faculty

Ursula Moffitt

Assistant Professor of Psychology

Departments

Psychology

Programs

Psychology

Contact

Discovery Center 3314

W 10:00-12:00, Th 1:30-3:30, or by appointment

(508) 286-4343

About

My research is situated in developmental, cultural, and educational psychology. I take a social justice approach to the study of identity construction and content, examining the dynamic relationship between individuals and their environments from childhood to early adulthood. I am primarily interested in racial, national, and gender identity, as well as their intersections, investigating how individuals from across groups resist or reinforce norms and structures of power, privilege, and oppression.

Degrees

Postdoctoral Fellow, Northwestern University

PhD in Psychology, University of Potsdam, Germany

MA in German Turkish Social Sciences, Humboldt University, Germany

BA in Psychology, Reed College

Research Interests

Developmental, cultural, and educational psychology, qualitative, critical, and mixed-methods research, identity development in adolescence and early adulthood

Teaching Interests

Adolescent Development; Race, Society, and Psychology; Lifespan Development, Quantitative Research Methods

Publications

Moffitt, U. & Rogers, L.O (2022). Studying ethnic-racial identity among white youth: White supremacy as a developmental context. Journal of Research on Adolescence. Advance online publication. doi.org/10.1111/jora.12762 

Moffitt, U., Rogers, L.O., & Dastrup, K.R.H. (2021). Beyond ethnicity: Applying Helms’s White Racial Identity Development model among white youth. Journal of Research on Adolescence, Advance online publication. doi.org/10.1111/jora.12645

Rogers, L.O., Moffitt, U., & Foo, C. (2021). “Martin Luther King fixed it”: Children making sense of racial identity in a colorblind society. Child Development, 92: 1817-1835. doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13628

Moffitt, U. & Syed, M. (2021). Ethnic-racial identity in action: Structure and content of friends’ conversations about ethnicity and race. Identity, 21:1, 67-88. doi.org/10.1080/15283488.2020.1838804

Juang, L.P., Moffitt, U., Scachner, M.K, & Pevec., S. (2021). Understanding ethnic-racial identity in a context where “race” is taboo. Identity, 21:3, 185-199. doi.org/10.1080/15283488.2021.1932901

Moffitt, U., Juang, L.P., & Syed, M. (2020). Intersectionality and youth identity development research in Europe. Frontiers in Psychology, 11(78). doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00078 

Moffitt, U., & Juang, L.P. (2019). Who is “German” and who is a “migrant?” Constructing belonging in education and psychology research. European Educational Research Journal, 18(6), 656–674. doi.org/10.1177/1474904119827459

Moffitt, U., Juang, L.P, & Syed, M. (2019). “We don’t do that in Germany!” A critical race theory examination of Turkish heritage young adults’ school experiences. Ethnicities. 19(5), 830–857. doi.org/10.1177/1468796818788596

Moffitt, U., Juang, L.P., & Syed, M. (2018). Being both German and Other: Narratives of contested national identity among white and Turkish German young adults. British Journal of Social Psychology, 57(4), 878-896. doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12268