Dr. Tina Deshotels

Service (Selected)

Professional and Community

Associate Editor, Deviant Behavior:  An Interdisciplinary Journal
Editorial Board, Madridge Journal of Behavioral and Social Sciences
Editor, “Forum: Mid-South Sociological Association Inc.”
Board Member, Alabama Coalition Against Rape (ACAR), Montgomery AL

University

University Undergraduate Curriculum Committee
Gender Studies Curriculum Committee
Chair, Sociology Program Curriculum and Assessment Committee
Academic Advisor, Department of Sociology and Social Work
Editor, “Cher Ami:  The Unofficial Newsletter of the JSU Sociology Program”
Program Coordinator, “WISE Social Justice Forum”

Faculty Advisor (Jacksonville State University Student Group)

JSU Sociology Club
Alpha Kappa Delta
JSU Students for Equality
Women’s Issues, Support and Empowerment (WISE)

Dancing With Power:  Exotic Dancing and Power Dynamics

In this presentation, I address the question, “Is sex work generally and exotic dancing specifically empowering for women?”  In order to address my question, I analyze data gathered from 123 dancers across, in 32 different settings across the Southeastern U.S. to determine if dancers wield either material power (ability to control resources and actions) and/or ideal power (ability to control normative definitions).  My findings suggest that whether or not dancers wield material and/or ideal power varies by whether we focus on the individual (micro), organizational (meso) or institutional (macro) level of analysis.    

Assertiveness Training Workshop

In this workshop, I first cover emotional literacy (how to identify and name emotions).  Next, we review styles of interaction (aggressive, passive, passive-aggressive and assertive) and the benefits of assertiveness.  Participants then practice assertiveness through guided role play. 

Assertiveness Training:  Train the Trainer

This workshop is a three-session (attendance, co-presentation, supervised presentation) event designed to train participants to conduct assertiveness training workshops.  Participants first attend an assertiveness training workshop.  Next, they pick one topic to present during the next training.  While working on their projects, the potential trainer will get an opportunity to pair with another trainer in order to ask questions, clarify doubts and/or practice their presentation.  In the second training, the potential trainer co-presents the workshop.  If the potential trainer and trainer feel confident, the potential trainer presents the workshop on their own with the trainer present.  If both the trainer and potential trainer are confident, the potential trainer may then take over and run the workshop on their own. 

Activism and the Divine Feminine:  Once and Future Images

In this presentation, we interactively explore how imaging the divine impacts our identities/interactions, organizations, and social institutions.  Next, we trace the historical gendering of religion and implications for gendered power relations.  We end by exploring ways to ameliorate gender inequality through capturing the divine feminine. 

WISE Activism:  Praxis Makes Perfect

This presentation explores how theories of gender impact actions designed to address gender inequality.  I first lead an activity that explores how traditional gender ideology embedded in our identities/interactions, organizations and institutions reproduces inequality.  Next, we examine varying solutions to gender inequality from different feminisms (liberal, radical, intersectional, cultural, post-colonial, eco-feminism, etc.).  We end with a discussion of the importance of both theory and practice in working to alleviate gender inequality. 

Conflicting Messages:  Sexuality and Institutional Forces

I lead an activity with the objective of focusing on the various societal messages that young people receive about sexuality, many of which are conflicting.

SPSS Workshop

In this workshop, participants learn how to enter data in the most widely used statistical software, “Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS)”

Healthy Relationships

This workshop will raise awareness of abuse in relationships, help participants recognize equal and healthy relationships and provide strategies for how to achieve them.

Panel:  Women in The Workplace

Panelists from a variety of fields cover particular challenges women face and strategies for thriving in the workplace.  

Panel:  What You Need to Know about  Graduate School

Panelists address does and don’ts for applying to graduate school, what to expect in graduate school and strategies for making the first year in graduate school successful. 

Dance for A Chicken:  Rural  Mardi Gras Celebrations

This presentation introduces participants to the unique traditions of rural Mardi Gras celebrations in south Louisiana.  By tracing ancient Mardi Gras traditions and symbolism, this presentation reveals the normative order in seemingly chaotic traditions as masked revelers on horseback play beggars, fools, and thieves, ‘raiding’ farmsteads and performing in exchange for charity or, in other words, "dance for a chicken" in order to make communal gumbos.

Introducing Intersectionality:  The Matrix of Oppression and Gendered Violence

This presentation introduces the concept of intersectionality and why it is important to violence prevention.  We then explore ways to incorporate intersectionality into violence prevention efforts.  This workshop can be adapted to any organization whose goal is to further social justice. 

My Favorite Theorist:  Jurgen Habermas