Associated Faculty: Jess Whatcott

Email: [email protected] | Pronouns: They/Them/Theirs

Dr. Jess Whatcott (they/them/theirs) studies and teaches about formations of gender, sexuality, disability, and race in United States history. They teach courses at SDSU on U.S. history, body politics, and political economy. Currently, Dr. Whatcott research focuses on California’s late nineteenth and early twentieth century eugenics policies, especially institutionalization in state homes for the feeble-minded, state hospitals, and youth reformatories. They also connect this history to current practices in state prisons and other places of detention. Dr. Whatcott’s work has appeared or will soon appear in Signs: A Journal of Women in Culture and Society, NOTCHES: (re)marks on the history of sexuality, The Activist History Review, and the Routledge Handbook of Disability and Sexuality. Dr. Whatcott’s research, teaching, and community practice are rooted in commitments to prison abolition, transformative justice, disability justice, and ending sexualized violence. Professor Whatcott is also a self-identified speculative fiction nerd.