Biographical Statement

Eileen L. Zurbriggen, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she is also affiliated with the Department of Feminist Studies. Much of her research focuses on behaviors in which power and sex are linked (such as rape and childhood sexual abuse), on psychological linkages between power, objectification, and sex, and on media representations of sex, power, and gender. She also does research on gender and political psychology; recent papers include analyses of Abu Ghraib, the links between rape and war, and connections between objectification, genocide, and collective action. Her work has been funded by the National Institute of Mental Health and her findings have been published in numerous journals, including Sex Roles, Feminism and Psychology, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, and Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. She is a fellow of the American Psychological Association and served as the chair of its Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls. Since the publication of the report, she has been interviewed about the Task Force's findings by numerous media outlets, including the BBC World Service, Radio Free Europe, ABC News, Bloomberg News and Australia's SBS Television. A recent paper with Aurora Sherman showing the impact on young girls of playing with Barbie dolls has also received world-wide media coverage. With Tomi-Ann Roberts, she edited the book The Sexualization of Girls and Girlhood: Causes, Consequences, and Resistance, published by Oxford University Press in 2013. .