We are delighted to welcome a new Social Psychologist to the department this year!
Dr. Michelle Russell is a Lecturer whose research expertise centers on close relationships, including the way in which contextual factors buffer romantic partners against relational vulnerabilities and how modern cultural factors interact with evolved processes to impact relationship outcomes.
Russell earned her M.A. in Psychology at the University of Tennessee and her Ph.D. at Florida State University, after which she completed postdoctoral training at North Carolina State University.
Her research has been published in a number of prestigious outlets, including the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Social Psychological and Personality Science, and the Journal of Family Psychology. Recently, she served as Program Coordinator for the Annual Meeting of the Society of Southeastern Social Psychologists.
Russell teaches several courses in the department, including General Psychology, Psychological Perspectives on Social Psychology, and specialized undergraduate and graduate seminars on close relationships.
On a personal level, Russell is a first-generation college student, an avid college football fan (Roll Tide!) and she enjoys chatting about relationship research and social psychology with anyone who will listen (and even those who won’t).
You can find out more about her research by checking out the Close Relationships Lab website.
