Esther Newton

Esther Newton (born 1940, New York City) is an American cultural anthropologist who performed pioneering work on the ethnography of lesbian and gay communities in the United States.

Career Newton studied history at the University of Michigan and received her Bachelor of Arts with distinction in 1962 before starting graduate work in anthropology at the University of Chicago under David M. Schneider.

Her PhD dissertation, "The drag queens; a study in urban anthropology" (1968), examined the experiences, social interactions, and culture of drag queens. Later published in several articles and as Mother camp: female impersonators in America (1972), Newton's work represented the first major anthropological study of a homosexual community in the United States, and laid some of the groundwork for theorists such as Judith Butler, who would later explore the performative dimensions of sex and gender roles.

Newton is Professor Emerita of Anthropology and was the 1998-2000 Kempner Distinguished Research Professor at Purchase College. She was also a professor in Women's Studies and American Culture at the University of Michigan.

Personal life

Newton is a lesbian. She is in a long-term relationship with performance artist Holly Hughes. They married in 2015.

Newton is the daughter of psychotherapist Saul B. Newton.

Awards 1994: Ruth Benedict Prize for Cherry Grove, Fire Island: Sixty Years in America's First Gay and Lesbian Town 1995: CLAGS Kessler Award 2000: Ruth Benedict Prize for Margaret Mead Made Me Gay: Personal Essays, Public Ideas (2000).