Melissa Hardesty
Biographic Data
| ID | 5224144 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Melissa Hardesty |
| GIVEN NAMES | Melissa |
| FAMILY NAME | Hardesty |
| SIGNATURE | HARDESTY M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Binghamton University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7518-4276 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 12 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 24 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 12 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2011 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Evidence Cannot Fill the God-Shaped Hole
Social work has long struggled to square its commitments to social justice with the desire to ground knowledge production in scientific empiricism. Such tensions are magnified in the face of so-called “woke” ideology (Secular Social Justice Religiosity or SSR), an ambient quasi-religious worldview that grew out of postmodern and critical theories and Christianity. Opponents of SSR outside of social work commonly take aim at its religious elements…
What Are College Students Talking About When They Say They’re “Just Talking?”
The phrase “just talking” is ubiquitously used by emerging adults to describe amorous interactions. Despite the prevalence of this phrase in public discourse, little is known about what just talking means and whether it is simply popular slang for longstanding relationship patterns or marks a shift in romantic and sexual norms and behavior. We surveyed undergraduate students at a mid-sized university about just talking , then conducted focus grou…
Just Say Yes? A Cluster Analytic Approach to Evaluating College Students’ Understandings of Affirmative Consent
Every time I tell my story I learn something new”
While current ethical procedures aim to minimize risks to imprisoned individuals, there is heightened awareness of the need to protect those who participate in research post-incarceration while under community-based supervision. Formerly incarcerated women, in particular, face myriad challenges to community reintegration which also make them vulnerable participants in research. As such, this study explores how 28 formerly incarcerated Black women…
Indiscrete
Situated Causality
This article considers how ethnography can contribute to developing causal theories relevant to social work practice. Social work researchers typically reserve causal inferences for studies that rely on certain quantitative study designs, and ethnography tends to be seen as insufficient for making causal claims. Integrating data from three ethnographies of social work practice, this article posits that ethnography is particularly well equipped to…
It’s Not a Job!” Foster Care Board Payments and the Logic of the Profiteering Parent
Modern-day conceptions of American childhood and family situate children, and the labor required to rear them, outside of the wage labor market. This ethnographic study of a foster care adoption program shows how board payments elicit commodification anxiety at this local site, and in American culture more broadly. In using board payments as a litmus test to weed out parents with profiteering motives, workers inadvertently play into a model that …
Epistemological Binds and Ethical Dilemmas in Frontline Child Welfare Practice
Child welfare workers are charged with the dual tasks of gathering factual information about their clients and using interpretive skills to understand their clients’ emotions and engage them in services. This ethnographic study of caseworkers at a foster care adoption program identifies the tension between demands to generate knowledge about clients from a detached, or what the Department of Child Welfare refers to as “objective,” perspective and…
Extramarital Sex Among Vietnamese Married Men
Research on extramarital sex (EMS) is commonly conducted from a perspective that implicitly understands this behavior as a violation of the marital relationship. In contrast, Vietnamese cultural norms have, at some points in history, condoned if not outright encouraged EMS in the name of preserving family lineage. Yet little is known about the prevalence of EMS among contemporary Vietnamese men and its association with marriage quality. This is a…
Social and Health Service Use and Treatment Outcomes for Sexual Minorities in a National Sample of Substance Abuse Treatment Programs
This study examines substance use severity, levels of social and health service utilization, and the impact of service utilization on treatment outcomes for sexual minorities versus non-minorities. The sample included 3,094 clients from the National Treatment Improvement Evaluation Study (NTIES). Substance use severity among sexual minorities and non-sexual minorities was similar at treatment entry and at 12 months post-discharge. Differences in …
I Am Tired But If I Don't Try to Have Sex, My Wife Will Think I've Been Fooling around in the City”
Mostly operating from a risk and risk-reduction paradigm, existing research on migrants in Vietnam tends to conceptualize sex and risky sexual behaviors as isolated life domains. This study begins to develop a contextually rich understanding of migrants' sex lives by examining the relationships among sex, work, and the constant pendulum-like migrating movements of 23 Vietnamese married migrants in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Using data from in-de…
In full swing? How do pendulum migrant labourers in Vietnam adjust their sexual perspectives to their rural-urban lives
Having emerged only recently due to fast urbanisation and globalisation, pendulum migrant labourers in Vietnam are economically, culturally and socially difficult to locate - though they are estimated to number in their millions. Defined by their frequent migration between village and city, pendulum migrant labourers occupy an extended period of liminality. Are they traditional villagers or liberal city people when it comes to sex? Does city life…
Epistemological Binds and Ethical Dilemmas in Frontline Child Welfare Practice
Child welfare workers are charged with the dual tasks of gathering factual information about their clients and using interpretive skills to understand their clients’ emotions and engage them in services. This ethnographic study of caseworkers at a foster care adoption program identifies the tension between demands to generate knowledge about clients from a detached, or what the Department of Child Welfare refers to as “objective,” perspective and…
It’s Not a Job!” Foster Care Board Payments and the Logic of the Profiteering Parent
Modern-day conceptions of American childhood and family situate children, and the labor required to rear them, outside of the wage labor market. This ethnographic study of a foster care adoption program shows how board payments elicit commodification anxiety at this local site, and in American culture more broadly. In using board payments as a litmus test to weed out parents with profiteering motives, workers inadvertently play into a model that …
Extramarital Sex Among Vietnamese Married Men
Research on extramarital sex (EMS) is commonly conducted from a perspective that implicitly understands this behavior as a violation of the marital relationship. In contrast, Vietnamese cultural norms have, at some points in history, condoned if not outright encouraged EMS in the name of preserving family lineage. Yet little is known about the prevalence of EMS among contemporary Vietnamese men and its association with marriage quality. This is a…
Every time I tell my story I learn something new”
While current ethical procedures aim to minimize risks to imprisoned individuals, there is heightened awareness of the need to protect those who participate in research post-incarceration while under community-based supervision. Formerly incarcerated women, in particular, face myriad challenges to community reintegration which also make them vulnerable participants in research. As such, this study explores how 28 formerly incarcerated Black women…
Just Say Yes? A Cluster Analytic Approach to Evaluating College Students’ Understandings of Affirmative Consent
Indiscrete
Social and Health Service Use and Treatment Outcomes for Sexual Minorities in a National Sample of Substance Abuse Treatment Programs
This study examines substance use severity, levels of social and health service utilization, and the impact of service utilization on treatment outcomes for sexual minorities versus non-minorities. The sample included 3,094 clients from the National Treatment Improvement Evaluation Study (NTIES). Substance use severity among sexual minorities and non-sexual minorities was similar at treatment entry and at 12 months post-discharge. Differences in …
I Am Tired But If I Don't Try to Have Sex, My Wife Will Think I've Been Fooling around in the City”
Mostly operating from a risk and risk-reduction paradigm, existing research on migrants in Vietnam tends to conceptualize sex and risky sexual behaviors as isolated life domains. This study begins to develop a contextually rich understanding of migrants' sex lives by examining the relationships among sex, work, and the constant pendulum-like migrating movements of 23 Vietnamese married migrants in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Using data from in-de…
In full swing? How do pendulum migrant labourers in Vietnam adjust their sexual perspectives to their rural-urban lives
Having emerged only recently due to fast urbanisation and globalisation, pendulum migrant labourers in Vietnam are economically, culturally and socially difficult to locate - though they are estimated to number in their millions. Defined by their frequent migration between village and city, pendulum migrant labourers occupy an extended period of liminality. Are they traditional villagers or liberal city people when it comes to sex? Does city life…
Social and Health Service Use and Treatment Outcomes for Sexual Minorities in a National Sample of Substance Abuse Treatment Programs
This study examines substance use severity, levels of social and health service utilization, and the impact of service utilization on treatment outcomes for sexual minorities versus non-minorities. The sample included 3,094 clients from the National Treatment Improvement Evaluation Study (NTIES). Substance use severity among sexual minorities and non-sexual minorities was similar at treatment entry and at 12 months post-discharge. Differences in …
I Am Tired But If I Don't Try to Have Sex, My Wife Will Think I've Been Fooling around in the City”
Mostly operating from a risk and risk-reduction paradigm, existing research on migrants in Vietnam tends to conceptualize sex and risky sexual behaviors as isolated life domains. This study begins to develop a contextually rich understanding of migrants' sex lives by examining the relationships among sex, work, and the constant pendulum-like migrating movements of 23 Vietnamese married migrants in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Using data from in-de…
Epistemological Binds and Ethical Dilemmas in Frontline Child Welfare Practice
Child welfare workers are charged with the dual tasks of gathering factual information about their clients and using interpretive skills to understand their clients’ emotions and engage them in services. This ethnographic study of caseworkers at a foster care adoption program identifies the tension between demands to generate knowledge about clients from a detached, or what the Department of Child Welfare refers to as “objective,” perspective and…
Extramarital Sex Among Vietnamese Married Men
Research on extramarital sex (EMS) is commonly conducted from a perspective that implicitly understands this behavior as a violation of the marital relationship. In contrast, Vietnamese cultural norms have, at some points in history, condoned if not outright encouraged EMS in the name of preserving family lineage. Yet little is known about the prevalence of EMS among contemporary Vietnamese men and its association with marriage quality. This is a…
It’s Not a Job!” Foster Care Board Payments and the Logic of the Profiteering Parent
Modern-day conceptions of American childhood and family situate children, and the labor required to rear them, outside of the wage labor market. This ethnographic study of a foster care adoption program shows how board payments elicit commodification anxiety at this local site, and in American culture more broadly. In using board payments as a litmus test to weed out parents with profiteering motives, workers inadvertently play into a model that …
Situated Causality
This article considers how ethnography can contribute to developing causal theories relevant to social work practice. Social work researchers typically reserve causal inferences for studies that rely on certain quantitative study designs, and ethnography tends to be seen as insufficient for making causal claims. Integrating data from three ethnographies of social work practice, this article posits that ethnography is particularly well equipped to…
Every time I tell my story I learn something new”
While current ethical procedures aim to minimize risks to imprisoned individuals, there is heightened awareness of the need to protect those who participate in research post-incarceration while under community-based supervision. Formerly incarcerated women, in particular, face myriad challenges to community reintegration which also make them vulnerable participants in research. As such, this study explores how 28 formerly incarcerated Black women…
Indiscrete
Just Say Yes? A Cluster Analytic Approach to Evaluating College Students’ Understandings of Affirmative Consent
What Are College Students Talking About When They Say They’re “Just Talking?”
The phrase “just talking” is ubiquitously used by emerging adults to describe amorous interactions. Despite the prevalence of this phrase in public discourse, little is known about what just talking means and whether it is simply popular slang for longstanding relationship patterns or marks a shift in romantic and sexual norms and behavior. We surveyed undergraduate students at a mid-sized university about just talking , then conducted focus grou…
Evidence Cannot Fill the God-Shaped Hole
Social work has long struggled to square its commitments to social justice with the desire to ground knowledge production in scientific empiricism. Such tensions are magnified in the face of so-called “woke” ideology (Secular Social Justice Religiosity or SSR), an ambient quasi-religious worldview that grew out of postmodern and critical theories and Christianity. Opponents of SSR outside of social work commonly take aim at its religious elements…
Psychology (9 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Political science (7 works) · Social Psychology (7 works) · Social Psychology (7 works) · Medicine (6 works) · Gender Studies (4 works) · Law (4 works) · Epistemology (3 works) · Gender Studies (3 works)