About
Kristen Leer is a McNair scholar who received her B.A. in Psychology, Classic Civilization, and Religious Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. During her undergraduate studies, she worked in the ABCD Study investigating psychological impacts on youth populations, specifically regarding substance abuse, and was trained in neuro-clinical psychology. Nevertheless, after completing her Honors College senior thesis on "The Evolution of Schizophrenia throughout the DSM Editions and Cinematic Representations," and being involved in trauma-informed care during the COVID-19 pandemic through City Year AmeriCorps, Leer's academic and public service endeavors solidified her research interest in investigating the intersectional relationship between trauma, media, and culture.
Leer was awarded the NSF-GRFP for her work on trauma(tic) media and the psychophysical impact it has on marginalized racial/ethnic populations. Her research in this area has also been awarded several grants from the Anti-Racism Research Grants for Graduate Students to the DEI Comm and Media Graduate Student Research Grant. Other areas of media psychology that Leer's work focuses on are mental health representation/stereotypes, trauma podcast narratives, and digital discourse around mental health topics. Recently, Leer was just presented with the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program's (UROP) 2025 Outstanding Research Mentor Award, and all of her UROP students were awarded Blue Ribbon Certificates for their media psychology research poster presentations.
Leer's work also extends into the humanities, specifically investigating the horror cinematic genre through its representation of trauma/mental health, positioning of marginalized racial identities, and horror fandom practices such as podcasting. This has allowed Leer to contribute to several public-facing and academic writing projects, such as contributing a book chapter to The Oxford Handbook of Black Horror Film! All of Leer's research and writing aims to prioritize marginalized populations whose narratives, experiences, and identities need to be heard.
