Research areas: History of Science,Modern Britain and Germany, History of the body, History of Psychology, Scientific Credibility, Science Communication, Visual Culture, Digital Humanities, Pedagogy

Dissertation: “Analyzing the Human Factor in British Industrial Psychology (1919-1939)”
My dissertation investigated the ways that the National Institute of Industrial Psychology (NIIP) sought to address industrial problems in Great Britain through the use of science during the early twentieth century. Specifically, I examined NIIP’s development to reveal three interrelated aspects of the scientific knowledge-making process: 1) how moral and ethical considerations shaped the boundaries of a discipline; 2) how a scientific institution molded its research, methodologies, hiring practices, and engagements with diverse publics based on social and political concerns; and 3) how those concerns shifted as a result of NIIP’s involvement. I argued that by looking at NIIP’s scientists, their engagement with diverse audiences, and an examination of the inherent politics of NIIP’s constituencies, we can understand the contested transition of British psychology into a rigorous scientific discipline. Additionally, by examining the debates sparked by NIIP and those in which it decided to play a role, this project revealed how scientific claims and theories are resisted and accepted in various publics, and who was able to participate in the process of knowledge-making.

Pedagogy:

My research on pedagogy includes topics in disability studies, inclusive teaching, digital pedagogy, and classroom technologies. I have published on disability in the classroom and conducted research on effective uses of technology in the classroom using both the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) and Teaching-as-Research (TAR) frameworks. While serving as a Senior Graduate Teaching Fellow at the Vanderbilt Center for Teaching, I helped STEM post-docs and graduate students develop online instructional materials that helped address problem areas in their classrooms. Each student presented their peer-reviewed research at conferences in their disciplines and several have submitted their studies for publication. See publications and CV for more information.