The Clayman Institute for Gender Research

Deboleena Roy is an Associate Professor in the Department of Women’s Studies at San Diego State University.  Professor Roy is an interdisciplinary scholar.  She received her Ph.D. in molecular neuroendocrinology from the Institute of Medical Science at the University of Toronto.  In her doctoral work, she examined the effects of estrogen and melatonin on the gene expression and cell signaling mechanisms in gonadotropin-releasing hormone neurons (GnRH) neurons of the hypothalamus. 

The focus of her current research and scholarship in feminist science studies is in the area of feminist theory in science.  Her goal is to bridge feminist critiques of science with transformations in the processes of scientific knowledge production.  She is interested in using feminist epistemologies and research methodologies in order to develop feminist practices in the natural sciences.  Her teaching focuses on integrating biology and women’s studies and addressing issues of gender, race and class in science education.  She has published her work in journals such as Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy; Australian Feminist Studies; Rhizomes: Cultural Studies of Emerging Knowledge; Endocrinology; Neuroendocrinology; and the Journal of Biological Chemistry.  In an upcoming article “Asking Different Questions: Feminist Practices for the Natural Sciences” (Hypatia Fall 2008), she draws from situated knowledges, agential realism and the methodology of the oppressed to suggest that the ability to “ask different questions” can be further articulated into a semi-prescriptive feminist practice of research agenda choice.  In another recent article “Should Feminists Clone?  And If So, How?  Notes from an Implicated Modest Witness” (Australian Feminist Studies Spring 2008) she grapples with a current project within feminist science studies to reconfigure the biological and explore the possibility that the sciences may provide useful tools and practices for the feminist scientist.

Professor Roy was a resident at the Clayman Institute for Gender Research from September 2008 – June 2009.  While a research fellow at the institute, she developed a project in feminist neuroethics and worked on her manuscript Mapping Gender, Hormones, and Neurons: Feminist Configurations in the Neurosciences.