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Department of Sociology and Anthropology

Dr. Jason Whitesel

Joint Appointment in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
VP and Provost
Office
Schroeder Hall - SCH 347
Office Phone
(309) 438-8637office
phone
Email
jawhit6@ilstu.eduemail
  • About
  • Education
  • Research

Biography

Dr. Jason Whitesel writes, teaches, and gives talks on queer studies, stigmatized groups’ embodied resistance to injustice, and the intersectionalities of race/ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, body weight, appearance, age, disability, and nationality, and how interlocking identities define some lives as less/more valuable than others. He has authored Fat Gay Men: Girth, Mirth, and the Politics of Stigma, and coedited a special issue on “Fat Activism” for Fat Studies, in addition to publishing in peer-reviewed journals and collections. He is jointly employed in Sociology and Gender Studies at Illinois State University.

Current Courses

498.002Professional Practice:In Sociology

400.002Independent Study

400.001Independent Research in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

400.004Independent Study

292.001Introduction to LGBTQ Studies

292.002Introduction to LGBTQ Studies

498.001Professional Practice:In Sociology

291.007Undergraduate Teaching Experience In Sociology-Antropology

PhD Sociology

Ohio State University
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BA Psychology

Purdue University

Book, Authored

Whitesel, Jason. 2014. Fat Gay Men: Girth, Mirth, and the Politics of Stigma, New York, NY: NYU Press.
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Book, Chapter

Whitesel, Jason. 2023. “Big-Gay Men Entering the Twenty-First Century: Global Perspectives on Fat-Affirming Subcultures and Imagery.” The Contemporary Reader of Gender and Fat Studies, edited by Amy E. Farrell, pp. 241 – 264. New York, NY: Routledge.
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Whitesel, Jason. 2021. "Review of Scholarship on Fat-Gay Men." International Handbook of Fat Studies, edited by Cat Pausé and Sonya Renee Taylor, 217 – 236. New York, NY: Routledge.
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Whitesel, Jason. 2019. “Big Gay Men’s Performative Protest against Body Shaming: The Case of Girth and Mirth.” Body Battlegrounds: Transgressions, Tensions, Transformations, edited by Chris Bobel and Samantha Kwan, 129 – 143. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press.
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Journal Article

Whitesel, Jason. 2022. “On Becoming a Queer Scholar Doing Body-Image Research.” Racial Democracy, Crime & Justice Network: Our Stories 3(3): 1 – 26.
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Whitesel, Jason and Stefanie Snider. 2021. "Interactive Nature of Fat Activism and Fat Studies Within and Outside Academia." Fat Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Body Weight & Society 10(3): 215 – 220.
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Whitesel, Jason. 2017. “Intersections of Multiple Oppressions: Racism, Sizism, Ableism, and the ‘Illimitable Etceteras’ in Encounters with Law Enforcement.” Sociological Forum 32(2): 426 – 433. *Top 20 Most-Downloaded Article, year-end 2017.
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Whitesel, Jason. 2017. “The Disruptive Power of Social/Queer/Fat/Human/Countercultural Junk.” MELK: A Norwegian Queer Cultural Magazine, 4(1): 52 – 61.
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Whitesel, Jason and Amy Shuman. 2016. “Discursive Entanglements, Diffractive Readings: Weight-Loss-Surgery Narratives of Girth & Mirthers.” Fat Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Body Weight and Society 5(1): 32 – 56.

Presentations

Whitesel, Jason. 2023. “Weight Bias and Fat Stigma.” Friedman Speaker Series, Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts University, Boston, Massachusetts, March 15.
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Whitesel, Jason. 2019. “Big Gay Men Challenging Body Shame.” Panel on Body Battlegrounds: Transgressions, Tensions, and Transformations. National Women’s Studies Association Annual Conference, San Francisco, California, November 14 –17.
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Whitesel, Jason. 2019. “Queer 101: What is Queer?” Panel on Queering/Querying Bodies. Annual Meeting of the Midwest Sociological Society, Chicago, Illinois, April 17 – 20.

*Older publications and presentations available upon request.