Welcome to Gender and Sexuality Studies!
On this website you will find information about the requirements of the gender and sexuality studies minor, what gender and sexuality courses are offered at Loyola University Maryland, which faculty are involved in the program, resources for embarking on your own research or to learn more about feminism, and how to become involved in the club and Iota Iota Iota honor society. Scroll down on this page for news about new courses and the capstone course.
Click here to download the Gender and Sexuality Studies Minor brochure
Gender and Sexuality Studies Minor
The gender and sexuality studies minor started (as gender studies) in 1992 and is the oldest interdisciplinary minor at Loyola. The minor is designed to help students of all genders and sexualities bring academic rigor and depth to their academic interests, and to help them identify connections between their experiences and the experiences of others throughout history and across racial/ethnic, economic, and cultural contexts.
Students can take courses in multiple disciplines to build a minor that fits with their major and complements their interests and strengths. Course topics include Gender, Culture, and Madness; Women in the Christian Tradition; Psychology of Gender; Sociology of Race, Class, and Gender; Queer Theatre and Film; Gender, Human Rights and Conflict; Global Histories of Sexuality; Philosophy and Feminism, among others. Many are diversity courses and some fulfill the core. Courses are also available through study abroad.
Students who complete the minor graduate with a greater sense of how sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and other forms of oppression intersect with their major interests. As such, the minor complements major study in all academic areas (business, education, engineering, humanities, mathematics, natural sciences, and social sciences) and serves students who go on to work with people, ideas, media, policy, and technology
Why pursue a Gender and Sexuality Studies Minor?
Gender and sexuality studies is helpful to careers and graduate work in law, writing and communications, public policy, non-profit organizations, education, government and service-oriented professions. It also complements and deepens the student’s academic major by adding a crucial dimension of the human experience, and attention to diversity and social justice.
Gender and Sexuality Studies Alumni spoke with students about their post Loyola lives.
Matthew DiFerdinando Esq. graduated from Loyola in 2014 with a BA in sociology.
He is currently practicing immigration law at HISA Pennsylvania. Matthew was the Govans neighborhood liaison and a service coordinator for CCSJ, interned for St. Vincent de Paul, and was active in Relay for Life. His Sociology methods proposal was for a study of the impact of family Structure on gender identity in boys.
Angelica Puzio graduated from Loyola in 2015 with a BA in psychology.
She is currently a PhD candidate in Developmental Psychology at NYU. Angelica was Director of Equity in student government at Loyola and founder of the Loyola University Committee on Sexual Violence. She did an independent research project for Gender and Sexuality Studies credit that examined how well Loyola students understand sexual assault and the campus-based process for reporting it, which was later published.
Megan Ryan graduated from Loyola in 2016 with a degree in Global Studies.
She is currently pursuing dual Master's degrees in Social Work (MSW) & Human Sexuality Studies (MEd) at Widner University. Megan helped organize Take Back the Night, spoke on numerous panels addressing consent, was a leader of Spectrum, and was a service Coordinator for CCSJ.
Anastasia Canell, Psychology Major '17, reported about her experience with the minor and gave us an update in 2020:
'The Gender and Sexuality Studies Minor at Loyola University Maryland has gifted me with the opportunity to learn about something that I was passionate about within different interdisciplinary perspectives. The classes within the Gender and Sexuality Studies Minor have complimented my Psychology major and made me a more complex thinker about issues of social justice and feminism within my intended field of study. The Gender and Sexuality Studies minor overlapped perfectly with several core classes so that I was able to fit it into my four years at Loyola, and also made the required core classes more interesting to me. All of my gender studies professors have challenged me to think more critically of gender binaries, toxic masculinity, authorship, identity, leadership, and social justice. The Gender and Sexuality Studies minor also was a major selling point in many of my PhD interviews for post-graduation. I am extremely thankful to have had the incredible education of gender studies incorporated into my time at Loyola University Maryland."
“I am currently finishing up my third year in a doctorate in counseling psychology at Lehigh University with a research focus in geropsychology (older adults). I recently published a piece for the American Psychological Association Division 20 Adult Development & Aging that I really leaned on my education in gender studies from Loyola to write: The Third Shift: Caring for Older Adults."
Jessica Brown, a Political Science major, '18 explained how the minor shaped her viewpoint:
"Regardless of where I end up and what I will be doing, the Gender and Sexuality Studies
courses at Loyola have imparted a set of lenses with which I now view the world—a
gendered perspective that influences the questions I ask and how I act, both in formal
and informal settings. After I graduate, I will be working for the Foreign Service Institute as a Program Assistant. I will be aiding with the administration and creation of
courses, where instilling a global and diverse perspective is a part of every class
taught. As an intern, I was already able to interject in classroom discussions and
help groom students by posing those tough questions: where are the women? Minorities?
How will they be effected by a particularly policy or deployment? What customs should
we be aware of prior to shipping out? Exploring and questioning largely unstudied
dynamics has become a passion of mine. I was able to take what I have learned thus
far and bring it into fruition through my independent study course, where Western-centric
notions had to be cast aside to appreciate how something, like a social movement,
functions elsewhere."
Jessica Brown presented her research on gay and lesbian social movements in the Middle East and North Africa at the 2018 Undergraduate Student Research and Scholarship Colloquium View Jessica's Prezi.
News
Spring 2025 Capstone
Queer and Feminist Theory in Global Context (Political Science)
This course introduces students to issues of political power and social relations
as they are viewed through the lenses of the different feminist and queer theories
that have emerged and taken shape across the world today. Many of the course topics
and readings will be theoretical; however, students will research and write about
a current-day non-US initiative in a location of the their choice.
(Gender and Sexuality Studies minors enroll under SC3397 Gender and Sexuality Studies Capstone. Written or electronic permission of the instructor.)
New Courses
Psychology of Men (PY 427)
This course explores constructs of masculinity within the context of the U.S. culture
using sociological, historical, biological, and psychological lenses. We will examine
the notion that multiple masculinities intersect with areas including race, ethnicity,
class, sexuality and gender identity. Key focuses will be on evaluating the influence
of social contexts and role on behavioral expectations for men and boys and analyzing
implications for society and individual men.
Black Women Writers (EN 208)
Explores literature written by women of African descent from the eighteenth to the
twenty-first century, with an emphasis on historical and cultural contexts. The emphais
is on shorter readings (stories, poems, selctions from longer works) with longer
works at semester's end. The work includes weekly blog posts, a midterm and a final
exam, two essays and one collaborative teaching project.
Events
Activism
Visit the Gender and Sexuality Studies Club page or go to The Bridge for information.
New Faculty Scholarship
New articles and books were published by several participating faculty.