Finding Out: An Introduction to LGBT Studies

Finding Out introduces readers to lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender (LGBT) studies. Unlike most books on LGBT, this textbook combines original material with esteemed journal articles. Chapter introductions, written by the authors, place current research findings in a clear context. Finding Out reviews the history of same-sex relationships and gender variance from ancient Greece to the present yet goes beyond a historical account to provide an in-depth examination of LGBT culture and society.  

Key Features ·        

• Includes chapter introductions that gives students a useful context for each research article
• Connects chapter topics to one another with Lambda Links, which help facilitate analysis and discussion
• Directs readers to relevant studies and information with “Find Out More” boxes in each chapter

“I am most impressed by this book’s blend of comprehensive scope with approachable, intelligent presentation. It provides material valuable for both students new to the field and those taking more advanced courses without excluding either group on the basis of approach or diction.  … I just love this book!” –Sarah-Hope Parmeter University of California, Santa Cruz   “

This text will give me a way to teach LGBT issues as central – that is, NOT as tangents, as add-ons, as side issues, but as a central area of inquiry. … This text is by far the best thing I have seen, and it is heads and shoulders above any other possibilities...” – Mary Armstrong, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo


Intended Audience
This core text is designed for Introduction to Sexuality Studies as well as other undergraduate courses that include LGBT topics. Anyone interested in the history, culture, and society of LGBT will find this book an informative resource.

Deborah T. Meem is professor and head of the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Cincinnati. Her academic specialties are Victorian literature, lesbian studies, and the nineteenth-century woman’s novel. She earned a PhD from Stony Brook University in 1985. Her work has appeared in Journal of the History of Sexuality, Feminist Teacher, Studies in Popular Culture, and elsewhere. She has edited three works by Victorian novelist and journalist Eliza Lynn Linton: The Rebel of the Family (Broadview, 2002), Realities (Valancourt, 2010), and The Autobiography of Christopher Kirkland (Victorian Secrets, 2011). With Michelle Gibson, she has coedited Femme/Butch: New Considerations of the Way We Want to Go (2002) and Lesbian Academic Couples (2005), both published by Haworth Press. With Jonathan Alexander, she wrote “Dorian Gray, Tom Ripley, and the Queer Closet” (CLCWeb 2003).

Michelle Gibson is Professor Emerita of the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Cincinnati. Her scholarship focuses on sexuality studies and pedagogy. Her most recent writing applies queer and postmodern identity theories to pedagogical practice and popular culture. In retirement, she writes and publishes poetry and maintains a blog called ProfSpazz at profspazz.com. With Jonathan Alexander, she edited QP: Queer Poetry, an online poetry journal, and she and Alexander also edited a strain of JAC (Journal of Advanced Composition) titled “Queer Composition(s).” With Deborah Meem, she coedited Femme/Butch: New Considerations of the Way We Want to Go (2002) and Lesbian Academic Couples (2005).

Jonathan Alexander is professor of English and Chancellor’s Fellow at the University of California, Irvine. He is a three-time recipient of the Ellen Nold Award for Best Articles in the field of computers and composition studies, and in 2011 was awarded the Charles Moran Award for Distinguished Contributions to the Field of Computers and Writing. His books include Literacy, Sexuality, Pedagogy: Theory and Practice for Composition Studies (2008) and Digital Youth: Emerging Literacies on the World Wide Web (2005); the coedited collections Bisexuality and Queer Theory: Intersections, Connections and Challenges (2011), Bisexuality and Transgenderism: InterSEXions of the Others (2004), and Role Play: Distance Learning and the Teaching of Writing (2006); and the coauthored books Argument Now: A Brief Rhetoric (2005) and Understanding Rhetoric: A Graphic Guide to Composition (2014).