Ian M. Whalen, Ph.D.

Ian M. Whalen graduated from The University of Mississippi with a BA in History (2015), a MA in Sociology (2017), and a Ph.D. (2024) in sociology from the University of Colorado Boulder. His Master’s thesis titled, “Discreet Only: An Exploration of Discreet Practices in a Mississippi Town,” explored how openly gay and bisexual men navigate and construct their identity on Grindr. 

His dissertation, "Governing Silence: Contextualizing the Emergence of Queer Subjectivity in the Rural South," explores how silence functions as a disciplinary and productive force in shaping queer identities in Mississippi. Drawing on oral histories, archival materials, and queer theoretical frameworks, this work theorizes “governing silence(s)” as institutional mechanisms used by the family, church, and state to manage and obscure LGBTQ+ identities. Rather than framing silence solely as repression, he argues it paradoxically enables new modes of selfhood and resistance within conservative social structures. Ultimately, this research provides a critique of metronormativity and expands our understanding of how marginalized identities form under conditions of rhetorical erasure and institutional power.

His general research interests include Gender, Men and Masculinities, Virtual Methodologies, and Qualitative Research Methods.