Karen Warkentin

Karen Warkentin is a Professor of Biology and Professor of Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies. She did her MSc (1990) at Dalhousie University, PhD (1998) at the University of Texas at Austin, and post-doctoral research at the University of Kentucky and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, where she is now a Research Associate. She joined the BU faculty in 2001. Her research focuses on phenotypic plasticity of frog embryos (i.e., environmental effects on development and behavior) and she also considers sexual diversity in nature from a plasticity perspective; her 2018 University Lecture addresses both themes. Prof. Warkentin came out in 1980 as an undergraduate at the University of Guelph, in Ontario, Canada, and identifies as queer and genderfluid (she/her/hers or they/them/their). She appreciates both how the working environment for LGBTQIA+ people at BU has improved since 2001 and the need for further improvements.