Experts Directory: Gender and Sexuality

Mariam Beruchashvili 

Department of Marketing 

Work: (818) 677-2420 

Email: mariam.beruchashvili@csun.edu 

  • Consumer behavior 
  • Role of gender identity and emotions in consumption 
  • Consumer trends 
  • Consumer finance/economics 
  • Consumer insights 
  • Advertising and promotion 

Articles: “Servicescapes emplacing masculinity: Pursuing fighter identity at the martial arts gym,” Journal of Consumer Culture 2025 

Podcast Interview: Diving into the Discourse, Ep.30: Changing Consumer Habits 

Karen Morgaine 

Department of Sociology 

Office: (818) 677-3591 

Email: karen.morgaine@csun.edu 

  • Intersection of creativity and social justice work 
  • Social movements 
  • Art and social movements 
  • Community organizing 
  • Domestic violence 
  • Violence against women 
  • Sexual assault 

Co-Author: “Applying arts-based practice: Creative engagement in anti-oppressive social work,” “Anti-Oppressive social work practice: Putting theory into action” and “Anti-Oppressive social work practice: Putting theory into action” 

Author: “Pansexuality: A panoply of co-constructed narratives” 

Moshoula Capous-Desyllas 

Department of Sociology 

Office: (818) 677-3594 

Email: moshoula@csun.edu 

Languages: Greek, Spanish 

  • Clinical social work practices with children and youth 
  • Clinical social work practices with veterans 
  • Use of arts-based research methodologies as a form of activist for social justice 
  • Use of arts-based research methodologies to highlight the voices of marginalized individuals, groups & communities 
  • Community-based, photovoice projects with marginalized populations 
  • The power of the arts for individual and collective healing 
  • Visual sociology 
  • Public sociology 
  • Social welfare and social justice 
  • Anti-racist and anti-oppressive practice 
  • Intersectional feminist and queer theory 
  • Sex work/ sex trade 
  • Immigration/transnational migration 
  • Refugees/asylum seekers 
  • LGBTQ+ Children & Youth 

 

Elizabeth Adams

Associate Vice President, Undergraduate Studies
work: (818) 677-2969
email: elizabeth.adams@csun.edu

  • Folklore
  • Popular culture
  • Tourism
  • Teacher preparation in subject matter
  • Gender and sexuality

Learn more about Elizabeth Adams:

 

Wendy Ashley

Department of Social Work
work: (818) 677-7630
email: wendy.ashley@csun.edu

  • Individual, couples and family therapy, specifically identity, trauma and relational issues
  • Autism
  • Veterans
  • African Americans
  • Transgender individuals
  • Intersectionality, power and privilege

 

Bernardo Attias

Department of Communication Studies
work: (818) 677-6895 / 2853
email: bernardo.attias@csun.edu

  • War on terrorism
  • Media studies
  • Rhetorical studies
  • Political campaigns
  • Freedom of speech
  • Technology
  • Crime and punishment
  • Drug war
  • Peace and conflict
  • History of sexuality

Learn more about Bernardo Attias:

CSUN Professor Tackles Confederate Monuments, in 'Rhetoric of Peace and Conflict' Research

 

Marie Cartier

Department of Gender and Women’s Studies
work: (818) 677-3110
email: marie.cartier@csun.edu

  • Art
  • Gender and women’s studies
  • Queer theory
  • Religion
  • Performance
  • Author: “Baby You Are My Religion–1950’s Butch Femme Bar Culture in the U.S. as Possibly Sacred Community” and “I’m Your Daughter, Not Your Lover”

Learn more about Marie Cartier:

CSUN Library’s Special Collections Offers Students a Chance to Connect with LGBTQ History
 

 

Cathy Costin

Department of Anthropology&
work: (818) 677-3331
email: cathy.l.costin@csun.edu
Also speaks: Spanish

  • Archaeology, esp. South America
  • Gender
  • Food practices
  • Craft production (pottery, textiles)
  • Division of labor
  • Ancient societies

 

C. Jacob Hale

Department of Philosophy
work: (818) 677-7202
email: jacob.hale@csun.edu

  • Transgender studies
  • Los Angeles area transgender history

 

 

Marc R. Hamer

Department of Psychology
work: (818) 677-2827
email: marc.hamer@csun.edu

  • Psychopathology
  • Psychoanalytical psychology
  • Object relations
  • Personality disorders
  • Attachment theory
  • Jungian psychology
  • Romantic love
  • Spirituality and human behavior
  • The influence of media on human behavior
  • The psychology of politics and political campaigns
  • Personality characteristics and sales performance
  • Author: Personality Characteristics and Superior Sales Performance and Marketing Yourself as a Psychotherapist

 

 

Vickie Jensen

Department of Criminology and Justice Studies
work: (818) 677-3293 / 3591
email: vickie.jensen@csun.edu

  • Gender and crime
  • Domestic violence
  • Violence
  • Homicide
  • Sibling violence
  • Masculinities and crime
  • Parenting in jail and prison
  • Adaptations to jail and prison
  • Gender and corrections
  • Author: “Why Women Kill: Gender Equality and Homicide”

Learn more about Vickie Jensen:

CSUN Launches New Department of Criminology and Justice Studies

 

John Kephart III

Department of Communication Studies
work: (818) 677-3043
email: john.iii@csun.edu

  • Gender and media/masculinity
  • Pop culture and identity
  • Political debates and campaigns

 

Greg Knotts

Department of Elementary Education
work: (818) 677-3189
email: greg.knotts@csun.edu

  • Gender in elementary education
  • Sexuality in elementary education
  • Democratic education
  • Social studies education
  • Pre-service teachers
  • Integrating the arts in elementary education
  • Author: "Reclaiming Social Studies for the Elementary Classroom: Integrating Culture Through the Arts"

Learn more about Greg Knotts:

 

Kristyan Kouri

Department of Gender and Women’s Studies
work: (818) 677-5018
email: kristyan.m.kouri@csun.edu

  • Education
  • Gender
  • Race
  • Family

 

Florence Kyomugisha


Department of Gender and Women’s Studies
work: (818) 677-5662
email: florence.kyomugisha@csun.edu

  • HIV and AIDS in women and minority populations

 

Sarina Loeb

Coordinator, Pride Center and LGBTQ Initiatives, University Student Union
work: (818) 677-5977
email: sarina.loeb@csun.edu

  • Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer issues
  • Social justice issues

Learn more about Sheena Malhotra:


 

Sheena Malhotra

Associate Dean, College of Humanities
work: (818) 677-7217
email: sheena.malhotra@csun.edu
Also speaks: Hindi

  • Film and television in India and the Indian diaspora
  • Gender and sexuality in popular culture
  • Intercultural communication
  • Bollywood
  • Call center in India
  • Co-author: "Answer the Call: Virtual Migration in Indian Call Center"
  • Co-editor: "Silence and Power: Feminist Reflection at the Edge of Sound"

Learn more about Sheena Malhotra's work:

 

Peter J. Marston

Department of Communication Studies
work: (818) 677-2797 / 2853
email: peter.marston@csun.edu

  • The experience and communication of romantic love
  • Cultural study of media communication
  • Political arguments and debate
  • Popular music criticism
  • Popular culture censorship

 

Breny Mendoza

Department of Gender and Women’s Studies
work: (818) 677-5641
email: breny.mendoza@csun.edu
Also speaks: German, Spanish

  • Political theory
  • Feminist theory
  • Latin American studies
  • Queer theory
  • Social movements
  • Gender planning
  • Author: “The Making of the Honduran Feminist Movement,” “Rethinking the Political” and “Rethinking Feminism in the Americas”

 

Scott W. Plunkett

Department of Psychology
work: (818) 677-7480
email:  scott.plunkett@csun.edu

  • Program evaluation
  • Parenting/family dynamics
  • Neighborhood, family, school and peer influences on adolescent development (ethnic minorities)
  • Gender differences
  • Non-verbal communication
  • Parenting education
  • Communication and conflict resolution

 

Kathryn Sorrells

Department of Communication Studies
work: (818) 677-2853
email: kathryn.sorrells@csun.edu

  • Intercultural communication
  • Intercultural conflict
  • Gender, race, class and sexuality
  • Feminism
  • Globalization

Learn more about Kathryn Sorrells:

 

Mark Stevens

Department of Educational Psychology and Counseling
work: (818) 677-2103
email: mark.stevens@csun.edu

  • Men’s issues
  • Rape education with men
  • Men and depression
  • Men’s health and psychotherapy
  • Author: “In the Room with Men: A Casebook of Therapeutic Change”

Learn more about Mark Stevens:

 

Nayereh Tohidi

Department of Gender and Women’s Studies
work: (818) 677-7218
email: nayereh.tohidi@csun.edu
Also speaks: Farsi, Persian, Tajik, Turkic

  • Middle Eastern culture
  • Middle Eastern politics
  • Gender and women’s issues in the Middle East, Central Asia, the Caucus and Caspian regions, Iran and Azerbaijan Republic
  • Human rights and democracy
  • Islam and Islamist extremism
  • Women, religion and politics
  • Islam and ethnic issues in Iran
  • U.S. policy in Iran and the greater Middle East
  • Co-author: “Globalization, Gender and Religion: The Politics of Women’s Rights in Catholic and Muslim Contexts”
  • Co-editor: “Women in Muslim Societies: Diversity within Unity”
  • Author: “Feminism, Demokrasy ve Islamgarayi dar Iran” (in Persian)

Learn more about Nayereh Tohidi:

 

Sally Turner

Department of Journalism 
work: (818) 677-3135
email: sally.turner@csun.edu

  • Images of men and women in the media
  • Media stereotypes
  • Television news
  • Media coverage of politics
  • Media coverage of women and minorities
  • Mass media history
  • The impact of mass media

 

 

Scott M. Williams

Department of Family and Consumer Sciences
work: (818) 701-6898
email: scott.m.williams@csun.edu

  • Marriages
  • Family
  • Adolescent development
  • Human sexuality
  • Children with special needs i.e., autism
  • Author: “My Family: Past, Present and Future”

 

Teresa Williams-Leon

Department of Asian American Studies
work: (818) 677-4966
email: teresa.k.williams@csun.edu
Also speaks: Japanese

  • General Asian American studies
  • Biracial/multiracial identity
  • Interracial marriages
  • Race and ethnic relations
  • Sociology of race
  • Gender studies
  • Japanese American identity
  • Japanese American families