Stef M Shuster
Biographic Data
| ID | 255615 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Stef M Shuster |
| GIVEN NAMES | Stef M |
| FAMILY NAME | Shuster |
| SIGNATURE | SHUSTER S M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Michigan State University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1970-5257 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 22 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 176 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 22 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2015 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
How Identity Nonrecognition Shapes the Health Experiences of LGBTQ+ People
Drawing on 40 interviews with LGBTQ+ people about their health experiences, we examine the consequences of identity nonrecognition—which occurs when mutual recognition of the situationally relevant identities for self and other in an encounter cannot be established—and discordance in the definition of the situation. We found that respondents experienced identity nonrecognition in two ways: (1) identity reductionism, or moments when providers lean…
Bargaining and calibration
Identity Impermanence as a Generic Social Process
Drawing on 40 in‐depth interviews with transgender and nonbinary people, we found that respondents' gender identities or displays shifted day‐by‐day and audience‐by‐audience. The first describes respondents shifting their identities and displays based on feeling their way through gender while the latter describes feeling out an audience. These shifts are nonexclusive to trans and nonbinary people. Instead, we offer new tools for symbolic interact…
Plant Sex
Scholarship from feminist science, knowledge, and technology (FSTS) studies consistently demonstrates how the production of knowledge about biological processes depends upon gender stereotypes. For example, anthropologist Emily Martin’s now-classic work offered a cultural analysis of how biology textbooks foreground reproductive cycles in stereotypical ways—eggs depicted as passive and demure, and sperm depicted as active and competitive. Followi…
Troubling Trends in Health Misinformation Related to Gender‐Affirming Care
Amidst the misinformation climate about trans people and their health care that dominates policy and social discourse, autonomy‐based rationales for gender‐affirming care for trans and nonbinary youth are being called into question. In this commentary, which responds to “What Is the Aim of Pediatric ‘Gender‐Affirming’ Care?,” by Moti Gorin, we contextualize the virulent ideas circulating in misinformation campaigns that have become weaponized for…
Stef M. Shuster and Meredithe McNamara reply
This letter responds to a letter by Moti Gorin in the same issue, September‐October 2024, of the Hastings Center Report
Introduction to
Reducing the Joy Deficit in Sociology
Joy is a crucial element of people's everyday lives that has been understudied by sociologists. This is particularly true for scholarship about transgender people. To address what we term a joy deficit in sociology, we analyze 40 in-depth interviews with trans people in which they were asked what they find joyful about being trans. Their responses demonstrate the methodological and theoretical importance of asking about joy. Four main themes emer…
Transgender Joy
Though it is vital to attend to oppression and inequality, telling stories about trans joy helps scholars, trans people, and the public understand the full complexity of trans people’s lived experiences. Noticing, nurturing, and celebrating joy is a vital form of resistance for marginalized communities
The assertion of reproductive and social control in mid‐twentieth‐century US transgender medicine
Drawing on archival materials from the Kinsey Institute, including letters of correspondence between medical professionals and transgender people during the 1950s–1970s, this article demonstrates how scientific and medical communities selectively employed old and new eugenics in their work with trans patients seeking hormonal and/or surgical interventions. Old eugenics helped providers control trans people's reproduction and family formations. Ne…
So What if They're Lying to Us? Comparing Rhetorical Strategies for Discrediting Sources of Disinformation and Misinformation Using an Affect-Based Credibility Rating
Despite growing research on false information, a theoretical framework to organize findings is lacking. We use affect control theory to fill this need and introduce the affect-based credibility rating for interpreting the effectiveness of rhetorical strategies in discrediting the source of falsehoods. The rating quantifies the difference in connotations between the labels used to characterize the source and an ideal, credible source. Successful d…
How the Clinic Made Gender
The uneven consequences of rapid organizational change
Bodies Unbound
Health and Health Care of Sexual and Gender Minorities
Research on the social dimensions of health and health care among sexual and gender minorities (SGMs) has grown rapidly in the last two decades. However, a comprehensive review of the extant interdisciplinary scholarship on SGM health has yet to be written. In response, we offer a synthesis of recent scholarship. We discuss major empirical findings and theoretical implications of health care utilization, barriers to care, health behaviors, and he…
Warning
Carving Out a Niche or Finding a Place at the Table? The Sociology of Transgender Studies
Performing informed consent in transgender medicine
Measuring Resonance and Dissonance in Social Movement Frames With Affect Control Theory
We present a methodological innovation for analyzing archival data that involves the framing strategies from the failed 1980 Iowa Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). First, we conducted an archival analysis that suggested that pro-ERA groups used “frame resonance,” a strategy prominent in the social movement literature where activists align issues with ideologies. Meanwhile, anti-ERA groups used what we coin here as “frame dissonance” by depicting how …
Punctuating Accountability
Using in-depth interviews with forty transgender people, I explore 'discursive aggression,' a term for the communicative acts used in social interaction to hold people accountable to social- and cultural-based expectations, and subsequently to reinforce inequality in everyday life. I show how these interactional affronts restore social order, are based in dominant language systems, and reflect expectations for how interactions should unfold. Gend…
Uncertain Expertise and the Limitations of Clinical Guidelines in Transgender Healthcare
To alleviate uncertainty in the specialized field of transgender medicine, mental and physical healthcare providers have introduced the rhetoric of evidence-based medicine (EBM) in clinical guidelines to help inform medical decision making. However there are no diagnostic tests to assess the effectiveness of transgender medical interventions and no scientific evidence to support the guidelines. Using in-depth interviews with a purposive sample of…
Blind to Sameness
Uncertain Expertise and the Limitations of Clinical Guidelines in Transgender Healthcare
To alleviate uncertainty in the specialized field of transgender medicine, mental and physical healthcare providers have introduced the rhetoric of evidence-based medicine (EBM) in clinical guidelines to help inform medical decision making. However there are no diagnostic tests to assess the effectiveness of transgender medical interventions and no scientific evidence to support the guidelines. Using in-depth interviews with a purposive sample of…
Reducing the Joy Deficit in Sociology
Joy is a crucial element of people's everyday lives that has been understudied by sociologists. This is particularly true for scholarship about transgender people. To address what we term a joy deficit in sociology, we analyze 40 in-depth interviews with trans people in which they were asked what they find joyful about being trans. Their responses demonstrate the methodological and theoretical importance of asking about joy. Four main themes emer…
Punctuating Accountability
Using in-depth interviews with forty transgender people, I explore 'discursive aggression,' a term for the communicative acts used in social interaction to hold people accountable to social- and cultural-based expectations, and subsequently to reinforce inequality in everyday life. I show how these interactional affronts restore social order, are based in dominant language systems, and reflect expectations for how interactions should unfold. Gend…
Health and Health Care of Sexual and Gender Minorities
Research on the social dimensions of health and health care among sexual and gender minorities (SGMs) has grown rapidly in the last two decades. However, a comprehensive review of the extant interdisciplinary scholarship on SGM health has yet to be written. In response, we offer a synthesis of recent scholarship. We discuss major empirical findings and theoretical implications of health care utilization, barriers to care, health behaviors, and he…
Performing informed consent in transgender medicine
The uneven consequences of rapid organizational change
Measuring Resonance and Dissonance in Social Movement Frames With Affect Control Theory
We present a methodological innovation for analyzing archival data that involves the framing strategies from the failed 1980 Iowa Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). First, we conducted an archival analysis that suggested that pro-ERA groups used “frame resonance,” a strategy prominent in the social movement literature where activists align issues with ideologies. Meanwhile, anti-ERA groups used what we coin here as “frame dissonance” by depicting how …
Carving Out a Niche or Finding a Place at the Table? The Sociology of Transgender Studies
Warning
How the Clinic Made Gender
Introduction to
The assertion of reproductive and social control in mid‐twentieth‐century US transgender medicine
Drawing on archival materials from the Kinsey Institute, including letters of correspondence between medical professionals and transgender people during the 1950s–1970s, this article demonstrates how scientific and medical communities selectively employed old and new eugenics in their work with trans patients seeking hormonal and/or surgical interventions. Old eugenics helped providers control trans people's reproduction and family formations. Ne…
Blind to Sameness
Blind to Sameness
Uncertain Expertise and the Limitations of Clinical Guidelines in Transgender Healthcare
To alleviate uncertainty in the specialized field of transgender medicine, mental and physical healthcare providers have introduced the rhetoric of evidence-based medicine (EBM) in clinical guidelines to help inform medical decision making. However there are no diagnostic tests to assess the effectiveness of transgender medical interventions and no scientific evidence to support the guidelines. Using in-depth interviews with a purposive sample of…
Measuring Resonance and Dissonance in Social Movement Frames With Affect Control Theory
We present a methodological innovation for analyzing archival data that involves the framing strategies from the failed 1980 Iowa Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). First, we conducted an archival analysis that suggested that pro-ERA groups used “frame resonance,” a strategy prominent in the social movement literature where activists align issues with ideologies. Meanwhile, anti-ERA groups used what we coin here as “frame dissonance” by depicting how …
Punctuating Accountability
Using in-depth interviews with forty transgender people, I explore 'discursive aggression,' a term for the communicative acts used in social interaction to hold people accountable to social- and cultural-based expectations, and subsequently to reinforce inequality in everyday life. I show how these interactional affronts restore social order, are based in dominant language systems, and reflect expectations for how interactions should unfold. Gend…
Performing informed consent in transgender medicine
Warning
Carving Out a Niche or Finding a Place at the Table? The Sociology of Transgender Studies
Health and Health Care of Sexual and Gender Minorities
Research on the social dimensions of health and health care among sexual and gender minorities (SGMs) has grown rapidly in the last two decades. However, a comprehensive review of the extant interdisciplinary scholarship on SGM health has yet to be written. In response, we offer a synthesis of recent scholarship. We discuss major empirical findings and theoretical implications of health care utilization, barriers to care, health behaviors, and he…
The uneven consequences of rapid organizational change
Bodies Unbound
Transgender Joy
Though it is vital to attend to oppression and inequality, telling stories about trans joy helps scholars, trans people, and the public understand the full complexity of trans people’s lived experiences. Noticing, nurturing, and celebrating joy is a vital form of resistance for marginalized communities
The assertion of reproductive and social control in mid‐twentieth‐century US transgender medicine
Drawing on archival materials from the Kinsey Institute, including letters of correspondence between medical professionals and transgender people during the 1950s–1970s, this article demonstrates how scientific and medical communities selectively employed old and new eugenics in their work with trans patients seeking hormonal and/or surgical interventions. Old eugenics helped providers control trans people's reproduction and family formations. Ne…
So What if They're Lying to Us? Comparing Rhetorical Strategies for Discrediting Sources of Disinformation and Misinformation Using an Affect-Based Credibility Rating
Despite growing research on false information, a theoretical framework to organize findings is lacking. We use affect control theory to fill this need and introduce the affect-based credibility rating for interpreting the effectiveness of rhetorical strategies in discrediting the source of falsehoods. The rating quantifies the difference in connotations between the labels used to characterize the source and an ideal, credible source. Successful d…
How the Clinic Made Gender
Troubling Trends in Health Misinformation Related to Gender‐Affirming Care
Amidst the misinformation climate about trans people and their health care that dominates policy and social discourse, autonomy‐based rationales for gender‐affirming care for trans and nonbinary youth are being called into question. In this commentary, which responds to “What Is the Aim of Pediatric ‘Gender‐Affirming’ Care?,” by Moti Gorin, we contextualize the virulent ideas circulating in misinformation campaigns that have become weaponized for…
Stef M. Shuster and Meredithe McNamara reply
This letter responds to a letter by Moti Gorin in the same issue, September‐October 2024, of the Hastings Center Report
Introduction to
Reducing the Joy Deficit in Sociology
Joy is a crucial element of people's everyday lives that has been understudied by sociologists. This is particularly true for scholarship about transgender people. To address what we term a joy deficit in sociology, we analyze 40 in-depth interviews with trans people in which they were asked what they find joyful about being trans. Their responses demonstrate the methodological and theoretical importance of asking about joy. Four main themes emer…
Plant Sex
Scholarship from feminist science, knowledge, and technology (FSTS) studies consistently demonstrates how the production of knowledge about biological processes depends upon gender stereotypes. For example, anthropologist Emily Martin’s now-classic work offered a cultural analysis of how biology textbooks foreground reproductive cycles in stereotypical ways—eggs depicted as passive and demure, and sperm depicted as active and competitive. Followi…
How Identity Nonrecognition Shapes the Health Experiences of LGBTQ+ People
Drawing on 40 interviews with LGBTQ+ people about their health experiences, we examine the consequences of identity nonrecognition—which occurs when mutual recognition of the situationally relevant identities for self and other in an encounter cannot be established—and discordance in the definition of the situation. We found that respondents experienced identity nonrecognition in two ways: (1) identity reductionism, or moments when providers lean…
Bargaining and calibration
Identity Impermanence as a Generic Social Process
Drawing on 40 in‐depth interviews with transgender and nonbinary people, we found that respondents' gender identities or displays shifted day‐by‐day and audience‐by‐audience. The first describes respondents shifting their identities and displays based on feeling their way through gender while the latter describes feeling out an audience. These shifts are nonexclusive to trans and nonbinary people. Instead, we offer new tools for symbolic interact…
Sociology (13 works) · Psychology (12 works) · Political science (10 works) · Gender Studies (9 works) · LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy (9 works) · Health care (7 works) · Law (7 works) · Medicine (7 works) · Transgender (7 works) · Scholarship (6 works)