Clare is author of two books: Killing Eve (Wayne State University Press, 2026) and Arresting Dress: Cross-Dressing, Law and Fascination in Nineteenth-Century San Francisco (Duke University Press, 2014). 

Clare’s writing on queer cultures and histories has appeared in a wide range of academic, literary, and popular publications, including American Historical Review, Canadian Journal of Disability Studies, GLQ, Jacobin, Michigan Quarterly Review, Routledge History of Queer America, SAGE Encyclopedia of Trans Studies,  The Jarnal, The Transgender Studies Reader and Women’s Studies Quarterly. Clare also co-edited a special issue of the journal Social Justice on sexuality and criminalization.

Clare earned a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California, Santa Cruz and has received multiple awards, including The LGBTQ+ History Association’s John Boswell Award, a postdoctoral fellowship from the University of California Humanities Research Institute, and a Fulbright Fellowship.

Clare is currently working on a novel that explores queer history, haunting, and memory in 1870s San Francisco. 

Clare is a professor of Sociology and Sexuality Studies at San Francisco State University.