Murray Scholar in Residence to focus on intersection of asexuality and gender

September 22, 2023 - Beth Brauer

James Madison College welcomes its third Stephen O. Murray Scholar in Residence. This year’s scholar is Canton Winer, an assistant professor of sociology and women, gender, and sexuality studies at Northern Illinois University. Winer earned his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California, Irvine.

Canton Winer is the third Murray Scholar in Residence.

Established by the college in partnership with the Michigan State University Libraries, the endowed program honors the legacy of JMC alumnus Stephen Murray (’72) who passed away in 2019. His longtime partner Keelung Hong gifted the university the largest single cash donation to JMC and MSU Libraries, thereby creating the Stephen O. Murray Scholar in Residence Endowment program and funding a new space for the Stephen O. Murray and Keelung Hong Special Collections.

The scholar in residence program encourages LGBTQ+ scholarship by providing academics access to archives located in the Stephen O. Murray and Keelung Hong Special Collections and by supporting their engagement with the college community through public lectures and workshops. Winer’s research in asexuality and ungendering pushes people to consider the scope of queer scholarship.

“When I saw explicit support for queer-oriented research, it was an opportunity I knew I needed to pursue. I especially love James Madison College’s openness to interdisciplinary approaches to teaching,” Winer said. “What a gift it is to receive instruction in small class sizes at a large public university; you don’t find many public institutions offering that.”

Winer will visit campus twice during the 2023-24 academic year with his first occurring October 3-10. Winer will deliver a public talk titled “Does Everyone Have a Gender? Examining the intersection of Asexuality and Gender” at 5 p.m., October 5 in Case Hall’s JMC Library (South Case 332).

“I am hoping for feedback from this talk as I have a book in the works [conceptually] about asexuality and how it challenges categories that we take for granted, especially categories related to race, sexuality and gender,” Winer said. “Asexuality is hugely unmapped in sociology, and it offers really important lessons for questions we ask all the time.”