Elan
Justice
Pavlinich

Community Outreach

In October 2020, I coordinated the first celebration of LGBTQ+ History month with 'shOUT, the gay-straight alliance of Wabash College. I constructed the following flyers to promote the event and our local histories. Also, having requested funding from the Gender Issues Committee, we planted a Pride flag display in the central mall of campus.

The display I curated, titled "Medieval Studies," was located in the atrium of the Beaver Area Memorial Library through April of 2018. In addition to popular representations of the Middle Ages, the display featured texts that reference the ongoing conversations regarding racism amid medieval studies: dominant narratives tend to whitewash the European Middle Ages and gatekeeping continues to hinder contributions by scholars of color, and thus hinder the vitality of the field. My goal for this display was to raise awareness about the ways in which medieval texts continue to inform present ideologies and to demonstrate the benefits of a liberal arts education to audiences beyond academia.

In March of 2018, Beaver Area Memorial Library held a Spring competition called "Peep Show." Contributors submitted dioramas using Peeps marshmallow candies to depict literary themes. My entry is a visual representation of Geoffrey Chaucer’s 14th century fabliau (a bawdy, humorous tale), The Miller's Tale.

In addition to my role as the social media administrator for Bricolage, the Graduate Student Organization of the Women’s and Gender Studies Department at the University of South Florida, I also helped to organize Word Up: an open-mic forum in which students were invited to express themselves freely through their art. I designed cards with short prompts about self-expression, and I urged those in attendance to anonymously share their insights and reflect upon issues raised during the Word Up performances. Later, these cards decorated the walls of the Women’s and Gender Studies Department as a reminder of the far-reaching effects of feminist and queer community-building on our campus.

Volunteer Experiences

Black Lives Matter volunteer and organizer (Tampa, 2014-16).

Humane Society grounds keeping (Tampa, 2015).

Francis House maintenance volunteer (Tampa, 2014).

American Cancer Society Hope Lodge dinner preparation volunteer (Tampa, 2014).

Persad, Art for Change: The 25th Year of Art for AIDS event volunteer (Pittsburgh, 2013).

Weil Technology and Lincoln Elementary Schools reading and writing tutor (Pittsburgh, 2004-2005).