The MOSAIC Lab is broadly interested in identities and affect situated in religious, institutional, and cultural contexts. We utilize a social psychological approach, employing survey, experimental, and qualitative designs to better understand how people impact, and are impacted by, their world.
Justin Huft
Benjamin Fields
Undergraduate Research Assistants
Supriya Haldankar
Jacqueline Ma
Jessica Minquini Alvarez
Kristian Becerra
Karen Zamarripa
Stigmatized Identity Verification and Emotions
Barriers to Peace
Identity, Institutional, and Organizational Meanings in the War in Gaza
White Identity Meanings
White Supremacy, Anti-Semitism, and Fundamental Selves
Religious pluralism and religious nationalism
Huft, Justin, and Benjamin Fields. Forthcoming. “The Role of Organizational Sentiments in Attitudes about War.” In Affect Control Theory in Action. Edward Elgar.
Huft, Justin, and Benjamin Fields. 2024. “Cross-National Governmental Treatment Toward Atheists Since 1816.” Sociological Forum 39:281-295. https://doi.org/10.1111/socf.13009
Fields, Benjamin, and Justin Huft. 2024. “Troubled Meanings: An Affect Control Theory Exploration of the Conflict in Northern Ireland.” Social Currents 12(1):3-16. https://doi.org/10.1177/23294965241254057
Huft, Justin, Benjamin Fields, Wei Zhao, and Tyler Cohen. 2026. “Old Habitus Die Hard? Cancer Mitigation In The Field Of Firefighting.” Paper presented at American Sociological Association Conference, New York, NY..
Cohen, Tyler, Justin Huft, Elvira De La Torre, and Wei Zhao. 2026. “Social Processes Shaping Firefighters’ Cancer Risks.” Paper presented at Pacific Sociological Association, Long Beach, CA.
Huft, Justin, and Vasundhara Kaul. 2025. "The Impact Of Identity Meanings of Mental Health Experts On Medical Misinformation." Paper presented at the Identity Theory Conference, West Lafayette, IN.
Fields, Benjamin, and Justin Huft. 2025. "Distances in Meanings and Social Distancing: Exploring Jewish-American Identity Sentiments and Attitudes." Paper presented at the Affect Control Theory Conference, Fairlee, VT.
Haldankar, Supriya, Benjamin Fields, and Justin Huft. 2025. "Simulating and Predicting Support for Protests using Cultural Sentiments." Paper presented at the Pacific Sociological Association Conference, San Francisco, CA.
Huft, Justin, and Benjamin Fields. 2024. "Cross-National Governmental Treatment Towards Atheists Since 1816." Paper presented at the American Sociological Association Conference, Montreal, Canada.
Fields, Benjamin, and Justin Huft. 2023. "Cultural Sentiments, Interactions, and Barriers to Peacebuilding." Paper presented at the American Sociological Association Conference, Philadelphia, PA.