Lurie is new director of Center for the Study of Women, Gender and Sexuality

Susan Lurie, an associate professor of English and experienced Rice administrator, is the new director of Rice’s Center for the Study of Women, Gender and Sexuality (CSWGS). She began her role July 1, and the Rice community will have the opportunity to welcome her as the new director and mark the beginning of CSWGS’ 2015-16 year at a reception Sept. 15. The gathering will be at 5 p.m. in the Humanities Building lobby and courtyard.

Susan Lurie is the new director of CSWGS.

“I’m privileged to be assuming this position, and as I do so, I am coming on board with a center that is highly developed and highly significant in the Rice community,” said Lurie, who has previously served as associate dean for graduate studies and as director of graduate studies in the English Department.

A longtime affiliate of the center, Lurie noted that the center’s focus is on engaging students and the community to understand the place of gender and sexuality in an increasingly complex world. “There are many things that stand out about our programming, but one is that we integrate our research with community outreach at many levels, from the undergraduate curriculum to partnering with community organizations and through the Gray/Wawro Lectures in Gender, Health and Well-Being,” said Lurie, who is a scholar of 20th-century and 21st-century U.S. literature and culture, feminist theory and political theory.

Lurie takes the helm from Rosemary Hennessy, the center’s first director and the L.H. Favrot Professor of Humanities, who became the chair of the English Department in July.

Established in 2006 as an outgrowth of the Program for the Study of Women, Gender and Sexuality, the CSWGS encompasses an interdisciplinary undergraduate and graduate curriculum, cutting-edge faculty research, and research partnerships with local universities and community organizations. The center’s goal is to make a better world by promoting new critical knowledge and relationships with communities that extend the understanding of the lives of women and of the history and politics of sexuality and gender as key influences on the quality of life.

Today, the Center brings together 47 faculty affiliates from 17 departments and three schools — Humanities, Social Sciences and the Shepherd School of Music — along with postdoctoral fellows and visiting scholars.

In addition to the major in SWGS, the center offers a minor in poverty, justice and human capabilities, and well over 100 students enroll each year in the center’s core courses. Lurie said the curriculum pursues an educational philosophy that recognizes the importance of “engaged research,” with most majors opting to conduct a research project in partnership with a Houston nonprofit organization. “We were one of the first academic programs (at Rice) to introduce engaged research as a fulfillment for a requirement in a major,” Lurie said. “That’s become such a central part of Rice’s undergraduate mission now. We instituted this kind of opportunity for Rice students years ago.”

In addition, the center offers the Graduate Certificate Program, which offers Ph.D. students in the humanities and social sciences formal certification in research on women, gender and sexuality. “Students participate in a vital intellectual community throughout their Ph.D. program, and the SWGS Certificate is a valuable asset in an increasingly competitive job market,” Lurie said.

Finally, the center houses the internationally acclaimed peer-reviewed journal Feminist Economics, overseen by founding editor Diana Strassmann, who is also the director of the Program on Poverty, Justice and Human Capabilities.

On Sept. 24, the center will host its first Gray/Wawro Lecture of the fall semester. It will feature C.J. Pascoe, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Oregon, who will speak on “Bullied: Youth, Gender and Homophobia.” For more information and to RSVP for the lecture, go to https://cswgs.rice.edu/pascoe.