My research examines socially-influenced, often religious meanings that people make in their lives, and their implications for physical and psychological health. As part of my next book project, which will look at a common perceptual bias and seek to explain the phenomenon and its variation across people and cultures. I am in the process of compiling a thorough literature review on related scholarship that will help to explain the phenomenon. The focus of the work with the USOAR student will be to further develop this research review and integrate it into the empirical data set that I will be creating in parallel with analysis of the secondary sources.
Have you ever had the experience where you learn a new word, or learn about a particular kind of car, and suddenly it seems like that word or car pops up everywhere? For some people it is a very significant sign of synchronicity and meaning, while for others it is barely registered at all. In this humanistic social science research project, we will explore why this common phenomenon happens with people, and what meanings they make of it. We will also seek to understand cultural variation in attention strategies (comparing US, UK, and Thai responses), and links to mental health, conspiracy theories, and the algorithmic uses of media. For your role in the project, you will aid in developing the research questions and carrying out a literature review on second-hand materials related to the phenomenon, including research findings in the fields of Thai Buddhism, American Christianity, esotericism, psychology, mental health, media, and the science of perception. The focus of the work with the USOAR student will be to further develop this research review and integrate it into the empirical data set that I will be creating in parallel with analysis of the secondary sources. There will be some room for the student to pursue their own particular lines of curiosity as the project develops, and to help incorporate it into the broader inquiry. Through the work we will learn about perception and attention, and the role of mental expectations in experiencing the world around us. The project is part of a broader research agenda, which examines socially-influenced, often religious meanings that people make in their lives, and their implications for physical and psychological health.
Skills in carrying out literature reviews and working across humanistic and social science fields will be a plus.
Through your work in this project, you will gain experience carrying out library research and analysis of work on the cultural variation of perception and attention, including the religious and psychological implications of different practices. In particular, you will:
- Become competent at homing in on intriguing scholarly finds and connecting them to other research and the current work
- Learn skills in contributing to the analysis of an empirically-based scholarly project
- Writing summaries of articles and interpreting them within an interdisciplinary framework
- Be part of a research team