Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Our spring member drive has ended, but it's not too late to give. You have the power to help fund the essential journalism that keeps us all informed. Help us close the gap on our spring fundraising goal! GIVE NOW

New Center On Intersectional Gender Studies Coming To USU

Dr. Christy Glass will serve as the center's interim director.
Utah State University
Dr. Christy Glass will serve as the center's interim director.

The Center for Intersectional Gender Studies and Research at Utah State University will “build upon the highly successful history of the university’s Center for Women and Gender,” according to a press release issued Thursday.USU sociology professor Dr. Christy Glass will serve as the center’s interim director.

“I think it’s a really exciting moment to be at USU," Glass said. "The vision for the new center is really the product of six months of outreach by a task force to find out what the needs are and how this center might contribute to those needs and engage in a broader way with this campus and our community.”

Glass says the task force determined two main areas of focus. First:

“Intersectionality" Glass said. "The notion that different forms of identity and disadvantage overlap and intersect with gender. Including race, and country of origin and disability and sexual orientation and gender identity. We wanted to provide a really complex nuanced understanding of gender in modern society.”

“Secondly," said Glass, "we wanted a much deeper, interdisciplinary research component to the new center. I’m thrilled about the new vision.”

Glass said the center will be housed in the university’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences, and that its work will be essential for students.

“They will have to engage with people who are really different from them, who come from very different perspectives and backgrounds," Glass said. "And they will have to navigate that complex world successfully. And my goal with all of our instruction at USU is that we’re preparing them.”

Glass is expected to serve as interim director for two years.