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Cerenity is a doctoral candidate whose research focuses on racialized emotion, racial identity processes, social networks, and health. Her dissertation engages with W.E.B. Du Bois’ theory of double consciousness to examine the identity management strategies, emotions, and health of Black STEM students. Her prior work focused on how race and other social positions impact reported affective sentiments. Her dissertation research has been supported by the Phelps-Stokes Graduate Fellowship and the University of Georgia Graduate School Dean’s Award. She is also an SREB-Doctoral Scholars Program (DSP) Dissertation Year Award recipient for 2023-2024.
Cerenity is also engaged in several collaborative projects. In an article currently under revise and resubmit, Cerenity and her coauthors examine the relationship between racial discrimination, psychosocial resources, and long-term health outcomes for Black Americans. In a second project, Cerenity and her collaborator conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews to understand mental health care access and decision making among LGBTQ+ people during the COVID-19 pandemic. Other current projects include a project exploring the link between racial identity, gender, and emotion complexity and a paper exploring identity processes in middle school STEM students.
Cerenity has worked as a research assistant on multisite and interdisciplinary research teams for multiple projects funded by National Science Foundation and the Army Research Office. She has also served as project manager on multiple studies conducted in the Laboratory for the Study of Social Interaction (LaSSI) including a study focused on developing new measures for studying identity-based emotions.
