[6] During her tenure at UTK, Szymanski's research focused on developing multicultural-feminist counseling psychology theories and the impact of external and internalized oppression on psychosocial health.
[5] At the beginning of 2015, Szymanski began to focus on Breastaurants, sexually objectifying environments, and their long-term impact on women's mental and physical health.
[13] This led to the publication of a study in 2017 titled Sexually Objectifying Environments: Power, Rumination, and Waitresses’ Anxiety and Disordered Eating.
Along with co-author Renee Mikorski, Szymanski found that women who work in breastaurants are at higher risk for anxiety and eating disorders.
[14][15] As a result of her "outstanding contributions in advancing lesbian, bisexual, and transgender women's psychology through research, teaching, practice, and/or activism," she received the APA's 2017 Laura Brown Award.