About

Dr. Courtney Bonam is an Associate Professor in Psychology (Social Psychology) at the University of California Santa Cruz. She has previously been a professor in Black Studies and Psychology at the University of Illinois, Chicago.

Research topics

• Sociology
• Political Science
• Social psychology
• Psychology
• Computer Science
• Artificial Intelligence
• Gender studies
• Law
• Developmental psychology
• Criminology
• Clinical psychology

Selected publications

• Cultural violence in news coverage of the George Floyd murder: Exploring media depictions of police brutality toward Black‐Americans

  Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy · 2025-09-22 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract The 2020 killing of George Floyd by officer Derek Chauvin sparked one of the largest protest movements in the United States. Chauvin was ultimately convicted of murder—a rare but necessary step to police officer accountability for wrongdoing. The media play an important role in framing the public's attitudes surrounding high‐profile cases involving police killings of unarmed civilians. The current study investigates media narratives surrounding the Floyd case for evidence of cultural violence, which occurs when direct, physical violence becomes institutionalized, accepted as normative, and legitimized. We looked for evidence of cultural violence across 300 articles from three U.S. newspapers (i.e., New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and The Star Tribune). We coded for cultural violence themes, which we operationalized as the seven mechanisms of moral disengagement, that is, the process of convincing oneself that ethical standards do not apply. Cultural violence was prevalent across all news outlets (i.e., it occurred in 88.9% of articles in the overall sample). These findings have implications for how media framing influences attitudes surrounding high‐profile police brutality cases involving Black victims, and psychological theory related to violence, morality, and racism.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Perceptions of racism in voter suppression: Testing the Marley hypothesis and a brief educational intervention

  Group Processes & Intergroup Relations · 2025-01-30 · 2 citations

  articleSenior author

  The current research tests the Marley hypothesis—the role of historical knowledge as a mediator between racial group differences and perceptions of racism—in the context of voter suppression. In Study 1 ( N = 205), Black and White participants completed a voting rights history test, racial identification measures, and perceptions of racism items in the context of voter suppression. Moderated mediation analyses revealed that when racial identity was high, historical knowledge was a significant mediator of the effect of racial category on perceptions of racism and voter suppression. Study 2 ( N = 243) examined whether a critical educational intervention about historical racism in voting policies (vs. a control) increased perceptions of racism in voting domains. Study 2 suggested that the intervention was most effective for White and Black Americans reporting low levels of racial identity, but the intervention decreased racism perceptions among highly identified White participants.

  PublisherDOI

• Knowledge of Historical Voting Policies and Perceptions of Voter Suppression

  OSF Preprints (OSF Preprints) · 2025-01-22

  otherSenior author
  Publisher

• Focusing the critical race psychology lens: CRT and the psychological study of social issues

  Journal of Social Issues · 2024-03-01 · 9 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Abstract The years since George Floyd's murder in 2020 have been characterized by both a renewed attention to systemic racism and a backlash intended to silence conversations about race. Critical Race Theory (CRT), in particular, has become a larger part of the public discourse around race than ever before. Although CRT developed in the 1980s as a critical approach in legal studies and was incorporated into social psychology in the 1990s, psychology's engagement with CRT has been much more limited than that of other fields. In two installments, this special issue aims to (re)introduce psychological researchers to Critical Race Theory (CRT), to underscore CRT's importance and limitations in the context of psychological research, to feature novel applications and new directions in CRT, and to address the current political climate of opposition to discussions of CRT. The first installment looks inward to examine how psychology can more effectively advance racial equity within the field and the research we conduct by continuing to incorporate a CRT lens throughout higher education and research. The second installment looks outward to highlight psychological research that uses CRT frameworks to advance racial justice in society.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Shifting systems of racial inequity: Applying critical race psychology to advance racial justice

  Journal of Social Issues · 2024-06-01 · 4 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Abstract Since the murder of George Floyd in 2020, a renewed and more mainstream attention to systemic racism emerged. Critical Race Theory (CRT) has permeated the larger public discourse around race more than ever before. Yet, social, scientific, and political backlash intended to silence conversations about the systemic and power‐driven nature of racism have also characterized these years. 30+ years have passed since CRT's introduction as a critical analysis of how the legal system fails minoritized groups; 20+ years have passed since CRT's introduction into the social psychological field. Although psychology provides a strong foundation for the CRT tenets, incorporating CRT into the field of psychology has lagged behind many other fields (e.g., sociology, education). In two installments, this special issue (re)introduces psychological researchers to CRT and Psychological Critical Race Theory (PCRT), underscores CRT's importance and limitations in the context of psychological research, features novel applications and directions in CRT, and addresses the current political climate of opposition to discussions of CRT. This second installment looks outward highlighting psychological research applying (P)CRT frameworks to advance racial justice. We conclude with reflections on the history of CRT and PCRT and the shifts necessary in our scholarship‐activism to dismantle systems of racial oppression.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Fighting Racism Denial; Becoming a Mother‐Scholar‐Activist

  Journal of Social Issues · 2024-06-01 · 1 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract Using autoethnography and a Critical Race Theory framework, I recount how I experienced racism denial in my son's school district during 2019–2020 (his kindergarten year). To build this counternarrative, I analyzed multiple data sources (e.g., field notes, personal journal entries, public documents) and, across three chapters, describe my interactions with key school district gatekeepers while advocating for racial equity‐oriented school policies. These policies included: a school desegregation program (Chapter 1), a plan to incorporate critical race education into one school's curriculum (Chapter 2), and a district‐level endorsement of critical race and ethnic studies K‐12 curriculum in California schools (Chapter 3). In responding to this advocacy, the district professed surface‐level support for racial equity, but I saw this form of support as racism denial merely masquerading as support for racial equity. I explain why I interpreted the district's responses in this way, and how I experienced these responses from my perspective as a mixed Black mother, scholar, and activist. I end by reflecting on how these experiences forced me to integrate my mother‐scholar‐activist identities in uncomfortable and productive ways, and with recommendations for how psychological researchers and K‐12 schools can support racial equity.

  PublisherDOI

• “Crime” in Context: Racialized Physical Space Shifts Person-Perception

  Race and Social Problems · 2022-03-16 · 8 citations

  articleCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Biogeographic ancestry information facilitates genetic racial essentialism: Consequences for race‐based judgments

  Journal of Applied Social Psychology · 2022-10-13 · 4 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Abstract Direct‐to‐consumer genetic ancestry tests measure biogeographic ancestry (BGA), which refers to an individual's ancestral origin in relation to major population groups. There is growing concern that biogeographic information exaggerates both false beliefs about racial genetic differences and, ultimately, racial bias. Across three studies ( N = 1317), we find that biogeographic information impacts racial categorization and beliefs about both genetic racial essentialism (i.e., the extent to which people believe that race is genetically derived) and biological race differences. Specifically, we find people are more likely to categorize Black/White biracial targets as Black and believe that a target is more biologically different from White people (e.g., has thicker skin) as the target's percent sub‐Saharan African biogeographic ancestry (ABGA) increases (Studies 1 and 2). We also find that people misrepresent BGA as “race genes,” such that they perceive Black/White biracial targets with more ABGA as sharing more genes with Black people, which then predicts greater Black racial categorization of the target and increased beliefs that the target is susceptible to certain physical and mental illnesses (Study 2). Notably, BGA remains a predictor of these outcomes even when people know the target's specific racial ancestry , that is, their exact number of Black grandparents (Study 2). Finally, we find that exposing people to the idea that race is genetically derived, compared to biologically derived, exaggerates beliefs that genes determine both human life (genetic essentialism) and racial categories (genetic racial essentialism; Study 3). We discuss implications for studying psychological essentialism, racial bias, and racial health disparities.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Inconceivable Middle-Class Black Space: The Architecture and Consequences of Space-Focused Stereotype Content at the Race–Class Nexus

  Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin · 2020 · 12 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Sociology
  • Psychology
  • Social psychology

  -overlaps with both Black and middle-class space stereotypes. Second, the more difficulty Whites experience imagining middle-class Black space as invariably middle class and desirable, the more likely they are to stereotype a Black (vs. White) neighborhood as low quality, feel less connected to it, and devalue a house there. Whites' diffuse mental image of middle-class Black space may thus contribute to ongoing racial injustices (e.g., wealth disparities, residential segregation).

  PublisherDOI

• What to Do? Predicting Coping Strategies Following Ingroup Members’ Stereotypical Behaviors in Interracial Interactions

  Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin · 2020 · 14 citations

  • Psychology
  • Social psychology
  • Developmental psychology

  The current studies examine how witnessing stereotype-confirming ingroup behavior affects black Americans' interactions with white Americans. Across three studies, black Americans indicated metaperceptual, emotional, and behavioral responses to witnessing a black person's stereotypically negative, stereotypically positive, or nonstereotypically neutral behavior during an interracial (vs. intraracial) interaction. Following an ingroup member's stereotypically negative (vs. stereotypically positive in Study 1, or nonstereotypically neutral in Studies 2-3) behavior during an interracial interaction, black Americans expressed greater metastereotypes, which increased intergroup anxiety, ultimately eliciting nuanced coping strategies: engagement/overcompensation, antagonism, freezing, or avoidance. Psychological resources attenuated anxiety's effect on engagement/overcompensation (Studies 2-3) and freezing (Study 3). Both patterns were stronger in interracial (vs. intraracial) interactions (Study 3). This research demonstrates the central role of metaperceptions in interracial interactions, highlighting how stereotypically negative behaviors of nearby ingroup members are impactful situational stressors that affect behavioral intentions in intergroup encounters.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Hilary B. Bergsieker

  University of Waterloo

  5 shared

• Jennifer L. Eberhardt

  5 shared

• Caitlyn Yantis

  Villanova University

  5 shared

• Valerie Jones Taylor

  4 shared

• Margaret Shih

  3 shared

• Alaina Brenick

  University of Connecticut

  3 shared

• Phia S. Salter

  Davidson College

  3 shared

• Drexler James

  University of Minnesota

  3 shared

Labs

• Race & Social Justice LabPI

Education

• Ph.D., Psychology (Social Psychology)

  University of California Santa Cruz

• M.A., Black Studies and Psychology

  University of Illinois, Chicago