Nat R
- Research Program Mentor
EdM Master of Education candidate
Expertise
LGBTQ individuals, race and gender identity development, stigma and minority stress, qualitative research, linguistics and language learning
Project ideas
LGBTQ school climate
Is your school a friendly environment for LGBTQ+ students? We can work together to create a survey or conduct interviews to learn more about how LGBTQ students feel in your school or how non-LGBTQ students and staff perceive LGBTQ students. With a quantitative survey, we can answer questions such as "Do white LGBTQ students feel more comfortable than non-white LGBTQ students?" or "What percentage of school staff would say they support LGBTQ students in your school?" With a qualitative survey, we can answer questions such as "How do LGBTQ students describe their experiences in the cafeteria?" or "What changes could be made to events such as school dances to make LGBTQ students feel more included?"
Perceptions of therapy
Although many people would say that mental health counseling is helpful, many people have feelings or beliefs about going to therapy that prevent them from utilizing mental health resources. We can develop a project to explore the perceptions that your family, community, peers, or a specific population hold regarding mental health counseling. Do they believe therapy is important? Do they utilize therapy themselves? What do they think of others who utilize therapy? Once we understand the beliefs that discourage individuals from participating in therapy, we can come up with interventions that can challenge those beliefs and improve mental health outcomes!
Becoming me
Identity development is an ongoing process of recognizing and developing our beliefs about our race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, ability status, or other aspects of our identity. It is influenced by the people around us, as well as what society thinks of people with our identities. We can develop a project to learn about a group of people who share a common identity (bisexual individuals, transgender men, Black women, individuals with disabilities). What do they think about their identity? Who influenced their perception of their identity? What does society think of people like them? How comfortable or happy are they with having this identity?