Research Areas
Faculty and graduate students in Global Gender and Sexuality Studies are committed to innovative research that helps us answer the most pressing questions about how to achieve greater equality, fairness, inclusion and justice.
How do we study gender and sexuality?
As a community of scholars, we critically analyze from a variety of disciplinary perspectives the ways gender and sexuality have shaped societal institutions, religious practices, economic systems, states and political systems, literary and artistic works, and cultural production. Central to our work is not only the critique of structures of exclusion and inequality, but how to support radical change. As a department, we have particular strengths in the following areas:
Literature, Art and Cultural Production
How has gender and sexuality shaped our creative and artistic expression? Our faculty explore the diverse ways in which meanings are made through visual, textual and embodied performance. Faculty research uses gender theory and sexuality studies to ponder questions of reading and interpretation: unpacking the histories, affects and ontological assumptions at play in every act of creating and engaging with texts, music, art or cultural objects.
Gender and Global Citizenship
How are women and men throughout the world actively engaged in changing their societies? Our department has a long history in centering the activism and experience of women across multiple forms of borders. Our faculty’s research is grounded in deep knowledge of world regions, and the transnational, international, intra- and inter-regional intersections that have shaped global movements against colonialism, imperialism, patriarchy, racism and homophobia.
Gender and Public Policy
How does gender impact the social, political and economic institutions of our societies? Our faculty has long specialized in understanding how gender, race, class and sexuality both shape and are shaped by social institutions including the family and marriage, education, laws, politics and polices, and prisons and regulatory systems. Research also focuses on the intersection of broad global changes and activism.
Feminist, Queer and Sexuality Studies
How do we theorize gender inequality and sexual difference? Where do our concepts of gender come from? The department's faculty are known for their research on intersectional identities, production of feminist and queer theory, and queer theories of art. We critically examine the roots and implications of what is considered "normal," and how these understandings link to larger political and public issues within the social, legal, economic and cultural spheres.