Sabina Cehajic-ClancyProfessor

For 15+ years, I have been teaching both undergraduate and graduate courses in social and political psychology, research methods, conflict and peace studies. Currently, I teach a course on Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, master level couse on Human Development-Positive Psychological Functioning and Adaptation in Youth (PSMT60) and selected lectures in Social Psychology II. I also provide supervision and consultations to both undergraduate and graduate students interested in social psychology more broadly and intergroup relations more specifically. 

My research aims to understand psychological processes of improving intergroup relations. More specifically and using experimental approaches, I focus on intergroup reconciliation processes in societies affected or threatened by conflict. Questions that drive my research are:

1. How do people deal with information perceived as threatening to social identities (such as atrocities committed by their own group)?
2. Which psychological processes facilitate positive intergroup relations (such as intergroup forgiveness and contact intentions)?
3. Which psychological processes facilitate regulation of group-based emotions  (such as hatred, empathy and trust)?
4. How do peoples' perceptions and emotions about the 'other' and contextual conditions where people live shape the outcomes of intergroup interventions such as intergroup contact?

To address these questions, I employ a combination of online and field experiments including interventions. It is my strong belief that no social process can be completely understood without utilizing a combination of different methodological approaches as well an interdisciplinary communication. In addition to conducting basic research, I am very much motivated in knowledge application and how to change intergroup relations in the real world. Together with governmental and non-governmental agencies, I use my research to design and evaluate intergroup interventions in order to inform policies. Both my research and community work have received wide national and international recognition.