Recent News
The 2026 Graduation Celebration for the Department of Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies reminded us of the possibility of another world. The event was a celebration of our students’ power and joy! GWSS inaugurated a new tradition by presenting our graduating students with purple honor cords—the color traditionally associated with Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies. The…
This year’s GWSS Undergraduate Research Colloquium showcased the exceptional work of GWSS students whose projects demonstrated a level of rigor and creativity rarely seen at the undergraduate level.The eight GWSS majors and minors who presented their work were selected as recipients of the Department’s Undergraduate Research Awards for 2025-2026, and the projects were the culmination of work…
In spring 2026, Liz Zhihe Zeng successfully passed her written and oral exams and advanced to doctoral candidacy in Feminist Studies. The committee was united in their support of Liz’s work and celebrated this important milestone by bestowing her with the traditional GWSS Ph.D. sash, pictured here and passed down over generations!Liz’s exam work and prospectus demonstrate the rigor, creativity,…
This year’s annual spring celebration in GWSS was titled “Cake and Community: The Revolution will be Frosted,” and was held in the historic UW Club. We couldn’t resist the tongue in cheek reference to our revolutionary feminist spirit as a field and as a department, as well as our insistence on camp, fun, and celebration. This event was focused on three components of our community…
On April 22, 2026, the GWSS Department was pleased to welcome Ecuadoran lawyer and human rights activist Elizabeth Vásquez as the Earl and Edna Stice Feminist Scholar of Social Justice. Vásquez’s lecture explored how law can be reimagined as a collective and creative tool for social transformation through the concept of subversión desde dentro (“subversion from within”). She…
In the September 2026 Perspectives edition newsletter, Amanda Swarr, Chair and Professor with Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies, answered a few questions like how the department got involved, how the funds will be used for the department, the impact discretionary or unrestricted funds has on the department, and any unexpected ways the funds might be used.When asked if there's anything else to…
GWSS PhD student Shelley Pryde has reached another exciting milestone following her participation in the 2026 Los Angeles Review of Books (LARB) Publishing Workshop.The magazine produced through this year's workshop has now been published, featuring Shelley's original piece, "Into Bits," an ethnographic speculative fiction essay that grew out of work she developed in Professor Kemi…
Come curious. Leave inspired. Wherever you are, the University of Washington offers opportunities to learn and connect with the ideas, people, and research shaping our world. This summer, visit campus for the latest exhibitions at the Henry Art Gallery and Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, or join us from anywhere through recorded lectures, podcasts, virtual experiences, and more. As a…
Dr. Akanksha Misra, Associate Professor of Gender and Women's Studies at SUNY Plattsburgh and a 2020 Ph.D. graduate of the University of Washington's Department of Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies, is featured in a recent Press-Republican article, "North Country Healthcare Survey Connects Women's Health, Childhood Trauma." The story highlights Misra's research on women's health, healthcare…
GWSS is pleased to congratulate Dr. Saad Khan on the successful defense of his dissertation, "Nascent Moves: Loss, Desire, and In/visible LGBTQ Resistances in Bangladesh."Drawing on ethnographic and archival research, Khan's dissertation examines queer life, resistance, desire, and community in Bangladesh. The committee praised the originality, insight, and significance of the project,…