Cameron T Whitley

Biographic Data

ID171840
NAMECameron T Whitley
GIVEN NAMESCameron T
FAMILY NAMEWhitley
SIGNATUREWHITLEY C T
AFFILIATIONSWestern Washington University
ORCID0000-0002-5680-0598
VERIFIEDYes
TOTAL WORKS31
TOTAL CITATIONS184
AUTHOR COUNT31
EDITOR COUNT0
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR2012
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2026
H-INDEX8

  • Guidance for Depicting Animals With Disabilities

    Open AccessCameron T Whitley, Denny Dulaney et al.ARTICLECurator The Museum Journal2026

    Animals with disabilities play a vital role in society, offering powerful opportunities for representation and education. However, when their stories are inadequately or inaccurately represented, it can reinforce misconceptions and hinder public understanding of disability. While tools and frameworks exist to guide conversations about people with disabilities, there are no equivalent resources for discussing animals with disabilities. This gap po…

  • Unrecognized Mass Casualty Events

    Cameron T Whitley, Seven Matte et al.ARTICLEAnthrozoös2026References: 15

    The prevalence of climate-induced disasters is increasing. Among these, disasters are wildfires. While wildfires are thought to occur mostly in heavily wooded areas, heatwaves and droughts have spurred numerous catastrophic fires across the USA in recent years. Not only are humans and human structures impacted by wildfires, but nonhuman animals are as well. Following Hurricane Katrina and the establishment of the PETS Act, researchers are increas…

  • Banning of cockfighting in Puerto Rico

    Open AccessCameron T Whitley, Melanie M Bowers et al.ARTICLESocial Problems2025References: 33

    Cockfighting was banned across the U.S. territories in 2018. While animal activists praise this legislative success, the Puerto Rican government and much of the public have been vocal opponents, asserting the ban undermines culture, reflects congressional overreach, and hurts the economy. This has led to minimal ban enforcement which has allowed the social problem to flourish on the island. We ask what drives public support for cockfighting and w…

  • Teaching Human-Animal Studies Courses

    Liz Grauerholz, Cameron T Whitley et al.ARTICLESociety and Animals2024References: 8

    Human-animal studies ( HAS ) courses are becoming increasingly common in the college curriculum to help mitigate and address environmental and social problems. However, data on who takes these courses are lacking. This study examines differences between students who enroll in sociological HAS courses and those who do not. Survey data from three very distinct universities show that the main commonalities among students in HAS courses is bonding to…

  • Sociological Animal Studies Courses Are More Effective Than Human-Centered Sociology Courses in Enhancing Empathy

    Open AccessCameron T Whitley, Erin N Kidder et al.ARTICLETeaching Sociology2024References: 67

    Sociology plays a key role in empathy development, which is central to addressing complex social problems. However, little is known about what types of courses work best to enhance empathy. In parallel, sociological animal studies (SAS) has evolved as a relatively new subfield focused on assessing human and animal relationships. SAS research suggests that our interactions with animals enhance empathy development. Combining these literatures, we a…

  • Public Awareness of Major Climate Change Reports and Potential Political Connections

    Open AccessCameron T WhitleyARTICLESocius Sociological Research for…2024Cited by: 1References: 67

    Climate change will affect all life. Sociologists contribute to major climate change reports and are interested in how people are engaging these documents. Major climate change reports coming from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the National Climate Assessment are used by scientists, policy makers, and localities to assess climate vulnerability and create climate action plans. Although sociologists have been at the forefront of …

  • Queering Climate Change

    Open AccessCameron T Whitley, Melanie M BowersARTICLESociological Inquiry2023Cited by: 9References: 13

    Although researchers have broadly addressed how race, party identification, political ideology, and binary gender categories influence climate change opinions, little attention has been paid to the relationship between sexuality and gender variance (LGBTQ+ identity broadly) and climate change perceptions. Using a quota-based survey from 2022 that approximates the US population on key demographic characteristics and oversamples LGBTQ+ individuals,…

  • Crisis to Adaptation

    Open AccessAshley Colby, Cameron Whitley et al.ARTICLEHuman Ecology Review2022

    The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development outlines 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs), one of which is about creating and enhancing sustainable communities. Earthship Biotecture, with its own model within the broader ecovillage landscape, has emerged both as a transformative architecture practice and a social movement directly addressing sustainability in the building of houses and communities. This approach to off-grid infrastructure prom…

  • Musician emotional wellbeing during the pandemic

    Cameron T Whitley, Felicia K Youngblood et al.ARTICLELeisure Studies2022References: 57

    The COVID-19 pandemic forced the shuttering of music venues and in-person music collaboration around the world. While many musicians have spoken out about the negative financial and emotional consequences, there remains a lack of research on how the pandemic lockdown impacted musician emotional wellbeing. This study contributes to this conversation by assessing how external, internal and socio-demographic factors impacted the emotional wellbeing …

  • I've Been Misgendered So Many Times

    Open AccessCameron T Whitley, Sonny Nordmarken et al.ARTICLESociological Inquiry2022Cited by: 3References: 68

    Chronic misgendering is the process of being repeatedly misgendered (referred to as another gender) after informing an individual of gender pronouns (e.g., 'she,' 'he,' 'they'). Chronic misgendering is symbolic of larger institutional and disciplinary adherence to a paradigm that privileges cisgender people, referred to as a gender essentialist paradigm. In order to understand which disciplines in higher education have more pervasive chronic misg…

  • Using Animal Portraiture to Activate Emotional Affect

    Open AccessCameron T Whitley, Linda Kalof et al.ARTICLEEnvironment and Behavior2021

    With growing concern for biodiversity loss, conservationists are faced with increased pressure to depict animals in ways that evoke empathy and lead to conservation. In recent years, conservation photographers have called on scientists to assist them in identifying the best ways to depict animals to elicit an emotional response. Collaborating with conservation photographers, we used an original survey experiment with 1,152 participants to answer …

  • How can I keep from singing? The effects of Covid-19 on the emotional wellbeing of community singers during early stage lockdown in the United States

    Open AccessFelicia K Youngblood, Joanna Bosse et al.ARTICLEInternational Journal of…2021

    This study investigates the emotional wellbeing of community choral musicians during the early lockdown stage of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. In an effort to understand participant wellbeing and document lived experiences in rapidly changing circumstances, the researchers gathered quantitative and qualitative data from almost 400 self-identified musicians in May–June 2020. Responses from community choir members indicated decreased …

  • Promoting Community and Building Confidence among LGBTQIA+ College Students through Playfulness and Story Sharing

    Cameron T Whitley, Ash Wismar et al.ARTICLEJournal of Women and Gender in…2021Cited by: 2References: 1

    In this article we explore the importance of play in promoting diversity and inclusion initiatives especially among LGBTQIA+ college students. We detail three student initiated interventions. Beyond the Binary, which was a social support gaming group for transgender and non-binary students involving game play and conversation. Lunch and LEGOs was an open group for LGBTQIA+ students and allies to eat lunch and have conversation while playing with …

  • Environmental Education in Transdisciplinary Conversation

    Aviva Vincent, Seven Matte et al.ARTICLESociety and Animals2021

  • Emerging with Oddkin

    Seven Matte, Seven Mattes et al.ARTICLESociety and Animals2021References: 32

    The Animals and Society Institute facilitates an annual interdisciplinary meeting of emerging scholars from around the world, encouraging attendees to interrogate what it means to be a scholar, with an emphasis on animal studies within our respective disciplines. In that vein, we assess what it means to be an emerging animal-studies scholar in three interconnected but distinct academic disciplines: anthropology, sociology, and social work. We ela…

  • What Drives Support for Transgender Rights? Assessing the Effects of Biological Attribution on U.S. Public Opinion of Transgender Rights

    Open AccessMelanie M Bowers, Cameron T WhitleyARTICLESex Roles2020Cited by: 11References: 11

  • Inside the Yellow Rectangle

    Stephen Vrla, Cameron T Whitley et al.ARTICLEAnthrozoös2020References: 27

    Nonhuman animals play significant roles in children's lives. While research into children's relationships with animals is thriving, an overlooked area is children's vicarious experience of animals through realistic representations in nonfiction books, magazines, and other media. We used content analysis to examine how animals were represented on 103 National Geographic Kids magazine covers from 2004 to 2013, a magazine with an enormous readership…

  • Assessing Voter Registration Among Transgender and Gender Non-conforming Individuals

    Open AccessMelanie M Bowers, Cameron T WhitleyARTICLEPolitical Behavior2020Cited by: 19References: 41

  • Climate Change and Society

    Thomas Dietz, Rachael Shwom et al.ARTICLEAnnual Review of Sociology2020Cited by: 81References: 28

    Climate change is one of the greatest ecological and social challenges of the twenty-first century. Sociologists have made important contributions to our knowledge of the human drivers of contemporary climate change, including better understanding of the effects of social structure and political economy on national greenhouse gas emissions, the interplay of power and politics in the corporate sector and in policy systems, and the factors that inf…

  • Women Behind the Shutter

    Open AccessCameron T Whitley, Linda KalofARTICLESociological Inquiry2020Cited by: 1References: 49

    Since the 1980s, much has been written about the importance of including women in environmental decision making. However, when and how women are included remains an issue. The goal of this article was to explore how the historical exclusion of women from the production of conservation visual narratives continues to have an influence on conservation networks. We surveyed 121 National Geographic Society-affiliated conservation/wildlife photographer…

  • Exploring the Place of Animals and Human-Animal Relationships in Hydraulic Fracturing Discourse

    Open AccessCameron T WhitleyARTICLESocial Sciences2019Cited by: 1References: 138

    Throughout human history, energy security has been a prominent concern. Historically, animals were used as energy providers and as companions and sentinels in mining operations. While animals are seldom used for these purposes in developed communities today, this legacy of use is likely to have far-reaching consequences for how animals and human-animal relationships are acknowledged in energy development. The US is currently experiencing an energ…

  • Inequality, Decisions, and Altruism

    Thomas Dietz, Cameron T WhitleyARTICLESociology of Development2018

    We argue that sociological analyses of inequality could benefit from engaging the literatures on decision-making. In turn, a sociological focus on how contexts and structural constraints influence the outcomes of decisions and the strategies social groups can use in pursuit of their goals could inform our understanding of decision-making. We consider a simple two-class model of income and the need of capitalists and workers to mobilize resources …

  • Turking Statistics

    Open AccessCameron T Whitley, Thomas DietzARTICLETeaching Sociology2018Cited by: 6References: 14

    Thirty years ago, Hubert M. Blalock Jr. published an article in Teaching Sociology about the importance of teaching statistics. We honor Blalock’s legacy by assessing how using Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) in statistics classes can enhance student learning and increase statistical literacy among social science gradaute students. In addition, we assess whether using MTurk has an impact on student ability to make professional progress. We find th…

  • Science, Politics and Policy

    Open AccessRichard C Hula, Melanie Bowers et al.ARTICLEHuman Ecology2017

  • Climate-induced migration

    Cameron T Whitley, Louie Rivers et al.ARTICLEJournal of Risk Research2017Cited by: 2References: 9

    The US Dust Bowl of the 1930s (a prolong period of drought experienced in the United States accompanied by severe sand storms) is often described as an abnormal event. However, climate change is likely to increase the frequency and impact of similar occurrences. Because of this, a growing number of scholars have begun to examine multiple facets of climate-induced migration from various disciplinary traditions. Specifically, scholars have called f…