Sarah Rainey-Smithback
Chair and Graduate Coordinator
Associate Professor
Department of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Director of Undergraduate Studies
School of Cultural and Critical Studies
231 Shatzel Hall | 419-372-6949 | sasarah@bgsu.edu
https://www.sarahrainey-smithback.net/
Sarah Rainey-Smithback is an Associate Professor in the School of Cultural and Critical Studies and the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program at Bowling Green State University. Her work focuses on people who are sexually marginalized, including people with disabilities, people with HIV/AIDS, and LGBT people. She has published in the Journal of Literary and Cultural Disability Studies, Lesbian and Gay Psychology Review, and AIDS Education and Prevention. Her first book, Love, Sex, and Disability: The Pleasures of Care, was published in 2011 with Lynne Rienner Publishers.
She is also an accomplished teacher and mentor at BGSU. In 2015 she received the President's Advising Award for undergraduate advising and mentoring. She has also developed over 10 unique courses at BGSU, including service-learning courses focused on social justice and community organizing.
Professional Affiliations:
- National Women's Studies Association
- Society for Disability Studies
RESEARCH INTERESTS:
- Marginalized sexual identitites
- Feminist pedagogy
- Girl studies
- Queer theory
- Disability studies
- Caregiving
- Visual culture
EDUCATION:
- PhD The Ohio State University- Women's Studies
SELECT COURSES TAUGHT:
Undergraduate
- WS 3510- Love, Sex, and Disability
- WS 4680- Reproductive Health and Politics
- CCS 3710- Gender, Race, and Culture in Community-Based Practice
Graduate
- WS 6200- Feminist Theory
CURRENT PROJECTS:
Be Prepared: Scouting, Citizenship, and the Politics of Sexuality and Gender
I am current working on a large project that examines the The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) and Girl Scouts USA. I'm interested in the organizations' dramatically different approaches to gender and sexuality. Using the lens of sexual and gendered citizenship, my research investigates how organizational policies and member practices--related to gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation-- implicitly and explicitly shape the meaning and exercise of citizenship in scouting. This research is being supported by a generous grant from the Spencer Foundation. I've conducted over 60 interviews with Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, their parents, and leaders to examine gendered and sexual citizenship in the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts.
SELECT PUBLICATIONS:
Books:
- Rainey-Smithback, Sarah. “You Are Mine: Consent, Ownership, and Feminist Desire in 24/7 BDSM.” Communication in Kink. Ed. Jessica Katzner. Lexington Books. 2020.
- Rainey, Sarah Smith “Disidentification and Ingenuity in the Sex Lives of Disabled Men.” Disability and Masculinities: Corporeality, Pedagogy and the Critique of Otherness. Eds. Cassandra Loeser, Vicki Crowley, and Barbara Pini. Palgrave Macmillan. 2017.
- Rainey, Sarah Smith. Love, Sex, and Disability: The Pleasures of Care. Boulder: CO, Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2011.
Articles:
- Rainey-Smithback, Sarah. “Loving the Other: Fantastic Films and Unlikely Couples.” Disability
Studies Quarter. 39. 1 (2019). - Rainey, Sarah Smith. “The Pleasure of Care.” Sexualities. April 19, 2017. DOI:
10.1177/1363460716688677.
- Rainey, Sarah Smith. “In Sickness and In Health: Cripping and Queering Marriage Equality.”
Hypatia. 32.2 (Spring 2017): 230-246. - Rainey, Sarah Smith. “Love Before and After in They Came Back.” Journal of Literary and
Cultural Disability Studies. 8.1 (March 2014): 17-32. - Rainey-Smithback, Sarah. “You Are Mine: Consent, Ownership, and Feminist Desire in 24/7
BDSM.” Communication in Kink. Ed. Jessica Katzner. Lexington Books. 2020.
RECENT ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
- 2019-2022 "Be prepared: Scouting, Citizenship, and the Politics of Gender and Sexuality" ($50,000) from the Spencer Foundation (Research Grant)
Updated: 09/01/2022 11:27AM