By Dr. Jessica Fields
The Sexuality Studies Department at San Francisco State University was an early leader in university-based education in sexuality. For fifty years, faculty interested in sexuality studies have offered undergraduate classes across the arts, sciences and humanities, and we now offer minors in Sexuality Studies and in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Studies. In 2001, we began offering an M.A. in Sexuality Studies—one of the first graduate-level degree programs in the United States specifically dedicated to sexuality studies and housed in a public university.
Sexuality Studies faculty members include more than a dozen professors from ethnic studies, humanities, and social science departments and colleges across campus. Many department faculty are affiliated with the Center for Research and Education on Gender and Sexuality, which sponsors an annual Summer Institute on sexuality studies. Faculty pursue their own research on, for example, sexual health of marginalized communities, literature and the arts in the context of HIV/AIDS, sexuality education, movements for sexual justice and sexuality and race in San Francisco history. Faculty members also bring their research to the classroom. The newest member of the Sexuality Studies faculty, Darius Bost, is just one example: His work on black gay literature and culture during the early era of the AIDS epidemic informs his course “AIDS and People of Color in the U.S.”
Working closely with faculty mentors, undergraduate and graduate students pursue independent projects in LGBTQ studies. Topics include sexuality education for LGBTQ youth of color; bisexual women and the ongoing stigma of their identities; and gay characters in contemporary comic books. Still others have studied trans and genderqueer people seeking medical care and LGBTQ social movements at Bay Area universities. Every May, we hold a capstone event in which graduating students present their finished research to an audience of friends, family, and faculty. All are welcome to join us.
Students and graduates have worked in Bay Area universities and public schools as sexuality educators, community organizations serving LGBT youth and adults, and private companies that promote sexual health and pleasure. Across all of our research and education, we focus on issues of social justice and sexual rights for all, considering sexual well being and sexual health across the lifespan. The M.A. program also prepares students for further graduate study in a range of disciplines and fields. Recent graduates have gone on to earn M.A.s and Ph.D.s in anthropology, psychology, public health and policy, social work, sociology and women and gender studies.
Dr. Jessica Fields is a Professor of Sociology at SFSU. She is also Graduate Studies Coordinator in Sexuality Studies and Research Faculty at the Center for Research and Education on Gender and Sexuality.
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