Areas of Academic Interests & Current Research Projects

Dr. John P. Elia focuses his research and writing in the area of human sexuality, and finds his research projects particularly engaging because of the interdisciplinary nature of human sexuality studies. His research continues to focus on sexuality education in schools and communities. Specifically, he is interested in the ways sexuality education is conveyed and the implications this has on lives of the students. Besides his primary area of research, he continues to be interested in doing work in the areas of: history of sexuality (education), media representations of sexuality, sexual minority youth and school culture, school health education, and public health education

He is currently at work on a co-edited book (with Dr. Gust A. Yep) entitled Sexualities and Power in Education: Intervening in Schools and Communities (New York: Haworth Press [to be simultaneously published as a special, double issue of the Journal of Homosexuality in 2008]), which will explore ways in which schools and community agencies can be better, safer, and more productive learning environments for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer (glbtq) individuals. In part, the authors will utilize the theoretical advances of critical pedagogy, critical cultural studies, GLBT studies, and queer theory just to mention a few of the theoretical approaches.

Dr. Elia is currently working on two encyclopedia articles on Alfred C. Kinsey and Masturbation in the 20th Centuryfor the “Encyclopedia of Sex, Love and Culture, Vol 6: The 20th and 21st Centuries,” edited by James T. Sears, Ph.D., to be published by Greenwood Publishing Group (2007).

In the near future, Dr. Elia plans to write scholarly articles about:

• School-based sexuality education’s focus on abstinence-based approaches, and how this can be traced back to the inception of sexuality education in the school in the United States during the early 20th century.
  
  
• How rhetoric of moral panic is used in sexuality education, drug education, and violence prevention curricula in the public schools, and in school cultural more generally.
  
  
• The multiple axes of oppression in school-based sexuality education, including not only the discourses of sexuality education, but also the implications such discourses / teachings have on students based on an intersectional analysis (e.g., race, class, sexuality, and gender). Also included in this piece will be an analysis of the dangers of reproducing the status quo (i.e., current sexuality education curricula and pedagogy).