Paisley Currah

Paisley Currah is a professor of political science at Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center 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. He lives in Brooklyn.

Currah is the coeditor, with Susan Stryker, of TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly, the first non-medical academic journal devoted to transgender issues, which began publication in 2014.

With Monica J. Casper, Currah co-edited Corpus: An Interdisciplinary Reader on Bodies and Knowledge, (Palgrave, 2011) He also co-edited, with Shannon Minter and Richard Juang, Transgender Rights, (Minnesota 2006) which won the Sylvia Rivera Award in Transgender Studies and was a finalist for the 2007 Lambda Literary Awards in the Transgender category. Other publications articles include, "Securitizing Gender: Identity, Biometrics, and Transgender Bodies at the Airport," co-authored with Tara Mulqueen; “‘We Won’t Know Who You Are’: Contesting Sex Designations on New York City Birth Certificates,” with Lisa Jean Moore;“The Transgender Rights Imaginary”; "Expecting Bodies: The Pregnant Man and Transgender Exclusion from the Employment Non-Discrimination Act." He curated a "Symposium on the State of LGBT/Sexuality Studies in Political Science". With Susan Stryker and Lisa Jean Moore, he edited “Trans-,” a special issue of Women’s Studies Quarterly (2008). With Dean Spade, he edited, “The State We’re In: Locations of Consent and Coercion in Trans Policy,” two consecutive special issues of Sexuality Research and Social Policy (December 2007 and March 2008). 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), a new international organization. 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 the New York City Human Rights Law to include discrimination based on gender identity and gender expression. Along with Susan Stryker, he is the coeditor of Transgender Studies Quarterly, the first non-medical academic journal devoted to transgender issues, which began publication in 2014.

Currah is professor of political science and women's & gender studies at Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He served as the chair of the Department of Political Science from 2011-2014. 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: LGBT Social Science and Public Policy Center at Hunter College; 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.

• Currah, Paisley (2009). "The Transgender Rights Imaginary". In Albertson Fineman, Martha; Jackson, Jack E.; Romero, Adam P. Feminist and Queer Legal Theory: Intimate Encounters, Uncomfortable Conversations. Ashgate Press. 
• Currah, Paisley; Juang, Richard M; Price Minter, Shannon, eds. (2006). Transgender Rights. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.