Gender Studies is an interdiscipline encompassing diverse inquiries, problems, theories, and methods in the analysis of structures, operations, relations, and representations of gender -- that is, culturally-produced and cross-developed from several tributaries -- but particularly the social quest of the 1970s women's movement which inspired the earliest women's studies programs. Gender Studies builds upon several decades of work which has been centered upon women in women's studies. It also draws upon the strengths and expertise of faculty members who, themselves, have been educated in women' studies.
Given this background, the mission of Gender Studies on the Bloomington campus is to undertake critical interdisciplinary scrutiny of gender in ways consonant with the field's feminist origins. New analytical problems, findings, and theories which are germane to many disciplines and multidisciplines emerge from such interrogations and constitute a distinct body of theory and knowledge. This, the field's research, teaching, and service mission entails various, and sometimes triangulating, intellectual interfaces between feminist theory, gender analysis, and the work of other knowledge areas.
Deploying diverse methodologies, theories, and knowledge traditions, Gender Studies' faculty and students examine gender within a number of interrelated areas and thematic clusters. Current Gender Studies faculty expertise, research and scholarship, degree programs, and course offerings center thematically upon the body, sexualities, gendered identities and discourses, and their institutional regulation. Such common concerns make the exploration of intersections between gender and sexuality especially central to our work. This exploration naturally leads Gender Studies to forge invaluable links with other Bloomington campus units and resources which share these emphases in research and instruction. Currently, for instance, these units include The Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction, the Lilly Library, the Department of History and Anthropology, and the School of Law.
Gender Studies' focus upon sexed bodies, gender, sexualities, and related cultural discourses generates problem-centered inquiries which are concerned with a rich array of more specific topics, including: health, subjectivity, sexual behaviors/orientations/meanings, embodiment, and reproduction; institutions of knowledge, law, science, technology, design; cultural production, criticism, policy, and regulation; discourses of difference and intersection forged by sex, race, class, religion, ethnicity, ability, sexual orientation and culture; and feminism as politics, philosophy, discourse, policy framework, and jurisprudence, compared with other gender politics stances.
Unlike many regional and national women's studies programs which are principally drawn from or modeled on arts/humanities more than other fields, Gender Studies at Indiana University is diverse. Our faculty have expertise in the social and behavioral sciences, in the natural sciences, and in professional and applied areas, as well as in the arts and humanities. Thereby, as a site of significant dialogue and scholarly exchange among humanists, social scientists, behavioral and natural scientists, Gender Studies is distinctive both among the academic units of the College of Arts and Sciences and among regional and national women's/gender studies departments and programs. Gender Studies will build a larger, distinguished, interdisciplinary, and innovative faculty with a strong research profile centered upon gender -- with the particular areas of focus and blends of approaches already outlined. In addition, Gender Studies will continue to develop its high quality interdisciplinary undergraduate program and to add graduate degree programs of equal stature. We are committed to excellent service to our developing field, cognate university units and colleagues, the College, and the wider University, as well as the wider communities in which we are embedded.
The Gender Studies Webmaster & Designer is Cierra Olivia Thomas-Williams.
The Original Website was designed by Michelle Wood and Cindy Stone.
For Maintenance and Update information contact: gender@indiana.edu.
Last modification: December 20, 2007
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