Black Women’s Sexual Identity Formation Processes in the Digital Era

Description of research project:

Broadly, this project seeks to understand (1) how Black women articulate their sexual identities and (2) what sex education on social media platforms looks like for Black women. There’s evidence that young adults use informal sources, such as social media, for sex education. The percentage of LGBT adults continues to increase and this trend is most prominent among Black women. This trend of Black women self-defining their sexualities is surprising given public and academic constructions of their sexuality as problematic and in need of surveillance. However, this problems-based approach to Black women’s sexuality cannot fully explain why a large minority of Black women desire bisexual,
lesbian, and queer identities because it does not contend with Black women’s sexual self-
identification or position Black women as desiring subjects. This project analyzes how desire
and pleasure, as social forces, shape Black women’s sexual identity explanations, as well as
shapes what social media sex education consists of for Black women. Ultimately, this project
aims to shed light on what straight and queer identities do for Black women’s access to
pleasure.

RAs should be interested in learning more about Black women’s perspectives on sexuality, sex
education, and pleasure. Also, we will use social media advertisements to recruit participants
and Google Forms to schedule virtual interviews, among other tasks. RAs will be trained on how
to do this. Experience using Canva and Google Forms would be useful. Undergrads with a
willingness to learn these skills are also welcome.

Description of work that will be assigned to research assistants:

RAs can work on various aspects of the project. The main tasks will be: creating and managing social media ads to recruit participants; scheduling interviews using a Google Form; assisting in developing and editing the interview guide; taking analytical notes during some interviews; editing Zoom transcriptions of the interviews; and organizing and writing analytical notes about sex educational social media posts.

Supervising faculty member: Dr. Karin Martin

Graduate student contact information: Please email Maya Glenn (mayglen@umich.edu) with
(1) your resume, (2) unofficial transcript, and (3) a brief statement (1 or 2 paragraphs) that
explains why you are interested in this project and what you hope to gain from working on it.
Include “SURO” in your subject line.

Average hours of work per week: 3-12 hours

Range of credit hours students can earn: 1-4

Number of positions available: 3