SPSSI | Featured Member Kim Case

Featured Member

Kim A. Case, now a SPSSI Fellow, became a SPSSI member in 1998 as a first-year graduate student. She earned her doctorate in Psychology and a graduate certificate in Women’s Studies at the University of Cincinnati in 2003. She is currently Associate Professor of Psychology and Women’s Studies, Director of the Teaching-Learning Enhancement Center, and Women’s Studies Program Director at the University of Houston-Clear Lake (UHCL). She also directs the Applied Social Issues sub-plan within the UHCL Psychology Master’s program. As a social psychologist by training, she also applies critical race theory, feminist theory, queer theory, and intersectional theory to her teaching, research, and service to the profession, the university, and in the surrounding community.

Honors
In 2013, Kim Case was named as the SPSSI Innovative Teaching awardee and served as the first annual SPSSI Speaker at the National Institute for Teaching of Psychology. In 2012, she was awarded the UHCL President’s Distinguished Faculty Teaching Award and Faculty Research Fellowship Award, the highest teaching and research honors at the university. The UHCL Alumni Association also selected her as the 2012 Outstanding Professor Award winner and the 2012 Faculty Research Fellowship awardee. The Social Psychology Network recognized her with an Action Teaching Award Honorable Mention (2012). In 2009, she also won the UHCL Minnie Stevens Piper Teaching Award, an award that originates with student nominations. In recognition of her research and service, SPSSI selected her as the 2009 Michelle Alexander Early Career Scholarship and Service Awardee.

Research
Dr. Case’s pedagogical research addresses diversity-course effectiveness, LGBTQ inclusive classroom practices, and teaching for social justice. Her forthcoming 2013 book, “Deconstructing Privilege: Teaching and Learning as Allies in the Classroom,” focuses on pedagogical strategies for teaching about privilege in college classrooms. Michelle Fine described the book as “a long over-due ‘coming out’ for privilege studies.” Her research also examines intervention strategies for raising awareness of various forms of social identity privilege in educational and community settings (i.e., male, heterosexual, white privilege). In 2012, she guest edited a special issue of the Journal of Social Issues focusing on privilege studies with emphasis on psychological processes, intersections of identity, and interventions. Her research on prejudice confrontation, ally behavior, and social influence investigates dominant group responses to prejudice (i.e., anti-gay, anti-transgender, anti-Arab comments) within various social contexts.

Teaching
At UHCL, Dr. Case teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses addressing gender, race, sexuality, intersectionality, and social issues. She also teaches a course on pedagogical effectiveness to medical doctoral students and post-docs at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB). Her teaching outside the classroom involves advising psychology and women’s studies majors, supporting student organization leadership, and mentoring students as they discover the research process. Since arriving at UHCL, she has supervised over 60 undergraduate and graduate student researchers. Within her research lab, the Case Social Issues (CSI) Lab, she teaches students about the scientific merits of the research process through hands-on training. Students in the CSI Lab co-author conference presentations as well as journal articles and book chapters. Her research assistants consistently win student organization leadership awards and are honored as Psychology and Women’s Studies outstanding students of the year.

Service
Dr. Case’s SPSSI leadership roles have included: Council Member, Executive Council Member, Journal of Social Issues Editorial Board member, Teaching and Mentoring Committee Chair, Early Career Scholars Committee Chair, 2008 Convention Program Chair, Nominations and Elections Committee, and Diversity Committee. In service to the Society for the Psychology of Women, she is President-Elect of Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Concerns (Section 4). She serves on the APA Division 44 Committee for Transgender and Gender Variance Issues and also founded and chaired (2009-2012) the Houston chapter of the national Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN). In service to the Society for Teaching Psychology, she is a consulting editor for the Teaching of Psychology journal.

Dancing
When she needs a break from academic life, Dr. Case performs with the exhibition dance team “Collective Sound Cloggers.” The team combines Appalachian, Canadian, and buck clogging styles with traditional drag slide technique. They dance to a mix of musical genres including hip hop, bluegrass, country, rock, Celtic, and pop. She performs with the team at schools, festivals, marathons, and other events throughout the year. They recently performed at Disney World, Houston's International Festival, the "Dance Houston" professional show at Wortham Center in Houston, and the Texas Clogging Rally.

For more information about Kim Case, please visit her website at www.drkimcase.com

Past Featured Members