Lecturers
Lecturer
Email: jennifer.berry@csun.edu
Phone: (818) 677-7218
Office location: JR 340L
Jennifer's Biography
Jennifer Berry earned her BA from USC and her MFA from San Francicso State University.
Jennifer Berry has been a proud member of the GWS faculty since 2005. Her teaching, writing and activism dives into the themes of women & family.
She is fiercely dedicated to writing and teaching about social and political issues. She has organized several performances on campus to stand up against Violence Against Women.
As a writer, she has been featured in Ms. Magazine, Howl Round, and several other feminist publications and is an internationally produced playwright.
Lecturer
Email: shira.brown@csun.edu
Phone: 818-677-2780
Office location: JR 340
Shira's Biography
Shira Brown graduated from Californian State University, Northridge, with a BA degree in Women’s Studies and English in 2002. Prof. Brown also holds an MA degree in Applied Women’s Studies, with a concentration in Community Building & Education, from Claremont Graduate University, earned in 2004.
While at CSUN, Shira held the position of Director of the Women’s Resource Center on campus, as well as Director of the Women and Youth Supporting Each other (WYSE) CSUN chapter.
Immediately after earning her MA, Shira began working at the Institute for Multicultural Counseling & Education Services, Inc. (IMCES), where she became a Certified Domestic Violence Advocate and Program Coordinator for a CalWorks Domestic Violence program. It was here that she worked one-on-one with survivors of domestic violence providing access to community resources.
In addition to working as Program Coordinator and Case Manager at IMCES, Shira was successful in writing and was awarded two Requests for Proposals from the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services, including a contract for the Family Preservation Program and the Wraparound Approach Services program – providing more than $4 million of funding. In Fall 2012, Shira was awarded a Campus Action Project grant from the American Association of University Women, where she was able to explore the gender wage gap with CSUN students.
Since August 2011, Shira has served as the Staff Director for CSUN's Women's Research and Resource Center. She has been teaching in the CSUN Gender and Women’s Studies department since Spring 2006.
Lecturer
Email: marie.cartier@csun.edu
Phone: 818-677-5024
Office location: SH 396
Marie's Biography
Dr. Marie Cartier is a scholar, visual /performance artist, queer activist, poet and theologian who has been active in many movements for social change.
She teaches at Univ. Calif. Irvine in Film and Media Studies , and at California State University Northridge in Gender and Women’s Studies. Her Ph.D. is in Religion from Claremont Graduate University (2010), in Women Studies and Religion, with an emphasis on theology, ethics and culture. Her book, Baby You Are My Religion: Women, Gay Bars and Theology before Stonewall was published by Acumen Press in 2013.
She also has three Master of Fine Arts Degrees – Film Studies, and Theater, from UCLA and Visual Art from Claremont. Her thesis project from Claremont, an installation performance project MORGASM, the Museum of Radical Gender and Sex Matrix, explores female orgasm in a museum context, and is currently available on the web.
She is a widely published poet, whose works have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. She has also published several plays and also poetry, among these is I'm Your Daughter, Not Your Lover.
She currently teaches in Gender and Women's Studies, as well as in Queer Studies.
Dr. Cartier's Photograph is by Lenn Keller
The book jacket photo for "Baby You Are My Religion" is from the Carolyn Weathers Collection/ ONE Archives
Lecturer
Email: Kristyan.m.kouri@csun.edu
Phone: 818-677-5018
Office location: SH 396
Kristyan's Biography
Kristyan Kouri studied sociology and marriage and family therapy at the University of Southern California earning a masters degree in 1990 and a Ph.D in 1994.
Her research interests include cultural sociology, and the interactions between race, class, and gender and her scholarly publications focus upon black/white interracial couples and service-learning. She is currently in the process of co-authoring an introductory chapter for a volume on women and crime and she has completed four short biographies that will be included in this very same book. A public sociologist, Dr. Kouri also uses her knowledge in ways that are designed to bring about positive social change. She has recently written a number of Op-Eds for the Los Angeles Daily News, teaches several service-learning courses, and advocates for lecturers who work in the California State University system.
Writing for a Broader Audience/ Public Sociology
- Kouri, K. (2010). University Students Appeal to Government for Funding. Los Angeles Daily News, Opinion Section. August 13, 2010.
- Kouri, K. (2010). In Trying Times, California’s Teachers Earn Little Respect. Los Angeles Daily News, Opinion Section. February 28, 2010.
- Kouri, K. 2010. Schwarzenegger/Shriver Squandered Opportunity. Los Angeles Daily News, Opinion Section, January 10, 2010.
- Hellenbrand, H., Kouri, K. 2009. How to Alleviate the Pain Resulting from Cuts to Higher Education in State. Los Angeles Daily News, Opinion Section. November 29, 2009.
- Kouri, K. 2009. Schwarzenegger's Budget Cuts are Bad for State Colleges. Los Angeles Daily News, Opinion Section. July 29, 2009. Reprinted in the San Jose Mercury News, Pasadena Star News, and the San Gabriel Valley Tribune.
- Kouri, K. 2009. Furloughs Have Their Advantages. Los Angeles Daily News, Opinion Section. February 23, 2009.
- Kouri, K. 2008. Something Worth Tax Payers Money. Los Angeles Daily News, Opinion Section. December 28, 2008.
- Kouri, K. 2008. Cutting State Education Budget is a Huge Mistake. The Arroyo Seco Journal, May, 2008.
Scholarly Publications
- Kouri, K. (2007). Feminism, Public Sociology, and Service Learning: Issues of Gender in the Primary School Classroom. In Gender Identity, Equity, and Violence: Multidisciplinary Perspectives Through Service Learning. Edited by G. B. Stahly. Stylus Publishing.
- Kouri, K. (2003). Black/White Interracial Couples and the Beliefs that Help Them to Bridge the Racial Divide. In New Faces in a Changing America. Edited by H. Debose, & L. Winters. Sage Publications, Inc.
- Kouri, K. (2000). Black/White Interracial Marriages in the United States: A Little Ideology Goes a Long Way. Crossroads of History: Experience, Memory, Orality. pp. 1209-1212. Volume III. International Oral History Association. Conference Proceedings. XIth International Oral History Conference.
- Kouri, K. & Lasswell, M. (1997). Black/white Marriages: Social Change and Intergenerational Mobility. In Perspectives on Academic Writing. Edited by A. Calderonello, D. Nelson-Beene, & S. Simmons. Allyn and Bacon. Reprint
- Kouri, K. & Lassell, M. (1993). Black/White Marriages: Social Change and Intergenerational Mobility. In Families on the Move: Migration, Immigration, Emigration, and Mobility. Edited by B. Settles, D. Hanks, & M. Sussman. Haworth Press.