The College of Education hosted Monica Jones this spring semester. Over 150 participants registered to attend Monica’s campus-wide talk on Wednesday, February 23 at 4pm with undergraduate and graduate students from various university communities. Monica Jones is the founder and CEO of The Outlaw Project, an organization based on the principles of intersectionality to prioritize the leadership of people of color, transgender women, gender non-binary people and migrants for sex worker rights.
Monica is the recipient of the SPARK! Authentic Life Award in 2015, was honored as one of the Trans 100 in 2015 and received the Diversity Advisory Committee of Phoenix College Award in 2012. She also brought the issue of profiling of black transwomen to national attention after she was arrested under Arizona’s discriminatory “manifesting prostitution” law, which she fought and won. Monica has presented at universities across the United States introducing students of all levels to key issues relating to transgender experience, rights, sex worker rights, workers rights, gender justice, the law and social work.
In her campus talk, Trans as/in Community: Imagining Trans Women’s Futures Together, Monica shared her story and her path towards activism as a student in higher education. Through developing kinship and connections with fellow students and educators at Arizona State University (ASU), Monica found a sense of self and purpose in movement building. Her experience advocating for sex workers rights at ASU was a pivotal moment for shifting her activism and organizing towards mutual aid and basic needs support. Monica shared stories of how educators supported her alongside this path. She also spoke about her work with The Outlaw Project and why addressing housing insecurity for trans women of color is a necessity and key consideration for educational praxis.
During her lunch session with students, Monica shared more about The Outlaw Project and its creation. She spoke directly with students about how she balanced being a student activist and shared insights into strategies for enacting change on college campuses. Monica also addressed questions around the role of allies in movement building, how educators can support queer and trans youth, and methods for engaging in policy work. You can view Monica’s campus talk and an interview with doctoral student, Roman Christiaens.
Monica’s visit helps to advance conversations in the College of Education around the experiences of queer and trans students of color. Specifically, Monica’s speaking engagements shed light on how queer and trans people can come together to create fugitive spaces that undermine education’s investments in queer antagonism and transmisogynoir. The Trans Studies in Education Speaker Series aligns with the College’s vision of enhancing education equity by directly centering the lives of transgender and non-binary individuals in the field of education. Monica’s visit and the speaker series are part of direct efforts to highlight LGBTQ+ identities and voices in education and provide necessary mechanisms of support for queer and trans students in the College of Education.
Monica’s speaking engagements were co-sponsored by the Department of Educational Policy Studies and Practice, the Center for the Study of Higher Education, African American Student Affairs, the Women's and Gender Resource Center, and LGBTQ Affairs. Stay tuned for more information about the speakers for next year’s speaker series.
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