stef shuster
Associate Professor of Sociology of Medicine and Gender | Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI, UNITED STATES
stef shuster's research explores how evidence is a social artifact that is constituted through social, cultural, and historical contexts.
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Biography
stef m. shuster is an associate professor in Lyman Briggs College and the Department of Sociology. Their current research and teaching areas—in the social aspects of medicine, science, and gender—are united by an overarching interest in how evidence is a social artifact that is constituted through social, cultural, and historical contexts. Across their projects, shuster asks: who constructs evidence, how does evidence confer authority to individuals and groups, and how is it mobilized by social actors? shuster currently serves on the editorial boards for Social Science & Medicine, Social Currents, and Contemporary Sociology.
Industry Expertise (1)
Education/Learning
Areas of Expertise (5)
Inequality
Gender
Gender Affirmative Care
Medical Sociology
Social Movements
Accomplishments (3)
Teacher-Scholar Award, Michigan State University (professional)
2022
Inspiration Award - Professional Achievement, Center for Gender in Global Context, Michigan State University (professional)
2022
Donald W. Light Award for the Applied or Public Practice of Medical Sociology, American Sociological Association Section on Medical Sociology (professional)
2021
Education (3)
The University of Iowa: Ph.D., Sociology 2014
The University of Iowa: M.A., Sociology 2009
Indiana University: B.A., Sociology 2004
Affiliations (3)
- Social Science & Medicine : Editorial Board
- Social Currents : Editorial Board
- Contemporary Sociology : Editorial Board
Links (3)
News (3)
What Makes Trans Joy Such a Powerful Antidote to Transphobia
The Daily Beast online
2022-08-09
“Joy is a crucial element of people’s everyday lives that has been understudied by sociologists,” write researchers Stef Shuster of Michigan State University and Laurel Westbrook of Grand Valley State University. Last week they published a study on trans joy titled, Reducing the Joy Deficit in Sociology. Despite all the reasons to lose hope, 40 trans people told the researchers they found joy in being transgender.
Michigan State assistant professor helps doctors find joy working with transgender, nonbinary people
FOX 47 News online
2022-06-23
A Michigan State University assistant professor’s research study is helping medical providers find joy in caring for transgender and nonbinary people. “A lot of my research recently has been interviewing medical providers who work with transgender people and thinking about the uncertainty that they experience and the challenges they face,” said stef shuster.
Opinion | Who Should Be Allowed to Transition?
The New York Times online
2022-03-04
Medical gatekeeping evolved not to protect the patient, but to protect the doctor, as Dr. stef shuster, an assistant professor of sociology at Michigan State University, argues in the new book “Trans Medicine: The Emergence and Practice of Treating Gender.” In the 1960s, the German-born endocrinologist Harry Benjamin became the foremost doctor in the United States helping people transition, but the work was so controversial that it threatened his reputation.
Event Appearances (3)
“Reducing the Joy Deficit in Sociology: A Study of Transgender Joy"
2022 | Annual Meeting of the ASA Los Angeles, CA
“Situational Gender"
2022 | Annual Meeting of the ASA Los Angeles, CA
“The Interplay of Emotion, Conspiracy Theories, and Discriminatory Language amongst Bernie Sanders Supporters During the 2020 Democratic Primaries"
2022 | Symposium on Uncommon yet Consequential Online Harms Online
Research Grants (3)
"Making Introductory Biology Classes More Gender Inclusive"
Scholarship of Undergraduate Teaching & Learning, LBC & MSU Graduate School $1,500
2021-2022
“Trans Medicine: The Emergence and Practice of Treating Gender"
Humanities and Arts Research Program (HARP) Production Grant, Michigan State University $7,000
2021-2022
“Social, Economic, and Health Consequences of COVD-19 Among Sexual and Gender Minorities of Color"
College of Social Science Covid-19 Grant, Michigan State University $5,000
2020-2021
Journal Articles (5)
Troubling Trends in Health Misinformation Related to Gender‐Affirming Care
Hastings Center Report2024 Amidst the misinformation climate about trans people and their health care that dominates policy and social discourse, autonomy‐based rationales for gender‐affirming care for trans and nonbinary youth are being called into question. In this commentary, which responds to “What Is the Aim of Pediatric ‘Gender‐Affirming’ Care?,” by Moti Gorin, we contextualize the virulent ideas circulating in misinformation campaigns that have become weaponized for unprecedented legal interference into standard health care. We conclude that the current legal justifications for upending gender‐affirming care gloss over how this health care field meets conventional evidentiary standards and aligns protocols with most other fields of medicine.
The assertion of reproductive and social control in mid‐twentieth‐century US transgender medicine
Gender & History2024 Drawing on archival materials from the Kinsey Institute, including letters of correspondence between medical professionals and transgender people during the 1950s–1970s, this article demonstrates how scientific and medical communities selectively employed old and new eugenics in their work with trans patients seeking hormonal and/or surgical interventions. Old eugenics helped providers control trans people's reproduction and family formations. New eugenics helped providers maintain social control over trans people's lives and solidify an ‘ideal’ patient who demonstrated their ‘value’ by upholding social fitness standards.
How the Clinic Made Gender: The Medical History of a Transformative Idea
Contemporary Sociology2023 In How the Clinic Made Gender: The Medical History of a Transformative Idea, Sandra Eder uses the case of the Pediatric Endocrinology Clinic at Johns Hopkins University in the mid-twentieth century to examine the confluence of events that led to the development of ‘‘gender.’’Readers will gain an appreciation for the inconsistencies in scientific thought, evidentiary basis, and tools used to persuade medical professionals about the ‘‘proper’’way to medically manage individuals diagnosed with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH). Eder’s work uses a rich archive of primary documents including patient case reports and meeting notes from researchers and medical professionals who worked at Johns Hopkins University, as well as published scientific articles, to craft this genealogy of gender across disciplinary theories and movements in scientific knowledge and discovery.
The uneven consequences of rapid organizational change: COVID-19 and healthcare workers
Social Science & Medicine2022 We examine the consequences of rapid organizational change on high and low-status healthcare workers (HCWs) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on 25 interviews, we found that rapid change can create a sense of social disorder by exacerbating the uncertainty brought on by the pandemic, crystallizing the lack of training to deal with crisis, and upending taken-for-granted roles and responsibilities in health infrastructures. Our work contributes to scholarship at the intersection of organizations, professions, and social studies of medicine. First, we show how organizations that must respond with rapidity, such as during a crisis, sets up workers for failure. Second, hastily made decisions can have monumental consequences in the work lives of HCWs, but with differences based on status.
Reducing the joy deficit in sociology: A study of transgender joy
Social Problems2022 Joy is a crucial element of people’s everyday lives that has been understudied by sociologists. This is particularly true for scholarship about transgender people. To address what we term a joy deficit in sociology, we analyze 40 in-depth interviews with trans people in which they were asked what they find joyful about being trans. Their responses demonstrate the methodological and theoretical importance of asking about joy. Four main themes emerged from the interviews. First, interviewees easily answered the question about joy. Second, contrary to common assumptions, we found that transgender people expressed joy in being members of a marginalized group and said that they preferred being transgender.
