Lain A B Mathers
Biographic Data
| ID | 227147 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Lain A B Mathers |
| GIVEN NAMES | Lain A B |
| FAMILY NAME | Mathers |
| SIGNATURE | MATHERS L A B |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Illinois Chicago |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4408-8054 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 217 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 18 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2015 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
Narrating Covid
White people's colorblind racial identity work in music-related contexts
This article outlines a generic process in the reproduction of inequality we name colorblind racial identity work. Based on 4 years of ethnographic observation in public settings and 25 semi-structured in-depth interviews, we outline how white people in public interactions use colorblind frames to present racial selves and others through their discussions, interpretations, and reactions to musical spaces, genres, and consumption patterns. In conc…
Music and the Social Construction of Self
Sociologists have demonstrated that people use music to construct meaning in numerous specific contexts, groups, and subcultures. This article expands such work by examining how people draw on music to construct identities in daily life beyond any specific setting. Drawing on four years of participant observation and twenty-five in-depth interviews, findings demonstrate three mechanisms of identity-work as people use music in public to (1) define…
Constructing Allyship and the Persistence of Inequality
We examine how people construct what it means to be an ally to marginalized groups. Based on 70 in-depth interviews with college students who identify as allies to one or more marginalized groups, we analyze how they construct allyship in ways that ultimately reproduce patterns of social inequality by (1) assigning responsibility for inequalities to minorities, and (2) suggesting individualized, rather than structural, remedies for combatting une…
Foreclosing Fluidity at the Intersection of Gender and Sexual Normativities
Binary gender and sexuality are socially constructed, but they structure thought at such a deep level that even those critical of sexism and homophobia can unwittingly reproduce them, with consequences felt most profoundly by those whose gender/sexual identity defy binary logic. This article outlines a generic pattern in the reproduction of inequality we call foreclosing fluidity,the symbolic or material removal of fluid possibilities from sexual…
Learning from the Religious Experiences of Bi+ Trans People
This article builds upon emerging studies of bi+ and trans populations to explore the importance of expanding studies of religion and nonreligion beyond an almost entirely cisgender and monosexual focus. Specifically, we utilize the largest qualitative sample of bi+ trans people (n= 249) in sociology to date to explore the ways people in both these populations experience religion. We find that while some bi+ trans people note exceptional positive…
Exploring the Experiences of Heterosexual and Asexual Transgender People
This article explores two cases at the intersection of emerging studies of transgender experience: heterosexualities and asexualities. Drawing on data from a mixed-methodological survey, we analyze the ways 57 asexual transgender people and 42 heterosexual transgender people occupying varied gender, race, class, age, and religious identities (1) make sense of gender and (2) experience coming out as transgender. Our analyses reveal some ways cisno…
Beyond Trans
This Isn't Just Another Gay Group
This paper examines how members of a southeastern LGBTQ advocacy group privileged heterosexuality through group interactions. Based on twelve months of fieldwork, we analyze how LGBTQ members and their heterosexual allies traded power for (heterosexual) patronage by (1) heterosexualizing their group, (2) sanctifying allies, and (3) privileging parenthood. In so doing, all the members, regardless of their intentions, ultimately reproduced societal…
The Limits of Homonormativity
This article addresses limitations of homonormativity in the pursuit of sexual and gender equality. Based on 20 interviews with cisgender, heterosexual Christian women, we demonstrate how even people who support same-sex marriage and some recognition of cisgender lesbian and gay people as potentially moral individuals may continue marginalization of transgender and bisexual people in their interpretations of gender, sexualities, and religion. We …
Incorporating Transgender Experience Toward a More Inclusive Gender Lens in the Sociology of Religion
Sociologists of religion have recently started to pay more attention to the ways gender and religion are deeply interconnected. However, these analyses rarely focus their attention on transgender experiences within religious spaces. Building on research that points to the ways religions may “cisgender reality” and calls for a “gender lens” on religion, this article explores some ways transgender people experience religion. Specifically, we analyz…
Helping quantitative sociology come out of the closet
This essay offers some ways quantitative sociology may embrace increasing scholarly and public recognition of sexual and gender diversity. Specifically, we suggest that increasing (1) public awareness and debate concerning sexual and gender fluidity, (2) calls for sociologists to become engaged in public debates, and (3) awareness of gender and sexual nuances underlying the majority of social phenomena create an opportunity for quantitative socio…
Expanding on the Experiences of Transgender Nonreligious People
Building on research that points out the specific forms of marginalization that transgender and nonreligious people face in contemporary U.S. society, this exploratory analysis focuses on the experiences of transgender nonreligious people who were raised in religious households. Utilizing interviews with eleven formerly religious, now nonreligious, transgender people I draw out some of the future pathways scholars of nonreligion should take to be…
Bathrooms, Boundaries, and Emotional Burdens
Building on findings demonstrating that social institutions may cisgender realities by creating and enforcing binary notions of gender rooted in cisgender experience, this study examines the ways cisgender people reinforce cisnormative gender binaries in their ongoing interactions. Utilizing interviews with 99 cisgender people, I show how respondents react to a vignette about a gender nonconforming person seeking to use a public bathroom by 'cisg…
Can’t Put my Finger on It”
This paper presents findings from an exploratory study of sin. Based on nine in-depth interviews with self-identified religious people, we demonstrate that respondents define sin as (1) nonconformity, (2) relative to other social realities, and (3) taught by moral authorities. In so doing, respondents’ definitions reveal that sin, despite its use to justify all types of social policies, is a social construction that has no established concrete me…
None of the above
This conversation explores emerging debates concerning teaching to and about marginalized populations often left out of “representative” data sets. Based on our experiences studying, teaching, and belonging to some of these unrepresented populations, we outline some strategies sociologists may use to transform the limitations of data sets traditionally labeled as representative into tools for delivering core sociological concepts. In so doing, we…
I Found God in The Glory Hole
This article examines processes wherein Gay Christian men transition from closeted religious people to openly Gay Christians. Based on 36 months of fieldwork in a southeastern lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Christian church and a synthesis of research intoLGBTChristian experience over the past 25 years, we conceptualize these transformations as a moral career consisting of (1) essentializing religious belief and practice (2) emoti…
Contemporary Religion and the Cisgendering of Reality
This article outlines a generic process in the reproduction of inequality we name cisgendering reality. Based on 114 responses from transgender Mormons and systematic reviews of religious, transgender, and inequalities scholarship, we demonstrate how contemporary American religions cisgender reality by (1) erasing, (2) marking, and (3) punishing transgender experience in ways that reproduce conceptions of reality predicated on cisnormativity. In …
Contemporary Religion and the Cisgendering of Reality
This article outlines a generic process in the reproduction of inequality we name cisgendering reality. Based on 114 responses from transgender Mormons and systematic reviews of religious, transgender, and inequalities scholarship, we demonstrate how contemporary American religions cisgender reality by (1) erasing, (2) marking, and (3) punishing transgender experience in ways that reproduce conceptions of reality predicated on cisnormativity. In …
Foreclosing Fluidity at the Intersection of Gender and Sexual Normativities
Binary gender and sexuality are socially constructed, but they structure thought at such a deep level that even those critical of sexism and homophobia can unwittingly reproduce them, with consequences felt most profoundly by those whose gender/sexual identity defy binary logic. This article outlines a generic pattern in the reproduction of inequality we call foreclosing fluidity,the symbolic or material removal of fluid possibilities from sexual…
The Limits of Homonormativity
This article addresses limitations of homonormativity in the pursuit of sexual and gender equality. Based on 20 interviews with cisgender, heterosexual Christian women, we demonstrate how even people who support same-sex marriage and some recognition of cisgender lesbian and gay people as potentially moral individuals may continue marginalization of transgender and bisexual people in their interpretations of gender, sexualities, and religion. We …
Bathrooms, Boundaries, and Emotional Burdens
Building on findings demonstrating that social institutions may cisgender realities by creating and enforcing binary notions of gender rooted in cisgender experience, this study examines the ways cisgender people reinforce cisnormative gender binaries in their ongoing interactions. Utilizing interviews with 99 cisgender people, I show how respondents react to a vignette about a gender nonconforming person seeking to use a public bathroom by 'cisg…
None of the above
This conversation explores emerging debates concerning teaching to and about marginalized populations often left out of “representative” data sets. Based on our experiences studying, teaching, and belonging to some of these unrepresented populations, we outline some strategies sociologists may use to transform the limitations of data sets traditionally labeled as representative into tools for delivering core sociological concepts. In so doing, we…
Constructing Allyship and the Persistence of Inequality
We examine how people construct what it means to be an ally to marginalized groups. Based on 70 in-depth interviews with college students who identify as allies to one or more marginalized groups, we analyze how they construct allyship in ways that ultimately reproduce patterns of social inequality by (1) assigning responsibility for inequalities to minorities, and (2) suggesting individualized, rather than structural, remedies for combatting une…
Learning from the Religious Experiences of Bi+ Trans People
This article builds upon emerging studies of bi+ and trans populations to explore the importance of expanding studies of religion and nonreligion beyond an almost entirely cisgender and monosexual focus. Specifically, we utilize the largest qualitative sample of bi+ trans people (n= 249) in sociology to date to explore the ways people in both these populations experience religion. We find that while some bi+ trans people note exceptional positive…
This Isn't Just Another Gay Group
This paper examines how members of a southeastern LGBTQ advocacy group privileged heterosexuality through group interactions. Based on twelve months of fieldwork, we analyze how LGBTQ members and their heterosexual allies traded power for (heterosexual) patronage by (1) heterosexualizing their group, (2) sanctifying allies, and (3) privileging parenthood. In so doing, all the members, regardless of their intentions, ultimately reproduced societal…
Incorporating Transgender Experience Toward a More Inclusive Gender Lens in the Sociology of Religion
Sociologists of religion have recently started to pay more attention to the ways gender and religion are deeply interconnected. However, these analyses rarely focus their attention on transgender experiences within religious spaces. Building on research that points to the ways religions may “cisgender reality” and calls for a “gender lens” on religion, this article explores some ways transgender people experience religion. Specifically, we analyz…
I Found God in The Glory Hole
This article examines processes wherein Gay Christian men transition from closeted religious people to openly Gay Christians. Based on 36 months of fieldwork in a southeastern lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Christian church and a synthesis of research intoLGBTChristian experience over the past 25 years, we conceptualize these transformations as a moral career consisting of (1) essentializing religious belief and practice (2) emoti…
Exploring the Experiences of Heterosexual and Asexual Transgender People
This article explores two cases at the intersection of emerging studies of transgender experience: heterosexualities and asexualities. Drawing on data from a mixed-methodological survey, we analyze the ways 57 asexual transgender people and 42 heterosexual transgender people occupying varied gender, race, class, age, and religious identities (1) make sense of gender and (2) experience coming out as transgender. Our analyses reveal some ways cisno…
Expanding on the Experiences of Transgender Nonreligious People
Building on research that points out the specific forms of marginalization that transgender and nonreligious people face in contemporary U.S. society, this exploratory analysis focuses on the experiences of transgender nonreligious people who were raised in religious households. Utilizing interviews with eleven formerly religious, now nonreligious, transgender people I draw out some of the future pathways scholars of nonreligion should take to be…
Can’t Put my Finger on It”
This paper presents findings from an exploratory study of sin. Based on nine in-depth interviews with self-identified religious people, we demonstrate that respondents define sin as (1) nonconformity, (2) relative to other social realities, and (3) taught by moral authorities. In so doing, respondents’ definitions reveal that sin, despite its use to justify all types of social policies, is a social construction that has no established concrete me…
White people's colorblind racial identity work in music-related contexts
This article outlines a generic process in the reproduction of inequality we name colorblind racial identity work. Based on 4 years of ethnographic observation in public settings and 25 semi-structured in-depth interviews, we outline how white people in public interactions use colorblind frames to present racial selves and others through their discussions, interpretations, and reactions to musical spaces, genres, and consumption patterns. In conc…
Music and the Social Construction of Self
Sociologists have demonstrated that people use music to construct meaning in numerous specific contexts, groups, and subcultures. This article expands such work by examining how people draw on music to construct identities in daily life beyond any specific setting. Drawing on four years of participant observation and twenty-five in-depth interviews, findings demonstrate three mechanisms of identity-work as people use music in public to (1) define…
Beyond Trans
Contemporary Religion and the Cisgendering of Reality
This article outlines a generic process in the reproduction of inequality we name cisgendering reality. Based on 114 responses from transgender Mormons and systematic reviews of religious, transgender, and inequalities scholarship, we demonstrate how contemporary American religions cisgender reality by (1) erasing, (2) marking, and (3) punishing transgender experience in ways that reproduce conceptions of reality predicated on cisnormativity. In …
Can’t Put my Finger on It”
This paper presents findings from an exploratory study of sin. Based on nine in-depth interviews with self-identified religious people, we demonstrate that respondents define sin as (1) nonconformity, (2) relative to other social realities, and (3) taught by moral authorities. In so doing, respondents’ definitions reveal that sin, despite its use to justify all types of social policies, is a social construction that has no established concrete me…
None of the above
This conversation explores emerging debates concerning teaching to and about marginalized populations often left out of “representative” data sets. Based on our experiences studying, teaching, and belonging to some of these unrepresented populations, we outline some strategies sociologists may use to transform the limitations of data sets traditionally labeled as representative into tools for delivering core sociological concepts. In so doing, we…
I Found God in The Glory Hole
This article examines processes wherein Gay Christian men transition from closeted religious people to openly Gay Christians. Based on 36 months of fieldwork in a southeastern lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Christian church and a synthesis of research intoLGBTChristian experience over the past 25 years, we conceptualize these transformations as a moral career consisting of (1) essentializing religious belief and practice (2) emoti…
Helping quantitative sociology come out of the closet
This essay offers some ways quantitative sociology may embrace increasing scholarly and public recognition of sexual and gender diversity. Specifically, we suggest that increasing (1) public awareness and debate concerning sexual and gender fluidity, (2) calls for sociologists to become engaged in public debates, and (3) awareness of gender and sexual nuances underlying the majority of social phenomena create an opportunity for quantitative socio…
Expanding on the Experiences of Transgender Nonreligious People
Building on research that points out the specific forms of marginalization that transgender and nonreligious people face in contemporary U.S. society, this exploratory analysis focuses on the experiences of transgender nonreligious people who were raised in religious households. Utilizing interviews with eleven formerly religious, now nonreligious, transgender people I draw out some of the future pathways scholars of nonreligion should take to be…
Bathrooms, Boundaries, and Emotional Burdens
Building on findings demonstrating that social institutions may cisgender realities by creating and enforcing binary notions of gender rooted in cisgender experience, this study examines the ways cisgender people reinforce cisnormative gender binaries in their ongoing interactions. Utilizing interviews with 99 cisgender people, I show how respondents react to a vignette about a gender nonconforming person seeking to use a public bathroom by 'cisg…
Exploring the Experiences of Heterosexual and Asexual Transgender People
This article explores two cases at the intersection of emerging studies of transgender experience: heterosexualities and asexualities. Drawing on data from a mixed-methodological survey, we analyze the ways 57 asexual transgender people and 42 heterosexual transgender people occupying varied gender, race, class, age, and religious identities (1) make sense of gender and (2) experience coming out as transgender. Our analyses reveal some ways cisno…
Beyond Trans
This Isn't Just Another Gay Group
This paper examines how members of a southeastern LGBTQ advocacy group privileged heterosexuality through group interactions. Based on twelve months of fieldwork, we analyze how LGBTQ members and their heterosexual allies traded power for (heterosexual) patronage by (1) heterosexualizing their group, (2) sanctifying allies, and (3) privileging parenthood. In so doing, all the members, regardless of their intentions, ultimately reproduced societal…
The Limits of Homonormativity
This article addresses limitations of homonormativity in the pursuit of sexual and gender equality. Based on 20 interviews with cisgender, heterosexual Christian women, we demonstrate how even people who support same-sex marriage and some recognition of cisgender lesbian and gay people as potentially moral individuals may continue marginalization of transgender and bisexual people in their interpretations of gender, sexualities, and religion. We …
Incorporating Transgender Experience Toward a More Inclusive Gender Lens in the Sociology of Religion
Sociologists of religion have recently started to pay more attention to the ways gender and religion are deeply interconnected. However, these analyses rarely focus their attention on transgender experiences within religious spaces. Building on research that points to the ways religions may “cisgender reality” and calls for a “gender lens” on religion, this article explores some ways transgender people experience religion. Specifically, we analyz…
Learning from the Religious Experiences of Bi+ Trans People
This article builds upon emerging studies of bi+ and trans populations to explore the importance of expanding studies of religion and nonreligion beyond an almost entirely cisgender and monosexual focus. Specifically, we utilize the largest qualitative sample of bi+ trans people (n= 249) in sociology to date to explore the ways people in both these populations experience religion. We find that while some bi+ trans people note exceptional positive…
Foreclosing Fluidity at the Intersection of Gender and Sexual Normativities
Binary gender and sexuality are socially constructed, but they structure thought at such a deep level that even those critical of sexism and homophobia can unwittingly reproduce them, with consequences felt most profoundly by those whose gender/sexual identity defy binary logic. This article outlines a generic pattern in the reproduction of inequality we call foreclosing fluidity,the symbolic or material removal of fluid possibilities from sexual…
Constructing Allyship and the Persistence of Inequality
We examine how people construct what it means to be an ally to marginalized groups. Based on 70 in-depth interviews with college students who identify as allies to one or more marginalized groups, we analyze how they construct allyship in ways that ultimately reproduce patterns of social inequality by (1) assigning responsibility for inequalities to minorities, and (2) suggesting individualized, rather than structural, remedies for combatting une…
Narrating Covid
White people's colorblind racial identity work in music-related contexts
This article outlines a generic process in the reproduction of inequality we name colorblind racial identity work. Based on 4 years of ethnographic observation in public settings and 25 semi-structured in-depth interviews, we outline how white people in public interactions use colorblind frames to present racial selves and others through their discussions, interpretations, and reactions to musical spaces, genres, and consumption patterns. In conc…
Music and the Social Construction of Self
Sociologists have demonstrated that people use music to construct meaning in numerous specific contexts, groups, and subcultures. This article expands such work by examining how people draw on music to construct identities in daily life beyond any specific setting. Drawing on four years of participant observation and twenty-five in-depth interviews, findings demonstrate three mechanisms of identity-work as people use music in public to (1) define…
Sociology (17 works) · Psychology (13 works) · Gender Studies (12 works) · LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy (11 works) · Transgender (9 works) · Political science (7 works) · Social Psychology (7 works) · Social science (7 works) · Gender Politics and Representation (5 works) · Human sexuality (5 works)