Sarah Chant
Visiting Lecturer in Women's and Gender Studies
My research explores the production of queer and trans futures and political imaginaries in the U.S. South, particularly through practices of affect and memory. An anthropologist by training, I’ve conducted research amongst drag performers, activists, archivists, and clergy in Alabama, looking at how trans and queer people use strategies of hope, humor, desire, and imagination to make space for themselves and their communities. I’m currently developing a project on the affective dimensions of contemporary and historical anti-trans and anti-queer legislation in the southeastern United States, and how these histories intersect and overlap with anti-Black and anti-immigrant legislative initiatives in the region. I teach courses in queer theory, feminist theory, and queer popular culture, and have previously taught courses at the intersection of affect theory and trans theory as well as queer and trans histories of the U.S. South. As a physics student turned anthropologist turned gender studies scholar, I am also always interested in thinking and learning about different conceptualizations of space and time across disciplinary boundaries.
Education
- B.A., New York University
- M.A., The New School
- Ph.D., The New School
Current and upcoming courses
Queer Popular Culture
WGST209
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Seminar: Intersectional Feminisms
WGST327
Emerging initially from legacies of Black feminist thought and articulating the multiple axes along which sexist oppression is experienced, “intersectionality” has exploded into a buzzword within and beyond feminist theory. Despite critiques of intersectionality’s limitations as an analytical concept, the phrase still contains value for feminist thinking and organizing; as Jennifer C. Nash writes, “in the midst of the uncertainties of the everyday, the promise of intersectionality has become even more significant to feminist practice.” This course will look at the many forms that feminism can take through an intersectional lens, tracing and critiquing genealogies of thought and action including trans feminisms, postcolonial and anticolonial feminisms, crip feminisms, indigenous feminisms, and more. Readings will include Nash on rethinking intersectionality, Jasbir Puar on feminism in the service of empire, Marquis Bey on Black trans feminism, and others whose work and activism ignites and engages multiple identities and histories.