FAU Names New Director to its Center for Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies

Elena Machado Sáez, Ph.D., associate professor in Florida Atlantic University's Department of English, has been named director of FAU's Center for Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies. She will begin her appointment in January 2014. Machado Sáez has been at FAU since 2003. Her research focuses on how sexuality and gender intersect with race and ethnicity in literature by U.S. Latino/a, black British, and Canadian minority writers.

"I look forward to continuing to build the WGSS academic programs and work with the local community on issues concerning women's rights, gender equity, and sexual orientation equality," said Machado Sáez.

Machado Sáez received her doctorate from SUNY Stony Brook in English and attended the School of Criticism and Theory at Cornell University as part of a seminar led by Maryse Condé. She is coauthor of "The Latino/a Canon and the Emergence of Post-Sixties Literature" and author of "The Market Aesthetics of Caribbean Diasporic Historical Fiction." She was honored with the University Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in 2008 and nominated for the Owl Award in Graduate Mentoring in 2010.

FAU's Women's Studies program was founded in 1986 and renamed the Center for Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies in 2009. The WGSS Center offers an M.A. degree, graduate certificate, undergraduate certificate, and actively participates in the South Florida community. For more in information for WGSS, call 561-297-3865 or visit www.fau.edu/womensstudies.