Recent News

We're proud to share that Lou Chow has been selected as one of this year’s Husky 100, a prestigious recognition awarded to University of Washington students who are making a lasting impact through their academic work, leadership, and community engagement. Lou’s work at the intersection of Dance and Gender, Women, Sexuality Studies reflects a deep commitment to… Read more
GWSS Chair and Professor Sasha Su-Ling Welland contributed to the Henry Art Gallery’s current exhibition, A.K. Burns: What is Perverse is Liquid, on view through April 27, 2025. Her reflection, Transoformation, is featured in the interpretive guide created for the exhibit and responds to the artwork Untitled (Grain). The piece appears alongside contributions from artists, scholars, and curators who offer a range of responses to works in the show. Burns’s… Read more
GWSS is excited to announce that nominations for the 2024–25 academic year awards are officially open! These awards recognize outstanding contributions to our community, including leadership, activism, scholarly excellence, and commitment to feminist values. We invite students, faculty, and staff to submit nominations — including self-nominations for many awards — by April 30. Whether you’re nominating a peer or yourself, this is a wonderful opportunity to honor the hard work… Read more
How can contemporary queer art challenge violently-imposed colonial models of gendered personhood? What futures become imaginable if we look to Indigenous ideas of embodiment that refuse not just rigid divisions between male and female, but also fixed boundaries between humans and animals, and between social and cosmological structures? These are some of the questions GWSS major Fiona Rivera explores in her newly published article.  Rivera’s article, “Queer Animality and Andean Cosmology… Read more
Almost 25 years ago, a group of University of Washington faculty members formed the Modern Girl Around the World Research Group. Based in the departments of English, History, International Studies, and Women Studies (now Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies) and drawing on regional expertise from Africa, Asia, Europe, and the United States, they set out to examine the phenomenon of the Modern Girl who emerged around the world in the first half of the twentieth century. Their groundbreaking… Read more
For women seeking to make their mark as entrepreneurs and business leaders, the statistics can be daunting. Despite ongoing efforts to promote gender equity in business, research shows that women–particularly women of color–face significant challenges. As of 2023, only 10% of Fortune 500 CEOs were women, with just 1% being women of color. Meanwhile, women-founded startups received less than 2% of venture capital funding. However, numbers alone don’t tell the whole story. Despite systemic… Read more
Admitted students and families can engage with the College of Arts and Sciences through several department and program specific events over the next few weeks. Continue reading on UW College of Arts & Sciences News 
Looking for a course? Consider one of these unique upper-level GWSS courses!   GWSS 420/520: Gender and Sexuality in India Priti Ramamurthy | T/Th 1:30-3:20 | Eagleson Hall G01  This course traces histories and debates in feminist and queer studies in India. It approaches gender and sexuality as configurations – multiple, contested, and always in flux. We will explore how gender and sexuality are produced and experienced. As importantly, gender and sexuality are… Read more
We are thrilled to announce that two of our PhD candidates and one faculty member have been selected for the Society of Scholars Fellowships from the Simpson Center for the Humanities for the 2025-26 academic year. Assistant Professor Kavita Dattani has been awarded a Research Fellowship to support her project, A Suitable Sexuality: Leisure, Pleasure and Dating Apps in India. Her research explores how dating apps in India intersect with leisure and evolving… Read more
What distinguishes public from private writing? How do we analyze self-representation and “style” in the journals of others? What are the ethical stakes of studying texts that were not necessarily intended for public view? And why are many of us drawn to journaling practices of our own? This month, GWSS and Comparative History of Ideas double major Matthew Judd delved deeper into these questions as a featured guest on CHID’s Convos in the Office podcast. In a fascinating, expansive 50… Read more