Deparment: Psychology

Areas of expertise:

• Social Identity
• Personality and Social Contexts
• Stigma, Prejudice, and Stereotypes
• LGBTQ Psychology

One line of research primarily examines the interplay of various social identities across various critically important contexts, including education and politics. This work largely employs a feminist psychology perspective, drawing upon theories of intersectionality and identity dimensionality. 

Another line of research examines the interplay of the self, the other and social context for marginalized individuals in majority-group dominated educational and occupational fields, such as science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Specifically, Blankenship is interested in how gendered stereotypes of minority groups (women & sexual minorities) interact with contexts that are stereotypically masculine. 

Blankenship earned his doctorate in psychology, personality and social contexts at The University of Michigan; his master's degree in psychological science at The University of Michigan and his bachelor's degree in psychology at Arizona State University.

Media contact: Eric Gorton, gortonej@jmu.edu