Breadcrumb
Critical Race, Gender & Sexuality Studies
The Critical Race, Gender & Sexuality Studies (CRGS) department encourages students to explore how race, gender, sexuality, class, and other identities shape our lives and society. Rooted in activism and social justice, CRGS blends Ethnic Studies, Women’s Studies, and Queer Studies in a dynamic, interdisciplinary department.
You'll gain tools to challenge inequality, think critically, and lead with purpose. Whether you're planning a career in education, law, health, social work, or community organizing—or aiming for grad school—CRGS prepares you to create meaningful impact in your community and beyond.
Bachelors Degree
Critical Race, Gender and Sexuality Studies B.A.
This interdisciplinary program analyzes how notions of race, gender, sexuality, nation, class, physical ability, and other aspects of social location materially influence people’s lives. You will take a common core of classes and choose an emphasis from the following:
- Ethnic Studies
- Multicultural Queer Studies
- Women’s Studies
Certificates
Place-Based Learning Community: Creando Raíces
As a CRGS freshman, you’ll participate in hands-on activities with your peers before classes even start and in some cases, have the opportunity to live in the same residence halls with your peers. CRGS students will join three other departments for Creando Raíces, which focuses on community organizing and ethnic studies, deepening an appreciation and awareness of justice and liberation.
Experiential Learning
Along with hands-on scholarly research and activism, you will engage in innovative theoretical and empirical work. Your collaborative work will advance and enrich current knowledge and critical dialogue about culture, politics, and public policy on local, global and transnational levels.
CouRaGeous Cuentos
A Journal of Counternarratives
Our student-run journal includes creative writing and essays, and is published annually online and in print.
An Intersectional Approach
We draw on intersectional lenses that will enable you to:
- See connections and opportunities between fields
- Understand multiple perspectives
- Excel in a variety of work environments
- Model cultural competencies
- Be engaged citizens who aim for transformative change
Career Options
Our curriculum foregrounds dialogue and active learning. You will gain strong communication and leadership skills throughout this program.
Graduates will be prepared to enter fields like politics and government, law, business, social services, activism, community organizing, as well as graduate school.
Here are a few examples of possible career fields.
- Education
- Community Organizing
- Social Work
- Government & Public Policy
- Social Services
- Violence Prevention
- Counseling
- Law
- Health Care
- Journalism
- Marketing and Business
- Broadcast and Social Media
- Human Resource
- Non-profit Organizations
Featured Alumni
Paul Michael Leonardo Atienza
Critical Race, Gender & Sexuality Studies
Dr. Paul Michael L. Atienza was chosen to join the Knowledge of AIDS (KOA) Research Community Network (RCN), which seeks to form a scholarly community for social scientific, humanistic, and socio-technical researchers of HIV/AIDS broadly situated within the field of Science and Technology Studies (STS). He will participate in the second of three annual workshops in late March focused on forms of expertise that emerged in response to the HIV/AIDS crisis. In addition to the workshops, KOA-RCN seeks to develop a robust online community, support research collaborations, and create a mentorship program.
Paul Michael Leonardo Atienza
Critical Race, Gender & Sexuality Studies
CRGS assistant professor Dr. Paul Michael Leonardo Atienza publishes “Feeling Failure: Appnography and Its Affective Ties to the Ethnographer’s Life" in a special issue of Ethnoscripts. The special issue considers the impact of dating apps beyond dating, moving past the narrow milieu of intimacy to interrogate their impact across other spheres. Atienza reflects on their research among queer Filipino men in Manila and Los Angeles to examine how feelings of failure permeate various aspects of the researcher’s life, influencing writing, thinking, and self-perception, and his study underscores the enduring nature of these emotions. Open Access at https://journals.sub.uni-hamburg.de/ethnoscripts/issue/view/116
Paul Michael Leonardo Atienza
Critical Race, Gender & Sexuality Studies
CRGS assistant professor Dr. Paul Michael Leonardo Atienza publishes their first set of poetry just in time for Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month. "With Love: What We Wish We Knew About Being Queer and Filipino in America" explores the intimate journey of queer Filipina/x/o individuals in America. Editor Dr. Dustin E. Domingo delves into 68 letters by 50 queer Filipino Americans, sharing triumphs, setbacks, and 10 life lessons. Currently available at https://bit.ly/BuyWithLoveBook