Gender and Sexuality Studies Symposium

title card for GSS Symposium

The Gender and Sexuality Studies Symposium has created this digital archive to celebrate and showcase student work in Gender and Sexuality Studies. A call is made each year for submissions oriented around gender and sexuality or that center a feminist, queer, trans, and/or non-binary perspective, including academic essays, posters, artwork, performances, podcast, digital media, activism projects, and more. 

23rd Annual Gender and Sexuality Studies Symposium

SPENCE WILSON ROOM THURSDAY APRIL 9th, 2026


3:00-3:05 P.M. Conference Opening
Welcome! Judith Haas, chair of Gender and Sexuality Studies 

3:05-4:20 P.M. Panel 1: Bodies, Bodies, Bodies: Queer and Feminist Corporeality
Moderator: Prof. Shatavia Wynn 

Evie Drescher, "Sacred Queer Spaces: Exploring the Sensual and Spiritual in Moroccan Hammams" 

GraceAnne Hodgson, "Trans or More Trans: Investigating Medieval Transness without the Yes or No Question" 

Edith Lee, "Bitten, Blamed, and Silenced: The Female Vampire as the Scapegoat for Disease"

Theo Lord, "May Her Breasts Satisfy You Always: Christian Ethics and Decriminalizing Sex Work"

4:20-4:30 P.M. Break/art exhibit: "Distorted, Perversion," curated by Jeanne Bikorimana Poster presentation: Jessie Poulter, "Love lost, Rival Found: Evolutionary vs. Social Explanations for Rebound Distress" 

4:30-5:30 P.M Panel 2: Integrating Socio-cultural Perspectives on Gender and Sexuality
Moderator: Prof. Kelly Jo Fulkerson Dikua 

Ella Myers, "Hysteria and Gendered Medicine: How Nineteenth-Century Medicine Pathologized Women's Emotions" 

hania Moore, "The 'Ideal Victim': Exploring Evolutionary Roots and Social Constructions of Perceived Credibility in Sexual Harassment Cases"

Julianne Sellers, "Gender as Moderator in the Relationship between Instrinsic Religiosity and Guilt in Catholic Adults"

5:30-5:45 P.M. Break/art exhibit: "Distorted, Perversion," curated by Jeanne Bikorimana Poster presentation: essie Poulter, Love lost, Rival Found: Evolutionary vs. Social Explanations for Rebound Distress" 

5:45-6:45 P.M. Panel 3: Communities, Crisis, and Mobilization
Moderator: Prof. Rebecca Tuvel 

Sophia Gregorovic, "How Did the Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Communities Respond to the AIDS Crisis?" 

Hannah Pankey, "The Climate Crisis in India: Ecofeminists and their Mobilization Against Climate Change"

Sofia Lewis, "Politics of Exclusion: How Moroccan Women Attempted to Liberate Themselves in the 2011 Arab Spring"