MG_5232-760x507.jpg
Lauren RubensteinMarch 18, 20154min
Christina Crosby, professor of English, professor of feminist, gender and sexuality studies, was honored at an event March 10 at Barnard College. Several Wesleyan faculty and alumnae participated in the discussion. The event, titled "Body Undone: A Salon Honoring Christina Crosby," was hosted by the Barnard Center for Research on Women and NYU's Center for Gender and Sexuality Studies. It focused on Crosby's forthcoming memoir of living with disability, Body Undone: Living on After Great Pain. The memoir will be published by NYU Press in the "Sexual Cultures" series. In 2003, Professor Crosby broke her neck in a bicycle accident. "Spinal cord injury…

gruen.jpg
Olivia DrakeMarch 3, 20152min
Lori Gruen, professor and chair of philosophy, professor of environmental studies, and professor of feminist, gender and sexuality studies, is the author of a new book, Entangled Empathy: An Alternative Ethic for Our Relationships with Animals, published by Lantern Books on Feb. 15. In Entangled Empathy, Gruen argues that rather than focusing on animal rights, we ought to work to make our relationships with animals right by empathetically responding to their needs, interests, desires, vulnerabilities, hopes and unique perspectives. Pointing out that we are already entangled in complex and life-altering relationships with other animals, Gruen guides readers through a new way…

Lauren RubensteinMarch 3, 20153min
Lori Gruen, professor and chair of philosophy, discussed her new book, Entangled Empathy: An Alternative Ethic for Our Relationships with Animals, with University of Colorado Professor Emeritus Mark Bekoff in The Huffington Post. Bekoff calls the book "a wonderful addition to a growing literature in the transdisciplinary field called anthrozoology, the study of human-animal relationships." Gruen defines "entangled empathy" as "a process whereby we first acknowledge that we are already in relationships with all sorts of other animals (humans and non-humans) and these relationships are, for the most part, not very good ones. We then work to figure out how to make them better and that…

Olivia DrakeApril 13, 20112min
Lori Gruen, chair of the Philosophy Department, associate professor of feminist, gender and sexuality studies, associate professor of environmental studies, is the author of Ethics and Animals: An Introduction, published by Cambridge University Press in March 2011. In this comprehensive introduction to animal ethics, Gruen weaves together poignant and provocative case studies with discussions of ethical theory, urging readers to engage critically and empathetically reflect on their treatment of other animals. She provides a survey of the issues central to human-animal relations and a reasoned new perspective on current key debates in the field. She analyzes and explains a range of theoretical positions…

David PesciFebruary 14, 20112min
Sex, Gender, Species is the title of an international conference being hosted by Wesleyan Animal Studies and The Center for the Study of Public Life on Feb. 25-26. The conference will explore the intersections between feminist and animal studies and the practical and theoretical problems central to both fields. Speakers from a range of disciplines in the sciences, social sciences, humanities and the arts will focus on a variety of topics addressing human-animal relations and their representations. “The growing field of animal studies has turned critical attention to the real conditions and stakes of human relationships with other animals,” says…

Olivia DrakeDecember 2, 20101min
Cultural Anthropologist Attiya Ahmad joined the Religion Department and Feminism, Gender and Sexuality Studies program as an assistant professor. In the Religion Department, she is teaching a course titled Islam and Muslim Cultures, which familiarizes students with the basic teachings and practices of Islam and examines commonalties and diversity in how Islam has been and continues to be practiced by Muslims. In FGSS, she is teaching a class on Feminist Theories. “Wes is a wonderfully collegial and dynamic intellectual milieu, one that emphasizes both scholarship and teaching,” she says. “This is my first teaching appointment, (more…)

Olivia DrakeNovember 5, 20101min
Mary-Jane Rubenstein, assistant professor of religion, assistant professor of feminist, gender and sexuality studies, was a guest panelist at a conference titled “Christianity and the Global Politics of Sexuality” held Oct. 21 at the Barnard Center for Research on Women, New York University. Focusing specifically on sexuality, Rubenstein and other panelists discussed the ways in which transnational and non-governmental Christian organizations have an impact on legal and social policies in different areas where Christians may comprise a small minority or a larger percentage of the population. In addition, sexuality continues to rankle and even divide Christian churches themselves, as evidenced…

Olivia DrakeSeptember 2, 20101min
Jill Morawski, professor of psychology, professor of science in society, professor of feminist, gender and sexuality studies, is the author of “The Location of our Debates: Finding, Fixing and Enacting Reality,” published in Theory and Psychology; “Review of Beyond the Box: B.F. Skinner's Technology of Behavior from Laboratory to Life,” published in Isis; and “Postwar Promises and Perplexities in the Social Sciences: The Case of ‘Socialization’,” published in History of Psychology.