Joanna Wuest

she/her

  • Assistant Professor of Politics
Joanna Wuest, Assistant Professor of Politics

Professor Joanna Wuest teaches and researches constitutional law, American politics, and gender and sexuality politics.

Her book, Born This Way: Science, Citizenship, and Inequality in the American LGBTQ+ Movement (University of Chicago Press), examines how the natural sciences and the mental health professions have been foundational to LGBTQ+ civil rights victories.

Wuest’s writing has appeared in academic and popular outlets including Perspectives on Politics, Polity, Politics & Gender, Law & Social Inquiry, GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, Nonsite, the Nation, Boston Review, Dissent, and Jacobin.

She teaches courses on Civil Liberties, Constitutional Law, American Politics, Gender & Sexuality Law, and Law & Inequality.

Areas of Expertise

Constitutional Law; American Politics; Gender and Sexuality; Citizenship; Law and Political Economy

Happening at Mount Holyoke

Recent campus news

A study by Joanna Wuest, assistant professor of politics at Mount Holyoke College, argues that recent state bans on gender-affirming care for minors identifying as transgender are based on faulty or distorted evidence.

Mount Holyoke College Assistant Professor of Politics Joanna Wuest spoke to Scientific American about flaws in a recent study linking bisexuality with risk-taking.

“Radiolab” talked to Joanna Wuest, assistant professor of politics at Mount Holyoke College, about the origin, rise and uncertain future of the belief that sexuality is innate.