Welcome to the Gender Institute
A university-wide research center funded by the Provost, the Gender Institute supports and promotes research and teaching related to gender and sexuality. We offer a wide variety of programs, including lectures, workshops, film screenings, conferences, and art exhibitions, to encourage interdisciplinary scholarship and artistic achievement related to women and gender.
We also offer a range of fellowships, grants, and cosponsorships to undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty to encourage and support research and curriculum development. We encourage analysis of and lively debate about the intricate connections between gender and other social constructions, such as sexuality, race, class, health, age, nationality, religion, and animality. In both our daily practice and our programming, we strive for sustainability in material consumption and community praxis.
The Gender Institute is pleased to announce our
2012-13 Dissertation Fellows
Krishni Burns
Classics
Magna Mater in Ancient Rome
This dissertation re-evaluates the cult of the ancient Roman goddess known as the Magna Mater using gender theory to examine non-traditional facets of Roman identity. The cult differed from mainstream Roman culture because it encouraged ecstatic worship and effeminate behavior in its devotees, but it was still an accepted religion.
Leah Benedict
English
Impotence: the Anatomy of a Passion, 1660-1800
This dissertation considers descriptions of sexual failure written between 1660 and 1800. By investigating descriptions of male sexual incapacity, I show how the discourses of impotence emergent in the long eighteenth century generated new anxieties that subjected both masculine and feminine sexuality to modern disciplinary measures.
Jessica MacNamara
Sociology
Appearance and Acceptance: Toward a Sociology of Familial Responses to Gender Transition
Synopsis: Drawing from 50 in-depth interviews with self-identified transmen and transwomen, this dissertation aims to answer the question, (how) do physical changes to the body impact familial acceptance of transgender individuals? This research raises important questions about how trans embodiment impacts our understanding of gender, health, beauty, creativity and freedom.
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