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Ara Wilson

Associate Professor of Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies
Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies
117 East Duke Bldg., 90760, Durham, NC 27708

Selected Presentations & Appearances


On Measure and Care - EPISTEMOLOGIES OF CARE: RETHINKING GLOBAL POLITICAL ECONOMY · December 5, 2019 Invited Talk Amsterdam Law School, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Infrastructures of Inclusion - Inclusionary Practices, Law & Regulation in Europe and Latin America · September 12, 2019 Invited Talk Universidade do Estado do Amazonas (UEA), Manaus, Brazil

Talk at workshop; took part in meeting of collaborators about further grant submission.

Workshop Facilitator - Feminist Theory Workshop · March 2019 Instructional Course, Workshop, or Symposium GSFS,
Sexual Latitudes · December 1, 2012 Lecture Dickenson College
Sexual Latitudes: The Erotic Life of Globalization · December 2, 2011 Lecture Department of Anthropology, Graduate Center CUNY
Corporate Sexology · September 26, 2011 Lecture Women's Studies Graduate Scholars Colloquia, Duke University
Female Erotic Mobility · July 1, 2011 Lecture International Association for Study of Sexuality, Culture and Society; Madrid
Medical Tourism in Thailand · April 8, 2011 Lecture University of Wisconsin-Madison - Center for Southeast Asian Studies
NGOs as Erotic Sites · April 7, 2011 Lecture University of Wisconsin-Madison - Anthropology
Medical Tourism in Thailand · December 1, 2010 Lecture Inter-Asian Connections, National University of Singapore
Empire, Multitude, and Commonwealth: The Anthropology of the Global in Antonio Negri and Michael Hardts' Political Philosophy · November 1, 2010 Lecture AAA Meetings, New Orleans
The Intimate Economies of Bangkok's Markets · October 22, 2010 Lecture University of Michigan, Center for Southeast Asian Studies, 25 Anniversary Conference
Sexual Latitudes: NGOs as Erotic Sites · October 11, 2010 Lecture Yale University, History of Sexuality Series
Sexual Latitudes: NGOs as Erotic Sites · October 7, 2010 Lecture Brown University, Department of Anthropology
Keynote: Economies in Motion · April 16, 2010 Lecture University of California-Riverside, Dance Under Construction Conference
Queering Asia · April 9, 2010 Lecture University of Pittsburgh, Asian & Latin American Studies Project Workshop
Queering Siam · February 14, 2010 Lecture University of Michigan, Center for Southeast Asian Studies
Medical Tourism in Thailand · February 5, 2010 Lecture SEA Gate Course, Fuqua Business School
Panel Discussant: The fictions of kinship · December 6, 2009 Lecture American Anthropological Association Meetings, Philadelphia
Region & Sex in Asia · July 1, 2009 Lecture Presentation at International Association for the Study of Sexuality and Culture , Hanoi, Vietnam
CLAGS International Research Network Inaugural Lecture: Sexual Latitudes: Queer Studies of Global Life · May 3, 2009 Lecture CUNY, New York
National Economies and Medical Tourism in Thailand · March 27, 2009 Lecture Medical Migrations Workshop, CA
Participant, Medical Migrations Workshop · March 17, 2009 Lecture Costanoa, CA
The erotics of creative destruction: capitalist markets and sexual prospects · February 25, 2009 Lecture Centre for Law, Gender, Sexuality, Kent University, Canterbury UK
Sexual latitudes · February 23, 2009 Lecture Birkbeck, University of London
Panel Discussant, Governing Sexuality: The Transnational Politics of Intimate Life · February 17, 2009 Lecture International Studies Association, NYC
Sex/Gender in Thailand · February 11, 2009 Lecture SEA Gate Course, Fuqua Business School
Queering Asia: Intra-Regional Circuits and Sexual Modernity in Urban Southeast Asia · November 23, 2008 Lecture American Anthropological Association Meetings, San Francisco
Panel Discussant/ Co-organizer: Erotic Mobilities: Affect, Desire, and National Imaginaries in Women's Cross-Border Sex · November 1, 2008 Lecture American Anthropological Association Meetings, San Francisco
Tools of the Trade? The Status of Research Methods in Graduate Women's Studies Programs · June 20, 2008 Lecture NWSA Meetings, Cincinnati OH
NWSA Presidential Session: Postcolonial Sexualities · June 19, 2008 Lecture NWSA Meetings, Cincinnati OH
Sexual Politics and the Spaces of Transnational Feminism · June 13, 2008 Lecture Berkshire Conference, University of Minnesota
Economy after the Cultural Turn Roundtable · May 22, 2008 Lecture Cultural Studies Association Meetings, NYU
Anti-Globalization and Sexual Politics: Texts, Practice, and History at the World Social Forum · March 10, 2008 Lecture Northwestern University
Medical Tourism in Bangkok · February 22, 2008 Lecture Duke
Transnational Sexualities · February 22, 2008 Lecture Duke

Outreach & Engaged Scholarship


Bass team member - The Value of Love: Global Perspectives on the Economy of Care · 2019 Research
Bass Connections Faculty Team Member - Exercise Therapy and Brain Health: Implications for Alzheimer's Disease and Aging · 2018 - 2019 Projects & Field Work

Primary Theme: Brain & Society

Physical activity and exercise have emerged as important factors associated with lower risks of cognitive decline in normal aging and neurodegenerative disease. Recent advances are providing clinical evidence for the efficacy of exercise in preserving brain function in humans and devising novel therapeutic strategies that include exercise for treating neurological conditions. However, despite evidence for sex differences in the effects of exercise on cognition and brain physiology, few studies have focused on the molecular and cellular mechanisms through which exercise differentially affects the male and female brain, and few exercise therapies have optimized programs for men and for women.

Bass team member - Problem-based Learning to Improve Girls' Math Identity (2018-2019) · 2018 - 2019 Service Learning
Bass Connections Faculty Team Member - Exercise as a Therapy for Cognitive Aging and Alzheimer's Disease · August 2017 - May 2018 Projects & Field Work flag United States of America
Bass Connections Faculty Team Member - Data+ · June 2016 - July 2016 Projects & Field Work flag United States of America

Service to the Profession


Manuscript review · 2022 Editorial Activities Feminist Theory, Anthropological Theory,
Participant - Faculty Success Program · 2019 Professional Development National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity (NCFDD),
Manuscript Review - Gender & Society, GLQ, · 2018 - 2019 Editorial Activities
Co-chair - Association for Queer Anthropology (AQA) · November 2013 - November 2015 Committee Service AAA,
Reviewer · 2012 Editorial Activities Duke University Press
Journal Referee - Area Studies, Interdisciplinary, Anthropology, Gender Studies journals · 2012 Editorial Activities

Papers Refereed ; International Feminist Journal of Politics, Focaal American Ethnologist Journal of Southeast Asian Studies International Feminist Journal of Politics Middle East Journal; JMEWS; others

Coordinator, Publication Planning Committee · 2012 Other Association of Queer Anthropology (AQA), AAA
Discussant : Invited Session: Queer Feminist Futures · November 2011 Other American Anthropological Association Meetings, Montreal
Journal Referee · January 14, 2011 Editorial Activities International Feminist Journal of Politics
External Reviewer - Program Review, Gay and Lesbian Studies Minor · May 2010 Other Bowdoin College, Bowdoin ME
Book ms. review · January 22, 2010 Editorial Activities Wiley-Blackwell
Reviewer : NEH Anthropology Faculty Fellowship Competition · July 2008 Committee Service Washington DC

Service to Duke


I now am a member of the Executive Committee of the Graduate Faculty (School) · 2022 - 2024 Committee Service

Social Science representative

University Sustainability Committee (University) · September 2019 Committee Service
Academic Council (University) · September 2019 Committee Service

Elected representative from Trinity.

University Committee on Certificates (University) · 2019 Committee Service

Committee to evaluate range of certificates at Duke.

Member, Sexuality Studies Minor Advisory Board . Annual Queer Theory Lecture · 2018 - 2020 Event/Organization Administration SXL/GSFS ,

Helped organize annual queer theory lectures.

Trinity Research Committee, Liaison (School) · 2018 - 2019 Committee Service
ECASC (School) · September 2017 - June 2019 Committee Service

Elected representative for Social Science.

Misc (Program) · August 1, 2017 Committee Service

LGBT Faculty and Staff Task Force, 2007–2016;

Board member, Duke Human Rights Center, 2010-present;

Provost Standing Diversity Committee 2012-13;

Editorial Board, Social Science Magazine, 2008-2012;

Faculty Standing Diversity Committee, 2008 – 2014;

Global Health Arts & Science committee, 2008-2009;

Tenure committee, History Department, 2007

Duke University Scholarly Events Organizing

Organizer, “Counting Justice: The Social Matter of Statistics,” 2016-2017;

Panel Organizer, “Infrastructure of Global Cities”, Global Cities Conference, 2015;

Co-Organizer, “Science Studies as Area Studies” Lecture Series 2013-2014;

Organizer, Annual Queer Theory Lecture, 2010-2013; 2015-present;

Feminist Theory Workshop facilitator, 2010, 2011, 2014;

Organizer, Profiles in Sexuality Research Lecture Series, 2008-2012;

Organizer, Transnational Sexuality Studies Lecture Series, 2008-2009;

Panel Organizer, Franklin Humanities Institute, 2006, 2009; 2010;

Affiliated Faculty, Spaces of Freedom Seminar, 2006-07;

Organizer, Lectures in Sexuality Studies, 2006-2012;

Co-organizer, Conference on Ethnoporn, 2007

Academic & Administrative Activities


Social Science representative, Executive Committee of the Arts & Sciences Council, 2016-18;

Duke University Press Executive Advisory Board 2013-2018;

Dept Representative, Arts & Sciences Council, 2013-2015, 2011;

Provost Standing Diversity Committee 2012-13;

Editorial Board, Social Science Magazine, 2008-2012;

Faculty Standing Diversity Committee, 2008 – 2014;

Global Health Arts & Science committee, 2008-2009;

Tenure committee, History Department, 2007

Scholarly Events Organizing

Co-organizer, Transgender Studies & the Humanities, 2016-2017

Organizer, “Counting Justice: The Social Matter of Statistics,” 2016-2017;

Panel Organizer, “Infrastructure of Global Cities”, Global Cities Conference, 2015;

Co-Organizer, “Science Studies as Area Studies” Lecture Series 2013-2014;

Organizer, Annual Queer Theory Lecture, 2010-2013; 2015-present;

Feminist Theory Workshop facilitator, 2010, 2011, 2014, 2018

Organizer, Profiles in Sexuality Research Lecture Series, 2008-2012;

Organizer, Transnational Sexuality Studies Lecture Series, 2008-2009;

Panel Organizer, Franklin Humanities Institute, 2006, 2009; 2010;

Affiliated Faculty, Spaces of Freedom Seminar, 2006-07;

Organizer, Annual Queer Theory Lecture, 2006-2012; Co-organizer, 2015- present

Lectures in Sexuality Studies, 2006-2012;

Co-organizer, Conference on Ethnoporn, 2007