Women's, Gender & Sexuality Studies Research

The Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program at Ohio University is a community of scholars exploring gender as it informs both traditional approaches to disciplinary knowledge and everyday life in a range of historical and cultural contexts.

It is a central tenet of the program's pedagogy that such exploration can provide us with the tools, analytical and political, to be both curious and critical. The program promotes interdisciplinary teaching and research and provides a locus of feminist scholarship and activism on the campus, in the community, and beyond.

Three themes characterize the research strengths of the WGSS faculty: sexuality studies; women and feminism in a global context; and women’s history.

Research Areas We Focus On

Sexuality Studies
While the research of all core faculty in WGSS recognizes the importance of sexuality as an organizing structure of society, the work of Drs. Ng, Perez and Reynolds focuses directly on the organization and expression of sexuality in different contexts. For example,
- Dr. Eve Ng conducts research on queer popular media and digital culture and explores LGBTQ media within broader contexts for media creation, including fan expression, LGBTQ advocacy, queer community formation, and national politics.
- Dr. Myrna Perez engages theories about on how understandings of sexuality intertwined with the early scientific practice to produce racial categories and scientific "truth" and to affect the functioning of the biopolitical nation state.
- Dr. Nicole Reynolds explores how discourses of sexuality intersect with literary texts and architectural spaces, particularly through her work on the boudoir and the Cottage Ornée.
The research of our affiliate faculty also contributes to this strength. This includes, among others, the work of: Dr. Edmond Chang in the English Department on queer theory, digital culture, and speculative fiction; Dr. Jeremy Webster in the English Department on queer theory, sexuality, and early modern literature; Dr. Rebekah Crawford in the College of Health Sciences and Professions on sexual and gendered violence and LGBTQ+ health disparities; Dr. Holly Ningard in the Sociology Department on gender-based violence; Dr. Rachel Terman in the Sociology Department on queer identities in Appalachia; Dr. Cory Crawford in Classics and Religious Studies on sexuality and the Bible; and Dr. Gary Holcomb in African American Studies on sexuality and literature in the Harlem Renaissance.
Women and Feminism in a Global Context
Women’s experiences in a global context and transnational feminist theory tie together the work of many of our faculty and students. This area of research is particularly critical to students working in graduate degrees in the Center for International Studies. Among our faculty:
- Dr. Risa Whitson engages these issues through her research on the gendered nature of work, reproduction, and mobility/displacement in Latin America. Her work also explores the ways that decolonial and transnational feminist theory can be integrated into qualitative research methods.
- Dr. Eve Ng's research on gender, sexuality, media and nation building in China explores these themes.
- Dr. Myrna Perez integrates decolonial and transnational feminist thought into her work on the history of science and religion.
Affiliate faculty whose work supports this specialization include, among others, the work of: Dr. Edna Wangui in the Department of Geography on the gendered dimensions of rural development and rural livelihood change in Africa; Dr. Mariana Dantas in the History Department on women’s experience of slavery and the African Diaspora in the Atlantic region; Dr. Devika Chawla in the Scripps School of Communication Studies who incorporates postcolonial and decolonial feminist theory into her work on home and partition in India; and Dr. Saumya Pant in the School of Media Arts and Studies on gender and health communication and international surrogacy.
The History of Women, Gender, and Sexuality

Among the core faculty of the WGSS Program, we have two historians (Dr. Patricia Stokes and Dr. Kim Little), a literary historian (Dr. Nicole Reynolds), and an historian of science (Dr. Myrna Perez). These faculty address a variety of themes – ranging from civil rights, childbirth, medicine, evolution, eugenics, women’s participation in the literary marketplace, and “lost” women writers – all from an historical perspective. Affiliates Dr. Mariana Dantas and Dr. Michele Clouse within the History Department also engage historical themes.
International Scholarship

WGSS also has a long history of faculty engagement in international scholarship, including through international fieldwork, research, and grant collaboration with colleagues at international universities, as well as advising the research of graduate students working in an international context. Dr. Eve Ng has conducted research in China, Singapore, Malaysia, and regularly collaborates and publishes with scholars from China and the UK. Dr. Risa Whitson's research focuses on Colombia and Argentina, and she has conducted funded projects in collaboration with colleagues at the Universidad del Norte in Colombia. She has directed graduate student research in various countries, including (among others) Brazil, Egypt, Ecuador, and China.