UROP Project
Understanding the Intersectional Social Construction of Deservingness to Parent
reproductive justice; demography; sociology; intersectionality; survey experiments
Research Mentor: Dr. Lindsay Cannon, she/her
Department, College, Affiliation: Sociology, Social Sciences and Public Policy
Contact Email: lcannon2@fsu.edu
Research Assistant Supervisor (if different from mentor):
Research Assistant Supervisor Email:
Faculty Collaborators:
Faculty Collaborators Email:
Department, College, Affiliation: Sociology, Social Sciences and Public Policy
Contact Email: lcannon2@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: Sociology; Public Health; Psychology; Economics; Social Work; Criminology; Anthropology; Political Science (generally social science students but open to adjacent majors as well)
Project Location: On FSU Main Campus
Research Assistant Transportation Required: No, the project is remote Remote or In-person: Partially Remote
Approximate Weekly Hours: 5-10, Flexible schedule (Combination of business and outside of business. TBD between student and research mentor.)
Roundtable Times and Zoom Link:
Number of Research Assistants: 1
Relevant Majors: Sociology; Public Health; Psychology; Economics; Social Work; Criminology; Anthropology; Political Science (generally social science students but open to adjacent majors as well)
Project Location: On FSU Main Campus
Research Assistant Transportation Required: No, the project is remote Remote or In-person: Partially Remote
Approximate Weekly Hours: 5-10, Flexible schedule (Combination of business and outside of business. TBD between student and research mentor.)
Roundtable Times and Zoom Link:
- Day: Wednesday, September 2
Start Time: 4:00
End Time: 6:00
Zoom Link: https://fsu.zoom.us/j/6093242534?omn=94089628712
Project Description
Reproductive justice—a theory derived from the Black feminist and disability justice traditions—argues that centering the rights to have children, to not have children, and to parent children in safe and sustainable communities are key to dismantling systems of stratified reproduction. In the United States, reproduction has long been mired in the logic of stratified reproduction—a system of inequality structured around the valuation of some people’s reproduction and right to parent and the degradation of others’ (Harris & Wolfe 2014; Ginsburg & Rapp 1995). This system, which casts some parents as more socially desirable, differentially distributes resources in the United States. While the reproduction of women with disabilities, women of color, and poor women has historically been curtailed and surveilled through forced sterilization and differential encouragement of long-acting reversible contraception (Higgins 2014; Higgins, Kramer, & Ryder 2016; Roberts 1997), delayed childbearing and declining fertility rates among abled-bodied, white, and advantaged women are oft-lamented as social ills (Harris & Wolfe 2014). Understanding how stratified reproduction affects the perceived deservingness of people with marginalized identities to parent has important implications for reproductive justice. Intersectionally marginalized people (i.e., lower socioeconomic status, racial minorities, non-citizens, people with disabilities and chronic diseases) may be less supported in their pregnancy and parenting choices, less likely to be selected as adoptive parents, and more likely to be investigated and face child removal through policing systems. Perceptions of deservingness to parent may also impact social support for social welfare programs designed to help people with fewer resources to parent. In this study, the team will use a survey experiment to measure interactions between perceived parental deservingness and intersectionally marginalized identities through a factorial vignette survey experiment. This survey will provide novel data to systematically measure beliefs about reproductive stratification to understand how population panics are constructed and how lay audiences interact with these rhetorics.Research Tasks: Possible research tasks include literature review, survey creation, survey data collection, and data cleaning
Skills that research assistant(s) may need: Required: Critical thinking, high-level organizational skills, ability to synthesize information, communication and writing skills, highly detail-oriented, curiosity
Recommended: Familiarity with Qualtrics
Mentoring Philosophy
Interactive, application-based learning: I believe mentors should prepare students to work independently, starting from an interactive, apprentice-style relationship, and working toward independence as the student grows their skills. I believe that students should be engaged with the research process early so they can enter their next stage feeling confident in their ability to apply research methods.Facilitating a supportive, inclusive, and sustainable learning environment: This approach emphasizes transparency in the mentoring process. Each person comes to the mentoring relationship with their own experiences and knowledge. Preventing student burnout and prioritizing rapport are key. Individuals are responsible for vocalizing their needs and asking for help when they need it. This is hard, and we do not always get this right, especially in the learning process. I use multiple learning modalities, such as explaining, using readings and journal clubs, using practice data analysis activities, and code review, to ensure different learning styles are accommodated.
Developing translatable skills: I recognize that students leave the mentoring environment with a wide range of plans and aspirations. At the beginning of each mentoring interaction, I gather information on what skills students hope to strengthen during our time working together. I use this feedback to tailor the learning environment. This may mean working towards a research product, but may also involve working together to achieve longer-term goals, such as learning a new method or laying the groundwork for a new study. I work with students to identify the career goals and specific skills most relevant to them.