Branching Out: Growing Community Futures
2024 Senior Colloquium Project
“Dreams and visions provide glimpses of decolonized spaces and transformed realities that we have collectively yet to imagine.”
Leanne Betasamosake Simpson 2011
View the Zine:
2024 Branching Out: Growing Community Futures
Our April 24, 2024, event will focus on the planting of a Native tree on CU «Ƶ’s campus as a symbol of grounding, growing, and branching out, and will include guest speakers that will discuss anti-colonial futures. Following the ceremony, we will hold a reception to foster community within social justice and affinity groups at CU and the broader «Ƶ community. Our April 24Earth Day celebration and reception at the Gates Woodruff Cottage will have free food and drinks, games, and care packages!
The central goal of our Community Project is to encourage, foster, and begin repairing connections that have been socially discouraged and structurally inaccessible to participants of social justice and affinity groups. The WGST Senior Colloquium aims to extend branches between community groups that have been historically excluded from academia by acknowledging the need for equitable and enjoyable futures between members of our communities. We intend to hold space for student groups experiencing differentiated forms of minoritization while attending the University of Colorado, «Ƶ, a predominantly white institution (PWIs).
We also aim to disrupt popular misunderstandings and discourse surrounding the label of “feminist” and who historically has had the privilege to identify as such by providing resources to those attending our celebration including an informative zine.
The Women and Gender Studies Senior Colloquium is the capstone of the WGST majors and minors who are focused on bringing together the multitude of disciplines that are central to feminist thought. Each colloquium culminates in a community project centered on key themes of their class discussions. The community project takes different forms each year such as manifestos, zines, and art installations. This year’s Colloquium students are radically committed to community equity and propose a celebration of diverse life as our Senior Community Project.