Niamh Celeste Gunning, hailing from The Bronx, joined the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures at the University of Michigan in 2026. Earlier that year, she graduated summa cum laude from Cornell University (Ithaca, NY) with a B.A. in German Studies. Her undergraduate thesis examines Magnus Hirschfeld's paratextual framing of images in Geschlechtskunde (1926–30), exploring how this framing shapes readings of his predominantly homosexual and transvestite photographic subjects and revealing an implicit respectability argument for the emancipation of the male homosexual.
Niamh’s academic interests lie in the early sexual sciences, women’s and queer periodicals of the Weimar era, and the role of art and artifice in biopolitical control.
