I am Professor of Sociology at Oberlin College and Conservatory and member of the Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies Program. I teach courses on cities, sexuality, social control, and inequality, informed by my research about LGBTQ+ communities, gentrification, and prostitution. My CV is here.
I’m the author of a forthcoming book about changes in gay bars in the United States over the last 25 years from Redwood Press, Who Needs Gay Bars? I have published articles on the topic in venues like Slate, the Daily Beast, LitHub, Urban Studies, Socius, and Gender Place & Culture.
Previously I published a book on prostitution politics in the European Union, and am working on another one on the topic set in early 19th-century Paris. I went viral once for a blog post about artificial intelligence and gayface.
I grew up in a small town in the Pacific Northwest and earned degrees at The University of California, Berkeley; Oxford University; and The George Washington University. I currently live in small-town Northeast Ohio with my partner and our dog.
I can be reached at greggor.mattson [at] gmail.com or @greggormattson
Recent updates:
- New data: gay bars and the impact of the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S.
This report is currently undergoing peer review but the preprint with data table is freely available at SocArxiv. Abstract: “What was the impact on gay bars of COVID-19 public closure orders? Gay bars were already quite vulnerable, retaining only 63.4% of their business listings from 2007 to 2019. Historic data from printed business guides were […] - Chapter: The changing role of gay bars in American LGBTQ+ life
In Introducing the New Sexuality Studies 4th Edition, released June 2022. “Gay bars are iconic in part because they are the most common and accessible LGBTQ+ places, but they are in decline. About one third of gay bars closed in the 2010s, but new ones continued to open to serve their communities as one of […] - Interview: Fox Market is Vermont’s 1st LGBTQ+ bar in 15 years. What took so long?
Erin Petenko interviewed me for a piece about Vermont’s newest LGBTQ+ bar-cum-grocery store, the first of that kind I’ve ever heard of, and for which I apparently said something about “skipping through the maple trees.”
Greggor Mattson, PhD 