Women's Studies Department Faculty

REBECCA YOUNG

Assistant Professor of Women's Studies

Research and Teaching Interests:

Professor Young is a sociomedical scientist whose research includes social epidemiology studies of HIV/AIDS, and evaluation of biological work on sex, gender and sexuality. Prior to joining the faculty at Barnard College, she was a Principal Investigator and Deputy Director of the Social Theory Core at the Center for Drug Use and HIV Research of the National Development and Research Institutes, Inc., and has been a Health Disparities Scholar sponsored by the National Institutes of Health. She teaches courses in critical science studies, sexuality, gender theory, and HIV/AIDS. In the spring of 2008, Professor Young was a Visiting Scholar at the Cognitive Neuroscience Sector, International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA), Trieste, Italy, and a featured speaker in the FEST Trieste International Science Media Fair.

Her forthcoming book, “Sex, Hormones and Hardwiring: Re-thinking the
Theory of Brain Organization,” is a comprehensive critical analysis of
research purporting to demonstrate that hormone exposures in utero
permanently “organize” the brain to be either masculine or feminine.
 

Publications:

Nehm, R.H. and Young, R.M. "Sex Hormones" in Secondary School Biology Textbooks. Science & Education. 17(10): 1175-1190, 2008.

"The Trouble with 'WSW' and 'MSM': Erasure of the Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Person in Public Health Discourse" (with I. Meyer), American Journal of Public Health 95 (2005)

"Exploring an HIV Paradox: An Ethnography of Sexual Minority Women Injectors" (with S. Friedman and P. Case), Journal of Lesbian Studies 9 (2005)

"The Political Science of Hormone Folklore," Cardozo Women's Law Journal 11 (2005)

"The (Non-Living) Wages of WEP: A Barrier to Vocational Rehabilitation For Substance Users" (with E. Benoit), Substance Use and Misuse 39 (2004)

"Assessing Risk in the Absence of Information: HIV Risk Among Women Injection Drug Users Who Have Sex with Women" (with G. Weissman and J. Cohen), AIDS and Public Policy Journal 7 (Fall 1992)

Taking It to the Streets: Street Level AIDS Prevention in Washington, DC (Washington, DC: Drug Policy Foundation, 1990)

AIDS and Adolescents: Resources for Educators (Washington, DC: Center for Population Options, 1987)

Selected Courses

Introduction to Women and Health

Introduction to Sexuality Studies

Gender and HIV/AIDS

Sexualities and Science

Selected Grants

2001 – 2004: Principal Investigator, "Measuring Sexual Minority Status Among Women Drug Users"
National Institutes of Health (NIDA)
Grant # R03 DA14399-01

2001 - 2002: Principal Investigator, "Pilot Studies of Analytic Dialogues with Women Drug Users"
Center for Drug Use and HIV Research, NDRI, Inc.
Grant #P30 DA11041

1997: Co Investigator, "HIV Risk Among Women Injectors Who Have Sex with Women" NDRI, Inc.
National Institutes of Health (NIDA)
Grant #1 R01 DA10870 01

1997 - 1998: Dissertation Fellow, Sexuality Research Fellowship Program, Social Science Research Council

Selected Honors

2003-04: Health Disparities Scholar, National Center on Minority Health & Health Disparities (NCMHD)

2003: Disability Access Recognition Award, Barnard College

2002: Trinity Scholar, Trinity College, Hartford, CT

2000: Marisa de Castro Benton Prize for Outstanding Dissertation in the Sociomedical Sciences; Ph.D. dissertation with Distinction

1993: John and Kathleen Gorman Public Health Humanitarian Award, Columbia University School of Public Health

Activist Interests

Peace, social justice, human rights.