National Research Translation Award presented to MSU Sociology’s Dr. stef shuster

October 24, 2024 - Karessa Weir

MSU Sociology Associate Professor stef shuster has been awarded the 2024 Council on Contemporary Families’ (CCF) Research Translation Award for their research on transgender joy. shuster is co-appointed to MSU Sociology and Lyman Briggs College.

  

Drs. stef shuster and Laurel Westbrook published “Reducing the Joy Deficit: A Study of Transgender Joy” in one of sociology’s leading journals, Social Problems, and then wrote a blog spin off from the article that was published in CCF’s blog hosted on The Society Pages. The title of that blog is “Finding Trans Joy in Families We Choose,” which can be found here: https://thesocietypages.org/ccf/2023/08/22/finding-trans-joy-in-families-we-choose/  

 

“This award recognizes the best blog post of the year. The award recognizes the talent and skill in translating scholarly research to a broader audience. Dr. shuster was selected for this award because the committee deemed their blog post (written with their coauthor Laurel Westbrook) as the best of the past year's blog posts,” said Dr. Alice Walker, chair of the New Media Awards Committee of the Council on Contemporary Families. 

 
“Because CCF has historically emphasized applied research on families and family policy, they have a research translation award for those who distill academic research for a broad public audience (i.e., through blogs, op-eds, etc.),” shuster said. 
 
The award was presented at last weekend’s CCF Policy Workshop in Baltimore, which was organized around the theme of Families in Perilous Times. While at the conference, shuster also presented a policy workshop on “Anti-LGBTQ+ Laws.”  

 

“Dr. shuster’s scholarship continues to chart new pathways for advancing both scholarly and public discourse on trans joy, inclusion, and belonging. Their work is at the forefront of some of the best public sociology today and we are so fortunate to have them as our colleague. It is wonderful to see their work recognized nationally, particularly during times of sociopolitical struggle and challenges to basic human rights. Kudos to Drs. shuster and Westbrook!” said Sociology Chair, Dr. Carla A. Pfeffer. 

 

shuster is an associate professor in Lyman Briggs College and the Department of Sociology. They earned their Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Iowa, with a certificate in Gender Studies, and their B.A. in Sociology from Indiana University, Bloomington. 

Their current research and teaching areas are united by an overarching interest in how evidence is a social artifact that is constituted through social, cultural, and historical contexts. Across their projects, shuster asks: who constructs evidence, how does evidence confer authority to individuals and groups, and how is it mobilized by social actors? These dimensions of evidence are a centralized feature of shuster’s scholarship in three domains including how: 1) medical providers negotiate evidence to make medical decisions within uncertain terrains; 2) social movement actors use evidence to make claims about social issues; and 3) language is used in interaction to regulate subjugated groups. 

shuster currently serves as a deputy editor for Gender & Society. With an impact factor of 7.2, Gender & Society is currently situated as the most impactful journal in the discipline of sociology.