Faculty & Scholarship

Faculty research specialties within the Women’s Studies Department address a wide range of topics and problems which traverse the humanities, the social sciences, and the professional health fields. With over thirty budgeted faculty and another forty faculty holding unbudgeted appointments, chances are that if you have a question about gender, race, or sexuality, someone on the Women’s Studies faculty can help steer you toward an answer.

Our faculty’s scholarship illuminates questions central to such disciplines as African American studies, anthropology, ethnic studies, law, literary studies, linguistics, history, music, political science, psychology, social work, sociology, and medicine. At the same time, as part of an interdisciplinary community of scholars, our faculty investigate some of the blind spots of traditional disciplines—analyzing, for instance, the social challenges facing young Muslim women living in the post 9-11 U.S., or the role of gay male composers in the creation of mainstream American music.

The research of faculty who focus on contemporary social issues—such as global disparities in reproductive health, how families cope with neighborhood violence, and women’s efforts to combat discrimination in the globalized workplace—is dedicated to informing policymakers’ efforts to combat a range of social problems. Faculty whose expertise concerns cultures of the past—examining, for example, the gendered significance of blood in medieval French literature, the treatment of sexuality in Shakespearean drama, or systematic violence against African American women after the Civil War—help us to understand the processes by which current systems of gender, race, and sexuality came into being.

Whether you are interested in learning about the foremothers of contemporary feminism or how to help stop the spread of HIV/AIDS, you can find someone who will help you in the Women’s Studies Department.

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