I'm recently a college graduate and newly an in-school math tutor. I earned my BA from Bowdoin College in December of 2023, majoring in Math and Sociology and minoring in Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies. I am now based in Chicago and work as an AmeriCorps fellow at Saga Education, in which role I meet with my students three times a week in groups of two to four, and assist their studies of introductory algebra and geometry.
My mathematical interests range widely within pure math, although my only research experience is specifically at the intersection of graph theory and model theory. I also find many topics within social science and especially sociology and anthropology to be interesting, but have pivoted over the past few years towards using various methods of the humanities. My primary scholarly focus is now within queer studies, where I research aromanticism, and to a lesser degree, asexuality. I aspire to combine the knowledges I have developed throughout my studies in my research by writing queer theory with a mathematical style of precision, and supplementing it with empirical research using sociological methods. Previously, I have had multiple years of experience designing and conducting original research in the social sciences and humanities. Currently, I am in my free time developing an anthology which will form an introduction to the queer theory of aromanticism.
My academic and occupational endeavors are strongly inspired and shaped by social identities I claim and experiences which inspired them. To summarize the most important of these identities, I describe myself as an aromantic, autistic, transgender, upper-middle-class person of color. If you know me only through this website, please refer to me by she/her pronouns; otherwise, defer to whatever preferences I may have expressed in more personal contexts.
Please contact me at zain@zainpadamsee.com with inquiries, requests, or if you just want to chat. Whoever you are reading this, I'm sure I'd love to (virtually) meet you!
For a technical details and a list of acknowledgements for this website, click here. Additionally, I apologize for the lack of accessibility features on this site; I am in the process of implementing some.
Research Interests and Experience
Aromanticism
I independently conduct queer theory research on the topic of aromanticism. I am interested in discussions on social media and web forums which approach relationality and identity with a postmodern style. Because of their informal, online settings, these conversations are often excluded from the academic canon, but I believe they have much to offer scholarly queer theory. Additionally, I am interested in reconceptualizing love as a hegemonic institution which acts not only as a source of joy and self-actualization, but also as a constraining force of oppression. I work with love as a semiotic sign which in some cases connotes romance, and in other cases signifies more broadly as an ideal which may manifest in platonic, romantic, familial, or other contexts.
I have spent more than three years pursuing these topics as personal exploration, throughout which time I have also conducted formal academic research on and off. I am currently reworking my writings and other products, as well as creating new pieces, in order to integrate all of these into a multimedia anthology. This anthology aims to provide an exploration of my theoretical standpoints and framework, and how these relate to academic queer theory, my personal experiences, and discussions in online aspec communities. I (optimistically, queerly) aim to present my vision of the developing subfield of aromantic queer theory, which may double as an approachable introduction to this area of scholarship. Once I have completed the expository sections of this project, I will post them on the Aro Anthology page of my website, and then add additional sections as I complete them. I hope to present my results in multiple forms to queer communities I belong to: both those academic and personal, both those in-person and online.
After this project, I hope to move beyond broad overview and narrow my focus in each future research project. I have tentatively planned pieces arguing the following theses:
- An underexamined (but central) aspect of aspec politics is dismantling the heteronormative reduction of humanity to a centrality of love.
- Antisocial academic queer theorists and aspec tumblr communities argue similarly against liberal politics and especially essential identities. However, they use very different language to do so, so these two bodies of work can productively inform each other.
- In my experience, my aromanticism and my autism are mutually constitutive.
Other Research
From prior to my research on aromanticism, I have a variety of additional research experience in multiple fields throughout high school and college. Below are summaries of my various other projects, in reverse chronological order.
During the Summer of 2021, I worked as a research assistant at the University of Michigan's Center for Social Media Responsibility. I was one of two main investigators who designed a qualitative study as a follow-up to a previously-conducted quantitative study. I also conducted the beginning of data collection. This project is an interview study investigating how and why people use YouTube to make comments on videos about US politics. In particular, we aim to learn about how this commenting fits into both commenters' broader use of YouTube and their broader political engagement in the world. We have completed data collection for this study, but have not yet published results.
During the Summer of 2019, I worked as a research assistant for Dr. Laura Justice at the Ohio State University's College of Education and Human Ecology. I conducted literature reviews and wrote annotated bibliographies for Dr. Justice's use in her research. I investigated two topics during this time: how exposure to early toxins may affect children under the age of 5, and barriers to accessing childcare and preschool for children of the same age. Dr. Justice has since published articles citing this background, such as one on language development and environmental toxins in low-income households.
During the 2015-'16 and '16-'17 school years, I designed and conducted two related studies on early childhood literacy. I investigated the effect of font on the reading ability of first and second graders. More specifically, I conducted randomized, within-subject trials wherein students read stories standardized to their approximate reading level aloud to me. I measured the speed, accuracy, and comprehension of more than 30 children, who read texts printed in five different typefaces. Statistical analyses showed no significant results, but did find patterns trending in a direction consistent with the existing literature on slightly older readers. I presented this research at multiple science fairs, in one case reaching the final round of judging before ISEF nomination.
