Esther Rothblum papers

Esther Rothblum was born in Vienna, Austria and spent her childhood across the globe, living in Nigeria, Brazil, the United States, and several European countries. She attended Smith College from 1972 to 1976, where she studied psychology and German literature. After graduating Smith, Rothblum went on to complete an M.S. and Ph.D. in clinical psychology at Rutgers University as well as a post-doctoral fellowship at Yale with a focus in psycho-social epidemiology. Although her early writing on procrastination has remained influential, Rothblum's work has come to focus on women's mental health, especially the mental health of lesbians and the stigma of women's weight. Notably, she has chaired the American Psychological Association's Committee on Lesbian and Gay Concerns and serves as co-founding chair of the Size Acceptance Caucus of the Association for Women in Psychology. Since 2004, she has conducted the CUPPLE study, a longitudinal study on the effects of legal status on same-gender relationship health. Rothblum is an academic pioneer who championed the growing fields of LGBT Studies and Fat Studies. She taught Psychology at the University of Vermont from 1982 to 2005 and is currently a professor of Women's Studies at San Diego State University, where she also oversees programs in LGBT Studies at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Rothblum has served as the editor of "Women and Therapy,""The Journal of Lesbian Studies," and "Fat Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Body Weight and Society." She has also edited over twenty books, including "The Fat Studies Reader" (2009) with Sandra Solovay,"Women in the Antarctic" (1998) with Jacqueline S. Weinstock and Jessica F. Morris, and several works on lesbian relationships. She was the author of a recurring column,"Dyke Psyche," which highlighted mental health issues effecting lesbians. Rothblum is also on the advisory board of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance.