The University of Chicago has become a major center for research and graduate training in lesbian, gay and queer studies. The LESBIAN & GAY STUDIES PROJECT (LGSP), an integral part of the University's Center for Gender Studies, coordinates graduate and undergraduate courses, provides research grants and dissertation-year fellowships to graduate students, co-sponsors the bi-weekly Gender & Sexuality Studies Workshop, and organizes research projects and conferences. It provides an interdisciplinary locus for Chicago faculty and graduate students who study the historical, cultural, and textual construction of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and other queer identities, cultures, and politics; analyze those formations or the dominant culture and social theory from the perspective of queer theory.
Training the next generation of lesbian, gay, and queer studies scholars is central to the mission of the University of Chicago's Lesbian and Gay Studies Project. Project faculty have advised graduate students in history, anthropology, English, East Asian studies, political science, human development, sociology, and other fields. These students are conducting original archival research, fieldwork, and critical textual analyses that will produce fundamental new knowledge and insights into contemporary debates over homosexuality and the historical development of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and other "queer" identities, cultures, and politics in a variety of cultural settings and historical periods. Students have studied and compared these processes around the world - in India, South Africa, Argentina, Brazil, and Canada, as well as the United States. Supporting their work is crucial, since it will both advance our knowledge of sexuality and transgender issues and speed the integration of gay scholarship into the major disciplines and college teaching.
Featured Events
Saturday, May 2, 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
The Lesbian and Gay Studies Project, The Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture, and The Center for International Studies Norman Wait Harris Fund are very pleased to present the Islam & Sexuality Conference. Papers from this day-long event will be published in a special issue of Social Identities: Journal for the Study of Race, Nation, and Culture. Speakers will include Elyse Semerdjian, Whitman College and Joseph Massad, Columbia University.