Graduate Student
Specialization:
Genders and Sexualities
Race and Nation
Education:
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)
Bio:
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.
Research:
Research interests: Intersectionality, Queer Studies, Asexuality Studies, Queer of Color Critique,
Transnational Feminism, East Asian Studies, Korean Studies, Feminist Pedagogy, Sexual
Citizenship, Absence
Publications:
Wenzel, M. (Forthcoming 2023). Editor introduction: Teaching through absence: Using an
absence lens as a feminist pedagogical tool. Feminist Pedagogy.
Hamidi, Y. N., Drabent, D., Wenzel, M., Jordan, T., Lampinen, J., Thao, M. K. (Forthcoming
2023). An anti-racist transnational feminist note on collaborative online international learning
(COIL). The International Journal of Equity and Social Justice in Higher Education.
Book Reviews:
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.”
Feral Feminisms 10.2, 16-19. https://feralfeminisms.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/03-FF-
ISSUE10.2-Wenzel.pdf
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.