Heather Laine Talley

  

Heather Laine Talley is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Western Carolina University. Her teaching and research interests center on gender and sexuality, medicine, and the body. Her writings on topics as diverse as philanthropy, disability, and marriage appear in academic, online, and academic online venues. She is currently completing a book titled Saving Face: Disfigurement, Repair, and the Vital Politics of Appearance (New York University Press). As an engaged scholar, her analytic lens informs her activism with a range of community based organizations including Act like a Grrrl, a Nashville based organization which invites girls to share and transform their personal experiences through writing and the arts, and the Midatlantic Burn Camp. In her work with children and adolescents, she uses the sociological imagination as a tool for fortifying self image and building political efficacy. Currently, she lives in the South and works alongside LGBTQ organizations pursuing justice through state and federal policy and queer wellbeing through grassroots connections. She is an editorial collective member of The Feminist Teacher. While she wasn't paying attention, technology, specifically social media and online writing, took hold of her life, and now, she wants to come to THATCamp Feminisms to find out how to best cope (AKA Use these tools to love, fight, and change the world).