Biography
I received my Ph.D. from the University of Iowa in 2015 and joined the faculty at LSU in fall of that year. My research and teaching interests include social psychology, self and identity, social networks, and mental health. My research mainly focuses on the interplay between the self, social networks, and mental health. In particular, my work attempts to shed light how the structure of social ties in concert with the meanings that inhere in social relations can combine to affect one’s self-concept and psychological well-being.
In addition to this core aspect of my research, I also enjoy participating in interdisciplinary collaborations. For example, I’ve worked with public health scholars to examine how institutional programs geared toward aging employees and employees engaged in elder caregiving can impact mental health and work interruptions. In a separate project with scholars from the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Iowa, we assessed how features of institutional structure and institutional culture can impact the implementation of sustainability programs at planning offices across the U.S.
Education
PhD: University of Iowa (2015)
Courses Recently Taught at LSU
(Syllabi are for illustrative purposes & subject to change)
- SOCL 3601: Social Interaction
- SOCL 4091: Sociology of Mental Health
- SOCL 7691: Contemporary Social Psychological Theories
- SOCL 7691: Self and Identity