2023-24 Edition

Department of Gender and Sexuality Studies

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Catherine Sameh, Department Chair
3000 Humanities Gateway
http://www.humanities.uci.edu/genderandsexualitystudies/

UCI’s Department of Gender and Sexuality Studies is dedicated to the study of gender and sexuality in their complex articulation with other social categories such as race, ethnicity, class, religion, and nationality. The Department’s goal is to foster critical and creative analysis of the various disciplinary perspectives—historical, political, economic, representational, technological, and scientific—that have constituted women, gender, and sexuality as objects of study. By emphasizing a rigorous interdisciplinary perspective in their teaching and research, the Gender and Sexuality Studies faculty seek to produce new knowledge about the social meanings of gender, race, class, and sexuality, and to equip students with a range of analytical and methodological skills.

The field of Gender and Sexuality Studies grew out of Women’s Studies, an interdisciplinary field that developed at a phenomenal rate from a handful of student-initiated courses in the early 1970s to more than 600 programs in colleges and universities across the United States offering degrees at the B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. levels. UCI’s Department of Women’s Studies was founded as a program in 1975 and has grown significantly since that time. To reflect its expanding scope of inquiry, the department changed its name in 2014 to the Department of Gender and Sexuality Studies. The Department offers a B.A. in Gender and Sexuality Studies, a minor in Gender and Sexuality Studies, a minor in Queer Studies, and a graduate emphasis in Feminist Studies.

Gender and Sexuality Studies provides a unique intellectual community for undergraduate and graduate students, where faculty and students share a commitment to interactive teaching and learning. Students work closely with faculty to plan a coherent program of study and to anticipate work toward advanced degrees and a wide variety of career options.

Career Opportunities

A degree in Gender and Sexuality Studies prepares students for multidisciplinary opportunities in graduate degree programs and for numerous careers in both the public and private sectors. Businesses, corporations, government and educational institutions increasingly find the need for expert knowledge about gender and sexuality. The growth of organizations and agencies that deal with women's, gender, and LGBTQ+ rights issues—at the local, national, and global levels—is expanding opportunities for graduates with degree specializations in Gender and Sexuality Studies. GSS graduates bring unique skills and knowledge to the professions of law, medicine, social work, education, counseling, and to government service, all of which increasingly require expertise on issues concerning gender and sexuality. Students of Gender and Sexuality Studies develop critical and analytical skills that prove valuable in the full range of innovative career, employment, and philanthropic/humanitarian/social justice choices.

The UCI Division of Career Pathways provides services to students and alumni including career counseling, information about job opportunities, a career library, and workshops on resume preparation, job search, and interview techniques.

Faculty

Jonathan Alexander, Ph.D. Louisiana State University, Director of Humanities Core and Chancellor's Professor of English; Culture and Theory; Education; Gender and Sexuality Studies; Informatics (gender and sexuality studies, language/writing/rhetoric, film/TV/new media, 20th- and 21st- century American, creative writing, literary journalism)
Victoria Bernal, Ph.D. Northwestern University, Professor of Anthropology; Culture and Theory; Gender and Sexuality Studies; Religious Studies (gender, war, cyberspace, Islam, transnationalism, Africa)
Michele B. Goodwin, J.D. Boston College, Director, Center for Biotechnology and Global Health Policy and UCI's Chancellor's Professor of School of Law; Criminology, Law and Society; Gender and Sexuality Studies; Population Health and Disease Prevention (bioethics, constitutional law, family law, health law, reproductive rights, torts)
Laura H. Kang, Ph.D. University of California, Santa Cruz, Chancellor's Fellow and Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies (feminist epistemologies and theories, cultural studies, ethnic studies)
Mahaliah Little, Ph.D. The Ohio State University, Assistant Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies (black feminist theory, literary and cultural criticism, black sexuality studies, black feminist aesthetics, contemporary African American literature, trauma narratives)
Rudo Mudiwa, Ph.D. Indiana University, Bloomington, Assistant Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies; Culture and Theory (anti-colonial studies, African feminisms, urban space, rhetoric)
Nasrin Rahimieh, Ph.D. University of Alberta, Associate Dean of Personnel for the School of Humanities and Howard Baskerville Professor of Comparative Literature; European Languages and Studies; Gender and Sexuality Studies (Modern Persian literature and culture, diaspora studies, women's writing.)
Catherine Z. Sameh, Ph.D. Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Department Chair and Associate Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies (Iranian feminism, human rights, transnational feminisms, gender and social movements in the Middle East and Muslim world, Islam, women of color feminisms)
Jeanne Scheper, Ph.D. University of California, Santa Barbara, Associate Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies (feminist performance studies and visual culture, cultural studies, theories of race, gender and sexuality, trans-Atlantic modernism)
Jennifer Terry, Ph.D. University of California, Santa Cruz, Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies; Comparative Literature (cultural studies, social theory; science and technology studies, formations of gender and sexuality, critical approaches to modernity, American studies in transnational perspective, processes of militarization)
Heidi E. Tinsman, Ph.D. Yale University, Professor of History; Gender and Sexuality Studies (Latin America, gender and sexuality, transnational and world history, labor history, Chile, Peru)

Courses

GEN&SEX 20. Introduction to Queer Studies. 4 Units.

Study of sexuality from the perspective of lesbian, gay, queer, transgender scholarship spanning humanities, social sciences, and arts.

(IV and VII ).

GEN&SEX 50A. Gender and Feminism in Everyday Life. 4 Units.

What is gender? Why does studying it matter? Explores how feminism has understood not only gender as a category of social analysis, but how gender structures personal identities, family, citizenship, work and leisure, social policy, sexuality, and language.

(IV and VII ).

GEN&SEX 50B. Gender and Power. 4 Units.

From workplace to home to schools to prisons, how are societal institutions and politics “gendered”? Examines power and inequalities around gender, race, class, and sexuality in national and transnational contexts.

(IV and VII ).

GEN&SEX 50C. Gender and Popular Culture. 4 Units.

An investigation of gender, race, and sexuality in film, TV, video, music, and advertising, with attention to the ways that popular culture shapes understandings of technology, national identities, leisure and work, historical memory, international communication, and multicultural representation.

(IV and VII ).

GEN&SEX 60A. Gender and Science. 4 Units.

Examines science from a variety of feminist viewpoints in order to explore how science influences everyday life. Special attention is given to the ways science shapes our understanding of gender, race, and sexuality.

(III)

GEN&SEX 60B. Gender and Law. 4 Units.

Introduction to the relationship between gender, race, sexuality, and the law. Critical thinking about how law defines citizenship, political representation, and democracy, focusing on the history of legal reform undertaken in the name of women as a social group.

(III)

GEN&SEX 60C. Gender and Religion. 4 Units.

Introduces the topic of religion in a feminist context by performing cross-cultural exploration of gender, authority, and faith in various traditions. Study includes (but is not limited to) writings of contemporary Jewish, Christian, and Muslim feminists.

Same as REL STD 61.

(III and VIII ).

GEN&SEX 100A. Feminism and Social Change. 4 Units.

Explores feminist modes of knowledge production in relation to histories and activist practices of various social movements. Examines the kinds of information, research, ideas, theories, and concepts that underlie feminist cultural analysis and social movement organizing.

GEN&SEX 100B. Feminist Theory. 4 Units.

Introduction to historical traditions in theory and various conceptual frameworks informing scholarship in gender studies, sexuality studies, and women's studies as a field of critical inquiry.

GEN&SEX 100C. Feminist Cultural Studies. 4 Units.

Investigation of the theories and methods that inform the feminist study of culture. Focuses on the interpretation of the visual arts and literature created by, and predominately for, women.

GEN&SEX 100D. Queer Knowledges. 4 Units.

Explores the emergence of historical elaboration of non-normative sexual identities, practices, and communities; focuses on medical, legal, literary, aesthetic, scientific, and religious notions about homosexuality and appropriations and subversions of these notions by queer people.

GEN&SEX 110A. Gender, State, and Nation. 4 Units.

Examination of gender and sexuality in relation to the production of identities created through participation in state and nation. Examines complexity of relationship between feminism and nationalism, feminism and the state.

GEN&SEX 110B. Money, Sex, and Power. 4 Units.

Examination of gender and sexuality in relation to the emergence of the modern world, modernity, and capitalism; commodification, circulation, and transnational exchanges relating to race, gender, class, sexuality, religion, and nationality.

GEN&SEX 110D. The Politics of Health and Medicine. 4 Units.

Focuses on cultural and political-economic analysis and representations of disease both within the U.S. and globally.

GEN&SEX 120A. Histories of Sexuality. 4 Units.

Examines the historical production of non-normative sexual and gender identities, bodies, practices, and communities. Explores how past formations inform and shape the present and future.

GEN&SEX 120B. Image Problems. 4 Units.

Examination of scholarly approaches to gender stereotypes and politics of representation as they present possibilities for critical analysis and produce problems and limitations; how powerful ideas of gender intersect with other forms of social differentiation such as race and class.

GEN&SEX 120C. Practices of Embodiment. 4 Units.

Explores how science, medicine, and law have shaped the understanding of differentiated bodies; examines shifting norms and ideals about producing, shaping, adorning, and dressing gendered bodies across diverse historical, cultural, social, economic, and spatial contexts.

GEN&SEX 155. Topics in Gender and Sexuality Studies. 4 Units.

Designed to provide students with an opportunity to conduct advanced work in Gender and Sexuality Studies.

Repeatability: Unlimited as topics vary.

GEN&SEX 157. Topics in Queer Studies. 4 Units.

Explores issues in queer studies from one or more of the following perspectives: theoretical, historical, legal, economic, political, sociological, and representation in the arts.

Repeatability: Unlimited as topics vary.

GEN&SEX 165F. Gender and Technology. 4 Units.

Using a variety of disciplinary methods, examines how various technological processes and products produce culturally complex meanings associated with gender and technology.

GEN&SEX 167A. Militarism and Gender. 4 Units.

Examination of feminist approaches to militarism, war, and political violence; drawing on representations of women as both victims of and participants in military violence; effects of militarism on formations of gender; effects of military industrial complex on nationalism and identity.

Same as INTL ST 153F.

GEN&SEX 170. Topics in Gender, Feminism, Literature, and Language. 4 Units.

Topics cover issues in language and literature which relate to women or gender, or which are taught from a feminist methodological perspective.

Repeatability: Unlimited as topics vary.

GEN&SEX 171. Topics in Gender, Feminism, and History. 4 Units.

Topics cover issues in history which relate to women or gender, or which are taught from a feminist methodological perspective.

Repeatability: Unlimited as topics vary.

GEN&SEX 171A. Sex and Conquest in Latin America. 4 Units.

Competing ideas of masculinity and femininity, sexual violence, sexual identities, and gendered hierarchies informed how the Spanish engaged in military and religious domination of Mexican and Andean communities, as well as the forms of native resistance throughout colonial Latin America.

Same as ANTHRO 140, CHC/LAT 150A, HISTORY 160.

GEN&SEX 172. Gender and Ethnicity: Chicana/Latina Feminisms in the US. 4 Units.

Focuses on the Latina Feminist Group and testimonios to examine the historical development of Chicana/Latinx feminist thought and practice. Draws from interdisciplinary scholarship to survey the diversity of contemporary Chicana/Latinx feminisms through an intersectionality lens.

Same as CHC/LAT 158B, SOCIOL 163.

(VII)

GEN&SEX 174. Topics in Gender, Feminism, and the Arts. 4 Units.

Topics cover issues in the arts which relate to women or gender, or which are taught from a feminist methodological perspective.

Repeatability: Unlimited as topics vary.

GEN&SEX 175. Topics in Gender, Feminism, and the Media. 4 Units.

Topics cover issues in the media which relate to women or gender, or which are taught from a feminist methodological perspective.

Repeatability: Unlimited as topics vary.

GEN&SEX 180. Topics in Gender, Feminism, and Anthropology. 4 Units.

Topics cover issues in Anthropology which relate to women or gender, or which are taught from a feminist methodological perspective.

Repeatability: Unlimited as topics vary.

GEN&SEX 181. Topics in Gender, Feminism, and Cognitive Psychology. 4 Units.

Topics cover issues in cognitive psychology which relate to women or gender, or which are taught from a feminist methodological perspective.

Repeatability: Unlimited as topics vary.

GEN&SEX 182. Topics in Gender, Feminism and Economics. 4 Units.

Topics cover issues in economics which relate to women and gender or which are taught from a feminist methodological perspective.

Repeatability: Unlimited as topics vary.

GEN&SEX 183. Topics in Gender, Feminism, and Sociology. 4 Units.

Topics cover issues in sociology which relate to women or gender, or which are taught from a feminist methodological perspective.

Repeatability: Unlimited as topics vary.

GEN&SEX 184. Topics in Gender, Feminism, and Political Science. 4 Units.

Topics cover issues in political science which relate to women or gender, or which are taught from a feminist methodological perspective.

Repeatability: Unlimited as topics vary.

GEN&SEX 185. Topics in Gender, Feminism, and Social Sciences. 4 Units.

Topics cover issues in social sciences which relate to women or gender, or which are taught from a feminist methodological perspective.

Repeatability: Unlimited as topics vary.

GEN&SEX 187. Topics in Gender, Feminism, and Social Ecology. 4 Units.

Topics cover issues in social ecology which relate to women or gender, or which are taught from a feminist methodological perspective.

Repeatability: Unlimited as topics vary.

GEN&SEX 188. Topics in Gender, Feminism, and Science. 4 Units.

Topics cover issues in science which relate to women or gender, or which are taught from a feminist methodological perspective.

Repeatability: Unlimited as topics vary.

GEN&SEX 189. Topics in Gender, Feminism, and Interdisciplinary Studies. 4 Units.

Topics cover issues in interdisciplinary studies which relate to women or gender, or which are taught from a feminist methodological perspective.

Repeatability: Unlimited as topics vary.

GEN&SEX 190. Topics in Sexualities Studies. 4 Units.

Topics cover issues in the humanities, social sciences, sciences, and arts that relate to critical inquiry of sexualities.

Repeatability: Unlimited as topics vary.

GEN&SEX 197. Senior Seminar in Gender and Sexuality Studies. 4 Units.

Students read advanced scholarship in Gender and Sexuality Studies and complete a major seminar paper.

Prerequisite: Satisfactory completion of the Upper-Division Writing requirement.

Restriction: Gender and Sexuality Studies Majors only.

GEN&SEX 199. Independent Study . 1-4 Units.

Directed reading and research in consultation with a faculty member. Substantial written work required. Includes independent study, involving 3-12 hours a week.

Repeatability: May be repeated for credit unlimited times.

GEN&SEX 200A. Feminist Knowledge and Social Change. 4 Units.

Provides a broad and introductory overview of Women’s Studies and feminist knowledge, including key concepts, theoretical frameworks, disciplinary approaches and methods, and critical debates that have shaped the field.

Repeatability: May be taken for credit 2 times.

GEN&SEX 200B. Problems in Feminist Research. 4 Units.

Colloquium on analytic approaches to interdisciplinary feminist research in Women’s Studies and exploration of how feminist knowledges are produced in different academic disciplines.

Repeatability: May be taken for credit 2 times.

GEN&SEX 201. Special Topics in Feminist Studies. 4 Units.

Seminars on various topics in feminist studies.

Repeatability: Unlimited as topics vary.

GEN&SEX 290. Directed Research. 2-12 Units.

Directed graduate study/research in Gender and Sexuality Studies.

Repeatability: May be taken for credit for 24 units.

Restriction: Graduate students only.

GEN&SEX 399. University Teaching. 4 Units.

Limited to Teaching Assistants.

Grading Option: Satisfactory/unsatisfactory only.

Repeatability: Unlimited as topics vary.

Restriction: Graduate students only.