Graduate Program in the Sociology of Sex and Gender
The Sociology of Sex and Gender is among the most significant and exciting fields in contemporary sociological research and thought. As a foundation for the development of feminist theory and research methods, the discipline of sociology has been a leading academic field in the creation of new and innovative paradigms that study and analyze social behavior, social theory, and social phenomenon from the perspective of women and women's roles in social life.
The graduate specialization in gender provides a graduate level education in the sociology of gender, engaging students in the contemporary discourse on feminist theories and the intersection of race, class and ethnicity in the study of women. The goal of the specialization is to engage the students in an in-depth and theoretically grounded analysis of gender and social relations.
The program at the University of Colorado offers the opportunity to do advanced level research on women in a supportive and exciting academic environment. The graduate curriculum focuses on national and global contexts; women's participation and transformation of culture, society, and politics; violence against women; postmodern theoretical perspectives; and research methods.
The faculty in gender are nationally recognized scholars who represent a wide range of interests and areas of expertise that include criminology, ethnography, stratification, social psychology, and religion and ethnicity. The course offerings reflect the diversity of cutting edge research and methodology that characterizes gender studies. The program is among the most innovative gender specializations currently available in sociology Ph.D programs across the country.
Graduate seminars
To fulfill the course requirements for the gender specialization, students may choose from among the following graduate course offerings:Core Courses:
- Feminist Theory
- Feminist Research Methods
- Sociology of Race, Class, and Gender
- Family and Society
- Postmodern Social Theory
- Interpretive Social Psychology
- Ethnographic Research Methods
- Violence Against Women and Girls
- Social Psychology of Gender
Sociology of Gender Faculty Profiles:
Joanne Belknap (Ph.D. Michigan State University 1986.) Professor Belknap focuses on feminist perspectives on gender and crime, including the intersection of sexism with racism and classicism. She is the author of The Invisible Woman: Gender, Crime and Justice and her articles have appeared in Justice Quarterly, Violence Against Women, and Criminology. Her most recent research is in the area of delinquent girls and how the system responds to battered women. She teaches courses on women and violence and theories of criminology.
Leslie Irvine (Ph.D. State University of New York at Stony Brook, 1997.) Primarily a social psychologist, Professor Irvine studies the creation of meaning and identities. She is the author of two books.
Co-dependent Forevermore: The Invention of Self in a Twelve Step Group, focuses on the discourse of recovery and how people adapt it to the problems in their lives. If You Tame Me: Understanding our Connection with Animals, examines relationships between people and companion animals and theorizes the selves of animals. She is currently completing a book on animals in disasters. She teaches courses on social psychology and theory.
Janet L. Jacobs (Ph.D. University of Colorado 1985.) Professor Jacobs specializes in the social psychology of gender. She is author of numerous books, including Victimized Daughters: Incest and the Development of the Self and Hidden Heritage: The legacy of the Crypto-Jews. Her research has also appeared in Signs and the Journal for the Social Scientific Study of Religion. Her current work is on gender, religion/ethnicity, and collective memory. She teaches courses on feminist theory, social psychology, and gender and religious culture.
Stefanie Mollborn (Ph.D. Stanford University, 2006.) Professor Mollborn currently studies teenage mothers and fathers and their children, including the way gender shapes their experiences. Her other interests are social psychology, childhood and adolescence, families, social inequalities in health, and studying gender through quantitative methods. Her research has been published or will appear in Social Psychology Quarterly, Journal of Health and Social Behavior, and Journal of Marriage and Family. She teaches courses on gender, social psychology, and social disparities in health.
Joyce McCarl Nielsen(Ph.D. University of Washington, 1972.) Professor Nielsen addresses feminist epistemology and issues of research methods in her book, Feminist Research Methods: Exemplary Readings in the Social Sciences. Her qualitative empirical work includes papers on student-faculty sexual affairs, cultural Associate Dean for Social Sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences.
Hillary Potter (Ph.D., University of Colorado at Boulder). Dr. Potter’s research interests include the examination of the intersection of race, gender, class, and crime. Within this area, Dr. Potter is currently investigating intimate partner abuse against Black women, interracial intimate partner abuse, youth violence, effects of community intervention, and racialized perceptions of crime.
AnnJanette Rosga (Ph.D. University of California at Santa Cruz, 1998.) Professor Rosga has focused on the semiotics of hate crime among law enforcement officers and other social groups, with a current project examining international human rights training for police in emergent democracies. Her qualitative research is interdisciplinary, drawing on semiotics, discourse analysis, feminist theory and post structuralism. She teaches courses on criminology, ethnography and theory.
Amy Wilkins (Ph.D., University of Massachusetts, 2004) is an Assistant Professor of Sociology. Her substantive areas of interest focus on identities and inequalities. Her research has appeared in Gender & Society, and her book, Goths, Wannabes, and Christians: Gender, Race, Class, and Sexuality in Youth Cultures, is forthcoming from the University of Chicago Press. Her methodological specialties are ethnographic fieldwork and interviewing. Professor Wilkins teaches the Qualitative Writing seminar.
