Engendering Thought
By Eva Emerson and Nicole St.Pierre
Gender influences many facets of life—entertainment, work, health and, of course, love. So it seems fitting that scholars with wide-ranging interests lead the academic study of gender.
“To understand the multifaceted dynamics of gender, you need an interdisciplinary focus,” says Nancy Lutkehaus, chair of the College’s Gender Studies Program and associate professor of anthropology. Lutkehaus notes that all faculty in the program hold dual appointments with another department, representing 14 departments and more than 30 academic fields.
USC College dared to be different when the Gender Studies Program was created in the late 1970s. Originally called the Study for Women and Men in Society, it was one of the few programs to use feminist theory to explore both female and male sexuality, and to study how gender issues play out in male-female relationships.
“The Gender Studies Program has become well known for the quality of its faculty and research,” says Joseph Aoun, dean of USC College. “This success is due largely to the interdepartmental collaborations that take place on a daily basis.”
For example, historian Lisa Bitel’s Web-based project, Matrix, brings together an international group of scholars who study women’s role in medieval Europe. In her own work, Lutkehaus blends cultural studies with anthropology to study the shifting media representations of Margaret Mead and Mead’s eventual establishment as a cultural icon.
Program faculty also have pioneered studies on emerging family forms—including gay and lesbian families; masculinity and sport; sexuality and law; the history of the women’s movement; and psychological differences and similarities between men and women.
Together, these scholars develop curriculum, co-teach courses, and guide interdepartmental recruitment of faculty and graduate students. Most also take part in USC’s Center for Feminist Research, which promotes cross-disciplinary gender scholarship. The program regularly partners with other universities for speaker series, seminars and conferences, including “Thinking Gender,” a national graduate-student research conference co-sponsored by UCLA.
“Collaborations help us transcend our institutions, allowing social and intellectual ties to grow between gender scholars throughout the region,” Lutkehaus says. “That speaks to the spirit of feminist scholarship.”
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