The Program in Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies
The Center for Research in Feminist, Queer, and Transgender Studies

Caitlin Adkins (she/hers) is a PhD Candidate in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at Penn, and is gladly serving the GSWS/FQT grad community this year as the GSWS Graduate Associate. 

She specialize in topics of gender, labor, and media, specifically in Japan. Her dissertation work examines figurations of female criminality in Japanese contexts, investigating connections between media representations of transgressive women and legal policy that attempts to structure women’s actualities. This is part of a larger exploration of the mediation and policing of self and being, transgressive and/or queer modalities. 

She looks forward to supporting others in the GSWS/FQT community over the next academic year, and exploring more of her broader interests with them. These include East Asian film and literature, contemporary queer and feminist discourse, media technologies and labor practices, and the role of scholarship in social activism.