headshot of Arlene Stein

Arlene Stein, author of Unbound: Transgender Men and the Transformation of Identity.

The 25th Annual Women’s and Gender Studies Symposium featuring Arlene Stein scheduled for March 20 has been cancelled.

Professor of Sociology Arlene Stein of Rutgers University will deliver the keynote at the 25th annual Women’s and Gender Studies (WGS) Symposium at 1 p.m. Friday, March 20, in the Illinois State University Alumni Center.

Professor Stein is the director of the Institute for Research on Women at Rutgers University. The event is free and open to the public.

Her scholarship explores gender, sexuality, American culture, and politics. Stein received the Ruth Benedict Prize in 2001 for her monograph The Stranger Next Door: The Story of a Small Community’s Battle over Sex, Faith, and Civil Rights.  She is also the author of Sex and Sensibility: Stories of a Lesbian Generation. In 2006, Stein received the American Sociological Association’s Simon and Gagnon Award for her career contribution to the study of sexualities. She teaches courses on the sociology of gender and sexuality, culture, self and society, and trauma/memory, and writing within and beyond academia.

The WGS Symposium organizers invite undergraduate and graduate students to submit papers, presentations, panels, and performances for the symposium on any topic related to the study of sex and its intersections with race, sexuality, class/caste, colonization, and (dis)ability. Submissions are due by Friday, February 28, 2020, and should be emailed to wgstudies@ilstu.edu, or dropped at the WGS office in 237 Rachel Cooper Hall. The final conference program will be available close to the date of the symposium.

Those with questions may contact Jamie Anderson at (309) 438-2947 or wgstudies@ilstu.edu.

The lecture is part the Illinois State University Speaker Series, which seeks to bring innovative and enlightening speakers to the campus with the aim of providing the community with a platform to foster dialogue, cultivate enriching ideas, and continue an appreciation of learning as an active and lifelong process.