Department of Gender Studies

G Angel graduated with a BA in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies in 2021 from Grand Valley State University. There, G was a Ronald E. McNair scholar who did work on the historical weaponization of monstrosity against marginalized communities. Their senior thesis considered the trope of the hillbilly monster and its weaponization against rural communities through the examination of films like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Deliverance.

In their doctoral research, G seeks to continue working on issues of monstrosity and hate rhetoric. They also seek to uncover the practical ramifications the ideology of monstrosity has on communities that it has been weaponized against. G has presented research on the rhetoric of monstrosity and homophobia between 1960-2000, rural activism in the Lesbian Avengers, hillbilly horror and its ramifications for rural communities, and the queer reclamation of the monster through the adoption of the cryptid as queer representation.  G is particularly interested in the intersections of rurality, queerness, and monstrosity.

Ronald E. McNair Fellow, Indiana University, 2021.