The UA is working toward new and innovative efforts in transgender studies.

With the objective of increasing the number of transgender-affiliated faculty members on campus, the UA is looking to expand its research in transgender studies.

“The idea for creating an area of specialization within the faculty is to be able to attract funding opportunities in this area,” said Susan Stryker, UA associate professor of gender and women’s studies and director of the Institute for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Studies, “and to attract tuition dollars for students who would like to study in this area, and primarily to address this emerging social issue.”

The UA will hire four faculty members within the next two years who have a special interest in transgender studies.

“We are so lucky to have the leadership of Dr. Susan Stryker on our campus and I think that the UA is wise to invest in her brilliant vision to create a transgender studies department,” said Program Director for LGBTQ Affairs Jennifer Hoefle-Olson. “These efforts will put the UA on the map in all kinds of new ways and I am excited to see it unfold in the coming years.”

Determined to increase research in transgender studies, the UA has also been made the official editorial office of a new publication regarding transgender issues, Transgender Studies Quarterly.

Working in collaboration with Duke University Press, publisher TSQ and Stryker, who is the founding editor of TSQ, the editorial office will be receiving articles submitted for review before they are published in TSQ. The journal is expected to begin publishing in 2014.

“Basing the journal at UA is one of the ways we can support scholarships in this area,” Stryker said. “By associating us with it, it shows an even greater commitment to developing this new interdisciplinary field of gender studies.”

Some of those who will be affected by the transgender studies initiatives said the efforts reflect well on the university.

“The U of A is again showing that they’re world leaders in diversity and cutting edge programming for different communities that aren’t always represented on campus,” said Michael Woodward, UA graduate assistant for Ally Development, a workshop within Safe Zone training for LGBTQ Affairs.