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The Resistant Communiqués Collective is extremely privileged to present Season II, Episode IV, with Dr. Karma R. Chávez, Professor and President of the AAUP Chapter at UT Austin, co-founder of UT Austin Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine, and co-editor of The Higher Ed Advocate.
In 2026, Pride has been hollowed out, and gender and ethnic studies are under concerted and coordinated attack, as nonprofits and universities work to turn radical queer struggle into something safe, manageable, and profitable. In this June Pride episode of Resistant Communiqués, Karma R. Chávez, Professor and AAUP President at UT-Austin, draws on years of immigrant justice, queer organizing, anti-prison and anti-policing work, and higher education fights to track how queer politics shifted from liberation to respectability, and what it will take to pull it back.
As chair of a Texas ethnic studies department, Karma traces how radical queer politics rooted in Black, Indigenous, and racially minoritized peoples’ organizing, AIDS activism, and student demands for Black Studies gave rise to gender and ethnic studies, and how those same formations are now being dismantled. Moving from Palestine to South Africa, and from campus struggles in the US, she connects today’s attacks on gender and ethnic studies education and Pride to longer histories of repression. Karma insists on transnational solidarity, rigorous study, and collective joy and creativity as the conditions for a culture of resistance that can last.
Our Collaborator this month, Karma R. Chávez, has studied queer and trans politics and movements, as well as Black, Indigenous, and racially minoritized peoples’ politics and movements, and is deeply involved in the fight for Gender and Ethnic Studies in Higher Education. Karma connects Pride, gender and ethnic studies, and transnational struggle to the broader fight against authoritarianism and fascism.
Karma R. Chávez is Chair and Bobby and Sherri Patton Professor in the Department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies at the University of Texas - Austin. She is the author of Queer Migration Politics: Activist Rhetoric and Coalitional Possibilities (University of Illinois Press, 2013); Palestine on the Air (University of Illinois Press, 2019); and The Borders of AIDS: Race, Quarantine, and Resistance (University of Washington Press, 2021). Chávez is a co-founder of her university’s Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine and president of the AAUP Chapter at UT Austin.
A wealth of knowledge, we are pleased to provide you with an extended June episode with Karma, as we will be on our upcoming summer break in July and August.
Here is our interview with Karma…
Listen, share, and study with us using the multimedia syllabus below.
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Resistant Communiqués Collective
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Note: This is not an exhaustive bibliography; it serves as a starting point for further research.
Please note: Due to Substack’s interface, some of the bibliography items below are directly linked to the items instead of being correctly formatted with a hyperlink. We apologize for the inconvenience.
Queer Politics, Pride, and Material Conditions
Queer Activism
American LGBTQ+ Museum. [americanlgbtqmuseum]. (2024, October 23). Out of the Closets: 1969 | Stories from the Founders of the Gay Liberation Front. [Video]. YouTube.
NYC LGBTQ Historic Sites Project. (2026, July 3). Mattachine Society Office – NYC LGBTQ Historic Sites Project. NYC LGBTQ Historic Sites Project. https://www.nyclgbtsites.org/site/mattachine-society-office/
U.S. National Park Service. (2025, February 14). Mattachine Society (U.S. National Park Service). U.S. National Park Service. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/mattachine-society.htm
Amalia Jurj. [amasocialworker]. (2014, December 1). United in Anger: A History of ACT UP [Video]. YouTube.
We’ve Been Around. [wevebeenaround9910]. (2016, June 10). Camp Trans (L. Feinberg, S. Stryker, & J. Serano, Narrs.; R. Ernst, J. Miles, J. Miles-Perez, & G. Caurso, Executive Producers) [Video]. YouTube.
Queer Repression: Lavender Scare
Dearn, S. (Host). (2024, July 1). How Canada’s LGBT Purge Got Started—Pt.2 (I. Capstick, Executive Producer; No. 2) [Audio podcast episode]. In Queer Legends: An Oral History Podcast. Queer Legends: An Oral History Podcast.
Hobson, E. K. (2016). Lavender and Red: Liberation and Solidarity in the Gay and Lesbian Left (1st ed.). University of California Press. (Original work published 2016, University of California Press)
Johnson, D. K. (2023). The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government (First edition, enlarged). The University of Chicago Press.
PBS News Hour. (2024, June 30). The hidden history of the Cold War-era Lavender Scare [Video]. PBS. https://www.pbs.org/video/hidden-histories-1719777608/
Queerness as a Politic
AfroMarxist. [AfroMarxist]. (2017, September 4). Angela Davis on Civil Rights and LGBT struggle (2004 interview) [Video]. YouTube.
AfroMarxist. [AfroMarxist]. (2018, January 8). Angela Davis Criticizes “Mainstream Feminism” / Bourgeois Feminism [Video]. YouTube.
Feinberg, L. (2014). Stone Butch Blues: A novel (20th Anniversary Author’s Edition). Leslie Feinberg. https://www.lesliefeinberg.net/download/661/?tmstv=1782482758
Read paywall-free: Leslie Feinberg published the 20th Anniversary Author’s Edition of Stone Butch Blues: A novel, on hir website for free download and use.
Kiesling, E. (2017). The Missing Colors of the Rainbow: Black Queer Resistance: Part Three. Queer times. European Journal of American Studies, Special Issue: Re-Queering The Nation: America’s Queer Crisis, 11(3), 290–318. https://doi.org/10.4000/ejas.11830
Untorelli Press. (2019). Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries: Survival, Revolt, And Queer Antagonist Struggle. [zine]. Trans Reads. https://transreads.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/2019-03-17_5c8dc8507f026_STARcopy.pdf
We’ve Been Around. [wevebeenaround9910]. (2019, July 1). S.T.A.R. [Video]. YouTube.
The Development of Ethnic Studies
Kapwa Kollective. [kapwakollective276]. (2019, March 21). The Legacy of the Third World Liberation Front student strike at SF State [Video]. YouTube.
KQED News. [KQEDnews]. (2018, February 15). 50th Anniversary of the SF State Student Strike | KQED News [Video]. YouTube.
PBS Origins. [PBSOrigins]. (2024, June 27). The Longest Student Strike in History [Video]. YouTube.
Black Studies Podcast. [BlackStudiesPodcast]. (2024, July 2). Martha Biondi Department of Black Studies, Northwestern University [Video]. Youtube.
Diaz, D. (2026). History of Ethnic Studies Timeline – Ethnic Studies K-12 – XChange. UCLA Center X. UCLA Center X. https://centerx.gseis.ucla.edu/xchange/ethnic-studies-k-12/historical-timeline-for-ethnic-studies
Luders-Manuel, S. (2017, September 18). The Inequality Hidden Within the Race-Neutral GI Bill. JSTOR Daily. https://daily.jstor.org/the-inequality-hidden-within-the-race-neutral-g-i-bill/
Attacks on Gender & Ethnic Studies
American Association of University Professors (AAUP). (2026). Political Attacks on Higher Education | AAUP. American Association of University Professors (AAUP). https://www.aaup.org/issues-higher-education/political-attacks-higher-education
AAUP@UT. (2022, October 15). AAUP@UT. AAUP@UT. AAUP@UT. https://aaup-utaustin.org/
Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure, & Committee on Women in the Academic Profession. (2018, November). The Assault on Gender and Gender Studies. American Association of University Professors (AAUP). https://www.aaup.org/sites/default/files/Assault_on_Gender_2018.pdf
Chávez, K. R. (2026, May 13). Pebbles in the Ocean (or Screaming into the Void) [Substack newsletter]. The Higher Ed Advocate
Gutterman, L., & Chávez, K. R. (2026, May 5). Re-Segregating Higher Ed [Substack newsletter]. The Higher Ed Advocate
Kamola, I. (2024). Manufacturing Backlash: Right-Wing Think Tanks and Legislative Attacks on Higher Education, 2021-2023 [White Paper]. American Association of University Professors (AAUP). https://www.aaup.org/sites/default/files/Manufacturing_Backlash_final_0.pdf
Texas Conference of American Association of University Professors. (2026, February 12). UT Austin Closing Ethnic, Gender and Area Studies Departments. Texas Conference of American Association of University Professors. https://aaup-texas.org/blog/f/ut-austin-closing-ethnic-gender-and-area-studies-departments
Transnational Struggles
Fischbach, M. (Guest Expert), Cosmopod (Host). (2021, December 21). Cosmopod: The History of Palestine Solidarity in the US with Michael Fischbach [Audio podcast episode]. In Cosmopod. Cosmopod: The Official Podcast of Cosmonaut Magazine. https://cosmopod.libsyn.com/the-history-of-palestine-solidarity-in-the-us-with-michael-fischbach
Haugbolle, S., & Olsen, P. V. (2023). Emergence of Palestine as a Global Cause. Middle East Critique, 32(1), 129–148. https://doi.org/10.1080/19436149.2023.2168379
Gulewitsch, N. (2011). Ya Basta! A Cry that Echoes Beyond Borders: Zapatismo and International Solidarity Networks in the Zapatista Uprising. 2, 77–91. https://www.mcgill.ca/msr/files/msr/v2_gulewitsch.pdf
McNamara, C. (2019, May 2). How LGBTQ people are resisting Bolsonaro’s Brazil through art. The Conversation. https://doi.org/10.64628/AB.yheq9d6p4
https://novo2025.igarape.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/EC_EN_Resistence-to-authoritarianism.pdfSomma, N. M. (2012). The Chilean student movement of 2011-2012: Challenging the marketization of education. Interface: A Journal for and about Social Movements, 4(2), 296–309. https://www.interfacejournal.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Interface-4-2-Somma.pdf
Hunter, D. (2026, April 14). What we can learn from the playbook that defeated Orbán. Waging Nonviolence. https://wagingnonviolence.org/2026/04/lessons-from-playbook-defeated-viktor-orban-hungary/
Additional Works and Themes Discussed in the Episode:
Non-Profit & Prison Industrial Complexes
Rodríguez, D. (2017). The Political Logic of the Non-Profit Industrial Complex. In INCITE! (Ed.), The Revolution will not be Funded: Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial Complex (pp. 21–40). Duke University Press.
Hayssen, S. (2022, September 7). What’s Wrong With the Nonprofit Industrial Complex? Teen Vogue. Teen Vogue. https://www.teenvogue.com/story/non-profit-industrial-complex-what-is
International Colonial Queer Repression
Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR). (2012, March 14). Ugandan LGBT Activists File Case Against Anti-Gay U.S. Evangelical in Federal Court. Center for Constitutional Rights. https://ccrjustice.org/node/1150
Wong, T. (2021, June 28). 377: The British colonial law that left an anti-LGBTQ legacy in Asia. BBC News. BBC. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-57606847
Tax Reform Act & Non-Profits
Faulkenbury, E. (2019, May 13). Evan Faulkenbury: What Does Tax Policy Have to Do with the Civil Rights Movement? UNC Press Blog. https://uncpressblog.com/2019/05/13/evan-faulkenbury-what-does-tax-policy-have-to-do-with-the-civil-rights-movement/
HistPhil. (2020, January 27). The Private Charity Lacunae: The Tax Reform Act of 1969 and the Rise of Donor-Advised Funds. HistPhil. https://histphil.org/2020/01/27/the-private-charity-lacunae-the-tax-reform-act-of-1969-and-the-rise-of-donor-advised-funds/
The Necessity of Theory
Kelley, R. D. G. (2015). Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists during the Great Depression (Twenty-fifth-anniversary edition). The University of North Carolina Press.
Contemporary Lavender Scare
Stolzer, H. (2026, June 9). What Was the Lavender Scare? The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/jun/24/prairieland-texas-ice-protests-zines
Contemporary Red Scare
McMenamin, L., & Pessoa, L. M., with graphics by F. (2026, June 24). ‘This is injustice’: How leftist zines were used to sentence anti-ICE protesters to decades in prison. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/jun/24/prairieland-texas-ice-protests-zines
Song, B. “Champagne.” (2026, June 23). Statement by Benjamin “Champagne” Song. Support the Prairieland Defendants. https://prairielanddefendants.com/defendant-writings/statement-by-benjamin-champagne-song/
Stern, S., & Busby, J. (2026, June 26). 30-Year Sentence for Transporting Zines Is a Five-Alarm Fire for Free Speech. The Intercept in Partnership with Freedom of the Press Foundation. https://theintercept.com/2026/06/26/daniel-sanchez-estrada-zines-prairieland-free-speech/
Goodman, N. (2026, June 26). Decades for Dissent [Substack newsletter]. Guns, Guards, and Governance.
Listen to the Music of the movement
Collaborator’s Choice:
Hurray for the Riff Raff. [hurrayfortheriffraff]. (2018, May 21). Hurray For The Riff Raff—Pa’lante (Official Video) [Video]. YouTube.
In this episode of the Resistant Communiqués Podcast:
Production & Post-Production
Podcast and Project Co-Coordinators: Jamila Hammami & Zeb Larson
Production Co-Coordinators: Jamila Hammami & Zeb Larson
Co-Executive/Producers: Ricardo Virginia Chávez, Jamila Hammami, & Zeb Larson
Concept Development: Jamila Hammami & Zeb Larson
Collaborator Research and Outreach: Jamila Hammami & Zeb Larson
Collaborator Relationship Coordinator: Jamila Hammami, Zeb Larson, & Ricardo Virginia Chávez
Writers/ Editors: Jamila Hammami & Zeb Larson
Script Development: Karma R. Chávez, Jamila Hammami & Zeb Larson
Recording Engineer and Management: Zeb Larson
Audio & Sound Engineer: Jamila Hammami
Distribution Coordinator: Jamila Hammami
Researchers: Jamila Hammami & Zeb Larson
Fact-Check: Jamila Hammami & Zeb Larson
Post-Production Coordinator: Jamila Hammami
Mastering & Mixing: Jamila Hammami
Show Notes & Transcript: Jamila Hammami
Episode Multimedia Syllabus Development: Karma R. Chávez, Ricardo Virginia Chávez, Jamila Hammami, & Zeb Larson
Episode Featuring
Resistant Communiqués Podcast Collaborator: Karma R. Chávez; ft. Ricardo Virginia Chávez
Resistant Communiqués Podcast Co-Hosts: Jamila Hammami & Zeb Larson
Resistant Communiqués Podcast Introduction: Jamila Hammami
Resistant Communiqués Podcast Episode Introduction: Jamila Hammami
Resistant Communiqués Podcast Outro: Zeb Larson
Communications
Communications and Social Media Coordinator: Jamila Hammami
Graphic Design and Video Editing Coordinator: Jamila Hammami
Video Clipping: Zeb Larson
Social Media Copy: Zeb Larson
Music Credits
Royalty-Free Music for the Podcast and Episode:
Music Clipping: Zeb Larson
Music Editing & Mixing: Jamila Hammami
Royalty-Free Music Artists/ Composers:
Podcast Intro Music: Cheel - Soft Feeling
Episode Intro Music: Wayne Jones - Connection
Episode Music: Karl Casey - New Dawn
Episode Outro Music: Cheel - Soft Feeling
