Heritage Dissertation Research Award

Each year, the Foundation for Personality and Social Psychology intends to award 6 grants of $2,000 each. At least two grants will be in personality psychology and at least two grants will be in social psychology. The intent of the Foundation is to provide these awards annually, and to increase the number of awards in the future as additional funds become available. The Heritage Dissertation Awards are intended to provide assistance with the costs of conducting dissertation research in social and personality psychology.

Award Info

About the Award

This year’s recipients

Adriana Germano, University of Washington

Adriana Germano is a Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Washington. She studies how features of our cultural contexts (e.g., our societal values and norms) contribute to inequity. Her dissertation investigates how and why cultural norms and values contribute to inequity, with the aim of creating new, culturally-driven solutions to inequities.

Arvin Jagayat, Ryerson University

Arvin Jagayat is a doctoral student in Ryerson University’s Department of Psychology, working with Dr. Becky Choma on investigating intergroup and political behaviour online. For his dissertation, Arvin is developing a mock social media website for conducting experimental, behavioural social media research and using it to develop design-based interventions for misinformation.

Isidro Landa, Washington University in St. Louis

Isidro Landa's interests are broadly in the areas of culture, emotion, and education. Specifically, they are interested in investigating the role of person-environment fit in dynamic emotion and identity processes and overall implications for well-being, with a focus on marginalized and underrepresented groups (e.g., first-generation college students).

Katharine Scott, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Katharine Scott is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Katharine studies how to effectively teach children and adults about social identities, such as race and gender. Through laboratory- and field-based intervention studies, Katharine hopes to ameliorate social biases starting in early childhood.

Stephanie Cardenas, John Jay College of Criminal Justice

Stephanie Cardenas is a doctoral candidate at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and an NSF Graduate Research Fellow. Next year she will continue her research examining how psychological biases infect the legal system—from injustices in policing to plea bargaining—to produce wrongful convictions as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Williams College.

Thomas Costello, Emory University

Thomas Costello is an advanced graduate student in the clinical psychology doctoral program at Emory University. His research interests include the psychological causes and correlates of political beliefs and behaviors; authoritarianism; psychopathic personality traits and allied “dark” traits; and personality assessment.

About the Heritage Initiative

The Heritage Initiative acknowledges personality and social psychology's rich heritage by honoring some of the great teachers and scientists who have made major contributions to the field. In doing so, the Initiative is aimed at ensuring the field’s future by assisting its next generation of scholars. The Heritage Dissertation Research Awards are the direct result of funds raised in honor of some of our fields’ leading luminaries.

view the heritage wall of fame

Eligibility

Requirements

Applicants must be graduate students in personality and/or social psychology in good standing with their university. Applicants must be enrolled full-time (or working on their dissertation research for an equivalent of full-time enrollment regardless of actual registration status).
Applicants must be student members of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology at the time they apply for the award.
Applicants must have had their dissertation proposals approved by their dissertation committees prior to application with an expected defense date no earlier than December of the application year.
Each department may endorse no more than two (2) students per year for the Heritage Dissertation Research Award. If more than two students from a department wish to apply for these funds, the department should perform an initial screening and choose only two applications for submission.
Applicants must not have previously received a Heritage Dissertation Research Award.
The dissertation research may be in any area of social or personality psychology.

How to Apply

Submission Criteria

Abstract of the dissertation proposal, not more than two pages long, single-spaced (not including references) and up to one Table or Figure.
Curriculum vitae including scientific publications, presentations, research and teaching experience.
Paragraph describing how the funds will be used to support their research. Funds can be used for research-related expenses such as participant fees, equipment, research supplies, or specialized programming. Funds may NOT be used to buy a computer, overhead, administrative support, or conference travel.
A letter of recommendation from the applicant’s academic advisor is required to complete the application process. Please note that this letter has a maximum length of (1) page, single-spaced. Please communicate to the faculty member who will write your recommendation letter the importance of adhering to this maximum page limit. In addition, please do not submit more than one letter of recommendation; only one will be forwarded for review. The letter writer will submit his/her letter on-line and The letter must also verify the following information:

the applicant is in good standing in his or her program.
the proposal has been approved by the applicant’s committee (or the equivalent designation for the Ph.D. program).
the date the student is expected to complete the dissertation.
a statement indicating that the funds are needed to complete the research.

How to Submit

Applications are closed.

Past Recipients

2019

Daniel Albohn, The Pennsylvania State University

Analia Albuja, Rutgers University

Katie E. Garrison, Texas A&M University

Eva-Maria Stelzer, The University of Arizona

Sanaz Talaifar, The University of Texas at Austin

Katherine Zee, Columbia University

2018

R. Thora Bjornsdottir, University of Glasgow

Katharina Block, University of British Columbia

Kimberly Chaney, Rutgers University

Maya Rossignac-Milon, Columbia University

Kate Turetsky, Columbia University

2017

Olivia Atherton, University of California, Davis

Andrew G. Christy, Texas A&M University

Jason Deska, Miami University

Franki Kung, University of Waterloo

Randi Proffitt Leyva, Texas Christian University

Chelsea Schein, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Haran Sened, Bar Ilan University

Vivian P. Ta, University of Texas at Arlington

Sarah Ward, University of Missouri

Marika Yip-Bannicq, New York University

2016

William Brady, New York University

Kassandra Cortes, University of Waterloo

Brittany Jakubiak, Carnegie Mellon University

Jinhyung Kim, Texas A&M University

Yeonjeong Kim, Carnegie Mellon University

Erin Westgate, University of Virginia

Ashley Whillans, The University of British Columbia

2015

Jeffrey Bowen, University of California, Santa Barbara

David Chester, University of Kentucky

Allison Farrell, University of Minnesota

Nicole Lawless DesJardins, University of Oregon

Chadly Stern, New York University

Konstantin Tskhay, University of Toronto

2014

Alyssa Croft, University of British Columbia

Patrick Forscher, University of Wisconsin

Nathan Hudson, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Contact

2020 Sage/Heritage Chair

PJ Henry, pj.henry@nyu.edu

SPSP Awards Coordinator

Emma Mugford, awards@spsp.org

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