Beth Schneider is Professor of Sociology and Affiliated Faculty in the Department of Feminist Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She just completed seven years of service as the Associate Dean of Social Sciences from 2002-2009. Professor Schneider has been at UC Santa Barbara since 1981 and has contributed to the development of the feminist studies specialization in the Sociology department and was a founding mother of the UCSB Women’s Studies Program (now Feminist Studies Program). She has been a leader in shaping the UCSB diversity efforts in several ways: Currently, she is Director of the McNair Scholars Program and the Co-Principal Investigator for UC-DIGSSS (Diversity in Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences), a project serving U.S. underrepresented graduate students funded by the National Science Foundation. She serves on the Advisory Board of the Women’s Center, the Advisory Board of the Queer Studies minor, and on the Steering Committee of Eucalyptus (Chancellor’s Committee for the Status of LGBTQI students, staff, and faculty). Recently, Dr. Schneider was appointed Chair of the Academic Senate Committee on Diversity and Equity. Her primary research areas include sexuality and gender studies, political and social movements, and health. Her books include The Social Context of AIDS (with Joan Huber), Women Resisting AIDS: Feminist Strategies of Empowerment (with Nancy Stoller), and The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader (with Peter Nardi). She is the lead author of the UCSB report on campus climate for LGBTQ students, staff and faculty. Professor Schneider has recently completed an edited volume for the journal Gender & Society with Dr. Jane Ward (UC Riverside) titled, The Reaches of Heteronormativity. Dr. Schneider served for ten years on the Editorial Board of the international journal Sexualities, for four years as the Editor of Gender & Society, one of the top five journals in gender and women’s studies, and is currently chair of the Sexualities Section of the American Sociological Association. Currently Professor Schneider is engaged in two streams of research: one, an examination of the interplay of electoral politics and social movements through a case study of activist generations in a feminist political action committee, and two, a sociological account of lesbians’ struggles for erotic justice over the last 40 years. Among the classes she teaches are “Theories of Sexuality,” “Contemporary Feminist Movements,” “Sociology of AIDS,” “Lesbian and Gay Communities,” and “Sexual Politics.” In the local community, she is President of the Board of Directors of the Santa Barbara Women’s Political Committee.
176A: Sociology of AIDS
185S: Special Topics in Social Theory
256S: Seminar in Sexualities
212W: Writing Practicum in Sociology