LGBTQ+ Studies

LGBTQ+ Studies at Hofstra University focus on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people, their history, and culture. LGBTQ+ Studies examine sexualities and genders as identities, social statuses, categories of knowledge, and as lenses that help us to frame how we understand our world. A minor in LGBTQ+ Studies is available to students in any major through the Hofstra College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

LGBTQ+ Studies will benefit students who plan to go on to graduate school to earn advanced degrees in business, counseling, education, law, psychology, and the humanities.

The LGBTQ+ Studies program is an interdisciplinary program that features a University-wide network of faculty mentors and a winter study abroad opportunity in Paris, France.

Hofstra professors from various fields of study teach in the LGBTQ+ Studies Program, including literature (Classics, French, English, Spanish), rhetoric studies, media studies, education, and religion studies. The inherently interdisciplinary nature of LGBTQ+ studies is thus well served by the different domains of study and their methodologies.

Faculty and staff mentors make themselves available for consultation and advisement, especially as the LGBTQ+ Studies Program offers the possibility of quasi self-fashioned courses with the cooperation of professors who are inclined to do so. Interested students often find it helpful to consult with a mentor to help them pattern a course or a series of courses that respond to their personal interests.

Scholarships

About the Program

The LGBTQ+ Studies Program at Hofstra University investigates the broad spectrum of sexual and gender identities from serious scholarly perspectives, including but not restricted to biology, classical studies, communications, cultural studies, fine arts, health professions and human services, history, literature, philosophy, psychology, and sociology. The program is interdisciplinary and designed to offer students various viewpoints from which to examine diversity – diversity of culture, but also diversity in families, communities, histories, institutions, languages and literatures, economics and politics, as well as the complex social and cultural relations between marginalized sexualities and the heterosexual majority. Gender, sexual identities, discourses, and institutions are studied as they intersect with class, race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, and transnational movements.

Outcome Assessment Tools

The LGBTQ+ Studies Program uses various methods to assess the performance of students and thereby instructors and the curriculum. These methods include but are not limited to periodic exams, final exams, written assignments, term papers, research papers, creative-writing projects, and class presentations.

The faculty regularly assesses the effectiveness of these goals through a cyclical examination of one or more components of the program. After careful consideration of the findings of this examination, adjustments are made to the appropriate sector of the program if needed.

Learning Goals

Learning goal #1:& Students will demonstrate knowledge of social, economic, political, intellectual and cultural contributions of LGBTQ+ people of the past and present.

Objectives:

  1. describe the social, economic, political, intellectual or cultural contributions of one or more LGBTQ+ person
  2. analyze scholarship, literature, art, music, dance, theatre, or film created by or performed by one or more LGBTQ+ person

Learning goal #2: Students will develop an understanding of how sexual identity and gender identity combine with nationality, race and ethnicity, religion, social class, and physical ability to shape the experiences of LGBTQ+ individuals.

Objectives:

  1. evaluate scholarship on LGBTQ+ intersectionality
  2. describe the similarities and differences among LGBTQ+ people in different cultural and historical contexts

Learning goal #3: Students will acquire a basic understanding of LGBTQ+ history and queer theory.

Objectives:

  1. summarize major developments in LGBTQ+ history since the 19th century
  2. appraise the thought and scholarship of one or more queer theorist(s)

Learning goal #4:& Students will engage in interdisciplinary approaches to LGBTQ+ Studies.

Objectives:

  1. evaluate inter- or multi disciplinary scholarship on LGBTQ+ topics
  2. employ at least two different disciplinary perspectives in a paper, oral presentation, or research project on an LGBTQ+ topic
Anastasio, Maria Associate Professor of Spanish
Calkins Hall 326A		 E-mail 516-463-5504
Bosley, Alicia Assistant Professor of Counseling and Mental Health Professions E-mail 516-463-8101
Burlein, Ann Associate Professor, Religion E-mail 516-463-7238
Dresner, Lisa M. Assistant Professor of Writing Studies and Composition E-mail 516-463-0075
Goodman, Debra Associate Professor of Literacy Studies E-mail 516-463-5563
Kaufman, Judith Associate Professor, Department of Curriculum & Teaching
253 Hagedorn Hall		 E-mail 516-463-6566
Lawrence, Stephen S. Associate Professor of Physics & Astronomy E-mail 516-463-5584
Lledo-Guillem, Vicente Assistant Professor of Spanish E-mail 516-463-4623
Merrill, Lisa Professor of Speech Communication, Rhetoric, and Performance Studies E-mail 516-463-5515
Ostheimer, Gretchen Associate Professor of Computer Science E-mail 516-463-6106
Powell, David A. Professor of French E-mail 516-463-5485
Rodriguez-Fairplay, SM Assistant Professor of Sociology and Criminology; Director of LGBTQ+ Studies
Davison 205E		 E-mail
Sampedro, Benita Associate Professor; Dept. of Romance Language and Literature
Calkins 321		 E-mail 516-463-4521
Santella, Anthony Associate Professor of Public Health E-mail 516-463-5932
Singh, Annmarie Assistant Professor; Dept. of Library Services E-mail 516-463-6529
Smith, Steven D. Professor of Classics and Comparative Literature;
Calkins 312A		 E-mail 516-463-5493

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Contact Us

LGBTQ+ Studies Program Director
S.M. Rodriguez
205E Davison Hall
Department of Sociology
Office Phone:
(516) 463-5388
Email