Research
I am an interdisciplinary social psychologist who examines intergroup processes of stereotyping and stigmatization from their basic roots in visual perception to the experiences of the marginalized groups who are the primary targets of these processes.
Research Areas
Experiences of Stigmatization
In my current work, I prioritize understanding how people experience stigmatization and how this influences psychosocial outcomes (e.g., health disparities among sexual minorities). My approach emphasizes that research on intergroup relations and health disparities must take seriously stigmatized groups’ perspectives. I work directly with marginalized populations – primarily sexual and gender minorities, in addition to fat people, who are particularly underrepresented in the psychological literature – to examine how they experience marginalization and how these experiences shape facets of psychosocial well-being including hypervigilance, depression, identity stability, belonging, and relationship satisfaction
Social Perception
Another area of my research examines how experiences of stigmatization are shaped by social perception (i.e., visual and other sensory processes through which we form impressions of social stimuli including other people). Research on intergroup relations through a perceptual lens has primarily focused on dominant group members’ perception of marginalized group members. Extending from the notion that perception differs by social location, among other top-down influences, my work, in line with feminist standpoint theorizing, highlights the unique perspectives of marginalized group members and examines how these provide valuable insight into intergroup relations.
Gendered and Sexualized Violence
My interests in oppression and health equity, as well as my feminist orientation, led me to examine sexualized and gendered violence. In particular, much of my work focuses on technology-facilitated sexualized violence (TFSV), or sexual- and gender-based violence involving technology. The devastating health-related consequences of TFSV include substantial impacts on mental and physical health as well as social functioning, rendering TFSV an emerging public health concern. My approach to understanding the public health impacts of TFSV focuses on how these impacts are shaped by intersecting forms of oppression, with a particular focus on sexism, heterosexism, and sexualized and gendered racism.
