QAA Faculty and Staff

The Queer Academics and Activism pre-orientation program is staffed by faculty from across the university including Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, African and African American Studies, Anthropology, English, German, Russian, and Asian Languages, and Sociology. Faculty lecture and facilitate workshops on variety of topics within queer academics and activism.

QAA Faculty

Head Shot of V Varun Chaudhry
V Varun Chaudhry
Assistant Professor of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies
Rabb Graduate Center, 109
Office Hours: On-leave Fall 2026
Pronouns: he/him

Expertise: Nonprofit organizations and foundations, transgender and gender nonconforming communities of color, queer of color critique

Brandon Callender
Brandon Callender
Assistant Professor of English
781-736-3042 Rabb 130
Office Hours: On-Leave Fall 2026, Spring 2027

Expertise: 19th- and 20th-century American literature, African American literature, film / media, and gender and sexuality studies, horror studies

brian horton
Brian Horton
Assistant Professor of Anthropology, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Expertise: Queer anthropology, queer of color critique/queer theory, popular culture, global South queer activism and social life, African diasporas in India, race, digital anthropology, virtual subjectivities, social media, South Asia

Head shot of Shoniqua Roach
Shoniqua Roach
Assistant Professor of African and African American Studies, and Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies
781-736-8564 Jack, Joseph, & Morton Mandel Center for the Humanities 206
Pronouns: she/her

Expertise: Black feminism, Black sexuality studies, performance theory, African American literary and visual cultures

Harleen Singh
Harleen Singh
Founding Dean of the School of Arts, Humanities and Culture and Associate Professor of Literature, and Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies
Director, Women's Studies Research Center
781-736-8485 Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for the Humanities, 114
Pronouns: she/her

Expertise: Postcolonial literature and theory, colonial studies, South Asian novel, Indian film, immigrant literature, women's, gender, and sexuality studies, South Asian studies

Gowri Vijayakumar
Gowri Vijayakumar
Director of Graduate Studies Spring 2026
Associate Professor of Sociology, and Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies
781-736-2633 Pearlman Hall 211
Pronouns: she/her

Expertise: Gender, sexuality, transnational social movements, development, labor and labor movements, feminist theory, HIV/AIDS, ethnographic and interview methods, South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa

QAA Staff

Marisa Carey
Assistant Director, Queer Academics and Activism
Photo of Alix Brandon
Alexandra (Alix) Brandon
Communications and Events Administrator
781-736-3045 Rabb 257
Pronouns: she/her

  • Marketing and communications planning and design for: American Studies, African and African American Studies, Health: Science, Society, and Policy, History, Journalism, Legal Studies, Philosophy, Politics, Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and World Literatures.
  • Queer Academics and Activism (QAA)
  • Event planning and management for academic events. 
  • Website Management