Research
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Reframing Homelessness: Social Media, Individual Identity, and the Contest over Disempowering Representation
1. Research Title: Reframing Homelessness: Social Media, Individual Identity, and the Contest over Disempowering Representation
2. Research Period: July 2026 - September 2026
3. Start Date: July 2026
4. Completion Date: October 2026
5. Research Abstract
This research examines the tension between traditional and emerging portrayals of homelessness. Conventional political and media narratives often frame homelessness through punitive policy, public disorder, and political messaging, reducing individuals to a social problem rather than foregrounding their lived experiences and structural vulnerability. By contrast, contemporary social media increasingly presents unhoused people as individuals with distinct identities, aspirations, and forms of agency. This study explores how these more humanizing representations challenge stigmatizing narratives by emphasizing resilience, participation in civic life, and the effort to preserve dignity under conditions of social and economic disadvantage.
Faculty/Research Guidance
6. Conducted under the guidance of: Professor Carly Thomsen, Department of English and Creative Writing and the Center for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality, Rice University
7. Research Focus / Keywords
Homelessness · Social Media · Representation · Identity · Stigma · Public Policy
Gender Differences in Burnout: Varying Causes, Manifestations, and Treatment
1. Research Title: Gender Differences in Burnout: Varying Causes, Manifestations, and Treatment
2. Research Period: May 2026 - July 2026
3. Start Date: February 2026
4. Completion Date: July 2026
5. Research Abstract:
Burnout is often treated as an individual failure of resilience, yet this framing obscures the social structures that help produce it. This research argues that gender is central to understanding both the origins and expression of burnout. Women often experience burnout through the cumulative demands of paid work, domestic responsibility, emotional regulation, and workplace expectations that leave little room for physiological transitions. Men, by contrast, may encounter burnout through cultures of overwork, social isolation, occupational pressure, and norms that discourage emotional vulnerability. These gendered pathways reveal the limits of approaches that focus primarily on self-care or individual coping. By examining burnout as a structurally produced and gendered phenomenon, this paper reframes the problem around the institutional expectations that shape how people work, care, endure stress, and seek support. The paper critiques the limitations of conventional therapeutic approaches to burnout and argues that lasting solutions must extend beyond individual treatment. It argues that addressing the structural conditions and institutional pressures that produce and intensify burnout is essential to confronting its growing prevalence.
Faculty/Research Guidance
6. Conducted under the guidance of: Professor Oyman Basaran, Associate Professor of Sociology, Bowdoin University
7. Research Focus / Keywords
Burnout · Gender Differences · Workplace Stress · Emotional Labor · Dual Labor · Burnout Treatment
