Victoria M. Esses, Ph.D.

Victoria Esses (PhD, University of Toronto) is Professor of Psychology and Director of the Centre for Research on Migration and Ethnic Relations at the University of Western Ontario. She is also Co-Director of the Welcoming Communities Initiative, a multidisciplinary alliance of universities, colleges, and communities designed to develop, test, and implement strategies to attract and include immigrants and minorities in small- and medium-sized cities across Ontario. Dr. Esses has conducted research on determinants of public attitudes toward immigration and cultural diversity for over 20 years. Her work has covered such topics as the role of perceived economic and cultural threat and competition in determining attitudes toward immigrants and immigration, the dehumanization of refugees, the framing of national identity and public attitudes toward immigration and cultural diversity, and the role of ethnic and religious prejudice in immigrant skills discounting. In 2010, Dr. Esses received the Harold Crabtree Foundation Award in Public Policy Research and the Western Faculty Scholar Award for her work on immigration and cultural diversity.

E-Mail: vesses@uwo.ca

Leah Hamilton, M.A., Ph.D.

Leah received her doctorate in Industrial/Organizational Psychology in 2011 and she is currently a post-doctoral fellow at the Centre for Research on Migration and Ethnic Relations. Leah researches a variety of issues pertaining to labour market integration among immigrants, including underemployment, skills discounting, and entrepreneurship.

Website: http://sites.google.com/site/leahkhamilton/home
E-Mail: lhamil2@uwo.ca

Caroline Bennett-AbuAyyash, M.Sc., Ph.D. Candidate

Caroline completed her B.A. (Honours) in Public Administration & Political Science at the American University of Beirut in 2000. After a number of years in human resources she started at the University of Western Ontario as a graduate student in 2004, and obtained her MSc in the summer of 2006. For her thesis, she explored the interplay between immigrant status and religious affiliation in the evaluation of foreign skills and education. As a PhD student she is exploring several areas of social psychology including group membership, skills discounting of foreign skills, and the role of values in the prediction of reactions toward immigrants & immigration. She is also part of the Collaborative Graduate Program in Migration & Ethnic Relations.

Website: http://publish.uwo.ca/~cabuayya/
E-Mail: cabuayya@uwo.ca

Karen Dickson, MASP, Ph.D. Candidate

Karen Dickson received her B.Sc. (Honours) in Psychology in 2005 and her Masters of Applied Social Psychology in 2007 from Memorial University of Newfoundland. She then worked conducting research in the area of continuing medical education. She began her PhD in Social Psychology at the University of Western Ontario in 2008. Karen’s research interests are in the area of intergroup relations and prejudice. Specifically, she is particularly interested in how different forms and types of prejudice are perceived in society and the different responses they receive, as well as strategies for reducing prejudice.

Website: https://sites.google.com/site/karenrdickson
E-Mail: kdickso6@uwo.ca

Stelian Medianu, B.A., M.Sc., Ph.D. Candidate

Stelian is a Ph.D. student in the Social Psychology program and the Collaborative Graduate Program in Migration and Ethnic Relations at the University of Western Ontario. He completed his B.A. in Psychology at the University of British Columbia in 2008 and his M.Sc. in Social Psychology at the University of Western Ontario in 2010. Stelian’s research interests are currently in the area of inter-group relations, prejudice, dehumanization, attitude change and mass media effects with a particular emphasis on immigrants and refugees.

E-Mail: smedianu@uwo.ca

Mandy DeVaul-Fetters, B.A., M.Sc., Ph.D. Candidate

Mandy completed her B.A. in Psychology at Benedictine College in 2004. She obtained her M.S. in Psychology at the University of Central Missouri. For her thesis, she focused on the U.S. Naturalization Test. Specifically, the relationship between the subjective nature of the test, prejudice towards certain immigrant groups, and how this relationship affected the final score assigned to them on the test. As a PhD student she will continue to explore how public attitudes towards immigrants affect immigration policy, prejudice towards immigrants/immigration, and the role of perceived realistic and symbolic threat in attitudes towards immigrants/immigration. She is also part of the Collaborative Graduate Program in Migration & Ethnic Relations.

E-Mail: adevaul@uwo.ca

Natalia Lapshina, B.A., M.A., Ph.D. Candidate

Natalia received her M.A. in Psychology from Carleton University in 2008. In her Master’s thesis she investigated whether immigrants’ country of origin and their employment success affected evaluation of job qualifications and willingness to hire them by Canadians. During her doctoral studies in the Program in Migration and Ethnic Relations Natalia will evaluate Canadians’ attitudes towards immigrants with various cultural backgrounds who claim employment-related discrimination, explore factors that may contribute to these attitudes, and test strategies for ameliorating negative effects.

E-Mail: nlapshin@uwo.ca

Kelly Barnes, B.A., M.A., Ph.D. Candidate

Kelly completed her B.A. in Psychology from Trinity Christian College in 2008. She then received her M.A. in Cognitive and Social Processes from Ball State University in 2010. There she completed a thesis regarding the relationships of blind patriotism, perceived threat, and stereotyping of minority groups. As a PhD student and member of the Collaborative Graduate Program in Migration and Ethnic Studies, Kelly plans to study how national identity and ideology are related to attitudes toward immigrants in both the US and Canada.

E-Mail:kbarne2@uwo.ca

Sonali Advani

Website: http://welcomingcommunities.ca/
E-Mail: wci@uwo.ca

Nadia Maiolino

E-Mail: nmaioli@uwo.ca

Vivien So

Affective Reactions to Prejudiced Hiring Decisions

E-Mail: wso4@uwo.ca

Maia Abbas

Lauren Annis

Elizabeth Barker

Dan Dick

Gillian Tohver