Ara Wilson

In my scholarly work, I am especially interested in two combinations: interpreting empirical research through theoretical reflection and connecting economic systems to sex/gender systems and sexuality. I've taken these bridging projects in a few directions:

• ethnographic fieldwork in Bangkok, Thailand, with interest in the Southeast Asian region (on hiatus since Covid19); 
• Science & Technology Studies (STS), e.g., projects on medical tourism, infrastructure, and standardization;
• a political economy of sex/gender, or queer political economy (QPE)
• rigorous conceptualization of keywords, such as intimacy, infrastructure, or the history of gender itself. 
• histories of the scholarly fields of Anthropology and Women's Studies
• transnational networks relevant to sex/gender, e.g., the UN-NGO orbit and the World Social Forum.

I have taught a range of undergraduate courses in Gender Studies and regularly teach Money/Sex/Power and for many years team-taught Nature/Nurture-Sex/Gender with a neurobiologist. I co-ran a project on Transgender Studies and helped initiate GSF's courses on Introduction to Transgender Studies and Digital Feminism.

At the graduate level, I have led seminars in core feminist areas (feminist theory; transnational feminist theory; research design; sexuality studies) as well as topical courses on Infrastructure; The 1970s; and Care Economies (team taught). When serving as the DGS for GSF, I enjoyed mentoring graduate students from various departments on dissertation writing and entering the unnerving market for jobs and fellowships.

Generally by appointment; I also try to respond promptly to work emails during the semester.