Hi there,
My name is Guicheng Tan,
but most people know me as Ariel.

I'm currently a Ph.D. student at Harvard University (Education: Human Development, Learning & Technology), where I’m advised by my amazing advisor Dr. Adriana Umaña-Taylor, and supported by the Adolescent Ethnic-Racial Identity Development (AERID) Lab family and my lovely cohort.

Broadly speaking, I’m interested in studying how people navigate and integrate different cultures (biculturalism) under various contexts (e.g. immigration, international education), and how this process influences our cognitive and social development. In addition to this scholarship, I’ve studied how sexualized video characters reduced confidence in female players, how framing manipulations induced stereotype threat, and how to support Asian and international students (click here for my current CV).

Here is a recap vlog of my first semester of grad school!

Before my doctoral journey, I was a lab manager for Dr. Susanne Jaeggi’s Working Memory and Plasticity Lab at the University of California, Irvine. Outside of academia, I had over 6 years of experience working in higher education, specifically in residential life, student leadership, diversity training, and admission.