Digitizing Race
Book
Lisa Nakamura, a leading scholar in the examination of race in digital media, looks at the emergence of race-, ethnic-, and gender-identified visual cultures through popular yet rarely evaluated uses of the Internet. While popular media depict people of color and women as passive audiences, Nakamura argues that they use the Internet to vigorously articulate their own types of virtual community, avatar bodies, and racial politics
Engineering Allies: The Personalities of Cisgender Engineering Students
Research Study
The research draws from a larger study conducted at four large public universities examining the non-normative attitudes of first-year engineering students and how these attitudes might affect their collegiate experience and the development of their engineering identity. Within the survey demographics section, students were asked to report their gender with as many options as they felt appropriate to describe themselves.
The data highlights the differences between cisgender identified and non-identified students. Higher Openness results indicate that cisgender students are significantly more attentive of individuals’ inner feelings and may seek out more variety in their experiences than their non-cis-identified peers. Lower Conscientiousness scores reveal that cisgender students, on average, are less likely to conform to traditional cultural norms. Additionally, stronger scores relating to engineering identity indicate that cisgender-identified students feel that they belong in engineering.
Methodological Troubles with Gender and Sex in Higher Education Survey Research
Research Study
We examine the American landscape of higher education quanti- tative research concerning how gender and sex demographic information is collected. We use a directed content analysis to examine the prevalence and operationalization of gender and sex among widely used higher education survey instruments. Our findings illuminate a seemingly haphazard approach to developing gender and sex demographic questions and a number of limita- tions related to gender and sex variables inherent in the surveys analyzed. We discuss misalignment of question/item stem and response options, formatting decisions that result in data collection and analysis opportunities and chal- lenges, and recommendations for policy and practice.
An Affirmation of Trans Livelihood In and Beyond Postsecondary Education
ASHE Statement
This statement is grounded in and extends the scholarship on the intersection between Trans studies and intercollegiate athletics studies and practices. I invite you to read the statement in its entirety to learn of the background, context, and literature that supports these specific recommendations. Reflecting on and enacting these specific recommendations are a pathway for us as members of ASHE to (re)commit ourselves to the necessary and ongoing practice of being in right relation alongside Trans people in and beyond postsecondary education.
Dignity of Risk
Article
Dignity of risk is the idea that self-determination and the right to take reasonable risks are essential for dignity and self esteem and so should not be impeded by excessively-cautious caregivers, concerned about their duty of care.
The concept is applicable to adults who are under care such as elderly people, people living with disability, and people with mental health problems. It has also been applied to children,[4] including those living with disabilities.
Bias From Potentially Mischievous Responders on Large-Scale Estimates of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, or Questioning (LGBQ)–Heterosexual Youth Health Disparities
Research Study
Objectives. To determine how sensitive estimates of lesbian, gay, bisexual, or questioning (LGBQ)–heterosexual youth health disparities are to the presence of potentially mischievous responders.
Methods. We used US data from the 2015 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, pooled across jurisdictions that included a question about sexual identity for a total sample of 148 960 students. We used boosted regressions (a machine-learning technique) to identify unusual patterns of responses to 7 screener items presumably unrelated to LGBQ identification, which generated an index of suspected mischievousness. We estimated LGBQ–heterosexual youth disparities on 20 health outcomes; then we removed 1% of suspected mischievous responders at a time and re-estimated disparities to assess the robustness of original estimates.
Results. Accounting for suspected mischievousness reduced estimates of the average LGBQ–heterosexual youth health disparity by up to 46% for boys and 23% for girls; however, screening did not affect all outcomes equally. Drug- and alcohol-related disparities were most affected, particularly among boys, but bullying and suicidal ideation were unaffected.
Conclusions. Including screener items in public health data sets and performing rigorous sensitivity analyses can support the validity of youth health estimates.
‘Trans’ Is my Gender Modality: a Modest Terminological Proposal
Essay
Currently, no word exists in our vocabulary for the broad category which includes being trans and being cis. This terminological blind spot interferes with clinicians, theorists, and transgender people’s ability to speak about important realities at a higher level of generality. The absence of this higher order term has tended to reproduce a strict dichotomy between cis and trans which has hindered discussions on the gendered experiences of intersex people as well as those non-binary people who do not consider themselves trans. Whereas the gay-straight binary, which renders invisible bisexual, pansexual, and other queer people, can be avoided through discussions couched in terms of sexual orientation, no analogous notion exists in relation to trans and cis people.