Theme Description
The Gender and Sexual Minorities Theme has a distinctive focus on gender and sexuality. This includes – but is not limited to – social issues and inequalities amongst women and girls, gender minorities (trans and non-binary genders), sexual minorities (lesbian, gay, bisexual, asexual, etc.), and intersex communities. The Gender and Sexual Minorities theme is an interdisciplinary, collaborative research which applies an intersectional and inclusive approach to researching/theorising gender (experiences, performance, and expression), as well as gender/sexual disparities. We aim to improve community-based services using these insights.
Theme Priorities
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Examine disparities among gender and sexual minorities in terms of causes, experiences, and consequences
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Analyse the social conditions that create economic, cultural and social adversity and render gender and sexual minorities vulnerable to victimisation and oppression, including but not limited to criminal victimisation
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Theorise gender structures and identities, i.e., masculinities and femininities and gender diversity
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Understand the role of other social structures through various interdisciplinary theoretical frameworks such as intersectional, queer, and decolonial theories
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Envision an equitable, emancipatory, and inclusive future for gender and sexual minorities
Theme Co-Leads
Dr Katherine Allen, Research Assistant, Institute for Social Justice & Crime
Dr Alina Rzepnikowska Phillips, Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Politics
Scott Huntly, Lecturer in Politics, School of Social Sciences and Humanities
Jennifer Coe, Lecturer in Psychology, School of Social Sciences and Humanities
Heidi Dix, Senior Lecturer in Social Work, School of Social Sciences and Humanities
Dr Jane Harvey-Lloyd, Associate Professor in Diagnostic Radiography, School of Health and Sports Sciences
Sarah Arch, Disability and Wellbeing Advisor, Student Life
Sally Evans, Occasional Lecturer, School of Social Science and Humanities
Dr Clare Gartland, Associate Professor of Education, School of Social Sciences and Humanities
Carolyn Leader, Lecture in Childhood Studies, PhD student
April 2022: Within our Gender & Sexual Minorities theme, Dr Sebastian Cordoba has written a new book as part of the Routledge Gender and Sexualities in Psychology book series, Non-Binary Gender Identities: The Language of Becoming. This book examines how non-binary people discover, adopt, and negotiate language in a variety of social settings, both offline and online. It considers how language, in the form of gender-neutral pronouns, names, and labels, is a central aspect of identity for many and has been the subject of much debate in recent years. It will be available to purchase on 25 September 2022. More information here: https://sebastian-cordoba.com/2022/03/31/new-book-available-for-purchase-on-september-25-2022/
April 2022: Dr Jennifer Coe, a member of the gender and sexual minorities theme, recently passed her viva. Her research focuses on the influence of sex, sexual orientation, and hormonal cycles on attraction preferences of facial masculinity, femininity, and sex typicality. She explored whether there are evolutionary adaptive mechanisms involved in attraction preferences and whether these adaptive mechanisms are influenced by fertility and testosterone. Overall findings showed no compelling evidence of evolutionary adaptive shifts in attraction preferences for masculinity-femininity in targets across sex, nor for shifts being dependent of sexual orientation, and no evidence that these mechanisms are influenced by hormonal changes.