Women's Studies Department Faculty

REBECCA YOUNG

Assistant Professor of Women's Studies

Research and Teaching Interests:

Professor Young is a sociomedical scientist whose research includes social epidemiology studies of HIV/AIDS, and evaluation of biological work on sex, gender and sexuality. Prior to joining the faculty at Barnard College, she was a Principal Investigator and Deputy Director of the Social Theory Core at the Center for Drug Use and HIV Research of the National Development and Research Institutes, Inc., and has been a Health Disparities Scholar sponsored by the National Institutes of Health. She teaches courses in critical science studies, sexuality, gender theory, and HIV/AIDS. Dr. Young is currently preparing a manuscript titled “Sex, Hormones and Hardwiring: Re-thinking the Theory of Brain Organization.” Based on the first comprehensive analysis of human studies that draw on Brain Organization Theory (the idea that hormone exposures in utero permanently “organize” the brain to be either masculine or feminine), the book is expected to be published in 2007.

Selected Courses

Introduction to Women and Health

Introduction to Sexuality Studies

Gender and HIV/AIDS

Sexualities and Science

Selected Grants

2001 – 2004: Principal Investigator, "Measuring Sexual Minority Status Among Women Drug Users"
National Institutes of Health (NIDA)
Grant # R03 DA14399-01

2001 - 2002: Principal Investigator, "Pilot Studies of Analytic Dialogues with Women Drug Users"
Center for Drug Use and HIV Research, NDRI, Inc.
Grant #P30 DA11041

1997: Co Investigator, "HIV Risk Among Women Injectors Who Have Sex with Women" NDRI, Inc.
National Institutes of Health (NIDA)
Grant #1 R01 DA10870 01

1997 - 1998: Dissertation Fellow, Sexuality Research Fellowship Program, Social Science Research Council

Selected Honors

2003-04: Health Disparities Scholar, National Center on Minority Health & Health Disparities (NCMHD)

2003: Disability Access Recognition Award, Barnard College

2002: Trinity Scholar, Trinity College, Hartford, CT

2000: Marisa de Castro Benton Prize for Outstanding Dissertation in the Sociomedical Sciences; Ph.D. dissertation with Distinction

1993: John and Kathleen Gorman Public Health Humanitarian Award, Columbia University School of Public Health
 

Activist Interests

Peace, social justice, human rights.