Current Position

Full Professor of English, USC
Director for the Center for Feminist Research

Areas of specialization: cultural studies, queer theory, Visual Culture, Gothic literature and the horror film, postmodern culture, film and video, feminist theory, gender studies.

Education

1991 Ph.D. in English Literature, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN.
1989 M.A. in English Literature, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN.
1985 B.A., Highest Honors in English, University of California, Berkeley.

Book Projects

• Skin Shows: Gothic Horror and The Technology of Monsters. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1995.
• Posthuman Bodies. Co-Edited with Ira Livingston, Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1995.
• Female Masculinity. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1998.
• The Drag King Book. With Del LaGrace Volcano. London: Serpent's Tail, 1999.
• In A Queer Time and Place: Transgender Bodies, Subcultural Lives. New York: NYU Press, 2005.
  

Fellowships and Prizes 1995-Present

Publications

• “What’s Queer About Queer Studies Now?” Special Issue of Social Text, co-edited with David Eng and Jose Munoz (Vol. 84–85 Fall/Winter 2005).
  
• “Shame and White Gay Masculinity” in Social Text (84-85 Fall/Winter 2005): 219–234.
  
• “Queer Studies Now” in A Companion to Gender Studies, eds. Philomena Essed, David Theo Goldberg, Audrey Kobayashi (London and New York: Blackwell, 2004).
  
• “Pimp My Bride” (article on reality marriage TV shows) in The Nation (June 17, 2004).
  
• “Neo-Splatter: The Bride of Chucky and the Horror of Heteronormativity,” translated into German and published in Splatter Movies: Essays zum modernen Horrorfilm" (Berlin: Bertz + Fischer, 2004).
  
• “La Mirada Transgenerica,” translation of my article, “The Transgender Gaze,” into Spanish for Lectora, by Grup de Recerca Dones i Textualitat Departament de Filologia Espanyola.
  
• “Cabello/Carceller: Swimming to Utopia,” art catalogue for exhibit “En Construccion,” Sala Verionicas, Murcia, Spain.
  
• “What’s That Smell: Archiving Queer Subcultures.” International Journal of Cultural Studies, Special Issue on Reimagining Communities, eds. Anne-Marie Fortier and Sara Ahmed, Volume 6 #3 (September 2003): 313–334.
  
• “The Brandon Archive” in Queer Studies: An Interdisciplinary Reader, ed. Robert Corber (NY: Blackwell, 2002).
  
• “The Good, The Bad and the Ugly: Men, Women and Masculinity” in Feminist Studies and Masculinity, edited by Judith K. Gardiner (NY: Columbia UP, 2002): 344–367.
  
• “The Transgender Gaze in Boys Don’t Cry” in Screen Vol. 42 #3 (Autumn 2001): 294–298.
  
• “Oh Behave! Austin Powers and the Drag Kings” in GLQ “Special Issue: Men and Lesbianism,” Volume 7 #3 (2001): 425–452. Winner of the Compton-Noll Prize, 2001.
  
• “La Fabrique des Monstres: Frankenstein de Mary Shelley” translation and reprint of Chapter 2 from Skin Shows in “L’Homme Artificiel,” Otrante: Art and Litterature Fantastiques (1999): 68–83.
  
• “Interview mit Judith Halberstam von Juliane Rebentisch und Marc Siegel” in Texte Zur Kunst (Marz 2000): 104–117.
  
• “Posthuman Bodies, An Interview” by James Grisolia, MD in San Diego Physician, Vol. 87, #3 (March 2000): 18–19.
  
• “The Butch Anthropologist Out in the Field” an Introduction to Margaret Mead Made Me Gay: The Collected Essays of Esther Newton (Durham, NC: Duke Univ. Press, 2000).
  
• “Telling Tales: Brandon Teena, Billy Tipton and Transgender Biography” in a/b Volume 15 #1 “Special Issue on Queer Auto/Biographies,” ed. Thomas Spear (Summer 2000): 62–81. Republished in Passing: Identity and Interpretation in Sexuality, Race and Religion, eds maria Carla Sanchez and Linda Schlossberg (NY: NYU Press, 2001): 13–37.
  
• “Thugs, Geezers and Kings: Post-Imperial Masculinities” in Identities: A Journal for Politics, Gender and Culture Volume One (Summer, 2001): 82–112. Republished in Un/Sichtbarkeiten der Differenz: Beitrage zur Genderdebatte in den Kunsten, ed. Annette Jael Lehmann (Stauffenberg, 2001): 145–164.
  
• “Masculinity Without Men,” an interview of Judith Halberstam by Annamarie Jagose in Genders #29 (Spring 1999): 25 pp. [http://www.genders.org/g29/g29_halberstam.html]
  
• “Female-to-Butch: Butch/FTM Border Wars and the Masculine Continuum" in GLQ, Special Issue on “Transgender Studies,” edited by Susan Stryker (March 1998): pp.
  
• “Oh Bondage Up Yours!: Female Masculinity and the Tomboy,” in Tomboys and Sissies: A CLAGS Reader, edited by Matt Rottneck. (New York: New York University Press 1999): 153–179.
  
• “Mackdaddy, Rapper, Superfly: Race and Gender in the Drag King Scene,” in Social Text, Special Issue on “Race and Sexuality,” edited by Jose Munoz and Ann McClintock, (Fall 1997): 104–132.
  
• “Queer Theory,” “Gothic” and “Drag Kings,” in Lesbian Histories and Cultures, edited by Bonnie Zimmerman (NY: Garland Reference Library of the Social Sciences, 2000): 340–341; 247–249.
  
• “Sex Debates” in Lesbian and Gay Studies: A Critical Introduction, edited by Andy Medhurst and Sally Munt. London: Cassell, 1997: 327–340.
  
• “Between Butches,” in Butch/Femme: Theorizing Lesbian Gender,edited by Sally Munt. London: Cassell, 1997: 57–66.
  
• “Bathrooms, Butches and the Aesthetics of Female Masculinity,” in Rrose is a Rrose is a Rrose: Gender Performance in Photography, edited by Jennifer Blessing. New York: Guggenheim Museum, 1997: 176–189.
  
• “Who’s Afraid of Queer Theory?” in Class Issues: Pedagogy, Cultural Studies and the Cultural Sphere, edited by Amitava Kumar (New York: NYU Press, 1997): 256–275.
  
• “Techno-Homo: on Bathrooms, Butches and Sex With Furniture” in Processed Lives: Gender and Technology in Everyday Life, edited by Jennifer Terry and Melodie Calvert. London and New York: Routledge, 1997: 183–194.
  
• "The Joe-Joe Effect," GLQ Volume 1 #3 (Summer, 1994).
  
• "F2M: The Making of Female Masculinity" in The Lesbian Postmodern, ed. Laura Doan (New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1994): 210–28. (Reprinted in Lesbian Words, ed. Randy Turoff (Masquerade Books, 1995).
  
• "Imagined Violence/Queer Violence: Representations of Rage and Resistance," Social Text #37 (Winter 1993): 187–201. (Reprinted in Reel Violence: An Anthology on Violence and Representation, (Austin, TX: Univ. of Texas Press, 2001): 244–266.
  
• "Technologies of Monstrosity: Bram Stoker's Dracula," Victorian Studies 36 #3 (Spring 1993): 333 –352. (Reprinted in Culture and Politics in the 1890's, eds. Sally Ledger and Scott McCracken [Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1994]).
  
• "Skinflick: Posthuman Gender in Jonathan Demme's The Silence of the Lambs," Camera Obscura (Fall 1992): 37–54.
  
• “Automating Gender: Postmodern Feminism in the Age of the Intelligent Machine," Feminist Studies (Winter, 1992): 439–460. (Reprinted in Sex/Machine: Readings in Culture, Gender and Technology, ed. Patrick D. Hopkins (Bloomington, IN: Indiana UP, 1998): 468–483. Also reprinted in Theorizing Feminism: Parallel Trends in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NY: Westview Press, forthcoming).
  

Selected Lectures 1999-2000

• “Transgender in a Global Frame,” invited lecture, University of Basel, Switzerland, July 6, 2006.
  
• “Bois, Girls and Trans-generations,” invited participant at “Girl Conference” organized by Angela McRobbie, Goldsmiths College, London, June 21-22 2006.
  
• Invited resident at the Kent Center for Law, Sexuality and Gender, University of Kent, UK, June 18 – July 1.
  
• “Gender Studies in a Global Frame,” invited seminar participant, Dubrovnik, Croatia, May 22-26 2006.
  
• “In A Queer Time and Space,” invited speaker in Rome and Bologna, Italy, May 15th- 19th  2006.
  
• “Transgender in a Global Frame,” invited seminar, University of Frankfurt, Germany, May 11th 2006. Also, speaker at Counter-University event, Frankfurt, May 12th.
  
• “Re-Visioning Gender: The Future of Gender Studies,” plenary speaker, Re-Visioning Gender Conference, Braunschweig University, Germany, May 4 2006.
  
• “Notes on Failure,” invited speaker at the Unit for Criticism and Theory, University of Illinois, Champaign, April 14th  2006.
  
• “Queer Covers: Big Mama Thorton, Lesbians on Ecstasy and the Recycling of Political Culture,” invited lecture, McGill University, April 6 2006.
  
• “Queering the Western: Brokeback Mountain in Context,” invited presenter of clip show at the International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, BFI London, March 30, 2006.
  
• “Neo-Liberalism and the University,” invited speaker on a plenary session at Association for Asian American Studies, Atlanta GA, March 24, 2006.
  
• “In A Queer Time and Place,” special panel arranged on my book, In A Queer Time and Place, at American Association of Geography in Chicago, March 8, 2006.
  
• “Notes on Failure,” keynote speaker at Graduate Student conference on “Failure,” UC Irvine, March 1-3, 2006.
  
• “Notes on Failure,” invited speaker, Boston University, Feb. 24, 2006.
  
• “Transgender in a Global Frame,” invited plenary speaker at Transforming Knowledge Conference, University of Chicago, February 16-18, 2006.
  
• “Notes on Failure,” invited speaker, UT Austin, Jan. 26, 2006.
  
• “Queer Theory and Female Masculinity,” keynote address at the 2nd Annual Conference on Lesbian Politics, Valencia, Spain, December 8, 2005.
  
• “Notes on Failure” invited speaker at University of Sussex and Kent University Center for Gender and Law, England, December 6-7.
  
• “Forget Family: Queer Studies and Anti-Oedipal Discourse,” invited plenary speaker at the National Conference on Family Relations, Phoenix, AZ, November 17, 2005.
  
• “Notes on Failure,” keynote speaker, graduate student conference on Academia and Activism, University of Florida, Gainesville, Oct. 28, 2005.
  
• “Transgender Films,” invited workshop presenter, Queer Film Festival, Hamburg, Germany, October, 13, 2005.
  
• “Queer Abstraction,” invited plenary speaker for Art History Conference “Art and Transgression,” Lausanne Switzerland, October 15, 2005.
  
• “Notes on Failure,” invited speaker, King’s College, London, October, 11, 2005.
  
• “Gender Politics and Globlization,” keynote address at “Transgressing Gender Conference,” Zagreb, Croatia, Oct. 7, 2005.
  
• “Notes on Failure,” distinguished annual guest lecture, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, Sept. 30, 2005.
  
• “Notes on Failure,” invited speaker, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, September 16, 2005.
  
• “Rural Space and Queer Identities,” Keynote speaker at conference on “Remote Sexualities” in the Faroe Islands, August 25-27, 2005.
  
• “Comparative Female Masculinities,” panel participant, conference on “Queer Asia,” Bangkok, Thailand, July 8, 2005.
  
• “Queer Cultural Studies,” week long seminar for Gender Zentrum, University of Basel, Switzerland, June 27-July 3.
  
• “Queer Abstraction, “ invited speaker at conference on “Aesthetics” for the Bavarian Association of American Studies, Munich, Germany, June 9-11, 2005.
  
• “Queer Forgetting,” Frei Universitat, Berlin, Germany, June 6, 2005.
  
• “Masculinities and Feminism,” seminar on masculinities, Uppsala University, Sweden, May 25, 2005.
  
• “Art and Activism,” keynote speaker, conference on “Art and Activism,” University of Malmo, Malmo, Sweden, May 20, 2005.
  
• “Queer Theory,” guest lecturer at University of Copenhagen, Denmark, May 18, 2005.
  
• “Queer Abstraction,” invited lecture at Chelsea College, London, May 17, 2005.
  
• “Queer Forgetting,” invited speaker, Goldsmith College, London, May 16, 2005.
  
• “Queer Scapes,” invited lecture at an art show on “Gender and Performance,” Valencia, Spain, May 10, 2005.
  
• “Queer Forgetting,” Banquet Speaker at The Association for Women in Psychology, Tampa,FLA, Feb. 27, 2005.
  
• “Queer Forgetting,” University of Kansas, Lawrence, Jan. 31, 2005. Also given as a keynote at Claremont, CA Feb 19th, 2005.
  
• “Queer Masculinities,” Georg Brandes Skolen, Univ. of Copenhagen, Denmark, December 8,2004.
  
• “The Art of Collaboration,” roundtable at Modern Art Museum, Malmo, Sweden, December 6.
  
• “Female Masculinity and Militarism,” Ochanamizu University, Tokyo Japan, November 27, 2004.
  
• “The Transgender Gaze,” Tsuda University, Tokyo, Japan, November 24, 2004.
  
• “Ceremonies of Our Present: Queer Photographic Histories,” invited lecture and part of the Chancellor Jackman Lecture Series in “Remapping American Studies,” University of Toronto, October 28, 2004.
  
• “Queer Forgetting,” invited speaker, MIT, Women’s Studies, October 27, 2004.
  
• “You Are My Friend: Sylvester’s Falsetto and the Sounds of Queer Friendship,” invited speaker at the Sylvester Conference at NYU, October 8-9, 2004.
  
• “Queer Forgetting,” University of Hawai`i-M?noa Department of English, Joseph ChadwickLecture Series, September 16-17, 2004.
  
• Visiting Professor, University of Basel, Gender Centrum, Basel, Switzerland, July 2004.
  
• “Ceremonies of Our Present: Queer Images in 20th Century Photography,” Invited visitor and lecturer, University College, Dublin, June 2004.
  
• “Queer Theory Now,” plenary speaker at Queer Matters: An International Queer Conference, King’s College, London, May 2004.
  
• “Contested Images: Queer Art and Censorship,” guest lecturer, The Hammer Museum, LA, CA,  March, 2004.
  
• “Dude Where’s My Queer Theory,” invited speaker in Provost’s Lecture Series on Popular Culture, Bowling Green University, Ohio, March 2004.
  
• “Transgender Feminism and the Evolution of the Clownfish,” plenary speaker, Generations of Feminism Conference, University of Chicago, Feb. 2003.
  
• “Ceremonies of Our Present: Queer Images in 20th Century Photography,” Invited visitor andlecturer, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Feb. 9-14, 2004.
  
• “Dude, Where’s My Gender?” Invited Speaker in “Thinking Sex Transnationally” Lecture Series, University of Washington, Seattle, Oct. 2003. Talk also given at USC, Nov. 2003, Tufts, 2003; UCLA, Feb. 2004, Berkeley, Feb. 2004.
  
• "New Directions in Queer Feminisms,” Plenary Speaker at Sustainable Feminisms, Macalester College, October 2003.
  
• “Subcultural Photography,” closing keynote address, Photoespana Conference, Madrid Spain, June 2003.
  
• “Dude, Where’s My Theory?” invited participant, The Future of American Studies,Dartmouth College, June 2003.
  
• “The Transgender Gaze,” invited lecturer, The Transgender Film Festival, Amsterdam,The Netherlands, May 2003.
  
• “Flesh Sculptures: Transgender Representation in Contemporary Art,” Keynote, GenderStudies Conference, Copenhagen, DK, April, 2003.
  
• “Gay Shame?” invited speaker at Gay Shame Conference, Univ. of Michigan, AnnArbor, March 2003.
  
• “Gender Performances,” invited speaker at Seminar on Gender and Performance,University of Andalucia, Sevilla, Spain, March 2003.
  
•  “Shadows on a Dime: Temporality, Generational Conflict and Subcultural Lives,” invited talk SUNY Stony Brook, Feb 11-13 (also two public seminars), 2003.
  
• “Shadows on a Dime: Temporality, Generational Conflict and Subcultural Lives,” invited talk for Gender Studies at Northwestern University, Jan. 23, 2003.
  
• “Technotopias: “Technotopia: Trans Bodies and Neo Organs,” Keynote Address  at Technotopias Conference, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland, July 9-11, 2002.
  
• “Transitivities in Postmodernism,” invited seminar leader, “Summer Session: Subjectivity,/Identity: The Body,” University of Southern Maine, July 26-28, 2002.
  
• "Queer Theory and Feminism,” and “Drag Kings,”invited speaker at Stockholm Gay Pride Festival, Stockholm, Sweden, August 2002.
  
• “Lesbian Subcultures, Lesbian Community,” invited plenary, Rethinking Communities, Lancaster University, Lancaster, May 20-22.
  
• “Farewell to Heternormativity,” keynote address at Second Annual Gay and Lesbian StudiesConference, Goteberg, Sweden, May 19th, 2002.
  
• “Queer Subcultural Production,” invited public lecture, Sodra Teatern, Stockholm, Sweden, May21, 2002.
  
• “Representing the Transgender Body in Contemporary Art,” invited lecturer, Espai D’Art,Saville, Spain, May 17-19, 2002.     
  
• Australian Lecture Tour funded in part by the Australian Film Commission, Universities of Sydney, Macquarie, Melbourne, Monash, Adelaide, UWA, Murdoch, Edith Cowan. March 20-April 10.
  
• “Queer Studies, West Coast Style,” invited panelist, UC Berkeley Center for the Study of Sexual Cultures, inaugural conference, march 8-9, 2002.
  
• “Feminism and Transgender Community,” invited lecturer, Smith College, Northampton, MA, Feb 28th, 2002.
  
• “Queer Collaborations: An evening of Drag Kings” in the Queer Diaspora Lecture Series, Barnard College, NY, Feb 27th, 2002.
  
• “Transgender Feminisms,” invited panelist at UCSC Conference on Transfeminisms, Santa Cruz,
  CA, Feb 23, 2002.
  
• “Behind the Scenes: Collaborating on Long Live the Kings,” Keynote Address at USC Graduate Student Conference “The Artist and the Critic,” Los Angeles, CA Feb 22, 2002.
  
• “Under the Knife: Representing the Transgender Body in Contemporary Art,” invited lecture, CAL Arts, Feb. 21, 2002.
  
• “What’s That Smell? Theorizing Queer Subcultures,” invited lecture at University of British Columbia, Canada, Feb 14th; also delivered by invitation at Univ. of Washington, Seattle, Feb 15th.
  
• “What’s That Smell” and “Queer Collaborations,” invited lecture/seminar at Duke University, Jan 31-Feb 1, 2002.
  
• “What’s That Smell? Theorizing Queer Subcultures,” invited lecture, University of Connecticut  Storrs CT, Dec. 5th, 2001. Also delivered by invitation at RCA, London Dec 13 and Goldsmith’s College, London, Dec. 14th.
  

The Queer Gaze, Yale University, Fall 1996; Literature and the History of Sexuality, Yale, Spring 1997; Introduction to Gay and Lesbian Studies (team taught), Yale, Spring, 1997; Postmodern Fiction: Race and Gender in the Contemporary American Novel, UCSD, Fall, 1997; Interdisciplinary Queer Studies, Graduate Seminar, UCSD, Spring 1998; Introduction to English Literature, 1832-Present, Spring, 1998; Feminism and Queer Theory, Spring, 1998; Gay, Lesbian and Queer Film, Fall 1998; Feminism and Masculinity, Winter, 1999; Honors Seminar for Literature Students, Winter 1999; Introduction to English Literature, 1832-Present, Spring, 1999; Foundational Sequence: Introduction for Literature Graduate Students to the Study of Gender and Sexuality, Spring, 1999; British Modernism, Fall 1999; Modern Masculinities, Graduate Seminar, Fall, 1999; Interdisciplinary Approaches to LGBT Studies,team taught with Steve Epstein, Winter 2000;  Honors Seminar, Winter 2000; Critical Gender Studies 100: Race, Space and Sexuality, taught with Chandan Reddy, Spring 2000; Feminist and Queer Film Theory, Graduate Seminar, Winter 2001; Gender and Subcultures, CGS 105, Spring 2001; Postmodern Novel, Spring 2001; Gender, Sexuality and Cinema, Fall 2001; Sexuality and Space, Fall 2001; Gay, Lesbian and Queer Literature, Winter 2002; Culture, Art and Technology, Faculty seminar, Spring 2002. Postmodern Literature, Fall 2002; Cultural Studies: Theories and Methods, Fall 2002; Introduction to Sexuality and Gender, Winter 2003; Bodies, Machines, Media, Spring 2003; Cultural Studies: In Theory and Practices – Graduate Seminar, Spring 2003. Memory, History and Identity in Postmodern Literature and Film, ARLT 47457R, Fall 2004; Cultural Studies: Theories and Methods, Graduate Seminar, Spring 2005; Introduction to Gender Studies, undergraduate large lecture class, Spring 2005; Queer Studies, graduate seminar, Fall 2005.

Editorial Experience

Series Editor with Lisa Lowe for Perverse Modernities: Race, Sex and the Break-Up of Knowledge, a book series which contributes to the general project of the critique of modernity by soliciting book projects that engage the problems of "knowing," "historicizing," "enacting" or "narrating" forms, communities, and practices that are constitutively occluded by disciplinary modes of western modernity. PERVERSE MODERNITIES calls for work that studies processes through which gender, race, and sexuality are linked and mutually articulated media of subject formation and social relations, and how such subjects and relations are reproduced and sustained by cultural texts and practices, and significantly, which subjects, texts, and practices can and must be the sites of critical reformulations and alternatives to dominant formations within modernity.

Reviewer, Signs: A Journal of Women in Culture and Society, National Women's
Studies Journal, Victorian Studies, GLQ,, Sexualities, NWSA, Cultural Critique.

Manuscript reader for Routledge, Rutgers University Press, SUNY Press, Columbia University Press, Chicago University Press, Duke University Press, Oxford University Press, Michigan University Press, Minnesota.

References

Professor George Lipsitz, Department of American Studies, UC Santa Cruz

Professor Lisa Lowe, Department of Literature, UC San Diego

Professor Esther Newton, Department of Anthropology, SUNY Purchase