Broadly, Dr. Leath's research program considers variation in the family and school-based experiences of Black youth and young adults, including how they draw on their race and gender identity beliefs as cultural assets to protect against the negative effects of discrimination on academic and psychological outcomes. Her work engages these processes among Black girls and women in particular, utilizing theoretical and methodological approaches grounded in education, psychology, and gender and cultural studies.
Her scholarship has two main foci: 1) to explore how Black women and girls draw on individual and community supports to mitigate the effects of interpersonal and institutional oppression (i.e., misogynoir), and 2) to understand how social determinants of health (i.e., educational access and neighborhood contexts) have a direct and dynamic role in shaping sociocultural practices within Black families.
Outside of work, Dr. Leath loves to read (especially books by and about Black women and girls), garden, and eat good food. Her four beautiful children remind her to use storytelling as a form of radical, healing resistance & find joy in the small (and messy) things.
Contact Dr. Leath if you want to hear more about opportunities in the lab, how to juggle motherhood and academia, or what it's been like to earn a PhD as a first-generation student.