The Women’s and Gender Studies Program includes Program Faculty with a primary appointment within the Program, as well as affiliated faculty who teach courses in the program, but whose appointment is in another department or program (e.g. Communication, English, and Latin American/Latino Studies).

Women’s and Gender Studies Program Faculty members have wide-ranging research interests. Some of these interests include intersections of race, class, gender, sexuality; cross-cultural perspectives; violence against women; women in the Middle East; lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, and transgender identities and politics; autobiography; queer theories; immigrant women; globalization; transnational feminist perspectives; antiracism; gender and education; feminist theories and politics; gender and family violence; and performance studies among others. For more information on individual program faculty, click on Program Faculty Profiles below. A listing of Affiliated Faculty follows.

CLICK on Program Faculty Names for profiles which offer more information on faculty research and teaching interests and publications. The Program Faculty members are available to advise and support students. The Women’s and Gender Studies faculty pride themselves on being able to relate real life issues to theoretical feminist concepts and abstract ideals.

Ann Russo, Ph.D., Program Director, Associate Professor
Communication, University of Illinois-Urbana
Areas of Interest: Women, Violence, and Justice; Anti-Racist and Critical Race Theories and Practices; Activism and Social Justice Movements; Critical Media Studies; Sexual Identities and Sexuality Debates

Natalie Bennett, Ph.D., Assistant Professor
Sociology, University of Michigan
Areas of Interest: Black Immigrants; Intersections of Race-Ethnicity, Gender, and Sexuality; Women of Color in the U.S.; Qualitative Methodology; Caribbean Studies
African Diaspora Studies

Melissa Bradshaw, Ph.D., Assistant Professor
English, State University of New York—Stony Brook
Areas of Interest: Feminist Theory; Queer Theory; Literary Theory; Cultural Studies; Modernist Studies; American Popular Culture; 20th Century Poetry

Beth Catlett, Ph.D., Assistant Professor
Areas of Interest: Family Relations & Human Development, Ohio State University
Areas of Interest: Diversity in Families; Violence in Intimate Relationships; Qualitative Research Methodologies; The Social Construction of Masculinities

Laila Farah, Ph.D., Associate Professor
Communication, Southern Illinois University
Areas of Interest: Cultural Identification and Oral Histories; Narrative Theory and Practice; Cultural Constructions, De-constructions, and Re-constructions; Gender and Identity; Performance as Political and Social Resistance

Sandra Jackson, Ph.D., Professor
Director, Center for Black Diaspora
Educational Policy Planning and Analysis, University of California-Berkeley
Areas of Interest: Feminist Theory, Cultural Studies, & Critical Race Theory; Race & Gender in Higher Education & Issues of Identity; Autobiography; Narrative and the Self

Kate Kane, Ph.D., Visiting Assistant Professor
American Studies, University of Minnesota
Areas of Interest: Queer Theory; Gender and Sexuality Based Community Formations; Coalition Politics; The Role of Identity Politics in Social Justice Movements; Transnational Sexualities; Representations of Race and Sexuality in Media

Elizabeth Kelly, Ph.D., Professor
Political Science, Rutgers University
Areas of Interest: Feminist Theory; LBGT Politics; Critical Theory; Women and Politics; Queer Theory; Global Gender Issues; Democracy and Education

Susan Leigh, M.F.A., Associate Professor
Associate Vied President, Academic Resource Centers
Theatre, Temple University
Areas of Interest: Directing and Representation of Gender Onstage; British Feminist Theatre; Voice in the Theatre: Code Switching Onstage

Barbara Schaffer, M.A., Adjunct Faculty
Director, Sexual Harassment Policy Office
English and Teaching, Washington University
Areas of Interest: Sexual Harassment; Gender Equity and Public Policy; Computer-mediated Communication

The Affiliated Faculty and Staff listed below are engaged with the Women's and Gender Studies through research, teaching, and/or service at DePaul University. CLICK on their names for their email addresses.

Anne Clark Bartlett, Ph.D. Dept. of English; Director of the MA program in English
Areas of Interest: Medieval Women Writers, Medieval Women in Politics, Medieval Mysticism, Feminist Theory and Pedagogy

Alec Brownlow, Ph.D. Geography Department
Areas of Interest: Gender and the environment; gender and urban space; gender, violence, and policing; gender and gentrification.

Leah E. Bryant, Ph.D., Communication Department, Assistant Professor
Areas of Interest: Challenging/Problematic Relational Communication, Family Communication, Gender Communication, Instructional Communication.

Rebecca Cameron, Ph.D. Department of English, Assistant Professor
Areas of Interest: Women playwrights; 20th-century British women writers; gender and performance; early-20th-century British feminism and the suffrage movement

Gary Cestaro, Ph.D. Dept. of Modern Languages/Italian Section Head, Director LGTBQ Studies
Areas of Interest: Italian language, literature, and culture; medieval and Renaissance literature; lgbtq studies and queer theory;ancient, medieval, and early modern constructions of same-sex desire; gay male subjectivity

Tina Chanter, Ph.D. Department of Philosophy
Areas of Interest: Julia Kristeva, Luce Irigaray, Film, Contemporary Continental Philosophy

Ada Cheng, Ph.D. Department of Sociology
Areas of Interest: International migration, Globalization Gender, Work, Feminist Theory, Ethnography

Jessica Choplin, Ph.D. Department of Psychology, Assistnat Professor
Areas of Interest: Quantity judgments and Decision Making, Body Image (Fatness, Skin Color), Dietary Decision Making, the single digits 1 through 9 excluding 5.

Sylvia Escarcega, Ph.D. Department of Anthropology
Areas of Interest: Gender dynamics among indigenous intellectuals and activists, Empowerment of Indigenous Migrant Women in International Struggles for Rights, Intersections of Gender and Ethnicity

Thomas Foster, Ph.D. Department of History
Areas of Interest: Early America; U.S. Women's and Gender History; American Revolution; History of Sexuality; U.S. Social and Cultural History.

Camilla Fojas, Ph.D Department of Latin American and Latino(a) Studies
Areas of Interest: Cultural, film and media studies of the Americas within a comparative postcolonial frame that includes: Latin America, the Caribbean, the U.S., Hawai'i, and the Philippines; Comparative Literature and Culture; Comparative Urban and Community Research; Comparative Literature Studies and Aztlán.

Frida Kerner Furman, Ph.D. Religious Studies
Areas of Interest: Women in Religion, Feminist Ethics, Representations of the Body

Nila Ginger Hofman, Ph.D. Department of Anthropology
Areas of Interest: Roma women and Jewish ethnohistory in Croatia; community-based action research; hidden urban populations, including drug using women and undocumented immigrants in Chicago; feminist research ethics.

Joanna Gardner-Huggett, Ph.D. Department of Art and Art History
Areas of Interest: The intersection between feminism and arts activism

Roberta Garner, Ph.D. Department of Sociology, Department Chair
Areas of Interest: Theories of Gender and Society

Kathryn Grant Department of Psychology
Areas of Interest: Gender Differences in Depression

Harvette Grey, Ph.D. Executive Director, Cultural Center; Founding Director of Women’s Center
Areas of Interest: African Cultural Retentions in Society, Ancient Kemet, Anti-Racism, Human Rights and Social Justice Issues

Gary Harper, Ph.D., Department of Psychology
Community-based HIV prevention, adolescent sexuality, LGBT adolescents, community-university partnerships, adolescents living with HIV

Paul B. Jaskot, Ph.D. Department of Art and Art History, Department Chair
Areas of Interest: Politics, Oppression and Resistance in Modern Art and Architecture, Representations of Women and Race in 19th-20th Century Euroamerican Art, Women Architects, Gendered Spaces

Paula Kagan, Ph.D., R.N. Department of Nursing
Areas of Interest: Women's Health, Health Policy, Epidemiology (particularly HIV/AIDS and FGM), Analysis of Health Care Delivery (historical and current) and the Concept of Feeling Listened To; Qualitative Research Methodologies Particularly Phenomenology

Laura Kina, M.F.A. Department of Art and Art History
Areas of Interest: Art, Asian American Studies

Mary Jeanne Larrabee, Ph.D. Department of Philosophy
Areas of Interest: Critical Race Feminism, Gender Theory, Feminist Ethics, Feminist Peace Studies, Feminism and Knowledge (Methodology & Epistemology)

Elizabeth Lillehoj, Ph.D. Department of Art and Art History
Areas of Interest: Images of women in Japanese Art; sponsorship of art by women in Japan, 16-18th centuries; women in Buddhism in Asia; art and visual cultures of Asia.

Allison McCracken, Ph.D. Program in American Studies
Areas of Interest: Gender and Media, History of Sexuality, Queer Politics

Paula McQuade, Ph.D. Department of English
Areas of Interest: Gender and Religion in Early Modern England

Kalyani Devaki Menon, Ph.D. Department of Religious Studies
Areas of Interest: Religion, Violence, Gender, South Asia

Patricia Monaghan, Ph.D. Interdisciplinary Writing in the School for New Learning
Areas of Interest: Mythology, Women's spirituality, Irish Studies, Poetry

Julie E. Moody-Freeman, Ph.D. African and Black Diaspora Studies Program
Areas of Interest: Feminist Theory, Women Writers from Africa and the African Diaspora, Caribbean Narratives and Criticism, The Rhetoric of Colonialism and Postcolonialism

Heidi J. Nast, Ph.D. International Studies Program
Areas of Interest: Colonialism, Sexuality and the Construction of Race, Women and the State U.S. and West Africa

Francesca Royster, Ph.D. Department of English
Areas of Interest: Shakespeare Studies, Black Feminist Theories, Film and Popular Culture, Gender and Performance, Cultural Studies

Inca Rumold, Ph.D. Department of Modern Languages
Areas of Interest: Women in German Expressionism, Women in the classical Latin American Novel

Karen Scott, Ph.D. Department of History; Director, Catholic Studies Program
Areas of Interest: Medieval and Renaissance European Women's History, St. Catherine of Siena Women's Mysticism of Late Medieval and Renaissance Italy

Barbara Lynn Speicher, Communication Dept., Chairperson and Associate Professor
Areas of Interest: Language and Power, Race, Gender, and Multiculturalism as it relates to language and communication, Media Representations.

Naomi Steinberg, Ph.D., Religious Studies, Associate Professor
Areas of Interest: Women in the Bible;Family Roles in Antiquity

Alice Stuhlmacher, Ph.D. Psychology Department
Areas of Interest: Research on Gender Issues in the Workplace, Industrial/Organizational Psychology

Jacqueline Taylor, Ph.D. DePaul Humanities Center, Director; Department of Communication
Areas of Interest: Performance Studies, Autobiography, Women's Autobiography, Gender and Communication, Gay and Lesbian Families

Lourdes Torres, Ph.D. Department of Latin American and Latino(a) Studies
Areas of Interest: Latinos/as in the U.S., Spanish in the U.S., Gay and Lesbian Latino/a Literature.

N. Morrison Torrey, J.D. College of Law
Areas of Interest: Feminist Jurisprudence, Violence Against Women

Laura S. Washington Ida B. Wells-Barnett University Professor
Areas of Interest: Media Issues, Journalistic Ethics and Investigative Reporting, Reporting on Race, Ethnicity, and Gender, African-American Affairs, Politics, Diversity, Race and Racism Social Justice

Joy S. Whitman, Ph.D. School of Education, Human Services and Counseling
Areas of Interest: LGB Counseling and Issues of identity management, Member of the Education and Training Committee for GLSEN Chicago, Board Trustee for the Association for Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Issues in Counseling.

Barbara Willard, Ph.D. Dept. of Communication, Associate Professor
Areas of Interest: Environmental communication, gender communication, representations of gender in popular culture, women's movement, ideological criticism, social movement rhetoric, and critical-cultural studies.

Midge Wilson, Ph.D. Psychology Department
Areas of Interest: Culturally Relevant Aspects of Appearance (e.g., body size, skin color, hair, etc), Gender Differences in Humor, Feminist Humor