Peter Hennen

Peter Hennen CV

My research reflects a fascination with some fundamental ontological and epistemological questions about gender and sexuality.  I am interested in how gender and sexuality are constructed and deployed in varying social, cultural and historical formations.  In contrast with more traditional  studies of gender that emphasize how, where, and why gender and sexuality operate as an axis of social inequality, my work employs a critical examination of the social processes that produce our taken-for-granted knowledge about gender and sexuality in the first place. Thus my work reflects traditional sociological concerns with structure and agency, as well as linking micro and macro levels of analysis.  Given my objectives, the primary methodological tools I employ are qualitative. To date I have made extensive use of ethnography (participant observation and in-depth interviews) and historical/comparative analyses.