he, him, his, his, himself
Social Sciences Division
Professor
Faculty
John R. Lewis College
Stevenson College
Queer and Sexualities Studies
Social Sciences 2
351
Mondays, 2:00-3:00pm (Fall 2025)
Psychology Faculty Services
PhD, University of Chicago
MA, Loyola University, Chicago
AB, Georgetown University
Professor Hammack is an expert on sexual and gender diversity. He uses qualitative and mixed methods to study the experience and development of individuals diverse in their expressions of sexuality, gender, and/or intimacy. Among his major recent contributions are the articulation of frameworks for scientists and the general public to make meaning of the vast cultural changes in understandings of sexuality, gender, and relationships that have occurred this century. These frameworks especially emphasize the growth of fluid and nonbinary thinking, the role of social technologies, and the heightened emphasis on congruence between inner experience and external presentation of sexuality and gender through construction of personal narratives of "authenticity."
Professor Hammack is also an expert in the field of narrative psychology and the intellectual architect (with Bert Cohler) of the concept of "narrative engagement"—the idea that individuals engage with "master narratives" of history and social categories in the course of development and appropriate or repudiate these stories as they construct their own personal narratives of identity. With Ruthellen Josselson, Hammack has articulated a particular approach to narrative methods known as "person-centered narrative analysis" (PCNA).
Professor Hammack's early research examined narratives of youth in settings of political violence in Israel and Palestine. In a longitudinal, ethnographic study published in 2011 as Narrative and the Politics of Identity: The Cultural Psychology of Israeli and Palestinian Youth, Hammack developed a critique of US-based peace programs rooted in social psychological theories of prejudice reduction through intergroup contact. Professor Hammack retired his research program on Israeli and Palestinian youth in 2015 and is no longer engaged in research or practice in this area.
- Sexual and gender diversity
- Intimate diversity, including polyamory, relationship anarchy, and other forms of consensual nonmonogamy; kink; AI/cyberintimacy, chosen families
- Queer men's health and identity development, queer masculinities, sexual health and subcultures, stigma and mental health
- Psychedelic medicine
- Cultural psychology
- Narrative psychology
- Paradigm, theory, and method in the social sciences
PROSPECTIVE GRADUATE STUDENTS: Professor Hammack is not accepting new PhD students in the 2025-2026 admissions cycle.
PROSPECTIVE UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCHERS: Professor Hammack's lab does not currently have new openings for research assistant positions. Students interested senior thesis sponsorship must have previously taken a course with Professor Hammack and should contact him directly.
Sexual Identity & Society
Sexual & Gender Diversity
Intimate Diversity
Culture & Sexuality
Narrative Identity
Qualitative Inquiry in Psychology
Psychedelic Medicine
George A. Miller Award for Outstanding Article, "The Psychology of Sexual and Gender Diversity in the 21st Century: Social Technologies and Stories of Authenticity," American Psychologist (2025)
President, Society for Qualitative Inquiry in Psychology (2024-2025)
Fellow, American Psychological Association, Divisions 5, 9, & 44
Fellow, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University (2017-2018)
R01 Research Grant, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) (2014-2019)
William T. Grant Foundation Scholar Award (2013-2018)
Erik Erikson Early Career Award, International Society of Political Psychology (2013)
Louise Kidder Early Career Award, American Psychological Association, Division 9 (SPSSI) (2011)
Hammack, P. L. (2025). Sexual and gender diversity beyond minority identities: Do empirical trends call for a paradigm shift? Review of General Psychology, 29(3), 337-355. https://doi.org/10.1177/10892680251363847
Hammack, P. L., & Manago, A. (2025). The psychology of sexual and gender diversity in the twenty-first century: Social technologies and stories of authenticity. American Psychologist, 80(3), 375-388. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0001366
Hammack, P. L., & Wignall, L. (2024). “Be dog have fun”: Narratives of discovery, meaning, and motivation among members of the pup subculture. Sexuality & Culture, 28, 2537-2556. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-024-10242-y
Hammack, P. L., Pletta, D. P., Hughes, S. D., Atwood, J. M., Cohen, E. M., & Clark, R. C. (2024). Community support for sexual and gender diversity, minority stress, and mental health: A mixed-methods study of adolescents with minoritized sexual and gender identities. Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, 11(2), 250-268. https://doi.org/10.1037/sgd0000591
Hammack, P. L., Hughes, S. D., Atwood, J. M., Cohen, E. M., & Clark, R. C. (2022). Gender and sexual identity in adolescence: A mixed-methods study of labeling in diverse community settings. Journal of Adolescent Research, 37(2), 167-220. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F07435584211000315
Josselson, R., & Hammack, P. L. (2021). Essentials of narrative analysis. American Psychological Association Press. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000246-000