Program Coordinator & Assistant Professor
Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies (WGSS)
Department of Sociology & Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Email

Preferred: susana.gallardo@sjsu.edu

Telephone

Preferred: (408) 924-5739

Office Hours

SPRING/FALL 2025: Mondays 1-3 pm

Education

• Ph.D. 2012  Religious Studies, Stanford University, California
• M.T.S. 1989 Harvard Divinity School, Cambridge, Massachusetts
• A.B. 1987 Occidental College, Los Angeles, California

Bio

Dr. Susana L. Gallardo is Program Coordinator and Assistant Professor of Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies (WGSS) within the department of Sociology & Interdisciplinary Social Sciences at San Jose State University; she had also served as Adjunct Lecturer since 2005 (SJSU’s 2022 College of Social Science Lecturer of the Year).  Her interdisciplinary research and teaching engage questions around Chicana feminisms, women of color feminisms, cultural citizenship, and the way women of color shape and are shaped by their religious traditions.

Dr. Gallardo is currently working on a book manuscript about the history of a unique Chicana/o Catholic feminist community in San Jose around Our Lady of Guadalupe Church during the Chicano movimiento of the 60s and 70s.  She holds a Ph.D.in Religious Studies from Stanford and a Master of Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School.   

Links

Publications:

“Universities Must Do Better for the Trans Community” with Tanya Bakhru, Soma de Bourbon, Faustina M. DuCros & Megan Thiele Strong for Ms. Magazine (2/1/25)

“Why Doing Immigration the ‘White Way’ Is Wrong,” with Megan Thiele Strong and Faustina M. Ducros for The Fulcrum, 6/11/25.  

 “‘It’s Not a Natural Order:” Religious Belonging and the Emergence of Chicana Feminisms,” in Chicana Movidas: New Narratives of Women’s Activism and Feminism in the Chicano Movement Era, eds. Maylei Blackwell, Maria Cotera and Dionne Espinoza (University of Texas Press, 2018)

 “Theoretical Shifts in the Analysis of Latina Sexuality: Ethnocentrism, Essentialism, and the Right (White) Way to be Sexual” with Ana M. Juarez and Stella Beatríz Kerl-McClain for Are All the Women Still White? Race, Shifts, and Critical Interventions in Feminist Studies, ed. Janell Hobson (SUNY Press, May 2016)

“’Tía María de la Maternity Leave:’ Reflections on Race, Class & the Natural Birth Experience,” Mothers' Lives in Academia, eds. Mari Castaneda and Kirsten Isgro.  New York: Columbia University Press, May 2013. 

“Seven Different Words for ‘Cookie:’ Latina/o Identity in the United States,” National Catholic Reporter, Sept 30, 2009. 

“Feminisms.”  In Encyclopedia of Religion and American Cultures, ed. Gary Laderman and Luis Leon.  Santa Barbara: ABC-Clio Press, 2003.