Presidential Plenary

When: Friday, Feb. 9, 2024, 11 AM – 12:10 PM EST
Where: In-Person and Virtual

Dr. Cynthia Pickett is the Presidential Associate for Inclusion and Chief Diversity Officer at CalPoly Pomona. Previously, she served as Associate Provost for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and Associate Professor of Psychology at DePaul University. She also served as the Associate Vice-Provost for Faculty Equity and Inclusion at the University of California, Davis. A social psychologist by training, Dr. Pickett conducts research in the areas of social identity, intergroup relations, the self, social cognition and social inclusion and belonging, with her recent work focusing on promoting inclusive scientific practices. Dr. Pickett is a fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, the Society of Experimental Social Psychology and the Society for Personality and Social Psychology and is also a member of the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education. She received her Ph.D. and M.A. from the Ohio State University and her A.B. from Stanford University.

Responding to Advantage: Moving From Hierarchy Maintenance to Hierarchy Attenuation

Rosalind M. Chow, Carnegie Mellon University

Dr. Rosalind Chow will discuss the research findings pointing to the psychological distinction between dominant-group advantage and subordinate-group disadvantage, before turning to the three most studied responses dominant group members have to evidence of ingroup advantage: Denial, Disidentification, and Dismantling. The remainder of the presentation will focus on how individuals can assist in dismantling unequal systems via sponsorship—the use of one's social capital to elevate others' social visibility.

Dr. Rosalind Chow is an Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior (with tenure) at the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University. Her research explores the psychology of social inequality, with a particular focus on dominant group members' experience of and responses to their social position. Dr. Chow is a senior editor at Organization Science and a fellow of the Society of Experimental Social Psychology. She directs and teaches in multiple executive leadership programs designed to promote the advancement of Black and Latino professionals into corporate leadership positions. Dr. Chow received her B.A. in psychology from Columbia University (2002), and her PhD in Organizational Behavior from the Stanford Graduate School of Business (2008).

The Science of Social Inequality and the Social Inequality of Science

Michael W. Kraus, Northwestern University

Dr. Michael W. Kraus will discuss recent interview, archival, and experimental studies that examine how scientists evaluate evidence, whose perspectives are scrutinized and interrogated in studies of societal inequality, and the points of view that are accepted as defaults. Dr. Kraus will also speak about what these patterns of scrutiny and interrogation mean for a science of social inequality.

Dr. Michael Kraus is currently an Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior and Psychology (by courtesy) at Yale University. Starting in Fall 2024, he will be a Professor of Psychology (tenured) at Northwestern University and a Morton O. Schapiro IPR faculty fellow at the Institute for Policy Research. Dr. Kraus is a social psychologist whose current and past work attempts to better understand the precise psychological processes—the motivational states, patterns of social perception, and relational strategies—that maintain and perpetuate societal inequity. Dr. Kraus' research has appeared in a variety of journals, textbooks, and news outlets, and has been used to inform public policy. Dr. Kraus also works as part of the Contending with Social Inequality (CSI) Laboratory, a collaborative space where researchers, of varying experience, use social science to study and upend societal inequity. Dr. Kraus conducted his doctoral training as a social-personality psychologist at the University of California (UC), Berkeley, where he also received his B.A. in psychology and sociology.