People

Andrew Suárez

PhD candidate, American Studies

Andrew J. Suárez received his B.A. in Ethnic Studies from Columbia University where he was a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow. He is currently a PhD candidate in American Studies at Harvard University where he works across Latinx & Latin American Studies...

Riley Kathryn Sutherland

rileysutherland@fas.harvard.edu

Ph.D. candidate, History

Riley Sutherland (she/her) is a public historian with interests in disability studies, archival and museum studies, and United States history. Her current work explores the relationship between disability and the environmental humanities, by focusing on...

Poorna Swami

Ph.D. candidate, South Asian Studies

Poorna Swami is a PhD student in the Department of South Asian Studies, with a secondary field in Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies. Her research interests include transnational feminisms, post-partition histories of India and Pakistan, Urdu and Hindi...

Brandon Terry

bterry@fas.harvard.edu

John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences

Director of Graduate Studies

On leave for the Fall 2024 semester

On leave Fall 2024 & Spring 2025 Brandon M. Terry is the John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences at Harvard University and the co-director of the Institute on Policing, Incarceration, and Public Safety at the Hutchins Center for African...

person

Ryan Thoreson

A.B. '07 Government and Women's Studies

Researcher, LGBT Rights Program, Human Rights Watch

Clinical Lecturer in Human Rights, Yale Law School

Even as a student, I was aware that there was something special about the intellectual energy and sense of community in WGS. I was routinely struck by the curiosity and intensity of students inside the classroom, but also appreciated how the program...

Jessica Van Meir

jessicavanmeir@g.harvard.edu

Ph.D. candidate, Public Policy

Jessica Van Meir (she/her) is a PhD candidate in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and an Ashford Scholar. Her research focuses on the sex workers' rights movement in Latin America, comparing the cases of Colombia, Guatemala, Argentina, and...

Alejandra Vela Martínez

alejandravelamartinez@fas.harvard.edu

Assistant Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures (Spanish)

Research Interests: 20th-21st Century Mexican Cultural Studies, with broad interests in transnational mass culture, archives, feminine periodicals and literature, diasporic and border feminine literature, their reception and preservation throughout Latin...

Alejandra Vela Martínez

alejandravelamartinez@fas.harvard.edu

Assistant Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures (Spanish)

PhD, New York University (Latin American Literature)

M.A., Columbia University (Hispanic Cultural Studies) ; B.A., Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (Letras Hispánicas)

Research Interests: 20th-21st Century Mexican Cultural Studies, with broad interests in transnational mass culture, archives, feminine periodicals and literature, diasporic and border feminine literature, their reception and preservation throughout Latin...

Anna Vichkitova

annavichkitova@g.harvard.edu

Graduate Tutor

Ph.D. candidate, Slavic Languages and Literatures

Dissertation topic: My dissertation addresses contemporary Russian film and literature, feminist poetry, and cultural memory. Research methods: Critical theory, literary theory, cultural studies. Areas of interest: Theory and history of feminism, gender...

person

Jocelyn Viterna

jviterna@wjh.harvard.edu

Chair of Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality (on leave 2025-2026)

Professor of Sociology

Jocelyn Viterna is Chair of Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality and Professor of Sociology at Harvard University. Her research examines how social mobilization affects gender norms and practices in politics, in government institutions, in warfare, and...

Annie Wang

Ph.D. candidate, East Asian Languages and Civilizations

Annie Zhanling Wang is a social historian of late imperial China and Inner Asia. Her research explores the issues of daughterhood, motherhood, voice, and empire. She has written about friendships between Manchu women in Beijing and Han women in Jiangnan...

Martabel Wasserman

A.B. '10

Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality and Visual and Environmental Studies

As Robin Bernstein said in the first meeting of our sophomore tutorial, WGS helps students establish an intellectual community. The political, intellectual, and personal networks I formed in WGS have been central in my post-graduate life. After taking a...