Maya Wenzel | Department of Feminist Studies

Graduate Student

Specialization:

Genders and Sexualities

Race and Nation

M.A. in Gender & Women’s Studies (Minnesota State University, Mankato, 2023)

B.S. in Gender & Women’s Studies (Minnesota State University, Mankato, 2021)

B.S. in Psychology (Minnesota State University, Mankato, 2021)

Maya (she/her/hers) is a Ph.D. student in Feminist Studies at UCSB. Her previous research

focused on how people who identify on the ace spectrum living in the US are impacted by the

concept of sexual citizenship through an intersectional, transnational feminist, and queer lens.

Expanding on this, Maya is currently interested in the intersections of people who identify as ace

and Korean and how this community navigates their various identities. In her research, she uses

qualitative research as a way to help combat the invisibility, erasure, and epistemic violence

often experienced in the asexuality community. She is also the co-chair of the NWSA Asexuality

Studies Interest Group.

Research interests: Intersectionality, Queer Studies, Asexuality Studies, Queer of Color Critique,

Transnational Feminism, East Asian Studies, Korean Studies, Feminist Pedagogy, Sexual

Citizenship, Absence

Articles:

Hamidi, Y. N., Drabent, D., Wenzel, M., Jordan, T., Lampinen, J., Thao, M. K. (2023). An anti-

racist transnational feminist note on collaborative online international learning (COIL). Journal

of Equity and Social Justice in Higher Education.

Wenzel, M. (2023). Teaching through absence: Using an absence lens as a feminist pedagogical

tool. Feminist Pedagogy 4(1).

Book Reviews:

Wenzel, M. (2024). A review of Queering the Midwest: Forging the LGBTQ community. GLQ:

A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies. (under review)

Wenzel, M. (2024). A review of Constellating Home: Trans and Queer Asian American

Rhetorics. QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking. (under review)

Wenzel, M. (2022). A review of Women Don’t Owe You Pretty. Feminist Pedagogy 2(4).

Wenzel, M. (2022). What Ace reveals about feminism, ace liberation, and the “gold-star ace.”

Popular Press:

Wenzel, M. (2022, February 23). Legislation threatens to erase the LGBTQ community—It’s

time to explain and claim the “A” in LGBTQIA+. Ms. Magazine.