Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
The Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies offers students an interdisciplinary curriculum that focuses on people’s lived experiences of gender and sexuality in national, transnational, and global contexts. The department’s curriculum examines the meaning of gender and sexuality as socially-constructed categories that shape personal identities and beliefs as well as structural opportunities and outcomes within historical power relations. The wide range of WGSS courses explores the intersections of gender, race, class, sexuality, nationality, ability and other axes of experience through an examination of the institutional structures that have an impact on human and non-human lives. The department’s curriculum also centers decolonial and transnational feminist thought and social movements as shaping social conditions and inequities around the world. Among the areas of expertise of UO WGSS faculty include: health and embodiment, gender and literature, history and archival research, arts and culture, narrative and meaning-making, decolonial and transnational feminisms, migration and mobility, and social movements and environmental justice.
Any student may take Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality studies courses. Some students take a few courses to complement the curriculum in another major or to fulfill UO Core Education requirements. Others choose to fulfill the requirements for a major in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality studies or a minor in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality studies or in Queer Studies. The Department also offers a Graduate Certificate for graduate students.
Faculty
Oluwakemi Balogun, associate professor (globalization, nationalism, African studies). BA, 2003, Pomona College; PhD, 2012, California, Berkeley. (2013)
Yu-Fang Cho. professor (decolonial and transnational feminisms, Asian American and Pacific Islander Studies, environmental justice) BA, 1996, National Taiwan University; MA, 1998, University of Wisconsin-Madison; PhD, 2004, University of California at San Diego (2024).
Ana-Maurine Lara, associate professor (Black feminisms, decolonial theories and methodologies, speculative fiction and poetry). BA, 1997, Harvard-Radcliffe University; MA, 2012, Yale University; PhD, 2014, Yale University. (2015)
Isabel Millán, assistant professor (Latino and Chicano studies, transnational feminism, women and queer of color theory). BA, 2004, California, Santa Barbara; MA, 2007, San Francisco State; PhD, 2013, Michigan, Ann Arbor. (2018)
Yvette Saavedra, assistant professor (Chicana/o history, US history, gender and sexuality history). BA, 2001, Pitzer College; MA, 2003, University of Texas, El Paso; PhD, 2013, University of Texas, El Paso. (2019)
Carol Stabile, professor (gender, race, and class in the media). AB, 1983, Mount Holyoke College; MA, 1985, PhD, 1992, Brown. (2008)
Kristin Yarris, associate professor, (disability studies, global studies, women's gender and sexuality studies). BA, 1994, Lewis & Clark College; MA, 2007, PhD 2011 UCLA. (2012)
Emerita
Barbara Corrado Pope, professor emerita. BA, 1964, Hiram; MA, 1966, Iowa; PhD, 1981, Columbia. (1976)
Judith Raiskin, professor emerita. (postcolonial literature, feminist theory, sexuality). BA, 1979, California, Berkeley; MA, 1981, Chicago; PhD, 1989, Stanford. (1995)
Elizabeth Reis, professor emerita. AB, 1980, Smith; MA, 1982, Brown; PhD, 1991, California, Berkeley. (2002)
The date in parentheses at the end of each entry is the first year on the University of Oregon faculty.
Affiliated
Yvette Alex-Assensoh, political science
Susan C. Anderson, German and Scandinavian
Erin Beck, political science
Charise Cheney, ethnic studies
Lynn Fujiwara, ethnic studies
Alison Gash, political science
Amalia Gladhart, Romance languages
Julie Heffernan, education studies
Ellen Herman, history
Sara Hodges, psychology
Jocelyn Hollander, sociology
Lamia Karim, anthropology
Kate Kelp-Stebbins, English
Kathryn A. Lynch, environmental studies
Bonnie Mann, philosophy
Michelle McKinley, law
Kate Mondloch, history of art and architecture
Dorothee Ostmeier, German and Scandinavian
Eileen M. Otis, sociology
C. J. Pascoe, sociology
Camisha Russell, philosophy
Ellen Scott, sociology
Beata Stawarska, philosophy
Leslie H. Steeves, journalism and communication
Lynn Stephen, anthropology
Analisa Taylor, Romance languages
Courtney Thorsson, English
Jessica Vasquez-Tokos, sociology
Elizabeth A. Wheeler, English
Mary E. Wood, English