Department of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Spring 2025 Newsletter
Dear WGSS Community,
We hope our spring newsletter finds you as well as can during these intense and uncertain times. The WGSS Department is feeling angry, alarmed and exhausted by the last few months, and we suspect many of you are feeling similarly. At the same time, we are not willing to give in to fear and despair.
We remain steadfastly committed to building vibrant feminist, queer, and trans communities; producing insurgent and transformative knowledge in and out of the classroom; and to fighting for gender and sexual liberation and racial, economic, disability and environmental justice.
Higher education is a primary target for this new administration, and the fields of gender and ethnic studies have been identified as threats to the nation. Under these conditions, the importance – and the transformative potential – of our work as WGSS teachers and researchers becomes all the more clear and even more necessary.
As I told The Statesman earlier this semester, in spite of everything, this is an exciting moment for WGSS at Stony Brook. We are growing, and we feel energized. Our faculty has nearly doubled in size over the past two years. Our graduate program continues to attract truly outstanding scholar-activist-teachers, and our undergraduate major and minor continue to grow, with our classes filling with waitlists every semester. The momentum is palpable.
We know the importance of community at times like these, so we are eager to connect with our alumni and friends. We wanted to let you know what’s happening in our department, and we’re eager to hear from you. If you have a moment, please let us know what you’ve been up to and what WGSS means to you!
Warmest regards,
Liz Montegary Associate Professor and Department Chair
The Mary Jo Bona Distinguished Lecture Series
Thanks to a generous gift from Distinguished Professor Emerita Mary Jo Bona and her partner Judith Pfenninger, WGSS will be launching the Mary Jo Bona Distinguished Lecture Series during the 2026-27 academic year. Our gratitude for Mary Jo and Judy’s generosity is matched only by our excitement about planning the inaugural lecture!
This year, undergrad researchers have received recognition for their excellent work here at Stony Brook and beyond. Laci Burton ’25 was named URECA Research of the Month this semester, and Angelina Castillo ’24 published an article based on her WGSS senior research project this past winter.
PhD Candidate Hafza Girdap Recognized at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Visionary Awards Gala
In celebration of Women’s History Month, the New York State Senate and Nassau County named Hafza Girdap a “Woman of Destiny” for her work with Advocates of Silenced Turkey.
PhD Candidate Emillion Adekoya's Summer Fellowship with the Sexuality Research Data Lab
Emillion Adekoya was selected – not once, but twice! – to serve as a Summer Research Fellow with the Human Sexuality Studies program at the California Institute of Integral Studies. During Summers 2023 and 2024, Emillion joined a team of researchers at the Sexuality Research Data Lab to systematically study sex work commentary on social media platforms.
WGSS Welcomes New Assistant Professor Dr. Joanna Wuest
WGSS was absolutely delighted to welcome Assistant Professor Joanna Wuest this past fall. Dr. Wuest is a sociolegal scholar focusing on LGBTQ+ rights, health and conservatism, and will be teaching courses on trans studies, feminist histories, and the politics of health and science.
Dr. Angela Jones Joins WGSS as Senior IDEA Scholar
This fall, Dr. Angela Jones joined us as a Senior IDEA Scholar. They are an award-winning teacher and writer with expertise in African American political thought and protest, sex work, race, gender, sexuality, feminist theory, Black feminisms, and queer methodologies and theory. Dr. Jones is a long-time friend of the WGSS Department and we couldn’t be more excited for them to be officially a part of our community.
Dr. Manisha Desai
Dr. Manisha Desai joined SBU in Fall 2023 as the executive director of the Center for Changing Systems of Power. She has a joint appointment in WGSS and the Department of Sociology, as the Empowerment Charitable Trust Endowed Professor in Global Citizenship, and we could not be happier to welcome her! In her short time here, Dr. Desai has been a steadfast and fierce advocate for climate justice, artistic freedom, transnational feminism and student protest movements. Read more about her in this recent profile in SBU Magazine.
WGSS depends on our alumni and friends to expand field opportunities for our students and provide seed money for senior honors theses and summer research experiences. Please consider investing in our students, faculty and staff by making a gift today or connecting with Michael D'Ambrosio, senior director of development.
E-3320 Frank Melville Jr. Memorial Library | Stony Brook, NY 11794-3354 (631) 632-6999
Stony Brook Foundation, Stony Brook University 230 Administration | Stony Brook, NY 11794-1188
