Center for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality

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Center for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality

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Tracing its roots back to 1992, the Center for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality at Rice Uni

Established in 2006 as an outgrowth of the Program for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality, the Center for the Study of Women, Gender and Sexuality at Rice encompasses interdisciplinary academic programs and research intensive opportunities, including:

- an undergraduate major in the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality
- a minor in Poverty, Social Justice, and Human Capabilities
- a graduate certificate program
- a two-year postdoctoral fellowship program
- research clusters on:
~~ Gender, Health and Human Well-being,
~~ Gender and Urban Life,
~~ Sex, Race, and Nation
~~ Women and Global Poverty
- The Feminist Research Group
- The Sexuality Studies Working Group
- The Center also houses the international journal, Feminist Economics and is a partner in Houston ARCH (Area Rainbow Collective History).

10/16/2026

⭐ Faculty Spotlight: Amy Kahrmann Huseby
Join us in celebrating an incredible lineup of publications and global scholarship from Rice’s Amy Kahrmann Huseby! 📚✨

Here is a look at her forthcoming books and recent conference presentations:
📖 The Cambridge History of Victorian Women's Writing (Cambridge UP, Dec 2026)
Co-edited with Carolyn Dever (Dartmouth), this 723-page volume features nearly 40 chapters from an international body of scholars. Huseby authored the introduction and the chapter "Specimens of Empire: Women's Collecting and the Composition of Knowledge."
📖 The Verse Dramas of Michael Field: Decadent to Modern Theater (Cambridge UP, March 2026) Co-edited with Ana Parejo Vadillo (Birkbeck London), this is the first-ever sustained study of the 20+ verse dramas by Katharine Bradley and Edith Cooper (the aunt and niece who wrote collaboratively as Michael Field).

💡 Special Note: Huseby authored the chapter "Jealousy, Stigma, and Authority in Michael Field’s Historical Dramas," and gives a huge shoutout to the Spring 2025 CSWGS workshop participants for their feedback!

🗣️ Global Conference Presentations: Huseby also delivered two conference presentations examining John Ruskin's dead bird paintings as aesthetic representations of relational rupture, slow violence, and psychosexual frustration:

Australasian Victorian Studies Association (Auckland, NZ): "The Silencing of Secondary Help: Ruskin’s Dead Birds and the Failure of Relation."

Northeast Victorian Studies Association (Ithaca, NY): "Secondary Help: The Gendered Silences of Ruskin’s Dead Birds."

Congratulations, Amy, on these substantial contributions! 👏

10/09/2026

⭐ Faculty Publication Spotlight: Dr. Michael Dango

Join us in celebrating Dr. Michael Dango (Associate Professor of English and Creative Writing) on the release of his new co-edited volume, New R**e Studies: Humanistic Interventions (SUNY Press)!

Co-edited alongside Erin A. Spampinato and Doreen Thierauf, this urgent collection demonstrates why the movement against sexual violence needs the humanities now more than ever.

About the Book: Rather than relying solely on carceral state solutions or public health frameworks, New R**e Studies features 14 essays that draw on literary criticism, film studies, and art history. Contributors ground their critiques in aesthetic ways of knowing, transforming "r**e culture" by re-committing to culture itself as a critical terrain of political contestation.

The paperback edition will be released this November!

🔗 Order & learn more: https://sunypress.edu/Books/N/New-R**e-Studies

10/05/2026

⭐ Graduate Student Spotlight: Job Market Candidate Maranda Joyce!

Join us in celebrating Political Science PhD candidate Maranda Joyce, who recently won the Best Paper in Education Politics and Policy Award at APSA 2025 for her paper, "Homeschooling as Racial Retreat: The Impact of School District and Leadership Diversity"!

📢 Maranda is on the job market this cycle!

Her research investigates the sources and consequences of anti-democratic political behavior in US local politics, with a particular focus on declining participation in public institutions, local governance conflict, and threats of violence directed at local officials.

Job Market Research & Areas of Focus:

📄 Job Market Paper: Using an original state-representative survey and a novel dataset on district demographics, leadership, and homeschooling in Virginia, Maranda finds that higher levels of nonwhite students in a school district and certain kinds of district leadership diversity are positively associated with increased homeschooling, especially when resources are limited.

⭐ Race, Gender & Anti-Democratic Behavior: In other work, she explores how a politician’s race and gender influence public tolerance for threats of violence (and has been awarded the Marian Irish Award for Best Paper on Women and Politics at SPSA 2024). She also examines the personnel costs of high levels of conflict in school board meetings.

🧑‍🏫 Teaching & Background: Maranda uses survey experiments, audit studies, and large-N observational analysis in her work. She also brings professional experience from the Texas policy and PK–12 education research sectors. She is eager to teach courses in political behavior, race and gender, education policy, American politics, comparative politics, and research methods.

See more: https://marandaljoyce.github.io

09/30/2026

⭐ Alumni Book Announcement: Dr. Meina Yates-Richard!

We are thrilled to celebrate CSWGS Graduate Certificate alum (’16) Dr. Meina Yates-Richard, now an Associate Professor of African American Studies and English at Emory University!

Her forthcoming monograph, Sonorous Passages: Black Maternal Soundings and the Liberation Imaginary, will be released by Duke University Press on November 17, 2026.

🎉 Exclusive Pre-Order Discount: You can pre-order your copy today and save 30% by using the promo code E26SNRS at checkout!

Congratulations, Dr. Yates-Richard, on this major achievement!

🔗 Pre-order here: https://dukeupress.edu/sonorous-passages

06/08/2026

🎉 Alumni Spotlight: Congratulations, Zainab Abdali '26!

We are thrilled to share some wonderful news! Zainab Abdali, who just graduated with her PhD in English and with the CSWGS Graduate Certificate, will be staying at Rice University this fall as the Chao Center's new Postdoctoral Associate for Asian Studies Leadership and Engagement!

📚 Zainab’s research focuses on contemporary South Asian and Arab Anglophone art and literature. Her dissertation project, "Reading the War on Terror: Towards an Abolitionist Horizon" (advised by Dr. Betty Joseph and Dr. Alden Sajor Marte-Wood), deeply examines the literary, visual, and material forms of anti-war resistance and solidarity emerging from the War on Terror.
⭐A Leader on Campus and Beyond:

Zainab’s commitment to community and advocacy shines through her work. She is a co-founder of the Rice Asian Diasporic and Asian American Research Collective (RADAAR), which serves as a crucial hub for research, community-building, and advocacy in Houston and across Texas. Before her time at Rice, she also brought her talents globally as a Fulbright scholar teaching English in Nairobi, Kenya.

Please join us in celebrating Zainab as she transitions from a graduate student to her new role!

04/27/2026

⭐ Alumni Spotlight: Exciting Updates for Dr. K. Eliza Williamson!

Join us in celebrating the incredible recent achievements of Anthropology and CSWGS alum, Dr. K. Eliza Williamson (PhD ’19)!

We are thrilled to announce that this fall, Dr. Williamson will be joining the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs (UCCS) as an Assistant Professor of Anthropology.

A cultural medical anthropologist, her vital research focuses on care in the contexts of crisis and social inequality, primarily in Brazil. We also highly recommend checking out her most recently published work: a chapter titled "Debilitating Care: Mothers and Children in the Aftermath of Zika in Brazil," featured in the new edited volume Histories of Disability in Latin America (Johns Hopkins University Press).

Congratulations, Dr. Williamson, on your new professorship and publication! We are so proud of the impact our CSWGS alumni continue to make in the world! 👏

🔗 Read her new chapter here: https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/54026/histories-disability-latin-america

04/24/2026

⭐ Faculty Spotlight & Huge Publishing News! ⭐

Join us in congratulating CSWGS Graduate Certificate alumna Laura K. Richardson on her book deal!

Her novel, Pornostiltskin, has just been picked up by Zando Books and will be published under the pseudonym Elle Richardson. The book is also prime to go global as foreign rights have just been sold to Germany.

🎬 The Book: It's a sex-positive, warm-hearted comedy set in a Blockbuster Video in 2001. Pornostiltskin follows a virgin cinephile who moonlights as an amateur p**n director--making films inspired by Hollywood classics--who finds herself trapped in a love triangle between two aspiring actors.

Laura has been an amazing part of the Rice community for over 10 years and served as a Lovett RA from 2016 to 2022. We are so incredibly proud of her and cannot wait to read this!

Keep an eye out for the release in late 2027/early 2028! 🎉

04/23/2026

⭐ Recent Special Lecture

It was an absolute honor to host MacArthur Fellow, acclaimed author, and scientist Robin Wall Kimmerer last week for the Marian Fox Martel Distinguished Lecture in Gender and Science!

Her profoundly moving lecture, "Love, Land, Language: Healing Our Relationship with the Natural World," challenged a packed McMurtry Auditorium to rethink our environmental discourse and encouraging us to embrace Indigenous knowledge.
Robin Wall Kimmerer's presence at this event was made possible in cooperation with our generous campus partners: The Center for Environmental Studies, The Cherry Reading Series and the Walter Isle Memorial Endowment of the Department of English and Creative Writing, The Department of History, The Office of Sustainability, and The George R. Brown School of Engineering and Computing

We are also deeply grateful to Basket Books and Art for partnering with us to provide book sales during the reception. Thank you to everyone who attended and helped make this evening so unforgettable!

🔗 More on Robin: https://www.robinwallkimmerer.com/about

04/18/2026

⭐ Student Spotlight: Visionary Partners' Fellow Tabitha Koch

Join us in congratulating CSWGS Graduate Certificate student Tabitha Koch, a recipient of this year’s Visionary Partners' Dissertation Fellowship!

Tabitha’s research centers on women legislators and how they deal with the gendered expectations of their constituents.

📚 Her recent publications and works-in-progress explore:

- How women legislators are credited for their accomplishments compared to men
- How committee assignments and local orientation affect evaluations of women representatives
- Public tolerance for violent threats against women politicians

🔗 See more about Tabitha: https://sites.google.com/view/tabitha-koch/home
🔗 Read her coauthored work here: https://www-cambridge-org.ezproxy.rice.edu/core/journals/perspectives-on-politics/article/gendered-perceptions-of-legislative-influence/B919170826B9F125992C37151387F992?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=bookmark

04/17/2026

⭐ Faculty Feature
We’re excited to welcome new CSWGS Associate, Dr. Michelle Smirnova!

Michelle Smirnova is an Associate Professor of Sociology and the founding Director of Housing & Neighborhoods at the Kinder Institute for Urban Research. Her research explores the root causes of inequality, especially how well-intended policies can sometimes backfire. Drawing on Black Feminist thought, she focuses on the insights of those directly affected by social issues—people who understand, cope with, and resist structural violence.

🔗See more: https://profiles.rice.edu/faculty/michelle-smirnova

Address

6100 Main Street
Houston, TX
77005

Telephone

+17133485784

Website

http://cswgs.rice.edu/

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