Sex & the State

Sex & the State is a CRG research working group that brings together a range of inquiries that examine the relationships of gender and sexuality to regimes of state regulation and control, with particular attention to the role of racial formation in these processes. Both key terms—“sex” and “state”—are multivalenced. “Sex” serves as a foundational category while retaining its distinctness from gender and queer studies. The “State” refers not only to national bodies, but also to state powers within a federal-state system such as exists in the United States. In battles between the State and the state, the gendered, raced, and sexualized bodies of people of color often serve as the sites through which the power struggle is inscribed and tried. At the same time, these sites are also resistant and/or disruptive to policing.