summer research

The Sexualities Project at Northwestern (SPAN) awards summer research grants to Northwestern graduate students through an annual competitive process. Awards are made by a faculty committee. For information on upcoming calls for applications, click here.

By Year: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011

 

2024

	Ezra Arreola Martinez (Spanish and Portuguese) “Anarchism, Free Love & Homosexuality in Latin(x) America (1890 – 1936)”
	Miguel Chavez (Sociology) “Unmasking Masculinities: Exóticos, Globalization, and Cultural Hybridity in the World of Professional Wrestling and Lucha Libre”
	Syd Gonzalez (Anthropology) “Be Someone: Latinx Masculinity, Joy & Material Embodiments”
	Gabriel Guzman (Performance Studies) “Borderland Aesthetics, Transborder Tales / Estéticos de la Frontera, Cuentos Transfronterizas”
	Rae Leader (Sociology) “Black LGBTQ+ Community Networks in Chicago”
	Natalia Molebatsi (Performance Studies) “Time Travel Poetics: Black Feminist Poetry as/and Performance Strategies of Liberation”
	Jorge Ochoa (Sociology) “Chemsex and Overdose Death Surveillance”
	Ziyana Pallikkara Veettil (History) “Gender, Sexuality and Religiosity in Mappila Muslim Women’s Writings (1950-1980)”
	Annika Pinch (Communication Studies) “Cultures of Sex Advice: Examining TikTok Communities Around Sexual Health in the US”
	Kris Rosentel (Sociology) “Locating the New Lavender Scare: The Spatial and Network Structure of LGBTQ Disparities in Arrest”
	Hannah Simmons (History) “‘Judy’s Mark: A Family’s Movement to Establish Their Freedom”
	Facundo Suenzo (Communication Studies) “A Bifocal Examination of Dating Apps: Meta-Analysis and Survey Study in Argentina”
	Cristian Valenzuela (Sociology)

 

2023

	Austin Bryan (Anthropology) “Key Populations, Liberation Movements, and HIV/AIDS Foreign Assistance”
	Ray Buckner (Religious Studies) “Touching, Buddhist, Bodies: Formations of Queer and Trans Buddhism in Bangkok”
	Miguel Chavez (Sociology) “Performing Masculinity: Wrestling with the Social Construction of Cultural Scripts”
	Ethan Fukuto (Performance Studies) “Bodies of Intake: Loss, Passivity, and Asian American Queer Performance”
	Syd Gonzalez (Anthropology) “Deep In The Heart of Texas: Latinx Masculinity, Joy, & Material Embodiments”
	Maria Katsulos (History) “Transmasculine Crossdressing in Britain and France, 1600—1750”
	Malú Machuca Rose (Performance Studies) “Ungovernable: Queer, Trans and Feminist Performance in South America”
	Jorge Ochoa (Sociology) “Chicago’s Leather and Kink Scene During the Era of COVID-19 and Mpox”
	Aven Peters (Sociology) “Transgender Aging in the U.S.”
	Annika Pinch (Media, Technology & Society) “How LGBTQ+ People Think, Learn, and Disclose about Mental Health on Social Media in Mumbai, India”
	Jesse Rothbard (Spanish & Portuguese) “‘Una mujer inadaptada y inadaptable’: The Life, Death, and Poetic Inconformity of Delmira Agustini”
	Joshua Shelton (Religious Studies) “A Feast of Flesh and Blood: Tantric Deities, Tibetan Gods, and Bandit Masculinity in the Life of Tantric Virtuoso Do Khyentsé Yeshé Dorjé”
	Angad Singh (Performance Studies) “Postcolonial/Queer: The Melancholic Archive of Agha Shahid Ali”
	Facundo Suenzo (Media, Technology & Society) “Hybrid Sexualities: Exploring Dating Apps Use Among Gay Men in the U.S. and Argentina”
	Evan Zhao (Sociology) “Exposure: The Publication of the Sexual Self through Internet Exhibitionism”

 

2022

	Austin Bryan (Anthropology) austinbryan2025@u.northwestern.edu “Making ‘Key Populations’, Access to Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP), and Life Pre-Exposed in the Republic of Uganda”
	Nnaemeka Ekwelum (African American Studies) ekwelum@u.northwestern.edu “On Difference, Interdependence, & Queer Black Grief”
	Bailey Flynn (Rhetoric and Public Culture) bflynn@u.northwestern.edu “Rape, Trauma, and Reparative Futures: Understanding the Medicalization of Justice”
	Gervais Marsh (Performance Studies) gervaismarsh2021@u.northwestern.edu “Unspoken Gestures: Towards a Black Queer Jamaican Visual Archive”
	Cory Perry (Art Theory Practice) coryperry2023@u.northwestern.edu “The Oscillatory Nature of Queer Utopic Spaces in Small City Communities”
	Febi Ramadhan (Anthropology) febiramadhan2025@u.northwestern.edu “How to Do Things with God: The Making of Incommensurability between Same-Sex Sexualities and Islam in Indonesia”
	Jesse Rothbard (Spanish and Portuguese) jesserothbard2024@u.northwestern.edu “Dancing in Sodom’s Ruins: Queer Agency and Dissident Desires in Latin American Narratives of Crime (1895-1945)”
	Rebecca Rwakabukoza (History) rwakabukoza@u.northwestern.edu “Planning Families in Rutara 700-1500 AD”
	Aoi Saito (History) aoisaito2019@u.northwestern.edu “Contesting Welfare in Red-light Districts: Women’s Networks, Self-Protection, and Public Health in Japan, 1925–1965”
	Enzo Vasquez Toral (Performance Studies) enzo@u.northwestern.edu “LGBT Folklore and the Performance of Cultural Heritage in the Andes”
	Erique Zhang (Media, Technology, and Society) erique@u.northwestern.edu “Trans Femme of Color Beauty Workshops”

2021

	Brandon Alston (Sociology) brandonalston2020@u.northwestern.edu “Surveilling the Carceral State: How Sexuality Shapes the Contours and Consequences of Surveillance”
	Austin Bryan (Anthropology) austinbryan2025@u.northwestern.edu “Tracing the Experiences of Ugandan Queer Migrants and the Development of a Queer Diaspora”
	Julia Fernandez (Communication Studies) j-fernandez@u.northwestern.edu “A Diary Study of LGBT+ Authenticity of Social Media”
	Syd Gonzalez (Anthropology) sydneygonzalez2026@u.northwestern.edu “The Embodiment of Masculinity: A Photo-Voice Project”
	Malú Machuca Rose (Performance Studies) malu@u.northwestern.edu “Contesting Homeland from the Body-Wound Disputando Patria desde el Cuerpo-Herida”
	Gervais Marsh (Performance Studies) gervaismarsh2021@u.northwestern.edu “What Lies Beyond the Irreconcilable: Black Artists Envision Otherwise Possibilities”
	Kenneth Pass (Sociology) kenpass@u.northwestern.edu “Biopolitics in the Black Gay Mecca: A Case Study of Atlanta”
	Kris Rosentel (Sociology) krisrosentel@u.northwestern.edu “Walking While Trans: Gender Presentation-Based Profiling and Place in Sex Work Arrests”
	Enzo Vasquez Toral (Performance Studies) enzo@u.northwestern.edu “Beauty Economies and Queer and Trans Aesthetics in The Tunantada Fiesta”

2020

	Jabari Evans (Communication Studies) jabarievans2020@u.northwestern.edu “Hip-Hop in the Sexual Marketplace: Black Women’s Relational Labor Strategies in the Social Media Age”
	Julia Fernandez (Communication Studies) j-fernandez@u.northwestern.edu “How Cues in Social Media Interfaces Impact LGBTQ+ Participation”
	Natalie Gallagher (Psychology) natalieg@u.northwestern.edu “Being Gender Trouble: How Do LGBTQ+ People Experience the Stereotypes of Others?”
	Emma McGorray (Psychology) emmamcgorray2023@u.northwestern.edu “Understanding Bisexual Identity Invisibility in the Context of Romantic Relationships”
	Kenneth Pass (Sociology) kenpass@u.northwestern.edu “Diagnosing Blackness: AIDS, Science, and the Evolution of Black Politics”
	Febi Ramadhan (Anthropology) febiramadhan2025@u.northwestern.edu “In the Making of Godly Trial: The Reinforcement of Heterosexual Script through Conversion Therapy Practices in Indonesia”
	Addie Shrodes (Learning Sciences) ashrodes@u.northwestern.edu “‘Watching My Freedom’: Consequential Critical Literacies in the Everyday Digital Activities of Trans and Non-binary Teens”
	Benjamin Zender (Performance Studies) brz@u.northwestern.edu “The Queer Labor of Sexual Archives”
	Erique Zhang (Communication Studies) erique@u.northwestern.edu “Navigating Transfeminine Beauty, Passing, and Wellbeing”

2019

	Dominique Adams-Santos (Sociology) dominiqueadamsromena2021@u.northwestern.edu “Queer Women of Color, Intimacy & Digital Placemaking in Chicago”
	Brandon Alston (Sociology) brandonalston2020@u.northwestern.edu “From the Cradle to the Grave: Tracing the Ways Carceral Surveillance Enforces Sexual Humiliation of Urban, Poor, Black Men”
	Carlos Gustavo Halaburda (Spanish & Portuguese) carloshalaburda2020@u.northwestern.edu “Pleasure and Duty: Melodrama, Queer Sexualities, and the Futures of Reproduction in Latin America (1880-1910)”
	Erin Hughes (Psychology) erinhughes2023@u.northwestern.edu “Invalidation of Same-Sex Partners’ Couple Identity”
	Erik Lovell (Sociology) eriklovell2020@u.northwestern.edu “Pathways of LGBTQ+ Homeless Youth into Adulthood: Navigating Resource Brokers”
	Alyssa Lynne (Sociology) alyssalynne2022@u.northwestern.edu “Gender, Medicine, and Standardization: Gender-Affirming Health Care in the U.S. and Thailand”
	Mirna Nadia (Sociology) mirnanadia2017@u.northwestern.edu “Maintaining the Erotic Pyramid: Victimless Crimes and the Deployment of Sexual Knowledge in Indonesia”
	Whitney Pow (Screen Cultures) whitneypow@u.northwestern.edu “Stored in Memory: Recovering Queer and Transgender Life in Software and Video Game History”
	Wayne Rivera-Cuadrado (Sociology) waynerivera2024@u.northwestern.edu “Understanding Violence through Vicarious Exposure: Confidants of Victims and the Impact of Sexual Assault Disclosures”
	Zorimar Rivera Montes (Spanish and Portuguese) zorimarriveramontes2021@u.northwestern.edu “Colonial Myths: Crisis and Neoliberal Culture in Puerto Rico”
	Addie Shrodes (Learning Sciences) ashrodes@u.northwestern.edu “‘Being Unapologetically Out Online Helps a Lot’: Social Medai as a Mediator for Learning, Identity, and Resilience in Transgender and Gender Non-conforming Adolescents”
	Enzo Vasquez Toral (Performance Studies) enzo@u.northwestern.edu “Drag, Folklore and Activism in Bolivia’s Fiesta del Gran Poder”
	Michael Ann DeVito, Julia Fernandez, and Ashley Walker (Communication Studies) j-fernandez@u.northwestern.edu; amwalker@u.northwestern.edu; devitom@u.northwestern.edu; “Participatory Design to Center LGBTQ+ Community Values in Social Platforms and Algorithms”

2018

	Karlia Brown (Sociology) KarliaBrown2016@u.northwestern.edu “Do All Black Lives Matter? The Treatment of Sexual Misconduct within Black Activist Communities and What We Can Learn from It”
	Ivan Bujan (Performance Studies) IvanBujan2019@u.northwestern.edu “Aesthetic Encounters: PrEP-inspired Art as Iteration of Aids-related Activist Practices”
	Julia Fernandez (Communications Studies) j-fernandez@u.northwestern.edu “Transgender Users of Dating Platforms”
	Julian Glover (African-American Studies) JulianGlover2019@u.northwestern.edu “To Be Real: Black and Latinx Transgender Women in the Ballroom Scene”
	S. Tay Glover (African-American Studies) s.tayglover@u.northwestern.edu “Queered Belonging in the Black Diaspora: Southern Black Lesbian Queer Women and Erotics”
	Carlos Gustavo Halaburda (Spanish & Portuguese) carloshalaburda2020@u.northwestern.edu “Governmental Fiction: Melodrama and Latin America’s Reproductive Futures, 1880-1910”
	Moira Kyweluk (Anthropology) moirakyweluk2018@u.northwestern.edu “The ‘Egg Timer Test’ in Clinical Context: Sexuality, Identity, and Fertility Testing”
	Gervais Marsh (Performance Studies) gervaismarsh2021@u.northwestern.edu “Centering Disrespectability” Performance Activism in the Anglophone Caribbean”
	Anna Michelson (Sociology) annamichelson2015@u.northwestern.edu “Redefining the Romance: Classification and Social Change in Romance Genre Fiction”
	Bahram Naderil (Anthropology) naderil@u.northwestern.edu “Pious Prostitutes: The Practices of Religious Devotion among Indonesian Transgender Sex Workers”
	Mirna Nadia (Sociology) mirnanadia2017@u.northwestern.edu “The Pro[s]per Families: Tracing the Sexuality Discourse within the Indonesian Family Planning Program”
	Jennifer Porter-Lupu (Anthropology) jenniferporter-lupu2022@u.northwestern.edu “Albert and his Live-In Carpenter: Queer Encounters with Archaeological Trash”
	Ashley Walker & Michael Ann DeVito (Communication Studies) amwalker@u.northwestern.edu; devitom@u.northwestern.edu “Stigma in Supportive Online Spaces: Investigating the Disclosure and Management of Doubly-Stigmatized Gender and Sexual Identities Online Within the LGBTQ+ Community”
	Mlondolozi Zondi (Performance Studies) mlondolozizondi2014@u.northwestern.edu “Unmournable Void: Movement, Corporeal Integrity, and Death in Black Contemporary Performance and Visual Art”

2017

	Ruby Ray Daily (History) rubydaily2014@u.northwestern.edu “Sex and Violence in Greater Britain, 1850-1950”
	Michael Ann DeVito & Ashley Walker (Communication Studies) devitom@u.northwestern.edu; amwalker@u.northwestern.edu “Coming Out & Being Out Cross-Platform: Investigating Queer Self-Presentation Across Multiple Social Media Channels”
	Gil Engelstein (History) GilEngelstein2020@u.northwestern.edu “Queer Europe: Mobility beyond borders, and the making of the postwar world”
	Lauren Herold (Radio/TV/Film) Laurenherold2015@u.northwestern.edu “Vito Russo’s Our Time and the Cultural Politics of Queer Public Access”
	Kyle Kaplan (Music Studies) kylekaplan2014@u.northwestern.edu “Music, Intimacy, and International Homosexual Collaborations (1957-1962)”
	Moira Kyweluk (Anthropology) moirakyweluk2018@u.northwestern.edu “Freezing for the Future: Culturally Mediated Fertility Preservation Decisions Among Trans Youth and Parents”
	Marie Laperrière (Sociology) marielaperriere2018@u.northwestern.edu “Understanding Power and Violence between Intimate Partners”
	Alyssa Lynne (Sociology) alyssalynne2022@u.northwestern.edu “Negotiation and Medicalization of Transgender Identities in a Thai Nonprofit Organization”
	C. Tova Markenson (Theatre and Drama) ctmarkenson@u.northwestern.edu “Entrance Forbidden to the Yiddish Theatre: Performance and Jewish Prostitution in Buenos Aires, 1900-1939”
	Bennie Niles (African American Studies) b-niles4@u.northwestern.edu “‘From Rainbows to Warriors’: Understanding the Role of Masculinity and Sexuality in Hawaiian College Football”
	Kenneth Pass (Sociology) kenpass@u.northwestern.edu “Making Bad Laws Better: Race, Sexuality, and the Modernization of HIV Criminal Law”
	Keegan Terek (Anthropology) keeganterek2016@u.northwestern.edu “The Language of Queer Asylum in Amman, Jordan”
	Benson Zhou (Communication Studies) zhiqiuzhou2014@u.northwestern.edu “Chinese Gay Masculinities, Globalization, and Homonormativity: An Ethnographic Study of Sexual Hierarchy in Beijing”

2016

	Morgan Clark (Sociology) morganclark2014@u.northwestern.edu “Violence and Boundary Work in Online Video Game Communities”
	John Fleming (Clinical Psychology) JohnFleming2018@u.northwestern.edu “Identifying Factors That Influence PrEP Uptake Among Transgender Women”
	Alexandra Garr-Schultz (Psychology) alexandragarrschultz2019@u.northwestern.edu “Identity Denial, Authenticity, and Resilience in Bisexual Populations”
	Julian Glover (African American Studies) jkevonglover@u.northwestern.edu “Eating It, Working It, Serving It and Living: On the experiences of Transgender Women of Color in Chicago’s Ballroom Scene”
	Tay Glover (African American Studies) s.tayglover@u.northwestern.edu “Exploring Southern Black Queer Women’s Identity, Pleasure, Resistance, and Erotic Community”
	Kevin Hsu (Psychology) khsu@northwestern.edu “Sexual Racism in the LGBT Community: What’s Behind Racial Preferences in Sex and Dating Among Gay and Bisexual Men?”
	Anna Michelson (Sociology) annamichelson2015@u.northwestern.edu “Incorporating the Erotic: Women’s Sexuality and Symbolic Boundaries in Romance Genre Fiction”
	Bennie Niles, IV (African American Studies / GSS) b-niles4@u.northwestern.edu “Queering the Starting Line: Making a Case for Caster Semenya and Other Non-Binary Athletes”
	Karly-Lynne Scott (Radio, TV, and Film / Screen Cultures) karlylynnescott2017@u.northwestern.edu “Pornographic Corporealities: Constructing the Body in Moving Image Representations of Sex”
	Stefan Vogler (Sociology) svogler@u.northwestern.edu “Legal Bureaucracies and the Production of Sexual Knowledge”

2015

	Robin Bartram (Sociology) rbartram@u.northwestern.edu “Uncertain Sexualities and Unusual Women: Museum Depictions of Jane Addams and Emily Dickinson”
	Catherine Harrington (RTVF/ Screen Cultures) charrington@u.northwestern.edu “Producing Prison: Prison representation and the negotiation of industry, technology and race 1970-present”
	Ryan Lei (Psychology) ryanlei2017@u.northwestern.edu “Who is Included When Talking About “Gays”?: The Role of Prototypicality on Ethnic Majority and Minority Member’s Group Identification and Support for Collective Action”
	Erik Lovell (Sociology) eriklovell2020@u.northwestern.edu “Negotiating Queer and Religious Identities: Integrating Contradictory Cultural Frameworks”

2014

	Clare Forstie (Sociology/ Gender & Sexuality Studies Cluster) cforstie@u.northwestern.edu “Queer Connections: Making Friends in Community and Identity Contexts”
	Roy Gomez Cruz (Performance Studies) roygomez@u.northwestern.edu “Transnational Acrobatics: Performing Flexible Labor and Fluid Sexuality in the Contemporary Circus”
	Rae Langes (Performance Studies) rlanges@u.northwestern.edu “Performing Monstrosity: Queer and Transgender Tactics of Resistance in Twenty-first Century United States.”
	Angela Leone (Rhetoric and Public Culture) angelacleone@gmail.com “Born Wild, Created to be Free: Sexual Promiscuity, Western Masculinity, and Religion in Professional Bull Riding”
	Kellie Owens (Sociology/ Science in Human Culture/ Medical Humanities) kowens@u.northwestern.edu “From the Delivery Room to the Bedroom: How Obstetricians and Midwives View Their Role in the Sexual Health of Their Patients”
	Karly-Lynne Scott (Screen Cultures/ RTVF) karlylynnescott2017@u.northwestern.edu “Supersensual: Erotic Engagements with Media and the Extension, Reconfiguration and Remapping of the Spectatorial Sensorium”

2013

	Kemi Adeyemi (Performance Studies) kadeyemi@u.northwestern.edu “Performing Somewhereness: Black Hipsters and the Politics of Belonging in the Gentrifying Neighborhood”
	Savina Balasubramanian (Sociology) savinabalasubramanian2015@u.northwestern.edu “From Griswold to Naz: Transnational Implications of Foreign and International Law for Sexual Politics in India, 1990-2009”
	Robin Bartram (Sociology) rbartram@u.northwestern.edu “Flirtation Flats and Race Suicide Apartments: Encouraging White Reproduction Through Architectural Design”
	Beth Hartman (Anthropology) bethhartman@u.northwestern.edu “An Ethnographic and Ethnomusicological Study of Stripping in the Midwestern U.S.”
	Jeff Kosbie (Sociology/Law) j-kosbie@nlaw.northwestern.edu “Contested Identities: Legal Translation and Social Movement Organizations”
	Justin G. Louie (Sociology/Management & Organizations) justin-louie@kellogg.northwestern.edu “Shifting Gay Identities and the Evolution of the Gay Bar”
	Mollie McQuillan (Human Development & Social Policy) molliem@u.northwestern.edu “Victimization Is More Strongly Associated With Depressive Symptoms for LGBTQ Adolescents Compared to Other Adolescents”
	Stefan Vogler (Sociology) svogler@u.northwestern.edu “Legally Queer: The Sexual Politics of Orientation Asylum”

2012

	Andrew Brown (Performance Studies) andrewbrown@u.northwestern.edu “Refuge in Performance: LGBTI Asylum Seekers and Belonging in South Africa”
	Teri Chettiar (History) terichettiar2011@u.northwestern.edu “Deprived Children, Unstable Marriages, and Neglectful Mothers: On the Rise of the Psychiatric Family and the Psychopolitics of Emotion in Britain, 1945-c.1979”
	Nisa Goksel (Sociology) nisagoksel2014@u.northwestern.edu “Transnational Political Mobilization of Kurdish Women: Narratives of Sexual Violence, Trauma, and Displacement”
	Jeffrey Kosbie (Sociology/Law) j-kosbie@nlaw.northwestern.edu “Queer(ing) Law: How LGBT Legal Organizations Use Law to Construct Identity”
	Melissa Minor Peters (Anthropology/Public Health) m-minor@northwestern.edu “Kuchu Kampala: Economic Aspirations and Queer Subjectivities in Uganda”
	Elizabeth Rodriguez (English) elizabeth.rodriguez@u.northwestern.edu “Consensual Relations: Sexual and Political Subjectivity in England, 1550-1680”

2011

	Tera Agyepong (African American Studies) tera@u.northwestern.edu “Intersecting Constructions of Race, Gender, and Sexuality: The Criminalization of African American Children in Chicago and the Development of the Juvenile Justice System (1896-1940).”
	Leigh Goldstein (Radio-Television-Film/Screen Cultures) leighgoldstein2014@u.northwestern.edu “Broadcasting Sex Ed”
	Gregory Mitchell (Performance Studies/Gender & Sexuality Studies) gcmitchell@gmail.com “Tourist Attractions: Gay Tourists and Men Who Sell Sex to Men in Brazil”