Gender and Science

Science studies has long been an important area of feminist scholarship, beginning with critical histories and contemporary analyses of medical and life sciences and expanding into investigations in related fields such as primatology, neuroscience, and genomics as well as studies of technology and  engineering. GSWS's Gender and Science Initiative has so far concentrated mainly on the undergraduate curriculum, in keeping with the fact that many GSWS majors and minors are also pursuing majors and minors in the sciences.  Courses such as GSWS 0400 "Gender and Science" (which fulfills the Dietrich School's general education requirement in Natural Science), GSWS 1130 "Gendered Bodies," GSWS 1200 "Transgender Studies," and GSWS 1450 "Gender and Sustainability" are part of this curriculum. Two new courses, "Gender and Medicine" and "Gender, Trauma, and Disability," were launched in 2021-22.  

Building on affiliated faculty members and working collaborations with a number departments and schools of Pitt as well as the Center for Bioethics and Health Law, GSWS is working also to support graduate student interests in gender, sexuality, and areas of science and technology.  GSWS supports cross-listed courses at the undergraduate and graduate level and offers related graduate courses, such as "Gender, Ethics, and the Body."

GSWS sponsors a Gender and Science reading group organized by Dr. Bridget Keown and open to any members of the Pitt community.  Email keown.b@pitt.edu for more information.

The Gender and Science Research Theme

In support of the Gender and Science initiative, GSWS sponsored two years of programming bringing leading scholars in feminist and queer science studies to campus.  

2018-2019

Craig Konnoth and Zena SharmanSymposium: "Access, Advocacy, and Empowerment: Health and Well-Being of LGBTQ Youth."  (October 2018)

Scott W. Stern. Lecture: "Sex, Surveillance, and Social Control:  Casting 'Promiscuous' Women as Threats to National Security, and Incarcerating." (January 2019)

Carolyn Sufrin. Lecture: "Reproductive Health, Reproductive Justice, and Incarceration in the US" (January 2019)

Rajani Bhatia. Lecture: "Gender Before Birth: Sex Selection in a Transnational Context." Colloquium: "Intersectionality in STS: Boundary Object or Insurgent Practice?" (March 2019)

2019-2020

Victoria Pitts-Taylor. Lecture: "How to Wait:  Temporal Narratives of Medicalized Gender Transition." Colloquium:  "Chronopolitics and the Scientization of a Gender 'Disorder'" (September 2019)

Rebecca Jordan-Young. Lecture: "Did Testosterone Cause the Crash of 2008?  Science and Myths of Gender, Social Class, and Risk." (November 2019)

Sarah S. Richardson. Lecture: "The Maternal Imprint: Gender, Heredity, and the Biosocial Body." Colloquium: "Sex Contextualism." (January 2020)

Jenny Reardon. Lecture: "The Postgenomic Condition: Truth, Race, and Justice after the Genome." Colloquium: "Science and Justice: The Trouble, The Promise, and a Training Program." (March 2020)