Kayla Heddens
Department of Sociology and Criminology
Adjunct Faculty
Campus:
Kent
Contact Information
Email:
Biography
My dissertation examines gender, consent scripting, and consent culture in “deviant” marginalized subcultures, particularly in members of the BDSM/ Kink community. This community highly values consent and structures its norms, values, attitudes, and sanctions to create a consent culture. I conduct qualitative interviews about participants' lived experiences within the BDSM/ Kink community to discover and evaluate how consent culture is created, enforced, and maintained and to what degree gender norms are subverted or reproduced within a consent culture. The project also examines consent culture as positive deviance. Implications for the impact of consent education are explored.
Research and Academic Interests
- Consent
- Consent Culture
- Gender and Sexualities- BDSM /Kink /Polyamorous /Queer communities
- Deviance- Positive Deviance
- Social Psychology- Symbolic Interactionism
- Stigma
Education
Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Sociology from Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia.
Master of Arts (M.A.) in Sociology from Kent State University, Kent, Ohio.
Master of Arts (M.A.) in Sociology from Kent State University, Kent, Ohio.
Publications
- Hilling, Alexis, Andro, Erin, Cagwin, Kayla. 2020. “Dominant Hasslin’ and Subordinate Hustlin’: A ContentAnalysis Using the Generic Processes that Reproduce Inequality” Pp. 8- 29 in Shameless Sociology: Critical Perspectives on a Popular Television Series
Awards/Achievements
- 2018 LEADS (Leadership, Excellence, Academic Achievement, Dedication, and Student Success) Award
