Professor J. Jack Halberstam in Residence at GW as Wang Distinguished Professor
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| Photo by Assaf Evron |
From September 28-October 4, GW’s English Department is pleased to host Professor J. Jack Halberstam as this year’s Wang Distinguised Professor-in-Residence. Halberstam is Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity, Gender Studies, and Comparative Literature at the University of Southern California. He is the author of five books, including In a Queer Time and Place (2005), The Queer Art of Failure (2010), and Gaga Feminism: Sex, Gender, and the End of Normal, which is due out this month. Gaga Feminism examines the public persona of pop icon Lady Gaga and, through analyses of Gaga’s gender-bending performances, reflects on the myriad ways that sex and gender have rapidly evolved over the past few decades. “Using Lady Gaga as a symbol for a new era,” publisher Beacon Press explains, “Halberstam deftly unpacks what the pop superstar symbolizes, to whom and why. The result is a provocative manifesto of creative mayhem, a roadmap to sex and gender for the twenty-first century, that holds Lady Gaga as an exemplar of a new kind of feminism that privileges gender and sexual fluidity.”
The first event connected to Halberstam’s GW visit (full schedule below) will be a book launch for Gaga Feminism.
This visiting residency was created through a gift by Albert Wang and his family that has, since 2009, supported professors such as Edward P. Jones (now a member of the GW English Department) and José Esteban Muñoz. The gift from the Wang family is one of the largest philanthropic commitments to GW’s Columbian College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of English.
Halberstam Residency Schedule of Events
Book Launch. Gaga Feminism: Sex, Gender and the End of Normal
Free and open to the public. Books will be available for purchase.
Friday, September 28, 6.30-8 PM, Busboys and Poets, 1025 5th Street NW (at the corner of 5th and K Streets NW)
Seminar for Students and Faculty with Professor Halberstam
This seminar is filled to capacity and now closed. To be placed on a waiting list, please contact Robert McRuer at rmcruer@gwu.edu
Monday, October 1, 6.30-8.30 PM, Rome Hall 771
GW Distinguished Lecture in Literary and Cultural Studies. “Going Gaga: Spectacle and the Politics of Protest”
Free and open to the public. Made possible by the Wang fund.
Wednesday, October 3, 4-6 PM, Marvin Center 309. The Marvin Center is located on GW’s campus at 800 21st Street NW
