Gender, Sexuality & Women's Studies Faculty
Core Faculty
Tori Barnes-Brus
Associate Professor of Sociology
Teaches courses on inequality, social control, reproduction, media, and gender studies that emphasize social justice and civic engagement through field trips, guest speakers, and assignments that requires students to share their expertise with a public audience. Her research investigates the social construction and implications of pregnancy, birth, and abortion, as well as the commercialization of mothering, womanhood, and women's health. Ph.D., sociology, University of Kansas.
Michelle Herder
Associate Professor of History
Serves as co-chair for GSS in 2018-2019. Her research explores gender, women, and religion in medieval and early modern Europe, with broader teaching interests in the history of women and gender. Ph.D., history, Yale University.
Aparna Thomas
Professor of Politics and of Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies
With a joint appointment in the department of politics and the gender, sexuality, and women’s studies program, her courses broadly intersect the fields of international relations, comparative government, and gender, sexuality, and women’s studies. She also leads a course on gender and development in India every other year. Ph.D., political science, Western Michigan University.
Erin Davis
Professor of Sociology
Explores cultural diversity and social inequalities, focusing on gender, sexualities, bodies, and identities, in her courses and her research. Ph.D., sociology, University of Virginia.
John Gruber-Miller
Professor of Classical Studies
His courses on Women in Antiquity and Love and Sexuality in Greece and Rome offer students opportunities to see their own cultural perspectives through others' eyes in a feminist, crosscultural, and historical context. Ph.D., classics, The Ohio State University.
Christina Morris Penn-Goetsch
Professor of Art History
Much of her research focuses on gender studies. She recently wrote the definition for "Feminist Art" for The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Gender and Sexuality Studies. Ph.D., art history, University of Iowa.
Rebecca Wines
Assistant Professor of French
Serves as co-chair for GSS in 2018-2019. The courses that she teaches in gender, sexuality, and women’s studies emphasize the critical importance of cultural context and the analysis of how texts—broadly understood—shape our understandings of ourselves and others. Ph.D., French literature, University of Michigan.
Tyler Carrington
Associate Professor of German Studies and History
Teaches courses on German culture and gender and sexuality. His recent book explores the history of love in turn-of-the-century Berlin and his new project explores German-American life in the Midwest. Ph.D., history, University of Illinois.
Emeriti
Alfrieta Monagan
Professor of Anthropology Emerita
Ph.D. and M.A., Princeton University; B.A., George Washington University.