Department of History

Gender and Sexuality

How are boys and men supposed to look and feel and act? What about girls and women? What family forms are “natural”?  What kinds of desire deserve respect? Across history, almost every society has insisted that certain structures of gender and sexuality are natural and proper—but historical study shows that, on the contrary, there are an enormous range of ways that gender, sexuality, intimacy, and kinship can be structured and experienced.

Historians at Pitt have studied the changing politics and practice of gender and sexuality in the modern world, in places ranging from Bolivia to Barbados to Bucharest to Pittsburgh.

Faculty

John Boonstra
Teaching Assistant Professor
Alexandra Finley
Assistant Professor
Laura Gotkowitz
Associate Professor
Alissa Klots
Assistant Professor
Laura L. Lovett
Professor
Carla Nappi
Andrew W. Mellon Chair
Lara Putnam
Professor
Liann E. Tsoukas
Director of Undergraduate Studies and Teaching Professor