Research & Education on Gender and Sexuality

FALL 2024 UPDATE:

CREGS is merging with the Health Equity Institute at SFSU. We remain committed to gender and sexuality studies and will share more details about our next steps soon.

CREGS is an interdisciplinary community of gender and sexuality studies researchers, educators and activists committed to understanding and addressing the intersections of race, class, gender and sexuality in the pursuit of social justice. The Center conducts research that spans fields, disciplines and methods; provides education to undergraduate and graduate students; and trains future leaders in the field of sexuality, and partners with organizations who share our mission. The Center is closely affiliated with the undergraduate and M.A. programs within the Department of Sociology and Sexuality Studies at San Francisco State University.

Together Study at Oakland Pride 2020
Summer Instruction
Vision Mission Venn Diagram

The CREGS mission is to conduct innovative research that deepens understanding and challenges social inequities for marginalized people and communities. Additionally, CREGS aims to design and implement educational programs that teach contemporary and foundational issues in the field of gender and sexuality and that reach a broad audience of students, educators, advocates and professionals.

Through our research and education programs, CREGS seeks to create innovative programs driven by our commitment to gender and sexual well-being and acceptance and to reduce persistent social inequities

CREGS has four primary goals. They include the following:

  1. Faculty Mentoring and Grant Development

CREGS is committed to mentoring, supporting, and encouraging research faculty in their efforts to secure external funding for innovative sexuality research. CREGS provides internal support for principal investigators; such as, pre-award and post-award budgeting and budget projections, and hiring and training staff. Research faculty’s ability to seek funding for new research agendas while sustaining a high standard of productivity are of utmost importance to CREGS sustainability.

  1. Student Mentoring

Research opportunities at CREGS are fundamental to training students across the SF State campus. Sexuality Studies (SXS) MA students are a particular focus, but research faculty have also employed students from Asian American Studies, Ethnic Studies, Geography, Psychology, Raza Studies, Sociology, and Women and Gender Studies. Faculty employ undergraduate and graduate students as research assistants, make data available for MA theses, and co-author publications.

  1. Dissemination

CREGS contributes to public and academic understandings of sexuality and gender research. CREGS research faculty have been quoted in major news publications ranging from the New York Times to SF State Magazine to KQED. CREGS faculty actively publish in top scholarly journals, publish books and are invited to speak about their work all over the world.

  1. Education

Educational programing is key to creating a pipeline for professionals in the field of gender and sexuality. Since 2002, CREGS has offered the annual Summer Institute on Sexuality - a weeklong intensive for students and professionals looking for training and information focused in a particular area of sexuality and gender. Many CREGS faculty present their work at the Summer Institute as well as other faculty from SF State, UC Berkeley, UCSF and our community partners. CREGS also hosts two to three seminars or town halls on the main campus each semester. Many of these events feature innovative work being done by faculty on campus, critical campus climate issues facing queer students and creative and media events in collaboration with student organizations on campus.