Summary
I am a Fat Studies researcher. Fat Studies is an interdisciplinary field that confronts and critiques cultural constraints against notions of fatness and the fat body. Fat studies researchers explore fat bodies as they are embodied and are shaped by/remake the world. Fat Studies creates paradigms for the development of fat acceptance and celebration within mass culture.
My current research interests include the development, maintenance, and revision of fat identity and the education of service workers on the myths associated with obesity.
During my doctoral work, I studied under Dr. Gwendolyn T. Sorell on the Adult Identity Development Project. The AIDP collects data on adult identity development, maintenance, and revision - ranging from parental identity, work identity, sibling identity, friendship identity, spiritual identity, weight identity, and body identity. My dissertation explored weight identity in fat women.
I maintain a presence in the Fatosphere with my blog, Tumblr, and radio show/podcast, ‘Friend of Marilyn’. In 2012, I am hosting the first Fat Studies conference in New Zealand at Massey University, Wellington.
Experience
- Lecturer, Massey University 2008 – present
Education
- Texas Tech University, Doctor of Philosophy - Human Development & Family (Human Development), 2007