V Varun Chaudhry worked as a CSWS pro tem research assistant during AY 2018-19 while completing his dissertation through the Department of Anthropology at Northwestern University.  He is now an instructor in the Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program at Brandeis University. V’s research focuses on the institutionalization of “transgender” in nonprofit and funding agencies through ethnographic research in Philadelphia, PA. His research has been supported by the Social Science Research Council, The Wenner-Gren Foundation, the Sexualities Project at Northwestern, and CSWS.

The Center for the Study of Women in Society provided me with a host of opportunities that proved to be fruitful for my research and career development. As soon as I arrived at the University of Oregon, Michelle McKinley and the rest of the CSWS staff welcomed me with open arms: I received invitations to receptions, talks, and other events as well as office space to work on writing my dissertation.  

I participated actively in CSWS’s “Trans* Law: Opportunities and Futures” symposium, which featured a panel of scholars, advocates, and practitioners of transgender studies, which is a core research area for me. Meeting with the visiting scholars—including Dr. Paisley Currah from Brooklyn College, a foundational figure in the field—was a great way to discuss my research with scholars in my area of study as well as participate in a campus-wide dialogue about transgender issues in the law. I was also lucky to attend the lecture and subsequent dinner with CSWS speaker, Dr. Christen Smith, a black feminist anthropologist from the University of Texas–Austin. Dr. Smith helped me to conceptualize key components of my dissertation project, including the black feminist anthropological theoretical frame. Furthermore, I was privileged to attend and network with speakers from the CSWS-cosponsored New Directions in Black Feminist Studies series.   

Culminating my time at CSWS was the exciting chance to work directly with Dr. Chandan Reddy, associate professor from the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Washington. Professor Reddy read one of my dissertation chapters, which focused on the use and the circulation of the language of “intersectionality” in nonprofit and funding agencies in the United States. Reddy’s feedback on my chapter and work in general was tremendously helpful for the dissertation-cum-book-project as it has continued to develop, and having the opportunity to get to know him through his lecture and events around his visit was helpful for my professional as well as research development. 

I’m deeply grateful to CSWS for the chance to meet so many scholars and develop my research in new and exciting ways. I am now able to move into my faculty position at Brandeis University with a keen sense of my research direction and with a robust set of interlocutors.