LGBTQ/Sexuality Studies Minor

LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer)/Sexuality Studies is an interdisciplinary field that examines the identities, experiences, and social positions of people often referred to as sexual/gender minorities. The field also examines sexual behaviors, identities, and communities as sex plays a key role in many people’s lives. LGBTQ/Sexuality Studies has origins in many disciplines, including anthropology, art, English, history, media studies, psychology, public health, sociology, theatre, and women’s and gender studies, among others. The field includes topics such as: identity formation of non‐heterosexual sexualities, non-binary gender identities, health and well being of sexual/gender minorities, cultural groups, the politics of identity, and representations of queer lives in popular culture. This minor acknowledges that sexuality is an important distinguishing factor of our lives on par with race, social class, and gender.

The LGBTQ/Sexuality Studies minor will offer students courses that complement and support their majors in many ways. The minor is intentionally flexible and interdisciplinary. Students who complete this minor will gain increased knowledge in the following:

• sexual identity, orientation, and behaviors, including heterosexualities, homosexualities, gay sexualities, lesbian sexualities, bisexualities, queer sexualities, etc.
• gender identities including trans identities, including but not limited to: genderqueer, non-binary, trans man, trans woman, gender non‐conforming, gender creative, etc.
• sexology, or the study of sex and sexual behaviors, and human sexuality broadly
• sexual health such as STIs, HIV, and sexual reproduction
• theories of identity development, queer theory, and other social theories related to sexuality
• intersectionality of sexuality with race, class, gender, religion, ability, nationality, and other social characteristics
• diversity of human behavior and experience as it relates to sex and sexuality
• history and diversity of representations of LGBTQ in culture.

Minors Offered

LGBTQ/Sexuality Studies Minor

Other Information

All coursework taken for the LGBTQ/Sexuality Studies minor must be completed with a grade of “C“ or better.

Contact

The LGBTQ/Sexuality Studies minor is a minor option under Women’s and Gender Studies. The advisor for the program is Dr. Jay Irwin. For more information, please contact him at jirwin@unomaha.edu.

Requirements

Undergraduate students will be expected to complete at least 15 credit hours of LGBTQ/Sexuality courses with a grade of C or higher. Nine credit hours must be upper division (3000 or higher) courses. No more than nine credit hours will be accepted as transfer credit.

Courses not on the list can be petitioned to be accepted by approval of the Advisor of the minor.

¹

ART 4930 when offered as: Gender and Sexuality in Antiquity: Fashion in Modern Art & Culture

²

ENGL 2000 and ENGL 3000 when topic is sexuality

³

 ENGL 4960 when offered as: Language, Gender, and Sexuality, Writing Women's Lives; Writing Graphic Memoirs

⁴

HONR 3030 when offered as: LGBTQ Health

⁵

Select sections of PSYC 3540, per approval of the minor advisor.

Please be advised that students who elect to complete both the WGS minor and LGBTQ-Sexuality Studies minor may count no more than two upper-division courses toward the completion of both minors.