Editorial Note:
This blog feature was created by the Alpha Kappa Delta (AKD) Media Editor, Stephanie Wilson, in celebration of the second place winner in AKD’s 2024 graduate student paper competition, Tania Ravaei.
Each year AKD sponsors a graduate student paper competition. Winners are eligible to win cash prizes and travel money to attend the American Sociological Association annual conference. The second place winner received $250 and up to $1,000 in travel expenses to the 2024 annual meeting of the American Sociological Association.
Continue reading to learn more about Tania Ravaei’s winning paper!
Meet Tania Ravaei
Tania Ravaei is currently a graduate student at Indiana University – Bloomington’s Department of Sociology and Health Policy Research Fellow with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Her research focuses on sexual and mental health and her paper titled “The Pathway to a Sexual Relationship: Young Adult Women, Stress, and Depression” won her a second place prize in the 2024 AKD graduate student paper competition.
To learn more about Tania and her research, we reached out for a brief interview. Continue reading below to learn more about Tania, her research, and her future goals as a sociologist! You can also connect with Tania on Instagram and X.
Can you briefly summarize your award-winning paper?
The study uses weekly survey data and interviews to compare how stressed and depressed young women’s sexual relationships differ from those not affected by stress and depression. My findings reveal that while access to sexual partners remains consistent regardless of mental health, those affected by stress and depression transition to penile-vaginal sex more quickly in a new relationship, and then have more frequent sex within those relationships. Depressed women report less agency in sexual decision-making compared to non-depressed women, who are more assertive in expressing their preferences.
What motivated you to write on the topic of your paper?
I came to Indiana University to work on research related to politics, sexuality, and health. I specifically mentioned wanting to work on the topic of sexual violence in my graduate application. When I started my master’s thesis, I pursed this topic area. However, I struggled because the majority of sexual violence goes undocumented and is thus difficult to capture.
The focus on sexual agency and decision making in this project feels both like a natural extension of my interests and an important area for inquiry. The research idea and my interest became much more developed and specific as I became more familiar with the RDSL dataset. Dr. Jennifer Barber ended up being the chair on my master’s thesis and my advisor. Her mentorship has been incredible.
If you had to choose one major takeaway to share from your paper, what would that be?
One major takeaway would be that assertiveness and agency may play a larger role in sexual decision making for adolescent women.
What has been your biggest “aha” moment while studying sociology?
My aha moment that comes to mind was definitely when I was newly at UCLA! I was a transfer student, so I was in a rush to compile an application to the Mellon Mays Fellowship. I remember approaching an advisor, Dr. Kevan Harris. I was still unsure about a lot, but I came in wanting to study Iranians in diaspora. He asked me such reasonable questions, but ones I had not yet thought through. Did I mean Iranians in diaspora in the U.S.? In Los Angeles? How might Iranians in Los Angeles be different than Iranians living in say, Turkey? What really is a diaspora? How do you define an ethnic group?
Those initial conversations made me interrogate constructs and become much better at thinking sociologically.
How do you see yourself using sociology in your future career after earning your graduate degree?
I’m definitely all in on sociology. It’s a little corny, but I really do love this discipline and can not imagine sociology being a small part of my life. After I finish my Ph.D., I see myself continuing in research. I hope to become a professor.