Leslie Vernon-Dunnigan

I am a doctoral student in the joint Psychology and Women and Gender Studies program at the University of Michigan, advised by Dr. Elizabeth Cole in the Feminist Antiracist Methods lab. After earning a bachelor’s degree in psychology from California State University, Sacramento, with a focus on quantitative psychology and research methodology in 2021, I pursued a master’s degree in psychology from the same university, completing my thesis under Dr. Zach Schudson in the Psychology of Gender and Sexuality Lab in 2024.

My research aims to challenge the systems of inequality that shape our everyday lives by examining how these systems function and their broader effects on society, as well as their more specific impact on individuals. Using a critical interdisciplinary approach, I explore the complex relationship between history, identity, and contemporary social issues. I am particularly interested in how individuals use identity categories – such as race/ethnicity, gender/sex, and sexual orientation – as tools for meaning-making. I adopt an asset-based rather than a deficit model to understand the perspectives of marginalized groups on systemic discrimination. My primary interest is in investigating how individuals utilize their identities to comprehend the persistence of systemic discrimination in the US.