Drs. Ellen Lamont and Teresa Roach (Florida State University) believe that the best way for students to learn about research is for them to participate and see it through publication. Their most recent publication titled, "Navigating Campus Hookup Culture: LGBTQ Students and College Hookups," included Sope Kahn as an undergraduate research assistant and third author. Sope is currently seeking double undergraduate degrees at Appalachian State University in Gender, Women's, and Sexuality Studies and Art. This effort was funded by internal grants from the College of Arts and Sciences' Student and Faculty Excellence Fund and the Department of Sociology. Below is the abstract describing the study and here is a link to the full article published by Sociological Forum: Navigating Campus Hookup Culture.
Research on the college hookup scene consistently shows it to be heavily gendered and heteronormative. In spite of the extensive research on hookup culture, there are limited data on how lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) students navigate hookups on college campuses. Yet queer hookups potentially provide a space for students to challenge the dominant understandings of gender and sexuality that permeate the college hookup scene, creating alternative visions for how hookups and other sexual relationships may proceed. Drawing on interviews with 24 LGBTQ college students at a regional university in the southeastern United States, this research investigates how LGBTQ college students negotiate the hookup scene on college campuses. As we show, LGBTQ students are sharply critical of dominant hookup culture and aim to challenge heteronormative practices by deconstructing normative patterns of behavior, emphasizing communication and consent, and queering standards of pleasure. In spite of their stated aims, many respondents replicated gendered practices in their hookups, limiting the transformative potential of queer hookups. This study indicates that while LGBTQ students are actively working to remake hookup culture, and, in some ways, are succeeding, barriers to a more mindful hookup culture remain, even among those who explicitly seek new ways to pursue sexual relationships.
Candy heart that says, "let's hookup."
