USC.edu

Kit Myers

Teaching Asst
Pronouns They / Them / Theirs Email kitmyers@usc.edu Office UUC 217 Office Phone (213) 740-3533

Biography

Kit earned their BA in Critical Media Studies from Scripps College in 2007. In the spring of 2011, they completed an MA in the interdisciplinary Cultural Production program at Brandeis University, where they wrote an MA thesis on the journalistic representation of older mothers. They started completed their PhD in Sociology and Gender Studies in 2018, where their disseration focused on a qualitative comparative study of women who had elected to become single mothers by choice, voluntarily childfree women, and women “postponing” childbearing through the use of elective egg freezing. They served as an Assistant Professor of Sociology and Public Health at Roanoke College starting in 2018 before giving in to the siren call of Los Angeles in 2021, and returning to USC to take a Teaching Postdoctoral Fellowship. 

Their research interests include gender, sexuality, family, and science, technology, and medicine, while their teaching interests also include theory and qualitative methods. Their work on the social life of reproductive technologies, particularly elective egg freezing has been published in Gender & Society, Sociology Compass, Frontiers, and Fertility & Sterility. Additionally, their well-timed 2019 co-authored article on remote interivew methods published in the International Journal of Social Research Methodology has recieved extensive citation since pandemic conditions shifted a great deal of qualitative research into the virtual realm.

When they aren’t teaching they enjoy exploring LA’s urban staircases, rock climbing, and visual art.

Education

  • M.A. , Brandeis University, 2011
  • B.A. , Scripps College, 2007

  • Summary Statement of Research Interests

    Kit’s current research is focused on intersections of gender, sexuality, and family with science, medicine, and technology. Drawing on in-depth interviews and original survey data, Kit’s dissertation examines the fertility strategies of three groups of professional class women: women who have postponed motherhood through the use of elective egg freezing, women who have pursued motherhood as single-mothers-by-choice, and women who have foregone motherhood as voluntarily childfree. Examination of these fertility strategies produces novel insight into the contemporary state of play of the gender order and maternal order, locating alternative family formation strategies within the context of contemporary social phenomena including the stalled gender revolution, delayed childbearing, intensive mothering, expanding medicalization of reproduction, and increasing life-course fluidity.

  • Journal Article

    • Myers, K. (2017). “If I’m going to do it, I’m going to do it right”: Intensive Mothering Ideologies among Childless Women Who Elect Egg Freezing. Gender & Society. Link to Article
    • Myers, C., Daily, Z., Jain, J. (2015). Why Do So Few Women Return to Utilize Cryopreserved Oocytes? Qualitative Insights Into Elective Oocyte Cryopreservation. Fertility and Sterility. Vol. 103 (2), pp. e30-e30. Link to article
    • Myers, C. E. (2014). Colonizing the (Reproductive) Future: The Discursive Construction of ARTs as Technologies of Self. Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies. Vol. 35 (1), pp. 73-106. Link to article
    • USC Provost’s Ph.D. Fellowship, 2010-CONT
    • USC Provost’s Mentored Teaching Fellowship, 2016-2017
    • USC or School/Dept Award for Teaching, CET Award for Excellence in Teaching Sociology, 2015-2016
    • Social Science Research Council, Dissertation Proposal Development Fellowship, 2013-2014

  • Other Service to the University

    • Diversity Working Group for Transgender Inclusive Policies, 2016-2017