Core Faculty

Dr. Nicole Erin Morse, Director, Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Assistant Professor in the School of Communication and Multimedia Studies, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters. 

Dr. Josephine Beoku-Betts,  Professor, Women’s Studies and Sociology

Dr. Beoku-Betts arrived at Florida Atlantic University in 1997 as one of two faculty members in Women’s Studies. Prior to coming to FAU, she was on the faculty in the Departments of Women’s Studies and Sociology at the University of Georgia. Her primary research is on postcolonial and feminist standpoint discourses on science with emphasis on the educational and career experiences and perspectives of African scientists. Her current research is on Women’s Peace Movements and Post-War Reconstruction in Sierra Leone. Dr. Beoku-Betts has co-edited one book and several articles and book chapters in feminist and other scholarly journals. She was formerly co-regional editor for Women’s Studies International Forum, and co-Book Review Editor for Gender & Society. She is currently the co-President elect for the RC 32 Committee (Women and Society) of the International Sociological Association. In 2011, she was received the Florida Atlantic University Presidential Leadership Award. In 2012, she received the Florida Commission on the Status of Women Florida Achievement Award.

Dr. Jane Caputi,  Professor, Women’s Studies and Communication

Dr. Caputi arrived at Florida Atlantic University in 1997 as one of two faculty in Women’s Studies. Prior to coming to FAU, she was Professor of American Studies at the University of New Mexico. Her primary research is in contemporary cultural studies, including popular culture, gender and violence, and environmental feminism. She is the author of three books, The Age of Sex Crime; Gossips, Gorgons and Crones: The Fates of the Earth; and Goddesses and Monsters: Women, Myth, Power and Popular Culture. She also collaborated with Mary Daly on Webs ters’ First Intergalactic Wickidary of the English Language, and has made an educational documentary, The Pornography of Everyday Life. She also was FAU’s Distinguished Teacher for 2001, and received FAU’s Research and Scholarly Activities award (Professor level) for 2005 and for 2012. In 2013, she was named “Feminist of the Year” by the Palm Beach County National Organization for Women (NOW).

  Affiliate Faculty

William L. Leap, PhD , is Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at the American University (Washington, DC) and an Affiliate Professor in the Center for Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Florida Atlantic University (Boca Raton, FL).  He is the founding senior editor of the Journal of Language & Sexuality and, since 1993, has coordinated the annual program of the Lavender Language Conference . His writings about language and sexuality address topics as varied as race/class inequities, gender differences, language socialization, homophobia/hate speech, gay pornography, trans-national circulations, subaltern voice, and problems of queer historiography.  Key publications include American Indian English (1993), Word’s Out: Gay Men’s English (1996), Out in Public:  Reinventing Lesbian/Gay Anthropology in a Globalizing World (co-edited with Ellen Lewin), Speaking in Queer Tongues: Gay Language and Globalization (co-edited with Tom Boellstorff), and the widely reprinted papers “Language, socialization and silence in gay adolescence’, “Queering gay men’s English”, and “Homophobia as moral geography.” He is currently completing a multi-disciplinary study of  language, identity and same-sex desire in the US military, in Renaissance-era Harlem, in women’s softball teams, in cruising sites, and in other locations  “before” Stonewall.  

 Executive Committee 

In addition to the core Women’s Studies faculty, a dedicated group of FAU staff and professors serve on the WGGS executive committee in order to facilitate the research, curriculum and programming goals of the WGSS Center.

• Traci Baxley, Department of Curriculum, Culture, & Educational Inquiry
• Susan Love Brown , Department of Anthropology
• Sika Dagbovie-Mullins , Department of English
• Dawn Frood, Collection Development Librarian
• Mary Ann Gosser-Esquilín, Department of Languages, Linguistics & Comparative Literature
• Ingrid Jones, Student Accessibility Services
• Ashvin R. Kini, Department of English
• Christine Scodari , School of Communication and Multi-Media Studies
• Lotus Seeley, Department of Sociology

  Faculty Associates

In addition to the Women’s Studies faculty, there are thirty faculty associates. They include faculty in the departments across the university. Their representation signifies the truly interdisciplinary nature of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Some of the associates include:

Department of Anthropology

• Susan Love Brown, Ph.D., University of California-San Diego

• Mary Cameron , Ph.D., Michigan State University

School of Communication and Multi-Media Studies

• Nanetta Durnell-Uwechue , Ph.D., Ohio State University

• Noemi Marin , Ph.D., University of Maryland-College Park

• S. Marek Muller , Ph.D., University of Utah

• Becky Mulvaney , Ph.D., University of Iowa

• Christine Scodari , Ph.D., Ohio State University

School of Criminology and Criminal Justice

• Dawn L. Rothe, PhD., Western Michigan University 

Department of Curriculum, Culture, & Educational Inquiry

• Traci Baxley , Ed.D., Florida Atlantic University

• Dilys Schoorman , Ph.D., Purdue University

Department of English

• Barclay Barrios , Ph.D., Rutgers University

• Eric Berlatsky, Ph.D., University of Maryland

• Sika Dagbovie-Mullins, Ph.D., University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign

• Mary Faraci, Ph.D., University of Florida

• Andy Furman,  Ph.D., Pennsylvania State University

• Taylor Hagood,  Ph.D., University of Mississippi

• Wendy Hinshaw , Ph.D., Ohio State University

• Ashvin Kini, Ph.D., Uiversity of California San Diego

• José A. de La Garza Valenzuela, Ph.D., Miami University

Department of History

• Graciella Cruz-Taura , Ph.D., University of Miami

• Adrian Finucane , Ph.D., Harvard University

• Kelly Shannon , Ph.D., Temple University

Department of Languages, Linguistics & Comparative Literature

• Nora Erro-Peralta , Ph.D., University of Toronto

• Yolanda Gamboa, Ph.D., Purdue University

• Mary Ann Gosser-Esquilín , Ph.D., Yale University

• Michael Horswell, Ph.D.,University of Maryland, College Park

• Marcella Munson, Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles

Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing

• Teresa Sakraida , Ph.D., The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC

Department of Political Science

• Rebecca LeMoine , Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison

School of Public Administration

• Patricia Patterson , Ph.D., The American University

Department of Sociology

• Mark Harvey , Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, Madison

• Lotus Seeley, Ph.D., University of Michigan

• Patricia Widener , Ph.D., Brown University

Department of Visual Arts and Art History

• Karen Leader , Ph.D., New York University