Katie Acosta

My research is focused on the experiences of LGBTQ individuals and their families.  My first book Amigas y Amantes: Sexually Nonconforming Latinas Negotiate Family explores how lesbian, bisexual, and queer (LBQ) women do family.  More specifically, Amigas y Amantes highlights how LBQ Latinas understand femininity, negotiate their religious faiths, overcome the challenges of being in interracial/interethnic relationships, raise their children, and integrate their families of choice and origin. It is available through Rutgers University Press.

My second book Queer Stepfamilies: The Path to Social and Legal Recognition centers the experiences of lesbian, bisexual, queer, and transgender parented stepfamilies. The respondent families live in 17 different states, were formed before and after marriage equality, and after a heterosexual or same sex relationship dissolution. Queer Stepfamilies is about understanding the complex dynamics that influence parenting under these circumstances and highlights the ingenious ways respondents make their families work. Queer Stepfamilies is currently available for preorder.

My latest research project is a mixed methods study that explores the experiences of Central American and Mexican asylum seekers in the age of Trump. This project focuses on how this most recent influx of asylum seekers shapes race and ethnic ties with marginalized racially minoritized Atlantans.

When I am not conducting research or writing about it, I teach courses on gender, family, and race and ethnicity.  As an educator, I enjoy challenging students to think critically, question the taken for granted and envision alternatives to existing social injustices. Prior to joining the sociology department at Georgia State, I was an assistant professor at Tulane University in New Orleans.

For more information visit my website.