Sarah Lapean

Sarah Lapean is a fourth year PhD candidate in the joint program of Psychology and Women's & Gender Studies. She works with Dr. Sara McClelland in the Progress Lab. Her research examines how people define or deny harm through spaces and practices of social meaning-making. Areas of interest include moral exclusion, sex education, legislation, queer identity, and book bans. 

She earned her BA in English and psychology from Amherst College, where she conducted two honors thesis projects: an exploration of the representations of sexual assault in Victorian literature for White women and Black women, and an examination of how prejudice is exhibited against non-normative sexual practices through emotions and perceptions of threat.