Kate Averett
2016: PhD, The University of Texas at Austin
2008: MDiv, Harvard University
2004: BA, Mount Holyoke College
Expertise
Gender, Sexuality, Race/Class/Gender, Children & Youth, Qualitative Methods
Current Research
Averett’s research falls generally within the areas of gender, sexuality, childhood, and the family. She is broadly interested in how gender and sexuality, as social institutions, shape experiences of childhood and parenting. Her current project looks at competing discourses of childhood gender and sexuality within the homeschooling movement, as well as how norms around gender and parenting have shaped this movement. This mixed-methods project draws upon a survey of over 650 homeschooling parents in Texas, in-depth interviews with a subset of 46 of those parents, as well as participant observation at a number of homeschooling conferences and conventions across the state of Texas between 2013 and 2015. Averett is currently working on a book manuscript based on the findings from this project.