News | Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

WGSS Department News

November 2023, 2nd year WGSS PhD student AJ Castle's essay, "The Cipher Cut" was featured in the 2023 zine/collection, 2 Trans 2 Furious: An Extremely Serious Journal of Transgender Street Racing Studies, and has won the Lamda Literary Award in the LGBTQ+ Anthology category. Congrats, AJ!

November 2023, Read our Fall 2023 WGSS Newsletter!

October 2023, WGSS Ph.D. student, Galia Cozzi Berrondowas just named a Fall 2023 Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access fellow within the College of Arts & Sciences! Congrats, Galia! Read more about the IDEA gradshere.

September 2023, Congrats to PhD student Gabriella Simpson for being selected to serve on the CAS Dean's Student Advisory Council. She will serve as an ambassador to the Dean, provide feedback on curriculum development, and help with teaching award selections & admitted student day events.

July 2023, WGSS Asssociate Professor, Nancy Hiemstra, and PhD Student, Hafza Girdap, co-authored the newly published article entitled, "Gendered State Violence and Post-Coup Migration out of Turkey" in Women's Studies International.

March 2023, Check out our Spring 2023 Newsletter!

November 2022, Check out WGSS PhD candidate Hafza Girdap's recent article, "Mahsa Amini: Women's, bodily autonomy in the context of Islamism and far-right populism."

October 2022, Congratulations to WGSS PhD students Jade Kai and Jose Flores Sanchez for their recently published article, "Colonality and Contagion: COVID-19 and the disposability of women of color in feminized labor sectors."

October 2022, First-year WGSS grad Kara Pernicano was selected for a Carceral Research and Teaching Fellowship for Fall 2022. Kara will work with faculty leaders of "Writing Beyond the Prison" to amplify writings by the incarcerated & enhance the understanding of mass incarceration & the carceral ecosystem in the U.S.. Congrats, Kara!

September 2022, WGSS Assistant Professor Cristina Khan is out with a new article in Sociology of Race & Ethnicity entitled, "Racialized Tensions and Affinities: Puerto Rican 'Apprentices' and the Policing of Female Masculinity."

September 2022, We are excited to announce that WGSS PhD candidate Jade Kai has been selected as a Fall 2022 IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access) Graduate.

September 2022, Congratulations to Dr. Stephanie Bonvissuto who succesfully defended her disstertation, "Making Room for Queer Spatiality: Discursive Designs of All-Gendered Spaces" on Friday, Sept. 9th.

June 2022, The 2021-2022 Chancellor's Awards for Excellence were announced, and our very own Professor Lisa Diedrich and Dept Admin Jackie Donnelly were selected to receive an award. Lisa was recognized for Excellence in Scholarship & Creative Activities, and Jackie was recognized for Excellence in Professional Service.

June 2022, WGSS faculty member Cristina Silva has co-authored a new piece entitled, "Negotiating racialized organizational spaces and intimacies: An ethnography of playpen strip club" in the Journal of Gender, Work, and Organization.

May 2022, We hope you can join us for two upcoming doctoral defenses - Val Moyer's dissertation defense will take place virtually at 11:00am on Fri, May 6th. Val's dissertation is entitled, Muscles, Testosterone, and Other “Threats” to Women’s SportWe are also excited to announce the virtual doctoral defense of Alexandra Novitskaya, which is scheduled for Thurs, May 12th @ 2pm. Alex's dissertation is entiteld, New queer dissidents: Politics and geopolitics of post-Soviet LGBTQ migration and asylumWe are thrilled to see Val and Alex reach this exciting milestone!

April 2022, Congratulations to WGSS adjunct faculty, Margarita Espada - the founder and executive-artistic director of Teatro Yerbabruja, an organization that uses the arts as a tool for social change. Margarita received an NEA Award as part of its Big Read program to bring U.S. Poet Laureate, Joy Harjo, to Stony Brook Southampton on Friday, April 8. Click here to watch the live recording

November 2021, Congratulations to our very own Mary Jo Bona, appointed to the rank of Distinguished Professor by the State University of New York (SUNY) Board of Trustees for 2021-2022.

September 2021, Hot off the press: the WGSS Fall 2021 Newsletter! Featuring a welcome from our Dept. Chair, Lisa Diedrich, our WGSS alumni/instructor spotlight with Suzanne Staub, an interview with the Queer Diagnosis Podcast crew, and more! Be sure to check it out!

May 2021, WGSS Graduate Certificate Alum, Dr. Helana Darwin's first book is the #1 New Release in Gender Studies on Amazon."Redoing Gender: How Nonbinary Gender Contributes toward Social Change"analyzes the labor of nonbinary outness and advances efforts to theorize social change. Written for a general readership, Redoing Gender aims to increase cisgender readers' empathy for nonbinary people and willingness to engage as allies in the so-called "gender revolution.

April 2021, The African Studies Association has selected Oyèrónkẹ́ Oyěwùmí, professor in the College of Arts and Sciences Department of Sociology,and WGSS associate professor, as the winner of the 2021 Distinguished Africanist Award,which recognizes and honors individuals who have contributed a lifetime of outstanding scholarship in African studies combined with service to the Africanist community

April 2021, Check out this co-authored article by our WGSS PhD candidate, Stephanie Bonvissuto:"On Walls and Bridges: Divisions and Bonds in the Polish Trans Community"written along with Anna Klonkowska.

February 2021, WGSS ProfessorMary Jo Bonawas recognized as a 2021 Online Teaching Ambassador.Dr. Bona was nominated by her Stony Brook campus as an "exemplary online educator, who is both enthusiastic and effective in online teaching, and who can be a positive and strong advocate for online teaching in our SUNY community." Congratulations, Mary Jo!

January 2021, Congratulations to WGSS doctoral student,Hafza Girdap, on her forthcoming edited collection of first-person accounts of survivors of human rights violations in Turkey.Preview and pre-order "The Baby in the Bag" available Feb. 7th.