I am a Ph.D candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. My research focuses on the intersection between race and sexuality in queer populations. My current project studies sexual stratification, assimilation, and race relations in Chicago’s Boystown. I consider myself an ‘academic activist’ because research should not only generate knowledge, but it should also produce positive change.

I am also a scholar of identity management, especially coming out. My theory of strategic outness–the continual contextual management of queer identity–is a sociological alternative to developmental coming out theories. The latest articulations can be found in Sexualities and The Sociological Quarterly.  I use qualitative methods, including ethnographic participant observation, in-depth interviewing, and autoethnography. My book on qualitative methods Context is Everything, co-authored with Michael Bell, is currently under contract with Routledge. I received my M.S. in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and my B.A in Sociology and Humanities with a focus on Queer Studies from the University of Texas at Austin.

You can find me also at my ethnography blog, Queer Metropolis. 

For a description of my current research in nontechnical language–using only the 1000 most common english words–see here.