Sara P. Díaz, Ph.D.

Associate Professor & Department Chair of Women, Gender, & Sexuality Studies

Dr. Sara P. Díaz teaches courses on gender, race, and sexuality in the US, feminism and science, and women and the environment. Her research focuses on the complex relationships between science, gender, race, and the politics of human difference....

Portrait of Sara P. Díaz, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Women's and Gender Studies

Contact Information

Education & Curriculum Vitae

Ph.D., Feminist Studies, University of Washington, 2012

M.A., History, University of Washington, 2007

B.A., Chemistry & Spanish Language and Literature, 1999

Courses Taught

WGST 193: First Year Seminar: “Cinder,” Cyborgs, and Social Justice

WGST 202: Gender, Difference, and Power

WGST 303: The “-isms”: Race, Class, and Gender

WGST 380/ENVS 397: Women, Nature, and the Environment

WGST 380: Feminism and Science

WGST 499: Senior Capstone

WGST 401: Feminist Thought


Dr. Sara P. Díaz teaches courses on gender, race, and sexuality in the US, feminism and science, and women and the environment. Her research focuses on the complex relationships between science, gender, race, and the politics of human difference. Dr. Díaz’ scholarship builds on U.S. third world feminist theories and employs feminist cultural studies methods to examine the intellectual survival strategies used by women of color scientists. Her other scholarly interests include gender, race and twentieth-century science; 20th Century US history, feminist research ethics; feminist epistemologies; feminist environmental justice; feminist pedagogy, and mixed race studies.

Publications 

Díaz, Sara P. “‘A Racial Trust’: Individualist, Eugenicist, and Capitalist Respectability in the Life of Roger Arliner Young.” Souls 18, no. 2–4 (October 1, 2016): 235–62. http://doi.org/10.1080/10999949.2016.1230821.

Díaz, Sara. “Wu, Chien-Shiung.” American National Biography. October 2014 Update. New York: Oxford University Press, October 2014. http://anb.org/articles/13/13-02686.html.

Celeste, Manoucheka, Sara Díaz, Angela Ginorio, and Ralina Joseph. “A Resistance Story: Negotiating the Institutional and Material through Collectivity.” In Claiming a Seat at the Table: Feminism, Underserved Women of Color, Voice and Resistance, edited by Sonja Brown Givens and Keisha Edwards Tassie, 91–106. Lexington Books, 2014.

Díaz, Sara, Rebecca Clark Mane, and Martha González. “Intersectionality in Context: Three Cases for the Specificity of Intersectionality from the Perspective of Feminists in the Americas.” In Intersectionality und Kritik, edited by Vera Kallenberg, Jennifer Meyer, and Johanna M. Müller, 75–102. Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden, 2013. http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-531-93168-5_4.

Public Scholarship

Díaz, Sara. “Zoologist Roger Arliner Young and the Politics of Respectability.” Black Perspectives. African American Intellectual History Association Blog, April 25, 2017.

Díaz, Sara P. “Rachel Dolezal And The Trouble With Asking For ‘Proof.’” The Huffington Post, June 16, 2015, sec. Latino Voices.

Díaz, Sara P. “Solidarity with Rachel Dolezal’s Cause: Don't Let Important Message Be Drowned out.” The Seattle Times. June 15, 2015, sec. Opinion.

Dr. Díaz’ current book project, Roger Arliner Young: Doing Science from the Back of the Bus, is a comprehensive study of the life of the first black woman to earn a PhD in zoology, Roger Arliner Young.