CURRENT RESEARCH PROJECTS
The New Queer Teenager
The California Community Climates Project on Sexual and Gender Identity Diversity (C3)
The C3 Project was launched with funding from the William T. Grant Foundation. The aim of the project is to examine variability in identity and minority stress among teenagers in distinct regions of California that have been either historically supportive of sexual and gender identity diversity (i.e., the San Francisco Bay Area) or historically hostile (i.e., the Central Valley). The project has used multiple methods, including survey, ethnographic, interview, and community assessment.
social change & the queer life course
The Generations Project
The Generations Project is a multi-site study funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The aim of the project is to examine differences and similarities in identity, stress, and health in three distinct birth cohorts of sexual minorities. The project has a dataset of almost 200 interviews of diverse sexual minorities across the USA, as well as an extensive longitudinal survey of a national probability sample of almost 1000 sexual minorities. Professor Hammack's focus on the project is on narratives of sexual identity development and social and historical change, intersectionality of social identities, and sexual cultures and practices (especially among gay and bisexual men in the PrEP era).
Queer intimacies
The Queer Intimacies Project
The Queer Intimacies Project examines the social and psychological experience of individuals in non-normative relationships, including same-sex, polyamorous, kink/fetish, and chosen families. The project also seeks to document the unique experiences of individuals who identify as asexual, transgender, gender non-binary, bisexual, pansexual, sexually fluid, heteroflexible, or other labels in relationships. The study is currently in its first phase, with researchers conducting interviews with individuals in "24/7" kink/fetish relationships.
Queer intimacies
The Queer Intimacies Project
The Queer Intimacies Project examines the social and psychological experience of individuals in non-normative relationships, including same-sex, polyamorous, kink/fetish, and chosen families. The project also seeks to document the unique experiences of individuals who identify as asexual, transgender, gender non-binary, bisexual, pansexual, sexually fluid, heteroflexible, or other labels in relationships. The study is currently in its first phase, with researchers conducting interviews with individuals in "24/7" kink/fetish relationships.
EMERGING PROJECTS
EMERGING PROJECTS
Queer Masculinities
The Queer Masculinities Project
The twenty-first century is a time of gender revolution. What diverse forms of masculinity have emerged in this era? This emerging project seeks to document the way in which male-identified individuals experience and express masculinity while resisting traditional, hegemonic forms that have historically oppressed women and sexual minorities. Such "queer" masculinities include those forms expressed by gay, bisexual, pansexual, and transgender men, as well as butch lesbians and straight-identified men who defy conventional notions of masculinity.
THE SEXUAL & GENDER DIVERSITY LABORATORY
The Sexual & Gender Diversity Laboratory is based in the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Scholars affiliated with the lab take an interdisciplinary approach that is problem-centered, rather than discipline-centered, but nonetheless draw heavily from the perspectives of critical social psychology and cultural psychology. Theories and methods from across the social sciences are used to examine socially relevant research questions related to sexuality and gender. Research projects associated with the lab are theoretically grounded, seek to empower the voices of research participants through an emphasis on qualitative methods, and possess implications for concrete social action and/or public policy.