Prof Emerita Pamela Dickey Young and Dr. Heather Shipley have been awarded the Canadian Society for the Study of Religion's book prize for their book Identities Under Construction: Religion, Gender and Sexuality Among Youth in Canada (McGill-Queen's University Press, 2020). The prize is awarded yearly for "an outstanding monograph in Religious Studies."
In Identities Under Construction Pamela Dickey Young and Heather Shipley undertake a focused study of youth sexual, religious, and gender identity construction. Drawing from survey responses and interviews with nearly five hundred participants, they reveal that youth today consider their indentities fluid and open to change. Young people do not limit themselves to singular identity categories, experiencing the choice of one religion, of maleness or femaleness, or of a fixed sexuality as confining.
For most of the young adults in the study, even those who are most traditionally religious, religious opinions and values should adapt to changing social mores to ensure that people are not judged for their sexual choices or identities. Further, they are not judgemental of others' choices, even if they would not make these choices for themselves.