Earn a Minor in Queer Studies

About the Minor

Established in 1996, UCR’s queer studies minor was the first of its kind in the University of California system. The minor reflects current critical, theoretical, and methodological innovations in the study of gender and sexuality and the representation of queerness in art, literature, and media. Queer studies is by nature an interdisciplinary field, and this program is meant to introduce you to new developments in queer studies across multiple disciplines in the College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences. Though the minor is housed in the Department of Gender and Sexuality Studies, over 20 UCR faculty members are affiliated with queer studies and teach the minor’s required courses. The curriculum addresses: queer political movements, queer history, the evolution of sexual and gender identities, queer representation, queer perspectives on the arts, queer intersectionalities, and queer theory.

Minor Requirements 

You will take six courses (at least 24 units) distributed as follows:

1. Lower-division requirements (one course, four units)

   1. Select either LGBS 001 or GSST 001 

2. Upper-division requirements (five courses, at least 20 units) 

   1. Choose from the list of approved courses below.

   2. One of the five required courses must be from the humanities, one must be from the social sciences, and one must be from the fine arts

   3. You may petition to have a course not on the approved list counted towards the five course if you can demonstrate that queer issues play a significant role in the course and that you will focus (amounting to 30 percent of the final grade) on a queer topic. Please contact your minor academic advisor for assistance.

   4. You may use four units of LGBS 190 and up to 8 units of LGBS 193 to count towards the five courses

   5. You may satisfy an upper-division requirement by completing four units of LGBS 198-I (internship)

Approved Courses

Humanities:

LGBS 105: Topics in Queer Art, Culture, or Literature
LGBS 122 (E-Z)/ENGL 122 (E-Z): Queer Texts and Bodies

F-Gothic Fiction and the History of Sexuality
G-New Queer Brit Lit
I-British Literature and the History of Sexuality
J-Q(ueer) & A(sian): Gay and Lesbian Asian American Literature
K-Sex and Popular Culture in the Postwar U.S.
N-Queer Aesthetics
O-Queer American Literature
Q-Literature of AIDS: Gay Men Respond to a Crisis
R- Queer Aztlán: Chicana/o Queer Narrative

LGBS 143 (E-Z)/ENGL 143 (E-Z)/MCS 143 (E-Z): Gender, Sexuality, and Visual Cultures

E-Feminist Film Theory and Practice
F-Film and Gender
G-Screening the Lesbian
K-Queers that Kill

GSST 154: Feminist Oral History
MCS 128: Queer People of Color Cultural Critique

Fine Arts:

DNCE 131/GSST 127: Dance, Gender, Sexuality
LGBS 105: Topics in Queer Art, Culture, or Literature
LGBS 143 (E-Z)/ENGL 143 (E-Z)/MCS 143 (E-Z): Gender, Sexuality, and Visual Cultures

E-Feminist Film Theory and Practice
F-Film and Gender
G-Screening the Lesbian
K-Queers that Kill

LGBS 153/MUS 153: Homosexuality and Music
MCS 112: History of Queer Cinema
MCS 128: Queer People of Color Cultural Critique

Social Sciences:

GSST 100: Gender Theory
ANTH 145/GSST 103: Sexualities and Cultures
ETST 163E: Introduction to Queer Studies
ETST 175/GSST 175: Gender, Ethnicity and Borders
LGBS 128/GSST 128: Critical Approaches to Heterosexuality
GSST 113: Queer Theory
LGBS 134/GSST 134: Queer Identities and Movements in the United States
LGBS 135/GSST 135: Love, Desire and Lesbian Sexuality
LGBS 137/GSST 137: Critical Queer Politics
LGBS 139/GSST 139: Coming Out and Sexual Identity
LGBS 152/GSST 152: Theory of Gender Inequality