Current Projects

The BEACON Project investigates how colleges and universities promote LGBTQ+ inclusion through policies, services, and public-facing messaging—particularly in the face of shifting political and legislative climates. Our interdisciplinary, student-led research includes:

• A nationwide content analysis of Instagram posts from 100 public universities to evaluate visibility, voice, and inclusivity in social media representation.

• A multi-site analysis of institutional policies, resources, and student services across public, private, and religious institutions using LGBTQ+ friendliness metrics derived from the Campus Pride Index.

• A longitudinal examination of state-level legislation, political party dominance, and their relationship to campus inclusivity.

• The development of an interactive web-based LGBTQ+ Campus Friendliness Scorecard to support transparency and student decision-making.

Through this work, we aim to highlight institutional variation, promote accountability, and support inclusive campus climates, especially in states with regressive LGBTQ+ legislation.

This multi-study research initiative examines how social biases shape public perceptions of adolescent sexual grooming, especially in cases involving authority figures such as teachers, religious leaders, and family friends. Through content analyses of media portrayals (e.g., Pretty Little Liars) and experimental vignette studies manipulating race, gender, and attractiveness of both victims and perpetrators, we explore how demographic characteristics and relationship dynamics affect judgments of harm, legal culpability, and grooming recognition.

Our goals are to:

• Investigate the role of relationship type and perpetrator role in shaping legal and moral judgments.

• Analyze how race, gender, and attractiveness of victims and perpetrators influence bias in grooming recognition and recommended legal action.

• Identify intersectional vulnerabilities that obscure recognition or reduce the perceived severity of abuse.

• Develop community workshops and parent-focused education initiatives to address common blind spots in the recognition of grooming behaviors.

• The Chattanooga Face Database 

  • In 2025, Project JUDGE expanded to include the Chattanooga Face Database, a publicly available set of 40 AI-generated faces across racial, gender, and age categories. Funded through the UTC College of Arts and Sciences AI Research Grant, this tool allows researchers to ethically examine how appearance-based cues influence perceptions of grooming while controlling for bias. It will be normed using data from over 500 participants and shared openly via the Open Science Framework. 

By integrating experimental research with public engagement, we hope to bridge psychological science and community awareness to prevent child and adolescent sexual grooming.

In addition to our two primary projects—BEACON (LGBTQ+ campus inclusion) and JUDGE (bias in perceptions of grooming and abuse)—Dr. Walker also leads or collaborates on research in the areas of teaching and learning, aging, gender, and sexual assault prevention.

Teaching and Learning in Psychology

Dr. Walker has published on strategies to integrate diversity and equity content into undergraduate research methods and statistics courses. Her work (e.g., Walker et al., 2023; Madden et al., 2023) explores how students respond to inclusive pedagogies and how perceptions of diversity evolve over a semester. She is interested in working with students on:

• Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL)

• Inclusive pedagogy

• Classroom-based research or curricular assessment

Aging and Ageism

Walker’s research examines intergenerational dialogue (Swason et al., 2024), media portrayals of aging (Walker et al., 2022), and the intersection of ageism and sexism in the workplace (Walker & Zelin, 2021). Projects have explored:

• Age-based stereotypes in music and media

• Older adults' care experiences, especially among transgender and gender-diverse individuals

• Workplace discrimination and intersectional aging

She is particularly interested in mentoring students on projects connected to:

• Gendered ageism

• Gerontology and media literacy

• LGBTQ+ aging experiences

Sexual Assault, Bystander Behavior, and Gender Justice

Walker has co-developed the Critically Conscious Bystander Scale (CCBS; Johnson, Walker, & Rojas-Ashe, 2019) and published on rape myth acceptance, bystander intervention, and the role of critical consciousness in promoting prosocial behavior (Rojas-Ashe et al., 2019; Zelin, Walker, & Johnson, 2018). Ongoing work examines:

• How gender, clothing, intoxication, and social proximity impact willingness to intervene

• The role of sociopolitical development in sexual violence prevention

She is particularly interested in mentoring students on projects connected to:

• Sexual violence prevention

• Intersectional analyses of harm

Our lab is dedicated to producing open-source, accessible research and resources aimed at promoting equity and supporting vulnerable communities—including women, minorities, children, older adults, and LGBTQ+ individuals. We believe that knowledge and tools for change should be available to everyone, free of charge.

However, funding for research broadly related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is increasingly being reduced or eliminated. This creates new challenges for researchers committed to studying issues that disproportionately affect underrepresented and marginalized populations.

Your Support Matters:
If our work has been helpful to you, and you are in a position to contribute, your support can help us bridge this funding gap. Every donation—no matter the size—allows us to sustain our research and invest in the next generation of social science leaders.

How Your Support Helps:

• Funding Student Research: Your contributions directly support diverse students conducting research on issues that might otherwise go underfunded, including:

  • Workplace experiences of LGBTQ+ faculty and staff compared to their non-LGBTQ+ colleagues.

  • The development of a website to help prospective students assess universities’ LGBTQ+ friendliness based on our research.

  • Workshops to prevent child and adolescent sexual grooming (both digital and in-person).

  • Barriers men face when seeking orders of protection.

  • Transformative justice approaches for sex trafficking survivors.

  • And many other student-driven projects that address the needs of marginalized groups.

• Supporting Student Professional Development: Your donation also helps fund conference travel, research training, and career development opportunities—ensuring that students, especially those from underrepresented backgrounds, gain the skills and networks they need to thrive.

Why Now?
As traditional funding streams for DEI-focused research decline, your support becomes even more critical. It helps ensure that the work of our students and researchers can continue—driving knowledge, influencing policy, and supporting those who need it most.

Join Us:
We remain committed to keeping all our research and resources freely available to the public. If you believe in our mission and have the means to contribute, we would be truly grateful for your support—whether it’s the equivalent of a cup of coffee or a larger gift. If you would like more information on current projects we are working to fund, please contact Dr. Walker at ruth-walker@utc.edu

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Together, we can advance equity and ensure this work endures. Thank you for standing with us.