Dr. Matthew Lee focuses on the psychology of minority status and the effects of diversity-related coursework on improving attitudes among students.
As an assistant professor of psychology at James Madison University, Lee heads the Cultural and Racial Diversity Studies Lab, which examines areas related to racism, sexism and transphobia, or the fear or hatred against the transgender community.
Lee, who has a Ph.D. in clinical/community psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, specifically focuses on the psychology of minority status and the effects of diversity-related coursework on improving attitudes among students. He discusses his cutting-edge scholarship and research not just as an academician, but as an activist.
“Political psychology is my background, and as I was learning diagnosis and treatment, I was thinking, professionally, how can I be an agent of change in the system and use the skill that I have to improve some outcome in the community?”
That outcome, Lee says, may be reducing depression or anxiety within the Asian American community or in other communities.
“I really thought my skill base was best suited for the classroom, so I wanted to develop a study where I could build a classroom intervention to see if it could benefit any student … who took that class,” explains Lee.
While in graduate school, Lee worked in student affairs as a graduate assistant, responsible for developing programs that would promote and empower Asian American students. He noticed that they were overlooked and underrepresented in student leadership positions. That led to his dissertation research on how educational interventions can improve and foster more positive identity.
