Research

Purpose

My research examines how work shapes health, belonging, and access to opportunity across diverse communities. I focus especially on the ways economic inequality, labor market barriers, and institutional exclusion influence vocational development and psychological wellbeing. Grounded in the Psychology of Working Theory, my scholarship asks how social and labor systems structure opportunity, recognition, and long-term flourishing.

A central thread in my work is the study of dignity within institutional life. I am interested in how institutions communicate signals about human worth and how individuals interpret those signals in relation to belonging, identity, and psychological health. This line of inquiry informs my emerging Dignity-Regulation Theory, which seeks to explain how institutional signals of worth shape dignity, belonging, identity threat, and wellbeing across a range of contexts.

RESEARCH THEMES

  • I study how work structures daily life, access to resources, and experiences of wellbeing. In this research, work is not reduced to employment status alone; it is understood as a social determinant that helps organize opportunity, dignity, and human flourishing.

  • My scholarship examines how economic constraints, structural barriers, and social identity shape work volition, future work perceptions, and access to decent and meaningful work across varied contexts.

  • My work includes research across U.S. and international settings, with particular attention to underrepresented populations, cross-cultural inquiry, and community-engaged approaches that expand opportunity and promote health.

  • I investigate how institutions communicate worth through policies, norms, productivity expectations, and everyday practices. I am especially interested in how people interpret these experiences and how those interpretations shape dignity, belonging, identity threat, and psychological wellbeing.

Approach

My research draws on quantitative, qualitative, and community-based methods to examine how structural conditions shape vocational and psychological outcomes across the lifespan. I am especially interested in work that is theoretically grounded, culturally responsive, and capable of informing both scholarship and practice.

Current and Representative Areas of Inquiry

  • How work shapes mental and physical health

  • Structural inequality and vocational development

  • Decent work, work volition, and future work perceptions

  • Dignity appraisal, belonging, and identity threat in institutional life

  • Relational and community pathways to opportunity

  • Cross-cultural perspectives on work and wellbeing

Closing Statement

Across these areas, my goal is to produce scholarship that clarifies how structural conditions shape human possibility and to contribute research that expands opportunity, affirms dignity, and promotes health across diverse communities.