Conferences & Initiatives

Annual Research Theme

Every year, GSF faculty decide on a theme that will anchor some of the programming for that year (or sometimes two!). One or two postdocs are invited to campus to teach a class and participate in the intellectual life of the program. The Fall semester includes a thematic graduate seminar GSF 960s, endowed by the Ford Motor Company, in which the postdocs and GSF faculty participate. During the year, the postdocs also deliver a guest lecture or circulate a work in progress. These theme years have been of variable intensity, but they consistently contribute to GSF’s intellectual vibrancy.

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Feminist Theory Workshop

The Program in Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies at Duke University hosts an annual Feminist Theory Workshop—a two-day event featuring keynote lectures and working seminars. The workshops are held in March at Duke University.

The Feminist Theory Workshop (FTW), which began in 2007, are organized pedagogically to promote intense study, featuring both keynote lectures by internationally known scholars and small working seminars for participants. The event is free; however, registration is required.

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Queer Theory Lecture

Queer Theory Lecture is an annual event to honor and celebrate one of queer theories most insightful scholars and foundational figures Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick.  Sedgwick spent much of her career at Duke in the English department where she offered the Epistemology of the Closet in 1990 and Tendencies in 1993.  Her work helped establish Duke as an intellectual leader in the critical study of sexuality.  We host this event every year as a tribute to Sedgwick and as a continuation of her legacy. 

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Duke on Gender

The Duke on Gender Colloquium brings together Duke faculty from humanities and social sciences and visiting scholars and offers a multi-disciplinary space to develop and present current research and further critical conversations within gender and women's history, gender and queer theory, sexuality studies, transgender studies, and the study of feminism, social movements, and contemporary social issues and policy in a transnational world.

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Black Feminist Theory Summer Institute

Black Feminist Theory Summer Institute began August 2022.  This event for graduate students will bring together a cross-institution intellectual community of scholars to immerse themselves in the field of Black feminist theory.  At the institute, attendees will work closely and attend lectures with eight prominent scholars from across the country.

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