Overview
Robyn Wiegman is Professor of the Programs in Literature and Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies, and former Margaret Taylor Smith director of Women's Studies at Duke University (2001-2007). She earned her Ph.D. in American Literature at the University of Washington in 1988 and has taught at Syracuse University, Indiana University, and the University of California, Irvine. Her publications include two monographs---Object Lessons (2012) and American Anatomies: Theorizing Race and Gender (1995)---and five edited collections---Who Can Speak: Identity and Critical Authority (1995), Feminism Beside Itself (1995), AIDS and the National Body (1997), The Futures of American Studies (2002), and Women's Studies on Its Own (2002). Wiegman's research interests include feminist theory, queer theory, American Studies, critical race theory, and film and media studies. She was co-director of the Dartmouth Summer Institute on American Studies from 1998-2004 and director of Women's Studies at UC-Irvine from 1997-2000. She has two monographs in progress: Racial Sensations, on affect and anti-racist aesthetics, and Arguments Worth Having, on key debates in feminist and queer theory, and has recently curated a special issue on "autotheory" for Arizona Quarterly. She has forthcoming essays and interviews in Feminist Studies, Feminist Theory, SAQ, and differences. In 2013 she received the Dean's Award for Excellence in Mentoring from the Graduate School at Duke University. In 2015, she was a Fulbright visiting lecturer in Naples, Italy where she taught "Love and Sex in American Literature" at L'Orientale University.
Current Duke Appointments & Affiliations
Professor of Literature
·
2012 - Present
Literature,
Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
Professor of Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies
·
2018 - Present
Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies,
Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
Recent Scholarly Works
Queer Seductions
Journal article American Literary History · May 1, 2026 AbstractThe relationship between psychoanalysis and queer theory has been a vexed if at times inspiring one. Certainly queer theory’s insistence on studying sexuality beyond the confines of identity has f ... Full text Open Access CiteWhat If? Lesbian Feminism and the Future’s Now
Journal article Signs · September 1, 2025 It is hard to imagine a figure more celebrated and maligned than lesbian feminism: on the one hand, she represents second-wave feminism’s most cherished aspirations; on the other, its most disappointing failures. Parsing the split decisions that define her ... Full text CiteOn Collective Endurance: Thinking Gender Studies in Illiberal Times—A Conversation
Journal article Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies · 2025 Abstract: In honor of Frontier 's fiftieth anniversary, Clare Hemmings and Robyn Wiegman offer a wide-ranging conversation about the institutional and intellectual history of the field now called gender studies. Working in different ... Full text Open Access CiteEducation
University of Washington ·
1988
Ph.D.
Indiana University at Bloomington ·
1984
M.F.A.
Indiana University at Bloomington ·
1981
B.A.