Esther Newton, Ph.D.

Professor Emerita of Anthropology
School of Natural and Social Sciences

Dr. Esther Newton is a founding member of Purchase College, on the faculty since 1971. She helped establish the Anthropology Program, the Women's Studies Program, and the Lesbian/Gay Studies Program. She is a pioneer in the field of lesbian and gay studies and an internationally recognized expert. She has also been honored by the Purchase College Student Union and nominated twice for the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Education

• 1958-1962: University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, B.A. with Distinction and Honors in  History, June, 1962.
• 1962-1968: University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.  M.A. in Anthropology,  1964, Ph.D  in Anthropology, August, 1968. 

Employment

• 1968-1971: Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Dept. of Anthropology, Queens  College. Doctoral Faculty of the Graduate Center of CUNY.
• 1970: Visiting Lecturer, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.
• 1971-2006: Assistant, Associate, and Full Professor of Anthropology, Purchase College, State University of New York.
• 2006--: Professor Emerita, Purchase College, State University of New York.

Awards

• 1989 Nominated by the Social Science Division for the  SUNY Chancellor's Award  for Teaching Excellence.
• 1994 Faculty of the Year Award from the Purchase Student Union.
• Cherry Grove, Fire Island nominated for a Lambda Literary Award, winner of the Ruth Benedict Award for outstanding book on a lesbian or gay topic of the Society of Lesbian and Gay Anthropologists and Outstanding Book on the Subject of Human Rights in North America by the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Human Rights in North America.
• 1996 Annual Kessler Lecturer, Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies (CLAGS) at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.
• 1997 Citation as Distinguished Gay/lesbian Alumnus, University of Michigan Center for Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender Affairs
• 1998 Mark E. Ouderkirk Lecturer, Museum of the City of New York
• Nominated by the Social Science Division for the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Teaching Excellence
• Professional Development/Quality of Working Life Award, United University Professions, SUNY
• 1999 Rockefeller Fellowship in the Humanities, Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies (CLAGS) of the Graduate Center of the City University of New York
• Kempner Distinguished Professorship, Purchase College/ SUNY

Professional Societies and Activities

Founding member and Co-chair, Committee for the Center for Lesbian and Gay Scholarship at the CUNY Graduate Center, 1986 to 1990, and member of the CLAGS seminar at CUNY.

Scholarly advisor for the documentary film "Paris is Burning" and for the documentary series, "A Question of Equality."

Editorial Boards: Journal of Homosexuality, Journal of Sexuality in History, GLQ, Journal of Queer Studies; "The Cutting Edge: Lesbian Life and Literature Series", NYU Press.  Anthropology editor for "Between Men -- Between Women: Lesbian and Gay Studies Series," Columbia University Press.  Reviewed papers and grant applications for NSF,  the InQueery Conference on Gay and Lesbian Studies (1994), Cultural Anthropology, Human Organization, Gordon & Breach publishers, Temple University Press, etc.

Keynote speaker at the Northern California Gay and Lesbian Historical Society, November 12, 1992.

Visiting Professor, Center for Cultural Studies, University of California at Santa Cruz, November 1992.

Co-Chair of the Commission on Lesbian and Gay Issues in Anthropology of the American Anthropological Association, 1994-1996

New Media skills

Participant in the Learning to Look Faculty Institute (LTL), June 10-14 at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York NEH funded institute in new media pedagogy and Visual Culture, Summer, 2001.  Awarded released time at Purchase College to develop an online Introduction to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Studies.  October 2001, presented work in progress to LTL seminar at CUNY Graduate Center.  September/October 2002, offered first online Seminar in the City through the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies at the CUNY Graduate Center.

Publications

• 1972   Mother Camp: Female Impersonators in America. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:  Prentice-Hall, Inc.  University of Chicago Press, 1979.
• 1973   Amazon Expedition, editor, with Bertha Harris, Jill Johnston, and Jane  O'Wyatt.  New York: Times Change Press.
• 1976   Womenfriends, with Shirley Walton. New York:  Friends Press.
• 1993   Cherry Grove, Fire Island: Sixty Years in  America's First Gay and Lesbian  Town. Boston: Beacon Press.
• 2000   Margaret Mead Made Me Gay: Personal Essay, Public Ideas  Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
• under contract:  My Butch Career: A Queer Life in Anthropology  New York: St.  Martin's Press.