Gender Studies Symposium

42nd Annual Gender Studies Symposium
Bodies of Knowledge: Gender, Sex, Science, and Medicine
March 8–10, 2023

The 42nd Annual Gender Studies Symposium explores the ways that science and medicine intersect with gender and sexuality to create knowledge, establish authority, and shape policy. This symposium also examines how people experience their interactions with these institutions and ideas, a reality that is especially urgent today, as medical science related to gender, sex, and sexuality is routinely invoked and/or ignored for different political purposes.

We invite symposium participants to consider their beliefs and preconceptions. To that end, this symposium asks:

• How have racialized concepts of gender and sexuality been produced through scientific research and medical practice?
• How does scientific knowledge affirm or challenge understandings of gender and sexuality?
• In what ways has science shaped our interpretations of different kinds of bodies?
• How has medical racism affected ideas of gender and sexuality as well as systems of health care?
• How have scientific definition and medical diagnosis functioned as tools of authority?
• How have people resisted these systems to reshape practices and perceptions related to gender and sexuality in medical institutions and science?

With this symposium, we hope to inspire thought and conversation about these deeply entrenched institutions and ideas that are relevant to our everyday lives, and we invite participants to consider the paths ahead.

2022-23 student co-chairs:
Eli Bricknell ’23, Sofia Reeves ’23, and Julia Salomone ’23

Learn more about this year’s schedule, keynote speakers, art show, and other details.