Welcome!

Peer-reviewed Journal Article

Beck, Armani. (2024). “Mononormativity: The Social Elevation of the Singular”. Symbolic Interaction. https://doi.org/10.1002/symb.693

Book Manuscript in Progress

Beck, Armani. Precarious Privilege: Transgender Accounts of Male Privilege and Intersectional Masculinity. *Sample chapter and proposal under review at university press.*

Book Chapters

Beck, Armani. (2025). “Trans Men Navigating Male Privilege and the Complexities of Intersectional Identities.” In Interpreting Identity: Dimensions of Power, Presence, and Belonging. Edited by Wayne H. Brekhus and Susie Scott. Bristol, U.K. Bristol University Press.

Working Papers and Projects

Beck, Armani. “Pigeons and Pitbulls: Pan-Species Marginalization through Identical Cognitive and Social Processes.” Article.

Beck, Armani. "Reconceptualizing Stigma Power as a Mechanism of Marginality". Article.

Beck, Armani. “Within-Person Interviewing: The Impact of Status Fluctuation on Noticing Normativity.” Article.

2026

“Pigeons and Pit Bulls: Ego-Protective Management Strategies of the Non-Human Other” to be presented at the American Sociological Association. New York.

“Humanist Sociology: past, Present and Future”, panelist, Society for the Study of Social Problems. New York.

“Precarious Privilege: Transgender Accounts of Male Privilege and Intersectional Masculinity” presented at the Eastern Sociological Society. Washington D.C.

2025

“Pigeons, Pitbulls, and Post-Racism: “Othering” as Management of Capitalist Excess” presented at the Association for Humanist Sociology. Columbus, OH.

“Noticing Normativity: Within-Person Interviewing” presented at the Association for Humanist Sociology. Columbus, OH.

“Microscopic Actors within Macroscopic Audiences” presented at ACT for Change: Harnessing Affect Control Theory to Solve Social Problems. Fairlee, Vermont.

2024

"Writing FOR those we write ABOUT: Transforming my Academic Dissertation into an Accessible Book” presented at the Association for Humanist Sociology. Rochester, NY.

"Trans Men Navigating Male Privilege and the Complexities Intersectional Identities” presented at the Association of Black Sociologists. Montreal, Quebec.

“‘And Now I Have Male Privilege’: Transgender Accounts of the Precarity of Privilege” presented at Culture, Interaction, and the Psychosocial: Exploring the Intersections. Montreal, Quebec.

“Trans Men Navigating Male Privilege and the Complexities Intersectional Identities” presented at the Brown University Legacy of W.E.B. Du Bois: Crossing Boundaries for Social Justice conference. Providence, RI.

“Formal Properties of Passing: Directional Passing and Ambiguous Group Membership” presented at the Eastern Sociological Society. Washington, D.C.

2023

“Mononormativity: The Social Elevation of the Singular” presented at the American Sociological Association. Philadelphia, PA.

“Formal Properties of Passing: Directional Passing and Ambiguous Group Membership” presented at the American Sociological Association. Philadelphia, PA.

“Mononormativity: The Social Elevation of the Singular” presented at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate Student Conference. Philadelphia, PA.

2022

““And Now I Have Male Privilege:” Stealth Transgender Accounts of the Precarity of Privilege” presented at the American Sociological Association. Los Angeles, California.

2021

““I Knew I was Being Gendered Female Because People Would Yell At Me:” Transgender Women’s Accounts of the Precarity of Privilege” presented at the Rutgers University Graduate Research Symposium. New Brunswick, NJ

““Assumptive Rights of Maleness:” Stealth Transgender Men’s Accounts of [White] Male Privilege” presented at the American Sociological Association. Virtual.

““Assumptive Rights of Maleness:” Stealth Transgender Men’s Accounts of [White] Male Privilege” presented at the National Association of African American Studies & Affiliates National Conference. Dallas, Texas.

2019

“[White]-Male Privilege: Stealth Transgender Men’s Accounts of Inherited Privilege” presented at the University of Central Oklahoma International Gender & Sexuality Studies Conference. Edmond, Oklahoma.

As an interpretative tool utilized across the social sciences and humanities, intersectionality interrogates how power is distributed along and across axes of inequality and privilege. Course readings, discussions, assignments, and assessments focus on a wide range of social locations connected to race, ethnicity, gender, class, sexuality, religion, language, and disability, while also accounting for the multiplicity, nuance, ambiguity, and contradictions in how these social identity markers intersect. Engaging both theoretical and empirical works, this course examines how simultaneous and interdependent dynamics between axes of inequality impact identity formation and life chances, relationships of marginality and privilege, social continuity, social conflict, and social change. Additionally, this course critically explores the challenges and advantages of intersectional analysis and the future of intersectionality’s theoretical, methodological, and epistemological capacities.

Broadly speaking, sociology of gender is the study of the sources, maintenance, consequences, and changes of gender roles in society. This course, which pulls from cultural, social, political, economic, and psychological perspectives, uses an intersectional approach to deconstruct what it means to have a gender, and what it means to live in a gendered society. As a unit, we use an extremely critical lens to understand, critique, and unpack the gender binary, focusing heavily on the process of socialization and the impact that this socialization has on everyday interactions, decision making, concepts of self, general wellbeing, and overall understanding of the world around us.

The sociology of sexuality is the study of the sources, maintenance, consequences, and changes of norms, roles, inequality, and identities in society related to sexuality. We begin by developing a working definition of sexuality- the difficulty we inevitably face in doing this trains our minds to nuance taken-for-granted definitions and concepts of sexuality moving forward. We then use an intersectional approach to deconstruct what it means to have a sexuality, and what it means to live in a “sex-centric” society. Most importantly, this course imprints upon its takers the reality that sexuality does not exist in a vacuum.

A sociological exploration into race and race relations includes an examination of the histories of race, racism, privilege, power, social inequalities, citizenship, subordination, and justice. In this class we focus on the historical and political forces that shape and construct recurring and changing patterns of race relations. In addition, we pay particular attention to the complex ways in which race and race relations mediates our everyday lived experiences by focusing on the ways by which it interacts and intersects with systems of gender, class, ethnicity, sexuality, citizenship, and other identities.

Neither media nor gender exist in a vacuum. The way that we produce and consume media is heavily influenced by the way that we experience gender; conversely, the way that we experience gender is heavily influenced by the way that we produce and consume media! As a class, we use an extremely critical lens to understand, critique, and unpack how gender systems, and the gender binary specifically, are maintained and imposed. We focus heavily on identifying and analyzing stereotypes and the impact that these have on ourselves and others. This course pulls from cultural, sociological, political, economic, and psychological perspectives.

What is normality? What does it mean to be mentally ill, and what does it mean to be mentally healthy? What factors cause a society’s understanding of “normality” to shift? Which stereotypes contribute to the overdiagnosing of some groups, and the lack of diagnoses for others? Where do mentally ill people “belong,” and how is this shaped by capitalism, pharmaceuticalization, and moral panic? These are the types of questions we answer in this course. Because mental illness is typically understood as a topic of biological and psychological interest, the social influences on the construction and maintenance of our understanding of mental illness are often ignored, neglected, and taken for granted. In order to do justice to this topic it is crucial that we examine mental health in the scope of sexism, racism, heterosexism/homophobia, cissexism/transphobia, classism, ableism, sizeism, and social norms of respectability.

The compulsive need to be both exceptional and mundane. The tensions between identity and identification. What does it mean to identify as a member of a group that is socially constructed? Are there any groups that are not socially constructed? These are the types of questions and musings we mull over in Individual and Society. This course explores sociology’s contributions to our understanding of the relations between the personal and the social with a heavy emphasis on the overlapping fields of sociology, psychology, and sociological social psychology.  

Expository Writing is the required writing course for all undergraduate students at Rutgers University- New Brunswick. In this course, students read and write about a variety of texts concerning a range of fascinating contemporary issues. By completing a series of essay assignments – each of which involves peer review and revision – students learn to read critically, analyze textual evidence, structure complex ideas, and develop independent arguments by making original claims that contribute to ongoing intellectual conversations. While Expository Writing trains students in critical thought, particularly as it occurs in and through the practice of writing, the class does more than prepare students to compose coherent essays. The class also encourages students to imagine themselves as having a role to play in thinking through the kinds of complex, open-ended questions that characterize our public life – and to think of slow, deliberate reading; lively discussion; and careful written analysis as invaluable ways of taking up that challenge.