Current Graduate Lab
Sharla Biefeld is a fourth-year graduate student whose work spans developmental and social psychology. She is from Albuquerque, NM and completed her B.A. in psychology and women and gender studies at the University of Texas at Austin. Broadly, she studies children’s perceptions of discrimination and mechanisms which contribute to gender, race, and class disparities. Her works also investigates the development of stereotypes regarding body size and sexualization.
Derek Sungmin Kahng is a second year graduate student who is interested in childhood bias acquisition and intervention methods. He is from Ann Arbor Michigan and completed his B.S. in psychology (minor in art history) at Purdue University. He loves dinosaurs (especially Therizinosauridae) and authentic Indian curry.
Lab Alumni
Michelle Tam, M.S. is a fourth-year graduate student with a joint focus in social and developmental psychology. She is originally from Montréal, Québec and received her B.A. in psychology from the University of Kentucky. She is currently exploring the relationship between a child’s gender typicality and their likelihood to perpetrate/intervene in typicality-based harassment at school. (CV_Tam)
Ilyssa Salomon, (Ph.D., 2020) is now an assistant professor at Elon University in North Carolina. Her research explores how social media and technology affect social development among adolescent populations.
Ellen Stone, (Ph.D., 2016) is now the Director of Research for Texas Appleseed, a nonprofit that works to change unjust laws and policies that prevent Texans from realizing their full potential.
Jennifer A. Jewell (Ph.D., 2015) recently completed a one-year postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Kentucky. Her research interests while at UK included the role of peers in children’s and adolescents’ gender-related experiences and self-perceptions. In particular, Jennifer studied the victimization experiences of gender atypical adolescents and the sexual harassment behaviors and experiences of adolescents and young adults.
Hui Chu (Ph.D., 2013) is now an Assistant Professor at Purdue University, North Central. Her research focuses on ethnic identity development among first- and second-generation immigrant adolescents.
Social Inequality in Development Research Group 