Past Team Members

Morawski Lab Alumni:

Sophia Sinins (2022)
Katerina Mekarnom (2022)
William Miner (2022) (He/Him) is a Psychology Major, Religion Minor, and Writing Certificate from Houston, Texas. He is greatly interested in using research to reduce prejudice and foster intergroup harmony. Within the Morawski Lab, he works with APA data prior to the Belmont Report to analyze the construction of ethics in the field of psychology through psychologists’ own words. On campus, he performs with his a cappella group Slender James as well as in plays and musicals. Outside of school, he loves biking, funk music, and playing piano.
Abigail Weiss (She/Her) (2022) is a Psychology and English Major interested in studying trauma and suicide prevention when not working on classic literature papers. In Professor Morawski’s tutorial she is part of a team currently researching the APA’s apology to people of color and the chronology, examining its epistemic and ontological roots, and creating a response in the form of an undergraduate curriculum.
Alexandra Riedel (2019) is a Psychology and Science in Society program double major. Alexandra joined the lab in May, 2017. Her work in Morawski’s lab involves a historical examination of clinical insight definitions, with a specific interest in the values of insight, which conditions influence insight’s value, and techniques used to develop insight. Alexandra is also involved in Prof. Kamens’s follow-up study examining young adults’ existential challenges and experiences during treatment. Alexandra hopes to gain admission to a clinical psychology program post-graduation to continue research aimed at alleviating distress and maximizing self-esteem and self-efficacy.
Mary McAllister (2020) is an Psychology and Science in Society major. Her interests center around societal structures and cultural influences that impact selfhood and mental health, particularly relating to neurodiverse individuals. She currently is working on the insight project, researching the development of insight definitions throughout history and how resulting contributions to the concept have been implemented into treatment of individuals with mental illness.
Ruth Chartoff (2020) is an English, Science in Society, and Psychology major at Wesleyan University. She is from Woodbridge, CT. Ruth began working in Professor Morawski’s lab in May 2017 researching the concept of clinical insight as it appears in historical and current literature. She has also been working with Professor Morawski on a research project focused on the phenomenon of long-term ostracization or “non-communication” between family members, partners, peers, and colleagues. In addition to research, Ruth also serves as the Music Director for Wesleyan’s free-form, community radio station, WESU. She hopes to continue to conduct research in the field of clinical psychology and apply her psychological knowledge to the field of law.
Melissa Dzierlatka (2019) is a non-traditional student at Wesleyan University. She is a Philosophy major on the Social Justice track, with a concentration entitled “Epistemic Injustices and Mental Health”; her minor is Religion. With a little more life experience than the typical college student, she communicates openly about her efforts to fight stigmas related to gender, beauty standards and mental health. She has been featured on UCONN Health’s website after her dramatic weight loss, and subsequent recovery from diabetes, solely through lifestyle changes. Melissa’s current research interests examine the intersections between philosophy, psychology and religion; and the ontologies behind moral judgments that give rise to stereotyping, social exclusion and oppression. In the Morawski Lab, Melissa works on several projects: She primarily offers supporting research from philosophical literature, in addition to her role as web designer for the Morawski Lab website. Outside the lab, Melissa volunteers her time with a non-profit organization working to end chronic homelessness in Connecticut; she also keeps a part-time job in therapeutic recreation, performing ’50s music for Alzheimer’s and dementia patients. After Wesleyan, Melissa plans to pursue her masters degree in philosophy.
Jules Chabot (2020) is a Neuroscience and Behavior and Science in Society major from Frederick, Maryland. He started working in the Morawski Lab in the summer of 2017, coding the historical conceptualizations of psychological insight. He is greatly interested in the sociocultural understanding of addiction and substance abuse. He splits his time between the Robinson lab, studying motivation and reward in rats, and the Morawski Lab.
LinkedIn Profile picture Ari Lewenstein (2016) received a BA in Neuroscience and Science in Society. He is interested both in how neuroscience shapes our view of the world, and in how neuroscience knowledge is translated from labs to practice. Ari has done research analyzing the mentions of schizophrenia in local newspapers, and is currently doing thesis research comparing the development of transcranial magnetic stimulation and interpersonal psychotherapy as treatments for depression. Outside the lab Ari enjoys cooking, hiking and ultimate frisbee.
ethan Ethan Hoffman (2014) received his BA in Psychology and Science in Society with a Writing Certificate. He then went on to graduate with a MA in Psychology in 2015. His research interests center on the social psychology of empirical and clinic practices. He has co-authored a critical re-examination of the Milgram experiments  and is currently coordinating a study at the Institute of Living on the link between atypical antipsychotics and metabolic syndrome. His mater’s thesis explores the effects of biomedicalization on non-clinical   populations’ understanding of depression.
Vaewsorn_Adin Adin Vaewsorn (2015) received a BA in Psychology and Science in Society. His research interests include the psychology of health-related behavioral changes, the influence of culture and socioeconomic status in research subject treatment and the intersection of psychology and public health campaigns. He worked on community garden and garden-based nutrition education in Middletown and hopes to apply his interests in community nutrition, health and social justice to a career in public health or social work.
Rachel Pradilla Rachel Pradilla (2015) graduated from Wesleyan in 2015 with a BA in Psychology. Her interests span from the ethics of research to the cultural shaping of experimentation–in particular researcher biases and the impact of these biases on the reliability of empirical studies. She has worked on the WesDAP project as well as a historical survey of debriefing practices. She also studied in Professor Rodriquez’s lab to examine the cultural impact on the expression and understanding of shame.
Screen Shot 2014-08-11 at 4.35.04 PM Kristen Lynch (2014) is a senior psychology major interested in forensic psychology and psychopathology. She has focused on the APA survey responses from the 1960s regarding incidents that psychologist found ethically challenging or troubling. Within these survey responses, she has analyzed problematic interactions between experimenters and subjects (such as a subject having an abnormally adverse reaction to an experiment.)
Kirby Neaton Kirby Neaton (2014) received his BA degree in Psychology in 2014 then his MA in Psychology in 2015. Neaton worked in the lab from 2013 to 2015 and his research interests include social and experimental psychology, the role of the subject in empirical research, and research ethics. His master’s thesis examines debriefing after psychological experimentation.
MDonahue Matt Donahue (2014) received his BA from Wesleyan University in Psychology and Neuroscience and now works as a business analyst at Kantar Retail, a market research and consultancy firm. Matt‘s research re-examines the ethics, efficacy, and experimental value of the bogus pipeline (fake lie detection machinery) in lab and field studies. He is currently co-authoring several articles with Professor Morawski that investigate the use of visual representations of the bogus technology in undergraduate textbooks.
1_DSC8457_2 Sydney Hausman-Cohen (2013) received her B.A. in psychology in 2013. As an undergraduate she examined experimenter-subject interactions and emotions in accounts of research from the 1960’s. She is currently an Associate for Policy and Programs attheProduct Stewardship Institute, an environmental nonprofit in Boston, MA, working on legislation and educational initiatives for sustainable production and end-of-life productmanagement.She recently received her M.S.in Education and Special Education from Touro College.
IMG_0225 Sophia Sadinsky (2011) received her BA in 2011 with a double major in the Science in Society Program, concentrating in Psychology and Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and French Studies. During her time in the lab, she transcribed, coded and analyzed APA survey data. Since graduation, Sophia has worked in human rights and health policy in New York and Argentina. She has been living and working for the past two years in Buenos Aires, where she is currently a Princeton in Latin America Fellow with Human Rights Watch.
Grace Ross (2012) graduated in 2012 with a BA in English and American Studies. She began working with Jill Morawski on an Independent Research Project focused on women and bicycling during the 1890s. She soon joined the lab as the Digital Archive Research Assistant and Manager, where she organized and maintained the archive. Since graduation, Grace has been working in publishing, and she’s now a literary agent in New York City.
Nate Brown (2014)
Alexandra Carey (2013)
Matthew Narkus (2011)