Summa Cum Laude
Two IPR faculty fellows receive exceptional honors

Spring 2007, Volume 29, Number 1

Jennifer Richeson

IPR faculty are no strangers to prestigious awards and honors. Yet even by IPR standards, two of its faculty fellows recently received extraordinary recognition.

Economist Greg Duncan was elected president of two of the nation’s pre-eminent research societies, the Population Association of America and the Society for Research in Child Development. Social psychologist Jennifer Richeson was named a MacArthur Fellow in fall 2006.

MacArthur Fellow

Jennifer Richeson was standing on a busy Chicago street corner on her birthday when she got the cell-phone call that she had received one of 25 MacArthur Fellowships in 2006, an honor that carries a $500,000 “no-strings-attached” award.

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation selected Richeson, an associate professor of psychology and African American studies and an IPR faculty fellow, because she “takes the lead in highlighting and analyzing major challenges facing all races in America and [in] the continuing role played by prejudice and stereotyping in our lives.”

The broad strokes of her research involve investigating the role of race and gender in intergroup dynamics and their impact on how people think, feel, and behave. Specifically, she studies the dynamics and consequences of interracial contact, detecting and controlling racial bias, and racial categorization and identity.

A key finding of her work on interracial contact is that these interactions are stressful and difficult to navigate for all involved. She has found, for example, that a white person worried about appearing prejudiced when interacting with a black person is likely to work hard to combat prejudicial thoughts, and these “self-control” efforts tax his or her cognitive functioning.

“People today generally understand that prejudice is a bad thing, but still don’t quite know how to converse or behave with people different from themselves,” Richeson said. “Intergroup interactions can be awkward, less effective, or even avoided because ‘good people’ don’t want to offend or appear prejudiced.”

Using functional brain imaging, survey techniques, self-reporting, and other empirical methods, Richeson’s work provides new ways to understand and, she hopes, improve intergroup dynamics.

While Richeson considers how best to use the money to further her research, she is currently tackling several new projects, including one that will examine how to improve interracial interactions between blacks and whites. She argues that in some environments, such as corporate workplaces, blacks often seek to be respected while whites seek to be liked—two differing goals. She and her colleagues hope to discover which kinds of interracial interactions activate such mismatched goals, how they influence participants’ behavior and self-presentation during the interactions, and how they can lead to misunderstandings.

“We need to take stock of how our unconscious thoughts influence our behavior,” Richeson said. “It is only when we bring our unconscious prejudice to the forefront that we can recognize it, confront it, and deal with it.”

Her work has been published in various scholarly journals, including Psychological Science, Nature Neuroscience, and Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, as well as appearing in popular publications such as The Economist and The New York Times. She was a visiting fellow at Stanford University’s Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity in 2004-05 and received the 2005 Louise Kidder Early Career Award from the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues.

Two-Term President

Greg Duncan

By the time he steps down in April 2011, economist Greg Duncan will have served as president for two different research societies. He will become president of the Population Association of America (PAA) in 2008 and then president of the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) from 2009 to 2011. He is Edwina S. Tarry Professor in Education and Social Policy and an IPR faculty fellow.

During his “first term” as president of the PAA, he will be in charge of organizing the PAA’s 73rd annual meeting in April 2008 in New Orleans. Duncan, who is currently vice president, has served in the organization since 1992 in various capacities, including as a member of the board of directors and the committee on population statistics.

The PAA describes itself as a “nonprofit, scientific, professional organization established to promote the improvement, advancement, and progress of the human race through research of problems related to human population.” It publishes the journal Demography and brings together more than 3,000 demographers, sociologists, economists, public health professionals, and other individuals interested in population research and education.

Then in April 2009, Duncan will become the first economist to preside over the Society for Research in Child Development, according to John Hagen, SRCD’s executive officer.  As president, he will chair the organization’s governing council and help to implement its new strategic plan.

SRCD, which was founded in 1933, is a multidisciplinary, nonprofit, professional association with a membership of approximately 5,500 researchers, practitioners, and human development professionals from more than 50 countries. The society “promotes interdisciplinary research on infant, child, and adolescent development in diverse contexts and across a life-long trajectory; fosters the exchange of information among scientists and research consumers worldwide; and fosters applications of research-based knowledge.” It produces six publications including Child Development and the Social Policy Report.

Duncan noted, “For both the PAA and SRCD, it is unusual for an economist to serve in a leadership position. I hope to bring a stronger interdisciplinary perspective into both organizations and help to promote rigorous linkages between research and policy.”

Duncan’s work covers income distribution, poverty, welfare, public housing, and mobility programs. He has studied topics as varied as the outcomes of Gautreaux families, who moved from blighted inner-city housing to suburbia; what constitutes school readiness for preschoolers; neighborhood effects; random assignment methodology; and how peer effects influence college students’ attitudes toward diversity.

Recognized as a “highly cited” researcher by the Institute for Scientific Information, Duncan has written numerous articles and publications and is the co-author or co-editor of six books, including the recently released Higher Ground: New Hope for the Working Poor and Their Children (Russell Sage Foundation, 2007), Children’s Health, the Nation’s Wealth: Assessing and Improving Child Health (National Academy Press, 2004), and The Consequences of Growing Up Poor (Russell Sage Foundation, 1997).

Duncan is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and serves on many national committees and organizations, including the interdisciplinary MacArthur Network on Family and the Economy and as chair of the Social Science and Population Studies Study Section in the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the National Institute of Aging.

See  www.northwestern.edu/ipr/people/faculty.html to learn more about Jenn Richeson and Greg Duncan.