Description:
Lecturer: Tori Yang
PhD Cand @ University of British Columbia
Research focus: How socioeconomic status, race, gender and sexuality are mutually constitutive in shaping their migration trajectory and post-migration experiences.
Lecturer: Binx (Yezhe) Lin, MD
Child Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco (UCSF)
The intersections of sexual and gender identities, AAPI ethnicities, immigration, and related mental health challenges, including mood disorders, substance use, anxiety, eating disorders, and neurodevelopmental disorders.
Goal:
The goal of the gender study seminar is to equip members of the sexual minority community, including participants and leaders, with tools, theoretical models, and systematic frameworks derived from the study of gender and sexual minority identities. The objective is to foster a deeper understanding of the latest gender research and shared community experiences.
Logistics:
Recorded session. The content will NOT be shared until ALL the participants agree on sharing the content to their comfort level.
- On the first day of the biweekly cycle, we will send out reading material for the next 2 weeks.
- On the last day, we will gather on Zoom to discuss:
- Overview of the reading material
- How can we use this reading as a lens to examine some aspects of our lives or experiences
- How the assigned reading plays a role in the development/understanding of our identities
- What are some related research areas we can explore to deepen our understanding further
- [optional] Write a paragraph reflecting on the 2 week reading experience. United Proud Womxn will archive any documents that are posted (with the option to be anonymous) and share them with our online community
- UPW posts the reading material for the next bi-weekly period.
Guest Speaker Highlights:
05/10/2025 – Episode 7.5: Advocacy and Community
Readings:
- “Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World” by Vivek Murthy (Chapter 3: cultures of connection; Chapter 5: a family of families; optional Chapter 5: unmasking loneliness, optional Chapter 7: circles of Connection)
- Fish, J.N., Moody, R.L., Grossman, A.H. et al. LGBTQ Youth-Serving Community-Based Organizations: Who Participates and What Difference Does it Make?. J Youth Adolescence 48, 2418–2431 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-019-01129-5
- Pachankis, John E., Kirsty A. Clark, Skyler D. Jackson, Kobe Pereira, and Deborah Levine. Current Capacity and Future Implementation of Mental Health Services in U.S. LGBTQ Community Centers. Psychiatric Services, PS, 72, no. 6 (June 2021): 669–76. doi:10.1176/appi.ps.202000575.
Activities: Gratitude circle, self-care workshop
04/26/2025 – Episode 7.4: Neurodivergence
Readings:
- Patrick Dwyer; The Neurodiversity Approach(es): What Are They and What Do They Mean for Researchers?. Human Development 17 May 2022; 66 (2): 73–92. https://doi.org/10.1159/000523723
- Henderson, Donna, Sarah Wayland, and Jamell White. Is this Autism?: A Guide for Clinicians and Everyone Else. Routledge, 2023. (Chapter 3-4: nonverbal communication, relationships; chapter 10: autistic strengths)
- Doyle N. Neurodiversity at work: a biopsychosocial model and the impact on working adults. Br Med Bull. 2020 Oct 14;135(1):108-125. doi: 10.1093/bmb/ldaa021
04/12/2025 – Episode 7.3: Self-Care and Boundaries
Readings:
- “Attached: The New Science of Adult Attachment and How It Can Help You Find—and Keep—Love” by Amir Levine and Rachel Heller. (Chapter 3: what’s my attachment style? Chapter 7: getting comfortably close; chapter 11: effective communication)
- “Emotionally Focused Family Therapy: Restoring Connection and Promoting Resilience” by Sue Johnson. (Chapter 1: EFFT; optional Chapter 12: Case Example—EFFT and Traumatic Loss)
- Esther Perel. “The State of Affairs: Rethinking Infidelity” 2017. (Chapter 1: A new conversation about marriage and infidelity; optional Chapter 14: Monogamy and its discontents)
03/29/2025 – Episode 7.2: Societal Trauma
Readings:
- Compton, Michael T., and Ruth S. Shim. “The social determinants of mental health.” Focus 13.4 (2015): 419-425.
- Van der Kolk, Bessel A. “The body keeps the score: Brain, mind, and body in the healing of trauma.” (2014).(Chapters 7-9 attachment and attunement; neglect; love; optional chapters 4-5 the anatomy of trauma/body-brain connection, 10 developmental trauma, 13 healing from trauma)
- Diamond LM, Alley J. Rethinking minority stress: A social safety perspective on the health effects of stigma in sexually-diverse and gender-diverse populations. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews. 2022 Jul 1;138:104720.
03/15/2025 – Episode 7.1: Gender Identities & Psychiatry
Readings:
- Turban, J. L., & Keuroghlian, A. S. (2018). Dynamic gender presentations: understanding transition and” de-transition” among transgender youth. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
- Leitch, J., Nguyen, V., & Potter, S. (2025). Beyond dysphoria and stress: a theory of gender euphoria and gender fulfillment. International Journal of Transgender Health, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/26895269.2024.2447786
- Optional reading: Free to Be: Understanding Kids & Gender Identity by Jack Turban 2024.
03/01/2025: Prof. Judith Butler: The Global Impact of Queer Theory
The Global Impact of Queer Theory Explore how queer theory continues to shape global politics, activism, and institutional changes, with a focus on transnational perspectives and East Asian intersectionality. Seminar Highlights:
09/07/2024: Queer Theory Critique
“Adam Isaiah Green’s “Queer Theory and Sociology: Locating the Subject and the Self in Sexuality Studies” Roderick A. Ferguson’s “Aberrations in Black: Toward a Queer of Color Critique”
08/31/2024: Queer Marxism
“The Specter of Materialism: Queer Theory and Marxism in the Age of the Beijing Consensus by Petrus Liu. Duke University Press Books. Introduction, Chapter 1, 2
08/17/2024: S28: Queer Politics
“Butler, Judith. Undoing Gender. New York; London: Routledge, 2004. Chapter 5: Is Kinship Always Already Heterosexual? Chapter 10: The Question of Social Transformation
07/21/2024: Yao Xu: Migrants to mainland China during the COVID-19 pandemic
“Xu, Y., Coplin, A., Su, P. H., & Makovi, K. (2024). Contested membership: experimental evidence on the treatment of return migrants to mainland China during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 50(16), 3872–3893. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2024.2332743
07/20/2024: Queer Theory: Foundation Text II
“Bersani, Leo: “Is the Rectum a Grave?” Butler, Judith.'”Imitation and Gender Insubordination.” In Inside/out, pp. 13-31. Routledge. D’Emilio, John. “Capitalism and Gay Identity.” In Culture, Society and Sexuality. Routledge, 2006.
07/06/2024: Queer Theory: Foundation Text I
“Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky. Epistemology of the Closet. University of California Press, 1990. Introduction, Chapter 1
04/19/24: NGO and Social Change
“The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial Complex.” 2017. Duke University Press: Introduction, chapter on Between Radical Theory and Community Praxis: Reflections on Organizing and the Non-Profit Industrial Complex, chapter on Radical Social Change: Searching for a New Foundation
04/05/24: Social Movement Challenges
Leonard-Wright, Betsy. 2014. “Missing Class: Strengthening Social Movement Groups by Seeing Class Cultures. First Edition.” Ithaca London: ILR Press. Chapter 5
Whittier, Nancy. 2014. “Rethinking Coalitions: Anti-Pornography Feminists, Conservatives, and Relationships between Collaborative Adversarial Movements.”
03/22/24: Social Movement Strategies
Bernstein, Mary. 1997. “Celebration and Suppression: The Strategic Uses of Identity by the Lesbian and Gay Movement.”
Snow, David A., E. Burke Rochford, Steven K. Worden, and Robert D. Benford. 1986. “Frame Alignment Processes, Micromobilization, and Movement Participation.”
Klandermans, Bert, and Dirk Oegema. 1987. “Potentials, Networks, Motivations, and Barriers: Steps Towards Participation in Social Movements.”
03/08/24: Social Movement LGBTQ+ Politics
Epstein, Steven. 1998. “Gay Politics, Ethnic Identity: The Limits of Social Constructionism.”
Moon, Dawne. 2012. “Who Am I and Who Are We? Conflicting Narratives of Collective Selfhood in Stigmatized Groups.”
02/23/24: Commitment
Kanter, Rosabeth Moss. 1968. “Commitment and Social Organization: A Study of Commitment Mechanisms in Utopian Communities.”
Fine, Gary Alan, and Ugo Corte. 2017. “Group Pleasures: Collaborative Commitments, Shared Narrative, and the Sociology of Fun.”
01/30/24: Prof. Jack Halberstam on Queer Issues
Topics to be covered:
Halberstam challenges conventions, exploring the value in ideas and practices often dismissed as irrelevant or ephemeral. The talk intertwines topics such as anti-capitalism, queer theory, and alternative forms of knowledge and frameworks of thinking.
12/01/23: Seminar: Affect and Disability
Cvetkovich, Ann. 2012. Depression: A Public Feeling. Duke University Press: Introduction, rest of the book: optional Sick Woman Theory | The Anarchist Library
Sick Woman Theory: Johanna Hedva
McRuer. Robert. 2006. Crip Theory: Cultural Signs of Queerness and Disability. New York: New York University Press: Introduction
11/17/23: Seminar: Managing Emotion
Hochschild, Arlie Russell. 2012. The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling. University of California Press: Chapter 1,3,4,7,8
11/03/23: Seminar: Body and Capitalism
Baudrillard, Jean. 2012. The Consumer Society: Myths and Structures. Reprinted. Los Ange-les. Calif.: SAGE: chapter 8
Berardi, Franco. 2009. The Soul at Work: From Alienation to Autonomy. Los Angeles: Semio-text(e): Chapter 2 and Conclusion
10/20/23: Book talk by Prof. Tani Barlow
Topics to be covered:
10/06/23: Seminar: Bodily Issues
Markens, Susan. 1996. “The Problematic of ‘Experience’: A Political and Cultural Critique of PMS.” Gender and Society 10(1):42-58. do: 10.1177/089124396010001004.
Saguy. Abigail C., and Anna Ward. 2011. “Coming Out as Fat: Rethinking Stigma.” social Psychology Quarterly 74(1):53-75. do: 10.1177/019027251 1398190.
09/19/23: Gendered Embodiment
Bourdieu, Pierre. 2001. Masculine Domination. Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press: chapter 1
Young, Iris Marion. 1980. “Throwing like a Girl: A Phenomenology of Feminine Body Comportment Motility and Spatiality.” Human Studies 3(2):137-56. doi: 10.1007/BF02331805.
Hoang, Kimberly Kay. 2014. “Competing Technologies of Embodiment: Pan-Asian Modernity and Third World Dependency in Vietnam’s Contemporary Sex Industry.” Gender & Society 28(4):513-36. doi: 10.1177/0891243214523122.
09/15/23: Prof. Shuzhen Huang – On Our Own Terms: Queer x Chinese × Woman Imaginary
Topics covered:
07/28/23: Chinese gender & sexuality + Immigration
Edelman, Lee. 2004. No Future: Queer Theory and the Death Drive. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Chapter 1
Muñoz, José Esteban. 2009. Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity. NYU Press. Introduction and Chapter 1
Halberstam, Jack. 2011. “The Queer Art of Failure:” in The Queer Art of Failure. Duke University Press. Introduction
07/14/23: Intersectionality
Yuval-Davis, Nira. 2006. “Belonging and the Politics of Belonging.” Patterns of Prejudice 40(3):197–214. doi: 10.1080/00313220600769331.
Carastathis, Anna. 2013. “Identity Categories as Potential Coalitions.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 38(4):941–65. doi: 10.1086/669573.
Espiritu, Yen Le. 2001. “‘We Don’t Sleep around like White Girls Do’: Family, Culture, and Gender in Filipina American Lives.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 26(2):415–40. doi: 10/fqjkz9.
06/30/23: Charlene Liu on Community Building
06/16/23: Issues in Community Building
Meyer IH. Prejudice, social stress, and mental health in lesbian, gay, and bisexual populations: conceptual issues and research evidence. Psychol Bull. 2003 Sep Gilly Hartal (2018)
Fragile subjectivities: constructing queer safe spaces, Social & Cultural Geography, 19:8, 1053-1072, DOI: 10.1080/14649365.2017.1335877 Stone AL.
Flexible queers, serious bodies: transgender inclusion in queer spaces. J Homosex. 2013;
06/02/23: Collective Identities
Taylor, Verta, and Nancy Whittier. 1999. “Collective Identity in Social Movement Communities: Lesbian Feminist Mobilization.”
Ghaziani, Amin, Verta Taylor, and Amy Stone. 2016. “Cycles of Sameness and Difference in LGBT Social Movements.”
05/19/23: LGBTQ Politics
Berlant, Lauren, and Michael Warner. 1998. “Sex in Public.”
Taylor, Verta, and Leila J. Rupp. 1993. “Women’ s Culture and Lesbian Feminist Activism: A Reconsideration ofCultural Feminism.
3/10/23: Chinese gender & sexuality + Immigration
Shuzhen Huang; Unbecoming Queer: Chinese Queer Migrants and Impossible Subjectivity
Susanne YP Choi; Global Multiple Migration: Class-Based Mobility Capital of Elite Chinese Gay Men
2/24/23: Chinese gender & sexuality + Western Influences
Nicola Spakowski; “Gender” Trouble: Feminism in China under the Impact of Western Theory and the Spatialization of Identity. positions 1 February 2011; 19 (1): 31–54
2/10/23: Chinese gender & sexuality + History
Barlow, Tani E. The Question of Women in Chinese Feminism. Duke University Press, 2021. Chapter 2
Barlow, Tani E. In the Event of Women. Duke University Press, 2004 (p 60 – 99)
1/27/23: Chinese gender & sexuality + Anthropology
Lisa Rofel, Other Modernities: Gendered Yearnings in China after Socialism (Chapter 7)
Lisa Rofel, Desiring China: Experiments in Neoliberalism, Sexuality, and Public Culture (Chapter 5)
1/13/23: Sexual and sexulaity + Chinese Regimes
ZHANG, CHARLIE YI. Dreadful Desires: The Uses of Love in Neoliberal China. Duke University Press, 2022. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv29z1hdt.
11/4/22: Focault on history of sexuality
Foucault, Michel. The History of Sexuality. 1st Vintage Books ed. New York, Vintage Books, 198019861985.
10/21/22: Homophobia deep dive
Adam, B. D. (1998). Theorizing Homophobia. Sexualities, 1(4), 387–404.
10/7/22: Heteronormativity and homophobia
Pascoe, C. J. 2011. Dude, You’re a Fag: Masculinity and Sexuality in High School, With a New Preface. 2nd ed. Chapter 1, 4, 6
9/22/22: Explore the intricate relationship between gender and sexuality
Ingraham, Chrys. “The Heterosexual Imaginary: Feminist Sociology and Theories of Gender.” Sociological Theory, vol. 12, no. 2, 1994, pp. 203–19. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/201865. Accessed 26 Sep. 2022.
Jackson, S. (2006). Interchanges: Gender, sexuality and heterosexuality: The complexity (and limits) of heteronormativity. Feminist Theory, 7(1), 105–121. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464700106061462
