We are delighted to announce that fabian romero, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies, has been selected as one of only four gonfaloniers representing the Graduate School in the Spring 2023 Commencement Ceremony. As a gonfalonier, romero will have the honor of carrying the Graduate School banner, leading the procession of graduates into the stadium. As a first-generation college student, romero's selection as a gonfalonier is a testament to their dedication, hard work, and outstanding academic achievements.
romero's doctoral dissertation, "Insurgent Kinship: Queer P'urhépecha Migrations and Kinship," is an interdisciplinary study that analyzes gendered histories of Mexico-U.S. migration and agricultural labor in Washington state, including that of their own family. Their research demonstrates how dominant systems suppress and obscure queer and indigenous relations of survivance. Through a decolonial methodology that centers indigenous ways of knowing, romero weaves archival research, oral history, cultural critique, and personal poetry to explore insurgent kinship as a concept that fuses queer kinship with a critique of the coloniality of gender.
Carrying the Graduate School banner will ceremonially recognize romero's journey from the fruit fields of Yakima Valley to a UW Ph.D. and the position they will begin in Autumn 2023 as Assistant Professor of Indigenous Knowledge in the Comparative Studies Department at Ohio State University. Please join us in recognizing fabian romero for this well-deserved honor!