Category Archives: Graduate School

Transgender in Science: The Power of Mesearch

This blog post is a part of the series, “So Good,” developed by the APAGS Committee for Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity. This series will discuss current events and how these events relate to LGBTQ+ graduate students in psychology. If you are interested in contributing to the “So Good” series, please contact Mallaigh McGinley (they/them).

I believe that science can help us move towards a more kind, more just, and more equitable world, and that science can truly change lives for the better. When I initially attended undergrad from 2004-2006, I found I was consistently questioning myself and my life’s path. I felt, as I had for my entire life, that there was something wrong with me. No matter how hard I tried, I could not come up with the answers I needed to be successful. What I needed was to take the time necessary to figure out what I perceived was wrong with me, and to figure out what my path could actually be. I finally returned to continue my undergraduate degree in the Spring of 2015 after pursuing a completely different career in the restaurant industry. While I hadn’t exactly figured out what felt off, I did have a path – I saw the way the world treated those who did not fit within the standard conceptions of what was “normal” (e.g., transgender people, queer folks, BIPOC), and I wanted to do something to make it better. It’s the typical undergraduate student’s reason for pursuing an education in psychology: I wanted to help people. Less than one month after returning, I began to see news articles about the first in a series of papers from a longitudinal study following transgender children (Olson, Key, & Eaton, 2015). Reading the coverage of this article, and eventually the article itself, helped me realize that there were children out there who felt the way that I had felt as a child, and that they were remarkably similar to their cisgender peers. What this told me in that moment was that the way that I had felt all my life wasn’t beyond normal human variation; there was nothing wrong with me. It was then that I realized the power of scientific research to impact individuals and societies, while engaging in positive social change. While we have talked many times since I initially reached out to her, I don’t know if I have ever actually told Kristina that the article itself actually led me to becoming comfortable with who I am, and it led coming out. So… thanks, Kristina!

But we still live in a world where transgender people are misunderstood and discriminated against, in spite of landmark court decisions like Bostock v. Clayton County as well as the so-called “Transgender Tipping Point” that Time magazine declared in 2014.

Continue reading →

When You Said You See Me

When You Said You See Me

By Aldo M. Barrita

“But do you see me?” – this is the question I often ask as I navigate academic spaces that were never meant for people like me. Exploring the intersectionality of my salient identities as an immigrant Latinx queer graduate student while facing gaslighting statements of inclusion from a system that fails to acknowledge the harm of their oppression is a daily routine in my existence. For some, choosing how to “show up” in academic spaces is as simple as choosing what to wear for the day, for others like me, the process is much more complex as, I must moderate parts of who I am in white-hetero spaces to prevent yet another attack. Being queer and Latinx means having to negotiate pieces of my soul, in order to make it through a heterosexist, heteronormative, white supremacist world.

Every time I talk, there must be control: “Don’t move like that, don’t sound like that.” It never stops! It wasn’t enough growing up in a traditional macho Latinx house where femininity was simply unacceptable; it continues to replicate in academic spaces where there seems to be a clear preference for and comfort with normative gender roles. I am a cis-queer man who often benefits from hetero/cis-normative spaces. This has led to a lot of internalized homophobia, especially when I am reminded of it with things like “I couldn’t tell you are gay,” while thinking what that would even mean and what I unconsciously have done to silence a part of me in an effort to exist. I remember being asked on a professional interview, “so you identified as queer, is that like gay?” triggering an internal negotiation, thinking what would make them feel safer to accepting me and then responding “Yes!”while losing another part of myself. You see, the beauty for me about being queer is that I do not conform, yet with every question, I am being asked to, fit into a box less threatening for them. When would it be enough, when would I be enough?

Being Latinx – from an indigenous background of Zapotecan heritage from the beautiful region of Oaxaca, Mexico – comes with other layers of continuous invalidation: the anxiety before speaking up in a class or in a presentation, thinking about the “proper” colonial pronunciation I must adhere to before saying a word. “Interesting accent”, someone says as I realize I have been identified; I have been othered – knowing that my audience has focused on the discomfort of hearing my immigrant accent, the dare to sound different, instead of the message, the knowledge I tried to communicate. How am I supposed to excel in academia, when my own voice is used to keep me from fully entering these spaces of knowledge? When I first immigrated at the age of 16, I was warned by a Latinx school counselor, “You should work on losing your accent.” feeling betrayed, as I was asked by someone who looked like me to let go of who I was in order to fit. I resented them; I still do.

I was told grad school would be difficult, and I knew being a first-generation student would present additional challenges. However, the difficulty does not manifest in the rigorousness of the academics, but in the effort to erase people like me. I am a Latinx queer person, who is minoritized by a system that keeps trying to make me small, a statistic. I am not under-represented in these spaces; these spaces are systematically and intentionally excluding people like me.

As long as conversations of inclusion and equity are made about the person impacted and not about the system that impacts them, the real issue is avoided, and white cis straight academia lives another day. Using performative rhetoric to claim that we belong while continuing to see only what is safe and comfortable harms marginalized students – forced to choose between leaving their dreams of higher education or staying while continuously giving up part of themselves in order to exist. Perhaps it’s time for academic programs to SEE the systems of oppression that surrounds marginalized students, the ways they foster it, perpetuate minoritized students, and replicate the harm. Perhaps it’s time for these institutions to first SEE themselves for who they are and acknowledge the damage they continue to cause (and often ignore to recognize), to those they describe as “minority”. Perhaps it’s time to be intentional and action-oriented when condemning systems of oppression, increasing funds for D&I initiatives, and adding value to the invisible labor marginalized scholars constantly engage in in order to survive academic spaces.

So, I ask again, when you say you see me, do you see me, do you REALLY see me?

By Aldo M Barrita

View other posts in the So Good series:

CARED Perspectives: Impact of COVID-19 and Vaccines on Underserved Communities and Graduate Students

This post is a part of the series, “CARED Perspectives,” developed by the APAGS Committee for the Advancement of Racial and Ethnic Diversity (CARED). This series discusses current events and how these events relate to graduate students in psychology. If you are interested in contributing to the CARED Perspectives series, please contact Terrill Taylor, Chair of APAGS-CARED.

By Asia Perkins, Georgina Rosenbrock, and Sonia Rehman

We are swiftly approaching the anniversary marking two years of sheltering at home. At the outset of the coronavirus pandemic, it appeared that we were all in this together, that the virus was an equal opportunity offender, and that in a relatively short period of time, things would go back to normal. However, one thing that has been made clear since then is that our communities of color and other marginalized populations are disproportionately affected by this public health crisis. Specifically, members in our Black and African American, Latine, Indigenous Peoples, and Criminal and Juvenile Justice communities have been placed at higher risk for exposure to coronavirus due to lower rates of educational attainment, income, healthcare coverage, and the ability to consistently maintain social distance. For our students from underserved communities, we also witnessed a disproportionate impact on the quality of their virtual education compared to students from more privileged backgrounds (e.g., White, higher socioeconomic status, heterosexual, cisgender). Overall, pre-existing disparities across multiple domains have been, at best, highlighted, and, at worst, exacerbated by this pandemic.

It is no secret that there is a long history of medical mistreatment, abuse, and torture against marginalized communities, especially against Black, Indigenous, and Latine populations (e.g., Tuskegee Syphilis Study, forced sterilization, lack of anesthesia during surgeries and experimentation). As a result of this pattern of cruelty, infrahumanization, and dehumanization, many individuals who identify as racially or ethnically minoritized have been understandably hesitant to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. However, since the death rate for COVID-19 is highest among communities of color due to numerous systemic factors, this vaccine hesitancy has been particularly concerning. Individuals who did choose to seek out the vaccine faced their own series of challenges. Across the country, the COVID-19 vaccine has been disproportionately distributed to White communities. Additionally, we have observed a disturbing trend of wealthy, White individuals using their money and power to secure vaccine doses that were originally meant for poor communities and communities of color. These trends placed additional pressure and stress on graduate students of color as we watched our communities fight for health equity and struggle to place trust in a system that has consistently mistreated us.

The issues surrounding students are further intensified when it comes to international students in the U.S. For example, the impact of the U.S. government’s executive orders restricting travel from several countries in 2017 was widespread. A recent study showed that international students had to change their travel plans for conferences and visiting families. It also perpetuated fears about their ability to secure jobs after graduation to legally remain in the U.S. (Todoran et al., 2020). International students were experiencing similar fears during COVID-19 pandemic, including worries about maintaining visa status during virtual learning, graduating on time, and finding opportunities to secure optional practical training (OPT) after graduation. In addition, increased loneliness has also impacted these students. Research shows that loneliness affects individuals’ feelings of happiness, cognitive functioning, and physical health (Yeh, 2017). From early 2020, international students experienced isolation from family and friends with decreased opportunities to work on campus and increased expenses due to longer stays in the U.S. While many campuses have reopened for the fall semester of 2021, it is imperative to continue providing guidelines to individuals about the ways to enhance social connections to prevent loneliness.

Much like the communities we serve and reside in, graduate students from marginalized backgrounds have also been disproportionately impacted during the pandemic. The unexpected nature of this pandemic has brought additional costs for technology, housing, and training. Combined with increasingly limited opportunities for university funding and lost wages from off-campus employment sources, our low-income students have perhaps suffered the most when acclimating to this “new normal.” Many of us also lost access to systems of support that promoted our overall well-being, resulting in heightened depression, anxiety, stress, grief, and trauma. Taken altogether, these experiences have called for institutions to better support marginalized students’ emotional, health, and financial needs so they can continue to meet the challenges of pursuing graduate degrees while maintaining their health and well-being.

Overall, these past two years have been incredibly tough and stressful for many of us. While it is unlikely that 2022 will provide all of the solutions for our struggles, we hope that it will offer some moments of peace and healing through self-care, connecting with your community, and structural change.

References

Anderson, G. (2020, September 16). Low-income and students of color in greatest need of pandemic relief. Retrieved February 24, 2021, from https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/09/16/low-income-and-students-color-greatest-need-pandemic-relief

Baggaley, K. (2020, September 18). America has a long history of forced sterilization. Retrieved March 8, 2021, from https://www.popsci.com/story/health/forced-sterilization-american-history/

Bhavan, K. (2021, February 4). COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy: How to overcome the culture of mistrust. Retrieved March 8, 2021, from https://utswmed.org/medblog/covid-19-vaccine-hesitancy-mistrust/

Ellis, N., & McPhillips, T. (2021, January 26). White people are getting vaccinated at higher rates than Black and Latino Americans. Retrieved March 8, 2021, from https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/26/us/vaccination-disparities-rollout/index.html

Goodnough, A., & Hoffman, J. (2021, March 4). The wealthy are getting more vaccinations, even in poorer neighborhoods. Retrieved March 8, 2021, from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/02/health/white-people-covid-vaccines-minorities.html

Impact of covid-19 on minoritized and marginalized communities. (2020, October 7). Retrieved February 24, 2021, from https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/health-equity/impact-covid-19-minoritized-and-marginalized-communities

Jane Addams College of social work. (2020, April 29). Retrieved February 24, 2021, from https://socialwork.uic.edu/news-stories/covid-19-disproportionate-impact-marginalized-populations/

Laidler, J. (2020, October 30). COVID carries triple risks for college students of color. Retrieved February 24, 2021, from https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/10/covid-carries-triple-risks-for-college-students-of-color/

Nuriddin, A., Mooney, G., & White, A. I. (2020). Reckoning with histories of medical racism and violence in the USA. The Lancet, 396(10256), 949-951.

Todoran, C., & Peterson, C. (2020). Should They Stay or Should They Go? How the 2017 U.S. Travel Ban Affects International Doctoral Students. Journal of Studies in International Education, 24(4), 440–455. https://doi.org/10.1177/1028315319861344

Yeh, C. S. (2017, January 13). The power and prevalence of loneliness – harvard health blog – harvard health publishing. Harvard Health Blog. https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/the-power-and-prevalence-of-loneliness-2017011310977

Submit Your Convention Proposal to APAGS!

Hello Graduate Students!

This year APA Convention will be IN PERSON, in Minneapolis, MN from August 4-6, 2022. The APA2022 Call for Proposals is now open! Submitting a proposal to APAGS as a graduate student is an excellent way to share your research and ideas with a national audience and looks great on your CV!

Any graduate student may submit a proposal to APAGS. APAGS only accepts proposals for programs (symposia, conversation hours, and workshops) and posters (empirical, literature review meta-analysis, theoretical, and case studies) –no paper proposals.

As an additional bonus, all APAGS member first authors receive a one-time registration waiver for APA2022 (you will not be eligible for this benefit if you have received the waiver at a previous APA Convention). When submitting through the online portal, please select “GS” to send your proposals to APAGS for review.

Benefits of submitting a proposal to APAGS:

First authors do not have to pay for registration!
APAGS does not require sponsorship from a full APA member to submit.
You will be presenting your work to a national audience.

Requirements:

At least one presenter must be an APAGS member, however, you do not have to be an APAGS member to chair a session.
Program proposals should be broad and student focused.
Abstracts should be 300 words or less.
Theoretical and methodological studies should include: Purpose, Description, Assessment, and Conclusions. Use citations, include a reference list (not included in the word limit).

For more information, check out the APAGS FAQ about submitting a proposal and the APA blog post: Tips for Writing an Effective Proposal.

She Went That Way? A Pathway to Graduate School

If you are a fan of RuPaul’s Drag Race, ball culture, or queer nightlife, then you have probably heard gay men reclaim femmephobic or homonegative slurs, such as playing with pronouns or using the word “girl” as a term of endearment. And if you are wondering whether your invisible psychosocial disability bars you from graduate school, then girl, let me tell you something.

She—meaning me—took the path less traveled.

Of course, the reclamation of effeminacy from a heterosexist environment—spaces where there is one way to be masculine—comes from a place of privilege. Shifting between pronouns is relatively safe for a gay cisgender man. For my transgender or nonbinary peers, a change in pronouns is too often life-threatening. So, my intention is not to make light of pronouns, but to honor the gay male community that nourishes me.