Women’s Gender, and Sexuality Studies: A Dynamic and Collegial Interdisciplinary Department
The Women’s Studies Program started in 1975, and this year is the 50th anniversary! The major degree was first offered in 1997, and the program became the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) in 2009. WGSS is a thriving hub for the study of intersectional and decolonial feminisms, critical gender studies, queer studies, and transdisciplinary and humanist approaches to the study of gender and sexuality in comparative global contexts. Students enjoy a wide array of courses and opportunities for research and collaborative educational experiences.
Students learn to think and read critically, to express themselves in writing and other creative forms, and to engage in professional practice through internships, setting them up for future study or work in fields such as social work, education, healthcare, non-profit management, library and museum studies.
Academic Updates 2024-25
WGSS faculty come from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds but share a commitment to intersectional analysis, decolonial and transnational feminisms, and the critical and engaged study of gender and sexuality. Here are some updates from our core faculty from the past year:
Kemi Balogun, Associate Professor
In summer 2024, I spent three weeks in Ghana and Nigeria conducting research and meeting with academic partners to explore collaborative opportunities in research, teaching, and scholar exchange programs. These efforts aim to build sustainable international academic connections. I also joined the Board of Directors for the Black Cultural Initiative, a Lane County–based community organization focused on supporting and celebrating Black people. I am serving as Chair-Elect for the American Sociological Association’s Sex and Gender section, where I will contribute to developing programming for the section’s conference sessions at the 2026 ASA annual meetings.
Yu-Fang Cho, Professor
Since joining WGSS in 2024, I continue community engaged research with local and international collaborators: 1) the Northwest Environmental Justice Center, an EPA-funded technical assistance center supporting underserved communities with environmental and energy justice issues in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington; and 2) an ecology co-lab at Taipei Medical University, Taiwan, which supports Indigenous feminist work on just energy transition. Our incredible students in my classes on feminisms and environmental justice in the US, Asia, and the Pacific have energized me to complete my book on decolonizing nuclear power, which I started during my time at Cornell University and received a 2025 summer research award from UO’s Center for Environmental Futures. I also developed an online course that implements new learning tools to enhance social interactions and collaborations and supported our new “Pedagogistas” lab for feminist pedagogies to bring students and colleagues together.
Javay Frye-Nekrasova, MEd
Javay is a second-year Communication & Media Studies PhD student and WGSS graduate certificate student. She is a mixed-methods researcher, and her research spans multiple disciplines but always comes back to sexuality. She researches pleasure, porn, Black culture, kink & BDSM, media, and social media. Her dissertation is focusing on Black women’s experiences of pleasure viewing porn. Javay has been teaching in the WGSS department, including WGS 201 Intro to Queer Studies and WGS 101 Intro to Women & Gender Studies. Javay loves teaching in WGSS and working with students because of their desire to learn and willingness to push themselves out of their comfort zone in terms of learning.
Isabel Millán, Assistant Professor
I am delighted that my book, Coloring into Existence: Queer of Color Worldmaking in Children’s Literature (2023, NYU Press), won several awards including a gold medal in “Best LGBTQ+ Themed Book” (2024) from the International Latino Book Awards, the National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies 2025 Book Award, and the Children’s Literature Association 2025 Book Award. Many of the queer and trans of color children’s picture books that I analyze are being challenged, have been banned, or do not circulate in schools because of our current political climate. Continue to read and share banned books! This year, I read my queer bilingual children’s picture book, Chabelita’s Heart, to kids and youth across Oregon, California, Illinois, and New York. At UO, I taught courses on queer and feminist of color literature or media while continuing my role as Director of Undergraduate Studies.
Judith Raiskin, Professor
I enjoy making my academic work publicly accessible and teaching courses on public-facing scholarship. In 2024, I was awarded the Mason Multi-Media Award by the Oral History Association for my work on The Eugene Lesbian Oral History Project and my digital exhibit Outliers and Outlaws. My documentary, Outliers and Outlaws, premiered at the QDoc film festival and screened at universities, film festivals, and independent theaters. This documentary uncovers the history of a vibrant lesbian community in Eugene in the 1960–80s with women who candidly share stories about their courageous and creative world-building. The UO Museum of Natural and Cultural History created an exhibit based on this project, and The Oregon Jewish Museum in Portland opened an exhibit that will be on display for six months starting in June 2025.
Yvette Saavedra, Associate Professor
This year, I completed a chapter on how 19th century racial discourses were used in a 1940s radio program to represent Mexicans and land loss. My book project, Living La Mala Vida, examines the so-called bad women of early 19th century Mexican Los Angeles. In 2024, I received UT Austin’s Center for Mexican American Studies Research Fellowship to conduct research at the Benson Library for my book project on the lesbiQueer genealogy of Chicana feminism in Chicana/o Studies. My research received the Catrónia R. Esquibel Recognition and the Antonia I. Castañeda Prize from the National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies. In 2025, alongside my WGSS colleague Dr. Millán, I participated in a historic Chicana Feminist plenary at the annual National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies conference. At UO, I am chair of the Women of Color Faculty group and serve as WGSS Director of Graduate Studies. This spring, I received the College of Arts and Sciences Excellence in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award.
Kristin Yarris, Department Head, Associate Professor
I have been honored to serve as WGSS Department Head since Fall 2024. I’m inspired daily by my colleagues and our amazing WGSS students. In classes, our students push me to think more clearly about the intersections between gender, race, class, and ability status and the ways these shape contemporary social inequities. As a scholar of transnational migration, immigrant rights and justice movements, and public health equity, I love teaching WGSS classes that engage with social science concepts and apply them to real-world problems. My colleagues and I share a commitment to using our research and teaching to transform lives.
Programming Updates 2024-25
Cultivating Collaboration and Building Bridges: Regional Encounter and Conversation Workshop
On May 1-2, WGSS hosted a gathering of faculty and graduate students from WGS departments across the Pacific Northwest. Funded through a Mellon Foundation grant (P.I. Gabriela Martínez, School of Journalism and Communication and former WGSS Department Head), the two-day event featured roundtable conversations on topics including: decolonial feminisms, teaching queer and transgender studies and feminist pedagogies. Our closing session focused on building collaborations across colleges and universities to strengthen the study of women, gender, and sexuality in our PNW region. Workshop Participants: Oregon State University, Portland State University, Lewis & Clark College, University of Washington, Washington State University, Eastern Washington University
The Gender Collective
The Gender Collective is our WGSS student club comprised of WGSS majors, minors, and any students interested in WGSS courses. Students meet weekly to discuss or workshop areas of interest such as current politics and political movements. Last year, The Gender Collective worked with other groups on campus to create a zine. This year, they joined faculty advisor Professor Millán on a visit to a local high school where they presented on what it means to major or minor in WGSS or Queer Studies.
Pedagogistas!
Pedagogistas! The Feminist Pedagogies Lab began in Winter 2024. Professors Cho and Yarris met every other week with graduate students from the WGSS Certificate Program and students from across the university to explore feminist pedagogical practices. We read and discussed bell hooks’ powerful Teaching to Transgress and shared our experiences teaching students through turbulent political times, centering student safety and wellbeing, while retaining the joy in our pedagogical practices. With support from the Mellon Foundation grant, we hope to continue our Pedagogistas group into the coming academic year.
Support Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
WGSS students are committed to applying their studies of gender and sexuality to real-world social issues. All WGSS students complete a field experience or practical learning (internship) requirement, which often involves working alongside local community-based organizations that serve women, children, families, LGBTQIA2S+ youth and communities. Some WGSS students also elect to conduct independent research for an undergraduate thesis project under the supervision of a faculty mentor. Our students go on to many and varied careers where they apply their critical analytical and writing skills, their understanding of issues of gender, power, and inequality, and their commitment to social change and building a better world. These careers include: education, social services, journalism, healthcare, and higher education and academia. Through the support of several donors to our department, we are able to support student research and internships and sponsor several annual student awards.