Examining Reactions to University Inclusion Policies and Their Social and Legal Contexts
Closed. This professor is continuing with Fall 2024 apprentices on this project; no new apprentices needed for Spring 2025.
This project seeks to uncover the social psychological underpinnings of the debate around inclusion policies and free speech. As college campuses nationwide have instituted policies designed to promote inclusion (e.g., safe spaces, trigger warnings, hate speech codes, and pronoun usage policies), furor and debate have ignited. On the one hand, proponents argue that inclusion policies foster safe and inclusive environments for individuals from underrepresented groups, or groups that commonly face harassment and discrimination. Opponents, on the other hand, argue that they coddle students and violate the First Amendment. Psychologically this is very rich terrain for empirical investigation. Our research seeks to uncover the psychological correlates of different reactions to inclusion policies and perceptions of free speech violation and test the role of perceptions of group-related threat in attitudes toward inclusion policies. This is important because how people respond to these policies will shape the environments in which people of all backgrounds learn and work.
Role: As part of a research team, undergraduate research apprentices will gain experience primarily in coding qualitative data from national surveys and conducting literature reviews, as well as experimental design, and/or data analysis. They will also gain familiarity with the socio-legal background of this debate. Apprentices will participate in project meetings and may also take part in other activities within the Culture, Diversity, and Intergroup Relations lab, which is located in the UC Berkeley School of Law.
Qualifications: Undergraduate research apprentices are expected to have excellent skills in organization and time management, be detail-oriented, reliable, and able to work well with others. Commitment to the lab for more than one semester is desirable. A number of majors and programs are particularly relevant to this research (e.g., Psychology, Education, Political Science, Legal Studies, Ethnic studies, Gender studies, Disability Studies, etc.); however, we will consider applications from any major. Time commitment per week is approximately 8-12 hours but can be negotiated.
Hours: to be negotiated
Related website: https://www.law.berkeley.edu/our-faculty/faculty-profiles/victoria-plaut/
Related website: https://www.law.berkeley.edu/our-faculty/faculty-profiles/victoria-plaut/