UROP Project
Firearms and Frustration: Exploring the Intersection of Involuntary Celibacy and Weapon Access
firearms; guns; mental health; access to weapons; incels; politics; gender; masculinity
Research Mentor: benjamin.dowd-arrow@fsu.edu Benjamin Dowd-Arrow, He / him / they / them
Department, College, Affiliation: Public Health, Social Sciences and Public Policy
Contact Email: benjamin.dowd-arrow@fsu.edu
Research Assistant Supervisor (if different from mentor):
Research Assistant Supervisor Email:
Faculty Collaborators:
Faculty Collaborators Email:
Department, College, Affiliation: Public Health, Social Sciences and Public Policy
Contact Email: benjamin.dowd-arrow@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: 2
Relevant Majors: Open to all majors.
Project Location: On FSU Main Campus
Research Assistant Transportation Required: Yes Remote or In-person: Partially Remote
Approximate Weekly Hours: 10, Flexible schedule (Combination of business and outside of business. TBD between student and research mentor.)
Roundtable Times and Zoom Link: Friday, September 8th, 12-2 PM. https://fsu.zoom.us/j/93226362440
Number of Research Assistants: 2
Relevant Majors: Open to all majors.
Project Location: On FSU Main Campus
Research Assistant Transportation Required: Yes Remote or In-person: Partially Remote
Approximate Weekly Hours: 10, Flexible schedule (Combination of business and outside of business. TBD between student and research mentor.)
Roundtable Times and Zoom Link: Friday, September 8th, 12-2 PM. https://fsu.zoom.us/j/93226362440
Project Description
This project will explore the connections between those who identify as members of the incel community and firearm ownership. We will be using two different datasets. The first, the 2021 Crime, Health, and Politics Survey, was collected by UTSA and uses deidentified data that has undergone IRB approval. I have published numerous papers from this data so far. The second dataset is awaiting IRB approval from FSU and will require collecting Reddit posts and YouTube comments to analyze how often terms such as firearms, violence, and guns are used in the discourse of the communities that appeal to involuntary celibates.Research Tasks: Conducting literature reviews
Collecting and coding data (once IRB is approved)
Minor writing / editing tasks
Skills that research assistant(s) may need: Recommended: strong writing proficiency.
Mentoring Philosophy
My goal as a mentor is to motivate my students to actively engage with the concepts that we are researching. I endeavor to push students to leave their comfort zone and examine their fixed belief systems with a critical lens. I introduce them to media, philosophy, and theory to help them navigate their social worlds as well as critique their relative social position within it. I often use an interdisciplinary framework. It draws on the theorizing of criminologists, demographers, medical sociologists, and public health scholars. I feel this helps to connect the theoretical and empirical work of sociologists with that of other related disciplines, particularly those that are applied (e.g., social work, public health). An important goal of this interdisciplinary approach is to promote an understanding of the influence of social structure on social life, focusing on real world solutions to controversial social problems.The most important thing that I have learned as a mentor is that our students are the future of our field and if we want to grow our field, we must foster positive relationships with them. To that end, I have worked with several undergraduate students in their own efforts to develop research questions and research agendas. Several of my former students have gone on to present their own research in symposiums and a few have presented at our regional conferences. Some of my past students have even published with me.