Faculty Research Interests

My teaching both influences, and is influenced by my research. My research interests include social inequality (race/ethnicity, gender, and class), race and ethnicity, as well as the sociology of knowledge. My publications have appeared in the Journal of Historical Sociology and the Ashgate Research Companion to Black Sociology. The trajectory of my research will continue to focus on social inequalities and education, particularly with regard to racialized and gendered stratification of knowledge. While my current research focuses on how race and gender structure the reproduction of knowledge within U.S. Sociology, this work is centered in a global perspective that investigates how race and gender pattern the construction of knowledge in a globalized society. Further, my future research will explore the reproduction of racialized knowledge in public high schools and the application of critical pedagogy therein.

I earned my doctoral degree in Sociology at Western Michigan University where I studied Michigan’s medical cannabis community during the state’s shift to a legal adult-use market. Being among the first to document the experiences of cannabis patients in a post-prohibition state, my research has helped re-center patients' voices in academic conversations of cannabis as medicine. I continue to research the social dynamics of cannabis with attention to medicalization, inequalities, stigmas, and evolving cultural norms.

I am primarily interested in digital rhetoric and rhetorical theories, but I approach my research from an interdisciplinary perspective drawing from media studies, media ecology, information and data science, library and archival sciences, and cultural studies.  

My dissertation examines hashtags on Twitter and what their role is as a rhetorical tool beyond linking or connecting. Importantly, I am interested in mundane social media, or social media that serves a purpose that may seem frivolous or unimportant at first glance. Rather than focusing primarily on well-known hashtags or hashtags that serve a social justice function, I'm interested in hashtags that do not trend as rhetorical devises and hashtags that are used for individualized pleasure. I am also interested in how algorithms and digital infrastructure impact what role hashtags can play as rhetorical tools given recent inquiries into the biases present in computer coding.

Separate from hashtags, I am also interested in exploring how social media perpetuates neoliberal, consumerist cooptation of other cultures under the guise of feminist self-care. Specifically, I'm interested in hygge, or the Danish ethic of coziness and well-being, that has transformed into an Instagram phenomenon based in the consumption of "comfort items." I'm interested in the tension between social media as well-being promoter and social media as well-being destroyer.

• Music, Sound, and Religion
• Islam
• Sufism
• The Layène community
• Religious sound practices in Senegal
• Senegalese popular music
• Race, gender, and sexuality in music
• Music and violence
• State secularism
• Postcolonialism/neocolonialism
• Religion and secularism in France
• Pedagogy and canon deconstruction in post-secondary music education.

My research interests are in the fields of high performance computing, nanoscience and nanotechnology, magnetism, and computational physics. Basically, my passion is to use the computational power to help calculate physics phenomenon on a very small scale (e.g. nanoscale).

My educational research focuses on the roles of peer-mentoring and undergraduate assistants in the teaching and learning of scientific concepts.

In collaboration with Dr. Liyun Wang (University of Delaware, Mechanical Engineering), I also study skeletal growth and repair and the function of the pericellular matrix in the bone response to load.

My research explores how culture and the environment influence cognition. Much of my work looks at how intergroup attitudes emerge in different contexts. For example, I’ve looked at the development of bias in childhood in the U.S. and the Faroe Islands. I’ve also studied Faroese attitudes about diversity (e.g., immigration, LGBTQ+ rights). My more recent studies consider how childhood experiences that promote exploration and interactions with nature, may lead to improvements in spatial skills, attention, and overall well-being.

I have research interests across many avenues of criminal justice. Some of my more recent interests are within the areas of eyewitness reliability and prison experiences. I also continue to research peer processes and how one's friends in adolescence shape outcomes later in life. In addition, I am involved in pedagogical research on how certain educational strategies influence student attitudes and outcomes.

As an educational psychologist, I believe that research is an integral part of the study of teaching and learning. Research is meaningful when it is used to improve teaching strategies and student learning. My research approach is rooted in a continual assessment of student learning using a feedback loop for ongoing improvement. I use quantitative and qualitative methods. Quantitative methods are used to measure changes in student learning from the beginning to the end of the course while qualitative methods are used to detect information about the learning process that occurs in the course and service context. Qualitative data are used to refine, explain, and extend quantitative findings. The use of this mixed-method approach contributes to a deeper, more complete understanding of student development and learning.

My research agenda is divided into two broad areas: pedagogical scholarship and program evaluation. In the area of pedagogical scholarship, my work has focused on the impact of academic- and cultural-based service-learning on student learning and to evaluate the contributions that student service activities make in the community. I also include community partners in the development and implementation phases of assessment. In this context research serves a dual purpose. It enhances the educational experiences of students and enriches students' contributions to the community. Assessment efforts are used to refine pedagogical methods and to most effectively tailor teaching practices to both students' and partners' needs.

In the area of program evaluation, I have worked with organizations and programs to evaluate the effectiveness of community interventions and make recommendations for improvement. In a recent study, I assessed addiction professionals' views in collaboration with the Pennsylvania Certification Board. I devote my research efforts on projects that have value for undergraduate students and community partners. My recent work with community partners, as well as my scholarship on service-learning cultivates a climate of student engagement in research among students who collaborate with me on research. This is particularly important to me because it provides students with an opportunity to put their knowledge of psychological research into practice and strengthens the university-community partnership.

I am primarily interested in how people from Africa, the Americas, and Europe created a new world for all in the centuries following Columbus’s arrival in the Americas. 

My first book, The Invention of Rum: Creating the Quintessential Atlantic Commodity, will be published by the University of Pennsylvania Press in September 2025. I am now studying how familial, financial, and political considerations intersected in the eighteenth-century Atlantic world. By studying the lives of several generations of the influential Martin family, “Antigua at the Center of the World: The Martin Family and a Violent Atlantic,” will offer new insights into the very personal decisions that shaped the culture and politics of Britain’s empire.

Since coming to Widener, I have also engaged in conversations with Chester community members regarding the city’s history. I research and present on topics ranging from William Penn’s landing to civil rights protests that engulfed the city (and Widener campus) in the early 1960s. 

Can we predict to what extent consumers sanction brands for their transgressions? There are many factors that mediate the consumer-brand relationship before, during, and after a brand's transgression. A brand transgression is defined as a violation of consumer-brand relationship norms. This breach of trust can have serious implications for a brand.

In my research, I examine the effect of variables such as brand personality, product category, ethnocentrism, and brand-country associations on consumer response to a brand transgression. I also conduct research on automatic consumer behavior. I use implicit and indirect consumer attitude instruments to measure attitudes outside of conscious awareness. In this secondary research area, I examine the automatic components of brand relationship, brand identification, cultural identity, and consumer decision making.

My research focuses on how phones and social media play a role in the victimization and criminalization of young people in the Juvenile Justice system. I am a qualitative researcher who incorporates digital methodologies with ethnographic and youth led methods.

My research interests include fiction writing and narrative theory. In addition, I hear the cases of juvenile offenders in Chester, and I taught one class a day at Chester High School for the school year. I am concerned about the school-to-prison pipeline, juvenile sentencing practices, and mass incarceration.

My research interests lie in the field of algebra, geometry and topology. Mainly, I study Clifford algebras and applications of octonions and quaternions in physics and computer science. Also, interest of undergraduate research topics in the field of statistics, numerical analysis, differential equations, number theory, computational mathematics, and computer Science.

My primary research focus is on the regulatory mechanisms that endow cancer cells with aggressive phenotypes, including metastatic potential and resistance to standard-of-care therapies. One mechanism by which cancer cells exhibit these properties is by completely or partially undergoing an epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT), a process that normally occurs in a highly controlled manner during embryonic development and wound healing. Cells that undergo EMT become invasive, resist therapy and acquire cancer stem cell-like properties. Therefore, elucidating the molecular mechanisms by which cells acquire EMT properties is of significant interest and could ultimately uncover strategies to target this phenotype, thus resulting in more effective treatments for cancer.

I am trained in comparative literature and specialize in Argentine cinema produced since the late 1990s. I am particularly interested in representations of social justice, gender issues, sustainability, and the environmental humanities. I have also published pieces related to global education. I organize transdisciplinary symposia in Latin America that bring together faculty from a variety of fields to make connections with one another and work around themes of sustainability.

My area of expertise is in environmental analysis and instrumentation used for chemical analysis. As a result, my research projects cover a wide range of applications. Most recently I have focused on applications of mass spectrometry and NMR spectroscopy - two techniques for detecting and identifying chemicals. I am also actively engaged in the scholarship of teaching - focusing on new teaching strategies and the development of more effective ways to engage students in learning.

My research interests are eclectic and include investigation of microclimates and tree phenology in the Peruvian Amazon and the influence of environmental pollutants on aquatic organisms. I am also interested in understanding the physiology and behavior of Diamondback terrapins in order to contribute to their conservation in the salt marshes of New Jersey. I am collaborating with colleagues at Widener, The Wetlands Institute in NJ, and the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina

My research interests are literature of the Middle Ages, particularly Arthurian Literature, 19th-century writers, and the correlation between literature and popular fiction and film.

My current research interests spread across the disparate fields of bureaucratic politics and political engagement. My work on bureaucratic politics focuses on examining the extent of political influence on the regulatory scope and enforcement outputs of federal and state-level regulatory agencies.

My work on political engagement focuses on isolating key factors for promoting political engagement among young citizens without simultaneously triggering partisan polarization and uncivil discourse.