Moira Donegan joins Clayman Institute as writer in residence

Stanford’s Clayman Institute for Gender Research is pleased to announced leading feminist writer and critic Moira Donegan will join the Institute as a writer in residence. In this position, Donegan will participate in the intellectual life of the Institute, host its artist salon series, teach a class in feminist, gender, and sexuality studies, and mentor students, while continuing her own projects and writing.

“Moira is a brilliant feminist intellectual and writer with a deep understanding of gender, culture, and society, as well as an incisive ability to interpret timely and urgent topics,” said Adrian Daub, Barbara D. Finberg Director of the Clayman Institute. “As writer in residence, she will have an invaluable impact on the life of scholars and students at the Clayman Institute and the broader campus.”

Since 2018, Donegan has written a regular opinion column for The Guardian covering gender and sexuality, the courts, popular culture, and national politics, aimed at a global readership. Her work has appeared in The Atlantic, The Believer, Bookforum, Buzzfeed, The London Review of Books, n+1, The Nation, New York, The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, The New York Times, The Paris Review, and other places. Donegan holds a B.A. in literature from Bard College, and an MFA in creative writing from New York University. In New York, she directed the Backlash Book Club, a group of journalists interested in feminist history.

Clayman Institute Executive Director Alison Dahl Crossley notes that Donegan will enhance and invigorate the Institute’s mission and ongoing activities. “We have a long history of translating gender research to broad audiences, and Moira’s work will strengthen these efforts with the depth and currency of her feminist viewpoints.” Donegan will further support the Institute’s mission of training the next generation of gender scholars. “By working with our fellows, students, and researchers, Moira will contribute enormously to our feminist writing and intellectual community,” Crossley said.

Donegan previously has participated in Clayman Institute activities. Most recently, she moderated the November Jing Lyman Lecture, “From the Front Lines: Abortion Post-Roe,” deftly guiding a conversation among three abortion providers from around the country. She also participated in the Clayman Conversations event, “Whisper Networks,” and appeared on The Feminist Present podcast to discuss Betty Friedan’s classic The Feminine Mystique.

The selection of Donegan for the writer in residence position comes after a national search that attracted many strong candidates. Her first book, Gone Too Far: Me Too, Backlash, and the Unfinished Revolution, is forthcoming from Scribner. Among her many publications, the Institute recommends the following.

Columns for The Guardian

• US maternal mortality is more than 10 times higher than in Australia. Why? (3.20.23)

• The right is stealthily working to remove Americans' access to abortion medication (3.16.23)

• Demand for deepfake pornography is exploding. We aren't ready for this assault on consent. (3.13.23)

• American teenage girls are experiencing high levels of emotional distress. Why? (2.16.23)

• Schools and universities are ground zero for America’s culture war (2.5.23)
• In a more just world, this would be the 50th anniversary of Roe v Wade (1.22.23)

• Finally, some modest good news for abortion rights in America (1.6.23)

• We were told abortion wasn’t an important election issue. How wrong that was (11.11.22)

• The new state of healthcare in America: one for men and a worse one for women (10.12.22)

• Roe v Wade has been overturned. Here’s what this will mean (6.24.22)

• The Amber Heard-Johnny Depp trial was an orgy of misogyny (6.1.22)

• Longread: How #MeToo revealed the central rift within feminism today (5.11.18)

Book Reviews

• Jane's World: Reconsidering a Pre-Roe Abortion Service in the Post-Roe Era.  (Bookforum Fall 2022)
• In Rust Belt Ohio, the First American Rape Case to Go Viral (New York Times 7.10.22)
• How to Survive a Movement: Sarah Schulman's Monumental History of ACT-UP.  (Bookforum Summer 2021)
• Some of America’s Most Ambitious Women Slept Here (New York Times 3.2.21)
• Sex During Wartime: The Return of Andrea Dworkin's Radical Vision. (Bookforum Feb/Mar 2019)
• Three New Takes on Feminism: In the Dorm, in the Economy and Around the World (New York Times 11.9.18)