Chapter 16: Intersectional Investigations: A Noteworthy Foundation for Race/Ethnicity Scholarship

My introduction to race/ethnicity scholarship came through my work on research projects that focused on the experiences of people living with HIV/ AIDS¹ (PLWHA). Specifically, in preparation to apply to graduate school programs, I looked for opportunities to learn research skills that would make my graduate school application shine. From what I could assess from my research on the faculty and their research labs at my undergraduate university, Dr. Mark Vosvick’s Center for Psychosocial Health (CPH) research lab² was a well-organized operation that could introduce me to the research skills that I was seeking. Though the lab’s research did not focus on race/ethnicity specifically, it provided this budding researcher experience in understanding varied experiences of marginalization. For example, I was introduced to research that focused on disclosure, coping, stigma, discrimination, and other concepts that all too often are common experiences for people with a marginalized identity(ies)—all while being given the opportunity to learn research skills and doing so through research projects that were centered on the lived experiences of PLWHA (e.g., Herek, 1999; Herek et al., 2002).