Mission
The Science of BDSM Research Team is led by professor of social psychology, Dr. Brad Sagarin, and composed of academics and community members. Members of the team include graduate and undergraduate students in a variety of fields, professors of psychology, clinical psychologists, and kinky people who are interested in supporting research. The team aspires to produce and disseminate quality research on BDSM (bondage/discipline, dominance/submission, sadism/masochism), and kink related topics.
The team seeks to understand the nature, dynamics, motivations, and effects of BDSM activities and relationships. To do so, it is committed to designing and conducting ethical studies, thoughtfully analyzing and interpreting data, and disseminating the results in as objective a manner as possible.
The team assumes that many people do BDSM for psychologically healthy reasons, and believes that de-pathologizing BDSM will help the scientific community and the BDSM community. The team anticipates that its research will yield a mix of findings, some congenial to a view of BDSM as healthy and some not, and it is dedicated to being open and transparent about all of its findings.
History
Before the team developed into what it is today, it first began as a series of meetings set up by Brad Sagarin and Evelyn Comber to support research assistants (including Sarah A. Hanson) in their work transcribing interviews from Evelyn’s master’s thesis. The interviews were with BDSM practitioners, and Evelyn and Brad wanted to meet periodically with the transcribers in a group to discuss what they were hearing. As the discussion of these meetings expanded beyond these interviews, other people, including Bert Cutler, started joining the team.
Bert, who previously collaborated on BDSM research with Brad, encouraged the team to move beyond discussion to presenting at BDSM/Leather conferences and conducting research. With Bert’s encouragement, the team did just that. Bert arranged the team’s first presentation at the 2011 Southwest Leather Conference (SWLC) where they presented, “The Science of SM.”
The team has since presented at other BDSM/Leather organizations and conferences including: Galleria Domain 2 in Chicago, Cleveland Leather Alliance Weekend (CLAW), the Society of Janus, the Leather Levi Weekend (LLW), Frolicon, the Master/slave Conference, Power Exchange Summit, Great Lakes Leather Alliance, and Winter Wickedness. They have also collected data for studies hosted by the Arizona Power Exchange, Edgewalkers, SWLC, LLW, Thunder in the Mountains, and Eldritch Brothers Tattoo & Piercing.
The Team
DR. BRAD SAGARIN is a professor of social and evolutionary psychology at Northern Illinois University where he studies social influence, resistance to persuasion, deception, jealousy, infidelity, human sexuality, and statistics. Brad has been published in a variety of scholarly journals, has given radio, television, and podcast interviews, has consulted for radio and television programs, and has delivered invited lectures to academic and non-academic organizations. His research has been cited in newspapers and magazines, including The Economist and New Scientist. He holds Doctorate and Master's degrees in Social Psychology from Arizona State University, and a Baccalaureate degree in Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
JENNIFER DAVIS is an assistant professor of psychology at Bemidji State University. Her primary research interests include positive painful experiences, altered states of consciousness, extreme rituals, and sadism. Jen has presented in person and virtual workshops at BDSM/Kink/Leather events and at academic conferences. She has also given podcast interviews on racial discrimination in the BDSM community and on extreme rituals. Jen received her Baccalaureate degree, Master's degree, and a graduate-level certificate in quantitative statistics from Northern Illinois University and has been a member of the team since 2014.
HANNAH TARLETON is a graduate student in the Social/I-O program at Northern Illinois University. Her primary research interests are consent, kink identity, and sex education. She has worked as a peer health educator during undergrad, focusing on sex education, and has presented about BDSM to a diverse array of (presumably) vanilla audiences prior to joining the team. She is excited about getting to present without having to attempt to define BDSM every time. She received a Bachelor of Science degree double majored in Biology and Psychology from Florida Atlantic University’s Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College.
TAYLOR MACKENZIE (they/them/theirs) is a graduate student in the Social/Industrial-Organizational program at Northern Illinois University. Their primary research interests are stigma, gender, and labor market discrimination. They received a Bachelor of Science degree majoring in Psychology with a Human Services concentration and Sociology and Gender, Women, and Sexualities studies minors from Appalachian State University in 2021. During their time at App State, they served as President and Certified Peer Educator for the Red Flag Campaign, which is a campaign focused on promoting equitable environments through education on rape culture and consent. While in this role, they created an event called “Meet the Kink” which provided a basic understanding of what BDSM is, some popular kinky activities, negotiations, and different consent models (SSC, RACK, PRICK).
BRIEANNA MUZZY is a graduate student in the Social/Industrial-Organizational program at Northern Illinois University. Her primary research interests focus on different relationship dynamics within the BDSM/kink community and adult attachment styles. She received a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Parkside and a Master's degree in Experimental Psychology from the University of Minnesota Duluth.
KEVIN CASEY is a retired Clinical Psychologist (Canada) with nearly two decades of clinical practice. Additionally, Kevin is the 2017 International Power Exchange title-holder, along with his wife (and best friend), katie. They have built a reputation for excellence in presenting and consulting regarding intentional inegalitarian relationships (i.e., Authority Transfer or Power Exchange) since 2003. Kevin briefly returned to graduate school at NIU in order to gain foundation research skills to apply toward his interest in understanding Authority Transfer relationships. After a basic primer in stats and research methods he has re-retired in Kentucky, with a plan to lecture and publish on Authority Transfer topics.
DR. ELLEN LEE is an assistant professor at Coe College in Iowa. Her research interests include romantic relationships, power exchange, sexual behavior, sexual arousal and disgust, stress, and stereotypes. As a member of the research team since 2011, she has presented workshops at the Southwest Leather Conference, the Leather Levi Weekend, the Master/slave Conference, Power Exchange Summit, Great Lakes Leather Alliance, Winter Wickedness, Kinky Kollege, and the Society of Janus. She received a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from Loyola University in Chicago and Doctorate and Master's degrees from Northern Illinois University.
DR. KAT KLEMENT is an assistant professor of psychology of women and gender at Bemidji State University and the co-founder/co-director of the Northwoods Queer Outreach. Their current primary research focus is on how transphobia impacts healthcare experiences for transgender patients and how transphobia is related to racism and other oppressive beliefs. They also have lines of work in sadomasochism, virginity and purity culture, rape culture, and abortion. They have presented research on sadomasochism at national psychology conferences, as well as leather community conferences. They received their doctorate from Northern Illinois University and both their Masters degree and their Baccalaureate degree in psychology from Concordia University Chicago.
DR. NWACHI TAFARI (AKA Master Nwachi) holds an Ed.D. in higher education and adult development and a Ph.D. in the human sciences. He holds coaching certifications in Human Transformation, Spirituality, and Mindset from Transformation Academy; a Sexologist Certification from Sex Coach U; and Nutrition and Wellness Coaching Certifications from the National Association of Sports Medicine (NASM). Master Nwachi is a patched member of the Science of BDSM Research Team and works with The Alternative Sexualities Health Research Alliance. Moreover, he is the research director for Sex Coach U. His greatest accomplishments are sharing the responsibility of rearing two young women De (Day) and Niani Tafari.
RANDAL COX (AKA evilgeniusofevil) is a cofounder of several companies in financial analytics, rare diseases, and environmental education. He is an inventor of a bunch of big data analytics and automated decisioning systems. In a prior career, he sequenced genomes, did bioinformatics on conserved proteins, and studied unusual DNA structures. Randal has been informally studying the science and history of sexuality for almost three decades. An active event organizer in the BDSM community, he has taught on everything from EEGs to hypnosis to dance. His current research interest is the relationships between sexual communities. His PhD in molecular genetics is from University of Illinois. His BS in genetics is from UW Madison.
LICA SATO-KEANE is an alumnus of Northern Illinois University with a degree in Psychology and minor in Business Administration. Her research focus is human sexuality with an emphasis on sexual orientation and power exchange dynamics. Her undergraduate thesis "Asexuality in Relation to Sociosexuality, Disgust, Purity, and Rape Myths" examines the definition of asexuality by exploring new variables and the measurement of asexuality on a continuum. Lica has presented The Science of BDSM research at Southwest Leather Conference, Galleria Domain 2, and Great Lakes Leather Alliance.
SARAH A. HANSON graduated from Northern Illinois University with her M.A. in Sociology in 2013, and is currently pursuing her doctorate in Sociology at Georgia State University. Her master's thesis, titled "From Both Sides of the Whip: Authentic Authenticity Among Switches in the BDSM Community" focused on how people who switch roles in the SM community must manage, maintain, and negotiate their identity. Her main research interests are gender, sex, and sexuality and various topics include the intersection of these with pornography, BDSM, relationship satisfaction, and queer social movements. Sarah likes to travel when she can, and loves to be able to read a novel here and there.
DR. BERT CUTLER (AKA Master Bert) earned his Doctorate from The Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality (with his dissertation on Long Term BDSM Relationships). Retired as a professor of film, Master Bert is a founder of the Arizona Power Exchange, Inc., a founding board member of Butchmanns Inc., a former board member of Community-Academic Consortium for Research on Alternative Sexualities (CARAS), holds the title of International Master 2003, and a presenter at BDSM conferences and events. He brings to the team an ongoing interest in intentional authority transfer relationships, an insider view of the BDSM community, and a history of positive community relations and good will.
NADINE CUTLER (AKA slave nadine) is a licensed massage therapist, a research assistant, a founder of the Arizona Power Exchange, Inc., holder of the title International slave 2003, an instructor at Women's Butchmanns Experience since its first event in 2004, and a faculty member at Butchmanns Pansexual Experience. In 1984, she was formally collared by Master Bert as his slave, best friend, wife, and collaborator.