Overview of Department of CRGS

Humboldt State University's Department of Critical Race, Gender and Sexuality Studies (CRGS) is centered on the examination of race, gender, sexuality, class, nationality, and dis/ability as categories that inform notions of identity, oppression, and resistance through an intersectional lens. As the department's website explains, centered around the discliplines of ethnic studies, women’s studies, and queer studies, the CRGS Department aims to examine systems of power, privilege, and oppression on the local, national, and transnational scale.
Despite aiming to educate through an intersectional lens, it should be noted that keeping an intersectional framework in mind is not always achieved. As stated by Mimi Marinucci in her book Feminism is Queer, while attempting to “keep a check on racism, classism, and other expressions of oppression…queer theory, like feminist theory, also has a history of racism and classism” (107). It is not always possible for every theorist to account for all of the plethora of identities in the world. Theory is bound to marginalize one group or another when you take into account the sheer amount of diversity in the world.

Sources: "Critical Race, Gender & Sexuality Studies." Critical Race, Gender and Sexuality Studies. Humboldt State University, n.d. WebMarinucci, Mimi. Feminism Is Queer: The Intimate Connection between Queer and Feminist Theory. London: Zed, 2010. Print.

A key component of how this relates to being queer at Humboldt State University is the development of the Multicultural Queer Studies pathway of the Critical Race, Gender and Sexuality Studies major. This pathway of the Critical Race, Gender, and Sexuality Studies major as well as the creation of the minor was created as a way by which to study topics related to sexual identity, gender identity, sex, and sexuality through a multicultural lense.

Click through the exhibit to learn more about the creation of Humboldt State University's Multicultural Queer Studies program.