New Faces at the Kinsey Institute

Welcome Dr. Zoe Peterson

Dr. Zoe Peterson joins the Kinsey Institute this fall with a joint appointment as Kinsey Institute Associate Research Scientist and Associate Professor of Counseling and Educational Psychology in the IU School of Education.

Dr. Peterson researches sexual consent, sexual assault, sexual coercion, and unwanted sex. She has studied men’s and women’s experiences as both victims and perpetrators of sexual aggression. Dr. Peterson’s most recent research has focused on sexual assault victims’ cognitive appraisals of their nonconsensual sexual experiences, on improving self-report measurement of sexual aggression, and on developing and evaluating a sex-positive sexual assault prevention intervention.

In addition to being published in several noteworthy journals, Dr. Peterson has also acted as an associate editor for the Wiley Handbook of Sex Therapy, associate editor of the Journal of Sex Research, and is the 2019-2021 President-Elect of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality.

Dr. Peterson will direct a new sexual assault research initiative at the Kinsey Institute:

"I hope to collaborate with faculty and students at Kinsey and across IU to conduct and disseminate novel research on sexual assault.  Existing research clearly demonstrates that sexual assault is a widespread problem. Given that, more research is always needed to understand victims’ experiences and how we can best help them to recover following sexual assault.

Just as importantly, research is needed on the factors associated with the perpetration of sexual assault. Understanding what motivates perpetrators is essential so that we can develop effective primary prevention interventions. I hope that more research will lead to effective and empirically-supported primary prevention interventions aimed at stopping sexual assault perpetration."

Dr. Tania Reynolds Joins Relationship Lab

Dr. Tania Reynolds is the newest postdoctoral fellow to join the Kinsey Institute. She received her PhD in Social Psychology from Florida State University under Dr. Roy Baumeister and Dr. Jon Maner. Through her joint appointment with the Kinsey Institute and the Gender Studies department, she will also be teaching courses on human sexuality and sex/gender differences.

Reynolds' research examines how pressure to compete for social and romantic partners asymmetrically affects the competitive behaviors and well-being of men and women. Reynolds also investigates how gender stereotypes produce asymmetric social responses to and expectations of men versus women. For example, Reynolds’ research finds that the  societal expectation of men as agentic warriors—namely, that women are passive victims—produces unequal levels of social outrage and concern over the suffering of women to that of men. 

As a collaborative research team with Justin Garcia and Amanda Gesselman, Reynolds hopes to examine the dispositional predictors and physiological correlates of individuals’ romantic relationship experiences, as well as how these associations may differ across gender and sexual orientation.

Staff Changes at the Kinsey Institute Library & Special Collections

If you have been a visitor to the Kinsey Institute Reading Room in Morrison Hall over the past several years, you have probably met Sean McGill who manned our front desk and provided assistance to patrons.  With the graduation and departure of Assistant Archivist Rachel Arend this summer, Sean has accepted a position as our new Assistant Archivist, and will be providing support for our ongoing projects to catalogue and oversee accession of the Kinsey Institute collections to IU's Auxiliary Library Facilities.

Joining our staff to take Sean's place at the front desk is Shay Breen. She is available to answer onsite questions and help patrons locate and access materials. Welcome Shay!

Welcome New Students

Every academic year, we welcome a new group of undergraduate and graduate students to a variety of staff and volunteer positions throughout the Kinsey Institute.

The Library and Special Collections employs several students throughout their operations, including in our digitization efforts, archiving materials offsite in the ALF facilities, and aiding in day-to-day operations in the library office and reading room. These students come from a variety of disciplines, including several from the School of Library and Information Science. In fall 2018, we welcome Brian Watson, Nile Arena, and Jazmyn Kolkovich.

Josh Gilstein is assisting Traveling Exhibitions Manager Rebecca Fasman with the cataloguing and management of the art collection as we develop new exhibits for external institutions. Josh is studying arts administration.

Alvina Thamba joins us as our new Cox Scholar. The Cox Scholarship Program offers opportunities for exceptional freshman students to work with faculty and staff in a variety of research and service related areas. Alvina is pursuing a degree in biochemistry with interest in english. She is assisting Marie Metelnick, our Communications Specialist, with social media, research articles, and developing educational content for on-campus student events.