Dr Nathaniel Schermerhorn

Biography

Dr. Nathaniel Schermerhorn completed his Bachelor’s degree at the University of Southern California (2013) and then taught middle school English Language Arts in Florence, South Carolina for four years. He earned his Master’s in Public Administration from the Pennsylvania State University in 2017 followed by his MS in Psychology (2019) and PhD in Psychology and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (2023), both from the Pennsylvania State University. He joined the Department of Psychology at the University of Essex in September 2023. Nathaniel’s research program aims to better understand the various ways – both purposefully and inadvertently – that we maintain the existing status quo. Toward that end, he takes an interdisciplinary approach using psychological, feminist, and social theories with a variety of methods and analytical techniques. He examines the maintenance of the status quo at the individual, interpersonal, and institutional levels, as well as the interconnections between levels. His research has examined the creation, maintenance, and reinforcement of the existing status quo as a consequences of (1) the internationalization of hegemonic masculinity, or the culturally idealized conceptualization of masculinity, (2) threats to social identity, and (3) social practices, or everyday attitudes and behaviours.

Qualifications

• PhD Pennsylvania State University,

• MPA Pennsylvania State University,

• BA University of Southern California,

• MS Pennsylvania State University,

Appointments

University of Essex

• Lecturer, Psychology, University of Essex (1/9/2023 - present)