Research Highlights
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Layoffs and Tradeoffs: How Deindustrialization Shifts Elite Rhetoric on Globalization
When factories close, voters get angry, and a large body of research tracks where that anger goes. We ask a different question: what do politicians say? "Layoffs and Tradeoffs: Deindustrialization and Elite Rhetoric on Globalization" follows the Twitter messaging of every member of the US House of Representatives from 2013 to 2020 and links it to manufacturing job losses in their own districts. The answer depends on party and ideology. Read more here.
Mechanisms of Music Appreciation and Shared Listening
What are some of your favorite songs? What do you like about them? How do they make you feel? Do you listen to them when you’re around friends or family? If you were to think about a few of your favorite songs, each one might prompt you to give very different answers to these questions. Additionally, your answers would probably be rather different from someone else’s. Listening to our favorite music can be highly rewarding, as well as highly individualized and context-dependent. Much is still unknown about how different types of rewarding music listening experiences may impact behavior, particularly during adolescence and emerging adulthood, which is an important period for both behavioral development and music engagement. Read more here.
[Photo: Collage of the album art from some of the research participants' music selections (made with )]
From Mining to Solar Farms: Paths of Energy (In)Justice in Montana
My dissertation research examines community-scale solar energy developments in Montana within the historical and political context of statewide energy systems and infrastructures. The study asks how these solar projects are created and managed, what the challenges are to creating them, and what their benefits or potential impacts on communities are. It also asks how the particular history of Montana’s energy policy and infrastructure shapes contemporary possibilities. My project includes several case sites of existing community solar projects in the state as well as studying historical and contemporary infrastructural development, policy, and energy advocacy work in the state. Read more here.
[Photo: Community Solar project at the Beartooth Electric Rural Cooperative in Red Lodge]
Assessing Hmong Language Retention and Narrative Skills in Hmong-American Children
Our research focuses on Hmong language maintenance and generational language loss in Hmong American families. One part of this work was recently completed as a master’s thesis by my student, Mary Vang. The study examined the current language environment in Hmong American households, with three main questions: how frequently and in what contexts parents use Hmong and English at home; how parents’ language practices and priorities shape their children’s opportunities for Hmong language exposure; and what resources are available to families who want to support their children’s Hmong language development.Ìý Read more here.