The department brings a wide range of scholarship and teaching to this critical area of literary study. Research and teaching range from theoretical investigations of gender to the study of women's contributions to diverse literary forms such as life-writing, diaries, travelogues, and treatises, as well as their literary, intellectual, and activist networks. Literature and Feminism are strong currents in our work. Collectively, our research engages with women's writing from the late eighteenth century to the contemporary period and spans Europe, America, the Middle East, and South Asia, as well as the intersection of gender with sexuality, caste, and faith. What does feminist wit sound like? How did women writers and activists build influential, global networks? How did they imagine and represent travel, rest, and leisure? These are only some vibrant questions that inform our teaching and research.