NCID-1800
Katherine Fobear
Assistant Professor of Women's Studies
California State University, Fresno
Education/Degree:
1 Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Social Justice (University of British Columbia)
About
Dr. Kat Fobear is an assistant professor of women's studies and coordinator of the upcoming LGBTQ studies minor. Her research and activism focuses on the intersections of race, sexuality, and gender in migration and transitional justice. Her most recent work is with LGBTQ refugees and undocumented persons in Canada. Her new work focuses on the issues that transgender asylum seekers and undocumented persons face in the United States and Canada. She is an affiliate of Rainbow Refugee, a volunteer-based organization in Canada dedicated to assisting those fleeing persecution on the basis of their sexual orientation and gender identity. In addition to her work with queer migration, Kat is also an oral historian and works with several community-based oral history projects. Her most recent one is "Qistory: LGBTQ+ History of the Central Valley," which focuses on the lives and stories of LGBTQ+ persons living in the Central Valley, California. This a joint project between Fresno State and Community Link, a local LGBTQ+ organization.
Current Work
Dr. Fobear works to document the experiences of marginalized lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans persons in order to bring their voices to the forefront of research, policy, and public debates around immigration and asylum. Far too often, LGBTQ+ persons are left out of the conversation when talking about immigration issues, such as family separation, asylum, and the policing of documented and undocumented immigrants. Her work seeks to bring LGBTQ+ persons to the table and to bring their unique perspective to further challenging biases and ignorance. Similar to this desire is her goal of documenting LGBTQ+ community history in order for it to be preserved and recognized for future generations. Dr. Fobear firmly believes that LGBTQ+ lives and histories are not separate from the places they are coming from, but are integral to the history of that place and should be recognized as so.
Research Area Keyword(s)
asylum, LGBTQ+, memory, place-making, public history, queer migration