My overarching research goal is to critically examine how and why people from dominant and marginalized groups engage in activism to advance equity. In two lines of work, (1) activism and (2) intraminority solidarity, I integrate theories across disciplines, psychology (e.g., social, clinical, political, cultural, organizational) and otherwise (e.g., critical race, law, decolonial studies), to center lay, marginalized perspectives and interrogate the intersectional systems of power. I conduct my research using both quantitative (e.g., experiment, daily diary, longitudinal) and qualitative methods (e.g., meaning extraction, thematic analysis). Ultimately, my work seeks to build rigorous, empirically grounded theories and interventions for grassroots organizing and policy-making.
Activism
Incorporating lay, marginalized, and critical perspectives, my research advances a critical investigation of activism. Earlier, my work has demonstrated lay beliefs about the goals of anti-racism activism (Pham, Chaney, & Ramírez-Esparza, 2023, RASP). Experimental evidence then showed that Black (but not White) people perceive anti-racism organizational efforts that target White power/privilege versus discrimination as both effective (Pham & Chaney, in press, GPIR). Integrating the critical literature revealing that neutrality legitimizes systemic oppression (see Pham & Sarmal, under review), I am examining how a lay theory of anti-neutral activism (e.g., a person either stands with the oppressed or the oppressor; Pham & Chaney, in prep) mobilizes activism engagement. Directly interrogating the role of systems of oppression, I also study beliefs about and activism against police violence (Pham & Blanchette, under review; Oswald, Pham, & Chaney, 2024, ASAP).
My research integrates intersectional and strength-based approaches to holistically understand the conditions that facilitates equitable and sustained solidarity. Going beyond the dominant shared-discrimination mechanism (Pham & Chaney, in press, PSPB), my prior work demonstrated a lay belief of generalized prejudice, or shared perpetrators of prejudice, as a mechanism of solidarity among diverse marginalized groups and cultures (e.g., Pham, Chaney, & Sanchez, 2024, Self & Identity). My research has begun to challenge the hierarchies of oppression (e.g., passing down the mic is a novel, effective act of intersectional solidarity to promote women of color’s identity safety; Pham & Chaney, in press, SPPS) and is currently examining how a lay theory of bottom-up activism (i.e., uplifting marginalized people lower in the social hierarchies trickle up to help those who are above) can address intersectional disparities (Pham et al., invited submission, Compass). Concurrently, I am integrating a strength-based lens to theorize that marginalized people share identity-conscious strengths that may motivate intraminority solidarity (Pham, Chaney, & Garr-Schultz, in press, PSPR).