Message from Chancellor Fox: One of UCSD’s greatest institutional strengths is the breadth and depth of faculty research on a range of important topics. Each month, Chancellor’s Corner will showcase cross-disciplinary faculty expertise in a specific area. I invite you to learn more about the work of these scholars, and I hope you share my pride in their achievements and their contributions to society.

GENDER STUDIES

Elizabeth Barrett-Connor, Professor of Family and Preventative Medicine
Dr. Barret-Connor’s research has focused on healthy aging and gender differences in disease, with strong emphasis on women’s health. One of the first scientists to examine diabetes as a risk factor for heart disease, Barrett-Connor found that the blood-sugar metabolism disorder poses a greater risk to women than to men. She also was one of the first to question the validity of earlier observational studies (including her own) indicating that hormone replacement therapy protects the female heart. More…

Cynthia M. Truant, Associate Professor of History
Cynthia Truant is an authority on early modern European history, 1650-1850, with an emphasis on France. Her special areas of research and interest are gender and labor studies in their cultural and political context. Truant has researched and written articles on guild women in various trades in pre-Revolutionary Paris. More…

Maria Charles, Associate Professor of Sociology
Charles specializes in social inequality and sociology of gender and race. Much of her research explores international differences in patterns and processes of gender- and class-based inequality. She also works in international comparative sociology and occupational sex segregation. More…

Boatema Boateng, Assistant Professor of Communications
Boatema Boateng’s areas of expertise are intellectual property protection of folklore and indigenous knowledge, black (continental and diasporic African) feminism, and gender and globalization. Boateng has published on gender training in Ghana, intellectual property protection of folklore and indigenous knowledge, and textiles and identity in the African Diaspora. More….

David H. Serlin, Assistant Professor of Communications
David Serlin's areas of research include 19th and 20th century cultural studies of medicine and health, gender/sexuality studies and queer theory, disability studies, material culture and museum studies, as well as architecture, urbanism and the built environment. His publications include, Crippling Masculinity: Queerness and Disability in U.S. Military Culture, 1800-1945. More…

Mary Blair-Loy, Associate Professor of Sociology
Mary Blair-Loy researches gender, family and career, and how social and cultural structures affect individual thoughts, emotions, and actions. Her most recent book is titled, Competing Devotions: Career and Family Among Executive Women. More…

Yen Le Espiritu, Professor and Chair of Ethnic Studies
Yen Le Espiritu focuses her research on the challenges traditional descriptions of racial categories. Currently, Espiritu is interested on the transnational and gendered lives of Filipino immigrants and Filipino Americans. She has written on the relation between institutions and identities, as well as on the interplay of race, class, and gender. More…

Giovanna M. Chesler, Assistant Professor of Communications
Giovanna Chesler, a professor of media production, documentary film, feminist film and sound at UCSD, works in popular and documentary films on such women’s issues as menstruation and beauty, as well as other areas of gender and sexuality. Areas of focus for Chesler include female beauty, menstrual suppression, documentary ethics, cleft lip and palate, queer film, sound production and manipulation and sound theory. More…

** To learn more about other campus faculty scholars and areas of expertise, please visit the searchable UCSD Faculty Experts Database at: http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/facultyExperts/