Regina Vitolo

Majors: History and Literature and World Cultures
Minor: Music History

WGSS courses have had a profound impact on my learning experience at the University of Houston. Not only have WGSS classes reframed my intellectual approach to studying the past, providing me with an in-depth understanding of the crucial roles women played in big picture historical moments, but WGSS classes have also inspired me to continue mining the rich history of women in and out of the archives. I hope to one day contribute to Women’s History scholarship, and WGSS has provided me with the confidence, skills, and focus I need to pursue my academic goals.

Sarah Piña

Majors: History and Literature and World Cultures
WGSS Women’s Studies Graduate Certificate

Through generous scholarships from WGSS and Friends of Women’s Studies, I have had incredible opportunities to disseminate my research at international conferences with leading scholars in my field all over the world, conducted extensive archival research—crucial for both my dissertation and my most recent publications—in collections at universities all over the nation, and will also be able to return this fall for my third research trip to Cuba in my final year as a PhD Candidate at UH. I am forever grateful to WGSS and Friends of Women's Studies for their support! Piña is a CLASS Dissertation Completion Fellow 2016-2017.

Hannah Richard

Sociology, master’s student

I'm so grateful for the support given to me by WGSS and for their belief in my research. With their help, I have been able to give voices to an almost-invisible population, female athletes with disabilities.

Rich Meisel

Assistant Professor, Biology and Biochemistry

Rich Meisel studies the genetic mechanisms responsible for differences between males and females, and the evolutionary origins of those differences. Much of his work takes advantage of naturally occurring variation in the genes responsible for determining sex in the house fly. Combining genomics and molecular biology approaches, the Meisel lab seeks to understand whether variation in the genetics of sex determination produces males and females that exist along a continuum of sexual dimorphism rather than discrete binary categories. Dr. Meisel values the expertise in the social sciences and humanities possessed by WGSS members that complement his own biological interests.

Rich Meisel advises graduate and undergraduate students in his laboratory from the colleges of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, and Technology. The Meisel lab’s research has been supported by funding from the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, and the Mindlin Foundation. Dr. Meisel also teaches a Genetics course that is taken by undergraduate biology majors and pre-medical students. He plans to co-teach a course on the biology and sociology of sex and gender in Spring 2017 that developed from his interactions with WGSS faculty.

Francesca D’Allessandro Behr

Associate Professor, Italian and Classical Studies

I am so proud and happy to be part of Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies at the University of Houston. My name is Francesca D’Alessandro Behr, I was born in Italy and did my Graduate work in the USA. I am an Associate Professor of Italian and Classical Studies.  Gender and Women have been a focus of my research from the inception of my career. I love to teach CLAS 3374 - Women in the Ancient World and ITAL 3309 - Women Writers and Filmmakers of Modern Italy. It is always useful and stimulating to get to know colleagues and students with similar interests in different fields and areas of studies. WGSS gives me this opportunity. In 2005 I had the honor to be Interim Director of WGSS (at the time WOST) and it was then that I really discovered how much this Program accomplishes at the University and in our community!!!

I have just submitted a monograph on women as writers of epics in the Italian Renaissance; in the book I stress the importance of education!!!  Sharing knowledge is what WGSS is all about!

Lawrence Pinsky

John & Rebecca Moores Professorship, Physics

Dr. Pinsky holds a John & Rebecca Moores Professorship in the UH Physics Department where he has been a long time advocate for Gender Equity, especially focussing on higher education in the STEM fields.  He was the chair of the UH Physics Department for 18 years from 1994 to 2013, during which time, the number of women on the faculty increased from 0 to 7 total currently.  He has served as the only male member of the American Physical Society's (APS) Committee on the Status of Women in Physics, and is a Co-Principle Investigator on the the University's NSF ADVANCE grant as well as being a member of that program's Work-Life Balance Committee and a Co-Leader of the the Recruiting and Retention Committee.  

In addition to being a physics professor, he also has a J.D. degree and an LL.M in Intellectual Property and Information Law.   He currently has and appointment as an Adjunct Professor in the UH Law Center where he teaches courses in IP Law and Network (Internet) Law.  He has helped draft the APS's policy "Statement on the Status of Women In Physics" and to address sexual harassment issues, the "Code of Conduct Policy for APS Meetings."