DRUMROLL PLEASE!!!

We will be using this space to present the 2020 WGSS Awards and acknowledge the many accomplishments of our graduating majors and minors.

The first award is for WGSS Activism and Academic Excellence presented by Professor Liz Montegary to Zach Davidson.

It is my honor to introduce Zachary Davidson as the winner of this year’s WGSS Activism and Academic Excellence Award. Zach is graduating this spring with a B.A. in Biology and a minor in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and is planning to apply to medical school this coming fall.

Zach’s decision to make WGSS a central component of his pre-med education reflects his commitment to bringing a critical cultural lens to the work of medical care. As an interdisciplinary thinker, Zach always considers the larger contexts surrounding the situations he encounters—whether hypothetical scenarios presented in the classroom or actual incidents occurring in his professional work life. This has most certainly been true during his time as an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) with the Stony Brook Volunteer Ambulance Corps (SBVAC). Zach began volunteering as an EMT shortly after arriving on campus and has been a vital member of SBVAC for the past four years, assisting with the training of new EMTs and ambulance drivers and serving as the agency’s Treasurer during the 2018-19 academic year.

This past fall, Zach developed a project for the WGSS Senior Research Seminar that was inspired by his on-the-ground experiences as an EMT with SBVAC. He identified a gap in the literature and training materials available for emergency care providers serving undergraduate students. Given the ubiquity of sexual assault on college campuses, EMTs working in these settings often encounter patients who have past experiences with sexual violence (or who have recently survived some form of assault). What Zach wanted to know was what steps EMTs could take to reduce the risk of re-traumatizing survivors needing immediate care or lifesaving assistance. His senior research project resulted in a well-researched and terrifically written paper on best practices for treating sexual assault survivors in pre-hospital settings. But, even more excitingly, Zach worked with his SBVAC supervisors to develop training protocols for teaching his fellow EMTs about these standards of care. This initiative is an excellent reminder of the creative and compassionate innovations that become possible when healthcare professionals are trained in histories of gender and sexual inequities and feminist theories of carework and emotional labor.

Through his advocacy work and community service, Zach brought new perspectives – and new training initiatives – to the Stony Brook Volunteer Ambulance Corps. His distinctly feminist dedication to our campus will surely leave a lasting effect. Congratulations, Zach! On behalf of the entire WGSS department, I wish you the best of luck as you take the next steps on your medical career path!