Neill Korobov

Assistant Professor

Phone: 678-839-0608 | Fax: 678-839-0611 | nkorobov@westga.edu

• View My Vitae

Biography

I focus on the dynamism and architecture of conversations and stories for the study of identity and ideology, particularly with respect to gender. I focus on live conversations because it is there that what we later call "identities" first emerges, gets batted-about, resisted, amended, and eventually more or less consolidated into a sense of self that we later assume was always already there. I am deeply curious about the ways we position our own and others identities in conversations and how these acts of positioning are delicately formulated to ward off potential counters, criticisms, misreads and/or negative inferences. Unlike most psychologists who might consider these delicate discursive formulations an analytic nuisance, I find them to be fascinating windows into human development. My work is situated in Discursive Psychology. For the last several years I have been studying the stories that young adults tell about their romantic and sexual experiences, with a particular interest in the ways couples complain about their troubles and how young men use self-deprecation and irony to mitigate the sexism in their displays of masculinity. I am currently examining the ways strangers talk about what they are attracted to in a potential romantic partner (mate-preference talk) in a corpus of speed-dating conversations.

Education/Degrees

• PhD, Developmental Psychology, Clark University
• MA, Developmental Psychology, Clark University
• BS, Psychology & Philosophy, Wheaton College

Courses Taught

• PSYC-3010 (Human Growth and Development) [ View Syllabus ]
• PSYC-1101 (Intro to General Psychology) [ View Syllabus ]
• PSYC-3730 (Social Psychology) [ View Syllabus ]
• PSYC-4085 (Horizon Seminar) [ View Syllabus ]
• PSYC-4090 (Groups and Group Process) [ View Syllabus ]
• PSYC-1030 (Personal Relationships) [ View Syllabus ]
• PSYC-4350 (Culture and Psychology) [ View Syllabus ]
• PSYC-6083 (Research Methods) [ View Syllabus ]
• PSYC-8005 (Human Science Methodologies) [ View Syllabus ]

Selected Publications

• Korobov, N. (2009). He's got no game: Young men's stories about failed romantic and sexual experiences. Journal of Gender Studies, 18, 99-114.
• Korobov, N. (in press). A discursive psychological approach to positioning. Qualitative Research in Psychology.
• Korobov, N. (in press). Expanding hegemonic masculinity: The use of irony in young men's stories about romantic experiences. American Journal of Men's Health.
• Korobov, N. & Thorne, A. (2009). The negotiation of compulsory romance in young women friends' stories about romantic heterosexual experiences. Feminism and Psychology, 19, 49-70. [ View Publication ]
• Korobov, N. & Thorne, A. (2007). How late adolescent friends share stories about relationships: The importance of mitigating the seriousness of romantic problems. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 27, 971-992. [ View Publication ]
• Korobov, N., & Bamberg, M. (2007). 'Strip Poker! They don't show nothing': Positioning identities in adolescent male talk about a television game show (pp. 253-272). In A. De Fina, M. Bamberg, and D. Schiffrin (Eds.), Selves and Identities in Narrative
• Korobov, N. (2006). The management of nonrelational sexuality: Positioning strategies in adolescent male talk about (hetero)sexual attraction. Men and Masculinities, 8, 493-517. [ View Publication ]
• Korobov, N. & Thorne, A. (2006). Intimacy and distancing: Young men's conversations about romantic relationships. Journal of Adolescent Research, 21, 27-55. [ View Publication ]
• Korobov, N. (2005). Ironizing masculinity: How adolescent boys negotiate hetero-normative dilemmas in conversational interaction. The Journal of Men's Studies, 13, 225-246. [ View Publication ]
• Korobov, N., & Bamberg, M. (2004a). Positioning a mature self in interactive practices:How adolescent males negotiate physical attraction in group talk. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 22, 471-492. [ View Publication ]
• Korobov, N. & Bamberg, M. (2004b). Development as micro-genetic positioning: A response to the commentaries. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 22, 521-530. [ View Publication ]
• Korobov, N. (2004d). Inoculating against prejudice: A discursive approach to homophobia and sexism in adolescent male talk. Psychology of Men & Masculinity, 5, 178-189. [ View Publication ]
• Korobov, N. (2000). Social constructionist theory hope: The impasse from theory to practice. Culture and Psychology, 6, 365-373. [ View Publication ]