Jessamyn Bowling

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About me

Associate Professor at Department of Public Health Sciences at UNC Charlotte – I do work focusing on sexual health and gender & sexual minority populations. I’m interested in resilience and how people think about their own experiences. I specialize in qualitative methods and mixed methods research.

I’m passionate about creativity and the ways we can incorporate other voices and ways of knowing into all kinds of spaces. As an instructor, I identify as a facilitator and believe the best learning spaces are ones that elicit students’ own knowledge and experiences.

I’m the faculty advisor for the Peer Leader-Educators Advocating for Sexuality Education (PLEASE) program.

I identify as a somewhat young, White, bisexual, cisgender woman from NC – I use she/her pronouns. I believe these identities shape how I move through the world and my work. I work to dismantle White supremacy and enhance health equity.

Ongoing Research Projects

  • 2021           Co Investigator – Development of problematic alcohol bystander intervention program, Charlotte, NC

Completed Research Projects (selected)

  • 2020             Co-Principal Investigator – Twitter reactions to the UNC Charlotte shooting
  • 2020             Co-Principal Investigator – COVID-19 pandemic and sexuality, sexual health, and body image
  • 2020           Co-Principal Investigator – Consent and nonconsensual experiences in the alt-sex community (see report)
  • 2019             Principal Investigator – Community resilience among gender diverse individuals in Mecklenburg County, NC, University of North Carolina, Charlotte, NC
  • 2018-2019     Principal Investigator – Evidence-based NC sexuality peer education, University of North Carolina, Charlotte, NC
  • 2018-2019     Principal Investigator – Improving LGBTQ+ student health and academic outcomes through sexuality education, University of North Carolina, Charlotte, NC
  • 2017             Lead Researcher – Sexual and gender minority individuals’ conceptualizations of sex, safety, and risk in urban India, University of North Carolina, Charlotte, NC
  • 2016             Lead Researcher – Acceptability of the female condom and relationship with female sexual pleasure in urban India, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
  • 2016              Co-Principal Investigator –Communication with their children amongst bisexual parents in the U.S. about sexuality, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
  • 2015              Co-Principal Investigator – Social support with sexual minority women in Mumbai, India: A mixed-methods CBPR study, The Humsafar Trust, Mumbai, India

Publications (selected)

Bowling, J., Barker, J., Gunn, L., Lace, T. (2020). “It just feels right”: Perceptions of the effects of community connectedness among gender diverse individuals. PLOS ONE, 15(10): e0240295.

 Bowling, J., Hopper, L., Cantu-Backhaus, Z., Williams, C., Butler, K., Yount, L. (2020). “A beacon of the community we stand in”: Standardizing peer sexuality education at higher education institutions in the South. Sex Education. DOI: 10.1080/14681811.2020.1807315

Bowling, J., Vercruysse, C., Bello-ogunu, F., Krinner, L.M., Greene, T., Webster, C., Dahl, A. (2020) “It’s the nature of the beast”: Community Resilience Among Gender Diverse Individuals. Journal of Community Psychology. 48(2191): 2188– 2207.

Bowling, J., Miller, R., Mather, N. (2019). Making local LGBTQ campus-based climate assessments matter. Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice. Advanced online publication.

 Bowling, J., Simmons, M., Dodge, B., Sundarraman, V., Lakshmi, B., Dharuman, S. T., Herbenick, D. (2019). Family formation goals among sexual and gender minority individuals in urban India. Studies in Family Planning. 50(4): 357-373.

 Bowling, J., Shoebel, V., Vercruysse, C. (2019). The influence of resilience and coping strategies on the mental health of gender minority individuals in Mecklenburg County, NC. Transgender Health. 4(1): 176–187.

Courses Taught

HLTH 4280: Global Health

HLTH 4000/6000: Special topics: Human Sexuality

HLTH 4090/6090: India Spring Break: Health and Well-Being

HLTH 6228: Social and Behavioral Foundations of Public Health (MPH)

HLTH 8221: Social Determinants of Health (PhD)

HLTH 6226: Community Health Research Methods

HSMT 3201: Healthcare Leadership and Ethics

HLTH 8221: Qualitative Methods 1