PhD Student in Applied Social & Cultural Psychology
Current Projects
Here you will find an overview of projects I am currently working on.
Why do Appropriators
Appropriate? Examining Cultural Appropriation Motivation and Harm
This research, a first study in a mixed-methods investigation, will explore the motivations behind cultural appropriation, as well as the potential gap between perceived versus actual harm that the behavior inflicts upon affected community members. This study’s potential findings have far-reaching implications including probing the asymmetry that exists between the perceived and actual harm of cultural appropriation. Because cultural appropriation is deeply embedded within Westernized cultural and societal structures, such offenses are frequently overlooked, and this supposed invisibility makes the phenomenon difficult to adequately identify and address. Thus, this study has the potential to increase visibility of global cultural appropriation offenses and illuminate the dangerous ramifications.
Protecting the privacy of users of identity-based social media groups: A mixed-methods investigation of tools on Facebook to enhance administrator and user control
The purpose of this study is threefold. The first purpose (Aim 1) is to use qualitative methods to build an in-depth understanding of the challenges administrators of identity-based social media groups face in their efforts to protect the privacy of group members, and the tools they have and need to facilitate these efforts. The second purpose (Aim 2) is to quantitatively examine perceptions of social media tools to empower group administrators and members to protect against threats to privacy. The final purpose (Aim 3) is to use this mixed-methods data to develop theoretical and practical suggestions for privacy protection of identity-based social media groups, disseminating this information to technology companies, social media users, the media, and academics.
The Effectiveness of Policies for Violence Prevention: A Systematic Review
This project, an external collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) under the direction of a Behavioral Scientist in the Division of Violence Prevention, seeks to identify policy evaluation literature focused on the interconnected violence types that have been correlated with perpetration of intimate partner violence, in an attempt to focus on which policies are most effective at preventing children from developing into perpetrators of intimate partner or domestic violence.
