LAB ALUMNI
Former Ph.D. students and Postdocs
Isobel Heck, Ph.D.
Ph.D. student at Cornell University from 2016-2019 and at the University of Chicago from 2019-2023 advised by Dr. Kinzler. Currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Rochester.
Dr. Heck studies how people learn about, make sense of, and begin participating in societal structures. Her research focuses particularly on children’s reasoning about social group hierarchies along lines of power and status, as well as early-life thinking about formalized notions of power and status (e.g., political leadership, occupational hierarchies). In asking these questions, she pays particular attention to how variation in lived experience shapes differences in social thinking across individuals and contexts. email: iaheck@uchicago.edu. website: isobelheck.weebly.com
Rajen Anderson, Ph.D.
Ph.D. student at Cornell University from 2014-2021 advised by Dr. David Pizarro and Dr. Kinzler. Former Postdoctoral Fellow at the Kellogg School of Management. Currently an Assistant Professor at Leeds University Business School at the University of Leeds.
Dr. Anderson’s research interests include moral cognition, political attitudes and ideology, and group thinking. His work examines how people, as social beings, attempt to navigate and predict their world while keeping in mind their moral and political attitudes. He takes a multi-method approach to answering these questions, employing experimental, developmental, and field methods and designs. email: raa255@cornell.edu, website: www.rajenanderson.net
Jessica Bregant, J.D. Ph.D.
Ph.D. student at the University of Chicago from 2013-2018, the Joint Program in Business
and Psychology advised by Dr. Kinzler, Dr. Eugene Caruso & Dr. Alex Shaw. Former Postdoctoral Fellow at Indiana University School of Law. Currently an Assistant Professor at The University of Houston Law Center.
Research interests include cross-disciplinary approaches to understanding intuitive legal judgments, especially judgments and attitudes about punishment. email: jessica.bregant@gmail.com, website: https://jessicabregant.com
Zoe Liberman, Ph.D.
Ph.D. student at the University of Chicago from 2011-2016 advised by Dr. Kinzler and Dr. Amanda Woodward. Currently an Assistant Professor at UC Santa Barbara.
Dr. Liberman’s current research falls under two broad categories. First, she is interested in how infants understand our complex social world: what makes an infant think that two people are likely to be in the same social category? Second, she studies how differences in social experiences, specifically regular exposure to multiple languages, influences how infants, children and adults perform on tasks that require effective communication. email: zoe.liberman@psych.ucsb.edu, website: https://liberman.psych.ucsb.edu/people/zoe-liberman
Jasmine DeJesus, Ph.D.
Ph.D. student at the University of Chicago from 2009-2015 advised by Dr. Kinzler. Currently an Assistant Professor at University of North Carolina – Greensboro.
Dr. DeJesus’ research broadly investigates the development of social cognition, with a special interest in examining children’s social reasoning in the context of food. She examines questions about social learning and cultural group membership and considers the implications of basic research for pressing public health issues. email: jmdejes2@uncg.edu, website: https://www.
Samantha Fan, Ph.D.
Ph.D. student at the University of Chicago from 2009-2015 advised by Dr. Kinzler. Currently the Assistant Director of MAPSS and Associate Instructional Professor at the University of Chicago.
Dr. Fan advises MAPSS students on lab placements, course selections, faculty advisors, and MA thesis projects. Samatha’s primary research interest stems from a personal belief that culture plays a pivotal role in the development of self. She is also interested in the malleability of human prejudice. email: sfan@uchicago.edu, website: https://mapss.uchicago.edu/directory/samantha-peishan-fan-0
Sarah Gaither, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Chicago from 2014-2015 with Dr. Kinzler. Currently an Assistant Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University.
Dr. Gaither’s research focuses broadly on how a person’s social identities and experiences across the lifespan motivate their social perceptions and behaviors in diverse settings. More specifically, she studies how contact with diverse others shapes social interactions, how having multiple social identities and malleable social identities affects different types of behavior and categorizations of others, and what contexts shape the development of social perceptions and biases from childhood through adulthood. email: sarah.gaither@duke.edu, website: Duke Identity & Diversity Lab
Kathleen (Casey) Sullivan, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Chicago from 2012-2014 with Dr. Kinzler. Currently a Social Science Analyst at the Office of Science and Data Policy within the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, Department of Health and Human Services.
Dr. Sullivan’s research in early cognitive and social development has focused on the concepts and processes that infants and children use to navigate the social world.
email: casey.sullivan@hhs.gov
Jocelyn Dautel, Ph.D.
Ph.D. student at the University of Chicago from 2008-2013 advised by Dr. Kinzler. Currently a Lecturer at Queen’s University, Belfast.
Dr. Dautel is interested in how children navigate their social worlds, especially when they are divided. Her research investigates the development of social categories (e.g. language, religion, nationality) across cultural contexts, finding that variation in children’s cultural and historical context, exposure to diversity, family socialization, and perceptions of intergroup conflict, can all influence social and moral cognition and behavior. email: Jocelyn.Dautel@qub.ac.uk, website: https://pure.qub.ac.uk/en/persons/jocelyn-dautel
Nicole Baltazar, Ph.D.
Ph.D. student at the University of Chicago from 2009-2012 advised by Dr. Kinzler. Currently a Senior User Experience Researcher at Google. Nicole’s research focused on how social cues influence face perception and memory in early childhood. email: nicolecbaltazar@gmail.com