Selected Research
My substantive research agenda examines the ways in which experiencing trauma and violence — both at the individual level (personal traumas) and collective level (national tragedies) — shape sociopolitical outcomes relevant to peace and security. I incorporate findings from psychology into questions commonly asked by political scientists, with an eye toward better understanding the ways in which individual behavior impacts the interpersonal dynamics that underpin social stability. I employ multi-method research strategies that build on applied collaborations in challenging field contexts, with the goal of producing findings that can inform policy decisions about human security in a globalized world.
Below, I outline ongoing projects and associated publications. An extended description of my book project, Individual Trauma, Collective Security: The Consequences of Conflict and Forced Migration on Sociopolitical Stability, can be found here. My job market paper is available for download here. For more information on any particular project, please contact me at elizabethdherman@berkeley.edu or use this contact form.
Book Project & Related Works Individual Trauma, Collective Security: the Psychological Consequences of Conflict and Forced Migration on Social Cohesion
My book project, Individual Trauma, Collective Security: The Consequences of Conflict and Forced Migration on Sociopolitical Stability, examines how the psychological implications of living through conflict and forced migration affect social cohesion. This project seeks to better understand how living through violence and trauma shapes behavioral and attitudinal changes related to community dynamics and security. As the process of living through and responding to trauma exposure has significant heterogeneity at the individual level, I maintain that it should be conceptualized and studied as such. I present the theory of psychological foundations of social cohesion, which posits that individuals' adverse responses to trauma exposure, manifest as psychological distress, lead to changes in social cohesion outcomes. I identify two dimensions of social cohesion: bonding social cohesion, which is social cohesion targeted at ingroup members, and bridging social cohesion, which is social cohesion targeted at outgroup members. I hypothesize that only a subset of individuals will develop psychological distress in responses to trauma exposure, that there will be variation in the character of that distress, and that different manifestations of distress will differentially affect bonding and bridging social cohesion. Specifically, I theorize that individuals with responses to trauma characterized by hyperarousal—commonly referred to as "fight or flight" behaviors—will have lower levels of bridging social cohesion, while individuals with responses to trauma characterized by hypoarousal—commonly referred to as "freezing or immobilizing" behaviors—will have lower levels of bonding social cohesion. I additionally theorize that individuals with increased emotion regulation, defined as the ability to modulate one's emotional responses in a way proportional to stimuli, will have greater reporter bonding and bridging social cohesion.
I present three main empirical tests of the hypotheses. The first takes a cross-contextual approach, assessing cross-national variation in rates of trauma exposure and psychological disorder, as reported by the World Health Organization's World Mental Health Survey Initiative, and estimating associations between individual-level measures of psychological distress and social cohesion, as measured cross-nationally in the second wave of the World Values Survey.
The second—and primary—test of the theory uses an original panel dataset gathered via a randomized controlled trial evaluating the efficacy of The Field Guide for Barefoot Psychologists, a novel psychoeducational program designed to improve emotion regulation and reduce psychological distress among Syrian refugees living in Za'atari Refugee Camp in Jordan. I use the baseline data to assess the prevalence of trauma exposure and psychological distress, as well as associations between baseline levels of psychological distress and social cohesion. I then use the baseline and endline data to evaluate how intervention-driven improvements in psychological distress and emotion regulation are associated with changes in social cohesion. The third empirical test uses data from the Survey of War Affected Youth (SWAY) to provide another individual-level test of the theory in a highly different context. The SWAY data is a large-scale survey of 1360 conflict-affected youth in Kitgum and Pader districts in northern Uganda. I assess variations in psychological distress based on degree and type of trauma exposure, before estimating associations between psychological distress and social cohesion.
This dissertation project makes both theoretical and empirical contributions related to how different manifestations of psychological distress that can emerge in the aftermath of trauma exposure affect social cohesion. It offers important contributions to the understanding of how mental health contributes to peace and stability in communities affected by conflict and forced migration, new avenues for academic and practical inquiry, and insights into broader implications and policy strategies regarding mental health and social cohesion.
Associated Publications
Under Review: Vivian Khedari, Michael Niconchuk, Sarah Beranbaum, Biz Herman, Zakarya Alkareem, Basma Jaber, and Wendy D'Andrea. “The Field Guide for Barefoot Psychology: Impact of a Biology-centered Psychoeducation Curriculum on Refugee Mental Health and Stigma.” (Revise & Resubmit at Journal of Traumatic Stress)
Working Paper: Biz Herman. “The Psychological Implications of Conflict & Forced Migration on Social Cohesion." Job market paper, available here (featured on Talking Policy Podcast).
Paper in Preparation: Biz Herman. “Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in International Organizations: an Assessment of Policies and Priorities from 2000 - 2020.”
Paper in Preparation: Biz Herman and Justine Davis. “Systematic Review of the Impact of Trauma Exposure and Trauma Response on Post-Conflict Sociopolitical Dynamics.”
Paper in Preparation: Biz Herman, Margaret Boittin, and Cecilia Hyunjung Mo. “Responses to Trauma: Differential Impacts of Natural Disaster and Conflict Exposure in Nepal.”
Report: Biz Herman. “Impact of Novel Psychoeducational Program on Sociopolitical Dynamics in Za'atari Refugee Camp.'' Forthcoming. Prepared for Beyond Conflict.
Collective Trauma & Social Stability (1) 9/11 in History Textbooks Worldwide; (2) The 1971 War in Bangladeshi Textbooks; (3) Narratives of Women in Modern Conflicts
This area of inquiry focuses on trauma at the collective level of analysis, examining the dynamics that exist between individual and collective recollections of past traumas, and the implications for social stability and identity when individual and collective memories do not align. Collective trauma involves trauma to a collective's identity and can be shaped both by the original experiences of the community or a subset of its members, as well as by the stories about trauma that the community tells itself and future generations. Importantly, collective traumas can be real or imagined, unlike individual trauma exposure, for which there must be a real threat or occurrence of trauma. Within this area of research, I have three existing studies.
Two projects examine how contemporary politics shape state-sanctioned narratives of the past, focusing specifically on official narratives in textbooks. The first study examines how the events of September 11th, 2001, which occurred 20 years ago this fall, are recounted in high school history textbooks worldwide. The second investigates how narratives of the 1971 Liberation War in Bangladesh have been written and revised in the country’s social science textbooks from independence to the present. Both projects include extensive archival research and fieldwork; the former resulted in a dataset of digitized passages from over 850 textbooks from over 90 countries, and the latter produced a dataset of digitized passages from over 150 Bangladeshi textbooks, 100 semi-structured interviews with educators and political elites, and 30 school visits across Bangladesh’s seven districts. These projects will result in three solo authored papers, two of which have working drafts and one of which is in preparation. They will additionally produce two datasets of digitized textbook passages, which will be made accessible to other researchers to do their own analyses.
The third project compares established public narratives of national traumas to individual recollections of those shared experiences in order to examine how divergence between personal and collective narratives of trauma influence community stability after conflict. This project draws on a dataset of 120 semi-structured interviews that I have completed with women who have engaged in various roles in modern conflicts across the globe. Conflict narratives of women — a population who are often excluded from official remembrances — allow for a test of how individual attitudes toward collective stability are affected when a person’s experience is excluded form official remembrances. This work will result in a solo authored paper and the release of the deidentified dataset of the interviews.
Associated Publications
Working Paper: Biz Herman. “How Do Current Politics Systematically Shape Retellings of 9/11 in High School History Textbooks Worldwide?” (featured on WBUR's All Things Considered).
Working Paper: Biz Herman. “Representations of Independence in Bangladeshi History Textbooks."
An additional line of research focuses on improving best practices for applied and ethical microlevel research with populations with lived experiences of violence and trauma. This research builds on work that I have been undertaking with co-authors to develop guidelines regarding processes and ethical considerations for designing and fielding research in fragile security contexts. In a co-authored article under Revise and Resubmit at PS: Political Science & Politics, we draw on our research experiences to offer best practices to better localize benefits and assess risks in such studies. By dividing the research process into four stages — idea generation, planning, implementation, and scientific communication — we offer a series of practical considerations and tools that will allow researchers better consider the risks and benefits posed to research participants, the community in which the study is taking place, and the research team. This project will be expanded to create a handbook for trauma-informed survey design and practice.
A related project builds on work done organizing the inaugural Human Security, Violence, and Trauma (HSVT) conference. My collaborators, Justine Davis and Cecilia Hyunjung Mo, and I convened this multidisciplinary conference in May 2021, bringing together over 170 policymakers, practitioners, and researchers from political science, behavioral economics, psychology, and public health for a two-day seminar on the implications of conflict and forced migration. We are hoping to organize and convene future monthly hour-long seminars, either virtually or in person, to build on the conversations and partnerships that emerged at the HSVT conference.
Associated Publications
Biz Herman,ⓡ Amma Panin, Elizabeth Wellman, Graeme Blair, Lindsey Pruett, Ken O. Opalo, Hannah Alarian, Allison Grossman, Yvonne Tan, Alex Dyzenhaus, and Nicholas Owsley (author order randomized). 2022. “Field Experiments in the Global South: Assessing Risks, Localizing Benefits, and Addressing Positionality.” PS: Political Science \& Politics, 1-4. doi:10.1017/S1049096522000063
Improving Guidelines for Applied & Interdisciplinary Research
Vulnerability to Human Trafficking
I am currently a member of and previously served as a Predoctoral Fellow with The Human Trafficking Vulnerability Lab. The lab applies experimental methods to study the impact of awareness campaigns on norms and behaviors that leave people vulnerable to labor exploitation and human trafficking. Thus far, data have been collected in Nepal and Hong Kong, with a specific focus on populations that are either vulnerable to trafficking and labor exploitation or responsible for mitigating it. This includes the general public, law enforcement, employers, and migrant domestic workers. With funding from Humanity United, USAID, US Department of Labor, Stanford University, Terres des Hommes, and Vanderbilt University, the HTV Lab has tested the efficacy of these campaigns on the knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and practices of populations that are either vulnerable to trafficking and labor exploitation or responsible for mitigating it. This includes the general public, law enforcement agents, employers, and migrant domestic workers (MDWs).
A co-authored working paper assesses how the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the already-precarious nature of migrant domestic work in Hong Kong. We find that media campaigns that provide information about labor law have little impact on MDWs, but do have a positive and significant impact on the general population in Hong Kong–individuals who may themselves be committing abuse against MDWs they employ, or be in a position to stop the occurrence of such abuse in their surroundings. We further find that MDWs express more tolerance for labor abuse than the general population despite high levels of awareness regarding their rights: they view maltreatment as part and parcel of their job, given insufficient regulatory protections and limited alter-native labor options.
An additional co-authored paper with Cecilia Hyunjung Mo and Margaret Boittin, currently in preparation, assesses how disgust response affects intergroup dynamics. The study leverages data collected as part of a Department of Labor-funded RCT evaluating the efficacy of novel anti-trafficking awareness media campaign in Hong Kong, which was collected in mid-2020, coinciding both with major political protests and the COVID-19 pandemic. As the most significant pandemic in modern history, COVID-19 has led to significant shifts in norms regarding disgust sensitivity. We theorize that heightened disgust sensitivity will be associated with heightened outgroup anxiety, operating via the mechanism of threat reactivity, with the salient outgroup being migrant domestic workers living and working in Hong Kong.
Associated Publications
Working Paper: Margaret Boittin, Biz Herman, Cecilia Hyunjung Mo, Sarah Rich-Zendel, and Soo Sun You. “Growing Awareness Amid Growing Vulnerability: Assessing and Mitigating Labor Abuse of Migrant Domestic Workers.”
Paper in Preparation: Biz Herman, Margaret Boittin, and Cecilia Hyunjung Mo. “Disgust Response and Attitudes of the Other: Migrant Domestic Workers in Hong Kong.”
Report: Biz Herman and Cecilia Hyunjung Mo. “Evaluation of Bay Area Anti-Trafficking Coalition Training for SFO Workers.” Forthcoming Fall 2021. Prepared for San Francisco International Airport.
Report: Margaret Boittin, Biz Herman, Cecilia Hyunjung Mo, Sarah Rich-Zendel, and Soo Sun You. “Experimental Interventions Using Mass Media to Change Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices (KAP) Around Vulnerability to Forced Labor in Hong Kong.” 2020. Prepared for U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL); find the report here.
Report: Margaret Boittin, Biz Herman, Cecilia Hyunjung Mo, Sarah Rich-Zendel, and Soo Sun You. “The Long-Term Effects of an Awareness-Raising Campaign on Human Trafficking Vulnerability: An Experimental Study in Nepal,” 2020. Prepared for USDOL; find the report here.
Gendered Networks in Legislative Bodies
Throughout my work on trauma and remembrance, I have been acutely struck by the gendered dimensions of power and policymaking. To this end, I am engaged in a collaborative research project with Neil O’Brian, which will result in a co-authored paper, which examines the ways in which gendered networks operate at a micro-level and influence legislating in the U.S. Congress. How these networks operate, the role they serve in governance, and whether and how these networks differ from those to which men have access has remained underexplored in the literature. We theorize that in order to compensate for the challenges they face in running for and serving in office, women form stronger gendered networks, which have a distinct impact on their legislating style and substance. The project uses a multi-method approach to test the hypothesis, fielding a survey experiment with members of Congress and their staff, as well as follow-up semi-structured interviews. The survey data collection is underway, and the interviews will be completed in early 2022. Inclusion of both men and women members of Congress and their staff in the sample will permit us to assess differences across both gender and party.
This research builds off of a special project that I pitched, researched, wrote, and co-photographed for The New York Times in 2019, documenting all of the women serving in the 116th Congress.
Associated Publications
Paper in Preparation: Biz Herman and Neil A. O'Brian. “The Impact of Gendered Networks in the 116th Congress.”