Being labeled as "abnormal, or deviant, or not being one of the rest of us" has real effects for one's life chances. Trans* people are one such group who have continually been codified as abnormal, abject, weird, deceptive, and social pariahs. The purpose of the following study was to explore how the concepts of passing, realness, and…

Previous research about college students' social media usage emphasizes social media "practices," often ignoring the "content" that students' post. Increasing knowledge about the language that college students use to describe their intimate relationships can inform student affairs practice. Using a digital ethnographic data…

Background: Sexuality is learned through sexual socialisation that women with intellectual disabilities (IDs) understand and express. Rules of sexual engagement for these women can include barriers for their socialisation, intimate partner selection, and sexual expression. These rules can become more limiting when coupled with rules of femininity…

This article focuses on a group of male teachers from Proyecto Bilingüe, a professional development master's degree program for bilingual teachers. The study is guided by one broad research question: How do Latino male bilingual teachers negotiate their identities in a gendered profession? Specifically the study addresses: What spaces for…

By means of an ethnographic project, Sarah Goode's Understanding and Addressing Adult Sexual Attraction to Children aspires to better understand the self-conception and self-identification of pedophiles, with the ultimate aim of deconstructing the phenomenon by which culture demonizes pedophiles in order to better protect children. However, the…

Young women's sexuality is a contested terrain in multiple ways in contemporary South Africa. A growing body of work in the context of HIV and gender-based violence illustrates how young women find it challenging to negotiate safe and equitable sexual relationships with men, and are often the victims of coercive sex, unwanted early pregnancies and…

This autoethnography explores challenging and ethically sensitive issues around sexual orientation, sexual identity and masculinity in the context of school sport. Through storytelling, I aim to show how sometimes ambiguous encounters with heterosexism, homophobia and hegemonic masculinity through sport problematise identity development for young…

This ethnographic study of a high school gay-straight alliance club examines unintended consequences of silence during the Day of Silence, a day of action aimed at addressing anti-LGBTQ bias in schools. While this strategy calls for students to engage in intentional silences to raise awareness of anti-LGBTQ bias, it does not necessarily lead…

Researching actual or purported sexual contact between teachers and students raises many difficult ethical issues, questions and dilemmas, which may help to explain why few have ventured into the field. This experientially based paper addresses key problem areas under the headings of: the ethics of researching a sensitive taboo topic; the ethics…

Based on ethnographic data collected at a gay bar with sexual minority youths as dancers or strippers, this study calls attention to the gazes through which adults view and position male youths. It highlights a dancer named Austin, who at times engaged in the underground hustling economy centered in the bar. The findings suggest that the social…

This dissertation responds to the question: How is sexuality organized in elementary schools? I argue that despite the absence of overt discussions on sexuality in elementary schools, sexuality is "organized" through social processes that are recursively linked to ideology. Due to the widely held belief that "children" and…

In this paper, I consider the abiding value as well as the limits of queer; navigating the contradictions of a politics and ethnographic practice based on a refutation of an abiding subject; resisting subjectivation and needing recognition; and "coming out" in school ethnography framed by queer theory. The paper moves from the work of Michel…

This dissertation, as a qualitative sociolinguistic analysis, focuses on the use of narrative in identity transformation and sustainment. In particular, it examines the language of those involved in the fashioning of "ex-gay" sexual identity. Such identity work is conducted largely within religious ministries. Particular to evangelical…

This paper explores the ways in which young South African school children (aged between seven and eight) in a predominantly white primary school give meanings to HIV/AIDS. Using ethnographic methods and interview data, the analysis of young children's responses shows that their accounts of HIV/AIDS draw from their knowledge of disease more…

This paper is concerned with findings about gender which form part of a larger ethnographic study. The study was undertaken during the author's employment as a local authority (school district) Pupil Support Officer, where the author's work involved the support of young people who had been permanently excluded (expelled) from school for a variety…