queerphoria
SPRING 2026
Click on a session title to view the session description and/or register for a session.
Sessions will not be video recorded.
Who Gets to Be Taken Seriously? Respectability Politics in Academic Life
Ali Mushtaq
Tuesday, February 17
3:00 PM - 4:30 PM
Academia often presents itself as a space of open inquiry, merit, and intellectual freedom. Yet beneath that ideal is a powerful, largely unspoken set of expectations about how scholars are supposed to sound, act, dress, teach, and even feel in order to be taken seriously. This talk explores how respectability politics quietly shape academic life—especially for scholars who are racialized, queer, first-generation, disabled, politically engaged, or working outside elite institutional norms.
Maximillian Soares-Miehlstein
Monday, February 23
11:00 AM - 12:30 PM
This session follows up with a then-in-progress dissertation presented for Queerify in Fall 2025 using art to explore identity from a cultural and community Psychology perspective. It used a community-based participatory method and was motivated by how traditional Western research methods in Psychology/social sciences often fail to capture local Hawaiʻi and Indigenous ways of self-expression. You'll get to see some of the artwork created expressing queer and disability identity across multiple mediums, and hear about the prominent themes that emerged throughout the project.
Janet Morel
Wednesday, February 25
3:00 PM - 4:30 PM
While Bible scholarship may sound dry and suspicious, Janet makes this short course easy, interesting and applicable, especially as it applies to how six passages in these ancient texts are misunderstood and misused to oppress the LGBTQ+ community. What are they really trying to say?
Mōhala Ka Pau: Expanding Concepts of Data and Identity in Hawaiʻi
Thaddeus Pham, Kekoaopololū Kealoha, Ikaika Regidor
Thursday, March 5
3:00 PM - 4:30 PM
Current discussions of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual, and other Identities (LGBTQIA+) center political narratives, often to the exclusion of indigenous perspectives and identities. This Queerify session will present local data (quantitative and qualitative) to generate discussion among panelists and attendees. In particular, the discussion will focus on the unique interplay of sexual and gender identities with Hawaiian culture, and the colonial history that has subsequently impacted the Hawaiʻi we see today.
RECORDED RESOURCES
Join Leeward Community College Associated Students of University of Hawaiʻi President Kendal Ratliff and Associate Professor kalei ruiz in an episode of Leeward CC's Career Central Podcast. In this episode, Kendal interviews kalei regarding his story and how queer identity and disability can impact the pursuit of academic and career goals. Check out the episode now available on YouTube!
In partnership with clubs at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST), including Ryudai Rainbow, IF-OIST, and OIST LGBTQ+ and Allies, kalei ruiz had the opportunity to present on research and ideas towards decolonizing our approach to gender and LGBTQ+ discourse. Mahalo to the representatives from the institute who not only recorded and translated the session, but also agreed to make the session available for viewing! Check out the recorded session here to learn more about how we can begin to decolonize LGBTQ+ discourse and advocacy.