Texas Tech University

Gender SEAMS Team Members

Gender SEAMS (Sexuality, Embodiment, Affect, Movement, and Space) Research Team

Gender SEAMS Lab Faculty Director

Elizabeth Sharp, Ph.D.

Elizabeth Sharp, Ph.D.

Elizabeth Sharp, Ph.D. Professor Human Development & Family Studies (HDFS) and Director of Women's & Gender Studies and director of Gender SEAMS research team at Texas Tech University (TTU). She is the co-founder of the Women's Faculty Writing Program at TTU. As a scholar-activist, she incorporates intersectional feminist framings in her research to focus on ideologies of romance and families and how these cultural ideologies interface with gender, sexuality, race/ethnicity, and socio-economic class. Her work has been published in HDFS, sociology, psychology, and family therapy journals and cited by media worldwide, including the New York Times, the Toronto Star and Women@Forbes, and her work with choreographers and dancers was featured on the London School of Economics website.

Current Members

Celeste Medina

Celeste Medina

Celeste Medina, who identifies as an intersectional feminist scholar, is the Research Coordinator for the Gender, Sexuality, Embodiment, Movement, Affect, and Space (SEAMS) Research Team and a Lead Teacher at Children's Orchard Academy in Lubbock, Texas. She graduated from Texas Tech University in May 2018 with a BS in Human Development & Family Studies and a Minor in Women's & Gender Studies. She has presented in college classrooms and at multiple conferences and symposiums. She is co-author of a media review published in the Journal of Family Theory and Review and is currently working on projects examining space, embodiment, and romance of Black women at a predominantly White institution.

Celeste Medina

Cheyenne

Cheyenne is a senior Human Development and Family Studies major who is minoring in Community, Family, and Addiction Sciences. She transferred to Texas Tech from Panola College in the Fall of 2017. She is a member of multiple Honor Societies and a First-Generation College student. Alongside her involvement with Gender Seams, she is also a member of the Sexual Health, Infidelity, and Family Transmissions (SHIFT) research team. After graduating, she plans to pursue a degree in Marriage and Family Therapy.

Benjamin Finlayson

Benjamin Finlayson

Benjamin Finlayson is a Ph.D. student in Marriage and Family Therapy. He is the Graduate Assistant to the Office of LGBTQIA and a student therapist at the Family Therapy Clinic and Covenant Hospital -Levelland.

Kirsten Dalquist

Kirsten Dalquist

Kirsten Dalquist is a Psychology and English double major who will be graduating in December 2016. She loves to read, write, and drink coffee. Her research interests include body image, eating disorders, and feminist political theory.

Kimberly Gambrell

Kimberly Gambrell

Kimberly Gambrell is a senior Human Development and Family Studies major. She is interested in Marriage and Family Therapy as well as Gender and Women's Studies. After she completes her Bachelor's, she intends to pursue a graduate degree.

Miriam Lieway

Miriam Lieway

Miriam Lieway is a post-baccalaureate Ph.D. student in Human Development and Family Studies at Texas Tech University. She is working towards a Graduate Certificate in Women's Studies and a minor in Cross-Cultural Studies. Her research interest is the intersectionality of gender, poverty, and marginalization with an emphasis on sex trafficking.

 
 

Past Members

Davina Nguyen

Davina Nguyen

Davina is a sophomore Psychology major and Addiction Recovery Sciences minor from Plano, TX, who transferred to Texas Tech University in 2015. Davina now is a member of the Women's Leadership Institute and volunteers in the Family Therapy Clinic. Davina is interested in Marriage and Family Therapy, and will later pursue a Master's Degree after she graduates in May of 2018.

Viet Nguyen

Viet Nguyen

Viet Nguyen is a Human Development and Family Studies major and Political Science, Math and Electrical Engineering minor. Viet is apart of the Women's Leadership Institute cohort to help empower undergraduate women leaders on campus. Additionally, Viet was the President of the Tech Gender and Sexuality Association. She intends to pursue a Master's Degree in Higher Education.

Shannon Walding

Shannon Walding

Shannon Walding graduated from Grand Canyon University in 2014 with a Bachelor's degree in English Literature and earned her M.Ed. in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at Texas Tech. Shannon is a proponent of Feminist Theory of Counseling and hopes to use this framework to inform her future work with clients.

Parker Reyes TTU

Parker Reyes

Parker Reyes is Public Relations major and HDFS minor at Texas Tech University. He is from Austin, Texas and graduated from Dripping Springs High School. He currently is a member of the Goin' Band From Raiderland and is on the Social Media Team. Parker also is committed in his role as a Librarian. Additionally, Parker is involved in other organizations within the College of Media and Communications.

Affiliate Contributors

Rebecca Oldham, M.S.

Rebecca Oldham, M.S.

Rebecca Oldham received her Master's degree in HDFS from Texas Tech University in August 2013, and has since continued in the doctoral program, including a certificate in Women's Studies. Her research has focused on romantic relationships (e.g., dating and newlyweds), sexual behavior, and analysis of dyadic data. She has taught a course on intimate relationships and helped new graduate students in their introductory statistics lab. Rebecca also enjoys mentoring undergraduates in research and preparing for graduate school.

Dana Weiser, Ph.D.

Dana Weiser, Ph.D.

Dr. Dana Weiser's program of research mainly focuses on how family experiences shape young adults' romantic relationships and sexual behaviors. Much of her work has looked at how the experience of parental infidelity is associated with young adults' own likelihood of engaging in infidelity. She also studies a number of sexual health topics and issues surrounding sexual and relationship violence.

Genevieve Durham DeCesaro, M.A., M.F.A.

Genevieve Durham DeCesaro, M.A., M.F.A.

Genevieve Durham DeCesaro is the Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and Associate Professor of Dance at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, where she focuses on curricular changes, undergraduate general education and graduation requirements, and academic matters. She continues to teach courses in and choreograph for the Dance program.

Professor Durham DeCesaro's choreography has been commissioned by the University of Detroit-Mercy, Virginia Tech, Whitman College, Grand Valley State University, Old Dominion University, Stephen F. Austin State University, Spelman College, Repertory Dance Theatre of Texas, Atlanta's Zoetics Dance Company, Ballet Lubbock, and Oklahoma City's Perpetual Motion. Honorary presentations of her work include a performance at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. and American College Dance Association Gala performances at Florida State University, Hollins University, and the University of Texas at Austin.

Professor Durham DeCesaro has presented her peer-reviewed research at numerous national and international conferences and has published, with her research partner Dr. Elizabeth Sharp, in Forum: Qualitative Social Research, the International Journal of Social, Political and Community Agendas in the Arts, the Journal of Family Theory and Review, and the International Journal of Qualitative Methods. Professor Durham DeCesaro's and Dr. Sharp's co-authored book, Ordinary Wars: Doing Transdisciplinary Research, is in press with Common Ground Publishing.

Professor Durham DeCesaro is the elected Director of the South-Central Region of the American College Dance Association. She is also a former Chair of the Texas Commission on the Arts Grant Review Panel and a former member of the Ballet Lubbock and Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts Advisory Boards. Professor Durham DeCesaro continues to choreograph and perform professionally with Lubbock's Flatlands Dance Theatre.



Gender SEAMS Team


Contact Us

GenderSEAMS@gmail.com


GenderSEAMS Potential New Member Questionnaire Fall 2019

GenderSEAMS Presentation Request

The GenderSEAMs team has constructed multiple presentations that can be used as a tool for learning in your classroom or student organizations. Our aim is to spread and intersectional feminist message, while also making our information useful, and accessible. The presentations available encompass the following topics:

  1. Sexual assault on college campuses
  2. Hegemonic masculinity
  3. First Year women on college campuses