Cal State L.A.'s New Center Supports Gender and Sexuality Research

Four Cal State L.A. faculty members and six students are currently working on research projects studying gender and sexuality topics through a special program funded by the University’s new Center for the Study of Genders and Sexualities (CSGS).

Each faculty member was awarded release time units for the academic year 2003-2004 under the Faculty Grant Writing program and given stipends to support a student research assistant.

Talia Bettcher, assistant professor of Philosophy, is preparing grant proposals on “Transgender Health-in-Education” and “Community Gender Anti-Violence” projects, with assistance from Angela Bowden (graduate student, economics). Ester Hernandez, assistant professor of Chicano Studies, is studying “Gender Politics Among Central Americans in Southern California,” with assistant Douglas Alejandro Diaz (senior, English). Micol Seigel, assistant professor of Liberal Studies, is researching “Gender Identity and Mass Incarceration in Los Angeles,” and is working with Margaret Salazar (senior, liberal studies). Tamar Semerjian, assistant professor of Kinesiology and Nutritional Science, is focusing on “Trans-Experience and the Politics of Sport,” with Portia Tsotetsi (senior, kinesiology) as her research assistant.

Three stipends were also awarded for individual research through a competitive application process open to graduate students and upper-division undergraduates. The winners were: Lucila Chavez (graduate student, Chicano studies) for her thesis project, “Female Gender Subversion and Queerness in the Mexican Revolution”; Margaret Salazar (senior, liberal studies) for her research, “Ballet Folklorico: Staging Feminine Identities”; and James Singer (graduate student, philosophy) for work on his thesis, “Agency and Erasure in the Borderlands.”

Cal State L.A.’s Center for the Study of Genders and Sexualities is part of the University’s new Integrated Humanities Center. CSGS provides support for scholars, teachers, students, and community partners who investigate gender and sexuality, in particular work that bridges the diverse communities represented at Cal State L.A. and its surrounding areas. It is home to the Rockefeller Humanities Residency Program, “Becoming and Belonging: The Alchemy of Identity in the Multicultural Metropolis.” For more information,

C ontact Ann Garry, director, CSULA Center for the Study of Genders and Sexualities, csgs@calstatela.edu, (323) 343-6549.

CONTACTS: Margie Yu, Public Affairs Specialist, (323) 343-3047