The Insititute

The Institute

Our Mission

The LGBTQ+ Institute promotes LGBTQ research, curricula and public programming.

Our History

The Institute was founded as The Committee on Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual Studies at the University of Arizona in 1993. Its formation was inspired by feminist science scholar Donna Haraway's visit as a Rockefeller Humanities Resident Scholar, and from the beginning it has been dedicated to interdisciplinary intellectual community development. The Committee was formally re-established as the UA Institute for LGBT Studies on Oct 11, 2007. In 2023, it is now LGBTQ+ Institute.

Faculty leadership at the Institute has come from Gender and Women's Studies, History, Media Arts, and Education. Executive Committee members have been drawn from all four colleges, including faculty in the departments of English, French and Italian, Anthropology, Art, Geography and Regional Development, Political Science, Sociology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and Art History. We have worked closely with Geography and Regional Development, and with Anthropology and Mexican American Studies, on a project-specific basis, and we have undertaken several curriculum and programming projects with the sciences.

We have recently launched our Arts & Education Initiative to create stronger connections with other UA colleges, departments, and programs, including the College of Education, and with community arts-based programs.