Elizabeth (Beth) Currans

Assistant Professor

714 Pray Harrold

734.487.1177

ecurrans@emich.edu

Education

PhD, Religious Studies and Feminist Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara, 2007

MA, Folklore and Women's Studies, University of Oregon, 1999

BA, English & Women's Studies, Colorado State University, 1994

Interests and Expertise

Elizabeth (Beth) Currans was hired in 2010 and received her PhD from the University of California, Santa Barbara.  Her book manuscript, provisionally titled Engendering Publics: Women’s Public Demonstrations in the Contemporary U.S., is under contract from University of Illinois Press.  The text explores how participants in public protests in the contemporary U.S. coordinated and attended primarily by women claim and remake public spaces, and the ways that gender, sexuality, and race influence our understanding of public space.  Her research and teaching interests include public protest; grassroots activism; cultural geography and explorations of public space; performance studies; feminist, queer, and critical race theory; and the intersections of gender, sexuality, and race in cultural life.

Curriculum Vitae

Publications and Presentations

“Negotiating Treacherous Terrain: Disciplinary Power, Security Cultures, and Affective Ties in a Local Anti-War Movement” with Mark Schuller and Tiffany Willoughby-Herard (forthcoming from Social Justice 39, no. 1 (2012))

“Claiming Deviance and Honoring Community: Creating Resistant Spaces in U.S. Dyke Marches” Feminist Formations 24, no. 1, (May 2012) 73-101.

“Instituting Heteronormative Belief in the Law: The Case of California’s Proposition 22.”  Culture and Religion, 5, no. 2, (Spring 2004) 161-178.

“Introduction.”  Culture and Religion, 5, no. 2, (Spring 2004) 139-144, with Melissa M. Wilcox.

“Gender, Sexuality, and the Balance of Power: Continuity and Divergence in Native American Worldviews.” In David Machacek and Melissa M. Wilcox, eds. Sexuality and the World Religions, 31-64. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio, 2003, with Julianne Cordero.

Courses taught:

• WGST 202: Introduction to Gender and Sexuality

• WGST 305: Queer Studies

• WGST 550: Feminist Thought

• WGST 575: Theories of Sexualities