This coedited volume was designed as a resource for a wide range of courses in gender and sexuality studies. We bring together in this volume contributions from individuals representing a diversity of academic and personal engagements. We conceptualized the volume as being highly accessible and readable without forgoing the complexities of the identities, communities, and experiences it explores. Rather than extracting or reprinting previous work, we have included only new contributions that were written expressly for an undergraduate audience.
Throughout the text, the readings vary in terms of their approaches. The volume includes a range of contributions that span empirical reports on recent findings, theoretical approaches to the most pressing issues in the communities represented in this volume, and personal reflections from members of these communities.
We bring a strong background in gender and sexuality studies to the project, spanning more than 50 combined years of work in the field. Each of us have engaged in empirical research in sexuality studies from a sociological approach, each have published in one or more of the specific areas of genders and sexualities represented in the volume and we each have extensive experience centering the identities and communities that are the focus of this volume across a range of courses in our research and teaching.