Paisley Currah works in the intersections of gender and sexuality studies, law and policy, social and political theory, LGBT and transgender studies. He teaches a course at Columbia University on sexual orientation, gender identity, and human rights. Currah has written widely on transgender issues, including on topics such as discrimination and sex reclassification, and the transgender rights movement. He is the author and editor of over 30 articles and books and co-founder of the leading journal in transgender studies,
TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly. Currah’s newest book,
Sex Is Sex Does: Governing Transgender Identity, examines state policies on sex reclassification and reveals the hidden logics that have governed these often contradictory policies. He is currently working on a book comparing the transgender rights movement with womens’ movements.
Currah co-edited, with Shannon Minter and Richard Juang, Transgender Rights, the first book on the movement for transgender rights, which won the Sylvia Rivera Award in Transgender Studies and was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award. Currah has advocated for transgender rights as a founding board member of the Transgender Law and Policy Institute, as a member of the board of directors Global Action for Trans Equality, and as a member of the advisory board of Human Rights Watch’s LGBT Program. Currah led the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies from 2003-2007.
Currah received an MA and PhD in Government from Cornell University and a BA (Hon.) in Political Studies from Queen's University at Kingston, Canada.
