***Please Note: the talk scheduled for today (Monday, April 16) by Shawn McGuffey has been postponed due to weather-related travel difficulities. Ithaca College willannounce the new date for his talk when those arrangements have been finalized

 

ITHACA, NY—“‘It's a White Thing’: The Impact of Gender and Race on Male Child Sexual Abuse” is the title of a talk to be delivered at Ithaca College on Monday, April 16, by Shawn McGuffey, assistant professor of sociology at Boston College. The talk, which is free and open to the public, will be held at 7 p.m. in Emerson Suite C, Phillips Hall.

 

McGuffey’s main areas of research and teaching include social psychology; sociology of race, class and gender; and sociology of childhood and the family. His 2005 article “Engendering Trauma: Race, Class and Gender Reaffirmation after Child Sexual Abuse” won the Sally Hacker Award of the Sex and Gender Section of the American Sociological Association, given to the best publication about gender. An earlier article, “Playing in the Gender Transgression Zone: Race, Class and Hegemonic Masculinity in Middle Childhood,” has been reprinted in at least four undergraduate text-readers.

 

As part of his research, McGuffey was given access to a group therapy program involving families in which young boys had been the victims of extrafamilial sexual abuse. He observed parents interacting with therapists and each other and conducted multiple interviews with the participants. Based on his data, he makes important inferences about how interactions between gender, sexuality and race contribute to how parents cope with the abuse of their sons.

 

The presentation is being held in recognition of April as Sexual Assault Awareness Month and Child Abuse Prevention Month. The Advocacy Center of Tompkins County will be tabling with information and materials about services, support and assistance in the local area.

 

The talk is sponsored by the Department of Sociology as part of its public sociology initiative. Cosponsors include the Center for the Study of Culture, Race, and Ethnicity; Center for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Education, Outreach and Services; Department of Health Promotion and Physical Education; Women’s Studies Program; and Diversity Awareness Committee.