Saturday, April 01, 2006

Research Statement

This informs readers that the Center of Gravitas (hereafter referred to as “the site”) has been part of study funded by the University of Texas. This study sought to understand and document the ways that sexual minorities interact in on-line environments. It represented the collaborative efforts of the Department of Communication and the Department of Psychology, under the guidance of Carlotta Coburg and Margaret Mitchell, the principal investigators.

Coburg and Mitchell created the site and the persona “GayProf” as a means to enter conversations on Gay Lesbian Bisexual and Transgender issues (GLBT). In particular, this study considered the ways that GLBT individuals responded to stimuli from "popular culture". The investigators postulated that the GLBT community finds common ground through established communication referents in U.S. society.

Coburg and Mitchell received endorsement from the university’s Committee for the Protection of Human Subjects (CPHS). Though the study required deception, the CPHS agreed with the investigators that the study did not violate the Belmont Report of the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research (1979) For more information, please visit http://ohrp.osophs.dhhs.gov/humansubjects/guidance/belmont.htm.

Participation in the study involved minimal risk (i.e. the level of risk encountered in one’s day-to-day life) and could be strictly anonymous.

Follow-up interviews with randomly selected participants in this study have found no adverse reactions. If you feel, though, you require counseling as a result of this study, please contact the investigators through the site’s e-mail address. Your participation, though unknowing, has greatly benefitted this academic research.

11 comments:

GayProf said...

April Fool's, Yo.

Anonymous said...

I had just finished posting on the entry under this one, when I returned to the main page and saw this! I was thinking... what the fuck!!?

Your certainly fooled me. I believed every word.

Well played, sir! Well played.

Cooper

Roger Owen Green said...

I want compensation for my unwitting co-operation.I've been duped, duped, I say!

GayProf said...

Cooper: Hail, Amazon Sister! Thanks for stopping by my little bloggy. Sorry that you got caught in my little joke after commenting.

ROG: Oh, please, like any of us believe that you are really an African American man living in New York. We all know that you are a 23-year-old-white sorority girl living in Urbana, Illinois.

tornwordo said...

Poisson D'avril!

Anonymous said...

I feel traumatized. The next time you're in NYC, you must buy the first round.

Unknown said...

I was about to ask: but who was that good-looking man whose photos you had?

jeremy said...

Oh, snap! You got me!

Oso Raro said...

wait... like, i don't get it!

Roger Owen Green said...

"We all know that you are a 23-year-old-white sorority girl living in Urbana, Illinois." I'm SO putting that on my blog.

Luciferus said...

Oh yeah, I meant to tell you how awesome this post was. Very clever. I hope you weren't attacked physically by the duped, torchier-wielding mobs. If you had been, it would have allowed me to write: "GayProf! Purple Healing Ray thyself!"

Ba-DUMP-bump.