Paradoxes & Praxis: The 21st Century Imperative for Educational Foundations

Jack Halberstam

Jack Halberstam is a tenured professor in the Department of English and Comparative Literature and the Institute for Research on Women, Gender, and Sexuality at Columbia University. For his own schooling, Halberstam earned a B.A. in English at the University of California, Berkeley, an M.A. and a Ph.D from the University of Minnesota. Halberstam was assigned female at birth, and since then has undergone a shift from she/her to he/him, but is very fluid in how he is addressed. There are some things that he finds okay (people still calling him Judith) and some that he does not find okay (grouping him in with someone else who is a female, and then calling them ladies). In his writings, he is addressed as either Jack or Judith, but does not seem to have a preference on which one, as seen in his publications.

In his research, Halberstam focuses on female masculinity and tomboys while discussing the by-product and results of gender and gender pronouns. In addition, Halberstam has written about “the bathroom problem” when it comes to transgender youth and adults. Recently, he has appeared in a variety of places in the United States and internationally to lecture on sex and the media, gender variance, and queerness in general. He is currently working on projects surrounding fascism and homosexuality. Halberstam has been nominated three times for the Lambda Literary Awards.

Publications:

Halberstam, J. (2019). Female masculinity. Duke University Press.

Halberstam, J. J. (2012). Gaga feminism: Sex, gender, and the end of normal (Vol. 7). Beacon Press.

Halberstam, J. (2000). Telling Tales: Brandon Teena, Billy Tipton, and Transgender Biography. a/b: Auto/Biography Studies, 15(1), 62-81.

Halberstam, J. (2002). The good, the bad, and the ugly: Men, women, and masculinity. Masculinity studies and feminist theory, 344-367.

Halberstam, J., & Halberstam, J. (2011). The queer art of failure. Duke University Press.