Dr. Mackenzie J. Miller

The IRIS Lab investigates how systems of inequality become embedded in institutions and organizations through formal and informal rules, enforced social norms, and material and structural design — focusing on how these processes shape the lived experiences of marginalized individuals, with a particular emphasis on gender. By examining these interconnected processes, the IRIS Lab seeks to understand how institutions contribute to the production and reproduction of broader social inequities, with the goal of holding institutions accountable and promoting systemic change.

Ongoing projects investigate gendered experiences of work, including the consequences of hypermasculine workplace cultures, gendered expectations surrounding unpaid and cognitive labor, and the implications of sexism in work and educational settings. Other work examines the social enforcement of norms through stigma, harassment, and other forms of social control. Our work also considers how inequality is embedded in the material and structural features of institutions, including how workplace infrastructure and design can shape experiences of menstruation and other embodied processes.

Across these projects, the IRIS Lab is particularly interested in the ways that seemingly ordinary practices, expectations, and institutional arrangements can reproduce broader systems of inequality. This work brings together organizational, social, and feminist perspectives to examine not only how individuals experience inequality, but also how institutions create the conditions in which those experiences occur.

Current Projects

Culture & Norms

Masculinity Contest Culture and Women's Experiences at Work

This ongoing work examines how masculinity contest cultures shape women's workplace experiences and well-being as well as identity-based protective factors to mitigate these effects.

Gendered Cognitive Labor

We are developing a cognitive labor scale in an effort to quantitatively examine gender differences in unpaid cognitive labor and the downstream consequences for women's well-being and career.

Social Enforcement

Stigma Among Abortion Clinic Workers

This qualitative project examines how abortion-related stigma shapes work experiences (e.g., protestors, threats of violence) and personal life (e.g., decisions to disclose work to others).

Sexism and Social Identity Threat Among Women in Male-Dominated Industries

This project looks at how experienced sexism shapes women's leadership self-efficacy through social identity threat and whether these effects are stronger for women in male-dominated industries.

Material & Structural Design

Menstruation at Work

This line of work challenges existing approaches to studying menstruation in the workplace, which have largely framed menstruation as something that negatively impacts work outcomes, by examining how features of the work environment can shape menstruation itself. Specifically, this research examines how gender-based harassment and material conditions of the workplace (e.g., access to and design of bathrooms, availability of menstrual products) shape menstrual experiences.

Get Involved

The IRIS Lab welcomes students who are interested in understanding how institutions, organizations, and social systems shape people's everyday experiences. Opportunities to work with the lab vary by academic level and research project.

Graduate Students

I will be accepting graduate students this application cycle (2027-2028 academic year).

Undergraduate Research Assistant

Undergraduate students interested in joining the IRIS Lab as a Research Assistant (RA) are encouraged to apply. Scan or click on the QR code to complete the application.