Trevor Spelman
Management & Organizations, Ph.D. Candidate
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Trevor Spelman is a Ph.D. candidate in Management & Organizations at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. His research investigates how people navigate disagreement—when they speak up, when they stay silent, and how those choices shape interpersonal relationships, group decision-making, and organizational outcomes.
Employing experimental, survey, cross-cultural, and archival research methods, Trevor’s work explores a central question: What are the costs and benefits of disagreement across lines of difference in beliefs, identities, and workplace priorities? He focuses especially on situations where dissent feels risky, such as political or identity-based conflict. Drawing on social identity theory and research on group dynamics, Trevor’s work contributes to a broader effort in management to make disagreement more constructive.
Trevor is affiliated with the Dispute Resolution Research Center and the Center for Enlightened Disagreement at the Kellogg School of Management, and is a graduate fellow at Northwestern University’s Institute for Policy Research. Prior to Kellogg, he was a Research Associate in the Negotiations, Organizations, and Markets unit at Harvard Business School and an affiliate of the Harvard Program on Negotiation.
Trevor’s research has been published in leading outlets including the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Scientific Reports, and Nature.
Trevor is on the 2025–2026 academic job market.