By: Sydney Sheffield
For the past year and a half (time flies!), I have been working with Dr. Katherine Johnson and Dr. Alyssa Lederer on a joint sociology and public health study investigating the impacts of a curricular intervention called “Sex, Power, and Culture” on first-year students’ attitudes, knowledge, and behaviors regarding sexuality, sexual health, and sexual violence. Our Spring term ended with the submission of our virtual poster for the American College Health Association (ACHA) annual meeting 2020, and our summer term has been kicked off with wonderful news about the acceptance of our abstract to the American Public Health Association (APHA) 2020 annual meeting! This is particularly exciting for me because our abstract for APHA 2020 focuses specifically on the interviews I conducted with a sample of the students who took “Sex, Power, and Culture” in the pilot Fall 2018 semester. I also spearheaded the writing and submission of the abstract—with immense amounts of guidance and support from Dr. Lederer and the rest of the research team—and will be acting as the primary presenter.
Due to the ever-evolving COVID-19 situation, the conference will likely be held virtually rather than in-person, but regardless I am both eager and nervous to personally present our work in front of a national audience. In addition to preparation for APHA 2020 in October, this summer will be filled with a plethora of dissemination efforts—we are in the process of writing three different manuscripts for submission to journals by the end of the summer. I am looking forward to learning more about the findings summarization and writing process and seeing all of our work from the past year and a half manifest as a set of tangible deliverables with the potential to influence college campuses across the country!