Michelle Marzullo is currently pursing a PhD in Anthropology concentrating in Race, Gender, and Social Justice at American University in Washington, DC, USA. She holds a Master’s degree in Human Sexuality Studies from San Francisco State University. Michelle’s work at San Francisco State consisted of the first systematic exploration of a Gay-Straight Alliance high school club from the point of view of youth.

A professional researcher for eight years, Michelle has worked on a variety of projects in the areas of HIV/AIDS drug effectiveness, reproduction and environmental toxicity, and has participated in numerous policy and program evaluations.

Her current research interests are in the arenas of sexuality, gender, race/ethnicity, kinship systems, queer diaspora, family/health policy, and programming aimed at educating around issues of race/ethnicity, sexuality and HIV/STDs. Michelle’s utilizes a mix of research methods including quantitative and qualitative analysis techniques, textual and semiotic analysis, and program evaluation. She is most recently exploring how to integrate documentary film making into her research projects to expand the accessibility of research.

Ms. Marzullo’s dissertation will focus on how marriage ideologies in the United States have changed over time. She will integrate descriptive demographic shifts in local marriage practices and reproduction to changing ideas about family and the economy since the early 1970s in two localities of the United States. This research will place the question of marriage in the United States into an integrative framework examining the in-betweeness of the received social categories “kinship,” “family,” “sexuality,” and “citizenship.”

Michelle is currently a Point Foundation Scholar and was a past recipient of the Carlos Enrique Cisneros Scholarship for LGBT students of distinction attending American University, Genentech’s Out & Equal Scholarship, and the Grant Larsen Fellowship.