My Research Agenda
Although my research interests are diverse, they are united by a desire to explore the ways in which sexually marginalized people adopt, resist, and alter dominant representations of their lives. I believe that individuals create their sense of self by engaging with representations in popular culture and by listening to the stories of others. My research seeks to better understand this process and to make the narratives of marginalized people heard, so that others can use their experiences as models of resistance and agents of change.
I use interdisciplinary methods to accomplish my research goals, including qualitative data analysis, discourse analysis, and textual analysis. This diverse set of methodological tools reflects my interdisciplinary training in Women’s Studies and Disability Studies. I feel that I have one foot firmly planted in the Humanities and one firmly in the Social Sciences. Thus, almost all of my projects mix methods and draw on a wide swath of disciplinary literatures.
My first manuscript, titled Love, Sex, and Disability: The Pleasures of Care, was published by Lynne Rienner Publishers in 2011. This book examines care and intimacy in relationships in which one partner has a physical disability and the other partner is able-bodied. In the first part of the book I examine dominant constructions (e.g., film, television, research in the rehabilitation and therapy fields) which represent disabled/nondisabled intimate relationships as sexless, burdensome partnerships. Drawing on interview data and self-representations in autobiographies and film, part two shows how disabled/nondisabled couples counter dominant narratives, revising traditional gender roles and queering popular understandings of sex and care.
Influenced by my dissertation research, I am working on a new journal article related to representations of love between differently-bodied individuals. The manuscript is tentatively titled, “Loving the Other: Bodily imperatives in companionate love.” By examining popular films like Avatar, Shrek, and the Twilight Series, I argue that the contemporary ideal of companionate love requires individuals that are similarly-bodied. I suggest that this bodily imperative in contemporary film is related to our cultural anxiety around disabled/nondisabled couples and interracial couples.
I am also working on a new, interdisciplinary research project called “Extended Family Values,” which examines relationships between lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender same-sex parents and their extended family members (e.g., parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.). I hypothesize that extended family support is very important to same-sex parents, but that homophobia and “courtesy stigma” mitigate the type, degree, and effectiveness of support. Although there is a growing body of scholarship on LGBT parenting, there is virtually no research on grandparents and extended family members in these families. This is significant because extended family members must embark on their own process of “coming out” and negotiating heterosexist systems that seek to invalidate alternative families. My research will examine the coming out process of extended family members, as well as the stories they tell about their families.
I use interdisciplinary methods to accomplish my research goals, including qualitative data analysis, discourse analysis, and textual analysis. This diverse set of methodological tools reflects my interdisciplinary training in Women’s Studies and Disability Studies. I feel that I have one foot firmly planted in the Humanities and one firmly in the Social Sciences. Thus, almost all of my projects mix methods and draw on a wide swath of disciplinary literatures.
My first manuscript, titled Love, Sex, and Disability: The Pleasures of Care, was published by Lynne Rienner Publishers in 2011. This book examines care and intimacy in relationships in which one partner has a physical disability and the other partner is able-bodied. In the first part of the book I examine dominant constructions (e.g., film, television, research in the rehabilitation and therapy fields) which represent disabled/nondisabled intimate relationships as sexless, burdensome partnerships. Drawing on interview data and self-representations in autobiographies and film, part two shows how disabled/nondisabled couples counter dominant narratives, revising traditional gender roles and queering popular understandings of sex and care.
Influenced by my dissertation research, I am working on a new journal article related to representations of love between differently-bodied individuals. The manuscript is tentatively titled, “Loving the Other: Bodily imperatives in companionate love.” By examining popular films like Avatar, Shrek, and the Twilight Series, I argue that the contemporary ideal of companionate love requires individuals that are similarly-bodied. I suggest that this bodily imperative in contemporary film is related to our cultural anxiety around disabled/nondisabled couples and interracial couples.
I am also working on a new, interdisciplinary research project called “Extended Family Values,” which examines relationships between lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender same-sex parents and their extended family members (e.g., parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.). I hypothesize that extended family support is very important to same-sex parents, but that homophobia and “courtesy stigma” mitigate the type, degree, and effectiveness of support. Although there is a growing body of scholarship on LGBT parenting, there is virtually no research on grandparents and extended family members in these families. This is significant because extended family members must embark on their own process of “coming out” and negotiating heterosexist systems that seek to invalidate alternative families. My research will examine the coming out process of extended family members, as well as the stories they tell about their families.