A Slippery Rock University psychology professor invites readers to see gender in all its depth and diversity through a clear and compassionate guide to understanding one of today’s most vital conversations.
Emily Keener, an SRU professor of psychology, wrote a book titled “Embracing the Complexity of Gender: An Inclusive, Feminist, and Developmental Exploration” that was recently published. The book is described by its publisher, Elsevier, as an examination of “the heart of a modern gender revolution, exploring the dynamic and multifaceted nature of gender in contemporary society.”
Keener is a developmental psychologist and gender scholar who studies gender through an inclusive feminist framework, analyzing all of gender diversity in their work. Keener teaches classes at SRU on such topics as human sexual behavior and the psychology of women, areas of discourse that they say most closely align with the book.
One of Keener’s goals for writing the book is to clarify misconceptions of gender and lack of specificity when it comes to dimensions of identity.
“We are at the point where we have these multidimensional understandings of gender,” Keener said. “Gender is different from sex –– sex is biological and gender is social, psychological and environmental, but there is still a lack of specificity when different facets of gender are written and talked about.”
In the book, Keener outlines gender in context, in the process of its development, and in all of its diversity, an approach that is meant to invite greater specificity into the conversation about different aspects of gender.
Keener was also intentional about using accessible language to write this book, a priority that was informed and served by their role as an educator at SRU.
“I think it makes reading and writing this more fun and less intimidating,” Keener said. “I say in the beginning of the book that gender is complex, but not so complex that we can’t understand it. Let’s make it simple.”
Keener said that this mission is important due to the urgency of the contemporary need to understand the experiences people are living in terms of gender diversity.
Keener hopes that this book will lead to a stronger understanding of the complexities and intricacies of gender as well as the science that informs all of it. They hope that this increased understanding will lead to tangible improvements to the experiences of all of gender diversity.
More information about Keener’s book is available on the publisher’s website.
