Patrick R Grzanka | University of Tennessee Knoxville (original) (raw)

Books by Patrick R Grzanka

Routledge, 2019

Intersectionality: Foundations and Frontiers is an accessible, primary source-driven exploration ... more Intersectionality: Foundations and Frontiers is an accessible, primary source-driven exploration of intersectionality in sociology, psychology, women’s and gender studies, and related fields. The book maps the origins of the concept, particularly in Black feminist thought, opens the discourse to challenges and applications across disciplines and outside academia, and explores the leading edges of scholarship to reveal important new directions for inquiry and activism. Charting the development of intersectionality as an intellectual and political movement, Patrick R. Grzanka brings together in one text both foundational readings and emerging classics. The completely revised and expanded second edition includes 17 new readings, including an original essay by Lisa Bowleg on the urgency of intersectionality in contemporary politics.

Papers by Patrick R Grzanka

This article presents the rationale and a new critical framework for precarity, which reflects a ... more This article presents the rationale and a new critical framework for precarity, which reflects a psychosocial concept that links structural inequities with experiences of alienation, anomie, and uncertainty. Emerging from multiple disciplines, including anthropology, cultural studies, sociology, political science, and psychology, the concept of precarity provides a conceptual scaffolding for understanding the complex causes of precarious life circumstances while also seeking to identify how people react, adapt, and resist the forces that evoke such tenuous psychosocial experiences. We present a critical conceptual framework as a non-linear heuristic that serves to identify and organize relevant elements of precarity in a presumably infinite number of contexts and applications. The framework identifies socio-political-economic contexts, material conditions, and psychological experiences as key elements of precarity. Another essential aspect of this framework is the delineation of interrelated and non-linear responses to precarity which include resistance, adaptation, and resignation. The article then summarizes selected implications of precarity for psychological interventions, vocational and organizational psychology, and explorations and advocacy about race, gender, and other systems of inequality. Future research directions, including optimal methodologies to study precarity, conclude the article.

Routledge eBooks, Apr 19, 2018

In 2016, Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam signed into law the “Counseling Discrimination Bill,” whi... more In 2016, Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam signed into law the “Counseling Discrimination Bill,” which allows a licensed counselor in a private practice to use personal (i.e., religious) beliefs as an reason to terminate care or refer away LGBT+ clients, as long as they refer the client to another counselor. In that same year, the state legislature and governor defunded the University of Tennessee, Knoxville’s Office for Diversity and Inclusion, which had spearheaded a number of LGBT+ activities and initiatives around campus. In this interactive discussion, scholars from different Tennessee institutions (and/ or who were raised and educated in Tennessee) will discuss how their scholarship and activism has been shaped by, and is helping to inform, LGBT+ policy in Tennessee, and how these lessons might be applied in other state/local contexts. The panelists will speak to a number of questions, including: How can my scholarship inform LGBT+ policy in my state? How do I connect with policymakers, practitioners, and organizations that could benefit from my expertise? How can I contribute to local advocacy efforts, and what might be my appropriate role in those efforts? How do I get involved in this arena at different stages of my career? and How can I help interested students get involved

Engaging Science, Technology, and Society, Dec 30, 2023

Journal of Counseling Psychology, Mar 1, 2023

We have no known conflict of interest to disclose. All data, analysis code, and research material... more We have no known conflict of interest to disclose. All data, analysis code, and research materials are available upon request. This study's design and analyses were not pre-registered.

Routledge eBooks, Feb 8, 2023

GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies

This roundtable analyzes the first genome-wide association study (GWAS) that sought to identify t... more This roundtable analyzes the first genome-wide association study (GWAS) that sought to identify the genetic variations that correlate with same-sex sexual behavior. Drawing on over 450,000 individuals’ genetic material from the UK Biobank and 23andMe, the 2019 study concluded that “many loci with individually small effects,” which are spread across the entire genome, contribute in statistically significant but highly unreliable ways to an individual's sexual behavior. The study was thus greeted by geneticists, science journalists, and even some LGBTQ+ advocates as heralding the demise of the mythical “gay gene.” However, the study itself did not drive a stake through the heart of the “born this way” idea. In fact, the researchers framed their efforts as having revealed the “genetic architecture”—which is to say the blueprint or design—of same-sex sexual behavior. Stephanie Clare, Patrick R. Grzanka, and Joanna Wuest argue that the 2019 GWAS marks a moment of both flux and contin...

Journal of Youth and Adolescence, Feb 19, 2021

Limited research has investigated factors that shape White youth's civic action aimed at social c... more Limited research has investigated factors that shape White youth's civic action aimed at social change. Investigating the relation between Whiteness and civic action is an essential step toward identifying and cultivating environments that encourage White youth to use their racial privilege to combat inequality through civic engagement. To address this gap in the literature, across two distinct samples, this study investigates the role of White guilt in motivating civic action and the moderating role of civic beliefs. Participants included all young adults who self-identified as White from two online survey studies (Study 1, N = 219 college students, 71.9% Women, 28.1% Men, mean age = 19.6; Study 2, N = 185, 50% current college students, 54.6% Women, 45.4% Men, mean age = 23.9). In Study 1, White guilt related to more civic action. In the context of high social responsibility, White guilt related to more civic action; in the context of low social responsibility, White guilt corresponded with less civic action. In Study 2, White guilt also related to more civic action, and civic efficacy emerged as a potential moderator. Collectively, these results highlight the potential for White guilt to be turned into meaningful civic action, particularly when coupled with civic beliefs.

This is a draft preprint currently under review. Details regarding final publication will be upda... more This is a draft preprint currently under review. Details regarding final publication will be updated accordingly.

Journal of latinx psychology, Feb 1, 2023

Journal of Counseling Psychology, 2016

Previous research on heterosexuals' beliefs about sexual orientation (SO) has been limited in tha... more Previous research on heterosexuals' beliefs about sexual orientation (SO) has been limited in that it has generally examined heterosexuals' beliefs from an essentialist perspective. The recently developed Sexual Orientation Beliefs Scale (SOBS; Arseneau, Grzanka, Miles, & Fassinger, 2013) assesses multifarious "lay beliefs" about SO from essentialist, social constructionist, and constructivist perspectives. This study used the SOBS to explore latent group-based patterns in endorsement of these beliefs in 2 samples of undergraduate students: a mixed-gender sample (n ϭ 379) and an all-women sample (n ϭ 266). While previous research has posited that essentialist beliefs about the innateness of SO predict positive attitudes toward sexual minorities, our research contributes to a growing body of scholarship that suggests that biological essentialism should be considered in the context of other beliefs. Using a person-centered analytic strategy, we found that that college students fell into distinct patterns of SO beliefs that are more different on beliefs about the homogeneity, discreteness, and informativeness of SO categories than on beliefs about the naturalness of SO. Individuals with higher levels of endorsement on all 4 SOBS subscales (a group we named multidimensional essentialism) and those who were highest in discreteness, homogeneity, and informativeness beliefs (i.e., high-DHI) reported higher levels of homonegativity when compared with those who were high only in naturalness beliefs. We discuss the implications of these findings for counseling and psychotherapy about SO, as well educational and social interventions.

Journal of Counseling Psychology, Oct 1, 2017

This article introduces the special section on intersectionality research in counseling psycholog... more This article introduces the special section on intersectionality research in counseling psychology. Across the 4 manuscripts that constitute this special section, a clear theme emerges: a need to return to the roots and politics of intersectionality. Importantly, the 2 empirical articles in this special section (Jerald, Cole, Ward, & Avery, 2017; Lewis, Williams, Peppers, & Gadson, 2017) are studies of Black women's experiences: a return, so to speak, to the subject positions and social locations from which intersectionality emanates. Shin et al. (2017) explore why this focus on Black feminist thought and social justice is so important by highlighting the persistent weaknesses in how much research published in leading counseling psychology journals has tended to use intersectionality as a way to talk about multiple identities, rather than as a framework for critiquing systemic, intersecting forms of oppression and privilege. Shin and colleagues also point to the possibilities intersectionality affords us when scholars realize the transformative potential of this critical framework. Answers to this call for transformative practices are foregrounded in Moradi and Grzanka's (2017) contribution, which surveys the interdisciplinary literature on intersectionality and presents a series of guidelines for using intersectionality responsibly. We close with a discussion of issues concerning the applications of intersectionality to counseling psychology research that spans beyond the contributions of each manuscript in this special section. Public Significance Statement This article introduces a special section of Journal of Counseling Psychology devoted to intersectionality, an important framework for studying and critiquing how interlocking systems of oppression (e.g., racism, sexism, heterosexism) shape experiences of social inequality.

Sexuality Research and Social Policy, Jun 7, 2016

Since the declassification of homosexuality as a mental illness in 1973, psychology has transform... more Since the declassification of homosexuality as a mental illness in 1973, psychology has transformed the way it approaches sexual orientation and gender identity issues in scientific research and clinical practice. The paradigmatic shift from psychopathology to identity has corresponded with the introduction of BLGBT affirmative therapy,^which suggests that therapists should affirm clients' sexual orientations rather than reinforce sexual minorities' experiences of stigma and marginalization. This qualitative study used a subset of psychotherapy training videos about LGBT issues to explore the form of content of LGBT affirmative therapy in the context of increased attention to identity and multiculturalism in applied psychology. The videos suggest that multiculturally competent therapists should understand sexuality and gender issues in terms of what psychologists call Bmultiple^or Bintersecting^identities, namely race and ethnicity. While the multicultural turn in psychotherapy may signal a transformation in mental health service provision, our analysis questions whether these videos may unintentionally reflect a neoliberal logic of inclusion that obscures the structural dimensions of social inequality. We suggest that the uptake of intersectionality-like identitarian discourse in psychotherapy in particular offers opportunities for challenging and reinforcing neoliberalism.

Routledge, 2019

Routledge eBooks, Apr 19, 2018

Engaging Science, Technology, and Society, Dec 30, 2023

Journal of Counseling Psychology, Mar 1, 2023

Routledge eBooks, Feb 8, 2023

GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies

Journal of Youth and Adolescence, Feb 19, 2021

Journal of latinx psychology, Feb 1, 2023

Journal of Counseling Psychology, 2016

Journal of Counseling Psychology, Oct 1, 2017

Sexuality Research and Social Policy, Jun 7, 2016

Symbolic Interaction, Jan 25, 2018

This manuscript reports the findings of a critical visual discourse analysis of long-acting rever... more This manuscript reports the findings of a critical visual discourse analysis of long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) promotion materials. The authors argue that these contemporary LARC promotion images produce a discourse they identify as "agency-without-choice," in which LARC devices are framed as the only responsible contraceptive option precisely because they are so empowering. The authors situate LARC promotion within its historical and transnational travels and suggest that LARC promotion be understood within the context of twenty-first century neoliberalism. Finally, they consider the implications of agency-without-choice in terms of ongoing scholar-activism for reproductive justice.

Journal of Counseling Psychology, Oct 1, 2017

The increasing popularity of the concept of intersectionality in the social sciences, including i... more The increasing popularity of the concept of intersectionality in the social sciences, including in psychology, represents an opportunity to reflect on the state of stewardship of this concept, its roots, and its promise. In this context, the authors aim to promote responsible stewardship of intersectionality and to tip the momentum of intersectionality&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39;s flourishing toward fuller use and engagement of its roots and promise for understanding and challenging dynamics of power, privilege, and oppression. To this end, this article provides a set of guidelines for reflection and action. The authors organize these guidelines along 3 major formulations of intersectionality: intersectionality as a field of study, as analytic strategy or disposition, and as critical praxis for social justice. Ultimately, the authors call for expanding the use of intersectionality toward fuller engagement with its roots in Black feminist thought, its current interdisciplinary richness and potential, and its central aims to challenge and transform structures and systems of power, privilege, and oppression. (PsycINFO Database Record

Since the declassification of homosexuality as a mental illness in 1973, psychology has transform... more Since the declassification of homosexuality as a mental illness in 1973, psychology has transformed the way it approaches sexual orientation and gender identity issues in scientific research and clinical practice. The paradigmatic shift from psychopathology to identity has corresponded with the introduction of “LGBT-affirmative therapy,” which suggests that therapists should affirm clients’ sexual orientations rather than reinforce sexual minorities’ experiences of stigma and marginalization. And though the academic literature on LGBT-affirmative therapy is proliferating, there remains little consensus on what exactly this means conceptually and what it looks like in practice. This interdisciplinary research explores psychology’s ongoing project of both producing what constitutes LGBT issues and the practices used to treat them therapeutically. Based on analysis of over 2,000 minutes of recently produced psychotherapy training videos, Dr. Grzanka will explore what these films suggest an LGBT- affirmative psychotherapist looks like: what does she know, what does she (not) do, and how is her approach any different from therapy-as-usual? In the complex space where science, culture, beliefs, and attitudes about sexual orientation, gender, and other dimensions of identity collide, what is the new psychotherapy of sexual orientation?

This project explores the consequences of neoliberalism on social attitudes by examining how well... more This project explores the consequences of neoliberalism on social attitudes by examining how well-established measures of prejudicial attitudes — including so-called “modern” forms of racism, sexism, homophobia, and classism — might relate to one another and reflect broader themes of neoliberal ideology.

In their second column, Dan Morrison interviews Patrick Grzanka about his new book, Intersectiona... more In their second column, Dan Morrison interviews Patrick Grzanka about his new book, Intersectionality: A Foundations and Frontiers Reader. Grzanka’s text collects classic and contemporary writing on intersectionality and reflects on the field’s multidisciplinary impact. In their conversation below, they discuss the relationship between intersectionality and SKAT-related fields, in particular.

A key question surrounding the inclusion of sexual orientation as a locus of concern in therapist... more A key question surrounding the inclusion of sexual orientation as a locus of concern in therapist-training discourse is how psychological research on issues pertaining to sexual minorities is taken up in therapist-training practices and connected to other mental health issues. Notably, we found that HIV and AIDS discourse, which characterized much early research in LGBT psychology, is less salient in these training videos than broader themes of multiculturalism, particularly the notion of multiple social identities. This identitarian framework is deployed across videos in a variety of ways: sometimes multiple social identities (e.g., race, ethnicity, nationality) are discussed in the context of more "general" mental health issues, such as anxiety and stress; at other times, these issues are foregrounded, as in discussions of doing therapy with LGBT people of color. Regardless of the foregrounding or backgrounding of race, ethnicity, religion and other dimensions of the social categorization, the videos echo broader psychological discourse about identity and difference, as opposed to structural inequalities. These videos therefore have the effect of consolidating a psychological understanding of social inequalities that privileges social and personal identity rather than social forces and intersecting systems of inequity, i.e., intersectionality. The tension between so-called "multiple social categorization" and intersectionality remains a focus of our writing and continued research in this area, because the implications of such a theoretical orientation to both psychological research and therapeutic practice has tremendous consequences for how the science of sexual orientation is manifest as empirical research, practice (i.e., counseling and therapy) and policy. Whereas multiple social categorization anchors inequalities and their relationship to mental health issues in psychosocial dynamics (i.e., the self in society), intersectional perspectives -- largely a site of silence in our dataset -- emphasize how scientific concepts of the self, identities and mental health issues are co-constituted (i.e., co-created) within and by interconnected systems of oppression.

This course is designed to serve as a graduate-level introduction to research design in psycholog... more This course is designed to serve as a graduate-level introduction to research design in psychology. The course will offer in-depth study of methodology in psychology and will survey some key epistemological and ethical debates in psychological science. The course also introduces students to a range of traditional (e.g., survey research) and critical (e.g., participatory action research) designs and approaches, with a nearly exclusive focus on social and behavioral research. The course will emphasize psychological research as a social process involving the complex negotiation of anticipated and unexpected methodological and ethical issues. Both reading and writing intensive, the seminar requires students to complete two reviews of academic papers during the semester and design a study based on their critique of published work in their area of academic interest. In this course, you will continue to develop your skills as a psychologist through in-depth study of the tools that psychologists use to create knowledge. You will become familiar with a wide range of methods and be able to compare the relative strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to psychological research. You will be able to identify assumptions that undergird different approaches and to think critically about how research design influences what we come to know about psychology. Through in-depth reading, class discussion, and writing, you will hone skills at asking, refining, and evaluating research questions, as well as identifying methods that are appropriate to answer a given research question(s). You will learn how to conduct a constructive peer review, and to structure a research proposal that seeks to extend knowledge in a specific subfield.

This course is an introduction to key concepts and methods in women, gender, and sexuality (WGS) ... more This course is an introduction to key concepts and methods in women, gender, and sexuality (WGS) studies, including the fields of gender studies, feminist studies, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT)/queer studies. Students will examine historical movements, theoretical debates, and contemporary issues, especially as they pertain to the intersection of gender, race, class, sexuality, and other dimensions of social inequality. In addition to a mid-term and final exam, students will work in small groups to develop a consciousness-raising project that translates the insights of WGS theories into social action about a social issue or problem through consultation with community activists.

This course is the first in a two-course sequence that will prepare you with the knowledge, skill... more This course is the first in a two-course sequence that will prepare you with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to serve as social justice advocates in your varied roles (e.g., counselor, researcher, educator) as a counseling psychologist. As part of this course sequence, you will select a specific agency and/or systemically marginalized community with whom you will partner, assess the needs of the agency/community, develop an intervention to address identified needs on a systemic level, evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention, and work to empower those from the agency and community as they continue in their efforts toward social justice.

This course is an intensive survey of the theory and methods of the study of gender in psychology... more This course is an intensive survey of the theory and methods of the study of gender in psychology. We will review psychological perspectives on gender, sexuality, and intersecting dimensions of human social and cultural diversity (e.g., race, ethnicity, age), with special attention paid to the role of feminist theory and methods in psychological science.

This course explores the constitution of sexuality as an object of scientific knowledge, particul... more This course explores the constitution of sexuality as an object of scientific knowledge, particularly since the 19th century in Europe. Beginning with some of the earliest modern writing on sexology and concluding with recent innovative scholarship in feminist, queer, and antiracist studies of medicine, technology, health, and illness, this course will provide students with an introduction to the foundations and frontiers of critical research on sexuality, gender, and bodies. Accordingly, our work together will focus on two primary arenas: a) the origins of sexology in the 19th and 20th centuries, and b) the critical response to sexology emanating from scholars in social studies of science, technology, and medicine. Therefore, students should leave the course will a deeper understanding of how scientists have approached the study of sexuality and how scholars in science and technology studies (STS), broadly construed, have responded to and critiqued scientific research, clinical practices, and policies on and about sexualities. Students will read primary sources, take daily reading quizzes, complete a midterm exam, and conduct an original analysis of contemporary scientific research on sexuality. Our in-class discussions will foreground the key preoccupations of both sexologists and their critics, including the constitution of sexual orientation categories, queer bodies, and taxonomies of personhood; regulation of women's reproductive health and the development of birth control technologies; so-called “reparative” therapies to “cure” homosexuality; emergent technosciences of assisted reproduction; and the implications of scientific studies of sexuality and gender for public policy, including marriage, HIV/AIDS, healthcare, and adoption.

This course serves as a critical introduction to the historical foundations and contemporary inno... more This course serves as a critical introduction to the historical foundations and contemporary innovations of the interdisciplinary field known generally as “queer theory.” Through a 15-week survey of selected “greatest hits” of the field, we will study the exigency of the movement in the U.S., which was largely a response to the AIDS epidemic, and how queer theory (or theories) has/have been transformed by critiques from outside and within. We will explore queer theory’s intersections and collisions with other political movements, including feminism, critical race studies, Marxism and disability studies.

This interdisciplinary seminar will explore the concepts of “the self” and “identity” as articula... more This interdisciplinary seminar will explore the concepts of “the self” and “identity” as articulated and represented across a variety of historical contexts and mediums from classical antiquity to the present. Though "identity" itself is a modern construct, questions of "who am I?" and "who are we?" have preoccupied scholars and artists since the earliest writing and creative expression to the present. We will work through questions about personal, social, political and cultural identities through primary texts from a diversity of fields, including philosophy, literature, visual and performance art, feminist theory, psychology and sociology.

The Human Event is an intensive, interdisciplinary seminar focusing on key social and intellectua... more The Human Event is an intensive, interdisciplinary seminar focusing on key social and intellectual currents in the development of humanity in its diversity. Students examine human thought and imagination from various perspectives, including philosophy, history, literature, religion, science, and art. Coursework emphasizes critical thinking, discussion, and argumentative writing. Exploring texts from approximately 1600 to the present, HON 272 is the second half of a two-semester sequence that starts with HON 171. This course serves as an introduction to the historical foundations and contemporary innovations of selected domains of knowing (i.e., “theory”) and doing (i.e., “method” or “praxis”) in the social sciences. HON272 offers a critical survey of specific social scientific knowledge projects while continually asking questions about the connections between the disciplines of the social sciences, humanities and natural sciences. In a series of interconnected units that begin in the European Enlightenment (the late 17th and 18th centuries) and proceed to the present, we will examine “classic” contributions from some of the most influential thinkers in philosophy and social theory, as well as more contemporary approaches that push social science around various critical turns, including Marxism, feminism, poststructuralism, postmodernism, cultural studies, queer theory, and intersectionality. We will pay special attention to the epistemic foundations of sociology, psychology and anthropology, which are the domains that philosopher Michel Foucault (1970) called the “human sciences.” Students will compose three argumentative papers that interrogate the contributions and limits of various theories while highlighting continuities and discontinuities between theoretical and methodological approaches to producing and doing social theory. Our in-class discussions and writing will foreground the core tensions of the social sciences, including: agency and structure, objectivity and subjectivity, individual and group, psyche and society, conflict and peace, natural and social, system and chaos, basic and applied, diversity and homogeneity.

This course serves as an introduction to the foundations of human thought and cultural expression... more This course serves as an introduction to the foundations of human thought and cultural expression from antiquity to the Renaissance (~1600 CE). As part of Barrett, the Honors College’s (BHC) “The Human Event” course sequence, HON171 offers a critical survey of philosophical discourses that have shaped understandings of the constitutive elements of human experience, including: life, love, truth, power, faith, society and conflict. Moreover, we will study the profound diversity of ideas that characterize over 2,000 years of revolutionary creative expression that precede the Enlightenment. Students will compose several argumentative papers that interrogate the relationships between various theoretical approaches by placing authors in imagined conversation with one another. Our intellectual labor this semester will foreground the metaphysical and social issues that preoccupied those scholars and artists whose works have come to be called “great” and whose influence persists today.

Men and Masculinities, Dec 2012

Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, Nov 1, 2010

Symbolic Interaction, 2008

Translational Issues in Psychological Science, 2020

Call for Papers: “Intersectionality in Psychology: Science, Policy, and Social Justice” for a spe... more Call for Papers: “Intersectionality in Psychology: Science, Policy, and Social Justice” for a special issue of Translational Issues in Psychological Science
Deadline for Submissions: October 1, 2019 Final Publication: December 2020
This special issue is part of an innovative journal, titled Translational Issues in Psychological Science, co-sponsored by the American Psychological Association (APA) and the American Psychological Association of Graduate Students (APAGS).
“Intersectionality in Psychology: Science, Policy, and Social Justice” will be published in the sixth year of the journal, which is scheduled to appear in December 2020. For this issue, the Editors will consider manuscripts across a broad range of psychological research on intersectionality that pertains to topics including, but not limited to, the following:
• Applications of intersectionality to address complex social problems
• “Activist science,” participatory action research, and community-based research
• Intersectional forms of discrimination and inequality, e.g. gendered racism & sexual racism • How intersectionality challenges dominant psychological theories and methods
• Psychology and social change, including advocacy, public policy, and social movements
• Methodological innovations in the study of intersectionality
• Intersectionality in clinical settings and psychotherapy

Calls about the importance of intersectionality studies have circulated with increasing frequency... more Calls about the importance of intersectionality studies have circulated with increasing frequency across many areas of psychology, including counseling psychology (e.g., Parent, DeBlaere, & Moradi, 2013). Intersectionality – or the study of how multiple social systems intersect to produce and sustain complex inequalities – presents unique challenges to psychological research and practice that have been well documented by psychological scientists (Cole, 2009; Bowleg, 2008). Persistent in these discussions are questions about how precisely to implement an intersectional approach conceptually and methodologically in the context of psychological science (Eagly & Riger, 2014). There has been a notable uptake in counseling psychology research exploring “multiple” and “intersecting” social identities (e.g., Sarno, Mohr, Jackson, & Fassinger, 2015). However, the degree to which this work aligns with an intersectional approach’s roots in Black feminist thought and its promise as a framework for conceptualizing the co-production of social inequalities and for building coalitions to challenge these systems is unclear. This special section of the Journal of Counseling Psychology invites papers that attend to this challenge and opportunity for realignment of intersectionality in counseling psychology research.

Routledge Companion to Inter, 2022

What does mapping the terrain of intersectionality in psychology look like if we think beyond its... more What does mapping the terrain of intersectionality in psychology look like if we think beyond its early formal articulations and citations of Crenshaw (1989, 1991) and instead take Cho, Crenshaw, and McCall’s (2013) advice that intersectionality scholarship is best characterized and evaluated by what it does rather than what it calls itself? How do a range of narrative practices, including the proprietary logic described by Collins (2019) and the defensive stance taken by those Nash (2016) called feminist originalists, obfuscate a non-linear and multifarious narrative of intersectionality in psychology? In this paper, we adopt the longstanding and contested metaphor of waves (Hewitt 2010) and their study to trace early instantiations of intersectionality theory through contemporary understandings of the concept throughout psychology, albeit with a focus on feminist psychology.

American Psychologist, 2021

How might core values of psychology impede efforts to promote public psychology? We identify some... more How might core values of psychology impede efforts to promote public psychology? We identify some of the ways the discipline's aspirations for publicly engaged science are undermined by its norms, particularly when engaging with communities affected by historically entrenched, structural inequalities. We interrogate what makes for "good" psychology, including methodological and ethical norms that are used to maintain scientific integrity and police the boundaries of the discipline. We suggest that some of the discipline's classical tenets and contemporary movements may produce structural, epistemic barriers to the production of science and practice that enhances the public good. Reflecting critically on the rise of implicit bias training in institutional diversity efforts as a case study, we consider how evidence-based efforts to intervene in social problems on behalf of the so-called public interest can inadvertently reproduce or exacerbate extant inequities. We turn to various social movements' reclamation of what counts as "bad" to imagine a psychology that refuses to adjust itself to racism and structural inequality. We argue that much of what psychologists might characterize as "bad" should not be viewed as antithetical to the very best kind of psychological practice, particularly trailblazing work that reimagines the relationship between psychologists and society.

Health Sociology Review, 2020

Routinely positioned as the “first-line option” for contraceptive choice-making, long-acting reve... more Routinely positioned as the “first-line option” for contraceptive choice-making, long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) promotion efforts have come under critical scrutiny by reproductive justice advocates for the extent to which public health actors’ preference for LARC devices may override potential users’ ability to freely (not) choose to use contraception among an array of options. We identify LARC promotion discourse as constituting “The Age of LARC”: multifarious strategies for producing responsible sexual citizens whose health behaviors are empowered via a LARC-only approach to contraceptive use. We suggest that immediate postpartum LARC insertion policies, which have proliferated in the U.S. since 2012, exemplify the new era of LARC hegemony, in which urgency, efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and outcomes dominate both health policy and clinical practice around these contraceptive technologies. By following these efforts to facilitate access to and use of immediate postpartum LARC, we find a discourse on sexual citizenship that paradoxically constructs sexual health freedom through the use of a single class of contraceptive technologies.

Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, 2020

Research has shown that beliefs about sexual orientation, including the naturalness, discreteness... more Research has shown that beliefs about sexual orientation, including the naturalness, discreteness,
and informativeness of sexual orientation categories, are associated with varying levels of sexual prejudice. Less is known about how these and other sexual orientation beliefs may correspond with broader social and political attitudes, including party affiliation and voting behavior. The present study explored voting intention and political party affiliation, as well as other constructs not directly associated with sexuality, among a sample of emerging adults (N = 286) immediately prior to the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Using a person-centered statistical approach, we replicated sexual orientation belief profiles found in prior research and observed significant associations between belief profiles and intentions to vote for certain candidates, as well as party affiliation, ambivalent sexist attitudes, and number of reported lesbian, gay, and bisexual friends. Notably, “born this way”-type beliefs in the innateness and immutability of sexual orientation did not significantly distinguish respondents’ support for presidential candidates or political party affiliation. We situate these results within existing research on essentialist beliefs and point to implications of these findings for ongoing research, clinical work, and advocacy for sexual minority rights.

The Counseling Psychologist, 2020

The construct “White guilt” is typically defined as motivated by recognition of unearned and unfa... more The construct “White guilt” is typically defined as motivated by recognition of unearned and unfair racial privileges, the acknowledgement of personal racist attitudes or behavior, and/or a sense of responsibility for others’ racist attitudes or behavior. Empirical and conceptual work suggests mixed consequences of White guilt: it may correspond with antiracist attitudes and behavior, but it may also motivate defensiveness and disengagement. The current study addresses weaknesses in existing psychometric tools used to measure White guilt by (a) synthesizing approaches from the scholarship on White racial emotions and self-conscious affect, and (b) attempting to distinguish between White guilt and shame. The results of study 1 yielded a three-factor structure of White Guilt, Negation, and White Shame and initial support for construct validity. In study 2, a confirmatory factor analysis provided mixed support for a three-factor structure. In study 3, results suggest test-retest reliability over two weeks.

The Counseling Psychologist, 2019

The mainstreaming of White nationalism in the United States and worldwide suggest an urgent need ... more The mainstreaming of White nationalism in the United States and worldwide suggest an urgent need for counseling psychologists to take stock of what tools they have (and do not have) to combat White supremacy. The authors review the rise of social justice issues in the field of counseling psychology and allied helping professions and point to the limits of existing paradigms to address the challenge of White supremacy. They introduce transnationalism as an important theoretical perspective with which to conceptualize global racisms, and they identify White racial affect, intersectionality, and allyship as three key domains of antiracist action-research. Finally, they suggest three steps for sharpening counseling psychologists’ approaches to social justice: rejecting racial progress narratives, doing social justice-oriented practice with White clients, and centering White supremacy as a key problem for the field of counseling psychology and allied helping professions.

Journal of Counseling Psychology, 2019

Tennessee is one of the first states in the United States to have a law that enables counselors a... more Tennessee is one of the first states in the United States to have a law that enables counselors and therapists in private practice to deny services to any client based on the practitioner’s “sincerely held principles.” This so-called ‘conscience clause’ represents a critical moment in professional psychology, in which mental health care providers are on the frontlines of cultural and legal debates about religious freedom. Though the law’s language is ambiguous, it was widely perceived to target sexual and gender minority (SGM) individuals. We interviewed 20 SGM people living in Tennessee to understand their experiences with mental health care in the state and their perceptions of the law. Our participants perceive the law as fundamentally discriminatory, though they overwhelmingly conceptualize the conscience clause as legalizing discrimination toward members of all stigmatized groups—not just SGM individuals. They described individual and societal consequences for the law, including an understanding of the conscience clause as harmful above and beyond any individual discrimination event it may engender. We situate these findings amid the research on structural stigma and suggest that counseling psychologists become actively engaged in combatting conscience clauses, which appear to have profound consequences on mental health care engagement, particularly for populations vulnerable to discrimination.

Social Justice Research, 2019

Critics of neoliberalism argue that so-called meritocratic and identity-neutral social policies a... more Critics of neoliberalism argue that so-called meritocratic and identity-neutral social policies and political positions actually reinforce and exacerbate intersecting inequalities, namely racism, sexism, heterosexism, classism, and ethnocentrism/xenophobia. The purpose of these studies was to develop and initially validate a scale of neoliberal attitudes from a wide range of existing instruments that reflect anti-neoliberal theory. A series of three studies resulted in a 25-item instrument—the Anti-Neoliberal Attitudes Scale (ANAS)—that exhibits initial evidence of construct validity, internal consistency, and test-retest reliability. Exploratory factor analysis with students from two universities revealed a four-factor structure of racism and sexism awareness, communitarian values, multicultural ideology, and inequality consciousness. However, a confirmatory factor analysis with an independent sample of undergraduate students suggests a bifactor model in which the general factor explains most of the variance and that the instrument should be treated as a single scale, rather than independent subscales. Significant correlations with measures of right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation suggest convergent validity. Temporal stability was established via a test-retest analysis in an independent sample of undergraduate students. Finally, responses from a sample of MTurk workers provided evidence of the ANAS’s incremental validity when compared to an existing measure of neoliberal beliefs. Implications for future empirical work on the psychological dimensions of neoliberalism are discussed.

Women & Therapy, 2020

In this paper, I introduce a framework that invites psychologists to take intersectionality serio... more In this paper, I introduce a framework that invites psychologists to take intersectionality seriously. First, I revisit some primary tools of intersectional analysis and underscore their relevance to critical training. I then sketch out a flexible typology of what intersectionality is and, more consequentially, what it is not. Next, I consider how intersectionality can help to reimagine the relationships between complementary and competing paradigms in multicultural feminist theory. Finally, I extend Cole’s (2009) three-question framework for intersectional research in psychology to develop practical questions that might deepen psychology’s engagement with intersectionality at the level of critical pedagogy.

Symbolic Interaction, 2018

This manuscript reports the findings of a critical visual discourse analysis of long-acting rever... more This manuscript reports the findings of a critical visual discourse analysis of long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) promotion materials. The authors argue that these contemporary LARC promotion images produce a discourse they identify as “agency-without-choice,” in which LARC devices are framed as the only responsible contraceptive option precisely because they are so empowering. The authors situate LARC promotion within its historical and transnational travels and suggest that LARC promotion be understood within the context of twenty-first century neoliberalism. Finally, they consider the implications of agency-without-choice in terms of ongoing scholar-activism for reproductive justice.

Sexuality Research and Social Policy, 2016