The WGSS Department is delighted to introduce Francesca Petronio as the 2024 winner of the Vivien Hartog Graduate Teaching Award.

This award is named in honor of Vivien Hartog, a Women’s and Gender Studies graduate certificate student who died before she could complete her Ph.D. in Sociology. This award goes to the graduate student teacher we think best exemplifies Vivien’s lifelong commitments to activism, teaching, and learning. Here’s a description of Vivien written by her family that captures something of the kind of person we are honoring with this award:

“In Vivien Hartog’s 55 years, she went through more identities than most could imagine. An incomplete list would include: rebellious daughter; actress in training; young mother, wife (3 times); scientologist; scourge of scientology; business woman; domestic help in a hotel; undergraduate; radical feminist and lesbian; graduate student in sociology and women’s studies. At every point she both threw herself into her new identity and at the same time, remained herself. And one way that she always remained herself was in her commitment to social justice and to human rights. She remade herself regularly, but she always understood her remaking as struggles on a larger stage. Particularly in her last decade, she saw her life though the lens of an international women’s movement.”

Professor Liz Montegary (Frankie’s advisor) presented them with the award at our spring commencement ceremony. 

Frankie is a PhD candidate in WGSS working on a highly original and urgently needed dissertation about the participation of LGBTQ-identified people in far-right political movements in the United States today. Since arriving on our campus, they have impressed us with their creative and rigorous approach to research, but they have also inspired us with their passion for teaching and mentorship and their dedication to the Stony Brook community.

Frankie has taught our intro WGSS course on seven separate occasions and, in doing so, has played a key role in building our undergrad program. Their unique ability to turn a “gen ed” class into a life-changing learning experience has inspired many students to declare WGSS as their major or minor and has guided others toward career-shaping internship experiences.

This past fall, Frankie taught a special topics course on transgender media representations. This incredibly popular course attracted students from well beyond WGSS who were eager to learn more about trans studies, many of whom were trans, non-binary, or gender-nonconforming themselves. Putting into practice both mutual aid pedagogy and feminist, queer, and trans principles, Frankie created a classroom where students took care of each other while also taking pleasure in the collective work of cultural criticism.

Outside the classroom, Frankie has been an invaluable member of our campus community. In WGSS, they were elected as the graduate representative, they have served as the department mobilizer for the Graduate Student Employee Union, and they have volunteered to assist with countless departmental events. Beyond WGSS, Frankie has sought out opportunities to support students from underrepresented backgrounds across Seawolf Country through positions with the LGTBQ* Center and the Center for Inclusive Education.

In short, Frankie is a talented, generous, and hilarious teacher, mentor, and community member who more than deserves this award. Congratulations on receiving the Vivien Hartog Graduate Student Award for Excellence in Teaching!