Maya Wenzel

Maya Wenzel

Graduate Student

Specialization

Genders and Sexualities

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 the relationship between sexual citizenship and the experiences of people who identify on the ace spectrum in the U.S. through an intersectional, transnational feminist, and queer lens. Her current research focuses on asexuality and aromanticism studies, particularly at the intersections of and relationships between asexuality, aromanticism, gender, race, immigration, and the state, among others. In her research, she uses qualitative methods to help combat the invisibility, erasure, and epistemic violence often experienced in the ace and aro communities. She is also the chair of the NWSA Asexuality Studies Interest Group (2023-2025).

Research

Research interests: Asexuality Studies, Queer Studies, Queer of Color Critique, Intersectionality, Transnational Feminism, Sexual Citizenship, Absence, Feminist Pedagogy