Research

Agenda

I am a sociologist specializing in gender, sexuality, and feminist science studies.

My research focuses on the social construction of sexuality knowledge and the politics of population measurement. My book shows how the sexuality knowledge produced by demographers and other social scientists shapes policy, politics, and identities—and vice versa. I am deeply invested in advancing the demography of sexualities, both by producing population science that can be used to meaningfully address inequalities impacting LGBTQ people, and by shaping measurement and research practices. I also take an intersectional approach to sexual fluidity research, using innovative sampling techniques to refine theory and emphasize the role of class, motherhood, and life course perspectives in shaping women’s sexuality. My research has been supported by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and appears in the American Sociological Review (2018), Contexts (2017), Demography (2021, 2017), Gender & Society (2016), and Sexualities (2021).

Scholarship

Specifically, my published scholarship has focused on sexual fluidity among young mothers and women beyond the elite college campus (Gender & Society 2016; Contexts 2017), the experiences of non-heterosexual women participating in fertility research (in progress), contraceptive behavior and relationship dynamics among non-heterosexual women (with Elizabeth Ela; Demography 2017), pregnancy desire and ambivalence (with Jennifer Barber and colleagues; Demography 2021),  sexual and intimate partner violence (with Jennifer Barber, Yasamin Kusunoki, and Heather Gatny; American Sociological Review 2018), measuring sexual violence in surveys (with Elizabeth Armstrong; Council on Contemporary Families), and the epistemological implications of disconnecting the study of sexual pleasure and risk in survey research (with Laurel Westbrook and Aliya Saperstein; Sexualities 2021).

Book

My book project, The New Gay Science: How Demography Shaped Sexuality Knowledge and LGBTQ Politics, is based on my dissertation research (available upon request).

Click here to read more about my book.