Education

 

Georgia State University (GSU), Atlanta, GA

• Past graduate student in the PhD program in Sociology, Gender and Sexuality emphasis.

  • Dissertation: “Healthy Selves”: Gender Expression, Stigma and Discrimination and Its Effects on Black Transgender Women’s Mental and Sexual Health

• Master’s thesis – “Getting Freaky: Perversion & Promiscuity Within Alternative & Relationship and Sexual Modalities Among People of Color.” Committee: Wendy Simonds, PhD (Chair), Layli Phillips, PhD (Wellesley College), and Maura Ryan, PhD. Awarded August 2013.

 

San Francisco State University (SFSU), San Francisco, CA

• Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Minor in LGBT Studies, May 2004.

• Undergraduate Honors Thesis: “Dialectics of Desire: A Qualitative Analysis of the Educations of Black Lesbian and Bisexual Young Women.”  Mentored by Jessica Fields, PhD (Sociology, SFSU), Michele Berger, PhD (Political Science & Women’s Studies, UNC-Chapel Hill) and Sacha Bunge, PhD (Psychology, SFSU).

 

Skills

 

Quantitative and Qualitative research designs including SPSS, NViVo, and Dedoose data coding, entry, and analysis; Evaluation formulation, collection, and data analysis; Ethnographic training and research; gaining access and participant recruitment; experienced in participant observation, interviewing, and conducting focus groups; APA, MLA, and ASA scientific writing; presenting research in academic and professional settings.

 

Awards

 

NIMH-Career Opportunities in Research Scholar, 2002 – 2004

Dean’s List at SFSU, 2001- 2004

Minority Undergraduate Research Assistant Program Fellow, Summer 2003

Hewlett Packard Scholarship Recipient, Fall 1998

 

Professional and Academic Affiliations

 

Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association Member

Sexual Liberation Collective

American Sociological Association Member

Southern Sociological Society Member

Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality Member

Past Co-President of GSU BlackOUT, a Queer Africana Activist Organization

Past Member of Students Promoting Education, Activism, and Knowledge (SPEAK), a WSI Activist Organization

Sociology Graduate Student Association

 

Board Appointments

 

Board Treasurer, SPARK Reproductive Justice NOW!, 2014 - present 

Community Advisory Board, Diversified Sexuality, Research, and Education Institute, 2018 - present

Board Secretary, Atlanta Harm Reduction Coalition, 2015 - 2018

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Employment

 

Lecturer, Women’s & Gender Studies & Sociology at Clayton State University, Fall 2015 – present

Adjunct Faculty at Brown Mackie College, May 2015 – July 2015

Graduate Research Assistant for GSU’s School of Public Health, Fall 2011 – Spring 2015

Independent Contractual Transcriber for GSU’s Institute of Public Health, Fall 2009-Summer 2010

Student-Athlete tutor in GSU’s Athletic Department, Fall 2005-Fall 2007

Volunteer Student Research Assistant, Dr. Jessica Fields, SFSU, Fall 2003-Spring 2004.

Volunteer for the Sexual Minorities Alliance of Alameda County, Nov. 2002-May 2003.

Student Research Assistant, Dr. Jessica Fields, SFSU, Spring 2002.

 

Guest Lectures

 

• Monique Walker's  Sexuality: Issues in Family Therapy and Service Delivery Course/University of Maryland (July 2019)

• Ericka Hart’s Master’s of Social Work class/Columbia University (April 2018)

• Dr. Tiffany King’s Gender & Sexuality in the African Diaspora class/Women’s Studies Institute, Georgia State University (March 2014)

• Dr. Elroi Windsor’s Gender & Society class/Sociology, Georgia State University (February 2010/2009)

 

Published Articles

 

​Hargons, C.N., Thorpe, S., Malone, N., Wright, C.J., Dogan, J.N., Mizelle, D.L., Stuck, J.L., Sullivan, Q., Sanchez, A., Bohmer, C., Stage, M., Bruther, K., Vigil, K., Cineas, M., & Gilbert, T. Black people's constructions of good sex: Describing good sex from the margins. Sexualities.  

​

Phillips, Layli & Marla R. Stewart. (2010). “Nontraditional, Nonconforming, and Transgressive Gender Expression and Relationship Modalities in Black Communities.”  Black Sexualities: Probing Powers, Passions, Practices, and Policies (Collective Work), edited by Sandra Barnes & Juan Battle, Rutgers University Press.

 

Phillips, Layli & Marla R. Stewart. (2008). “’I Am Just So Glad You Are Alive’: New Perspectives on Non-traditional, Non-conforming, and Transgressive Expressions of Gender, Sexuality, and Race among African Americans.”  Journal of African American Studies, 12, 4, 378-400.

 

Stewart, Marla (2008).  “To Be Young, Pretty & Queer.” Femmes of Power: Exploding Queer Femininities (Collective Work), edited by Del LaGrace Volcano & Ulrika Dahl, Serpent’s Tail, London, England.

 

Academic Conference Presentations

 

Being Black, Poly, & Kinky: Navigating Power, Equity, & Anarchy in Alternative Relationship Modalities (July 2017). Presented at Poly Dallas Millennium Conference, Dallas, TX.

 

Teaching Pleasure: Embracing Comfort When Teaching About Sex (July 2016).  Presented at the University of Guelph Sexuality Conference, Guelph, Ontario, Canada.

 

Perverts of Color: Black Kinky Lesbians & the Discernment of Identity (April 2014).  Presented at the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association Conference, Chicago, IL.

 

Perverts of Color versus Promiscuity: Alternative Sexual Communities Navigating the Phenomenologies of Power (April 2014).  Presented at the Southern Sociological Society, Charlotte, NC.

 

"Getting Freaky": Perversion & Promiscuity Within Alternative Relationship & Sexual Modalities Among People of Color (March 2014).  Presented at the Whose Beloved Community? Conference, Emory University, Atlanta, GA.

 

Sexual Liberation at the Intersections (February 2014).  Presented at the Creating Change Conference, Houston, TX.

 

Transgressive Gender & Sexuality Expressions in Black Communities (February 2007). Presented at the Thinking Gender Conference, University of California – Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA.

 

Probing the W(hole): Transfags Negotiations of Their Sexuality (April 2006).  Presented at the Youth and Sexuality Forum, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA.

 

Subverting Femme Identity: Corruption in Queer Thinking (March 2006).  Presented at the Toni Cade Bambara Scholar-Activism Conference at Spelman College, Atlanta, GA.

 

Mediating our Black Queer Masculinites:  An Analysis of Women and Transgendered Identities (April 2005).  Presented at the Southern Sociological Society Conference, Charlotte, NC.

 

Three Different Lesbians, One Gender:  Ways to Deconstruct Gender (April 2005).  Presented at a Roundtable discussion at the Southern Sociological Society Conference, Charlotte, NC.

 

Lesbians and Influences of Hip-Hop (April 2005).  Presented as a Panel Discussant at the Hip Hop Movement Conference at Brookdale Community College, Lincroft, NJ.

 

Freeing Gender:  Interrogating the Bipolarity in Femininity and Masculinity in Queer Identities (March 2005).  Presented at the National Council for Black Studies Conference on the Queer Africana Panel, New Orleans, LA.

 

Renegotiating our Queer Black Masculinities (February 2005).  Presented at the Black Masculinities Conference at The City University of New York Graduate Center, New York, NY.

 

Mental and Sexual Health Attitudes Reflected in the Sexuality Education of Black Lesbian and Bisexual Young Women (November 2003).  Presented at the NIMH-Career Opportunities in Research Psychology Conference, Bethesda, MD.

 

An Exploration of Black Young Women’s Sexuality (August 2003).  Presented at the American Sociological Association Conference, Atlanta, GA.

 

Dialectics of Desire: A Qualitative Analysis of the Educations of Black Lesbian and Bisexual Young Women (July 2003).  Presented at the Summer Program for the Graduate Research Experience Poster Session, University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, NC.

 

Dialectics of Desire: A Qualitative Analysis of the Educations of Black Lesbian and Bisexual Young Women (July 2003).  Presented at the Minority Undergraduate Research Assistant Program Session, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, NC.

 

Black Young Women’s Experiences of Sexuality Education (May 2003). Presented at the SFSU Colloquium for Career Opportunities in Research, SFSU, CA.

 

The Relevancy of Sex Education among Black Lesbian and Bisexual Young Women (May 2003). Presented at the Psychology Honor’s Colloquium, SFSU, CA.

 

An Exploration of Black Young Women’s Sexuality (April 2003). Competed at the CSU Social Science Research and Instructional Council 27th Annual Student Conference, SFSU, CA.