Assistant Professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Michigan
About
Shanna K. Kattari, PhD, MEd, CSE, ACS is an assistant professor at the University of Michigan School of Social Work and in the Department of Women and Gender Studies (by courtesy). A queer, White, Jewish, cisgender, disabled, chronically ill Femme, her practice and community background is as a board certified sexologist, certified sexuality educator, and social justice advocate. Dr. Kattari’s extant research focuses on understanding how power, privilege, and oppression systematically marginalize, exclude, and discriminate against people regarding their identities/expressions through negative attitudes, policies reinforcing oppression, oppressive actions, and isolation.
Her work centers on disability and ableism, and transgender/nonbinary identities and transphobia, using an intersectional lens. Recently, she has focused on the health disparities among transgender/nonbinary communities, across physical and behavioral health, as well as working with the community to better understand how the lack of inclusive providers has increased these disparities. She is also interested in examining sexuality in marginalized communities, particularly LGBTQIA individuals and people with disabilities. She values translational research that benefits the communities being researched, and strongly believes in making research accessible to not only academics but also to society at large.
Current Work:
Dr. Kattari was so excited to partner with Transcend the Binary to conduct the 2018 Michigan Trans Health Survey, the first ever statewide survey to explore the experiences of health and access to inclusive providers among transgender and non-binary Michganders, and to organize the Michigan Trans Health Advisory Board with the support of MICHR. She is also in partnership with Dr. Lee Roosevelt at the University of Michigan School of Nursing to conduct a trans and nonbinary sexual and reproductive health photovoice project, both in Washtenaw County and the Detroit Metro area.
Recently, she has launched the [Sexuality | Relationships | Gender] Research Collective as an intentional, interdisciplinary, and inter-institution project to conenct faculty and graduate students interested in doing research in these areas.. Additionally, she continues to work with a multi-state interdisciplinary research team that explores a variety of topics related to the LGBTQIA2S+ community across issues of health, mental health, substance use, IPV, sexual behavior, and more.
In the area of disability and ableism, Dr. Kattari continues to explore using traditional and modified photovoice projects exploring the experiences of individuals with non-apparent disabilities and chronic illness/pain, as well as using multiple methods to examine the intersections of disability with gender and sexuality.
Research Area Keyword(s):
Sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, ableism, microaggressions
