women in the U.S.A." at the sixth International Oral History Conference in Tucumán, Argentina.
She also conducted archival research at the historical archive of the autonomic city of Buenos Aires on Argentinean women's life stories during the '70s and '80s dictatorship in Argentina. The full access to documents at the archive was facilitated by an agreement recently signed between K-State and Buenos Aires.
Díaz de Sabatés’ paper elaborates on how the intersection of gender, ethnicity, migratory status and college experiences affect Latina undergraduate students' academic persistence in a predominately white, research extensive Midwestern state university. The paper emphasizes how these students' life narratives speak not only of their individual experiences, but also contextualize their identities and experiences in relation to the larger social context. Latina students' voices, conveyed through life narratives, underscore the strength and tenacity of these women in challenging social and institutional norms that they may experience as inhibiting their growth, survival and success while in college.
In her paper, Díaz de Sabatés affirms that undergraduate Latinas' life narratives are students' essential tool to generate alternative and inclusive ways to understand themselves within a cultural context that is different from their culture of origin, while bridging them together.
Díaz de Sabatés' travel was funded by a 2016 Faculty Development Award and the gender, women, and sexuality studies department.