T o m _ W a i d z u n a s
Doctoral Candidate
UCSD Sociology/Science Studies
email: twaidzun@ucsd.edu
office hours | courses | interests | research | links
Spring 2010 office hours
Monday 2:30pm - 3:30pm
Thursday 11am - 12pm
Social Sciences Building (SSB) 465
Map to SSB
courses
SOC/L40 Sociology of Health Care Issues, Spring 2010
interests
My interests are in topics at the intersection of sexuality studies, sociology of sexuality and gender,
and science and technology studies. Some of my projects have included research on gender and sexual identity
within the engineering profession, the consolidation and impact of statistics about gay teen suicide, and
the history of phallometric testing (a technology which deploys "penile plethysmography" and erotic imagery to
determine sexual "truths" about subjects). I have been working on this latter project in collaboration
with my faculty advisor, Steve Epstein.
research
"Drawing the Straight Line:
Hierarchies of Evidence Across Social Worlds in Sexual Reorientation Therapy Debates"
My dissertation will examine how scientific evidence and its credibility have been shaped
in debates over the efficacy of conversion treatments for homosexuality in the United States
from the 1950s to the present. Ethical disagreements over attempts to "cure" homosexuality have
often been redirected into technical disputes over how sexual (re)orientation is to be measured.
Recently, influential psychiatrist Dr. Robert Spitzer claimed to have demonstrated therapeutic
efficacy based on self-report data of subjects. Detractors of his study have called for physiological
"truthing" measurements taken directly from the body--a method which presently serves as the gold
standard in sexology. This contemporary controversy is part of a history of shifting hierarchies
of evidence within these debates, and these hierarchies have had significant consequences for
broader cultural understandings of sexual orientation. While much social research on conversion
therapy has treated these practices as primarily a religious phenomenon, this project will underscore
struggles within the domain of technoscience. Using theoretical approaches from Science and Technology
Studies, this study will utilize interviews with key actors in these controversies, attendance at
relevant conferences, and analysis of scientific literature to illuminate contingent factors shaping
hierarchies of evidence. Such factors include the role of social movements and countermovements, the
efforts of various professionals in establishing professional jurisdiction, the boundary work efforts
of scientists, and the broader historical context. With a focus on these concerns in the United States,
the analysis will include a comparison between a "pathology era" (1950-1973) when homosexuality was
heavily medicalized, and a "demedicalized era" (1973-present). Moreover, by closely examining the
deployment of conversion therapy research, this dissertation will demonstrate how scientific practice
contributes to the development of various diagnostic technologies along with corresponding cultural
notions of sexuality--how this aspect of humanity is understood to be experienced within the body, mind,
or both.
links
American Sociological Association
Society for Social Studies of Science
Rollercoaster Database