About
Dr. Sari van Anders is the Canada 150 Research Chair in Social Neuroendocrinology, Sexuality, and Gender/Sex, and Professor of Psychology, Gender Studies, and Neuroscience, at Queen's University. Dr. van Anders has published about 100 papers with research that sets out new ways to conceptualize, understand, measure, and map gender/sex, sexual diversity, and sexuality, and also provides unique tools and theories for feminist and queer bioscience, especially within social neuroendocrinology and studies of testosterone. Dr. van Anders' work has been recognized with the 2013 Janet Taylor Spence Award for Transformative Early Career Contributions from the Association for Psychological Science, the 2014 Frank Beach Young Investigator Award from the Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology, the 2016 and 2020 Distinguished Publication Award from the Association for Women in Psychology, the 2019 George A. Miller Award for an Outstanding Recent Article on General Psychology from APA Division 1, the 2012 Ira and Harriet Reiss Theory Award from the Foundation for the Scientific Study of Sexuality, the 2016 Committee on Women in Psychology Leadership Award from the American Psychological Association, the 2022 Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from the Society for Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity (APA Division 44), and more. Dr. van Anders has also been named one of 50 Distinguished Sexual and Gender Health Revolutionaries from the University of Minnesota’s Program in Human Sexuality as well as a Member of the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars. Dr. van Anders is committed to progressive transformation efforts for academic spaces and beyond.
Current Work
Many of Dr. van Anders' current projects use "sexual configurations theory" (van Anders, 2015) to explore how sexual diversity and gender/sex might be meaningfully expressed in scholarship, including those with minority and/or marginalized sexual social locations. Others use "the steroid/peptide theory of social bonds (van Anders, Goldey, & Kuo, 2011) to understand how gendered and intimate social experiences affect testosterone and other hormones, asking hormonal questions that have both evolution and social constructions in their answers. In some current lines of research, Dr. van Anders is beginning to explore how holding power, including as a majority group member, affects testosterone.
Research Area Keyword(s)
feminist, gender, hormones, Neuroscience, sex, sexual diversity, sexuality, Trans