2022-2025 Chair: Roxane Gay, Gloria Steinem Endowed Chair in Media, Culture and Feminist Studies

Roxane Gay, an internationally recognized writer, editor, cultural critic, and educator, is the 2022-2025 Gloria Steinem Endowed Chair in Media, Culture and Feminist Studies at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. Gay’s pursuit of social justice makes her appointment especially powerful as she brings a commitment to centering underrepresented voices along with deep and broad experience in media.

“I am truly honored to serve as the new Gloria Steinem Endowed Chair at Rutgers," Gay said. "I walk and work in the footsteps of the many feminists and womanists who came before me, and Gloria is one of the giants among those women. I look forward to joining and contributing to a vibrant intellectual community both on and beyond campus."

Her tenure began in September 2022 in a wide-ranging conversation with feminist icon Gloria Steinem, moderated by feminist activist and writer Jamia Wilson. In her first year, Gay not only taught two undergraduate courses exploring cultural criticism, trauma, Black feminisms, and intersections of identity, but also provided mentorship to aspiring student authors through creative writing cohorts. In addition, Gay has held events that that offered a variety of writing opportunities for faculty and emerging writers in the community as well as brought best-selling authors, like Chloé Cooper Jones, to campus. To see more of her events, visit the website. 

Roxane Gay’s writing appears in Best American Mystery Stories 2014, Best American Short Stories 2012, Best Sex Writing 2012, A Public Space, McSweeney’s, Tin House, Oxford American, American Short Fiction, Virginia Quarterly Review, and many others. She is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times. She is the author of the books Ayiti, An Untamed State, the New York Times bestselling Bad Feminist, the nationally bestselling Difficult Women and the New York Times bestselling Hunger. She is also the author of World of Wakanda for Marvel. She has several books forthcoming and is also at work on television and film projects. She also has a newsletter, The Audacity and a podcast, The Roxane Gay Agenda.

She holds a doctorate degree in rhetoric and technical communication from Michigan Technological University and has years of experience teaching creative, professional, and technical writing at institutions of higher education.

The Gloria Steinem Chair honors and draws to campus eminent scholars and practitioners to immerse the university community in debate and scholarship about new media, social change, and power structures.

Occupants of the chair design and teach courses, providing unique opportunities to connect students with media experts who focus on gender equality and creating a more inclusive and democratic media. The Steinem Chair was launched in 2018 with Naomi Klein serving as the inaugural occupant. Learn more about the history of the chair on this site.

The Gloria Steinem Chair is an innovative collaboration among the Rutgers Institute for Women’s Leadership, School of Communication and Information and the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the School of Arts and Sciences.

Funded by more than 425 donors, including a dozen foundations, the Steinem chair endowment was established to serve as a tribute to the groundbreaking leadership of Gloria Steinem. It was created to honor, retain and recruit eminent scholars and practitioners who will help immerse the university community in debate and scholarship about new media, social change, and power structures. The chair launched in September 2018, with Naomi Klein serving as the inaugural occupant.