Zoë D. Peterson

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Insights from the Social Sciences

Zoë D. Peterson

Zoë D. Peterson was a recipient of a SSRC Sexuality Research Dissertation Fellowship in 2003. She received her doctorate in psychology with a clinical emphasis from University of Kansas in 2005. Peterson is currently an associate professor of counseling and educational psychology and director of the Kinsey Institute Sexual Assault Research Initiative at Indiana University. She researches sexual consent, sexual assault, sexual coercion, and unwanted sex. Peterson is editor of the Wiley Handbook of Sex Therapy (Wiley-Blackwell, 2017), an associate editor of the Journal of Sex Research, and president-elect of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality.

Latest posts

Sexuality & Gender Studies Now

Sexual Consent Research and Affirmative Consent Policies: From Saturday Night Live to State Legislatures

by Zoë D. Peterson

In her contribution to our “Sexuality & Gender Studies Now” series, Zoe D. Peterson recounts how affirmative consent policies in college campuses went from being ridiculed as excessive in the early 1990s to a common college policy. Drawing on recent research on these policies, she presents the benefits and shortcomings of affirmative consent—promoting direct and active communication as well as overlooking coerced and uninformed consent, respectively. Peterson concludes with a call for more research on the effects of affirmative consent policies and on ways to address those who ignore the policies.

July 30, 2019