Bodies on Display: Queer Biopolitics in Popular Culture

ABSTRACT

For this contribution to the special issue on “Mapping Queer Bioethics,” the author undertakes the curatorial spaces of the library, the museum, the textbook, and the public exhibition. With showcases such as natural history museums and the recent Bodyworlds traveling exhibit as touchstones, the author argues that distinctions between medical and popular visual culture in pedagogical contexts are porous, such that the study of sensational body types (queer, anatomically atypical, and otherwise) are couched in culturally problematic appreciations of the agency of certain bodies to speak for and/or about themselves. By extension, how and where certain bodies are viewed represent vital, bioethical dilemmas on the nature of corporeal viability.     

‘It is like being put through a blender’: inclusive research in practice in an Australian university

Abstract

How can university-based researchers committed to a position of solidarity with, and activism alongside, people with disabilities maintain such a stance in the metric-driven environment of the modern university? How can the academy ensure there is the opportunity for people with disabilities to contribute to production of the knowledge in which they have most at stake, in a wider environment where access to basic services for people with disabilities is precarious? In this article we draw on our experience as a team of university-based and community-based researchers with and without disabilities to reflect on these questions, using a framework of reflexive solidarity to consider practical strategies for strengthening the relationship between disability activism and the academy.     

A Quantitative Examination of Identity Integration in Gay,Lesbian, and Bisexual People of Faith

Much of the religious/spiritual development of gays, lesbians, and bisexuals (GLBs) has focused on experiences of conflict and distress, providing little insight into how these identities can be integrated. The present study explored the religious and spiritual lives of GLBs with a specific focus on the integration of these identities. We conducted a retrospective secondary data analysis of 750 GLB individuals from the Northern California Health Study to quantitatively assess sexual orientation and religion/spirituality integration using hierarchical cluster analysis. Resulting MANCOVA analyses of the five revealed groupings (integrated, gay identity struggle, anti-religious/spiritual, secular, and low gay salience) present numerous statistically significant differences between these integration clusters and a variety of dependent variables including measures of demographics, religiosity/spirituality, gay identity, and multiple mental health outcomes. We discuss the implications of these findings while also making suggestions for future research.     

Theory,practice, and perspectives: Disability Studies and parenting children with disabilities

Abstract

In this process-oriented article, the authors weave short personal narratives with theoretical reflections to examine the relationship between Disability Studies scholarship and parenting children with disabilities. The authors present three findings: first, their position as parent-teacher-scholars informs their work in Disability Studies. Second, the work of Disability Studies scholars has the potential to positively influence parents’ understandings of disability; consequently, Disability Studies-informed parenting can influence parent advocacy for their children. Third, parent-scholars have the potential to create research that can positively impact parents, practitioners, and the field of Disability Studies. The authors conclude by arguing that there is a need for Disability Studies scholarship for and by parents. This work is significant because it challenges divisions between theory and practice, and articulates a need and responsibility for parents to grapple with alternative understandings of disability and alternative (collective) ways to create better social conditions for their children.     

An examination of pathways from childhood victimization to violence: the role of early aggression and problematic alcohol use

Using prospective data from a cohort design study involving documented cases of child abuse and neglect and a matched control group, we examine two potential pathways between childhood victimization and violent criminal behavior: early aggressive behavior and problematic drinking. Structural equation models, including controls for race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, parental alcoholism, and parental criminality, revealed different pathways for men and women. For men, child maltreatment has direct and indirect (through aggressive behavior and problematic alcohol use) paths to violence. For women, problematic alcohol use mediates the relationship between childhood victimization and violence, and, independent of child maltreatment, early aggression leads to alcohol problems, which lead to violence. Interventions for victims of childhood maltreatment need to recognize the role of early aggressive behavior and alcohol problems as risk factors for subsequent violence.     

Theoretical ideas and analysis as the focus of graduate education

An emphasis on theoretical ideas and analysis in graduate education highlights the contributions that sociologists can make to the major issues of the modern world. Such a strategy will bring sociology into a dialogue with the intellectual community and policy makers and will provide a greater degree of focus to a now disparate enterprise. Sociologists can make a distinctive contribution in addressing major social issues if they recognize the rightful relationship between theoretical ideas and research procedures. They have collaborated for several years on issues relating to bureaucracy, higher education, and social theory, with recent publications on a sociologically informed theory of human rights.     

Uncoupling

This article explores the process by which two individuals move from a coupled identity to separate, autonomous identities. Through the use of intensive interviews, the essentials of the process are abstracted and described as a series of stages through which the participants negotiate changing definitions of reality, both for themselves and for others. Berger and Kellner's conception of marriage as a socially constructed reality that is “nomos-building” is used as a starting point and is critiqued.