Gender, Sexuality, and Queer Studies

How have our expectations about gender and sexuality been shaped by historical, social, scientific, artistic, and cultural contexts across time and place? How does that heritage influence the way we experience gender and sexuality today? How can we have agency in reshaping expectations about how gender and sexuality can be represented and lived? Answer these questions and so much more.

This major academic area emerged in the 1970s and 1980s and a wide range of disciplines contribute to investigating the importance of gender and sexuality to identity and society. People of color have been central to the development of gender and sexuality studies and its intersections with issues of race and nation. Scholars and activists looking at economic class, religion, disability, transgender identity, and beyond have further expanded the boundaries of this field.

You will study this field in programs and courses related to other topics like:

  • History
  • Literature
  • Media
  • Art
  • Creative writing
  • Psychology
  • Sociology
  • Health
  • Education
  • Latinx and Latin American studies
  • Native and indigenous studies
  • Food justice
  • Political economy
  • Environmental studies
  • Biology

The study of contemporary queer and transgender cultures is particularly strong in creative writing, literature, and media classes.

Faculty Associated With This Field
Title Expertise
Balaram, Arita Psychology, critical race and feminist studies, community-engaged methods
Blewett, Lori Communication
Davis, Stacey European history
Hardy, Tara
Kennedy, Cynthia leadership
Mullins, Greg literature, queer studies
Nelson, Alice Spanish language, Latin American studies
Proctor, Bradley U.S. history, African American history, American studies
Rognas, Liza American history, information resources and library science
Russo, Julie media studies, gender & women's studies, sexuality and queer studies
Saliba, Therese international feminism, Middle East studies, English
Williams, Sarah Feminist Theory, Cultural Studies
Wolach, David creative writing, poetics, aesthetics, media/performing arts
Yannone, Sandra writing theory and practice, poetry, women's/LGBT studies
Yu, Pauline marine science
Selected Programs 2022-23
Title Class Standing Credits
Capstone in Humanities
  • Junior
  • Senior
16
Forest, Farm, Shellfish Garden: Experiential Learning
  • Freshman
8, 14, 16
Gender and Sexuality History: 1800-Today
  • Freshman
  • Sophomore
  • Junior
  • Senior
16
Gender History: Ancient and Medieval Europe
  • Freshman
  • Sophomore
14
Gender History: Europe and America, 1650-1850
  • Freshman
  • Sophomore
14
Independent Reading on the French Revolution
  • Freshman
  • Sophomore
  • Junior
  • Senior
4, 6, 8
Power Games: Identity and the Social Imagination in Game Studies and Design
  • Sophomore
  • Junior
  • Senior
8
Psychology of Gender and Sexuality
  • Freshman
  • Sophomore
14
Selected Programs 2023-24
Title Class Standing Credits
America to 2025: Expressive Culture, History, and Identity
  • Sophomore
  • Junior
  • Senior
16
Land-Based Learning: Foodways
  • Freshman
  • Sophomore
  • Junior
  • Senior
16
ReInterpreting Liberation: Feminist Decolonial Futures
  • Sophomore
  • Junior
  • Senior
12