Profile
Hannah Leffingwell is a writer, historian, and educator specializing in queer and gender history, lesbian culture, and contemporary LGBTQ+ and feminist social movements. She is a part-time faculty member at the New School for Social Research and an associate faculty member at Brooklyn Institute for Social Research, where she has taught courses on queer theory, socialist feminism, the history of fascism, trans politics and queer history. Her research situates twentieth-century lesbian history in transnational and intersectional contexts, asking how experiments in queer and feminist world-making have driven movements for social change across national borders. She holds a PhD in History and French Studies from New York University, where she taught courses on modern queer history, gender history, political revolutions, modern Europe, Russian history, and the history of ideas. Her writing has appeared in Gender & History, Jacobin, The Chronicle Review, Public Seminar, Political Junkie, Eurozine, Sinister Wisdom, and the Journal of the History of Ideas Blog. Her writing is also forthcoming in Transnational LGBTQ+ Networks in Europe and the Americas: Collaborations, Interventions and Activism since 1940 (Bloomsbury Academic).
Degrees Held
Ph.D., History and French Studies, New York University
M.Phil, History, New York University
M.A., French Studies, New York University
B.A., English and French, Mount Holyoke College
Professional Affiliation
Committee on LGBT History
Coordinating Council for Women in History
Recent Publications
Articles (Peer Review)
“‘The Appearance of Globality’: Navigating Intercultural Encounters at the International Lesbian Conference, 1986,” in Peter Edelberg, Victor Macias-Gonzalez, Laura Belmonte, ed.s, Transnational LGBTQ+ Networks in Europe and the Americas: Collaborations, Interventions and Activism since 1940, Bloomsbury Academic: forthcoming.
"'Our Point of Departure is Feminist': Féminin Masculin Avenir and the Intersectional Origins of Women's Liberation in France, 1967-1970," Gender & History, Vol. 34 No. 1, March 2022, pp. 263-281, https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-0424.12529
Articles (Editorial Review)
"Marriage Equality Was Never Enough," Political Junkie (Substack), August 2023, https://clairepotter.substack.com/p/marriage-equality-was-never-enough
"Celebration Isn't Revolution," Political Junkie (Substack), June 2023, https://clairepotter.substack.com/p/celebration-isnt-revolution
"When Politicians Target Education, They Hurt Kids," Political Junkie (Substack), May 2023, https://clairepotter.substack.com/p/when-politicians-target-education
"Why Do Students Cheat?" Political Junkie (Substack), February 2023, https://clairepotter.substack.com/p/when-politicians-target-education
"The Academic Career is Broken," The Chronicle Review, January 2023, https://www.chronicle.com/article/the-academic-career-is-broken
"I Love Higher Education. It Isn't Loving Me Back," Jacobin, December 2023, https://jacobin.com/2022/12/higher-education-precarity-austerity-part-time-adjunct-university
"It's Time for Democrats to Claim the Moral High Ground," Public Seminar, June 28, 2022. https://publicseminar.org/essays/the-moral-high-ground/
"The Problem is not Harvard, The Problem is Graduate School," Public Seminar, February 15, 2022. https://publicseminar.org/essays/the-problem-is-not-harvard-the-problem-is-graduate-school/
"Did Judith Butler Really Say TERFs Are Fascists?," Public Seminar, October 19, 2021.https://publicseminar.org/essays/did-judith-butler-really-say-terfs-are-fascists/
“Why a Far-Right Activist Slapped President Macron,” Eurozine, Public Seminar, July 15, 2021. https://www.eurozine.com/why-a-far-right-activist-slapped-president-macron/
“More Misandry, Please!” Public Seminar, April 28, 2021. https://publicseminar.org/essays/more-misandry-please/
“France’s Tale of Two Secularisms,” Public Seminar, November 18, 2020. https://publicseminar.org/essays/frances-tale-of-two-secularisms/
“Brave New Classroom: Lessons from the First Six Weeks,” Public Seminar, May 13, 2020. https://publicseminar.org/essays/brave-new-classroom/
“How The New York Times Turned me into a Bernie Supporter,” Public Seminar, February 7, 2020. https://publicseminar.org/2020/02/how-the-new-york-times-turned-me-into-a-bernie-supporter/
“The Moral Clarity of Children: What Climate Strikers Have to Teach Elizabeth Warren,” Public Seminar, October 9, 2019. https://publicseminar.org/2019/10/the-moral-clarity-of-children-warren-climate-change/
“‘After Stonewall’ Exhibitions Remind Us That Queer History Shouldn’t Be Straightforward,” Public Seminar, June 29, 2019. https://publicseminar.org/essays/after-stonewall-exhibitions-remind-us-that-queer-history-shouldnt-be-straightforward/
“An Open Letter to my Best Friend About Abortion,” Public Seminar, June 19, 2019. https://publicseminar.org/essays/an-open-letter-to-my-best-friend-about-abortion/
“Wearing It on Our Sleeves: A Millennial’s Response to Christine Blasey Ford,” Public Seminar, October 4, 2018. https://publicseminar.org/2018/10/wearing-it-on-our-sleeves/
“David Wojnarowicz and Donna Gottschalk: A Meditation,” Journal of the History of Ideas Blog, September 28, 2018. https://jhiblog.org/2018/09/28/david-wojnarowicz-and-donna-gottschalk-a-meditation/?fbclid=IwAR2b_Eee34LYh0bWIesXeJJ7nlhFG9MTK43gl_1cdGZAF_bxoAHVLexeZlE
“Reading The Second Sex in the Age of #MeToo,” Public Seminar, March 12, 2018. https://publicseminar.org/2018/03/reading-the-second-sex-in-the-age-of-metoo/
“Toward a Feminist Definition of Feminism,” Public Seminar, January 16, 2018. https://publicseminar.org/2018/01/toward-a-feminist-definition-of-feminism/
“White European Women’s Rights: France’s Paradoxical Women’s Liberation,” Public Seminar, March 1, 2017. https://publicseminar.org/2017/03/white-european-womens-rights/
Chapbook (Editorial Review)
A Thirst for Salt, Gazing Grain Press, Winner of the 2017 Gazing Grain Press Prose Chapbook Contest, 2018.
Performances and Appearances
"Podcast for Social Research Episode 90: TRANSgressions--Rights, Wrongs, and Liberal Pieties," July, 2025, https://open.spotify.com/episode/7f470HqqWA1a3lw9NxevW9
"Faculty Spotlight: Nazism is Not the Past," The Podcast for Social Research, February 14, 2025 https://open.spotify.com/episode/3MxnjtJMAiCyKscEvLxS2W?si=22a3a7b0656d484d&nd=1&dlsi=3b09d46078af4c38
Research Interests
Queer and trans history; modern European history; lesbian studies; history of sexuality and gender; feminist theory; transnational social movements; queer theory
Awards And Honors
Awards
Dean's Outstanding Dissertation Award, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, NYU, 2025
Research Grants
Global Research Initiative Fellowship, doctoral dissertation research, NYU Paris
Mainzer Fellowship, summer research grant, NYU Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Alumnae Fellowship, dissertation fieldwork grant, Mount Holyoke College Alumnae Association
Partner University Fund Fellowship, summer research grant, NYU/Centre national de la recherche scientifique
CIRHUS Research Fellowship, summer research grant, NYU/ Centre national de la recherche scientifique
Fellowships and Invited Workshops
The Center for Women’s History Early Career Workshop Fellow, New York Historical Society
Elaine Brody Dissertation Research Fellowship, NYU Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Margaret Brown Fellowship, NYU History Department
Mellon Pre-Dissertation Fellowship, NYU History Department
École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Summer School, "Rethinking the Concept of Revolution," Paris, France
Portfolio
hannahleffingwell.wordpress.com
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