Bio

Dr. Benson's research centers around the question: why do people in the US talk so much about caring about children without actually listening to them? This question has centered, generally, on youth and young adults impacted by structural inequalities, including Indigenous youth, youth of color, queer and trans youth, and immigrant youth. They seek to take the perspectives of those that are often left out of conversations not only into the conversation, but into the center of them as authorities in their own lives.

Areas of Interest

Indigenous feminisms, transnational feminisms, queer of color critique, trans* studies, Critical Adoption Studies, legal studies

Education

The Ohio State University; Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies PhD, 2017
Eastern Washington University; master's level coursework in Communication Studies, 2008-2010
University of Manchester; Women's Studies and Feminist Research, 2005
Gonzaga University; Sociology with a concentration in Women's Studies

Publications

Book (Refereed)
1. (2024). Reproductive Justice, Adoption, and Foster Care with Tanya Saroj Bakhru (Routledge).

Selected Publications (Refereed)

2. (Invited essay, accepted, forthcoming). Taking Children, Not Child Saving: The Juvenile Justice System and Taking of Indigenous Children. Feminist Movements in North American History (DeGruyter), edited by Rebecca Brückmann, Silke Hackenesch, and Charlotte Lerg.
 

3. * (2025). Rachael McCollum & Krista L. Benson. Disability (In)Justice: Disabled Scholars in an Ableist World. Betrayal U: The Politics of Belonging in Higher Education (The Feminist Wire, University of Arizona Press), edited by Rebecca Martínez and Monica J. Casper, 213-221.
 

4. * (2024). Tate Johanek & Krista L. Benson. Thirsty Sword Lesbians. Learning, Education & Games Vol 4: 50 Games to Use for Inclusion, Equity, and Justice (ETC Press/Carnegie Mellon University), edited by Kat Schrier, Rachel Kowert, Diana Leonard, and Tarja Porkka-Konturi, 231-235.
 

5. (2023). BreakOUT!: Queer and Trans of Color Activism in New Orleans. Critical Geographies of Youth: Law, Policy, and Politics (West Virginia University Press), 126-141.
 

6. (2022). Erosions of Settler State Recognition of Sovereignty and Reproductive Justice. Adoption Studies Perspectives on the Impacts of Dobbs Special Issue, Adoption & Culture, 10(2), 225-230.
 

7. (2020). Maia L. Butler, April Petillo, Shylah Pacheco Hamilton, Krista L. Benson. A Hopeful Decolonial Rhizome: An Invitation, Frontiers: A Journal of Women's Studies, 'Sowing the Seeds: Decolonial Practices and Pedagogies' Colloquium, 41(2), 128-142.
   a. Highlighted in The Society for the Study of Southern Literature 54(2), 'Moving Toward Decolonial Feminist Collaborative Praxis and Pedagogy,' February 2021.
 

8. (2020). Carrying Stories of Incarcerated Indigenous Women as Tools for Prison Abolition, Frontiers: A Journal of Women's Studies, 'Sowing the Seeds: Decolonial Practices and Pedagogies' Colloquium, 41(2), 143-167.

9. (2020). 'They Say I'm Gonna Be Their Little Girl': The Co-Creation of the Dangerous Queer and the Racialized Rapeable Subject in Beyond Scared Straight in Sexuality, Human Rights and Public Policy, edited by Chima Korieh. Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.
 

10. (2019). Margins of Identity: Queer-Identified Polyamorous Women's Navigation of Identity, in Expanding the Rainbow: Exploring the Relationships of Bi+, Trans, Ace, Polyam, Kink, and Intersex People, edited by Brandy L. Simula, J. Sumerau, and Andrea Miller. Rotterdam, NL: Sense Publishers, 95-105.
 

11. (2019). Indigenous Reproductive Justice after Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl (2013) in Reproductive Justice and Sexual Rights: Transnational Perspectives, edited by Tanya Saroj Bakhru. London: Routledge, 85-104.
 

12. (2019). What's in a Pronoun?: Trans Kids and Misgendering in Juvenile Justice Systems in Washington State. 'What’s In a Noun?' Special Issue (ed. Mimi Marinucci), The Journal of Homosexuality, 67(12), 1691-1712.
 

13. (2017). Tensions of Subjectivity: The Instability of Queer Polyamorous Identity and Community. Sexualities, 20 (1-2), 24-40.

Public History
14. Feminisms Online Oral History Project https://feminismsonline.omeka.net/.
Coordinator & Lead Primary Investigator. Conducted oral histories. Created interactive website with Undergraduate Research Assistant Madison Gurley (GVSU, ý25). Website features research and ongoing projects.

Curriculum Vitae

BensonCV2025.pdf