Ithaca College

Lis Maurer, LGBT Center program director, and Rebecca Plante, associate professor of sociology, have published their book, Doing Gender Diversity: Readings in Theory and Real-World Experience.  Recently released by Westview Press, it is a text intended for adoption in undergraduate courses on gender, women's studies, and sexualities, among other disciplines.

Doing Gender Diversity considers how all forms of gender -- from the usual to the unusual -- are socially constructed. The collection shows readers how gender is developed, experienced, and presented by the range of persons who "do" or perform gender (namely, all of us). Doing Gender Diversity demonstrates the multiple ways in which the universe of gender is socially, culturally, and historically constructed. This anthology focuses on gender itself -- how gender operates socioculturally, exists, functions, and is presented in micro and macro interactions.

In order to avoid balkanization, the authors examine the various ways in which culture intersects with individuals to produce the range of presentations of self that we call "gender," from people born male who become adult men to lesbian women to transmen, and everyone else on the diverse gender spectrum. The book focuses on both hegemonic and transgressive gender development, roles, identities, and practices.

The book is the culmination of years of collaboration and conversation between Maurer and Plante. The editors will be doing a reading and talk at Buffalo Street Books in mid-October; more information forthcoming.

Westview Press publishes scholarly titles and high-quality undergraduate- and graduate-level textbooks in core social science disciplines. With books developed, written, and edited with the needs of serious nonfiction readers, professors, and students in mind, Westview Press honors its long history of publishing 'books that matter'.

Westview Books: Doing Gender Diversity Info