The Department of Sociology has selected olivia pavek as an Outstanding Senior of 2024. olivia majors in Sociology and Women, Gender, and Sexualities Studies, is a Compass Peer Mentor at the LGBTQ+ Center. Faculty praise olivia for being engaged in class, an active member of the community, and committed to queer feminist thought. Learn more about olivia, her interests, and future plans below.
Interview by Safiya Hafiz
Safiya Hafiz: Tell us a bit about yourself.
olivia pavek: I am a transgender student, a sociology and women, gender, and sexuality studies major, a compass peer mentor at the LGBTQ+ center, and an active community member, part of several local organizing and mutual aid groups in Pullman and the wider Palouse area. I also really love learning and take my academics very seriously.
Safiya: Nice! Will you tell us a bit about your favorite classes?
olivia: I took a class that was cross listed as SOC and WGSS 385: Lesbian, Gay, and Trans Studies. It had a great blend of looking at queer history with a more sociological understanding and looking at how society is affected by the history of the LGBT community and the way the community has impacted society. I also really enjoyed WGSS 561: Topics in Feminist and Queer Studies on Critical Frameworks of Carcerality and Practices of Abolition. That was a fun class, and it really pushed me and encouraged me to do things that were beyond what I had been asked to do at an undergrad level. It’s a 500 level class and it inspired me to take another graduate-level class, so I am currently taking WGSS/SOC541. It’s a feminist and queer research methods class with Jennifer Sherman. I’ve also really enjoyed that class.
Safiya: That’s great! Are you interested in research or have you conducted any?
olivia: I did a big research project, I did Inqueery for our queer studies conference in the Fall, and we’ll be presenting research at the Lewis and Clark Gender Studies Symposium next month. My research project is looking at the digital surveillance that happens. I’m interested in passive surveillance, what we’re doing online, and how we expect it to be known. I’m interested in how people respond to being surveilled, either government surveillance or corporate surveillance. It is to the point where people make memes about their FBI agent or try to get targeted ads by speaking into their phone microphone. I conducted a literature review drawing from secondary sources with a bit of content analysis.
Safiya: That sounds really interesting! What else are you involved in?
olivia: Well, as I mentioned, I am a peer mentor in Compass Mentor Program, so I do direct outreach on behalf of the LGBTQ+ center. I try to get first years connected to their community here on the Palouse, since a lot of them are freshmen or transfer students and are new to the area. I am also a member of the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Palouse Social Justice Committee, and I’ve done a couple of education events with them. I’m also a member of the Food Pantry Advisory Board and worked there for a little under 2 years.
Safiya: Sounds like you are very involved. What do you do when you’re not working on school?
olivia: This is a hard question because I spend a lot of my time doing school stuff, so my free time is spend trying to engage my community. I do spend a good amount of time with my cats, I play video games, but my hobby is kind of doing school.
Safiya: Nice! What are your plans after WSU?
olivia: My plan is, after finishing my undergrad, I will be pursuing a master’s in mental health counseling. It’s kind of pivoting from sociology to psychology but I feel like with my strong foundation in sociology and queer feminist thought, I have a unique foundation for pursuing mental health counseling. It is an applied program so it’ll be a lot of applied skills. In a one-on-one context, I want to be socially aware, as culturally competent as I can be, and studying queer feminist thought allows me to be that.
Safiya: Thanks, olivia, for your insight. Anything else you’d like to add before we go?
olivia: Well, if I am given the floor, I’ll speak a bit to how the queer community in the wider Palouse and on WSU’s campus specifically is really wonderful and supportive, and it has been really nice getting more comfortable in this space and to feel as though I am being supported in both personal endeavors, making friends, and also academics.