Sara Matthiesen

Areas of Expertise

• 20th-century United States
• Women and Gender

Sara Matthiesen works on modern U.S. history, with an emphasis on gender, race, sexuality, and reproduction after 1945. Her current book, Reproduction Reconceived (University of California Press), examines battles over the right to family making since the 1970s. This project traces a number of debates between activists and public institutions in order to understand how family making was reconceptualized as a choice by the end of the 20th century. Matthiesen has taught courses on the history of reproductive politics, the history of criminal sexualities, feminist theory, and critical legal theory. Prior to joining the faculty at George Washington she was a Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow at Brown University. Matthiesen also teaches in the Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program at the George Washington University.

Education

Ph.D., Brown University, 2015

Publications

"Does The Sex Offender Exist?" Review of Sex and Harm in the Age of Consent, by Joseph J Fischel, Women's Review of Books. (Pending: September/October issue, 2017)

"Equality vs Reproductive Risk: Women and Aids Activism and False Choice in the Clinical Trials Debate," Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 41 (Spring 2016): 579-601

Classes Taught

HIST 1020: Approaches to Women's History

WGSS 6620: Fundamentals of Feminist Theory