Sonder's Story
bound to one human condition, liberated by all unique stories we have to tell
About Me
Personal Story
Education and Career
Education and Career
My life has been shaped greatly by my transitions from one city to another. As a military child, one of my first, and most difficult, lessons to learn was that nearly everything is impermanent and susceptible to change. So, I rarely held tightly onto forevers Moving many times throughout one’s life, can leave a somberness to each step tak
My life has been shaped greatly by my transitions from one city to another. As a military child, one of my first, and most difficult, lessons to learn was that nearly everything is impermanent and susceptible to change. So, I rarely held tightly onto forevers Moving many times throughout one’s life, can leave a somberness to each step taken towards a new chapter. However, there’s a beauty to those experiences that I like to adorn my life story with. The impermanence called for a deeper sense of self-intimacy, and change fostered an openness to the world.
Education and Career
Education and Career
Education and Career
I am a B.A. in Psychology graduate from the University of Texas at San Antonio. I am deeply fascinated by the inner realities that are tied to our existence. My goal is to explore the complexity of human nature and the interconnected web between one’s identity, material condition, and psychosocial function. As a queer, African American st
I am a B.A. in Psychology graduate from the University of Texas at San Antonio. I am deeply fascinated by the inner realities that are tied to our existence. My goal is to explore the complexity of human nature and the interconnected web between one’s identity, material condition, and psychosocial function. As a queer, African American student and the child of a veteran, I aspire to use research and technical analysis to expand the understanding and visibility of the lived experiences of the people with similar intersections in identity. While working in an identity-based research lab, I am getting closer to understanding how I wish to utilize my degree to serve the collective and facilitate social progression.
Artistic Journey
Education and Career
Artistic Journey
Being an artist through and through, most of my creative endeavors include visual art or writing. I always appreciated design, animation, and storytelling as a kid. With time and experience, I slowly shifted the focus of my art from recreating characters to exploring my own human condition. Much of my art (when I can gather the time and m
Being an artist through and through, most of my creative endeavors include visual art or writing. I always appreciated design, animation, and storytelling as a kid. With time and experience, I slowly shifted the focus of my art from recreating characters to exploring my own human condition. Much of my art (when I can gather the time and motivation to grab a pencil) is curated to reflect how I navigate my queerness, blackness, and overall humanness. I believe that "art for art’s sake" and campy creativity are fundamental to liberation on both the individual and collective levels.
Research
Proposal
Sonder’s Story is created to give breath to the voices and stories that are typically left unheard. This project explores the numerous facets of the societal landscape of queer romance, sex, and intimacy and how queer individuals navigate their lives, identities, and presentation as sexual subjects. The sexual subject is an autonomous entity rooted in one’s own humanness as opposed to the sexual object which is reduced to serve a role of fulfilling the fantasies of others. In conjunction of racial and gender identity–along with presentation–Sonder’s Story seeks to explore how queer individuals maintain their “self” in relation to the taboo experience of sex and all the symbols attached to sex within and outside of the queer community.
Theoretical Perspective
Queer individuals across a variety of backgrounds are invited to a qualitative interview session with Sonder’s Story to deliver a verbal exploration of their queer journey in the landscape, and sometimes even arena, of queer intimacy–including everything from love, sex, and even homoerotic friendships. This personal explorations allows the interviewee and interviewer to observe the metaphysical construct of one’s sexual autonomy, desire, and identity. The sexual subject is a facet of an individual that exists and navigates within the discussed landscape and arena as an active contributor and creator–of experiences, norms, and social policies. Like many presentations of us, designed to fulfill a role or tasks, the sexual subject is meticulously sculpted by one’s internal compass and the elements of their external environment.
Who shapes our journey of “becoming?”
How does our environment shape our understanding and visualization of our queerness and sexuality?
How does sex transcend from just being an act into being an exchange of symbols?
Does the humanness of someone change before and after sex?
Is queerness an identity and a practice?
All these questions are set to be answered in this growing project, as I seek to utilize the theoretical perspective of symbolic interactionism to discover how many facets inside and outside of the queer community inform queer individuals of how they shall interact with themselves as sexual beings, and more importantly sexual subjects in the intersection of multiple marginalized identities.
References
Aumer, K. (2014). The influence of culture and gender on sexual self-schemas and satisfaction in romantic relationships. Sexual and Relationship Therapy, 29(3), 280–292. https://doi-org.libweb.lib.utsa.edu/10.1080/14681994.2014.890282
Astle, S. M., & Anders, K. M. (2022). The Relationship Between Topic-Specific Quality of Parent–Child Sexual Communication and Measures of Sexual Self-Concept and Sexual Subjectivity. The Journal of Sex Research, 60(7), 1055–1067. https://doi-org.libweb.lib.utsa.edu/10.1080/00224499.2022.2081312
Bonafide, K. E., Vanable, P. A., & Carey, M. P. (2020). The association between african american Parent–Child sex communication and adolescent condomless sex. AIDS and Behavior, 24(3), 847-853. doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-019-02504-w
Evans-Paulson, R., Widman, L., Brasileiro, J., Maheux, A. J., & Choukas-Bradley, S. (2021). Examining the link between sexual self-concept and sexual communication among adolescents. Communication Quarterly, 69(5), 525–543. https://doi-org.libweb.lib.utsa.edu/10.1080/01463373.2021.1969585
Flores Dalmacio, D., Meanley, S. P., Wood, S. M., & Bauermeister, J. A. (2020). Family characteristics in sex communication and social support: Implications for emerging adult men who have sex with Men’s PrEP engagement. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 49(6), 2145-2153. doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-020-01648-4
Flores, D., Docherty, S. L., Relf, M. V., McKinney, R. E., & Barroso, J. V. (2019). “It’s Almost Like Gay Sex Doesn’t Exist”: Parent-Child Sex Communication According to Gay, Bisexual, and Queer Male Adolescents. Journal of Adolescent Research, 34(5), 528-562. https://doi-org.libweb.lib.utsa.edu/10.1177/0743558418757464
Methodology
Participants and Procedure
N young adults enrolled in university between the ages of 18 and 28, who also belong to the LGBTQIA+ community and/or identify as queer in reference to gender identity and sexual orientation. Participants are selected through convenience sampling in relation to the interviewer, allowing for the collection of participants who align with the target population of this study.
In this study, data is sourced and retrieved through interviews with a duration of at least an hour and thirty minutes. These interviews follow a semi-scripted format, allowing for a fluid dynamic between interviewer and interviewee and the ability of the interviewer to probe for elaborate and intimate responses–at the discretion of the interviewee in order to preserve autonomy and ability to give and withdraw consent.
In this study, participants are invited to an interview with a duration of at least an hour and thirty minutes. Convenience sampling is utilized initially to gather potential interviewees who belong to the LGBTQIA+ community and/or identify as queer. Through convenience samples from a university, participants belong to a similar age group of young adults in their 20s. Participants are informed of the general theme and goals of the study along with the parameters established within the research design to uphold participants’ autonomy and ability to give and withdraw consent. This initial disclosure is communicated via an online poll sent out to the initial convenience sample to confirm interview participation. Participants report their name, interest in an interview, availability, meeting modality, and their preferred pseudonym to conceal their identity during data collection and analysis. A majority of interviews are established to take place in person, but the option of virtual meetings allow for more availability. The poll introduction concludes with a disclosure of sensitive topics that are integral to the study and therefore will be present within the interviews.
This study’s interviews follow a semi-scripted approach that is built on the foundation of a questionnaire. The questionnaire consists of … open-ended questions for the participants to answer. Following questions are introduced at the discretion of the interviewee to enhance the collection, and later analysis, of qualitative data. The open-ended questions begin with an introductory demographic section followed by six sections designated to address the goals of the study–including emerging identity, environmental factors, personal perceptions, gender, heritage and culture, and personal symbols. Prior to starting interviews, the interview requests participants with the following: for the interview, please bring an image or visual that represents yourself as a sexual being. This image will be utilized in the last section of the questionnaire to further analyze each participant’s symbolic meaning of sex through a visual sociological perspective. Participants are provided the liberty to create their image or rely on external resources, online images, physical media, etc., for how they choose to express themselves.
Each interview is recorded by digital platforms for transcription and data analysis. While the interviewer carries out the course of the interview while following the questionnaire, they also take on the responsibility of notating the bodily cues, speech patterns, and gestures demonstrated through observation. As the interviewer leading this study, I deepen the complexity of my data collection through autoethnography, deconstructing my own positionality in reference to the overarching topics in a reflexive way. To perform the autoethnography, personal perceptions and reactions to the participant responses are recorded via written entries following the interview.