Main Research Areas:
Minority stress processes; societal stigma and heteronormativity; geographies of sexualities
Biography:
I work at the boundary of several disciplines that lock together via my intersecting research interests in understanding the workings of societal heteronormativity and its effects on geographies of sexualities, quality of life in non-heterosexuals, spatiotemporal negotiation of non-heterosexual identities and specifically the effects of heteronormative stigma and/or minority stress on mental health and well-being in non-heterosexuals and gender-diverse people.
My background in human geography drives my motivations to study various links between the structural-individual scales and penetrate the barriers between diverse disciplinary thought. I also have a background in queer and feminist theories. I work at the National Institute of Mental Health (Klecany, Czechia), where my research focuses on minority stress and its effects on Czech non-heterosexual populations. I also work as an independent scholar in the field of geographies of sexualities and as a chair of a Prague based NGO Queer Geography that focuses on the popularization of evidence-based science, and functions as a knowledge base to support of non-heterosexuals’ and gender-diverse people’s rights and liberties in Czechia, Slovakia and beyond. My activities also include work in HIV/AIDS destigmatization and related policy making.
Selected Works:
PITOŇÁK, M. (2017). Mental health in non-heterosexuals: Minority stress theory and related explanation frameworks review. Mental Health & Prevention, 5, 63-73.
PITOŇÁK, M. (2019). Lessons from the “Periphery”: Countering Anglo-Geographic Hegemony over geographies of sexuality and gender. Documents d’Anàlisi Geogràfica, 1573, 1. https://doi.org/10.5565/rev/dag.573
PITOŇÁK, M., SPILKOVÁ, J. (2016): Homophobic prejudice in Czech youth: a socio-demographic analysis of young people’s opinions on homosexuality. Sexuality Research and Social Policy, 13, 3, pp. 215-229 ISSN 1868-9884. DOI: 10.1007/s13178-015-0215-8.
