Joanna Wuest

  • 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

An anti-liberty, pro-religion Texas-based judge is poised to ban the abortion pill. Mount Holyoke’s Joanna Wuest talked to Texas Monthly about it.

A panel of political and reproductive rights experts from Mount Holyoke College and Smith College spoke about the history of reproductive rights in both America and Latin America and about ways to fight against the current abortion restrictions.

Mount Holyoke College will host a panel of experts who will discuss navigating reproductive rights in the post-Roe landscape.