By Nathan Franco, Class of 2028

On October 22, 2024, the HRC’s Gender Studies Lab held a stimulating panel discussion on gender and community building. The panelists included Professors Yeshim Iqbal, a social and community psychologist who primarily studies people’s responses to violence, and Andrew Wortham, a cultural anthropologist who primarily studies sexuality, gender, and LGBTQ+ groups. About 32 students and six faculty members were in attendance.

To start our discussion on gender and community building, we decided to address the differences between activism and community building. Professor Andrew Wortham stated that activism has a history and connotation primarily in the West concerning the policy of the state and religion, making it controversial to question longstanding beliefs under the term activism. Professor Yeshim Iqbal furthered this by identifying the primary connotation of the word “activism:” is actively trying to change something. Therefore, activism can be controversial and politically sensitive.

Community building can be generalized as a group with the same goal and qualities: “standing up” and supporting one another in the face of adversity. Such communities can exist by being in the same space with others, creating what our panelists note as mobilization: the bringing of people with the same goal/ideal together. 

After our insightful talk on the difference between community building and the controversial term activism, the panelists discussed what a community is exactly and how it works.

While community building can be considered a form of activism, it doesn’t always need to be goal-oriented but rather value-oriented. Value, in this sense, can mean speaking about common experience among other activities where a bond is formed. However, when building a community, a boundary is present and we are working within the parameters of that boundary, hence affirming the boundary. People within this community aren’t actively trying to change any norms.

The panelists noted that community building can take different forms, especially considering the context of the people in the community and the country in which the community is formed. However, sometimes, creating a community will happen on its own in a passive sense. But other communities take lots of work. Whether that is clearing your home to make a space or even finding time in your day to get together, for example, workers may want to get together but have other responsibilities, making it difficult to find a place and time that align with other workers. While in the sensitive area where Professor Iqbal studied, 14 women struggled to find close, safe areas big enough to host all the women. Whereas men could go anywhere and would always be relatively safe due to their status of being a man. Hence, societal norms and the standing of the genders also impact the formation and sustainability of a community.

Among the many insightful questions posed by the audience, one audience member asked:

“When there is a community do you outline what the community is and what is expected of those in said community?”

In any community that wants to sustain itself, there is a lot of work needed to keep the community together through its norms, which include knowing the correct words and expectations of being in that community. So, if the goal is to keep the community going, then yes, the establishment of norms and expectations is necessary.

The Professors ended by stating that if funding by NGOs and other organizations were to cease that some of these communities would also cease, however, many may just take a new form.