ReSearching Diversity

In this episode, we spoke with Laura Taylor who is an Assistant Professor at the University College Dublin in Ireland. 

PAST (00:02:00): Laura shares her incredible and winding path into academia, from being part of human rights and peace building work with NGO’s in Guatemala and Nepal, studying and teaching at university, and eventually pursuing a Ph.D. program in both peace studies and psychology. She explains how she ended up focusing on children, mental health, and on the constructive and agentic ways in which children can respond to conflict and violence. 

PRESENT (00:14:33): Laura discusses Dahlum’s (2019) article on how young and highly educated people have been structurally part of non-violent protests in the past. Importantly, the non-violent, creative tactics of these young and educated people were more likely to reach social and regime change compared to violent protests throughout history. Laura points out the role of universities and (higher) education in providing capacities, such as critical thinking, civic engagement, and citizenship, that young people can use for constructive social change.  

FUTURE (00:27:00): Laura explains how research culture is slowly shifting towards a better career-life-balance, which is especially important when working in post-conflict societies and with local communities. She elaborates on how cross-cultural and interdisciplinary research teams have helped her achieve this goal, as well as the role of strong leadership in setting boundaries and norms. Most importantly, Laura emphasizes that, at all times, we need to recognize the humanity in ourselves and in our students and colleagues. She finishes with giving hands-on advice on how small changes in routines can contribute to career-life-balance over time.
 
For more information on the episode, guest, and included references, please visit researchingdiversity.com.
You can also follow us on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
We want to thank Minor Revisions for the music, Lotte Gottschewski for the logo design, Max Kersten for post production, and zeythehuman for their artwork. Stay tuned and talk soon!    

Full reference of this episode:
*Dahlum, S. (2019). Students in the streets: Education and nonviolent protest. Comparative Political Studies, 52(2), 277-309. https://doi.org/10.1177/0010414018758761

Further recommended reading:
Martín-Baró, I. (1994). Writings for a liberation psychology. Harvard University Press.

McEvoy-Levy, S. (Ed.). (2006). Troublemakers or peacemakers?: Youth and post-accord peace building. University of Notre Dame Press.

In this episode, we spoke with Sauro Civitillo who is an Assistant Professor at the European Research Centre on Migration and Ethnic Relations at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. 

PAST (00:02:15): Sauro shares his experiences as a “first-generation student”, meaning that he was the first one in his family to attend university and to follow an academic career. He talks about how his parents supported him and about the positive impact one of his teachers had by having high expectations of him. He also talks about the sudden choice to become a researcher at age 31 and how he got three master degrees, showing his persistence in higher education.

PRESENT (00:08:25): Sauro discusses Gorski's (2009) article on the three types of multicultural approaches in education, namely the conservative approach, the liberal approach and the critical approach. The definitions are given, and we discuss which approach is most common in the U.S. and in European education. We also talk about the difference between multicultural education and culturally responsive teaching (CRT). Sauro gives some practical examples for how these approaches can be implemented in (higher) education. 

FUTURE (00:25:30): Sauro emphasizes how important it is to have more research on culturally responsive teaching in Europe and especially research being done by people with a family migration history (in Germany typically referred to as “migration background”). He discusses the need for more researchers, teachers and teacher educators with family migration history and more equal funding opportunities because representation matters.

For more information on the episode, guest, and included references, please visit researchingdiversity.com.
You can also follow us on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
We want to thank Minor Revisions for the music, Lotte Gottschewski-Kooijman for the logo design, Max Kersten for post production, and zeythehuman for their artwork. Stay tuned and talk soon!   

Full references of this episode:
Gorski, P. C., & Pothini, S. G. (2013). Case Studies on Diversity and Social Justice Education (0 ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203076200

*Gorski, P. C. (2009). What we’re teaching teachers: An analysis of multicultural teacher education coursework syllabi. Teaching and Teacher Education, 25(2), 309–318. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2008.07.008

Vietze, J., Jongerling, J., Senathirajah, R., Sutrisno, R., & Meeuwisse, M. (2022). The Student-Curriculum Interplay: A Mixed-Methods Exploration of Diversity-Related Learning Goals, Content Integration in Instructional Materials and Higher Education Students’ Academic Performance. Psyarxiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/zvjud

In this episode, we talked to Tiffany Florvil who is an Associate Professor at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, United States. Our main topics are Black German history and the normalization of whiteness as well as the history of race and racism in Europe.

PAST (00:02:10): Tiffany describes her own experiences with racism while studying in Germany and how it sparked her interest in Black German experiences, Black German culture, and racism against People of Color in Germany. She talks about African Diaspora, the colonial past, and the normalization of Whiteness in Germany and Europe. Also, Tiffany explains the significance of intersectionality when writing about Black European history.

PRESENT (00:27:30): We discuss Black women in the French self-imagination of the 19th century, based on the book by Robin Mitchell (2020). Among other things, this book illustrates how science is never subjective but always shaped by societal and cultural dynamics of the times.

FUTURE (00:37:35): Tiffany explains why Germany needs more Black scholars and professors of Color. Furthermore, she explains why we need to look into the past to understand how race and exclusion function in the present. 

For more information on the episode, guest, and included references, please visit researchingdiversity.com.
You can also follow us on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
We want to thank Minor Revisions for the music, Lotte Gottschewski-Kooijman for the logo design, Max Kersten for post production, and zeythehuman for their artwork. Stay tuned and talk soon!   

FULL REFERENCES OF THIS EPISODE:

Ayim, M., Oguntoye, K., & Schultz, D. (2021). Farbe bekennen: Afro-deutsche Frauen auf den Spuren ihrer Geschichte (3. Auflage). Orlanda.

El-Tayeb, F. (2001). Schwarze Deutsche: Der Diskurs um “Rasse” und nationale Identität 1890-1933. Campus.

Florvil, T. N. (2020). Mobilizing Black Germany: Afro-German women and the making of a transnational movement. University of Illinois Press.

*Mitchell, R. (2020). Vénus noire: Black women and colonial fantasies in nineteenth-century France. The University of Georgia Press.

FURTHER INSPIRING AUTHORS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

May Ayim, Audre Lorde, Maisha-Maureen Auma, Tina Campt, Pricilla Layne, Michelle M. Wright, Peggy Piesche, Fatima El-Tayeb, and Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw.

[GERMAN EPISODE] In this episode, we talked to Andreas Zick who is the Scientific Director of the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research on Conflict and Violence (IKG) and Professor at the Faculty of Educational Science at Bielefeld University, Germany. Our main topics are social identity theory and intergroup conflict, but also diversity in German scientific institutions and the link between research and society. 

PAST (00:02:03): Andreas describes his personal academic journey along key, including contributing to the first cross-European survey on prejudice and racism. Here he addresses analytical challenges, challenges of establishing research on sensitive societal issues, and challenges in the German academic system. 

PRESENT (00:28:25): We discuss social identity theory of intergroup behavior by Tajfel & Turner (1986) and how it has changed research on intergroup conflicts. 

FUTURE (00:36:17): Andreas emphasizes that academia and universities, especially in Germany, should open up to diversity. He gives concrete ideas of what this can look like. He concludes by arguing for a stronger link between expertise/research and society as well as thinking beyond one's own scientific discipline.

For more information on the episode, guest, and included references, please visit researchingdiversity.com.
You can also follow us on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
We want to thank Minor Revisions for the music, Lotte Gottschewski-Kooijman for the logo design, Max Kersten for post production, and zeythehuman for their artwork. Stay tuned and talk soon!     

FULL REFERENCES OF THIS EPISODE:
Tajfel, H., & Turner, J. C. (1979). An integrative theory of intergroup conflict. In W. G. Austin, & S. Worchel (Eds.), The social psychology of intergroup relations (pp. 33-37). Monterey, CA: Brooks/Cole. 

Tajfel, H., & Turner, J. C. (1986). The Social Identity Theory of Intergroup Behavior. In: S. Worchel & W. G. Austin (Eds.), Psychology of Intergroup Relation (pp. 7-24). Chicago: Hall Publishers.

In this episode, we spoke with Gülseli Baysu who is a Lecturer at the Queen's University of Belfast, U.K. As a psychologist she focusses, among other things, on cultural diversity, discrimination, and Muslim minorities in Europe. In this episode we talk about the awareness of ethnic/racial discrimination and how it relates to youth well-being, and inequalities regarding Western and non-Western research samples in psychology. 

PAST (00:01:43): Gülseli talks about her experiences as a “first-generation university student”, meaning that she was the first one in her family to attend university and to follow an academic career. She talks about how she draws motivation from working on interventions, policies, and strategies to advance social justice and to promote positive diversity climate in schools.

PRESENT (00:10:33): Gülseli discusses the meta-analysis by Benner et al. (2018), where study results from many countries are combined to better understand how perceived racial/ethnic discrimination is related to youth well-being. We discuss why only few studies are included from outside the U.S. and how schools can provide coping strategies to better prepare students for dealing with discrimination. Definitions for “discrimination” are given. 

FUTURE (00:29:20): Gülseli emphasizes how important it is to have more research with non-Western, non-White participants (samples). We explain more in detail how a scientific article usually gets published, biases and flaws of the peer-review process, and how problematic it is that access to scientific literature is different between countries and regions.  

 
For more information on the episode, guest, and included references, please visit researchingdiversity.com.
You can also follow us on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

We want to thank Minor Revisions for the music, Lotte Gottschewski-Kooijman for the logo design, Max Kersten for post production, and zeythehuman for their artwork. Stay tuned and talk soon!    

Full reference of this episode’s article:

Benner, A. D., Wang, Y., Shen, Y., Boyle, A. E., Polk, R., & Cheng, Y. P. (2018). Racial/ethnic discrimination and well-being during adolescence: A meta-analytic review. American Psychologist, 73(7), 855. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000204

In this episode, we talked to Josefina Bañales who is an Assistant Professor in the Community and Prevention Research Area at the University of Illinois, Chicago (UIC, U.S.). Our main topics are critical consciousness and how social scientists can learn ‘with’, ‘from’ and ‘from within’ marginalized communities through participatory action research. 

PAST (00:02:03): Josefina describes her personal connection and dedication to the well-being and liberation of low-income communities of color and how sharing people’s stories has helped create knowledge about her own and other communities

PRESENT (00:22:38): We discuss the article by Watts & Flanagan (2007) about youth civic engagement and how youth have opportunities to develop critical understandings of oppression shape whether and how they engage in behaviors to challenge social justice

FUTURE (00:44:14): Josefina emphasizes the need for more youth participatory action research to bring about social change and for looking into intersectionality to actually contribute positively to the communities and the lives of people of color that we research
 

Learn the Term (plain language):
| critical consciousness: Awareness of oppression and working against oppression together
| marginalized: Undervalued, in a powerless position (social, political, economic)
| participatory action research: The collaboration between (young) participants and researcher to take action and understand social issues
| intersectionality: the acknowledgement that everyone has their own unique experiences of discrimination and oppression and that categories such as gender, race and class are overlapping in discrimination or disadvantage

For more information on the episode, guest, and included references, please visit researchingdiversity.com.
You can also follow us on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

We want to thank Minor Revisions for the music, Lotte Gottschewski-Kooijman for the logo design, Max Kersten for post production, and zeythehuman for their artwork. Stay tuned and talk soon!   

Full reference of this episode’s articles:
Bañales, J., Aldana, A., Richards‐Schuster, K., Flanagan, C. A., Diemer, M. A., & Rowley, S. J. (2021). Youth anti‐racism action: Contributions of youth perceptions of school racial messages and critical consciousness. Journal of Community Psychology, 49(8), 3079–3100. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcop.22266

*Stuart, J., & Ward, C. (2011). A Question of Balance: Exploring the Acculturation, Watts, R. J., & Flanagan, C. (2007). Pushing the envelope on youth civic engagement: A developmental and liberation psychology perspective. Journal of Community Psychology, 35(6), 779–792. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcop.20178

[GERMAN EPISODE] In dieser ersten deutschsprachigen Episode unseres Podcasts haben wir mit Prof. Dr. Karim Fereidooni über institutionelle Rassismuserfahrungen und Rassismuskritik in der deutschen Forschungs- und Bildungslandschaft gesprochen. Prof. Fereidooni ist Juniorprofessor für Didaktik der sozialwissenschaftlichen Bildung an der Ruhr-Universität Bochum.

VERGANGENHEIT (00:02:14) Prof. Fereidooni teilt seinen Zugang zum wissenschaftlichen Arbeiten, seine Motivationsgründe über Rassismus zu forschen und Herausforderungen und Chancen, die sich für ihn als ehemals praktizierenden Lehrer und aktiven Wissenschaftler ergeben.

GEGENWART (00:20:55) Prof. Fereidooni bringt einen Text über Distanzierungsmuster von Rassismus von Astrid Messerschmidt (2010) mit. Bezugnehmend zu seiner Studie verdeutlicht er Gründe, warum sich weiße Menschen nicht mit Rassismus beschäftigen. Nachdem ausgewählte Definitionen des Begriffs Rassismus erläutert werden, diskutieren wir, inwiefern sich der Umgang mit Rassismuskritik in Universitäten und Schulen unterscheidet.

ZUKUNFT (00:46:05) Prof. Fereidooni wünscht sich, dass Rassismus und Diskriminierung als Querschnittsaufgabe der Gesellschaft betrachtet werden. So seien mehr Raum und Offenheit für rassismuskritische Forschung und Bildung sowie ein unterstützendes Netzwerk der Schlüssel, dass sich motivierte Personen nachhaltig mit dieser Thematik auseinandersetzen.

Mehr Informationen zu dieser Folge, zum Gast und zu wissenschaftlichen Quellen gibt es unter researchingdiversity.com.
Finde uns auch auf Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, und Facebook (Sprache: Englisch).

Wir möchten uns bedanken bei Minor Revisions für die Musik, Lotte Gottschewski-Kooijman für das Logo, Max Kersten für die Nachbearbeitung, und zeythehuman für die Kunst. Stay tuned and talk soon!    

English summary

In this episode, we spoke with Prof. Dr. Karim Fereidooni about experiences and criticism of racism in educational institutions in Germany. He is an assistant professor for didactics of social science education at the Ruhr University Bochum.

PAST (00:01:02) Prof. Fereidooni shares his perspective on academic work, his motivation for doing research on racism and the challenges and opportunities he faces as a former practicing teacher and active scholar.

PRESENT (00:20:55) Prof. Fereidooni presents a text on distancing patterns from racism by Astrid Messerschmidt (2010). In relation to his study, he clarifies reasons why white people do not engage with racism. After explaining selected definitions of racism, we discuss how dealing with critiques of racism differs in university or school settings.

FUTURE (00:46:05) Prof. Fereidooni would like to see racism and discrimination as a cross-cutting issue in society. More space and openness for critical research and education on racism, as well as a supportive network, are key for motivated individuals to address this issue in a sustainable way

For more information on the episode, guest, and included references, please visit researchingdiversity.com.
You can also follow us on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

We want to thank Minor Revisions for the music, Lotte Gottschewski-Kooijman for the logo design, Max Kersten for post production, and zeythehuman for their artwork. Stay tuned and talk soon!    

Referenzen aus der Folge / Full references from this episode:

Fereidooni, K. (2020). „Du führst dich auf wie Mister Diskriminierung persönlich!“ Gedanken zur Kritik an einer rassismuskritischen Forschungsarbeit. In: Daniela Heitzmann und Kathrin Houda (Hrsg.), Rassismus an Hochschulen: Analyse – Kritik – Intervention (pp. 131-156). Beltz Juventa.

*Messerschmidt, A. (2010). Distanzierungsmuster. Vier Praktiken im Umgang mit Rassismus. In A. Broden & P. Mecheril (Hrsg.), Rassismus bildet (pp. 41–58). transcript Verlag. https://doi.org/10.1515/transcript.9783839414569.41

In this episode, we talked to Mehmet Day who is a researcher at the Verwey-Jonker Institute and a Ph.D. student at Erasmus University Rotterdam (the Netherlands). Our main topics are combining multiple cultural identities and how educational research and practice can benefit from one another.

PAST (00:02:00): Mehmet tells us about his own experiences, about being the first researcher in his family and about struggling to find academic role models.
PRESENT (00:11:54): We discuss the article by Stuart & Ward (2011) about different strategies for balancing and negotiating multiple cultural identities, with the example of Muslim youth in New Zealand and their experiences.
FUTURE (00:26:22): Mehmet talks about the importance of moving beyond the dual identity framework and of doing research that is informed and guided by questions from educational practice.

For more information on the episode, guest, and included references, please visit researchingdiversity.com.
You can also follow us on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

We want to thank Minor Revisions for the music, Lotte Gottschewski-Kooijman for the logo design, Max Kersten for post production, and zeythehuman for their artwork. Stay tuned and talk soon!   

Full reference of this episode’s article:

Stuart, J., & Ward, C. (2011). A Question of Balance: Exploring the Acculturation, Integration and Adaptation of Muslim Immigrant Youth. Psychosocial Intervention, 20(3), 255–267. https://doi.org/10.5093/in2011v20n3a3

In this episode, we talked to Marta Miklikowska who is an associate professor of Psychology at Umeå University (Sweden). Our main topics are prejudice, intergroup contact, and how activism and progressive policies can improve the representation of women in academia.

PAST (00:01:35): Marta tells us about her own experiences with migration, prejudice, and the imposter syndrome in a male-dominated profession. She also elaborates the current situation of woman in academic leadership positions and gives some advice for young researchers on how to navigate the early years in an academic career.
PRESENT (00:15:45): We discuss the article by Dixon et al. (2012) on new directions in research on prejudice and intergroup contact and how we can formulate research questions that bring us closer to creating more just, equal societies.
FUTURE (00:30:00): Marta talks about the positive effects of female faculty, about tackling gender inequalities through progressive policies, and about the power of activism and collective action.

For more information on the episode, guest, and included references, please visit researchingdiversity.com.
You can also follow us on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

We want to thank Minor Revisions for the music, Lotte Kooijman for the logo design, Max Kersten for post production, and zeythehuman for their artwork. Stay tuned and talk soon!   

Full references of this episode’s sources and articles:

Bettinger, E. P., & Long, B. T. (2005). Do Faculty Serve as Role Models? The Impact of Instructor Gender on Female Students. American Economic Review. https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/000282805774670149

Bondestam F. & Lundqvist, M. (2020). Sexual harassment in higher education – a systematic review. European Journal of Higher Education. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21568235.2020.1729833

Bornmann L., et al., (2007). Gender differences in grant peer review: A meta-analysis. Journal of Informetrics. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1751157707000363

Bredaa, T. et al., (2020). Gender stereotypes can explain the gender-equality paradox. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. https://www.pnas.org/content/117/49/31063.short?rss=1

Carli L., (2016). Stereotypes About Gender and Science: Women # Scientists. Psychology of Women Quarterly. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0361684315622645

*Dixon, J., Levine, M., Reicher, S., & Durrheim, K. (2012). Beyond prejudice: Are negative evaluations the problem and is getting us to like one another more the solution?. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 35(6), 411-425. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X11002214

Folke, O. & Rickne, J. (2020). Sexual Harassment and Gender Inequality in the Labor Market. London, Centre for Economic Policy Research. https://cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=14737

Holman, L. et al., (2018). The gender gap in science: How long until women are equally represented? PlosBiology. https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.2004956

Leslie, S. J., et al., (2015). Expectations of brilliance underlie gender distributions across academic disciplines. Science. https://science.sciencemag.org/content/347/6219/262

Moss-Racusin et al., (2012). Bias against females among faculty members in the US. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. https://www.pnas.org/content/109/41/16474

O’Dea, R.E., et al. (2018). Gender differences in individual variation in academic grades fail to fit expected patterns for STEM. Nature Communications. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-06292-0

Wenneras C, & Wold A., (1997). Nepotism and sexism in peer-review. Nature. https://www.nature.com/articles/387341a0

In this episode, we talked to Moin Syed who is a professor of Psychology at the University of Minnesota (U.S.). Our main topics are gender identity and master narratives, gender socialization, academic practices in psychology, and the Open Science framework.

PAST (00:01:56): We learn how Moin turned his personal experience of being treated differently from others and his interest in identity and development into a fascinating research subject. Moin also talks about methodological inconsistencies, issues and challenges of implementing new methods in the established domain of developmental psychology.
PRESENT (00:18:38): Moin presents an outstanding paper from Onnie Rogers (2020), which gives a new perspective about gender socialization of children through the master identity narratives framework. He discusses how people could find intersecting identities and alternative gender narratives both at individual and societal levels.
FUTURE (00:36:29): Moin talks about the future of social sciences and how the Open Science framework can help to change the research conventions in psychology.

For more information on the episode, guest, and included references, please visit researchingdiversity.com.
You can also follow us on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

We want to thank Minor Revisions for the music, Lotte Gottschewski-Kooijman for the logo design, Max Kersten for post production, and zeythehuman for their artwork. Stay tuned and talk soon!   

Full reference of this episode’s articles:
Kathawalla, U.-K., Silverstein, P., & Syed, M. (2021). Easing into open science: A guide for graduate students and their advisors. Collabra: Psychology, 7(1). https://doi.org/10.1525/collabra.18684

McLean, K. C., & Syed, M. (2015). Personal, master, and alternative narratives: An integrative framework for understanding identity development in context. Human Development, 58(6), 318-349. https://doi.org/10.1159/000445817

*Rogers, L. O. (2020). “I’m kind of a feminist”: Using master narratives to analyze gender identity in middle childhood. Child Development, 91(1), 179-196. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13142

Sterling, T. D. (1959). Publication decisions and their possible effects on inferences drawn from tests of significance–or vice versa. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 54(285), 30-34. https://doi.org/10.2307/2282137