Patricia Stukes

Patricia Ann Stukes is a sociologist and gender studies scholar whose work sits at the intersections of social vulnerability, disability justice, sexuality studies, and queer of color critique. She holds a PhD and Bachelor of Science in sociology and a Master of Arts in multicultural women’s & gender studies, grounding her scholarship in intersectional theory, community centered inquiry, and culturally responsive pedagogy. Her teaching spans sociology, sexualities and identities, hip hop feminism, and feminist theory, with a commitment to accessible, multimodal learning environments that honor diverse ways of knowing.

Stukes's research draws from her professional experience with Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Census Bureau, informing her focus on how disability, race, gender, and sexuality shape exposure to risk and access to resources before, during, and after disasters. She integrates queer theory and hip-hop feminist frameworks to examine how marginalized communities navigate structural precarity, cultural representation, and embodied resilience.

Her current projects explore disability and queer life in disaster contexts, the politics of care, and the role of cultural production in shaping social vulnerability narratives. She is equally invested in mentoring students and supporting emerging scholars in developing their analytical voice through rigorous, affirming, and justice oriented feedback.

These threads converge in a unified commitment to understanding how power, identity, and culture shape who is protected, who is exposed, and who is heard. Her scholarship insists that any meaningful approach to resilience must center disability justice, queer and feminist epistemologies, and the cultural practices communities use to survive and reimagine their futures.