Dr. Hannah Volpert-Esmond
My research focuses on two main questions. The first question is how we determine what race, gender, and other social categories another person belongs to. People make split second judgements about whether someone is Black, White, Hispanic, male, female, or gay within hundreds of milliseconds of perceiving a face. Regardless of their accuracy, these category judgments have profound implications for downstream evaluations, expectations, and behavior. I look at quickly occurring brain activity that supports these categorization judgements and how both bottom up factors (skin tone, hair texture, eye shape, etc.) and top down factors (the perceiver’s learning history, expectations, and associations with contextual clues) contribute to categorization decisions. Specifically, I use EEG to measure electrical activity the brain generates that is related to these social category judgements. The second question is how experiences of racial discrimination affect the mental health of individuals in marginalized groups. Although we know from decades of research that discrimination negatively impacts both physical and mental health, the relationship between racial discrimination and mental health is temporally complex— when someone experiences an instance of discrimination or a microaggression, how long do the effects of that experience last? How does the acute stress experienced following an instance of discrimination translate to the chronic stress that impacts both mental and physical health? How are coping mechanisms successful and how does that play out over time? To answer these questions, in addition to examining brain activity, I integrate daily measurements of discrimination, mood, and mental health reported using a smart phone, resulting in repeated measurements over the course of several weeks.
UTEP Faculty Profile
Sample Publications:
Aboargob, M., Ramirez, A. M., & Volpert-Esmond, H. I. (2025). Understanding the psychological effects of political news engagement among Latinos: Vicarious discrimination and anxiety during the 2020 election. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 13684302251355877.
Volpert-Esmond, H. I., Bray, J. R., Pages, S. M., & Danyluck, C. (2024). Cardiovascular reactivity during conversations about discrimination is buffered by social support among US Latines. Scientific Reports, 14(1), 26964.
Volpert-Esmond, H. I., Armenta, A. D., & Huerta, A. A. (2024). Affect in anticipation of the 2020 US presidential election in a sample of Latinx adults living on the US–Mexico border: A daily diary study. Journal of Latinx Psychology, 12(1), 34.
Volpert-Esmond, H. I., Marquez, E. D., & Camacho, A. A. (2023). Family relationships and familism among Mexican Americans on the US–Mexico border during the COVID-19 pandemic. Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology, 29(2), 145.
Volpert‐Esmond, H. I., & Aboargob, M. (2023). Direct and vicarious experiences of discrimination and rumination among Latinos before and during the beginning of the COVID‐19 pandemic. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 17(11), e12864.
Volpert-Esmond, H. I., Landor, A. M., & Bartholow, B. D. (2023). Immediate and delayed effects of everyday racial discrimination on mental health among Black college students: A mixed-methods approach. Group processes & intergroup relations, 26(8), 1750-1773.
Contact Information
Email: hivolpertes@utep.edu
Phone: n/a
Fax: 1-915-747-6553
Psychology 103
Personal Information
Ph.D., University of Missouri (2020)
Associate Professor
Courses
PSYC 4345 (special topics): Social and Cognitive Neuroscience
Other Resources
