Lesbian studies: Present and future

by Margaret Cruikshank

Depicts the experiences of gay women in the academic world and discusses the teaching of lesbian history, biography, and literature

Genres: Lesbian, Feminism, LGBT

286 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Margaret Cruikshank is an American lesbian feminist and academic. Cruikshank began teaching in 1968 and was one of the first American academics to be out during a time when gay rights was just a fledgling idea. Her research and educational work focuses on awareness and acceptance of lesbian academia and the exclusion of lesbian literature and criticism from traditional literature studies and women's studies. Her work has been published in Gay Community News , Radical Teacher , the Journal of Homosexuality and The Advocate .

Cruikshank lives in a small fishing village on the eastern coast of Maine. After teaching English, gay/lesbian studies and women’s studies for many years, she retired from the University of Maine in 2011. She continues as a faculty associate at The Maine Center on Aging. In 1997 she donated a selection of her archives to the June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives in West Hollywood. She is a recipient of two Fulbright senior specialist awards, one for the University of Victoria's Centre on Aging (2007) and a forthcoming one at the University of Graz in Austria.

Reviews

[fausto · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent beginning for anyone who does not have any background in lesbian studies. The book compiled by Margaret Cruikshank offers the reader some of the most important (but early) discussions about lesbian perspectives and knowledge, in a wide range of disciplines like history, sociology, literature, and psychology. While it is true that the bibliography is kind of dated, the book is both a significant historical document on the development of lesbian scholarship and a truly useful collection of essays for any women's/gender studies syllabi.