Susan Freeman, chair of the department of gender and women’s studies at Western Michigan University, and Leila J. Rupp, professor of feminist studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, shared the 2015 Lambda Literary Award. The honor is given to the best book of the year relating to LGBT issues. Professors Freeman and Rupp were honored for their book Understanding and Teaching U.S. Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History (University of Wisconsin Press, 2014).
Susan Freeman joined the faculty at Western Michigan University in 2010. Previously, she taught at Minnesota State University, Mankato and Florida International University. Dr. Freeman is the author of Sex Goes to School: Girls and Sex Education Before the 1960s (University of Illinois Press, 2008). Professor Freeman is a graduate of Furman University in South Carolina, where she majored in French and political science. She holds a master’s degree in women’s studies from the University of Cincinnati and a Ph.D. in history from Ohio State University.
Leila J. Rupp has been on the faculty at the University of California, Santa Barbara since 2002. She chaired the department of feminist studies from 2003 to 2007. Previously. Dr. Rupp taught at Ohio State University for 25 years. An earlier book authored by Dr. Rupp is Sapphistries: A Global History of Love Between Women (New York University Press, 2009). Professor Rupp holds a bachelor’s degree in history and a Ph.D. in modern European and modern American history from Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania.