Category: Gender Studies

March 23, 2020

5 Ways That China’s First and Only Female Emperor Wu Zhao Reimagined Traditional Female Roles to Invent a Novel and Unique Vision of Emperorship!

Wu Zhao (624-705) was the first and only female emperor in Chinese history. Given the predominantly patriarchal and androcentric confines of medieval China, her singular ascendancy was wildly improbable. Even stranger, perhaps is one of the strategies she employed to...

March 19, 2020

Book Excerpt! Manchu Princess, Japanese Spy, By Phyllis Birnbaum (chapter 17)

“Richly illustrated with rare photos, and enlivened by numerous interviews, Phyllis Birnbaum’s book is a balanced, well-written biography of one of the most notorious figures to emerge in the early twentieth-century contest for empire in northeast Asia. Anyone interested in...

March 18, 2020

Book Excerpt! The Bearded Lady Project, edited by Lexi Jamieson Marsh and Ellen Currano (foreword)

“The portraits in The Bearded Lady Project intentionally cause double takes, forcing the viewer to look, then look again. But their real power lies in how they require us to look inward and see that antediluvian ideas about who can and...

March 16, 2020

It’s Not About the Beards

By Lexi Jamieson Marsh

“The Bearded Lady Project is a necessary novelty. It’s snarky, beautiful, and increasingly powerful in the evolution of its message: Don’t ever assume you know what a scientist looks like. These essays—critical, poignant examinations of societal and historical perceptions of genius—remind...

March 14, 2020

Book Excerpt! Sex and World Peace, By Valerie M. Hudson, Bonnie Ballif-Spanvill, Mary Caprioli, and Chad F. Emmett (chapter 1)

“This is an important, well written, and informative book that will serve a wide audience of graduate and undergraduate students, academics, and policymakers, as well as the interested public.” ~Helen M. Kinsella, Ethics and International Affairs We are excited to...

March 13, 2020

Book Excerpt! The First Political Order, by Valerie M. Hudson, Donna Lee Bowen, and Perpetua Lynne Nielsen (introduction)

“The First Political Order offers the strongest possible proof that male control of reproduction—and the violence necessary to control women’s bodies—is the first step in normalizing violence and hierarchy in every society. From now on, there will be no more...

March 12, 2020

Book Excerpt! The Hillary Doctrine, by Valerie M. Hudson and Patricia Leidl (foreword and preface)

“From now on, no debate about national or global policy can proceed without reading The Hillary Doctrine by Valerie Hudson and Patricia Leidl. It is the first book about high level efforts to create a foreign policy as if women mattered.” ~Gloria Steinem...

March 12, 2020

Six Negative Effects of the Systematic Subordination of Women

“In The First Political Order, Hudson and her collaborators make the case that the subordination of women is irrefutably tied to the well-being of a nation. Skeptical? The hard data is here, drawn from an exhaustive survey of 176 countries in...

March 11, 2020

Learning to Doubt: An Excerpt from Tainted Witness, by Leigh Gilmore

“In this moving and transformative text, Leigh Gilmore explores the different ways that women’s testimonies are made incredible. With patience and care, Gilmore explores how testimonies circulate, how they keep open histories that have yet to be resolved, and how...

March 11, 2020

The Syndrome and the First Political Order

By Donna Lee Bowen

“The First Political Order is a magisterial tour de force that transforms our understanding of international relations. Hudson, Bowen, and Nielsen provide a comprehensive and meticulous examination of how the systematic subordination of women around the world affects every critical...

March 10, 2020

Q&A: Lynne Nielsen on Writing The First Political Order

“The First Political Order’s description of the pervasive damaging social consequences of institutionalized male dominance, based on a fascinating new dataset, makes devastating reading. The authors say that their findings should be foundational for any discussion about national or international...

March 9, 2020

Emma Watson Chooses Sex and World Peace as Her Book Selection for International Women’s Day

Columbia University Press is excited to announce that Sex and World Peace by Valerie Hudson, Bonnie Ballif-Spanvill, Mary Caprioli, and Chad F. Emmett has been selected by Emma Watson as her International Women’s Day book selection. The announcement was made on...