Research Programs
My research spans broad scholarly audiences in social movements, climate politics, structural racism, cultural sociology, and labor movements. Below are several of my current research projects, published and in-preparation manuscripts, and future directions.
Black Lives Matter and Anti-Black Racism
How does anti-Black racism moderate cultural impacts of Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests? Whereas prior scholars largely rely focus on political repression and White backlash, I integrate critical race, mass media, and movement theories to analyze how anti-Black criminalization in state and media institutional practices curtails minority-led movements. My studies build towards conceptualizing how racial inequalities shape movement mobilizations while analyzing mass protest as a strategy for contesting structural racism.
In my solo-authored article titled “When Black Movements Matter: Controlling Images and Black Lives Matter Protests in Media Attention to U.S. Police Killings” published in Mobilization: An International Quarterly, I assess how portrayals of armed Black criminality weakened the capacity of BLM protests to generate media attention to Black individuals killed by police. Analyzing BLM protests and print media coverage of 678 Black individuals killed by police between 2014 and 2016 across three hundred outlets, I found while BLM protests increased media attention to nearby Black police killings, effects were partially negated when accounting for armed status of Black victims. Differential effects underscore how controlling images influence the outcomes of Black-led social movements.
Labor Politics and Climate Policies
When U.S. environmental justice movements organized around a “Green New Deal” that promised decarbonization through reindustrialization, why did labor unions line up to oppose this program? While prior research analyzes corporate and partisan opposition to climate policies, I investigate how competing institutional interests between labor unions and environmental organizations impede climate action. My dissertation examines this puzzle through quantitative analysis of public opinion surveys, 45 interviews conducted on labor and environmental organizations, and content analysis of organizational responses to U.S. federal emissions policies. My research integrates environmental, labor, and cultural sociology to conceptualize workers and unions as crucial actors in climate politics.
Reassessing the Economy-Environment Tradeoff
My solo-authored article, published in Environmental Politics, titled “Reassessing the Economy-Environment Tradeoff: Do Industry Sectors, Green Jobs Opportunities, and Regulatory Threats Affect Environmental Concerns?” quantitatively analyzes whether industry employment differences and green jobs opportunities shape public environmental concerns. Combining U.S. General Social Survey and federal administrative data, I found that compared to those employed in services, resource extraction individuals are less concerned about environmental protections and pollution harms. Manufacturing, construction, and utilities individuals are less willing to sacrifice for the environment. Sub-industry green jobs opportunities are positively associated with pro-environmental concerns. Beyond macroeconomic indicators or socioeconomic differences, industry sectoral contexts and green jobs opportunities are important sites that shape environmental concerns.
Green Adaptation or Eco-Social Transformation?
In a separate manuscript titled “Green Economic Adaptation or Eco-Social Transformation: How Labor Union and Environmental Leaders Evaluate Green Jobs Frames,” I analyze qualitatively how labor union and environmental leaders make sense of environment-economy tradeoffs and a green jobs frame.Whereas prior scholars largely assessed framing by focusing on frame characteristics, I synthesize new institutionalist and cognitive approaches to propose a two-stage cultural process model of frame alignment. Findings demonstrate labor and environmental leaders informed by a constituency-servicing logic activated economic adaptation and opportunity schemas to align with a green jobs frame. On the other hand, environmental leaders whose organizations are governed by social-transformation logics bundled green jobs with extended schemas in social responsibility (e.g. eco-localism and just transition) and restructuring markets (e.g. care labor and public sectors). Quoted excerpts (with pseudonyms) below:
Care Work – Frame Extension
“I just always think of Congresswoman Oscasio-Cortez’s video. It was The Intercept. There are examples where she talks about people who have been working on pipelines, restoring wetlands and there’s just a lot. And then the care economy growing and being invested in.
So when I think of green jobs, I think of jobs that are investing or designed to support the environment and thriving. Protect the environment, restore the environment, all those. And then I think the care economy jobs where you’re not doing harm, where you’re supporting humans. There’s not an extractive piece necessarily built into the role. It’s not about product or production. It’s not explicitly inside of capitalism in that way.”
Claire, 30s. Mixed Race Woman. Environmental Leader.
Revitalize Labor Movement – Frame Extension
“I think it was the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, the labor movement sent 40,000 people. So that’s 40,000 people that showed up to fight for civil rights, but they were part of the labor movement. And the civil rights movement has always bolstered the labor movement. It’s a conjoining that has always helped the other.
I see green jobs as something that’s going to help everybody as well. Because it’s a fight for everyone in a sense. We’re going to help our community, but at the same time, that’s going to help the next guy and the next guy… They’re not trying to come in and really take somebody’s piece of the pie. We’re going to try to expand the pie and transition into the green movement so that everybody gets a bigger hunk of sweet potato pie.”
Biggs, 40s. Black Man. Service Union Leader.
Economic Adaptation – Frame Alignnment
“There is requirements that you’ve got to meet, but if you go beyond those requirements and be the leader in the industry, I see [green jobs] as an opportunity. I think you’re going to see more of it as technology gets better. I mean, it’s kind of like the cell phones. Are we ever going to go back to a flip phone? We ain’t going back. No, the phones are going to get smarter and better and hold more capacity and everything else. So yeah, there’s requirements and opportunities. If you want to be in the industry, same way with technology or cell phones, if you want to be in the cell phone industry, if you ain’t producing a smartphone, you ain’t going to last. And if your smartphone is not improving, you’re not going to last. So within our industry, it’s no different.”
Bill, 50s. White Man. Manufacturing Union Leader
Labor Unions and U.S. Federal Energy Policy Fields
While prior chapters focus on labor’s cultural and institutional impediments to climate issues, my third dissertation chapter assesses how labor unions position themselves in energy policy fields to support or impede state-led carbon reduction. Using topic modeling on an underutilized dataset of U.S. federal public comments, I analyze organizational responses to three ideal-type state strategies to reduce emissions: expand renewable industries (e.g. offshore wind), set emission limits (e.g. EPA limits on power plants and combustion vehicles), and modify fossil infrastructure (e.g. carbon capture and hydrogen). This chapter underscores how state-led climate policies structure labor-environmental coalitions.
Bystanders’ Perceptions of Protests and State Agents’ Political Attitudes
Several collaborative research projects contribute to political perceptions and attitudes using survey experiments and representative surveys. These projects analyze two frequent social movement target populations: public bystanders and state agents (e.g. police, military, and public employees).
My co-authors and I employed a survey experiment of 500 U.S. 2020 election voters to analyze public perceptions of 67 common protest tactics in U.S. politics. Our published visualization titled “Comparing Perceived Disruptiveness and Effectiveness of Protest Tactics” in Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World displays an inverse U-shaped relationship between perceived disruptiveness and effectiveness. Tactics with increasing disruptiveness are also perceived as increasingly effective up to an inflection point at which the relationship inverses.
Our manuscript, currently under review, analyzes how individuals’ social characteristics moderate disruptiveness and effectiveness perceptions across tactical dimensions. Findings indicate disruption-effectiveness tradeoff varies among tactical dimensions. Moreover, non-White participants are more likely than Whites to rate embodied tactics, characterized by mass physical presence, as effective. Racial minorities, having less access to institutional politics, recognize embodied tactics as more legitimate for social change.
