In this presentation I will address the 'state of the field' by explaining the innovations incorporated into my latest graduate seminar that is structured by four objectives:(1) To examine globalizing gender and sexuality struggles that frame the “modernity” of the global and the “exceptional” status of the Middle East as a geopolitical region, object of area studies and region of feminist studies;(2) To think through questions of methodology and alternative epistemologies as they are troubled and animated by figures of gender and sexuality;(3) To explore the politics of citation, activism, and agency in our global research practice;(4) To identify new formations of feminist, trans and queer social, cultural and political formations in the region in relation to spheres of the state, rights, economy, and affect.