stef shuster

In 2004 I graduated from Indiana University – Bloomington with a B.A. in Sociology and a minor in Human Development/Family Studies. In the years before beginning graduate school, I moved around the country, beginning my post-undergrad adventure in the Bay Area. In San Francisco I was employed as a field researcher and interviewer. Eventually, the Midwest called me ‘home’ and I returned to Bloomington to work as a research assistant for a survey research organization.

As a graduate student here at the University of Iowa, I am pursuing a PhD in Sociology but am taking an interdisciplinary approach to my education, research, and teaching through the incorporation of Queer and Feminist theories and methodologies.

Broadly speaking, my research interests include gender, sexuality, organizations, and social movements. I also am a photographer and would like to integrate photography with my research in order to help bring sociological knowledge to a broader medium than ‘just’ academic discourse.

Between 2007 and 2009, I worked on my Master’s thesis research that involved a comparative study of three Midwestern queer student resource centers. Using historical archival data, interviews, and observations, I examined the strategies used to establish and maintain these centers. I used organizational and social movement theories to inform this research.

Currently I am working on my dissertation research that attempts to address three research questions 1) What are the mediating factors in identity processes for transgender-identified people? 2) How do trans-identified people establish communities? 3) How do trans-identified people navigate and negotiate medical landscapes?