Core Faculty

Rosario Ceballo is an Associate Professor of Psychology and Women’s Studies and received her Ph.D. in Clinical and Developmental Psychology from the University of Michigan where she also received a certificate in Women’s Studies.  She earned her B.A. in Psychology from Yale University.  Dr. Ceballo’s research investigates how contextual aspects of poverty, such as residence in dangerous neighborhoods and community violence exposure, influence families and children’s development.  The specific roles of parenting and family processes in buffering the negative effects of poverty on adolescents’ psychological well-being and academic functioning are examined.  Using quantitative and qualitative methods, her recent work relies on within-group samples to examine the presence of protective factors among impoverished, Latino families.  In a second line of research, Dr. Ceballo investigates the experience of infertility among racial minority women and examines the ways in which women cope with the trauma of infertility and with race- and class-based stereotypes about female reproduction.  

Elizabeth R. Cole is currently an Associate Professor of Women's Studies and Psychology, and also has a dry appointment in the Center for Afro-American and African Studies (CAAS).  Her scholarship examines the social construction of categories such as gender, race, and social class through a combination of theoretical and empirical work employing both qualitative and quantitative methods.  Her theoretical papers use feminist and critical race theory to consider how Psychology's methods have at times obscured understanding of these social categories by treating them as categorical variables rather than as contested social constructions reflecting relations of inequality and social stigma.  In her empirical work, she aims to develop historically specific and culturally grounded conceptualizations of race and gender to understand group differences and similarities, with special attention to the ways these social categories depend on one another for meaning and are jointly associated with outcomes.  Although her researach is rooted theoretically in Women' Studies and methodologically in Psychology, she often incorporates perspectives from Sociology, Political Science and History.  Please visit her website for descriptions of current projects:  http://www.sitemaker.umich.edu/cole.qsort/home

Terri Conley is an Assistant Professor of Psychology and Women’s Studies. She received her Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles. Her overarching research interests lie in stigma and sexuality.  Dr. Conley examines reactions to and experiences of sexually stigmatized people, the effects of stigmatization on sexual experiences for women, and potential advantages of culturally stigmatized relationships.  One current line of research compares monogamous and negotiated non-monogamous individuals' and couples' relationship satisfaction, sexual functioning and sexual health practices.  Another addresses gender differences in preference for casual sex, focusing on the ways that anticipated pleasure in the encounter and perceived stigma associated with casual sex can explain these differences.

Lilia Cortina is Associate Professor of Psychology and Women's Studies and Chair of the Joint PhD program. She received her Ph.D. in Clinical-Community Psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research examines experiences of victimization in organizations, focusing in particular on how those experiences intersect with gender. Much of this work addresses the measurement and modeling of sexual harassment processes, with emphases on culture, coping, social support, and cognitive appraisal. Another stream of her research extends to non-sexual forms of interpersonal mistreatment, such as workplace incivility--i.e., low-level injustices that can accumulate over time to have a significant negative impact on employees. She offers both graduate and undergraduate courses on the Psychology of Women, and also teaches Personality Psychology.

Jacquelynne S. Eccles, McKeachie Collegiate Professor of Psychology, Women's Studies and Education, has conducted research on topics ranging from gender-role socialization, teacher expectancies, and classroom influences on student motivation to social development in the family and school context. Her most recent work focuses on the longitudinal study of the development and socialization of the following types of psychological influences on motivation, activity choice and involvement: self-perceptions of competence, task values and interests, life goals, self-schema, motivational orientation, and mental health. Eccles is particularly interested in the role schools, families, neighborhoods, and ethnicity play in ontogeny of these belief and motivational systems. Recent work includes: (1) an investigation of the declines in adolescents' motivation, self-concept, and mental health associated with the junior and senior high school transitions; (2) an investigation of the development of self-schema and motivational beliefs during middle childhood years in the context of family and school environments; and (3) an investigation of the impact of family, social class, school, neighborhood, and ethnicity on the development of motivation, self schemas, mental health, and engagement in both positive and risky activities among a large sample of Black and white adolescents.

Sandra Graham-Bermann, a Professor of Clinical Psychology and Women's Studies, is consultant to national research centers as well as several battered women's shelters, including the Domestic Violence Project, SAFEHouse, Inc., and the Better Homes Fund Homeless Program. She received a grant from the Centers for Disease Control, National Injury Prevention Center to study the efficacy of a brief intervention program for children and their mothers in woman-abusing families. She is interested in documenting traumatic effects, resilience and family paradigms in children exposed to family violence. With funding from the Department of Health and Human Services, her latest study is focused on the impact of community, family and media violence in the lives of at-risk preschoolers and their mothers. This longitudinal study demonstrates the ways in which violence affects gender socialization and, ultimately, children's adjustment outcomes. Sandra has given national presentations and published her research on the social relationships and adjustment of children in homeless families, woman-abusing families, and high-risk families. She recently co-edited a book [with Jeffrey Edleson] on Domestic Violence in the Lives of Children: The Future of Research, Intervention and Social Policy, Washington, DC: APA Books.

Patricia Gurin is the Nancy Cantor Distinguished University Professor Emerita of Psychology and Women's Studies, the former chair of psychology and a former interim dean of LS&A. She is now the research director of the Program on Intergroup Relations and has been the University's expert witness on the educational value of racial/ethnic diversity in its defense of its admission policies in the two lawsuits that have gone to the Supreme Court. In addition to her research on the value of diversity, Professor Gurin has been an active participant in diversity programs on the campus. She coordinated faculty seminars associated with teaching courses that meet the LS&A requirement for exposure to knowledge about race and ethnicity, and has taught such courses herself for many years. She continues to be active in various diversity initiatives on the campus during her retirement, and serves on the Provost's Committee on Diverse Democracy. She received the Class of 1923 Award and Amoco Award for Outstanding Teaching, the Distinguished Faculty Award given by the Michigan Association of Governing Boards, an Arthur F. Thurnau Professorship and was a Visiting Scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation. Her research focuses on social structure, culture, and psychological functioning. Many of her studies have examined how sense of control, political attitudes and knowledge, and political behavior are affected by power relations defined by race, ethnicity, gender, and class. Two of her recent books illustrate this interest; Hope and Independence: Blacks’ Response to Electoral and Party Politics (with Shirley Hatchett and James Jackson), and Women, Change, and Politics (with Louise Tilly).

Ram Mahalingam is Associate Professor of Psychology and Women's Studies. His research focuses on cultural psychology of caste, immigration and gender. He examines the relationship between power, representation of social groups and psychological well-being. In one line of research, he studies how gender discrimination and extreme son preference affect the psychological well-being of men and women in India. In another line of research, he studies the relationship between privileged social status (e.g., race and caste) and representations of social categories. His research on immigration investigates the relationship between Model Minority Myth, gender beliefs, perceived discrimination and psychological well-being of Asian immigrants.

Abigail Stewart is Sandra Schwartz Tangri Distinguished University Professor of Psychology and Women’s Studies. She is director of UM’s ADVANCE Program (which promotes faculty diversity in all fields), and Associate Dean for the Social Sciences at the Rackham Graduate School.  She earned a Ph.D. in Personality Psychology from Harvard University, an M.Sc. in Social Psychology from the London School of Economics, and an AB in Psychology from Wesleyan University.  Dr. Stewart has published over 100 scholarly articles and several books, focusing on the psychology of women’s lives, personality, and adaptation to personal and social changes. Her most recent book, published in 2007, is called Transforming science and engineering: Advancing academic women. Her current research, which combines qualitative and quantitative methods, includes comparative analyses of longitudinal studies of educated women’s lives and personalities and a study of race, gender and generation in the graduates of a Midwest high school.

Sari van Anders is an Assistant Professor of Psychology and Women’s Studies. Dr. van Anders received a Ph.D. in Biological and Cognitive Psychology from Simon Fraser University in 2007, an M.A. in Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience from the University of Western Ontario (UWO) in 2003, and a B.A. with honors in Psychology and Scholar’s Electives from UWO in 2001. She has received a Young Investigator Award from the Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology, and a For Women in Science Award from UNESCO-NSERC-L’Oreal. Her research program focuses principally on social neuroendocrinology, sexuality, gender/sex, and evolution. In diverse populations, Dr. van Anders examines how androgens and other hormones are influenced by social behaviors/contexts related to sexuality, partnering, and nurturance, as well as bidirectional associations between hormones and social behavioral contexts. Dr. van Anders is developing feminist science and inclusive research practices to address problematics of human biological research. Dr. van Anders also studies quantitative questions related to academia and gender, race/ethnicity, and class, and maintains active interests in broader research addressing human sexuality, conceptualizations of gender/sex, and interpretations and implications of this research.

Psychology Faculty Affiliated with Women's Studies

• Toni Antonucci
• Jill Becker
• Jennifer Crocker
• Susan Gelman
• Lorraine Gutierrez
• Fiona Lee
• Donna Nagata
• Sheryl Olson
• Colleen Seifert
• Denise Sekaquaptewa
• Barbara Smuts
• Brenda Volling
• Monique Ward

Related Link

Complete listing of Women's Studies Faculty >>