Since 2017, Halberstam has been a professor in the department of English and Comparative Literature and the Institute for Research on Women, Gender, and Sexuality at Columbia University.

[1] Halberstam was the associate professor in the Department of Literature at the University of California at San Diego before working at USC.

Halberstam lectures in the United States and internationally on queer failure, sex and media, subcultures, visual culture, gender variance, popular film and animation.

In the first full length study of its kind, Halberstam traces the presence of female masculinities throughout history, offering it as a viable and ancient option.

The text argues for a more nuanced understanding of gender categories, using examples such as “the bathroom problem” to point out every-day ways in which nonbinary people are excluded.

The ways in which Lady Gaga and all the subsequent craziness that comes with her resonates in popular culture suggest an evolving form of gender and sexuality.

Halberstam uses contemporary pop culture examples, such as SpongeBob SquarePants, Bridesmaids, and Dory from Finding Nemo to explore what he calls the tenets of Gaga Feminism.

Through dissecting gendered language and creations of popular culture, Halberstam presents a complex view of the trans* body and its place in the modern world.

[10] Halberstam has said that he feels no pressure to marry, viewing marriage as a patriarchal institution that should not be a prerequisite for obtaining health care and deeming children "legitimate".

Halberstam was awarded the Arcus/Places Prize in 2018 from Places Journal for innovative public scholarship on the relationship between gender, sexuality and the built environment.