The award is given each year to 13 LGBTQ+ people or their allies who have helped create a safer and more inclusive climate for LGBTQ+ people. The award celebrates the memory and legacy of Dr. Paula B. Poorman, a highly regarded faculty member at UW-Whitewater dedicated to improving the lives of LGBTQ+ people.

Langes received the award Dec. 4 during a ceremony in Madison. This year marks the 16th anniversary of the award.

“Honorees are helping build a better experience for our students, faculty and staff,” says UW President Jay Rothman. “This award recognizes their achievements in creating a safer and inclusive climate at our universities.” 

Langes says the award “recognizes as crucial the labor that UW System faculty, staff, students, and community members do to advance equity, diversity and inclusion on campus through LGBTQ+ advocacy.” 

Society can learn from the example of Poorman who, like many other LGBTQ+ people in previous generations, cultivated queer joy even when things looked bleak and developed powerful strategies for resisting oppression, building community, and advancing social justice, Langes says.

“Through teaching, I have the privilege of sharing with students how everyday people speak truth to power, even in situations where the presumption is that they are powerless due to age and/or minoritized status.”

At UW-Eau Claire, Langes teaches courses for the LGBTQ studies certificate and the women’s, gender, and sexuality studies major, minor, and certificate. In these courses, students learn to use intersectional feminist and queer frameworks to analyze dynamics of power within institutional settings and everyday life.

“Through teaching, I have the privilege of sharing with students how everyday people speak truth to power, even in situations where the presumption is that they are powerless due to age and/or minoritized status,” Langes says. “This is important because it can empower students to speak out against injustice and to see themselves as potential change makers.”

Performance figures prominently in Langes’ courses as an object, analytic, and method for understanding the social construction of gender, sexuality, race, class, ethnicity, and disability, among other identity categories. Together with students, Langes teaches and learns how performance can be used as a critical and transformative tool for engaging social differences, politics, histories, and lived experiences.

Langes’ most recent project includes curating Mexico City-based multimedia artist Sofia Moreno’s solo exhibition “Flores Nocturnas” (“Blooming at Night”) at UW-Eau Claire’s Foster Gallery, which explored themes of trans kinship, pleasure, and futurity.

Langes is a 2024 recipient of a Wisconsin Humanities Council Major Grant, which helped to fund public programming and an exhibition catalog for “Flores Nocturnas.” Langes’ solo performances explore the intersections of queerness with power and desire and have been featured at interdisciplinary art events such as the Chicago Home Theater Festival and activist spaces like The Center for Social Justice at the University of Oklahoma.

“My hope is that students and members of the broader community leave these events with a greater sense of social belonging and accountability, and an expanded capacity for imagining what might be possible in their everyday lives, communities, and current or future professions,” Langes says.

Langes earned a Ph.D. in performance studies from Northwestern University and a master of fine arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Langes’ research focuses on contemporary queer and trans performance and visual art in the U.S. and Latin America.