http://www.lizmount.com/our-story-1 daily 1.0 2025-04-29 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56c50323f8baf3fb6b8a8c7f/1455769047917-PU0XMTC9WSF2ZF0TE5TM/LizMount_20150531_HR_058.jpg Liz Mount https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56c50323f8baf3fb6b8a8c7f/1455770267058-6TCV3SG83ZXYODHNUCLS/LizMount_20150531_HR_058.jpg Liz Mount https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56c50323f8baf3fb6b8a8c7f/1455770376956-0OD1MIK7RZTQLWP54KEJ/Jogappa+pic.jpg Liz Mount https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56c50323f8baf3fb6b8a8c7f/1458082420046-Y0V8X7FXF5RL257DHOIE/LizMount_20150531_LR_062.jpg Liz Mount http://www.lizmount.com/features daily 0.75 2016-02-18 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56c50323f8baf3fb6b8a8c7f/1455754145359-394QSK0DQWM1RMV5WNBG/image-asset.jpeg Features - Research My research interests include gender, sexualities, globalization, and social movements. My dissertation research investigates how NGO-led sexual rights activism in India impacts the ways that sexual minorities form and organize their communities. Through an 18 month ethnographic study, I explore the interactions between a large, internationally-funded NGO and two marginalized groups of sexual minorities: 1) preexisting groups of hijras (gender non-conforming people assigned male at birth) and 2) a newly emerging group of working-class lesbians and transgender men from rural South India. I find that while the activism promoted by NGOs has amplified certain groups of sexual minorities, they operate within a corporatized funding system that privileges globally-circulated human rights rhetoric and re-marginalizes hijras, lesbians and transgender men. NGOs use human rights discourses to encourage poor lesbians and transmen to leave their villages and relocate to the city, where they struggle to find employment and create new support systems. Hijra community relationships have undergone a major transformation in urban India since the time that sexual rights NGOs appeared and I argue that this is partly because NGOs employ human rights discourses to critique hijras' traditional community relationships and encourage younger transpeople not to join hijra communities. This project theorizes how internationally-funded NGO-led initiatives transform previously existing communities of sexual minorities while articulating how NGOs shape new communities that this kind of activism makes possible. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56c50323f8baf3fb6b8a8c7f/1455754145359-394QSK0DQWM1RMV5WNBG/image-asset.jpeg Features - Research My research interests include gender, sexualities, globalization, and social movements. My dissertation research investigates how NGO-led sexual rights activism in India impacts the ways that sexual minorities form and organize their communities. Through an 18 month ethnographic study, I explore the interactions between a large, internationally-funded NGO and two marginalized groups of sexual minorities: 1) preexisting groups of hijras (gender non-conforming people assigned male at birth) and 2) a newly emerging group of working-class lesbians and transgender men from rural South India. I find that while the activism promoted by NGOs has amplified certain groups of sexual minorities, they operate within a corporatized funding system that privileges globally-circulated human rights rhetoric and re-marginalizes hijras, lesbians and transgender men. NGOs use human rights discourses to encourage poor lesbians and transmen to leave their villages and relocate to the city, where they struggle to find employment and create new support systems. Hijra community relationships have undergone a major transformation in urban India since the time that sexual rights NGOs appeared and I argue that this is partly because NGOs employ human rights discourses to critique hijras' traditional community relationships and encourage younger transpeople not to join hijra communities. This project theorizes how internationally-funded NGO-led initiatives transform previously existing communities of sexual minorities while articulating how NGOs shape new communities that this kind of activism makes possible. http://www.lizmount.com/when-where daily 0.75 2025-04-29 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56c50323f8baf3fb6b8a8c7f/1458075944711-TH8HBS2JH4LSNDU8G54I/Jogappa+pic.jpg Research http://www.lizmount.com/portland daily 0.75 2025-06-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56c50323f8baf3fb6b8a8c7f/1458087671291-XWJ6G4FO5LZCNWS9NVX5/Teaching+Furman.jpg Teaching http://www.lizmount.com/intro daily 0.75 2016-02-18 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56c50323f8baf3fb6b8a8c7f/1455752419523-0ALXMLGZYSW5IIMCN6F3/LizMount_20150531_HR_058.jpg Intro http://www.lizmount.com/stay-warm daily 0.75 2022-04-22 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56c50323f8baf3fb6b8a8c7f/1458081506903-PJHPUBFT8BWZK68RLNQB/FF15+photo.jpg Students’ Work http://www.lizmount.com/press daily 0.75 2014-09-19 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54061d7fe4b0ee7f1c8414eb/1410458183582-91FT1T8UOQUSZ8HLJFHK/engadget.png Press https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54061d7fe4b0ee7f1c8414eb/1410458183658-COM8Z4BAQS62TSDXZPUM/fastco.png Press https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54061d7fe4b0ee7f1c8414eb/1410458183646-W9JIO0WB19Y8B5AKVSMH/mashable.png Press https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54061d7fe4b0ee7f1c8414eb/1410458183720-4ARYUZANFR98VEBYW5ZK/techcrunch.png Press https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54061d7fe4b0ee7f1c8414eb/1410458183833-U2330MD2EO6TE7D0PTT5/verge.png Press http://www.lizmount.com/about daily 0.75 2016-02-18 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56c50323f8baf3fb6b8a8c7f/1455762481630-WGHA1AORY30OUH994SW2/Jogappa+pic.jpg About https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56c50323f8baf3fb6b8a8c7f/1455763470762-F824IOOIF9VDVIIQF675/Pride+pic.jpg About https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56c50323f8baf3fb6b8a8c7f/1455763995206-43X1YA4TF8CUPZFUJLCP/kannada+shed.jpg About https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56c50323f8baf3fb6b8a8c7f/1455764913718-STU1HIWKA0VZZQOHUCOQ/Gender+Minorities%27+Convention.jpg About https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56c50323f8baf3fb6b8a8c7f/1455765356509-A0TZ8Z1T4B3UVA9PHPZI/with+jogappa.jpg About https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56c50323f8baf3fb6b8a8c7f/1455766800067-YLZQPG78C7J2AK5S4JJ6/Koovagam.jpg About https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56c50323f8baf3fb6b8a8c7f/1455767317820-7OQV4QJKW3153KUI3UDN/Koovagam+2.jpg About http://www.lizmount.com/publications daily 0.75 2025-06-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56c50323f8baf3fb6b8a8c7f/1611340386246-Y7HVRQFDYEX11SFWMW20/Pubs+pic.jpg selected Publications http://www.lizmount.com/read-me-alex daily 0.75 2025-05-09 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53d7e714e4b0cb1125a8185a/1408051089601-1FGOGC94AFH3382KHIDS/image-asset.png Read Me https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53d7e714e4b0cb1125a8185a/1408051210145-TJZIWROSOKJNXSL492HI/image-asset.png Read Me https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53d7e714e4b0cb1125a8185a/1408049628553-DI4M8C71OPT845LWBJZI/img_0843.jpg Read Me