Trans* Success

Paisley Currah is Professor of Political Science at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York. He was born in Ontario Canada, received a B.A. (Hons, First Class) from Queen’s University at Kingston, Ontario and an M.A and Ph.D. in Government from Cornell University. Currah co-edited Corpus: An Interdisciplinary Reader on Bodies and Knowledge, as well as Transgender Rights which won the Sylvia Rivera Award in Transgender Studies and was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Awards.  Paisley has authored many articles and he even curated a “Symposium on the State of LGBT/Sexuality Studies in Political Science”, and helped edit “Trans-,” a special issue of Women’s Studies Quarterly and “The State We’re In: Locations of Consent and Coercion in Trans Policy,”. In 2002, he received Wayne F. Placek Award from the American Psychological Foundation. He is currently working on a book, The United States of Gender, (forthcoming with NYU Press).

As a founding board member of the Transgender Law and Policy Institute, Currah has advocated for transgender rights at all levels of government. He also serves on the board of directors Global Action for Trans Equality (GATE). He is a member of the advisory board of Human Rights Watch Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights Program. From January 2005-December 2006, he sat on the External Advisory Committee to the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene for the Amendment of Birth Certificates for Transgender Persons. From November 2004 to December 2005, he served on the Citizen’s Advisory Committee Transgender Subcommittee, New York City Human Resources Administration and in that capacity was a co-author of “Recommended Best Practices for Working With and Serving Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming Employees and Clients.” He was a co-founder of the New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy, and helped draft the legislation to amend New York City’s Human Rights Law to include discrimination based on gender identity and gender expression.

Dr. Currah is currently the chair of the Department of Political Science at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York. He served as the Executive Director of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies at the City University of New York from 2003-2007. Currah sits on the editorial boards of GLQ: A Journal of Gay and Lesbian Studies, Women’s Studies Quarterly, and Journal of Sexuality Research and Social Policy. His service on advisory boards includes: Biopolitics: Medicine, Health, and Technoscience in the 21st Century, a book series from New York University Press; Sexuality and the Law, Social Science Research Network; International Resource Network, a project hosted at the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies and funded by the Ford Foundation; the University Consortium on Sexuality Research and Training.