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Thursday, November 20, 2025

SPRING 2026 SCHEDULE OF CLASSES NOW AVAILABLE!!
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Schedule of Classes

1789 - New Jersey is the 1st state to ratify the Bill of Rights.

1866 - Howard University founded in Washington, DC.

1982 - Drew Barrymore, at age 7, hosts “Saturday Night Live."

2015 - Adele releases her 3rd studio album “25,” and ultimately wins the Grammy Award for Album of the Year.

2022 - Elton John completes the North American leg of his “Farewell Yellow Brick Road: The Final Tour” at Dodger Stadium.

Why Is DC’s Phillips Collection Selling Off Its Masterpieces? Hyperallergic.

The Grand Ole Opry at 100. The New York Times.

In the streaming age, Free Blockbuster brings physical media back to DC. GW Hatchet.

Image credit: Matthew Marciello

In this newsletter edition we spotlight Matthew Marciello, a third-year PhD candidate in American Studies. Their dissertation, “Intersex Trouble: The Intersex Society of North America, John Money, and Intersectional Problems in the History of Intersex Activism and Sexology,” offers a cultural, intellectual, and institutional history of the Intersex Society of North America (ISNA, 1993–2008). This work situates ISNA within broader histories of LGBTQI+ activism and interdisciplinary sexological science, with particular attention to John Money (1921–2006), the New Zealand–born psychologist, sexologist, and Johns Hopkins University professor. Working at the intersections of science and technology studies (STS), the histories of science and medicine, twentieth-century U.S. LGBTQI+ movements, and intersectional feminist, queer, and trans theories, Matthew aims for Intersex Trouble to be the first comprehensive, book-length account of the intersex rights movement, especially its formative “first wave” (1993–2008).

In September, Matthew was in residence at the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University Bloomington as a 2025 Scholar of Sexology Fellow. During the four-week fellowship, they conducted archival research in both the ISNA and John Money Collections, surrounded, at least metaphorically, by the legacy of Alfred Kinsey himself. Among the most inspiring discoveries for Matthew’s early dissertation work were materials related to the landmark 1996 protest. On Saturday, October 26, 1996, now commemorated as Intersex Awareness Day, the ad hoc group “Hermaphrodites with Attitude,” part of ISNA, joined transgender allies to picket the annual meeting of the American Academy of Pediatrics at Boston’s Hynes Convention Center. It was the first known public demonstration by openly intersex people, demanding an end to nonconsensual intersex surgeries. While prior scholarship has described the event in broad terms, Matthew’s research seeks to provide the first detailed account of what occurred—and to analyze its significance for the nascent intersex movement through three key lenses: critique of Moneyan sexological standards of care, intersectionality and coalition, and movement splintering.

Since returning to Washington, DC, Matthew has been working on a chapter titled “Anne Ogborn, the White American Hijra: 1990s Intersex and Trans Appropriation of Indigenous Sex/Gender.” The essay will appear in the forthcoming edited collection Queering the Tensions of Empire, which is being prepared for Manchester University Press’s new Queer and Trans Histories series. Matthew plans to adapt this work as chapter four of their dissertation.

GW Corcoran School & For Freedoms
Milk Factory: Rooms for Care

Join us for an evening of dialogue with artist Corinne May Botz as she shares insights from Milk Factory: Rooms for Care, her powerful new series investigating reproductive labor and the architectures of care. The program opens with a short screening of Milk Factory, filmed inside the lactation suite of the U.S. House of Representatives—an unexpected but revealing setting for questions about maternal labor and the care economy. Botz will then be joined in conversation by artist Amanda Lucidon and guest Michelle Romo, who appears in the film, for a discussion on image-making as civic practice, the burden of hidden labor, and the urgent need to reimagine care in public life

When: Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025; 6:30 PM
Where: Hammer Auditorium, The Corcoran School of the Arts & Design

Register here!

GW Trails
Hiking with Marx

Join GW Trails for Hiking with Marx, a thought-provoking trek through history and nature. Participants will take the 2.2-mile Rapids Bridge Trail in Rock Creek Park, where they'll discuss key ideas in Marxism and how they connect to themes of labor, value, and decay—all of which are reflected in the abandoned Capitol Stone ruins along the way. This hike is a great opportunity to stretch your legs, exchange ideas, and see the world (and history) through a new lens.

The hike will be co-led by Prof. Dara Orenstein, Associate Professor of American Studies!

When: Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025; 10 AM
Where: Meet at USC Great Hall (800 21st St NW)

Register here!

Prof. Libby Anker recently gave the Endowed Lecture for the Bunting Peace and Justice Series at Loyola University. She will also speak about her new book project "Every Man a Sovereign" at Duke University, CUNY, University of Manchester, and University of Pittsburgh.

Current PhD candidate Matthew Marciello recently published a book review in TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly! Titled "Contending with Gendercide and a Method for Two‐Spirit History," it reviews Reclaiming Two‐Spirits: Sexuality, Spiritual Renewal, and Sovereignty in Native America by Gregory D. Smithers (Beacon, 2022).

Call for Applications: The Department of Ethnic Studies at Western Washington University is inviting applications for an Assistant Professor in Black Studies, beginning Fall 2026. Click here to learn more.

Call for Applications: The American Council of Learned Societies invites applications for the 2025 competition of the ACLS Digital Justice Grants Program. Click here to learn more // Deadline: Nov. 20, 2025.

Call for Papers: The 2026 GWU English Graduate Student Association Symposium is now accepting papers! This year’s symposium, titled “The Mind and the Machine: Mental Disability and Technology,” will be held virtually. Click here to learn more // Deadline: Nov. 30, 2025.

Call for Applications: The 2026 SHAFR Summer Institute, held at The Ohio State University, is accepting applications. The 2026 SHAFR Summer Institute will focus on the variety of US strategic cultures that emerged in response to previous moments of international crisis. Click here to learn more // Deadline: Dec. 15, 2025.

Call for Papers: The Twenty-first Annual Yale University American Art Graduate Symposium is currently accepting abstracts for their upcoming event. Click here to learn more // Deadline: Jan. 31, 2026.

Call for Papers: Critical Ethnic Studies is currently accepting submissions for a special issue devoted to the transnational exploration of caste domination and anti-caste social movements and theories, with emphasis on the interrelation of caste and race in the history and geography of empire. Click here to learn more // Deadline: Feb. 2, 2026.

Call for Applications: The Gay & Lesbian Review (The G&LR) announces the 4th annual Charles S. Longcope Jr. Writers and Artists Grant for emerging scholars, writers, and artists across disciplines and fields that make a contribution to LGBTQ+ scholarship or the arts. Click here to learn more // Deadline: Feb. 15, 2026.

Call for Applications: The Eudora Welty Foundation and the Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH) announce the 2026 Eudora Welty Research Fellowship to encourage and support research using the Eudora Welty Collection and related materials at the MDAH. Click here to learn more // Deadline: Mar. 6, 2026.

Need Support?

Like what you see? Have spotlights, kudos, events, or opportunities that you would like to share? We want to hear from you! Navigate to our feedback form using the link below, or more simply, forward your tip to amst@gwu.edu.