Dr. Julia Balén
Professor of English
Bell Tower Building - West Wing
Phone: (805) 437-8435
Email: julia.balen@csuci.edu
Julia Balén comes to CSUCI from the University of Arizona where she served as Associate Director in charge of the BA and MA programs in women's studies. During her tenure she worked with others to develop strong MA and internship programs and an innovative concentration in Chicana Studies. She was also principle investigator on a faculty/curriculum development grant funded by the Ford Foundation through the Institute for Public Media Arts to produce a year-long, team-taught course that addressed oppressive practices and issues of diversity through a combination of theory, experiential learning, and video production. The course, "Crossing Boundaries: Diversity and Representation," engaged cultural, critical race, and feminist theories with creative writing and video production.
She earned her Ph.D. in Comparative Cultural and Literary Studies from the University of Arizona with a focus on embodiment and power relations and has published numerous articles on topics ranging from feminist humor to activism and pedagogy. She is currently finishing a book, Roberta's Rules , on feminist decision-making practices and has two new projects in different stages of development: a collection of essays on the central project of Monique Wittig's work, Annulling Gender , and a study of the LGBT choral movement.
Her areas of specialization include twentieth-century world literature, feminist studies, activism and social change, sexuality and gender studies. Before and during the process of earning her degrees she worked as a carpenter, building everything from furniture and cabinets to houses and apartment complexes, and teaching carpentry skills to women and underprivileged teens. But the job she loved best--besides teaching--was delivering singing telegrams.