PI: Giselle Laiduc
In the Identity, Diversity, and Educational Equity (IDEE) Lab, our research program is guided by the core question: Given their history of social exclusion, how can universities better meet the needs of and serve an increasingly diverse student population? We draw on scholarship from multiple disciplines (e.g., psychology, education, sociology) to investigate the sociocultural context of higher education and its influence on students’ psychological wellbeing.
As a new research lab, our scholarship hopes to engage diverse research partnerships (e.g., students, staff, faculty) and mixed-methods (e.g., lab and field experiments, interviews, surveys) in three growing lines of research:
- Sociocultural factors that impact the transition to and through college (and in specific learning contexts, like STEM fields)
- Culturally-relevant psychological interventions that foster identity safety and belonging
- Beliefs and discourses about diversity that promote (or inhibit) student outcomes (e.g., social justice orientations)
We examine students’ experiences in context, which involves taking an explicitly anti-deficit approach to issues related to identity, diversity, and educational equity. That is, we interrogate common assumptions about underrepresentation and underperformance in higher education, hoping to inform university practices and policies that promote educational equity and student wellbeing.
We aim to cultivate a research space where undergraduate research assistants draw from their own expertise as students navigating higher education to assist on or develop projects that matter to them and their communities, and that inform theory and scholarship. Research assistants may be involved in various research tasks, from conducting literature reviews, supporting research design, preparing study materials, collecting, cleaning, and analyzing data, and/or communicating research findings through presentations, short reports, posters, or infographics.
Dr. Laiduc is accepting applications in Fall 2023 to build the inaugural IDEE Lab in Winter and Spring 2024. If you are interested, or would like to learn more, please contact Dr. Laiduc or fill out an application here. No research experience is required to join!