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Regina D Langhout
  • Pronouns she, her, her, hers, herself
  • Title
    • Professor
    • Area Head, Social Psychology & Department Graduate Director
    • Associate Editor, American Journal of Community Psychology
  • Division Social Sciences Division
  • Department
    • Psychology Department
  • Affiliations Latin American & Latino Studies, Community Studies Program, Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, Dolores Huerta Research Center for the Americas, Feminist Studies Department
  • Phone
    831-459-2535 (Psychology)
  • Email
  • Fax
    831-459-3519
  • Website
  • Office Location
    • Social Sciences 2, Room 263
    • Zoom link: https://ucsc.zoom.us/j/94485495566?pwd=MHV0MTlMc0FrREdFUzVKYTJnaGR1Zz09
  • Office Hours (Fall 2024) In Person -Tues. 1:30-2:00pm, Weds., 4pm- 5pm. or by appointment Soc Sci 2 rm 263. Schedule sign up link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1EmDdmPEJ9nvt0M3hWurAEMNeqqtNIE7nVLGFGUV6hX0/ edit?usp=sharing
  • Mail Stop Psychology Faculty Services
  • Mailing Address
    • Psychology Department, 1156 High St.
    • Santa Cruz CA 95064
  • Faculty Areas of Expertise Community-based Research, Discrimination and Inequality, Ethnography, Psychology, Youth Studies

Summary of Expertise

Professor Langhout's commitment to and interest in a variety of social justice-oriented issues and concerns has led her to the study of empowerment in educational settings and neighborhoods. Her research addresses the following questions: (1) What characteristics within settings inhibit or promote - either intentionally or unintentionally - thriving? (2) How do race, ethnicity, social class, and gender influence experience, and how do these experiences influence subjectivity? (3) How do individuals and groups experience, cope with, and resist negative stereotypes? (4) What conditions are necessary for individuals to change their ideological perspectives and become inspired to work toward social justice? How can researchers facilitate systemic, sustainable change that increases individual and group thriving, and support people identifying as agents of social change?

Professor Langhout's primary research takes place in elementary schools and neighborhoods that serve working class and working poor African American, Latinx/e, and white students. She uses a paradigm called participatory action research (PAR) to critically examine schools and neighborhoods. With PAR, stakeholder groups collaborate to determine the problem being researched and the intervention. Professor Langhout's research might include playground observations, focus groups, and a recess intervention project, or survey research to assess teacher, parent, and student perceptions of school context. Additionally, she might work with children to develop and paint a mural on school grounds in order to create a more welcoming atmosphere for students and their families.

Research Interests

School-community-university collaboration; how schooling experiences are informed by social class, race, and gender; participatory action research

Biography, Education and Training

Ph.D., University of Illinois,Urbana-Champaign
B.A., University of California, Santa Cruz

Selected Publications

  • Ellison, E.R., & Langhout, R.D. (2025). Critical realism methodology as a guiding framework for interdisciplinary theory enrichment: Reflections on a study of empowerment. Journal of Community Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcop.22919
  • Rosales, C.E., Rojas, T., & Langhout, R.D. (2024). Letter writing as a time-traveling method for other world making. Feminist Formations, 36(2), 128-156. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/ff.2024.a939100  
  • Langhout, R.D. (2024). Teaching community psychology from an entanglement framework. In C. C. Sonn, J. S. Fernández, J. F. Moura, M. E. Madyaningrum, & N. Malherbe (Eds.), Handbook of decolonial community psychology (pp. 113-125).  Doi:10.1007/978-3-031-67035-0_6
  • Langhout, R.D. (2023). Using youth participatory action research to support BIPOC, working class, and working poor elementary school students’ conscientización. International Review of Theoretical Psychologies, 2(1), 6-26.
  • Dutta, U., Fernández, J. S., Galletta, A., & Langhout, R. D. (2023). Participatory action research as movement toward radical relationality, epistemic justice, and transformative intervention: A multivocal reflection. In H. Cooper, M. N. Coutanche, L. M. McMullen, A. T. Panter, D. Rindskopf & K. J. Sher (Eds.), 2nd ed.; APA handbook of research methods in psychology: Research designs: Quantitative, qualitative, neuropsychological, and biological (vol. 2, 2nd ed., pp. 305-327). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. doi:https://doi.org/10.1037/0000319-015
  • Langhout, R.D., Lopezzi, M., & Wang, Y. (2023). Not all service is the same: How service-learning typologies relate to student outcomes at an Hispanic Serving Institution. Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, 27(2), 73-89. https://openjournals.libs.uga.edu/jheoe/article/view/2521/2946
  • Langhout, R.D., Rosales, C.E., & Gordon, D.L., (2023). “Success” in the Borderlands: Measuring success for underrepresented and misrepresented college students. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 16(5), 646-659. https://DOI:10.1037/dhe0000444
  • Rodriguez-Ramirez, D., & Langhout, R.D. (2023). Seeking utopia: Psychologies’ waves toward decoloniality. American Journal of Community Psychology, 72(1-2), 230-246. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12695
  • Rodriguez-Ramirez, D., Martinez, J.A., Hernandez, L., Acevedo, M., Leyva, C.G., Paz-Flores, M., Gill, K., Langhout, R.D., & McKay, S. (2023). ‘You gotta keep pushing’: How immigrant people regain ontological security and withstand colonial trauma. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 72(1-2), 230-246. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12695

Teaching Interests

Psyc 149: Community Psychology

Psych 159H: Community-based Interventions

Psych 182: Advanced Research Methods

Psych 261: Participatory Action Research