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Tara Gonsalves

Assistant Professor of Sociology

Area(s) of Interest

Global and Transnational Studies; Queer and Feminist theory; Science, Knowledge, and Technology Studies; Mixed Methods

Biography

Broadly, my research focuses on how social categories are created and contested, and I use a variety of quantitative and qualitative methods in my work. More specifically, my research examines the contested processes through which gender and sexuality categories emerge and transform as well as the social consequences of classification processes. I have three streams of research: (1) An investigation of how the category “transgender” is coming to articulate global gender variance; (2) An exploration of how medical experts produce new gendered and racialized understandings that are inscribed in the body; and (3) An analysis of an original data set of LGBT organizations worldwide, examining regional influences on their emergence and integration into advocacy networks.