Queer Studies

The Queer Studies (QS) Program at CSUN is a vibrant and growing minor launched in 2008. Housed in the College of Humanities, QS is an interdisciplinary minor that questions normative constructions of sexuality and gender. It is a flexible program that allows students to double count courses in GE as well as with their major. Students take 3 core courses, and 3 elective courses to complete the minor, which prepares them to work with LGBTQIA+ communities and issues.

The minor is introducing four new courses in 2022 in response to student needs and changes in the field. The four new courses are: 

1. QS 101: Introduction to Queer Studies
2. QS 151: Fundamentals of Public Speaking
3. QS 201: Race and Ethnicity in Queer Studies
4. QS 303: Transgender Studies

The Queer Studies minor focuses on histories, contemporary experiences, and community-based knowledges of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender people, intersexed people, queers, and others who occupy non-heterosexist and non-normative gender positionalities.

The program explores how heterosexism, heteronormativity and transphobia intersect and collide with national, ethnic, racial, class and other identifications, fostering a community of learners who grapple with issues of diversity, gender, sexuality and social justice.

QS at CSUN provides an academic home for those who wish to study the intellectual, cultural and material conditions that have shaped our current understandings of sexuality and gender variation as well as for those who wish to generate new, resistant theories and practices. The program offers an undergraduate minor, sponsors courses, organizes lecture series, and brings together interested students, faculty, and larger Los Angeles communities.

During the Spring 2021 semester, students graduating from California State University, Northridge with a minor in Queer Studies were tasked with completing a research project for their Senior Capstone, and were asked to convey the findings of that capstone project to the public in a podcast. Their podcasts are presented here in this digital exhibit, and cover a wide variety of topics that represent the multifaceted issues investigated within the interdisciplinary field of queer studies. Podcasts can be a research genre, and with the guidance of Professor Heidi Schumacher, students selected their own topics, conducted research using varied research methods (including textual analysis, interviews, autoethnography, and testimonio), and produced their own episodes by writing, recording, and editing their material. CSUN’s Queer Studies Program aims to support students as they contribute to scholarship and/or creative production and innovation in the interdisciplinary field of queer studies. We invite you to explore the scholarship and creative production of these outstanding graduates in their podcast episodes. VIEW AND LISTEN TO THE CAPSTONE PROJECTS