Gender and Sexuality Studies

Return to: USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

The Gender and Sexuality Studies major is designed for students drawn to the interdisciplinary study of gender and sexuality. In exploring how gender and sexuality have operated across time and cultures, students will engage with the approaches and methodologies of established disciplines: sociology, literature, history, political theory, religion; as well as interdisciplinary fields like queer studies and ethnic studies. Our curriculum analyzes how gender and sexuality operate in politics, popular culture, the workplace, health, science, sports, intimate life and the very production of knowledge itself. Our classes emphasize that gender and sexuality are not stand-alone categories but rather take shape through their intersection with outer relations of power, including race and ethnicity, religion, class and nationality. Majoring in Gender and Sexuality Studies prepares students for graduate school in the social sciences and the humanities as well as in law, business and education. In addition, the major and each of our several minors prepare students for work in governmental and non-governmental organizations, communications and the media, arts and public service.

Mark Taper Hall of Humanities 422
(213) 740-8286
FAX: (213) 740-6168
Email: gender@dornsife.usc.edu

Chair: Karen Tongson, PhD

Faculty

Dean’s Professor of Gender Studies and Professor of Political Science and Gender and Sexuality Studies: Ange-Marie Hancock Alfaro, PhD (Political Science and International Relations)

USC Associates Chair in Social Sciences and Professor of Political Science and Gender and Sexuality Studies: Jane Junn, PhD (Political Science and International Relations)

Barbra Streisand Professor of Contemporary Gender Studies and Professor of History and Gender and Sexuality Studies: Alice Echols, PhD* (History)

Professors: Michael Messner, PhD* (Sociology); Rhacel Salazar Parreñas, PhD (Sociology); Eliz Sanasarian, PhD (Political Science and International Relations); Lisa Schweitzer, PhD (Public Policy); Karen Tongson, PhD; Sherry Marie Velasco, PhD (Latin American and Iberian Cultures)

Director, ONE National Gay and Lesbian Library and Archives: Joseph Hawkins, PhD (USC Libraries)

Associate Professors: Sheila Briggs, PhD (Religion); Sunyoung Park, PhD (East Asian Languages and Cultures); Francille R. Wilson, PhD (American Studies and Ethnicity)

Professor (Teaching): Diana Blaine, PhD

Assistant Professor (Teaching): Atia Sattar (Writing Program)

*Recipient of a university-wide or college teaching award.

Undergraduate Degrees

Internship

A special feature of the undergraduate program is the internship, a required class for majors in which students gain valuable job skills and professional connections. Students have chosen internships related to gender and sexuality at health clinic, Hollywood studios, law offices, and the ONE Archives, the world’s largest LGBTQ archive. The major also includes a capstone class, which offers students the opportunity to study intensively with a professor in her or his current area of research. Students should consult with the student services adviser in Gender and Sexuality Studies the semester before taking the internship class for assistance with placement. There is also a minor in gender and sexuality studies.

Minor in Gender and Social Justice

The minor in Gender and Social Justice is tailored for students interested in careers in the area of social policy. The minor is unique in its focus on the ways in which large-scale social and economic processes such as neoliberalism, globalization and economic precarity are connected and gendered. Topics include gender and violence; human trafficking; migration; reproductive rights; global human rights in relation to sexual orientation and gender identity; the prison state; prostitution and sex work. Students will examine the complexities of translating feminist theorizing into social policy.

Minor in LGBTQ Studies

The interdisciplinary minor in LGBTQ Studies establishes sexuality as a critical category of analysis for humanists and social scientists. The minor enables students to explore the shifting social organization and cultural meanings of same-sex sexuality and gender identification.

Graduate Degrees

Gender and Sexuality Studies also offers a graduate certificate, a credential that is increasingly necessary for tenure-track positions in gender and sexuality departments and in disciplines searching in the area of gender and sexuality. We encourage graduate students to participate in conferences and to organize campus lectures.

Programs

Bachelor’s Degree

• Gender and Sexuality Studies (BA)

Minor

Graduate Certificate

• Gender Studies Graduate Certificate

Courses

Gender and Sexuality Studies