RESEARCH

Political Environments,
Psychological Adaptation,
and Political Sense-Making

My research examines how individuals psychologically respond to and make sense of the broader political environments they inhabit, and how these processes shape political attitudes and behavior. I am particularly interested in how political sense-making is informed by individual experiences, shared group experiences, and the intergenerational transmission of group experiences. Central to this work is the use of trauma as a framework for understanding how individuals and groups psychologically adapt to political environments marked by chronic harm, neglect, and marginalization.

DISSERTATION & JOB MARKET PAPER

Battered Citizen Syndrome

What are the psychological ramifications of maintaining strong attachments to a political party and political system despite persistent racial inequality and recurring limitations in governmental responsiveness?

Black Americans maintain strong and enduring attachments to the Democratic Party despite persistent racial inequality and recurring limitations in governmental responsiveness. Existing explanations help us understand why these attachments persist, emphasizing structural restraint, social sanctioning, linked fate, ideological alignment, and strategic evaluations between the two major parties. Yet these explanations leave open a different question: how do Black Americans psychologically adapt to this recurring contradiction?

To address this question, I develop Battered Citizen Syndrome (BCS), which theorizes how psychological adaptations emerge in response to chronic political maltreatment. Using trauma as a framework, I examine how citizens can remain politically invested and attached while simultaneously recognizing the persistence of political harm.

Publications & Research

Peer-Reviewed Publications

“Crafting Democratic Futures: Understanding Political Conditions and Racialized Attitudes Toward Black Reparations in the United States of America.”

RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, 2024.

Public Scholarship

“Detroit’s Reparations Task Force Now Has Until 2025 to Make Its Report, but Going Slow With This Challenging Work May Not Be a Bad Thing.”

The Conversation

Working Papers

“If They Only Knew”: Informing Blacks and Whites about the Racial Wealth Gap.

What You Don’t Know Can Still Hurt You: Correcting Black Misperceptions about the Racial Wealth Gap.

Two Can Play That Game: Political Norm Violations and the Recalibration of Partisan Morality.