 Jack Skelton
Hi!! I am Jack Skelton, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning/Queer Community Coordinator in the MRC. I graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with an M.A. in English in 2007, but I am a literature dork from way back—as evidenced by the ridiculous number of book boxes I have schlepped from state to state since I finished college in 2005. I collected many of these boxes while I was at Colgate University, where I majored in English and minored in Women Studies. I was also involved in the student activities board, Women’s Studies Center, queer student organizing, and Sisters of the Round Table, an organization that provides safer space for and raises awareness about issues concerning women of color. I moved from Colgate in upstate New York to Austin immediately after I graduated, but I have also lived in Mississippi, Indiana, Northeastern England, and now, of course, Ohio. My parents still live in Mississippi, and occasionally I will, without premeditation or warning, burst out with a fabulous Southern drawl.
While I was at UT Austin, I worked in the Multicultural Information and the Gender and Sexuality Centers with multiple student groups, including Students for Equity and Diversity, Safe Space, and the Queer Students Alliance. I served as an advisor and worked with these groups to create identity and issue-based awareness trainings and programs. As a graduate student, I also taught sections of introductory literature classes. I loved my students and the chance to draw links between literatures, current events, communities, and questions of power and privilege. Making these connections visible is one of my great passions and continues to shape my interests and research. At UT, I focused on representations of transgender women in contemporary media and how the intersections of multiple marginalized identities impact transpeople’s daily economic and legal situations. More broadly I am interested in queer, feminist, transgender, and social justice theories and applications.
I like reading, exercising, cooking, eating, more reading, watching television and movies, and talking with people. When I was three, my mamma lost me in a department store. When she found me, I was carrying on a spirited conversation with a mannequin. Since then my listening skills have improved a little bit, but I still love talking with folks and meeting new people. So stop on by the MRC and say hi!.
email: Jack.Skelton@oberlin.edu
 Queer Students Resources Pamphlet |
