Kalvin Garrah

Get to Know Me

While it would be nearly impossible to write a succinct “About Me” paragraph that adequately covers my background and the many topics that pique my interest, I am going to give it a shot. My name is Kalvin Garrah, and I am currently a graduate student pursuing a master’s degree in Applied Psychology and conducting research on nonverbal communication.

How did I get here? Well, it’s been quite the journey.

As a high school student, I had aspirations of a career in music, particularly as a jazz trumpet player. I studied under incredible musicians and applied solely to music conservatories for college. However, as my senior year came to a close, I started to realize that working gig-to-gig as a freelance musician was perhaps not the career path I truly wanted to take.

Instead, I honed in on another budding interest of mine: the study of law. I consequently enrolled in community college as a prelaw Criminal Justice major with aspirations of becoming an attorney. However, while completing my community college coursework, I found that I cared much more about understanding why people committed crimes and the psychological dynamics of the courtroom than I did the practice of law. I wanted to know how cognitive processes, attitudes, beliefs, and social psychological factors work together to shape criminal behaviors and legal decision-making.

After transferring to the University of Baltimore to complete my B.A., I ultimately switched my major to psychology. Additionally, I completed a minor in philosophy, law, & ethics. I found that applying philosophical and ethical principles to psychology helped me to better understand different frameworks and theories in the field. During undergrad, I also joined Dr. Sally Farley’s nonverbal communication lab, where I have now spent the past two years working as a research assistant and, more recently, as lab manager. In these roles, I have worked on various research projects and co-authored several papers investigating social nonverbal signals of emotion. Conducting research in psychological science, particularly social psychology, has provided me with the kind of unwavering passion l have searched my entire life to find.

Presently, I plan to pursue a PhD in social psychology and continue my research on nonverbal signals of emotion; I am profoundly interested in laughter and other nonlinguistic vocalizations. I hope to one day achieve an academic career teaching and conducting research with my own students.