Gender, Sexuality Feminist Studies
FOOT FETISH Ron DeSantis’s Weird Boots and the Cruel Campiness of the GOP Primary A drag analysis of “bootgate” Fellas, is it gay to be obsessed with another man’s feet? Once upon a time, the Republican base would have frowned at it, for sure. But over the past several months, Governor Ron DeSantis’s footwear has increasingly become an object of lurid attention on the internet. Stoked by DeSantis’s Trumpist foes, as well as by Donald Trump himself and his social media team, internet commenters and now some journalists want… read more about Gabriel Rosenberg's article in The New Republic - A drag analysis of "bootgate" »
The second volume of Rethinking Women’s and Gender Studies addresses the complexities and inherent paradoxes within the expansive knowledge project known as Women’s and Gender Studies for audiences both inside and adjacent to the field. Each of the volume’s chapters identifies and critically examines a key term that circulates in this field, exploring how the term has come to be understood and mobilized within its everyday narratives and practices. In constructing provocative genealogies for their terms, authors… read more about Kimberly Lamm's Chapter "The Gaze" written in the collection titled "Rethinking Women's and Gender Studies" »
On Wednesday, October 4th, Duke GSF hosted Professor Kadji Amin from Emory University’s Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies for a presentation in the East Duke Parlors as a part of this year’s research theme, “histories of the transgender present.” In her introduction, Professor of Literature Robyn Wiegman referred to Amin’s visit as “a much-anticipated queer homecoming,” as Amin received his PhD from Duke in Romance Studies and received the GSF certificate in Feminist Studies. Professor Amin, currently on… read more about Kadji Amin Presents "The Respectability Politics of Gender Identity" »
GSF is excited to offer three new courses this upcoming spring semester. To highlight these never-before-seen opportunities, the course professors sat down to share why and how they believe these courses will interest you. These interviews are intended to provide not just a description of the class, but a glimpse into each professor’s motivations for creating their course, as well as their hopes for the Spring. GSF 290S Feminist Podcasting – Rachel Gelfand When you created this course what was your… read more about Announcing three new course offerings! »
On Thursday, September 21st, GSF kicked off a new series, “Gender Studies Then,” which will mark two anniversaries: the roughly half-century since the start of the field of Women’s Studies and the 40th anniversary of Duke’s program. The event, “A 1970s Salon,” invited a dozen faculty from several departments to a conversation about feminist texts from “the long 1970s” that held meaning for them in some way. The speakers explained their affiliations to their chosen texts: while in some cases, the piece was a formative spark… read more about First in the Gender Studies Then Series - 70's Salon: A Conversation with Faculty »
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) revealed its allocation of $41.3 million in grants, benefiting 280 humanities projects throughout the nation. Two Trinity College of Arts and Science Faculty are recipients of the grant. Jocelyn Olcott Jocelyn Olcott’s project focuses on the value of care. (John West/Trinity Communications) Jocelyn Olcott, Professor of History; International Comparative Studies; and Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies, was awarded the grant… read more about Two Trinity Faculty Awarded Grants from National Endowment for Humanities »
Zavier Nunn is the postdoctoral associate for the 2023-2024 annual theme 'Histories of the Transgender Present' in the Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies Department at Duke University. His PhD dissertation provides an everyday history of trans feminine life in Weimar and Nazi Germany, which de-idealizes the European medico-legal codification of trans identity. Here he also argues that trans women's liminal position within Nazi society reveal state persecution practices concerned with race, labour value, and (sexual)… read more about Welcome to this Year's Postdoctorial Associate, Zavier Nunn, PhD »
What do we consider ordinary? Is it the mundane everydayness of black life or the extraordinary violence of black death? Is it the repetition and accumulation of rhythm or the fragmented complexity of time? How do the choreographies of care, in the forms of mothering, protest, spatial politics, and the use of language, whether performed, illegible, archived, or forgotten, contribute to the ordinary? How do people and the archives of their lives create space and opportunities to consider ordinary forms of loss and… read more about Insights from the Second Annual Black Feminist Theory Summer Institute »
Kimberly Lamm recently edited a special issue of Public Art Dialogue titled "Outside Voices: Art, Visibility, and the Gender of Public Speech." In “Outside Voices,” Lamm gathers the work of artists and scholars who explore how language has been deployed as a visual material that speaks to the gendered inequities of the public sphere. The artists featured in “Outside Voices'—Sofia Sánchez, Mira Schor, and Eva Rosenfeld—contribute to a tradition in which artists aligned with 1970s feminism took up language-based… read more about Kimberly Lamm edited "Outside Voices," a special issue of Public Art Dialogue »
Duke Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies is proud to announce that Anna Storti has been named an Andrew W. Mellon Assistant Professor. Storti, who joined the department in 2021, studies aesthetic and affective relations between race, empire, violence, and pleasure, specializing in art and culture across the Asian diaspora. The Mellon Fellowship for Assistant Professors is awarded annually to junior faculty members who study the history of Western, Near Eastern, and Far Eastern civilizations, with particular emphasis… read more about Anna Storti Named Andrew W. Mellon Assistant Professor »
The Department of Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies will hold the second annual Black Feminist Theory Summer Institute from July 31 to August 4, 2023. This year's theme, “On the Ordinary,” highlights a desire to think about how Blackness is tethered to the spectacular, and GSF chair Jennifer C. Nash wants to bring together a group of scholars who are thinking about the ordinary and the quotidian in myriad ways. “I’m excited to have the institute be a place where people who have come as students come back as… read more about Black Feminist Summer Institute Takes On What It Means To Be Ordinary »
Two Duke alumni and one graduating senior have been awarded the Knight-Hennessy Scholarship for graduate study at Stanford University. Maya Sheth, class of 2020, Anjali Gupta, class of 2022, and Duke graduating senior Sydney Hunt have each received up to three years of financial support at Stanford. Sheth, Gupta and Hunt are members of the sixth Knight-Hennessy cohort and are among the 10 Duke students who have received the scholarship since the program welcomed its first class in 2018. Maya Sheth, from Cincinnati,… read more about Two Alumni, One Senior Receive Scholarship for Graduate Study at Stanford »
Danica Schwartz, a Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies major and graduate, has one major complaint about her time with GSF: that she couldn’t take even more courses in the department. “GSF has always been incredibly welcoming and supportive, yet has never hesitated to challenge me and make me think (and rethink) incredibly deeply,” said Schwartz. “I've loved the diverse and intersectional schools of thought/feminist theory that I've been able to engage with and learn throughout my time in the department and feel… read more about Class of 2023: GSF Major Credits Department for Shaping her Worldview and Preparing her for a Career in Reproductive Health »
Senior Gabrielle Butler has wise advice for incoming Duke students: Challenge yourself to try something new and stick with it. “First-years and incoming students tend to try and find the ‘best fit,’ i.e., where they feel most comfortable,” said Butler. “In a lot of ways that's great, but change happens when we're being challenged, and the risk of taking that challenge ends up with many rewards.” Butler is a double major in Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies (GSF) and Evolutionary Anthropology with a minor in… read more about Class of 2023: From Rowing to Research: How Gabrielle Butler Learned to Embrace Challenges at Duke »
Meat holds a special place in our national mythology, conjuring the frontier, the cowboy, and the ranch; real Americans eat red meat, and real American men grill it. Red meat is so central to this mythos that (imagined) threats to it are sometimes construed as totalitarian threats to fundamental liberty. And while it’s true that vegans and vegetarians tend to skew left and Democrats tend to claim to want to reduce meat consumption more than Republicans, the raw fact is that at least 90 percent of Americans eat meat and two-… read more about Gabriel Rosenberg explains "Why Right-Wingers Are So Afraid of Men Eating Vegetables" »
The story of a California girl and her goat named Cedar, which captured national and international headlines this past week, almost reads like it could have been penned by a Hollywood screenwriter. The tale of a child battling cruel adults for the life of a beloved animal companion has been the plot of everything from a classic children’s story (Charlotte’s Web), sci-fi film (2017’s Okja), and even an episode of The Simpsons (“Apocalypse Cow”). The tale begins in the experience of millions of… read more about Gabriel Rosenberg: The viral story of a girl and her goat explains how the meat industry indoctrinates children »
The GSF Courses for Fall 2023 are Black Feminism and Fashion; First Year Seminar: Gender and Science; Representing Breast Cancer; Politics of Motherhood: Security Mothers, Soccer Moms, Movement Moms, and Beyond; Feminist Ethics; Race, Gender, and Sexuality; Bell Hooks; Intimacies: Sexuality, Nation, and the State; Thinking Gender: An Introduction to Feminist Theory; Sex/Gender - Nature/Nurture: Intersections of Biology and Society; Money, Sex and Power; Introduction to Digital Feminism… read more about Duke GSF Fall 2023 Courses »
Jennifer Nash, Jean Fox O'Barr Professor of Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies, minces no words summing up how care as a product is viewed in the United States. “I think care isn’t valued because it's women's work. Anything that women do is devalued.” From birth to death, everyone receives care at some point in their life. And the “care economy” is the economic activity generated by the provision of care services like childcare, elder care and health care. This includes both paid and unpaid work and can involve… read more about Vital but Invisible: How Women Drive the Care Economy in the United States »
Editor's Note: April 19, 2023 Since this article was first published on March 6, 2023, Engelstein has been selected as a Fulbright U.S. Scholar for 2023-2024 for Germany. Fulbright Scholar Awards are prestigious and competitive fellowships that provide unique opportunities for scholars to teach and conduct research abroad. She has also been named to this year's cohort of Guggenheim Fellows, which recognizes exceptional mid-career scholars and artists working in any field of knowledge or… read more about NEH Fellowship Supports Engelstein’s Research on the Formation of Language and Ideas About Sex »
On Friday, February 10th, the department of Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies hosted the hybrid event “Visual arts in and on Afghanistan: political violence, war and the question of futurity” led by Dr Paniz Musawi Natanzi. The panel of speakers was comprised of scholars and artists from across four different time zones, meeting to discuss manifestations of imperialism and visual archives in the past and present of Afghanistan. The panelists included scholars Dr Anila Daulatzai (Department of Anthropology, University… read more about GSF postdoc Paniz Musawi Natanzi hosts a webinar on visual arts in and on Afghanistan »
Professor Hasso was declared the winner of this year's Best Book Award by the Interdisciplinary Studies Section (IDSS) of the International Studies Association for her monograph 'Buried in the Red Dirt: Race, Reproduction, and Death in Modern Palestine' (Cambridge University Press, 2022). Through its book award prize, IDSS recognizes original works that are outstanding contributions to interdisciplinary studies. The book 'Buried in the Red Dirt' tells a story of life, death, reproduction and missing… read more about GSF Professor Frances S. Hasso wins IDSS Book Award 2023 »
Dr. Storti published a review of Guilty Party, an exhibit curated by Justin Hoover at the Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience in Seattle, in the journal Asian Diasporic Visual Cultures and the Americas (2022). Guilty Party, a convergence of folk mysticism, cultural tradition, digital technology, and social media, features works by queer Asian American and Pacific Islander artists Chanel Matsunami Govreau, Jodie Lyn-Kee-Chow, Jeffrey Augustine Songco, Mail Order Brides (… read more about GSF Faculty Anna Storti publishes a review article on the exhibit 'Guilty Party' »