Meet Professor Kimberlee Peréz!
By Grace Keller and Gabby Grondalski
“I’m really drawn to uncomfortable topics and to see what happens; but in a way that is motivated by compassion, care, and recognition” – Kimberlee Peréz
Kimberlee Peréz is a professor in the Communication Department here at UMass Amherst. She grew up in a small town in Michigan and before moving to Massachusetts, lived in California, Maine, Arizona, and Chicago. In her early 20s, she desired something new and different and decided to move to Los Angeles. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Women Studies from California State University, Northridge. During her undergraduate studies, Peréz’s interest in gender and sexuality grew. “For me, study and research have been a way to understand my own experience. I grew up in a family with three brothers and everything in my family was so gendered. I couldn’t do what my brothers could do.” When she started studying gender, sexuality, and race she found comfort in knowing that it wasn’t just her having those experiences.
She then received her Master’s degree in Communication with a certificate in Women’s Studies at the University of Maine, Orono. “I enjoyed thinking about issues of gender, sexuality, and race but also to think about the personal, political, creative, and representation part which is so much of what we do in Communication.” After graduating with her Masters, Peréz attended Arizona State University where she received her Ph.D. in Communication and Performance Studies. “We asked questions of the speech process through the lens of communication, and the lens of speech. Asking questions about what is happening here instead of focusing on the aesthetic or focusing on the text of it that other disciplines might do. It’s fun to study because it puts us into conversion with so many different areas of study.”
As a student, Peréz had a desire to attend UMass Amherst, and as a graduate student, her primary advisor brought her to campus for a conference. “I was so mesmerized by the campus and by the area. I had never seen anything like it.” During her time as an undergraduate and a graduate student she also spent time studying many of the educators at UMass. “It was a department that I had come to know where a lot of social justice happened. UMass was always at the forefront of pushing these issues and asking these questions and allowing really creative forms of research to happen. I had always wanted to come here for that reason.”
This semester, at the undergraduate level, Peréz is teaching Performance and the Politics of Race, Citizenships and Belongings, and Queer Performance and Public. She is also in the process of developing a class regarding communication, creativity, and criticism. All of her classes are centered around the questions of how do we talk about race, citizenship, belonging, queerness, and sexuality. Throughout all of her courses, students listen to people telling stories and tell their own as a way to understand why people talk about these topics in a certain way.
Peréz is currently working on a narrative piece that asks the question of how we talk about sexual assault. Instead of simply writing about the subject, she is using a personal experience to help express just how difficult it is to discuss sexual assault. “Partly, it’s hard to talk about because people don’t know what to say because it’s an uncomfortable topic. I’m telling the story about it, and it’s really motivated by questions of communication but grounded in gender experiences and all the things I initially have always been studying and always been experiencing in the course of my lifetime.” Another story that she is in the process of writing is about the time she attended a camp as a child and won the award of the quietest camper. “I’m telling this story that discusses what it means to be a quiet person.”
Some advice Peréz has for Communication students is to “take the time to get to know some of your professors because these are the people who will continue to support you beyond graduation. Secondly, take to heart what it means to be a person who has spent a degree worth of studying communication and to take into the world that you are a person who understands how communication works. That is such a powerful and imperative knowledge of how the world works. Whatever you do, and wherever you go, and whatever relationship you are in you will know what is happening in that communication.”
Meet Transfer Student Shauna Driscoll!
By Gabby Grondalski & Grace Keller
Shauna Driscoll is a new face in the Communication Department! She is currently a Junior at UMass pursuing her Bachelor’s degree. Before transferring, she attended Holyoke Community College where she attained her Associate’s degree in 2018. Her major track was originally Biology, as she wanted to work in microbiology, specifically with prion diseases and antibiotics.
After graduating with her Associate’s degree, Shauna decided to take a few years off from school. “Continuing my Biology degree was a lot of pressure and I wasn’t sure if it was something I wanted to do. It locked me into something very specific.” She moved down to North Carolina, where she stayed for a year and a half. Shauna then made her way back up to Massachusetts and began tutoring for Holyoke Community College, where she has now been working for over a year. While tutoring, she found that she was able to achieve a personal goal of hers: Making a difference. “I wanted to make a positive difference in people’s lives and tutoring allows me to see this on a close and personal level, which is really important to me.” While reflecting on her tutoring, Shauna decided she wanted to pursue a degree that would allow her to leverage the writing skills she acquired through tutoring. She found that the Communication degree would allow her to do just that, while also allowing her to continue to have a positive impact on others.
As Shauna steps into the virtual classroom this semester, she has found it to be easy due to her current job and previously taking online courses. “It hasn’t been stressful but it’s been weird being back after not being in school for so long. At Holyoke Community College, I’ve been tutoring and doing academic work for over a year on Zoom, so that transition wasn’t too difficult for me.” She has also found ways to connect with some of her peers. In her favorite class this semester, International Scifi Cinema, she and her peers have a system that has allowed them to become acquainted outside of class. “The people in my class are really cool and we have a Discord chat. It’s actually nice to feel like you are making friends even though we aren’t in person.”
When we return to campus, Shauna is looking forward to being able to connect with individuals on a face-to-face level, as well as attend some hockey games. “I really like hockey, and Minutemen games have been a lot of fun for me since I was 7.” She is also hoping to join some campus organizations. Outside of her academics, Shauna enjoys creating art by either painting or pencil sketches, specifically portraits. “Trying to draw animals is very difficult for me, but people and their faces are easier.” We are very excited to have Shauna joining us here at UMass, and hope she continues to enjoy her time here!