With this prestigious designation from the Association for Psychological Science, Dr. Julia Marshall has been noted as a researcher “whose innovative work has already advanced the field and signals great potential for their continued contributions.” Marshall is now part of a cohort of 59 APS members from across the world, all of whom received a PhD between 2020 and 2024.

A graduate of Emory and Yale University, Marshall joined the CoPsy department in July of 2024 after a postdoctoral position at Boston College. She now directs the Mind and Morality Lab, where she studies moral and social behavior, bridging social cognition with developmental psychology. Specifically, she “leverages cross-cultural and developmental approaches to understand what aspects of our moral and social behavior are shared across ages and cultures and which are different,” she explained. “Once we reveal differences, we can ask questions about where those differences come from.”

Marshall’s passion for psychology spans moral, social, philosophical, and legal facets. She shared, “For as long as I can remember, I've really been interested in understanding differences in social perspectives. I've always been really struck by how people think so differently about social and political issues. [I] wanted to understand what are the foundational psychological components that lead to this division and how we can understand our similarities and use those similarities to resolve pressing social issues.” 

In the past, she has studied “cooperative mechanisms like punishment,” considering anti-social behavior and cooperation. She summarized, “I've always really been interested in how we can bring together philosophical ideas with biological ideas and psychology altogether to generate a more enriching picture of the human society that we live in.”

In receiving this award, Marshall reflected, “It’s very exciting to see the work and effort that I put into my research be recognized by the Association for Psychological Science. Knowing many of the other folks who have received this award, both in the past, in our own department and also presently, it's exciting to be amongst a group of my colleagues whose work I really respect and whose trajectories I'm really hoping to follow in my own work. I'm hoping that I can continue to foster a research program that lives up to the award.”

In reflecting on people considering research and academia, she advised to “really follow your passion that you're fundamentally motivated and interested in resolving or better understanding. You can face a lot of setbacks and a lot of challenges, and the main thing that has kept me going is a fundamental interest in conducting this research and revealing answers about psychological questions. Follow your heart.”

For more information about Julia's work, please see her personal website, Researchers@Brown profile, and her lab's website.