Primary
Faculty
Erika Austin, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
elaustin@uab.edu
Dr. Austin joined the UAB Department of Sociology in the summer of 2006 following a postdoctoral fellowship in HIV/AIDS research at UCLA. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Virginia in 2003 after completing a Master’s degree in Applied Social Research at the University of Michigan.
Dr. Austin’s research focuses on the ways that race, class, gender, and sexuality interact at both the individual and structural levels to influence health. She has published research on race and class differences in women’s sexual health practices (such as receiving annual Pap tests and using condoms). Her current research focuses on substance use among gay-identified young adults, arguing that the denial of traditional adult roles of marriage and parenthood serves to delay the transition to adulthood among gays and lesbians. She is also conducting research on sex education websites using content analysis to explore how the efficacy of condoms is portrayed on abstinence-only and comprehensive websites.
Dr. Austin’s teaching and research interests include gender and sexuality, HIV/AIDS, and the integration of qualitative and quantitative research methods.
