Contact details

Location

College of Social & Behavioral Sciences

Draper Hall
40 Campus Center Way
Amherst, MA 01003-9244
United States

Office 226

About

Whether through research, teaching, or my work as Senior Associate Dean for Education and Student Development, I see my work as a vehicle for prompting critical thought and promoting constructive social change. My research interests include the subjective and social implications of media images hypermasculinity and the hypersexualization of young girls, the commercialization of children's culture, and the health and environmental impacts of media driven consumerism. My research explores consent and coercion in adolescents' and young women's sexual experiences, focusing on the roles of pornography and other media messages in college students' experiences and perceptions of "hooking up." I also study the conditions, practices, and resources needed to promote diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice in classrooms, in "student success" work, and across higher education. My scholarship sits at the nexus of social and developmental psychology, critical cultural studies, education, and feminist media studies.

Courses Taught: 

Introduction to Media and Culture; Media and Children's Culture; Media and the Construction of Gender; SBS College to Careers

Publications: 

  • Everyday courage and the "how" of our work. In L. Reynolds and J. Reynolds (Eds.). Dedicated to the People of Darfur: Writings on Fear, Risk, and Hope. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2009.
  • Speak for yourself: What girls say about what girls need. Chicago: Girl's Best Friend Foundation, 2003.
  • Flirting with danger: Young women's reflections on sexuality and violence. New York: New York University Press, 2000.
  • The girls report: What we know and need to know about growing up female. New York: The National Council for Research on Women, 2000.

Current Projects: 

I am the SBS Senior Associate Dean for Education and Student Development and am conducting research on the conditions, practices, and resources that help to close the opportunity gap for students who identify as first-generation, BIPOC, and/or from families with low incomes.