Psychology welcomes new faculty

Ben Blankenship has joined the Department of Psychology as a tenure-track faculty member. Blankenship received his Ph.D. in Psychology from the Personality and Social Contexts area of the Department of Psychology at The University of Michigan. Blankenship is teaching PSYC 220 (Psychology and Culture). Blankenship is “excited to expose people to new ideas and new perspectives that they may not have had in the past.” The class incorporates aspects of community involvement, as Blankenship hopes to “set an example of what engaged scholarship looks like.” Blankenship’s research revolves around identity and identity dimensionality. His past work focused on the effect of social identity on educational, health, and aspirational outcomes, and his more current work examines the effects of identity on voting, activism, and political engagement. Blankenship will be starting his research lab in the Spring of 2020, and he’s currently looking for research assistants. Regarding his new role at JMU, Blankenship states “I’m excited to get to know more people in the community and build a good foundation here.” For more information about Blankenship, his research, or how to contact him, please visit his website.

Giselle Hendy has joined the Department of Psychology as a part of the Preparing Future Faculty (PFF) program. The PFF program provides teaching opportunities to doctoral candidates and also creates opportunities to attract more minority candidates to academia. Hendy received her M.S. in Clinical Psychology from Towson University. After earning her degree, she spent time teaching second and third graders at an elementary school, and as an adjunct professor at a community college. From there, she decided to pursue her Ph.D. Hendy is now teaching PSYC 365 (Developmental Psychology) in which students “not only engage in critical discourse in theories and constructs, but also how they apply to certain people and why it is relevant to the future.” Hendy has a passion for teaching, and is enthusiastic about her role stating, “I’m a nerd about psychology and I’m a geek about teaching. This is perfect for me.” Her past research concerned cross-gender and cross-sexual orientation relationships, and her more current work falls within the realm of culture research. For her dissertation, Hendy is conducting a growth mindset workshop for middle school students that is aimed at improving efficacy beliefs as well as academic attitudes and outcomes.