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Volume 297 | November 22, 2024

Student Spotlight

Congratulations to WGSS graduate student Kendall Rogers who was confirmed as a GW Student Government Association Senate member in September! There are 54 senators (27 undergraduates and 27 graduate students), each representing the schools within GW. Kendall is tasked with drafting and voting on bills and resolutions, working on policy projects, and allocating funding to student organizations. Kendall currently sits on the Graduate Student Life and Community, Advocacy, and Inclusion Committees, as well as the Gender Equity Resource Group and Women's Caucus.


"It has been a great way to get to know students across the University and learn more about GW. I've been really excited to work on legislation related to topics we have discussed in class. Many SGA initiatives and bills relate to gender and sexuality and support first-generation students' and workers' rights. Most recently, we passed the Survivor Bill of Rights, designed to help survivors of sexual assault on campus, and the Graduate Worker Unionization Support Act, supporting the GWU2 unionization effort. 


One of my other responsibilities is connecting with CCAS graduate students and getting their input on student issues. Please feel free to contact me anytime with any questions, ideas, or concerns. Additionally, you can visit me during my office hours on Tuesdays from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the SGA office (USC 427)."


We are also shouting out Kendall for recently attending the National Women's Studies Association (NWSA) Annual Conference in Detroit, MI! Kendall says, "It was an amazing opportunity to immerse myself in feminist scholarship and community. It was great to hear about research being done in the field and connect with other scholars. It was exciting to hear references to Sara Ahmed, Gloria Anzaldúa, Jennifer Nash, and Audre Lorde. Throughout the weekend, I kept thinking to myself, 'I read that book in class!' and 'I know who that is!!' It helped solidify my current understanding of feminist theory and new areas that are interesting to me!"


Pictured: Kendall Rogers at the NWSA Conference

Faculty Spotlight

Pictured: Professor Wright (top row) with panelists from the "Black (Queer) Feminist Worldmaking in Minnesota: Reflections on the 2020 Uprisings, Healing, and Abolition" roundtable


Congrats to Professor Akae Wright who was a part of two roundtables at the National Women's Studies Association (NWSA) Annual Conference in Detroit, MI! One of the roundtables, "Reimagining Care: A Roundtable on Healing Justice & Scholarly Practice" was a conversation amongst scholar-activists about research on healing justice, the way it shapes activism and how to use such practices in different roles on campuses. The other roundtable was "Black (Queer) Feminist Worldmaking in Minnesota: Reflections on the 2020 Uprisings, Healing, and Abolition," where Professor Wright joined scholars from Minneapolis and a local organizer and independent researcher to reflect on how Minneapolis has become a metaphor disconnected from the history and generations of activism in the city and how to center folks from the city in our discussion of the Uprising. 

In Case You Missed It

"Ukrainian Feminisms, Resistance, and Psychologies of National Decolonization" by Professor Yakushko 

Pictured: Professor Oksana Yakushko


Thanks to all who joined us in-person and via Zoom on November 19th to hear about Professor Oksana Yakushko's research concerning the Ukrainian history of feminist and gender-based traditions of resistance!


Professor Yakuskho opened the talk by explaining the history of the Soviet Union and its relationship with feminism. She argued that Ukrainian feminism is always anti-colonial and it surfaced in the 1880s. During this time, the Ukrainian Independence and Liberation Movement was also taking place and was connected to the Anti-Slavery Movement (their Emancipation Manifesto was issued in 1861, two years before Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation in the U.S.) and to the Literacy and Cultural Movement.


Throughout her talk, Professor Yakuskho introduced us to several feminist leaders and Ukrainian feminist efforts since the 1880s, including:

  • Tara Shevchenko (1815-1861) who was considered "a voice of liberation." Born enslaved, he became one of the most sought-after painters in the Russian empire. He wrote about violence against Ukrainian women by Russian owners and military occupational forces.
  • Lesya Ukrainka (1871-1913), one of the most recognized Ukrainian writers and poets, focused on the fight against Russian imperialism.
  • Natalia Kobrynska (1851-1920) who co-founded the first all-women almanac in Ukrainian. This group of women smuggled literature into Russian-occupied cities in order to educate women and girls.
  • Olha Kobylianska (1863-1942) who worked with Kobrynska. Olha was the leader of Ukrainian women’s and feminist movement.
  • The Ukrainian Women of the Executed Renaissance: an organization of Ukrainian writers who spoke about archives from the 1930s. Some of these Ukrainian women writers and poets were imprisoned by the Russian authorities and died of insanity due to extreme torture. 
  • Milena Rudnytska (1892-1979) who organized the Union of Ukrainian Women, the first Ukrainian Women’s Congress, and led the World Union of Ukrainian Women; she also wrote anti-colonial feminist essays.


During the Q&A, Professor Yakushko addressed the evolution of the Ukrainian language and the relationship between women and men during today’s Ukrainian feminist movement.


If you would like a recording of this event, email us!

Pictured: Literary works by Ukrainian authors that Professor Yakuskho referenced

Spring 2025 Courses

Spring 2025 registration has begun! Check out WGSS Spring 2025 courses to add to your schedule and see a list of other WGSS-related courses below:

Undergraduate Courses

SUST 3093: Gender and Sustainable Development

Professor Angela Melidosian

CRN 28043

TR 11:10AM-12:25PM


Course Description

This course will explore women's, men's, and nonbinary people's roles in shaping sustainable development, driving environmental movements, enacting social change, changing gender roles, and transforming societies toward sustainability.

ANTH 3991 The Anthropology of Islam (crosslisted with IAFF 3188 CRN 28258)

Professor Attiya Ahmad

CRN 25878

TR 3:45-5:00PM


Course Description

How does scholarship on Muslim societies examine questions of power, ethics, authority, violence, agency, gender, race, Orientalism & Islamophobia?

How do scholars examine continuities and differences among Muslim societies across space and time? How significant is Islam to the nature of these societies, and can Islam be approached in ways similar to other religious traditions?

What methods are best suited to examine Muslim societies and Islamic traditions?

CTAD 4595 Queer Aesthetics in Contemporary Dance and Performance

Professor Brendan Drake

CRN 28411

MW 11:10AM-12:25PM



Course Description

This course will examine modes of queer performance in the United States from the 1970’s onward. We will examine an expanse of queer productions and practices situated in various settings, from public protests, experimental theater, Ballet and Contemporary Dance, Hip Hop and House cyphers, mainstream concert stages and LGBTQ nightlife. We will profile an array of of Dance and Performance artists in tandem with Queer Theories and Methodologies, including but not limited to: Tracking Queer Temporality and Futurity through Choreographic World-Building; Assimilation politics in Ballet; Cross-cultural explorations of Camp; Notions of Queer Minstrelsy and Trans Misogyny; Drag Evolutions; Choreographies of Protest and Social Power Dynamics within Queer Nightlife.


Through class discussions, lectures, student presentations and assignments (short essays/performance reviews/creative projects), students will become more familiar with methods and theories from queer and performance studies and learn to apply them both in their individual creative research and in critical analysis of live performance. As a class, we will question and interrogate how “queer” as a blanket term can describe both an identity and ways of being/doing. Where do notions of queerness account for, or evade intersections of gender, sexuality, race, disability, and/or ethnicity? Within this class, we will unpack how “queer” is deployed within the work we examine, as well as within our own individual processes. 


All Sexual and Gender expressions welcome. 


Course Content

Performance Artists: Jack Ferver, Julie Tolentino, jumatatu m. poe, Jamile Kosoko, Rupaul, Act Up, Sister Spit, Eddie Izzard, Cole Escola, Ballez, Queen Amour, Willi Ninja, Miguel Gutierrez, Ita Segev, Tom Rubnitz, John Kelly and DanceNoise, Ishmael Houston-Jones.


Writers and Theorists: Maggie Nelson, Audre Lorde, Billy Ray Belcourt, Jules Gill Peterson, Torrey Peters, Tommy Pico, Jack Halberstam, Judith Butler, José Esteban Muñoz, Adrienne Marie Brown, Terell Alvin McCraney, Doran George, Thomas DeFrantz.

Graduate Courses

CAH 6250 Disability, Accessibility, & the Arts

Professor Bibi Obler

CRN 26606

Tuesdays 12:45-3:15PM


Course Description

In this graduate seminar, we will examine theories and histories of various forms and understandings of disability vis-à-vis the arts and visual culture. We will study “disability aesthetics”; inclusive design in architecture, museums, and urban planning; the importance of the gaze; and key debates in the field. We will delve into case studies on early forays into plastic surgery; the complexities of National Socialist policies on degenerate art and eugenics; and contemporary artists’ interventions in discourses on disability. 

English 6120/WGSS 6270 Queer of Color/Crip of Color Critique

Professor Robert McRuer

CRN 28899

Wednesdays 6:10-8:00PM


Course Description

Although Roderick Ferguson’s Aberrations in Black: Toward a Queer of Color Critique is generally credited with developing the concept, the critical project that Ferguson names as “queer of color critique” reaches back to women of color feminism as it consolidated in the 1970s and 1980s through the work of Audre Lorde, Cherríe Moraga, Gloria Anzaldúa, the Combahee River Collective, and others. José Esteban Muñoz played a key role in shaping queer of color critique at the turn of this century, and the critical endeavor is now arguably a central, indispensable component of contemporary queer theory, with numerous books and essays published in this century that stress the importance of queer analyses attentive to the necessary imbrication of race, gender, sexuality, nation, class, and capital. Disability is rarely named explicitly in these projects, even if queer of color critique is saturated with questions germane to disability studies, especially as disability studies has taken what might be seen as a “global turn” in the past few decades. Crip of color critique (a phrase circulating most recently in the work of Jina Kim) has been named as such less frequently than queer of color critique, even if it has arguably been reshaping the interdisciplinary field of disability studies during the same period (and is, again arguably, at the center of the critical project that has come to be called crip theory). This course brings together the two analytics and considers how they might be brought to bear on a range of analyses of contemporary cultures and cultural productions.

ANTH 6504 Experimental Worlds: Feminist Perspectives on Science, Technology, and Power

Professor Diana Pardo Pedraza

CRN 27960

M 5:10-7PM


Course Description

At the intersection of social anthropology and feminist science and technology studies, this seminar critically examines how experiments --whether in laboratories, on bodies, across landscapes, or in speculative futures--are deeply entangled with histories of colonialism, racism, militarism, and capitalism.


Through rich ethnographic analysis, we will question how power dynamics shape every stage of experimentation, from research design and methodology to public discourse. We will consider not just the empirical outcomes of these practices, but also their ontological implications: how they craft, dismantle, and transform worlds.

HIST 6301 New Methods and Subjects in African American Historiography

Professor Erin Chapman

CRN 27982

T 5:10-7:00PM


Course Description

This readings seminar will engage recently published histories of Black life, culture and politics in the United States. We will focus on works utilizing the new methods of critical fabulation and archival interrogation to recover Black women's life experiences and the intersectional nature of oppression. We will also read works engaging hot topics such as the carceral state and leftist radicalism, with an emphasis on intersections of sexuality, race and marginalized perspectives. Assignments will include reading journals and historiography papers. Readings will include histories such as Consent in the Presence of ForceLove's Next MeetingReading Territory, and The Streets Belong to Us

GWU2: George Washington University Graduate Workers Union

GWU2 is the George Washington University Graduate Workers Union. GWU2 are graduate student workers from various departments and schools who aim to support and represent graduate student workers across GWU. They have chosen to affiliate with SEIU Local 500 to build power with other workers on GW’s campus and across the city.

What is the GWU2 fighting for?:

  • Transparency and respect from GWU with regards to our general treatment and wages.
  • A living wage for all student workers with annual cost of living adjustment (COLA).
  • Improved access to healthcare, including vision, dental, and mental health coverage.
  • Free-to-students UPass that stays on year round.
  • Standard work assignments (consistent hours, even expectations for TAships across departments and schools, etc.).
  • Paid leave (sick days, vacation, parental, etc.).
  • Office space for all PhD students.
  • Increased campus protections for international students.

Visit the GWU2 website for more information and ways you can make impact. GWU2 also sent an open letter to GW administration. GW faculty and staff can also support GWU2 by signing the open letter online.

Jobs, Internships, Fellowships, and Scholarships

The Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) program is looking for a student Events Assistant to be responsible for handling event planning and promotion. This student hire will also handle events-related social media tasks and draft the weekly WGSS news digests that feature WGSS student and faculty news as well as GW events on gender. 

Special projects or other duties may be assigned related to specific departmental/faculty needs.

This position reports to the WGSS Academic Department Administrator. Work weeks will be no more than 10 hours a week, not to be scheduled during class time. 

Read the full ad and apply online. The job ad will close on December 4th.

The Honey W Nashman Center for Civic Engagement and Public Service 

The Honey W Nashman Center for Civic Engagement and Public Service at GW is hiring FWS students and volunteers. Apply for Math Matters, Jumpstart, engageDC, and SMARTDC tutoring and leadership open positions at the Nashman Center. Work directly with DC Public Schools and community organizations, making a real impact in the community.

Read full job descriptions and apply online. Contact the Nashman Center via email with any questions.

The University of Michigan-Rackham Graduate School’s Michigan Humanities Emerging Research Scholars 2025 (MICHHERS) application officially opens on Monday, December 2, 2024. Rising seniors, recent B.A.s, and terminal master’s students who are interested in pursuing a doctoral degree at the University of Michigan are eligible to apply. 


Additionally, an application/program information session will be held on Wednesday, December 11th. There will be additional information sessions on Wednesday, January 8th and Wednesday, January 29th. Register for a workshop online.


View the MICHHERS website for more information. For questions, email the MICHHERS team. The application deadline is February 10, 2025.

Research Funding Opportunities

The Russell Sage Foundation is offering research funding for the below programs

Program 1: Future of Work

Purpose: To support innovative research on the causes and consequences of changes in the quality of jobs for low- and moderately paid workers and their families in the U.S.

 

Program 2: Social, Political, and Economic Inequality

Purpose: To support original research on the factors that contribute to social, political, and economic inequalities in the U.S., and the extent to which those inequalities affect social, political, psychological, and economic outcomes, including educational and labor market opportunities and consequences, social and economic mobility within and across generations, and civic participation and representation.

 

Program 3: Promoting Educational Attainment and Economic Mobility among Racially, Ethnically, and Economically Diverse Groups after the 2023 Supreme Court Decision to Ban Race-Conscious Admissions at Colleges and Universities

Purpose: To support innovative research on the aftermath of the 2023 Supreme Court decision striking down race-conscious college and university admissions policies. The initiative focuses on ways to promote educational attainment and economic mobility among racially, ethnically, and economically diverse groups following the court’s ruling that the declared that use of race-conscious admissions policies violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment and was, therefore, unconstitutional.

 

Funding: up to $200,000 (trustee grants/15% indirect); up to $50,000 (presidential awards/no indirect; if project involves original data collection or gaining access to restricted-use data, capped at $75,000)

Key Dates:

  • LOI was due October 29, 2024
  • Proposal due: February 19, 2025
  • Funding decision by: June 2025
  • Grant start date: August 1, 2025


More details can be found at the Russell Sage Foundation's website. Considering applying or have questions? Please email Hyunjin Cho, GW's Associate Director of Foundation Relations, for additional information.

Call for Submissions

The 12th Annual Contemporary Relationships Conference, focusing on strengthening LGBTQ+ relationships and families, is coming to Monmouth University this May 17-18, 2025.  The conference is hosted by the Center for Contemporary Relationships, which also offers the Queer and Trans Affirming Certification Program. The conference is also made possible in part due to funding from the Diversity Innovation Grant Program coordinated by the Office of the Provost and Intercultural Center at Monmouth University.

 

Proposals are welcome in two formats: 

60-MINUTE WORKSHOPS: To meet continuing education guidelines, the presenter (or at least one presenter in a group) must be a licensed mental health professional. 


POSTERS: Poster presenters do not need to be licensed clinicians. We will consider both research and applied posters. While submitting your proposal, select “research” if the poster will be presenting your original research, even if clinical applications are included. Select “applied” if the poster will be presenting a synthesis of existing research, theory and/or clinical applications. 


The deadline for proposals is November 30th. View the full call for presenters online.

Special Issue of Journal of Multimodal Rhetorics: " Composing at the Intersections: Queer, Transgender and Feminist Approaches to Multimodal Rhetorics"

Submit proposals online by December 1st


While thinking about this special issue, Ruby, Constance, Floyd, and Nick joked about the prevalence of Royster and Kirsch’s Feminist Rhetorical Practices that showed up across several syllabi during their shared times in graduate school. As scholars, we have come to understand the power and utility of utilizing rhetoric and composition to do work in the world. Multimodal composing, as a component of rhetoric and composition, when taken alongside queer, transgender, and feminist praxis, incites a focus from form to utility. Consider, for example, self-published activist pamphlets circulated by the Combahee River Collective (1977) during the 1970s in Boston, Massachusetts. You might also consider the communal and political activism embedded in the The Black Panther newspaper. More recently, consider events like ‘chalk walks’ on college campuses that address and engage issues of sexual violence. Or, you can take some time to consider how online publics frequently organize around hashtags to establish communities and coalitions of folks that strive towards the same goal (whether that might be to organize/protest, support each other through healing and shared experience, or else).



We can clearly see these types of multimodal compositions as materially consequential: they compose disruption as social, civic action. As scholars and practitioners of writing and rhetoric, we believe that our disciplines' knowledge and practices are socially good because they do real, consequential work in the world. In addition to the work of designing a first year writing assessment, for example, writing and rhetoric via multimodal composition holds the capability to create avenues that produce grants on behalf of community activist organizations, decipher medical processes and produce new forms and processes to help the public access services, and even draw attention to community concerns via public art works. Again, writing and rhetoric does work in the material world.


Proposal Submissions

Submit 400 word proposals by December 1st. In your proposal form, you will be asked to include your name, contact email, title of contribution, the overall focus and or/argument of your proposal (as well as its relation to the special issue), and the proposed genre/form of your contribution. Additionally, given the nature of this special issue, we ask that in your proposal you address the 3 Ps (Positionality, Power, and Privilege) as articulated by Walton, Moore, and Jones, (2019) insofar as it relates to your submission. Additionally, for anything submitted, authors should hold the rights to the work.


Read the full Call for Proposals. Email The Journal of Multimodal Rhetorics with any questions.

Spring 2025 issue of gnovis

Papers due January 3, 2025

Book pitches due November 8th; reviews due January 3, 2025


The Georgetown University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences is currently accepting research papers and book reviews for the Spring 2025 issue of gnovis, a student-­operated, peer-reviewed academic journal. 


About the Journal 

gnovis is devoted to promoting interdisciplinary scholarship that reflects broad interests at the intersection of communication, culture, and technology. Our mission is to provide a forum for graduate students from around the globe to share their original research and foster a spirit of curiosity, collaboration, and conversation among emerging scholars. We are proud to feature some of the best graduate scholarship from across the country, with past submissions accepted from institutions such as Georgetown University, NYU Steinhardt, Northwestern University, Indiana University, Tufts University, and the University of Texas, Austin.


Call for Papers

gnovis welcomes submissions of original research papers from current graduate students. Papers may address a wide range of subjects and historical periods, including, but not limited to: science and technology studies, cultural criticism, cultural identity and politics, new media and elections, nationalism and religion, visual art and emerging technology, mediated communication and digital representation, and more. Submitted papers should be approximately 3,000-8,000 words in length, include a brief abstract, and employ author-date APA Style citations. 


Papers must be emailed as a Word document no later than January 3, 2025 at 11:59 pm EST. Please include in the body of the email your name, contact information, and school affiliation. Learn more about our research paper submission guidelines online.


Call for Book Reviews

gnovis is keen on publishing book reviews that reflect the diverse interests of its authors and invites contributors to select their own book to review, so long as the book addresses one of the foregoing topics. Interested contributors can pitch their chosen book to gnovis by filling out the Google Form by November 8, 2024. If the pitch is approved, potential contributors will be contacted by the gnovis editorial team to write the full review, to be submitted no later than January 3, 2025. Learn more about our book review submission guidelines online.


View previous issues online. Any further questions and concerns may be emailed

Space and Place| University of Virginia's English Department Graduate Symposium | April 4, 2025

Abstracts due January 3, 2025

This year, the University of Virginia’s Graduate Symposium invites graduate students studying arts and humanities across Virginia and Washington, D.C., to consider how space and place affect their research and the communication thereof. How do our physical locations influence our scholarship and pedagogy? What does it mean to move between institutions as an academic while pursuing the same line of scholarly inquiry? How can we acknowledge the specificities of our spaces and places while building expansive intellectual communities? And how should we articulate our sense of institutional belonging when those institutions depart from our values?


Potential topics to be addressed may include:

• Regional and national relationalities

• Diaspora, forced migration, and climate-related mobility

• Disability and movement

• Environmental humanities and natural space

• Material culture and the built landscape

• De facto vs. de jure understandings of place

• Language, linguistics, and location

• Decolonial and postcolonial thought

• Place-conscious pedagogies

• First-person criticism


Presentations should be no longer than 15-20 minutes. In addition to accepting traditional academic papers, we also encourage submissions featuring creative work with academic components (such as creative nonfiction, documentary poetics, or multimedia presentations). Please specify in your submission whether any alternative categories apply to your paper and if you would require AV equipment.


Abstracts and a brief bio should be submitted online before 11:59 P.M. on Friday, January 3, 2025.


Email any questions or concerns to Graduate Symposium co-chairs: Gabby Kiser or Spencer Grayson.

Abolition, Everywhere? A National Convening

The Antiracist Research & Policy Center, American University

April 4-5, 2025 | Washington, D.C.

Proposals due January 5, 2025


Abolition, Everywhere? brings together scholars and practitioners working to abolish the prison industrial complex with those who engage abolition as a praxis to dismantle other systems and structures of unfreedom.


The Antiracist Research and Policy Center invites scholars and practitioners of abolition to join us to share their work, analysis, and insight for future directions in the field and for our movements. Our convening will be guided by the following questions: 

1. In this moment of racial revanchism and white nationalist backlash, how might abolition offer a shared framework that allows us to produce conditions for freedom capable of connecting us across political geographies and movements?

2. What opportunities and risks come with the operationalization of abolitionist theories and movements “everywhere”—across places, disciplines, organizations, and practices? 

3. Where do the theoretical frameworks, organizing methods, or political strategies of these diverse abolitionist movements and traditions converge, diverge, or come into conflict with each other? 

4. What new possibilities for study and practice emerge when we probe the connections and the disconnections among these contemporary abolitionist frameworks and movements? 


Proposals may be for individual or jointly authored papers/presentations. If interested, submit an abstract (<500 words), a short bio (<150 words), and a 1-page CV/Resume/or list of relevant experience via the submission portal. Applicants will be notified by the end of January.


For further questions, email the Abolition, Everywhere? Program Committee at the Antiracist Research and Policy Center.

Process: Journal of Multidisciplinary Undergraduate Scholarship invites submissions for Issue 9.1, on Failure. The greatest teacher in life can be failure. We’ve all failed at something, sometimes big, sometimes small. Our society has become more and more averse to failure, with people consciously avoiding it—but what are the benefits of failing, even if they are not obvious in the moment? Some approaches to the topic might be, but are not limited to:

  • Perceptions: How do different cultures or fields view the role of failure in education and learning?
  • Discovery: How have scientific or technological breakthroughs been born out of failures?
  • Identity: How does failure shape individual identity and self-perception?
  • Professional growth: What is the role of failure in personal and professional growth?
  • Economics: How does economic theory account for market failures, and what are the implications for policy?
  • Business: What are the effects of a business failure?
  • Innovation: How does failure drive innovation across different sectors?

Two general types of submissions will be accepted: critical essays and non-traditional (or multimodal) compositions, such as poems, short stories, or digital artifacts. All traditional essay submissions should be 2500–5000 words and follow appropriate disciplinary guidelines with respect to style and citations. Please include a 250-word abstract outlining project goals and how the contribution meaningfully engages with ongoing scholarly conversations.


You may submit pieces for review by following the instructions on the Submissions page of the Process website. Be sure to include your full name and email address on the submitted document. Questions may be directed to the editorial board via email.  


View the full Call for Proposals. All submissions are due by January 15, 2025.

Ethics Press is inviting proposals for scholarly books and edited collections in Humanities and Social Sciences, and broader related fields including Life Sciences and Health Sciences. Read the Notes of Guidance and review the Book Proposal Form.


Suitable proposals will be independently reviewed. A completed proposal form, a sample of the proposed book, if available, a CV, is required. You are also welcome to send a summary or abstract first.


Books are published in English, initially in academic hardback and eBook format, with a paperback version released later. The books we select range from 50,000 words to around 150,000 words. There are no charges to publish.

Subject coverage includes:

  • Philosophy, religion and faith, ethics and morality
  • Human rights and equality, including indigenous studies and land rights, and race and gender issues
  • Arts, humanities and social science topics including history, sociology, society and culture, community, anthropology, and language and literature.
  • Global challenges, including war and conflict, sustainability and climate change, food security, poverty, and technology/AI. Our portfolio on issues and challenges associated with Artificial Intelligence is particularly popular
  • Applied fields, including all areas of business, management, economics and finance, and decision making, plus bioethics, education, the built environment, and data ethics
  • Politics and government, both national and regional, from US election politics, to international banking, to global policy issues
  • Legal and medical issues, covering healthcare, medicine and medical ethics, psychology, counselling, childhood studies, and law
  • Health sciences and life sciences

An adapted Doctoral Theses, and Edited Collections, including adaptations from conferences and symposia will be considered.

Jobs in Higher Education

The Department of Africana Studies of John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York, seeks to hire a seasoned senior scholar in Africana Studies, Black Studies or a related field, qualified for appointment as associate or full professor with tenure, to serve as Department Chairperson effective Fall 2025. We invite applicants with a broad vision, excellent communication and administrative skills, and a proven record combining scholarship with program leadership and development.


The department of Africana Studies offers two minors: Africana Studies Minor and Community Justice minor. We also offer an array of foundational and elective courses, about 20 per semester, for the Human Services and Community Justice major, and for liberal arts majors across disciplines including Psychology, Sociology, Economics, Forensic Science, English, and the Arts. The department consists of 8 full-time and 15 part-time scholars and features an interdisciplinary and accomplished faculty in the areas of social sciences, humanities, and professional studies.


The department chair is the executive officer of the department and shall carry out the department's policies and goals. The chair is expected to be a leader in fostering professional development of senior and junior faculty. Additionally, the chair is expected to help and support recruitment and retention of students for its minors as well as hire excellent adjunct faculty. The chair must represent department and faculty interests with administrators, other departments, programs and outside interested individuals and groups. Duties related to the administration of the department include managing the department budget, preparing the annual class schedule, supporting department faculty, evaluating faculty performance, creating and implementing short and long-term strategic plans, overseeing curriculum development and assessment, promoting the recruitment and retention of students, and fostering an environment of mutual respect, inclusiveness, and transparency within the department.

The Chairperson position is an elected position voted on by the department faculty every three years.



Candidates are expected to bring enthusiasm and demonstrated commitment to teaching. The successful candidate must be eager and qualified to work with our diverse student body, and have a demonstrated commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. As demonstrated in John Jay College's Seven Principles for a Culturally Responsive, Inclusive, and Anti-Racist Curriculum, the College seeks a faculty member who thrives in a multicultural, collaborative academic environment and is committed to both access and excellence in higher education.


Read the full job description and apply online. Review of resumes to begin on October 15, 2024.

The Department of Gender, Women’s, + Sexuality Studies (GWST) at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor to begin August 2025. The successful candidate should have a demonstrated record of scholarship and teaching core courses in the field of Gender, Women’s + Sexuality Studies at the undergraduate and graduate levels, as well as a commitment to and experience in fostering inclusive excellence. The ideal candidate will have a Ph.D. in Gender, Women’s and Sexuality Studies or a closely related field and research and teaching expertise in gender, women’s and sexuality studies as they relate to either Black Diasporic experiences or Arab/Muslim experiences. The position is fully located in the Gender, Women’s, + Sexuality Studies Department, with the possibility of teaching courses cross-listed with other campus units. The teaching load is 2-3. The salary range is $80,000-$88,000.

 

The Gender, Women’s, + Sexuality Studies Department at UMBC is an interdisciplinary academic unit committed to transnational and intersectional understandings of how gender and sexuality and their intersections with race, nation, class, religion, and ability make a difference in individual lives and in the practices and institutions of human societies and cultures. The program currently has five faculty lines and more than 30 affiliate faculty. It enrolls approximately 70 undergraduate students in its undergraduate major, minor, certificate, post-baccalaureate certificate in gender and women’s studies, and its critical sexuality studies minor programs, and is one of nine participating departments and programs in the Language, Literacy and Culture Ph.D. program. The department is deeply collaborative, with a coordinating committee of core and affiliate faculty that jointly manage the curriculum of core and cross-listed courses. We are deeply engaged in campus DEIA activities and social justice issues on campus and in Baltimore area communities.


Applications should be addressed to Dr. Vrushali Patil and should be submitted online through Interfolio. Applications should include a 1) cover letter outlining interest in the position, research experience, and future research plans, 2) CV, 3) a statement of experience with and commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility, 4) a teaching portfolio, and 5) a list of three references. Review of applications will begin October 1, 2024 and will continue until the position is filled.

The WGSS program at American University is seeking an adjunct instructor to teach “Gender in Society” (WGSS 125) in Spring 2025. Dates and times of the class TBD. There are 19 students in the course. The pay is $4,750 per class for instructors with a Ph.D, $4,158 per class without a Ph.D. 

This is for an immediate hire. A successful launch could well lead to further teaching opportunities with the WGSS program. ABD’s and completed M.A.’s are encouraged to apply, as well as those candidates who have completed their PhD’s. The WGSS program is the largest of six interdisciplinary programs which make up the broader department of Critical Race, Gender, and Culture Studies at American University.   

If you are interested in this opportunity, email the Director Amy Barber with a brief introduction and CV.

The Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant or Associate Professor faculty position beginning September 1,2025 in the areas of native/indigenous feminisms and human rights.  Applicants should be accomplished researchers and experienced instructors who are committed to teaching in an urban university setting and to thinking and practicing in collaborative and interdisciplinary ways. Tenure stream faculty are expected to teach two courses each semester. A major focus of the position would be contributing to the growth of the department's thriving undergraduate minor in Human Rights. Candidates will have opportunities to collaborate with a number of ethnic and global studies programs and departments in the College of Liberal Arts and beyond including the Critical Ethnic & Community Studies MSConflict Resolution, Human Security & Global Governance, the Native American and Indigenous Studies Minor, the Institute for New England Native American StudiesThe Consortium for Gender, Security and Human Rights, and the Boston area Consortium for Graduate Studies in Gender, Culture, Women, & Sexuality.


Minimum requirements: receipt of Ph.D. in Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies, Indigenous, Native, or First-Nations Studies, or related field by August 31, 2025.

Review of applications will begin on October 15, 2024. The position will remain open until filled.


Application instructions: Read the full job description and apply online. Applicants should submit a CV with a cover letter describing in detail your research and teaching interests, one writing sample, and three letters of references.

The Department of Feminist Studies at UC Santa Barbara invites applications for lecturers in Feminist Studies. Lecturer will teach FEMST 171A (Winter) and FEMST 171B (Spring). The successful candidate will be expected to teach this two quarter course sequence that integrates field-work experience with an academic seminar focusing on the historical, sociological, and political issues surrounding community services for women. Each student will be placed as an intern in a community agency for 1-2 quarters. The Program is especially interested in candidates who can contribute to the diversity and excellence of the academic community through teaching and service.

Applicants must possess a minimum of a Master’s degree or equivalent foreign degree in Feminist Studies, or a related field. Additional qualifications include having had two years of teaching experience in a college or university (required at the time of start). Applicants with a doctoral degree in Feminist Studies or related field are preferred, experience teaching upper division feminist studies courses and/or engaged learning courses and experience in online teaching and learning, teaching underrepresented minorities and inclusive classrooms will also be considered.

Apply online by December 1st.

The Department of Women, Gender, & Sexuality Studies at Western Washington University invites applications for a full-time tenure-track position at the rank of Assistant Professor specializing in Black Feminist Studies beginning September 2025. This position is for a scholar who centers the knowledge production of women of color in ways that challenges historical inequities, state violence, and/or regimes of incarceration by encouraging Black Feminist Thought, visions of political and social transformation, and/or Black feminist collective organizing. Applicants from any discipline in the Humanities or Social Sciences will be accepted with a preference for candidates with a Ph.D. in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies or related interdisciplinary fields. We seek applicants with a well-established record of research and teaching that engages Black feminist themes in the field from a philosophical, racial, queer, trans, and/or comparative perspective.

 

The successful applicant will be expected to teach core and advanced undergraduate courses in the Department of Women, Gender, & Sexuality Studies. This includes teaching at least one of our three core courses: Introduction to Women, Gender, & Sexuality Studies; Introduction to Feminist Theory; and Introduction to Queer and Sexuality Studies. The candidate will also have the opportunity to teach upper-level classes including our required Queer Research Methods class and the Senior Seminar. Responsibilities for the position include teaching 2 courses per quarter (2-2-2 load); exemplary instruction; an active and successful research agenda; and service to the department, college, university, and profession through a range of activities. The successful candidate will be expected to provide equitable and inclusive learning environments for all students as they fulfill their teaching and mentoring responsibilities.  

 

The Department of Women, Gender, & Sexuality Studies at Western Washington University pursues praxis and critical inquiry that makes sense of how gender affects our world and shapes social, political, and cultural formations through feminist and queer scholarship, teaching, and activism. We are dedicated to teaching undergraduate majors and minors how to use critical thinking to bridge intersectional feminist theories and social justice practice. Our program values and promotes interdisciplinary analysis through a variety of lenses including feminism, gender, race, ethnicity, disability, sexuality, and queer and trans identity in transnational and multicultural contexts.   


For questions about the position, application process, or department, email Dr. Rae Lynn Schwartz-DuPre.  

 

Read the full job ad and apply for the Tenure-Track Assistant Professor in Black Feminist Studies position.


Application review of complete files begins December 1st, 2024; position is open until filled.

The Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Program at Bowdoin College invites applications for a full-time tenure-track faculty appointment at the assistant professor level in transnational/global feminisms broadly defined. The position will begin July 1, 2025. Applicants should be interdisciplinary scholars working at the intersections of gender, race, and social justice and focusing on sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, or Asia or who incorporate transnational or diasporic approaches to these regions. Applicants can contribute to both gender and sexuality aspects of the curriculum and address student interests in social movements, law, health/medicine, climate justice, environmental studies, government and political science, technology, or science in society. The teaching load is two courses per semester. A Ph.D. is required at the time of appointment. The Program is particularly interested in candidates with a strong commitment to undergraduate liberal arts education.

Read the full job description and apply.

Master of Arts in International Migration & Refugees at Georgetown University

The 18-month program, organized by Georgetown University’s Institute for the Study of International Migration and within the highly-regarded School of Foreign Service, offers students a chance to concentrate in either Migration Analytics or Humanitarian Practice.  

Rigorous academic coursework is complemented by a required summer practicum with a refugee- or migrant-serving organization in another country or in the US and a capstone project with another agency.  Drawing on the expertise of Georgetown University’s faculty and the broader Washington DC community, the program offers a rich variety of course work and extra-curricular activities that will prepare students for further work in this field – whether advising private sector companies about migration or working directly with displaced populations in the world’s hotspots or advocating for immigration policies with an NGO or research institute. Consultations with a range of potential employers indicated keen interest in hiring graduates with specialized expertise in migration and humanitarian practice.


There are upcoming Zoom information sessions for prospective students: 4th December. Register online to attend.

MA Program in American Studies at George Washington University

The Master of Arts in American Studies provides students opportunities for pre-professional training in their chosen specialty. Through challenging courses and in-depth research, students delve into topics like architecture, popular music, immigration and borders and racial and gender equality in American culture.

The MA prepares students for a variety of careers or advanced work in another PhD program. Apply by February 1st (for fellowship consideration).

For questions about this program, email Gayle Wald, Director of Graduate Studies.


On January 13, 2025, join American Studies leadership online for an information session discussing the field of American Studies and GW's Master of Arts in American Studies program. Register to attend.

PhD Program in American Studies at George Washington University

Students in GW’s American Studies PhD program receive rigorous training in the interdisciplinary study of American culture, society, and politics, as part of a course of study that is comprehensive yet personally tailored to the student’s specific interests.


Interested students are encouraged to contact a core faculty member to discuss their interests and learn more about the curriculum and resources. Find the complete application requirements on GW's Graduate Program Finder.


The Fall enrollment deadline is December 15th.

PhD Program in Theatre and Performance Studies at Tufts University

The Theatre and Performance Studies PhD program is now accepting applications for a Fall 2025 cohort. The application deadline is December 1st. The Theatre and Performance Studies PhD curriculum is especially strong in supporting research focused on archival materials, 20th century Black performance, ethnography, globalization, gender and sexuality studies, religion, race, and Indigeneity in the Americas. Many of our students come from interdisciplinary backgrounds in American studies, English, Theatre studies, History, Gender/Sexuality studies, Sociology, Anthropology, and Art History. 


In Fall 2025, the program will be joined by two new graduate faculty members: Black performance studies historian, Paige McGinley, and theatre architecture historian and

philosopher, Pannill Camp. Students interested in 20th century Black performance, public humanities, theatre architecture and histography will garner rich insights from their teaching and scholarship.


There are a number of production opportunities as well as facilitate engagement with arts and arts advocacy organizations in greater Boston. The current student cohort features students working as playwrights, directors, lighting designers, dramaturgs, and nightlife organizers. These students are simultaneously completing MA and PhD projects about the history of unionization and performance tactics, HIV/AIDS activism, queer Asian diasporic ancestral knowledges, Jewish actresses on the Indian screen, and Black and Indigenous feminist performances.


While in the program, students have the opportunity to train for a variety of career paths. They teach their own courses and we train scholar-artists who find employment and excel in a variety of colleges and universities across the United States. We are especially proud to have developed a signature “Pedagogy and Professional Development” seminar that prepares students to imagine careers in and beyond the university.

 

Best of all, each of the qualified PhD students admitted into the program receives five years of fellowships and teaching assistantships with an annual stipend of $34,500, secured through the graduate student union collective bargaining agreement. In addition, Tufts offers dissertation fellowships, student health insurance, annual travel support, and tuition remission for a total financial package valued at over $250,000.


For questions about this program, email Lilian Mengesha, PhD

(she/they), Assistant Professor and Director of Graduate Study, AY 2024-25, 

Department of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies.

Resources

GW Mutual Aid Spreadsheet



Created by GW students for GW students, this resource serves as a connecting point for those who are providing or seeking aid. Areas of support include housing, health care, food, transportation, storage, pet/child/plant care, and more.

Online Therapy Resources for the LGBTQ+ Community

Online therapy is a resource that offers a plethora of different types of virtual therapy for the LGBTQ+ community. Online therapy makes it easier to access mental health care and to engage in therapy on your own terms. Find more resources that can be helpful for navigating the coming-out process, strengthening your relationships, and learning how to be true to yourself as an LGBTQ+ individual.

The End Gender Apartheid Edition

Image Caption: A mural painted for Women's Aid by the artist Emmalene Blake in Dublin, Ireland. 

(Image Credit: Niall Carson/PA)

"Gender apartheid" is a term used to describe the systemic oppression, discrimination and segregation of a specific group based on gender. At the end of 2023, a campaign called End Gender Apartheid was launched by Afghan human rights activists, backed by United Nations experts, calling for gender apartheid in Afghanistan to be codified as a crime against humanity. The campaign argues that current laws criminalizing gender persecution do not reflect the intent, ideology and institutionalized nature of the systemic subjugation and deprivation of women in Afghanistan , where laws have been specifically crafted to constrain the lives of women and their role in society.


Some human rights activists are also arguing that the term gender apartheid should also be applied to what is happening to women in Iran. They argue that Iran’s new “hijab and chastity” bill imposes harsh penalties, including prison sentences of up to 10 years, on women who do not conform to a mandated dress code and head covering in public.


Read the full article to understand how making gender apartheid a crime against humanity could make a difference.

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