Pride Month 2024
Happy Pride Month! June is a time for celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer pride. In CLA, we seek to create safe and supportive environments that foster pride, growth, and joy. We are honored to shine a light on the following stories about LGBTQ+ experiences and research.
LGBTQ+ Research in CLA
Communication studies grad student Nou-Chee Chang’s project “Lady in the Streets, Freak in the Sheets” tackles themes of social justice, sexuality, and gender identity in fan-made art and illustration in anime-related communities.
The Inclusive Language Instruction Research Group aims to create a safe learning environment for all students by raising awareness of gender-inclusive language.
Read “The Power of Language in Shaping an Inclusive Classroom”
Associate Professor of Anthropology Erin Durbin received the award, given to outstanding LGBTQ+ published work from 2023, for their book The "Sexual Politics of Empire: Postcolonial Homophobia in Haiti" (2023).
Madison Plemens-Schunk (CLA '24) receives the inaugural Outstanding Service to Human Rights Award for their human rights advocacy. “LGBTQ+ rights have always been a part of my life,” they say.
RIDGS GRPP Fellow Jonny Quenga Borja explores the complexities of queer CHamoru culture.
A graduate student in the Department of Geography, Environment & Society, Mariana Peñaloza Morales' work focuses on their hometown. "I’ve started to describe my project as a love letter to the queer, Black and brown communities in Miami that raised me—taught me to live through and imagine beyond the end of the world."
Read "Mariana Peñaloza Morales Awarded the 2023 Jesús Estrada-Pérez Graduate Fellowship"
Celebrating the legacy of scholar and activist Jesús Estrada-Pérez, this fund provides fellowships for graduate students whose work engages some aspect of queer Latinx artistic production, cultural studies, social justice issues, and related interdisciplinary theories.
Spotlight on Gender, Women’s & Sexuality Studies
CLA’s Department of Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies promotes feminist scholarship, teaching, and programming that centers on the relationship between knowledge, power, and social justice. We push against established boundaries while providing a rich and rigorous education that asks students to view the world around them with a curious yet critical lens.
The department offers an undergraduate major and minor in GWSS, an undergraduate minor in GLBT studies, a doctoral degree in feminist studies, and a graduate minor in feminist and critical sexuality studies.
Learn with us
1000-level
AMES 1917W: Playing with Genders: How Arts Inform Our Everyday Genders, a Case Study in Japanese Arts
AMST 1401: Comparative Genders and Sexualities
ENGL 1004: Banned Books
GLBT 1001 / GWSS 1007: Introduction to GLBT Studies
GWSS 1001: Gender, Power, and Everyday Life
GWSS 1006: Skin, Sex, and Genes
2000-level
HSEM 2064H: Sex, Gender, and the Digital Body
3000-level
CNRC 3205 / JWST 3205 / RELS 3205: Women, Gender, and the Hebrew Bible
ENGL 3352: Weird Books by Women and Gender-variant Writers
GLBT 3301 / GWSS 3501: Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Social Movements in the United States
GLBT 3404 / GWSS 3404: Transnational Sexualities
GWSS 3002W: Gender, Race, and Class in the U.S.
GWSS 3218: Politics of Reproduction
GWSS 3402: Pleasure, Intimacy and Violence
SOC 3251W / AAS 3251W / AFRO 3251W: Sociological Perspectives on Race, Class, and Gender
4000-level
GWSS 4001: Nations, Empires, Feminisms
GWSS 4403: Queering Theory
5000-level
1000-level
ENGL 1004: Banned Books
ENGL 1042: Engaging with Queer Cinema
GWSS 1002: Politics of Sex
3000-level
ANTH 3047W: Anthropology of Sex, Gender and Sexuality
CSCL 3350W: Sexuality and Culture
CSCL 3352W: Queer Aesthetics & Queer Critique
ENGL 3045: Cinematic Seductions: Sex, Gender, Desire
GLBT 3404: Transnational Sexualities
GLBT 3502 / GWSS 3502: Transgender Studies Now
GWSS 3203W: Blood, Bodies and Science
GWSS 3409W / AAS 3409W: Asian American Women's Cultural Production
HIST 3348: Women and Gender in Modern America
PSY 3666: Human Sexuality
SOC 3251W / AAS 3251W: Sociological Perspectives on Race, Class, and Gender
4000-level
GLBT 4101 / AMST 4101: Gender, Sexuality, and Politics in America
SOC 4133: Sociology of Gender, Sex, and Crime
SOC 4551: Sociology of Sexualities
8000-level
Transgender Voice and Communication Services at the Julia M. Davis Center
Affiliated with the Department of Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences, the Davis Center offers customized therapy services for people who are interested in changing their voice so that it better aligns with their gender. Sessions may be provided individually or in small groups. All therapy is conducted with the goal of maintaining vocal health. Watch “The Power of Voice,” a TEDx talk with Marilyn Fairchild, one of the speech therapists.
UMN Pride
The Twin Cities campus is ranked one of the “Top 25 LGBTQ-Friendly Colleges & Universities” in the nation by Campus Pride, earning a score of 4.5 out of 5 for institutional support, housing and residence life, academic life, campus safety, counseling, and recruitment and retention efforts.
Visit the UMN Pride webpage to learn more about the University's commitment to advocating for equity and fostering a sense of belonging for people of all sexualities and gender identities.
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in CLA
The core values of the College of Liberal Arts include
- Freedom of thought and expression
- Respect, diversity, and social justice
- Excellence in all we do
- Efficiency and adaptability in the achievement of our mission
