Ryan Gibson
Postdoctoral Diversity and Innovation Scholar
Department of Sociology

Ryan Gibson researches the psychology of race and racism, probing how individuals internalize ideas of race and how those ideas then affect our lives. Much of his work examines the intersections of race and mental health. For example, using quantitative methodologies such as regression and structural equation modeling, Gibson assesses how racial identities influence how often people of color experience anxiety, depression and panic attacks. Additionally, Gibson is interested in the origins of our racial identities, with his dissertation analyzing how perceiving discrimination works as a powerful catalyst for generating racial identities in Asian Americans. Gibson’s current lines of research are multidisciplinary and pertain to cutting-edge issues in the social psychology of race including race and COVD-19, race and cyberspace and, in research funded by the National Science Foundation, race and the workplace. Gibson earned his Ph.D. and M.A. from Emory University and his B.A. from Kennesaw State University.