Donate to help fund Roxanne's PhD dissertation

**venmo would be preferred since they don't take fees! My venmo is roxanne-felig

Update! I am so blown away by the support here. After proposing my dissertation successfully, I've realized my original goal of $1,200 is not enough to sufficiently pay participants and have a diverse sample. I've raised my goal to $3,000 so that I can adequately investigate differences among women of different races and sexual orientations.

Hi there!

It's hard asking for money but here I am — just a girl trying to finish her PhD and start making a difference. For those of you who don't know me, or for those who don't know about my research, I am a doctoral candidate at the University of South Florida and, broadly, I study gender dynamics. My research primarily investigates how social processes, like sexual objectification, shape perceptions of women and women's own self-perceptions. My work has investigated the disruptive nature of self-objectification on women's body sensations, the disruptive role of selfie editing on women's sense of self, and the consequences of objectification and dehumanization of women on sentencing in domestic violence cases (to name a couple!). Simply, my work aims to make women’s lives better.

Early on in my career, I realized how much I enjoyed conveying science to the general public, and over the past year, I have put my efforts toward building a community of 50,000+ on TikTok who like to learn about the research I do. I've appeared on podcasts, radio shows, and have been interviewed by news sources to talk about research. It has all been so fulfilling. You can find an overview of my work and contributions here.

My final milestone for my PhD is my dissertation. This project is very near and dear to my heart, and this is where I need some help. Ideally, I would apply for external grants and funding, but my timeline is tight and those sources of funding are not guaranteed.

My dissertation will investigate the disruptive, and long-lasting effects of experiencing sexual harassment on women's sense of self. Sexual harassment is an epidemic that girls are exposed to at a young age, usually in adolescence. Adolescence is a critical time for identity development and continuous exposure to sexual gazing and attention likely disadvantages women from developing a clear and stable sense of self. To study the immediate as well as long-term consequences of sexual harassment, I plan to conduct a longitudinal study. This means I will study the same participants at multiple time points to observe changes.

I will officially propose this project by March and will spend Summer and Fall collecting data, with the goal of earning my PhD in the Spring of 2024. I can only begin collecting data if I have the necessary funds.

To fund this study, which needs data from participants at multiple time points, I need approximately $1200. Below is a screenshot of what it will cost to run 1 of the 3 waves of this longitudinal design. I also need to account for people leaving the study and having to recruit more folks.

If you're family and wondering what to get me for my graduation, this would be it! And if you've enjoyed reading the work I publish or watching my tiktoks and have wondered 'hey, how can I support her', this would be how!

Thank you and I look forward to sharing updates on this project!