Sex, gender, race, and identity-based discrimination is uncomfortably prevalent in American culture — more so than many of us want to admit — but only some of us dedicate our working lives to fighting its presence in our society. Madeline Dickerson Gonser is one of those people.  

KU senior Jade Groobman had long been interested in the many misconceptions that exist about Jewish identity. And as an Asian American Jew herself, she experienced first-hand what she describes as a disconnect between the U.S.’s larger Jewish population and Jewish community members of color.

What does human trafficking look like? Most of us have seen stories of captivity play out on big or small screen with familiar casts of villains and victims. Compelling drama, perhaps, but the reality is far more complicated, and closer to home, than we might like to imagine. Make no mistake, says KU researcher Hannah Britton: it’s happening in the Heartland, and often in plain sight.

How are social norms about gender and sexuality perpetuated through portrayals of robots and other digital entities in sci-fi storytelling? What can these treatments in popular media tell us about the societies in which we live, and how can scholars challenge these narratives?

Where are you from? And why did you decide to come to KU?

I’m from Overland Park, Kansas. I decided to come to KU because I attended a summer camp here with Duke TiP in middle school, and I absolutely fell in love with campus. It’s also a nice mix of just close enough to home, but just far enough, too.