B. Ethan Coston

Associate Professor

B. ETHAN COSTON

educational background

Ph.D., Sociology, Stony Brook University, 2014

Advanced Graduate Certificate in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature, Stony Brook University, 2012

M.A. Sociology, Stony Brook University, 2011

B.A., Communication Studies (focus on interpersonal), Sociology and English (rhetoric Minor), Albion College, 2008

 

professional positions

virginia commonwealth university

August 2022- Present

Associate Professor (tenured), Department of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies; School of Social Work M.S.W. Field Placement Site Supervisor; Institute for Women’s Health (affiliate faculty); Auctus (The Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Scholarship) Humanities Advisor.

Currently advising students as a core graduate thesis/dissertation committee member, from:

  • School of Education

  • School of Nursing

  • School of Social Work

  • Social and Behavioral Sciences in the School of Medicine

  • Psychology

  • Human and Molecular Genetics

Additionally advising/supervising undergraduate students for:

  • Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program Federal Work Study Research Assistantships

  • UCLA Public Affairs Capstone Internship Field Placements

  • Volunteer research positions

robert wood johnson foundation

December 2021 - Present

PI and Co-Lead of The Sexploration Project, a Pioneering Ideas grant to develop and pilot a community-led measure of sexual flourishing.

Additional work our collaborative of 17 people and growing have accomplished since we began, includes:

  • Co-Editing a Special Issue of Spark (the online magazine of the National Center for Institutional Diversity).

  • Leading a four-part virtual webinar series on sexuality, sensuality, eroticism, and health.

    • You can view the recording of our first roundtable on NCID’s website.

    • The rest of our roundtable recordings are featured on our podcast feed.

  • Presenting, being featured at, or attending conferences locally, nationally, and internationally (such as the 2023 HIV Summit, National Latinx Conference, Association for Black Sexologists and Clinicians, American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors, and Therapists… and more!

  • Presenting at the upcoming conferences of the American Sociological Association, Society for the Study of Social Problems, National Women’s Studies Association, and American Public Health Association.

Virginia commonwealth university

January 2015 - August 2022

Assistant Professor, Department of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies

Former Faculty Senator (2016-2019)

Advised students as a core graduate thesis/dissertation committee member, from:

  • Sociology

  • Psychology

  • Social and Behavioral Sciences in the School of Medicine

Additionally advised/supervised undergraduate students for:

  • Guided Research Experiences and Applied Learning (GREAT) NIH R25 (Program Faculty)

  • Initiative for Maximizing Student Diversity in the Biomedical Sciences

  • Honor’s College thesis

  • REAL (Relevant, Experiential, Applied Learning) Research Fellowships

  • Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program Summer Research Fellowships (including a Community-Engaged Fellowship in partnership with Side by Side)

Albion college

August 2014 - December 2015

Visiting Assistant Professor

Taught courses in Quantitative Methodologies, Globalization and Multiculturalism, and Health and Illness.

Served as:

  • Faculty Judge, Albion College Distinguished Scholars Program

  • Faculty advisor for LGBriTs, the LGBTQ+ and ally organization

  • Faculty member/representative of Phi Beta Kappa

 

Interests

  • health justice (mental health and Psychosocial well-being);

  • critical sexuality studies (including the sociolegal construction and regulation of sexual selves, sexual cultures, and sexual citizenship); and

  • QuantCrit, feminist and queer research methodologies, and the science of science (including meta-research).


AFFILIATIONS AND MEMBERSHIPS

  • Board of Directors, Virginia League for Planned Parenthood

  • Community Advisor for Reconceptualizing Gender and Health (RGH) Project at SP2’s Sex-Gen Lab (Anne Esacove, PI and Co-Director).

  • Consultant for Dr. Ari Tabaac’s Boston Children’s Hospital, Aerosmith

    Award. Project: “Development and validation of the perceived medical

    cissexism in sexual and reproductive healthcare scale.”

  • Partners for Health Equity (P4HE) Collaborative (Tulane Institute for Innovations in Health Equity)

  • Scholars Strategy Network

  • VCU Q Collective (Steering Committee Member and former co-Director of Camp Qmunity Summer LGBTQ Studies Intensive)

  • VCU Disability Studies Certificate Advisory Committee

  • VCU Faculty and Staff COVID-19 Advisory Committee

  • American Sociological Association, Sexualities Section (2019-2022 elected council member)

  • Board of Directors, Albion College Alumni Association

  • United Campus Workers, member-at-large

  • Regular member with: American Sociological Association, Southern Sociological Society, Sociologists for Women in Society, National Women’s Studies Association, Society for the Study of Social Problems, Society for Disability Studies, American Studies Association, American Public Health Association.

grants, awards, and honors

2021 ROBERT WOOD JOHNSON FOUNDATION PIONEERING IDEAS GRANT ($462,748, “Building improved methods for sexual health research among sexual and gender minoritized individuals to inform efforts to reduce disparities”).

2021 Virginia Commonwealth University, Seed Program ($5000, “In Pursuit of Pleasure: Is “Sexual Health” More Than an Absence of Disease?”).

2021 REAL Challenge Grant ($7200, “The Queerantine Archive - Documenting LGBTQIA2+ Survival and Resilience During COVID-19”).

2020 Burnside Watstein LGBTQIA Award. Equality VCU, Virginia Commonwealth University.

2020 Woodrow Wilson Foundation Emerging Faculty Leaders Award (finalist).

2019 Excellence in Access, Course Content, and Inclusion Champion of Accessibility (Faculty). Transforming Accessibility Institute, Virginia Commonwealth University. Richmond, VA.

2017 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, New Connections: Increasing Diversity of RWJF Programming. ($50,000, “Improving Access to and Experiences with Health Care for Sexual Minority Women Survivors of Violence”).

2014 Madeline Fusco Fellowship Award ($5000). Stony Brook University Graduate School, Stony Brook, NY.

2013 Martin P. Levine Memorial Dissertation Fellowship Award ($3000). American Sociological Association, Sexualities Section.