Graduate Studies

A number of well-known scholars in LGBT Studies, queer theory, and sexuality studies have earned their Ph.D.’s at Yale, including (in chronological order) Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick (English), Lee Edelman (English), Judith Butler (Philosophy), Elizabeth Povinelli (Anthropology), George Chauncey (History), Regina Kunzel (History), Robert Reid-Pharr (African American Studies and American Studies), and Siobhan Somerville (English). Many Yale departments welcome students interested in LGBTS and queer theory, with the greatest concentrations at present in American Studies, History, and African American Studies.

LGBTS is not a degree-granting program and plays no role in graduate admissions. If you are interested in pursuing a Ph.D., you should consult our faculty webpage and the web pages of the departments whose disciplines you wish to study to see if there are faculty here with whom you would like to work. You should contact those departments rather than LGBTS with questions about their Ph.D. programs and admissions procedures.

Although we are not a Ph.D. program, LGBTS and other Yale programs and initiatives provide support to graduate students from across the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and the professional schools who are interested in LGBT Studies. LGBTS provides FLAGS research grants of up to $5,000 to support research by graduate and professional students. Its lecture series and conferences regularly bring leading scholars to campus. With Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, it also cosponsors the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Graduate Colloquium, which regularly brings graduate students together to discuss recent books and articles as well as draft dissertation chapters written by members.

WGSS also offers a Graduate Certificate Program to Yale graduate students already enrolled in other disciplines. Please see the graduate qualification page for a list of current graduate courses offered in LGBTS and WGSS that have been cross-listed as WGSS courses. For more information about the graduate qualification, contact the Director of Graduate Studies for WGSS.

The Yale Research Initiative on the History of Sexualities, based in the Department of History, brings speakers to campus every semester and also regularly organizes symposia and working groups on the history of sexuality. Visiting speakers usually have lunch with interested graduate students.