Overview

My research focuses on experiences of collective victimization. I examine in different contexts of collective violence and oppression how members of targeted groups make sense of these experiences, and how different ways of thinking about violence against and oppression of the ingroup affects attitudes towards other groups, related policies, and psychological well-being. I also study the psychological experience and consequences of acknowledgment versus denial of the ingroup’s experience, how present-day power relations influences perceptions and responses to historical victimization, and how people engage in resistance to violence and oppression their group is facing. 

In collaboration with colleagues and students from different parts of the world and of different backgrounds, I conduct studies in different countries across the globe and among various ethnic, racial, and religious minority groups in the U.S. I emphasize and strongly believe in the need to contextualize social psychological research and understand the role of history, culture, and politics (including power) when we develop our research questions, methods, and interpret the findings. My work is also informed by liberation psychology, the goal of decolonizing psychological science, and various other critical perspectives in psychology. 

I use multiple methods and sources of data in my research, including both quantitative and qualitative approaches. This includes surveys, experiments, hybrid lab-field experiments, q-methodology, archival data, testimonies, interviews, and focus group interviews.