On October 24th, the Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies Department had the pleasure of hosting Marlon Ross, a professor of English at the University of Virginia, for the Queer Theory Lecture talk in honor of Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick. Ross’ talk, “Hysteria and Domestic Economy of Labor in Wright’s Native Son,” uses the acclaimed 1940 novel as a case study of the relationship between black gender ideology and hysteria. Hysteria is defined as the loss of bodily… read more about Queer Theory Lecture 2024 Recap »
An election year brings the return of a distinctive course merging media-making with the study of women in politics. In GSF 225S, Women and the Political Process, students get a hands-on approach to understanding how gender and politics interact, all while equipping them with skills in media production. Taught by Lauren Henschel and Rachel Gelfand, both instructors of Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies, and offered every two years, the course is especially relevant during election cycles, when… read more about Gender, Politics and the Magic of Media, All in a Single Classroom »
Kimberly Lamm received a competitive research leave from Trinity College to pursue her research project “Words and Clothes: Literary Self-Fashioning and the Gendered Legacies of Enslavement.” She also recently published “Andrea Bowers, the Army of Three, and the Writing of Reproductive Justice” in the collection Transnational Visual Activism for Women’s Reproductive Rights: My Body, My Choice. In this article, Lamm explores how the contemporary U.S.-based artist Andrea Bowers engages with the history of the Army of Three, a… read more about Kimberly Lamm publishes article “Andrea Bowers, the Army of Three, and the Writing of Reproductive Justice” »
"Eating less beef is a climate solution. Here's why that's hard for some American men" For decades, scientists, business owners, and athletes have been advocating for people to switch to meatless diets to reduce our carbon footprint. Yet, they struggle to overcome the cultural relationship between meat-eating and masculinity in the United States. Recently, vegetarian companies like Impossible Burger have tried to reclaim the idea of masculinity through pointed commercials. In a commercial premiered this year, the ad… read more about Gabriel Rosenberg quoted in NPR Climate Solutions Article on the Relationship between Masculinity and Meat-eating »
The Institute for Citizens & Scholars has named 20 new Career Enhancement Fellows for the 2024–25 academic year, including Assistant Professor of Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies Anna Storti and Assistant Professor of Music Sophia Enriquez.The Career Enhancement Fellowship, funded by the Mellon Foundation and administered by Citizens & Scholars, seeks to increase the presence of outstanding junior faculty committed to campus diversity and innovative research in the humanities and humanistic social sciences.… read more about Two Trinity Faculty Named 2024 Career Enhancement Fellows »
Abstract:Cultural depictions of Asian/white miscegenation have long been a source of fascination for scholars within Asian American and sexuality studies. Such a long-standing interest has not only provided key insights into the Orientalist structure of racialized sexuality, but it has also kept our sights set, perhaps too set, on deciphering the Asian woman both in the context of romance and as an object of desire. This essay recasts the narrative of Asian/white sexuality as one of minoritarian retribution, making the… read more about Anna Storti publishes “Racist Intimacies: or, The Femme Alter Ego and Her Retribution” »
"Obstetricians Are Always Taking a Position against Us": The Politics of Contemporary Midwifery and Childbirth in Palestine by Frances Hasso and Aisha Barghouti Saifi. Although until the late 1960s women’s reproductive health care had been largely the domain of Palestinian women healers, midwives, and nurse-midwives, the contemporary reproductive healthcare system in Palestine is medicalized, masculinized, and commodified in an indigenous society already suffering from the brutality of Israeli occupation. Based on… read more about Frances Hasso co-authors an article on The Politics of Contemporary Midwifery and Childbirth in Palestine »
To come home is a comfort that has always been deemed a fungible sensation yet, you’ll always know what home is once you’re there. It was fitting that this year’s Black Feminist Theory Summer Institute theme was Home considering the obvious countless hours and loving dedication the host Jennifer Nash, the Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies, and the presenting faculty, Adrienne Brown, Rebecca Carter, Naomi Extra, Crystal Feimster, Jasmine Johnson, D. Soyini Madison, Rececca Wanzo and Terrion… read more about Black Feminist Theory Summer Institute: A Graduate Student's Experience »
Mishana GarschiMishana earned a PhD in Black Studies from Northwestern University, with graduate certificates in Gender and Sexuality Studies and Critical Theory. Her interests include Black feminist theory, feminist theory, popular culture, and the politics of diversity and inclusion. As a postdoctoral fellow in Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies, she will be working on the department’s annual Black Feminist Theory Summer Institute.Soyi KimTrained in cultural studies and art history… read more about Meet our new Postdoctoral Fellows Mishana Garschi and Soyi Kim »
The war in Palestine has decimated an already burdened health care system and simultaneously increased the surgical medical need. In the current acute phase of conflict, this burgeoning set of surgical needs are focused on life-saving measures, such as trauma surgery for penetrating wounds, amputations of severe extremity injuries and wound management to prevent sepsis.Frances Hasso, Professor of Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies, History, and Sociology, is one of four team leaders in this Bass Connections Project,… read more about Meeting the Needs for Reconstructive Surgery in Palestine (2024-2025) »
“This book begins with my mother’s story. But if I am honest, the book is entirely about her, and the experience of losing her in slow motion.” Jennifer Nash, Jean Fox O'Barr Professor of Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies, has always written about personal experiences such as Black motherhood, Black feminism, intersectionality and pornography. But her new book, “How We Write Now: Living with Black Feminist Theory," feels different. It’s more visceral, raw. She writes with a different voice, one that bares her… read more about A New Voice on Loss »
The third annual edition of the Black Feminist Theory Institute is centered on the theme of “Home.” (Photo Courtesy of Duke Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies) What is “Home,” and how does it attend to Black Feminist interdisciplinary scholarship? That is the theme of the third annual Black Feminist Theory Summer Institute, which will be held from August 5 to August 9 at the Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies (GSF).“Home” will be addressed through topics including… read more about Finding ‘Home’: Black Feminist Theory Summer Institute Navigates Identity and Belonging in Black Feminist Discourse »
Duke faculty members Nicki Washington and Shaundra Daily have been recognized by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) for their efforts to make the national computing education system more equitable and to combat the unjust impacts of computing on society with the Karl V. Karlstrom Outstanding Educator Award. Washington, who is the Cue Family Professor of the Practice of Computer Science and Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies, and Daily, the Cue Family… read more about GSF Nicki Washington Receives Outstanding Educator Award »
read more about Gabriel Rosenberg Discusses How Impossible’s New Ad Campaign Doubles Down on Dudes »
The Gender, Sexuality, & Feminist Studies Graduate Scholars Colloquium, a student writers’ workshop and discussion series, provides a unique venue for graduate students to share and discuss works-in-progress with peers and faculty in the field. This year’s series, co-organized by Cole Adams (Literature) and Katherine Carithers (English), featured papers from a wide array of disciplines, and discussions provided presenters with feedback to hone their drafts as well as a space for intellectual exchange among Duke scholars… read more about GSF Graduate Scholars Colloquium 2023-24 Series was a Smashing Success! »
Dr. Kathy Rudy has been a member of GSF at Duke (formerly known as Women’s Studies) since the 1980s. A member of the first class of Duke Women’s Studies certificate students in 1989 and the first to receive tenure in the department in 1999, Rudy has taught a wide range of topics, from Reproductive Ethics to Gender and Popular Culture. Her early research focuses on these subjects, as well as religious ethics, sexuality, feminist theory, and most saliently, reimagining animal advocacy. In her 2011 publication, Loving… read more about Happy Retirement to Dr. Kathy Rudy »
GENDER, SEXUALITY & FEMINIST STUDIES FIRST MAJORS Lauren Elisabeth Elias Jennifer Lissette Gobaira (2nd Major in Theater Studies) Katie Rose Margolis Isabel Florence Siebrecht (1st Major in Global Health) GLOBAL GENDER STUDIES MAJOR Jessica Blumenthal (UNC dual Major) GENDER, SEXUALITY & FEMINIST STUDIES MINORS Tess Olivia Roesch DiMenna (Major… read more about Congratulations to our GSF 2024 Graduating Class! »
Isabel Siebrecht is a graduating senior with majors in Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies (GSF) and Global Health and has served as a Trinity Ambassador for GSF. Trinity Ambassadors are student volunteers, nominated by their departments, to serve in this unique and important role. We asked a few of the ambassadors from the Class of 2024 to share their favorite memories from Duke. The below interview has been slightly edited for clarity. What was one of the most impactful classes you took during your… read more about Class of 2024: Isabel Siebrecht »
Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick was a bright and beloved academic star who helped bring “queer theory” into the world. Sedgwick’s thoroughly original work put Duke — where she was a professor from 1988 to 1997 — on the map of cutting-edge scholarship in the humanities. For Sedgwick, queer theory was much more than an academic field devoted to thinking about gay and lesbian sexualities. She made it into an imaginatively expansive, welcoming space where thinking itself can live and thrive and move — lovingly, erotically — across the… read more about Casting New Eyes Onto Queer Theory Through Eve Sedgwick’s White Glasses »
Dr. Storti's article “Living an Abolitionist Life” was published in Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies within a special issue on Asian American Abolition Feminism. “Living an Abolitionist Life” is at once a testimony to the everyday praxis of abolition feminism and a theoretical framework for understanding the abolitionist impulse characteristic of an anti-carceral Asian American feminist praxis. Using Sara Ahmed’s feminist scholarship as a guide, the author observes various shifts from the… read more about Anna Storti Published in Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies »
R Morris Levine's essay "Freely Espousing: James Schuyler, Surveillance Poetry, and the Queer Otic” was published in the latest issue of Diacritics, released just this morning. “Freely Espousing,” which considers the New York School Poet James Schuyler’s refunctionalization of tools of mid-century state auditory surveillance as queer poetic tactics, was included on the occasion of the 2022 School of Criticism and Theory Essay Prize. Read the article here. read more about GSF Certificate Student R Morris Levine Published in Diacritics Journal »
The National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) named Nicki Washington, Director of the Identity in Computing Lab and the Cue Family Professor of the Practice of Computer Science and Professor of the Practice in the Department of Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies, the recipient of the 2024 Joanne McGrath Cohoon Service Award. “Dr. Washington has been a fervent advocate for graduate students and early career scholars to have a platform and access to positions of power to raise our concerns and… read more about Nicki Washington Receives NCWIT Award »
“Children know how to tell their stories,” Annette Joseph-Gabriel said. It’s imperative that we listen. Joseph-Gabriel, John Spencer Bassett Associate Professor of Romance Studies and associate professor of Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies at Duke, is letting the voices of long-dead children be her guide in her newest book, Enslaved Childhoods: Survival and Storytelling in the Atlantic World, under contract with Harvard University Press. She received a Fellowship from the National… read more about NEH Fellowship Supports Research on Enslaved Childhoods »
In the Spring of 2023, the newly founded Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies Student Union hit the ground running with a tabling event on the Bryan Center plaza. The students behind the Union’s first initiative aimed to survey the Duke community about their GSF-related interests. To do so, they set up a poster board in the plaza on a busy day and asked passers-by, primarily other students, what GSF topics most interested them. Over the course of a few hours, the poster board accumulated post-it notes with a wide variety… read more about GSF Students Form a Union! »
Dr. Anna Storti’s Intro to Asian American and Diaspora Studies course shared an Instagram post to promote the class and share some of what they are learning. “Hi! We are the Spring 2024 class of Intro to Asian American and Diaspora Studies. Welcome to our AADStagram😎 We are taught by the amazing Dr. Anna Storti aka we are Storti’s Scholars. In Duke’s centennial year, we are proud to be one of the first official cohorts of AADS students in Duke’s history. The AADS program has been made possible through decades of tireless… read more about Dr. Anna Storti's Students Create a Class Instagram »