Justin is a Lead Staff UX Researcher at Meta (Facebook). He earned his Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of Notre Dame. His areas of specialization include Social Psychology/Microsociology, Cultural Sociology, Qualitative Methods, Collective Behavior, and Sociological Theory. Justin’s published academic research focuses on (1) cognitive and emotional processes in decision-making, (2) attention, persuasion, and social interaction, and (3) sociocultural stasis and change. His industry research employs a variety of methods for understanding social interaction to inspire and shape new product experiences.
As a UX researcher, he is experienced with multi-method generative, exploratory, and evaluative research. He has conducted research in both US and international contexts; collaborated on foundational projects with policymakers, industry professionals, and academics; and worked closely with cross-functional partners (product managers, designers, engineers, content strategists, privacy) on a fast-moving team. Much of his 0 to 1 work has focused on building new developmentally-informed product experiences for youth.
Justin’s published academic research has appeared in the Sociological Theory, Sociological Forum, Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, Thesis Eleven, Journal of Classical Sociology, Blackwell Companion to Social Movements, and the Handbook of Contemporary Sociological Theory. He also is a co-author of a book on social organization and social change under advance contract with Routledge. To view his CV, click here.
His doctoral research revealed the micro and cultural processes influencing communication and persuasion. One project from this research focused on how situations create or constrain opportunities for novel information-transmission. He conducted in-depth ethnographic research to illuminate how social environments affect cognition and emotion and, consequently, enable or constrain an organizations ability to communicate effectively. In another project, he focuses on situations where sympathetic audiences create unintended meanings in situ, consequently disrupting expected interpretive and interactional outcomes. By focusing on the social and material composition of social environments, he explained how objects hold multiple cultural meanings which problematize cognition and communication in unintended ways.
At Notre Dame, Justin instructed Introduction to Social Psychology, conducted and supervised research for the Fourth Wave of the National Study of Youth and Religion, and assisted teaching with guest lectures for Social Problems, Qualitative Methods, and Social Psychology. He has given numerous presentations related to his dissertation research and he is an affiliate of Notre Dame’s Center for the Study of Social Movements, Center for the Study of Religion and Society, and the Sociology Department’s Culture Workshop. He serves as a reviewer for the American Sociological Review, American Journal of Sociology, Social Forces, The Sociological Quarterly, Sociological Perspectives, Sociology of Religion, Current Sociology, and others.