Eugene Walls
Assessment Director
Eugene Walls was born and raised in central Arkansas and has been fortunate in his adulthood to have lived in some of the amazing cities in the US including Austin, San Francisco, and, now, Denver. After completing his MSW at the University of Texas at Austin, he worked as a community-based social worker for over 9 years before returning to get his PhD in sociology from the University of Notre Dame. He has been at DU since 2005 teaching in both the MSW and PhD programs at the Graduate School of Social Work (GSSW) while conducting research and evaluation that has focused primarily on risk and resilience across the lifespan for LGBTQ people and communities. His primary goals in his work at this point in his career are to mentor LGBQ and transgender/nonbinary doctoral students who wish to push the academy to be more inclusive and responsive to the needs of students who live at the intersections of multiple marginalizations, and to contribute to the social justice goals of GSSW and Equity Labs.
What does an equitable world look like to you?
For me, central to an equitable world are the values of authenticity and justice. Neither of these ideals are easy to achieve nor easy to define, and both are shaped in significant ways by context. Living and voicing the truth of our experiences, while making room for the lives and voices of others who have different truths is fundamental to creating an equitable world.
What do participants take away from Equity Labs?
My hope for those who engage with Equity Labs is that folx take away a skillset and a perspective that enables them to effectively engage with cultural, social, and economic differences in both the workplace and in their life. We all bring different lived experiences, strengths, and barriers to the work of justice and so what Equity Labs offers is growth from these very different starting points.
Who is someone you admire and why?
Growing up in poverty, in a staunchly religious family, and coming out as a gay man in 1979 in North Little Rock, Arkansas have all played significant roles in shaping me and my understanding of the world. While grappling with the tensions of these experiences in my young adulthood, I was fortunate to encounter some amazing mentors and activists from The Women’s Project (Little Rock, Arkansas) and the Arkansas Disability Coalition who challenged me to think beyond my own marginalized identities and planted the seeds of a structural worldview built on an intersectional analysis. They pushed me to consider the ways in which my privileges have eased my way in the world and often play a role in limiting what I believe to be true, while also recognizing resistance and struggle with the pain of my oppressions. It would be these three amazing women – Suzanne Pharr, Kerry Lobel, and Bonnie Johnson – who have been so influential in my life that I deeply admire.
If you could travel anywhere right now, where would you go?
This past year, I was fortunate to be able to travel a bit in Portugal, Spain, and Morocco. And, while there were so many places along that journey that were breathtaking and heartbreaking and joyful, more than any other place, I want to return to Barcelona. There is so much there that I want to touch again, and so many other experiences I want to have that my short visit did not allow. Another place that I have never been that I would love to visit is the Fundacion Guayasamín in Quito, Ecuador. More than any other artist whose work I have encountered, Oswaldo Guayasamín’s work moves and disturbs and challenges me in the best possible way.