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 frame how we understand our world. A minor in LGBTQ+ Studies is available to students in any major through 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, or the humanities.

LGBTQ+ Studies 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 teach in the LGBTQ+ Studies program, including literature (Classics, French, English, Spanish), rhetorical 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 advising, 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 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 sciences, 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, intellectua,l or cultural contributions of one or more LGBTQ+ person.
  2. Analyze scholarship, literature, art, music, dance, theater, or film created 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 theorists.

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

Objectives:

  1. Evaluate inter- or multidisciplinary 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, MariaProfessor of Romance Languages and Literatures
Room 310A Calkins Hall
Email516-463-5504
Bley, EstherAdjunct Instructor of Library ServicesEmail 
Bosley, AliciaAssistant Professor of Counseling and Mental Health ProfessionsEmail516-463-8101
Boyle, AnnmarieAssistant Professor; Dept. of Library ServicesEmail516-463-6529
Buatti-Ramos, SandraSenior Associate Director of Career DevelopmentEmail516-463-6786
Burlein, AnnProfessor of ReligionEmail516-463-7238
Distefano, RoccoSenior Executive Secretary, Chemistry
106 Berliner Hall
Email516-463-5534
Dresner, Lisa M.Associate Professor of Writing Studies and RhetoricEmail516-463-0075
Forman, AndrewDirector, MBA Co-op Program, Associate Professor of Marketing
Guthart Hall #333
Email516-463-5331
Giaimo, GenieDirector, Hofstra Writing Center and Associate Professor of Writing Studies and Rhetoric
121 Mason Hall
Email 
Goodman, DebraProfessor of Specialized Programs in EducationEmail516-463-5563
Kaufman, JudithProfessor of Teaching, Learning, and Technology
Room 128 Hagedorn Hall
Email516-463-6566
Lawrence, Stephen S.Professor of Physics and AstronomyEmail516-463-5584
Lledo-Guillem, VicenteProfessor, Department of Romance Languages and Literature (Spanish)Email516-463-4623
Maziarka, KristenAssistant Professor of Criminology in the Department of Sociology Email516-463-5644
McCleskey, SarahHead of Resource & Collection Services, Axinn LibraryEmail516-463-5076
Merrill, LisaProfessor of Speech Communication, Rhetoric, and Performance StudiesEmail516-463-5515
Monticciolo, LisaDean of Students and Diversity and Inclusion Officer, Law SchoolEmail516-463-4809
Niedt, ChristopherProfessor of Applied Social ResearchEmail516-463-4073
Ostheimer, GretchenProfessor of Computer ScienceEmail516-463-6106
Salter, NicholasAssociate Professor of Industrial-Organizational PsychologyEmail516-463-6349
Sampedro, BenitaProfessor, Dept. of Romance Languages and Literatures and Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program
Room 321 Calkins Hall
Email516-463-4521
Smith, RussDirector of Residential Education & Director of First-Generation Success InitiativesEmail516-463-6930
Smith, Steven D.Professor of Classics and Comparative Literature;
Room 312A Calkins Hall
Email516-463-5493

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Contact Us

LGBTQ+ Studies Program Director
Lisa M. Dresner
Room 305 Mason Hall
Department of Writing Studies and Rhetoric
Office Phone:
516-463-0075
Email

LGBTQ+ Studies Program Director
Lisa M. Dresner
Room 305 Mason Hall
Department of Writing Studies and Rhetoric
Office Phone:
516-463-0075
Email