UROP Project

Policy diffusion; Transgender policy; higher education

Research Mentor: Mingxu Li, She/Her
Department, College, Affiliation: Askew School of Public Administration, Social Sciences and Public Policy
Contact Email: ml22a@fsu.edu
Research Assistant Supervisor (if different from mentor):
Research Assistant Supervisor Email:
Faculty Collaborators:
Faculty Collaborators Email:

Looking for Research Assistants: Yes
Number of Research Assistants: 1
Relevant Majors: Public administration; Higher education
Project Location: On FSU Main Campus
Research Assistant Transportation Required:
Remote or In-person: Partially Remote
Approximate Weekly Hours: 10,
Roundtable Times and Zoom Link: Not participating in the Roundtable

Project Description

The political response to the transgender issue has become polarized within the U.S. (Kline et al., 2023). There is a continuing changing environment of transgender policies at the federal level and the continuing increasing anti-transgender rights policies at the state level (Larson, 2022; Kline et al., 2023). Transgender individuals might experience very differently based on where they live. Putting these geographical differences into the context of higher education. Without specific, explicit, and holistic Federal-level inclusion of transgender students’ rights at the federal level, higher education institutions have the discretion to implement regulations that are against transgender groups’ rights in response to state-level policies and public opinions (Crissman et al., 2020; Coffey, 2022). Using the theory of policy diffusion and innovation, which focuses on learning how a policy or program that is new to an entity gets adopted and what factors influence the adoption decision, this study aims to understand how these policy movements at higher levels (federal and state levels) would influence transgender policy adoptions at higher education institutions (Berry & Berry, 2018).

References:
Berry, F., & Berry, W. (2018). Innovation and Diffusion Models in Policy Research. Theories of the Policy Process (4th ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429494284

Coffey, L. M. (2022). Equity or Discrimination: Addressing Legal Challenges to Transgender Participation in U.S. High School and College Sport. Journal of Global Sport Management, ahead-of-print(ahead-of-print), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/24704067.2022.2071321
Crissman, H. P., Czuhajewski, C., Moniz, M. H., Plegue, M., & Chang, T. (2020). Youth Perspectives regarding the Regulating of Bathroom Use by Transgender Individuals. Journal of Homosexuality, 67(14), 2034–2049. https://doi.org/10.1080/00918369.2019.1618646

Kline, N. S., Webb, N. J., Johnson, K. C., Yording, H. D., Griner, S. B., & Brunell, D. J. (2023). Mapping transgender policies in the US 2017–2021: The role of geography and implications for health equity. Health & Place, 80, 102985–102985. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2023.102985

Larson, S. J. (2022). Actions for Queering American Public Administration. Administration & Society, 54(1), 145–163. https://doi.org/10.1177/00953997211011937


Research Tasks: Literature Review;
Data collection (collecting data from higher education institutions regards their transgender-related policies and regulations; collecting state-level transgender-related policies)

Skills that research assistant(s) may need: Data Collection and Analysis (required);
Critical Thinking (recommended);
Verbal and Written Communication Skills (required)