The Women’s and Gender Studies Program opens its fall 2015 colloquium series, “Teaching and Social Justice,” with a 12:30 p.m. Oct. 2 lecture by Catherine Connell. The talk, which is free and open to the public, is in the Nebraska Union Georgia Suite.

Connell, an assistant professor of sociology at Boston University, will discuss “School’s Out: Gay and Lesbian Teachers in the Classroom.” The talk is based on Connell’s book of the same name, which considers the experiences of gay and lesbian identified teachers in California and Texas.

The book examines how teachers grapple with their professional and sexual identities at work. It also examines the tension between the rhetoric of gay pride and the professional ethic of discretion in the context of other complicating factors, from local law and politics to race and gender privilege.

The lecture is sponsored by the Department of Sociology and the UNL Faculty Senate Convocations Committee.

The series concludes with a 3:30 p.m. Oct. 28 lecture by Alice Kang, assistant professor of political science with a joint appointment in UNL’s Institute for Ethnic Studies. She will discuss “Muslim Women’s Activism and Legislative Reform in Niger.” The talk will examine Muslim activists’ successes and failures at influencing legislative reform to provide a more accurate understanding of whether and how women, including Muslim women, affect political change.

The talk, sponsored by UNL’s Department of Political Science and the Institute for Ethnic Studies, is in the Nebraska Union Colonial Room. It will be followed by a question and answer session and a brief reception.