Doctoral Candidate Kylie M. Smith is a doctoral candidate in the Sociology Department at the University of Georgia. She earned her MA in Sociology from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 2019 as well as a Graduate Certificate in Women’s Studies from the University of Georgia in 2022. Her research interests include social psychology, sex and gender, inequality, work and organizations, and science, knowledge, and technology. She has taught several classes at the University of Georgia including Introductory Sociology (SOCI 1101), Social Psychology (SOCI 3730), and Sociology of Gender (SOCI 3280). Kylie is interested in examining how gendered inequalities are created and persist in various contexts. Her dissertation specifically looks at how identity threat influences discriminatory behaviors in online environments. Through experimental methods, she is studying whether male gamers respond to gamer identity threat with discriminatory behavior and sexist attitudes towards women. She has received funding to support this research through the American Sociological Association’s Section on Social Psychology’s Graduate Student Investigator Award as well as through the University of Georgia’s Graduate School Summer Research Grant program and the Center for Research and Engagement in Diversity’s Red Seed Grant. Kylie’s second main stream of research centers on the relationship between status and emotional labor. In her solo authored paper published in Emotions and Society, she examined how structural conditions influenced how STEM graduate students felt about their own emotional labor. This research demonstrated that relative status did seem to influence how participants felt about their own emotional labor. Additionally, gender and race mattered: when participants felt that they were performing emotional labor due to their marginalized status as either women or people of color (or both), they felt negatively about the emotional labor they performed. This paper won the inaugural Tim Futing Liao Graduate Award in Sociology for Best Published Article from the University of Georgia’s Sociology Department as well as received an honorable mention for the Graduate Student Paper Award from ASA’s Section on the Sociology of Emotions. From 2021-2022, Kylie served as the Managing Editor for Social Psychology Quarterly. Additionally, in the 2024-2025 academic year, Kylie is working with an interdisciplinary team on an NSF-funded project focused on teaching evaluation and change in STEM higher education. Education Education: Graduate Certificate in Women's Studies, University of Georgia, 2022 M.A. in Sociology, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, 2019 B.A. in Sociology, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, 2018 Research Research Areas: Social Psychology Gender Sociology of Emotions Inequality Research Interests: Sex and Gender, Social Psychology, Sociology of Emotions, Inequalities, Work and Organizations, Science, Knowledge, and Technology Labs: Laboratory for the Study of Social Interaction Selected Publications Selected Publications: Smith, Kylie M. (in press) “Emoting Up, Emoting Down: Status, Authenticity, and the Emotional Labour of STEM Graduate Students.” Emotions and Society. Clay-Warner, Jody, Justine Tinkler, Sarah M. Groh, Kylie M. Smith, and Sharyn Potter. (in press) “What Will People Think? How College Students Evaluate Bystander Intervention Behavior.” Journal of Interpersonal Violence. Awards, Honors, and Recognition Of Note: Recipient of the University of Georgia's Graduate School's J. William Fanning Graduate Fellowship (2024-2025) Recipient of the American Sociological Association's Section on Social Psychology's Graduate Student Investigator Award (2022) Recipient of the University of Georgia's Presidential Fellows Graduate Research Assistantship (2019-2024) Courses Regularly Taught Courses Regularly Taught: SOCI 3280 SOCI 3730 SOCI 1101
