Crip/Queer Studies

The doctoral program in English at George Washington University identifies Crip/Queer Studies as one of its primary areas of strength and invites applications focused on that area of strength.  All students receive tuition remission, monthly stipend, active mentorship in teaching, research, publication, and the opportunity to develop an independent research program with our internationally recognized faculty.

Our interdisciplinary seminars explore the intersections of marginalized embodiments (disability, sexuality, transgender, race, class, age) and their rigorous analysis within cultural, historical, literary, and media contexts.  We also focus on embodiment in relationship to economic, environmental, cross-species, as well as organic and inorganic interactions.  Specialties include representation, media and communications, memoir, trauma studies, globalization, cross-cultural studies, body theory, political economy, history, narrative theory, medical humanities, and art among others.  Students are actively mentored in research, pedagogy, and professionalization.  The program also operates through collaboration with other GWU programs that include Crip/Queer Studies researchers such as The Writing Program, Philosophy, and Women’s Studies.

Our internationally recognized faculty researchers include:

Jonathan Hsy 
(Medieval Literature and Culture, Memoir/Autobiography, Translation Studies)

Robert McRuer
(Critical Theory, Globalization, 20th/21st-century American Studies, Political Economy)

David Mitchell
(Narrative Theory, Body Studies, Literature of the Americas, Disability History)

Holly Dugan
(Early Modern Literature & Culture, Theories of Embodiment, Animal Studies)

Jeffrey Cohen
(Medieval Literature & Culture, Theories of Embodiment, Ecotheory)

Maria Frawley
(Victorian Literature & Culture, Cultures of Invalidism, Medical Humanities)

Marshall Alcorn
(Trauma Studies, Psychoanalysis, Neurobiology, Narrative Theory, Rhetoric}

A sampling of recent graduate seminars, or courses eligible for graduate credit, include:

Queer Theory, Now and Then (transtemporal course on contemporary and early modern queer studies)

New Materialisms: Disability, Cross-Species Identifications, and Environment

Medieval Disability Studies

Transnational Film Studies and LGBTQ Cultures

Introduction to Queer Theory

Introduction to Disability Studies

*While there are many publications and research efforts in which our core faculty group is involved we comprise a significant number of members on the editorial boards of key Disability Studies journals such as The Journal of Literature and Cultural Disability Studies, Disability Studies Quarterly, and Disability & Society.  Every other year we run the GWU symposium titled, Composing Disability, in collaboration with the Disability Support Services Office.