Announcing the Social Injustice and Social Change (SISC) group
It’s been three months since I accepted my new position as an Assistant Professor in the Social Psychology area of the Department of Psychological & Brain Science at UC Santa Barbara. It’s been two months since I officially started my position. It’s about time I announced the founding of my own research group!
The Social Injustice and Social Change (SISC)1 group investigates motivations for, and responses to, social change in diverse societies. One goal of our research is to understand how intergroup contact—social relations with diverse others—affects awareness of, and opposition to, social injustice. Other goals of our research are to understand double standards in judging protest actions as well as defensive responding to being confronted with one’s own role in maintaining social injustice. By examining what motivates some people to challenge social injustice and how other people respond to such challenges, we hope to better understand societies that are becoming more diverse but remain profoundly unequal and divided.
Our research draws on social and moral psychological theories, uses innovative experimental and non-experimental study designs, relies on advanced quantitative methods, and follows open science practices. We strive to build a research group that is productive, supportive, collaborative, and inclusive—a community in which everyone belongs and anyone can thrive.
Right now, the SISC group is not much more than an idea.2 I am recruiting graduate students, to start in Fall ’23, who are interested in joining the group and contributing to its research program. If you are interested, please click here for further information on what to expect and how to apply!
