Diversity Challenge

The Institute was founded in 2000 at Boston College, to promote the assets and address the societal conflicts associated with race and culture in theory and research, mental health practice, education, business, and society at large. Each year the Institute addresses a racial or cultural issue that could benefit from a pragmatic, scholarly, or grassroots focus through its Diversity Challenge conference.

2024 Diversity Challenge

Toward an Anti-Racist Psychological Science: Epistemic and Methodological Considerations
September 13 & 14, 2024
Boston College

The 2024 Diversity Challenge Conference will explore approaches to dismantling the dominance of Whiteness in psychological science, as well as elevating additional racial and cultural perspectives on psychological constructs and research methodologies. The conference will be held in-person at Boston College and CE credits will be available for licensed mental health professionals. 


Registration for the 2024 Conference will open soon
 

Call for Proposals

We are inviting submissions of proposals for poster presentations, individual research papers, and symposia related to the conference theme. The symposia proposals should represent a collection of 3 presentations centered on a unifying theme and can comprise both research and conceptual presentations.

We would like to extend a special invitation to undergraduate student researchers: we encourage you to submit proposals for posters focusing on the application of anti-racism in psychological research, curriculum development, and research training. Poster proposals can be co-authored by faculty members, graduate students, or other undergraduates, but the lead author(s) should be an undergraduate student.

Proposals are due April 30, 2024. Please submit your proposal(s) using this form.

When submitting your proposal, please include the following (ONE document for EACH proposal):

  1. Cover page with Presenters and Affiliation
  2. Overview of presentation:
    • 300 words maximum for posters and individual paper presentations
    • 500 words maximum for symposia including a brief description of each individual presentation

The proposals will be submitted to an anonymous peer review process and notifications of acceptances will be issued by June 1, 2024.

Conference Schedule

Friday, September 13, 2024

Program At-a-Glance

8:30 - 9:00 a.m.    Check-in and refreshments
9:00 - 9:15 a.m.    Overview of Conference
    Alex L. Pieterse, Director, Institute for the Study of Race and Culture, and Associate Professor, Boston College
9:15 - 10:45 a.m.    Keynote Address and Discussion: "Anti-Racist Psychological Science: An Emerging Scholar's Perspective"
    Chardée Galán, Assistant Professor, The Pennsylvania State University
11:00 - 12:30 p.m.

    Paper Presentations
    Nine papers will be presented; three each in three rooms

  • Liz Vera and Suzette Speight - The Future of Social Justice in Counseling Psychology: A Delphi Study
  • Li Chieh, Siwon Yang, Ruiqing Wang, Shian Li, Huijun Li, and Shengli Dong - A New Toolthat Integrates Critical Consciousness in Counseling Youth Coping with Racial/Cultural Conflicts: Cultural Review by Chinese American Youths
  • Rui Fu and Stephen Leff - The Manifestations, Coping, and Interventions of School-based Racial and Intersectional Microaggressions: Youth’s and Parents’ Perspectives
  • Alexandria Onuoha - Black Girl Spatial Mapping: The Joy Spaces, Universes, & Futures Development Model
  • Ritika Rastogi, et al. - Proactive coping as a buffer of daily discrimination on young adult racial trauma
  • Anthony Menor - Pre-existing mental health concerns, early adversity and marginalized identities: An examination of vulnerabilities in the prediction of suicidality onset during the COVID-19 pandemic
  • Alice Woolverton, et al. - The impact of direct and vicarious racial discrimination on sleep problems in Black, Asian, and White young adults during the COVID-19 pandemic
  • Amaya Mitchell - "Well, the history runs so deep": On constructions of race, culture, and romantic preference
12:30 - 1:30 p.m.    Lunch and Networking
1:30 - 3:00 p.m.

    Symposium: "Navigating Shadows: Racism and Policing in the Lives of Black Emerging Adults in the U.S."
    Robert Motley, Assistant Professor, Boston College

    Concurrent Symposia:

  • Eun Jeong Wang, Pratyusha Tummala-Narra, et al. - Sociocultural Experiences in Psychotherapy: Qualitative Studies with Racial Minority Clients and Psychologists
  • Brian Keum - Examining and disrupting anti-Blackness among Asian emerging adults
  • Katheryn Roberson-Miranda, Christopher Schutte, et al. - Elevating Racial-Cultural Perspectives to Increase Mental Health Utilization in Communities of Color
3:30 - 5:00 p.m.    "Anti-Racism Interventions in Psychology"
    Jude Cénat, Associate Professor and Director of the Vulnerability, Trauma, Resilience & Culture Research Lab, University of Ottawa
5:30 - 7:00 p.m.    Poster Presentations, Social Hour, and Live Entertainment

Saturday, September 14, 2024

Program At-a-Glance

8:15 - 8:45 a.m.    Check-in and light breakfast
8:45 - 10:15 a.m.

    Plenary and Symposia: "Critical Race Theory and Quantitative Methods: An Introduction to QuantCrit"
    Michael Russell, Professor, Boston College

    Concurrent Symposia

  • Shelly Harrell, Evan Auguste, and Cheryl Grills - Reclaiming, Repairing, Restoring, and Revitalizing: The Wisdom of Sankofa as Ground and Guide for Healing and Liberatory Praxis
  • Krithika Prakash, Tanya Saraiya, and Michelle Fernando - Systemic Barriers in Translational Research on Race-Based Trauma: A Critical Examination
  • Tiffany Fang, Ji Won Lee, and Claude Louis - Research as Healing
  • Jasmine Ueng-McHale, Teresa Mendez, and Ebony Dennis - Processing Racial Enactments in Community in the Holmes Commission: Opening Pathways for Belonging, Survival, and Transformation
10:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.    Keynote Presentation and Response: "White Logic and White Methods - Racism and the Construction of Knowledge"
    Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of Sociology, Duke University
    Helen A. Neville, Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
12:30 - 1:30 p.m.    Lunch
1:30 - 3:00 p.m.

    Paper Presentations
    Nine papers will be presented; three each in three rooms

  • Michael Gale, Jennifer Tarm, and Cheryl Wilson - Burden of Dual Pandemics: The Impact of Everyday Discrimination, COVID-19 Stressors, Health Anxiety, and Death Anxiety on Academic Self-Efficacy, Distress, and Life Satisfaction among College Students
  • Donna Lynne and Hanan Hashem - Combating racism through cross-racial/ethnic solidarity: Presenting a framework towards accompliceship
  • Sade Prithwie and Tracy Robinson - Wood Leveraging Intimate Relationships for Collective Well-Being and Success: An Exploration of Womxn of Color Graduate Students
  • Lourdes Ixtzai Castillo Silva - Aquí estamos y no nos vamos: Banda music and the racialization of space
  • Tanvi-Shah, Rohan Arcot, et al. - Sexual Violence Against International Asian Women in Higher Education: A Qualitative Exploration of Experiences and Coping
  • Taewon Kim, Yunkyoung Garrison, and Ethan Sahker - Disentangling Multidimensional Poverty Among College Students: Evidence for Racialized Poverty
  • Ruthann Hewett and Nadya Chavies, et al. - An Intersectional, Interpersonal Framework for Conceptualizing Black Trans Youth Suicide: Considerations for Training and Curriculum Development
  • Danielle Farrar-Noonan - “Racism is Exhausting”: The Physiology of Black Fatigue and How Therapy Can Help Reduce Allostatic Load
  • Faith Juma - Disrupting the School-to-Prison Pipeline Using Trauma-Informed Practices
  • Kira Banks, Anujm Umrani, Kaevyn Maple, and Bryce Davis - Navigating Messages of Appropriated Oppression: An Individual ACT-Based Intervention
3:15 - 4:45 p.m.    Plenary Address: "Decolonizing Psychology Training"
    Amy L. Reynolds, Professor, University at Buffalo
4:45 - 5:00 p.m.    Concluding Comments
    Alex L. Pieterse, Director, Institute for the Study of Race and Culture, and Associate Professor, Boston College

Speakers & Presenters

Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, Ph.D.

Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, Ph.D.

James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of Sociology, Duke University
Keynote Speaker



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Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, Ph.D.

Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, Ph.D.

James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of Sociology, Duke University

Keynote Speaker

Dr. Bonilla-Silva is trained in class analysis, political sociology, and sociology of development (globalization). However, his work in the last 20 years has been in the area of race. He has published on racial theory, race and methodology, color-blind racism, the idea that race stratification in the USA is becoming Latin America-like, racial grammar, HWCUs, race and human rights, race and citizenship, whiteness, and the Obama phenomenon among other things. In all his work, he contends that racism is fundamentally about "racial domination," hence, racism is a collective and structural phenomenon in society (see his 1997 ASR on this matter).

Chardée Galán, Ph.D.

Chardée Galán, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Pennsylvania State University



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Chardée Galán, Ph.D.

Chardée Galán, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Pennsylvania State University

Chardée Galán is an assistant professor of psychology in the Child Clinical Area and director of the Dismantling Racial inEquities Around Mental Health (DREAM) lab at the Pennsylvania State University. Her program of research strives to address drivers of racial inequities in child and adolescent mental health by: (1) advancing scholarship on the intersection of cultural, developmental, and familial risk and protective factors in predicting youth psychopathology, including the influence of racial-ethnic discrimination, racial-ethnic identity development, and racial-ethnic socialization processes; (2) improving our measurement of racism-based traumatic stress in youth of color; (3) developing and testing interventions that draw on cultural strengths, such as racial-ethnic socialization processes, to disrupt pathways from racial stress to psychopathology; and (4) improving clinical training in cultural humility and anti-racism to ensure that the next generation of mental health providers and researchers are equipped to address the unique stressors and leverage the inherent strengths of youth and families of color.

Jude Mary Cénat, Ph.D.

Jude Mary Cénat, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, University of Ottawa
Director, Vulnerability, Trauma, Resilience & Culture (V-TRaC) Research Laboratory



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Jude Mary Cénat, Ph.D.

Jude Mary Cénat, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, University of Ottawa

Director, Vulnerability, Trauma, Resilience & Culture (V-TRaC) Research Laboratory

Jude Mary Cénat, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the School of Psychology and the director of the Vulnerability, Trauma, Resilience & Culture (V-TRaC) Research Laboratory at the University of Ottawa. His research program explores factors associated with vulnerability, trauma, and resilience, with a particular interest in the role of cultural factors. Dr. Cénat conducts research on racial disparities in mental health and social services, the impact of natural disasters and infectious disease outbreaks on mental health, interpersonal and non-interpersonal trauma, and global mental health. He conducts research in North America, Europe, Africa, and the Caribbean. 

Robert O. Motley, Ph.D., M.S.W.

Robert O. Motley, Ph.D., M.S.W.

Assistant Professor, Boston College



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Robert O. Motley, Ph.D., M.S.W.

Robert O. Motley, Ph.D., M.S.W.

Assistant Professor, Boston College

Robert O. Motley Jr., Ph.D., M.S.W. is an assistant professor in the School of Social Work at Boston College. His research examines the intersection of racism, violence, and trauma for Black emerging adults (ages 18-29) and associated adverse mental and behavioral outcomes. His most recent research employed qualitative and quantitative methods to examine the relationship between exposure to perceived racism-based police use of force, racism-based trauma symptoms, and substance use in a sample of Black emerging adults in St. Louis, Missouri. He looks to identify risk and protective factors that can be targeted by behavioral health intervention programs and advance personal safety practices and policies in America that are respective of equity and human dignity for marginalized emerging adult populations.

Helen A. Neville, Ph.D.

Helen A. Neville, Ph.D.

Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign



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Helen A. Neville, Ph.D.

Helen A. Neville, Ph.D.

Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Helen A. Neville is a professor of Educational Psychology and African American Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is past president of the Society for the Psychological Study of Culture, Ethnicity and Race (APA Division 45) and a fellow of the American Psychological Association. She is active in the Association of Black Psychologists, having served on their Board of Directors and receiving their Distinguished Psychologist award. Her research on race, racism, and African American psychology has been published in a wide range of journal articles and she has co-edited 8 books in this area. She enjoys teaching, lifelong learning, and fighting for social justice. 

Amy L. Reynolds, Ph.D.

Amy L. Reynolds, Ph.D.

Professor, University at Buffalo



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Amy L. Reynolds, Ph.D.

Amy L. Reynolds, Ph.D.

Professor, University at Buffalo

The primary focus of Dr. Reynolds' scholarship is on multicultural competence and training in counseling psychology and higher education. Specifically, her research has centered on expanding the multicultural knowledge base through scholarship on race, racial identity, and racism-related stress, queer and trans identity, acculturation, and other multicultural issues; exploring training and curricular applications in counseling psychology, and increasing understanding of multicultural change efforts in higher education. Additionally, her research has explored college student mental health issues, including the impact of politics on mental health and counselor training.

Michael Russell, Ph.D.

Michael Russell, Ph.D.

Professor, Boston College



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Michael Russell, Ph.D.

Michael Russell, Ph.D.

Professor, Boston College

Over the past eight years, Michael’s research focus has shifted from advancing digital assessment practices to addressing racism and white supremacy in educational measurement. His current research examines the use of deficit language in the presentation and discussion of findings from quantitative analyses, intersectionality as a lens for examining item and test bias, incorporating a social justice lens into test validity theory, “measuring”/locating understanding of race, anti-Black racism, and white supremacy, tracing the influences of the White Racial Frame on educational measurement methodology. His most recent book, Systemic Racism and Educational Measurement, examines the influence the White Racial Frame has had on educational measurement and quantitative methods, and explores potential influences alternate frames including Critical Theory, Critical Race Theory, QuantCrit, Intersectionality, and Rectificatory Justice could have on the fields of educational measurement and social sciences more broadly. He also leads a collaborative project to redesign graduate research and measurement training programs to better prepare future scholars to engage in anti-racist, anti-colonized research.

In years past, Michael’s scholarship focused on validity theory; innovative uses of computer-based technologies, applications of Universal Design to enhance educational testing and assessment, large-scale assessment program design, and, most recently, race and quantitative methodology. He has authored two books on assessment, Classroom Assessment: Concepts and Applications and Technology and Assessment: The Tale of Two Interpretations, co-authored a third book, The Paradoxes of High-Stakes Testing: How They Affect Students, Their Parents, Teachers, Principals, Schools, and Society, and co-edited Assessing Students in the Margins: Challenges, Strategies and Techniques. Through his work on accessible assessment he co-developed NimbleTools, the first universally designed digital test delivery platform, and co-created the Accessible Portable Item Protocol (APIP) Standards which are used world-wide for the development of digital test content. Michael founded and was Chief Editor of the Journal of Technology, Learning and Assessment and established and directed the Technology and Assessment Study Collaborative. He currently serves on the Technical Advisory Committees for several state assessment and accountability programs.

As a result of attending the conference, my thinking about the ways gender, race and ethnic identity develop among women and girls and its psychological outcomes has deepened in complexity and understanding.
Diversity Challenge participant

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