ilia Medina

IIREP M.A. Candidate

ilia medina is an instructor of Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies and a graduate student within the Intersectional Indigeneity, Race, Ethnicity, and Politics program within the Political Science department. Specializing in transdisciplinary approaches to understanding the varied forms of marginalization in the United States today, they combine their eclectic work and academic background as a performer, artist, science tutor, polyglot, traveler, and queer scholar. As an instructor, ilia takes an inclusive and welcoming approach that fosters a brave space in the classroom, encouraging friction and discussion with the expectation that mistakes are a welcome part of the learning process. They center non-traditional ways of knowing and transmitting information to challenge hegemonic methods, allowing students to think creatively and translate academic language and thought into everyday parlance and compelling original work to bring back to their respective communities.

Their current research focuses on contemporary queer crisis in the US, with historical contexts drawing comparisons to similar political mobilizations against gender and sexual diversity, both in the US and globally. Themes include medicalization and pathology, fascism, colonial violence, propaganda, disinformation, erasure, and genocide. In addition to tracking political violence in its many forms, their work focuses on the ways in which queer community organizers and artists respond to the crisis, with a heavy emphasis on queer autoethnography, arts, community- and self-care, and joy.

ilia’s publications include illustrations and editing for a middle grade book, The Mortician’s Daughter: Undertaking 6th Grade; two musical albums, Destino: Belly Dance Fusion, The Chakras: Belly Dance Fusion; and several performances in independent films and shorts.