Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in the Department of Psychology
The Department of Psychology is committed to fostering a culture of equity, diversity and inclusion, and stands in solidarity with marginalised and equity-deserving groups. We acknowledge that members of equity-seeking groups may have experienced barriers to education, employment, and full participation, due to structural and other factors (e.g. systemic discrimination, economic disadvantage, anti-Black racism, racism, sexism, ableism, transphobia, or homophobia).
It is our professional and social responsibility to promote the understanding and respect of diversity and intersectionality in culture, circumstance, race, aboriginality, ethnicity, gender, age, (dis)ability, religion, language, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, socioeconomic status, and place of origin. We want to raise awareness about implicit biases, harassment, and systemic discrimination (including anti-Black racism) in order to promote fair treatment and outcomes for people of all identities.
As well, we acknowledge that we can and should do more to prioritise inclusivity and support the voices of marginalised groups. We are committed to examining and changing our practices given our position of privilege as an academic department, and in light of our discipline’s historic role in supporting and perpetuating scientific racism and other oppressive ideologies and practices.
We have begun working to ensure that the values, goals and practices in our department reflect this commitment.
The Department of Psychology at the University of Guelph hosted a virtual panel session on October 20: "Applying to Graduate School in Psychology event".
Applying to Graduate School in Psychology: Panel for Students from Under-represented Communities, including First Generation and Racialized Students.
Panelists: Maria Amir and Dr. Donald V. Brown, Jr.
Panel Session: sharing personal experiences in graduate school, advice on navigating academia.
Workshops: writing and refining your statement of intent, formulating your CV and scholarship applications.
Networking: Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology; Applied Social Psychology; Industrial and Organizational Psychology; Neuroscience and Cognitive Science.
If you have any questions, email us at psychedi@uoguelph.ca.
Panelists:
Maria Amir is currently a second-year Master’s student in the Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology program at the University of Guelph. Her research mainly focuses on preventing and reducing the frequency of injuries in children and adolescents. She did her undergraduate degree in Psychology at the University of Northern BC and the University of Guelph. Outside of school, Maria loves to spend her time with her pets and her two-year old niece.
Dr. Donald V. Brown, Jr. is an assistant professor at York University in the Department of Psychology; specifically, the program in Historical, Theoretical, and Critical Studies of Psychology. Prior to coming to York, Donald engaged in research and graduate studies through the Critical Social/Personality and Environmental Psychology Program at The Graduate Center, City University of New York. He also taught gender studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY. His interdisciplinary research program integrates perspectives from critical theory, philosophy of science, and science and technology studies to better understand social identity-based scientific practices and knowledge production in psychological science. His current project investigates the creation, use, and circulation of social identity categories in social psychology laboratories. Further, this work explores how identity-based knowledge is translated between scientific institutions and society by examining texts in which scientific inquiry shapes nonacademic social exchanges. Donald’s work has been funded by the CUNY Graduate Center and the National Science Foundation in the United States.
The Psychology Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee
Our mission: To promote an equitable, fair, and diverse departmental community that is inclusive of its members and those the department serves.
Faculty Members
Leanne Son Hing, Jeffery Yen (Committee Chair)
Staff Members
Vacant
Graduate Students
Anastasia Bolgova, Martina Faitakis, Mohamed Hassan, Nicholas Hennessy, Erica Johnston, Poojan Joshi, Sarah Moss, Emma Truffyn, Sally Xie
Undergraduate Students
Nicholas Maharaj, Itzel Joo Aguiar, Anoop Brar
Past Events
- The Psychology Department Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Committee hosted an event entitled Applying to Graduate School in Psychology: A Panel for Students from Under-Represented Communities Including First Generation and Racialized Students. The event was held virtually on Zoom on Oct 11th and included panel speakers, workshops and area specific networking sessions. Below, you can find the event poster, the link to the Zoom recording of the panel speakers (Passcode: gFs&S71J), and the slides from the workshops. Thank you to all who participated at the event!
- Link to Zoom recording
- CV and Scholarship slides
- Personal Statement slides
EDI Awards
Workplace Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Graduate Research Fund. If you are conducting, or are planning to conduct, research that contributes to the understanding, reduction or elimination of discrimination in the workplace, we invite you to apply for the WEDI Graduate Research Fund, made available through the generous donations of I/O faculty and alumni. Psychology graduate students from all areas are invited to apply.
The award is valued at $2,500.
APPLICATION DEADLINE: The 2023 deadline has passed but this is typically at the end of October.
2023 Winners: Congratulations to Simonne Mastrella and Hajar Soltan, joint winners of the 2023 WEDI Graduate Research Award. Simonne will be researching the disclosure of invisible disabilities at work, and Hajar will be conducting a study of gender ideologies across several cultural contexts.
2022 Winner: Caren Colaco; Title: "Investigating group differences in exhaustion and discrimination in the workplace."
A 2nd 2022 winner was subsequently announced: Melissa Pike, for her research proposal on the impacts of ableist and inclusive language in job advertisements on people with disabilities.
If you are interested in contributing to the work of the committee, please contact the Chair, Jeffery Yen.