Departmental Research

Graham Berlin (external link) researches gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (GBM) with a current focus on the effects of minority stress on mental health, sexual behaviour and methamphetamine use.

Dr. Becky Choma studies ideology and intergroup relations, including Islamophobia, predictors and impact of skin bleaching behaviour, social justice comedy and intergroup contact as strategies for prejudice reduction, and collective action.

Dr. Jason Deska’s (external link) research investigates how the impressions people form of others based on their social category memberships and physical features result in discriminatory and dehumanizing judgments that both produce and sustain inequality.
Dr. Maria Gurevich’s research examines the ways that popular and scientific discourses about sexuality intersect with people’s everyday experiences, with negotiation of sexual (im)possibilities and (dis)pleasures at the core. Adopting feminist poststructuralist and intersectional approaches, this work interrogates normative assumptions about sexual health, agency, desire, and relationship conduct, based on privilege, power, and access.

Deanna Klymkiw’s dissertation explores the mental health and integrated service preferences of justice-involved youth and their caregivers, including examining the importance placed on service sensitivity to culture, and choice in the cultural background of a service provider, when choosing their care.
Dr. Sarah Dermody’s research focuses on identifying and understanding individual differences in risk factors, consequences, and treatment outcomes related to alcohol and tobacco use. This work has primarily focused on the influences of sexual and gender identities, but also considers intersecting identities (for instance intersection of race and sexual identity).
In collaboration with Dr. Julian Hasford from the School of Child and Youth Care, Dr. David Day, Amy Beaudry, and Arla Good (external link) are examining issues of racial disparities and anti-black racism affecting youth involved in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems (i.e. crossover youth).
Menahal Latif’s master’s thesis investigates the face parts necessary for the recognition of faces that vary in both familiarity and race. It focuses on the differential recognition of Black and White familiar and unfamiliar faces and explores the perceptual own-race advantage known as the other-race effect (ORE).

Olivia Provost-Walker's (external link) dissertation examines the role of context in the experience of social anxiety disorder (SAD) in Black women, whose intersectional experiences are not reflected in current research. It also focuses on Black women's experiences of stereotypes, gendered racism, and gendered racial identity strengths which may strengthen or buffer social anxiety.

Dr. Lixia Yang, the director of the Cognitive Aging laboratory, is interested in understanding cognition and psychosocial wellbeing from a lens of culture. For example, one of her on-going projects examines acculturation of older Chinese immigrants and its impact on their social engagement and psychological well-being (i.e., Cross the Cultural Bridge, CCB project). Additionally, she is also assessing the psychological impacts of the COVID-19 on Chinese immigrant population in Canada.

In the Stress and Healthy Aging Research (StAR) Lab, Vivian Huang’s dissertation examines the relationship between filial piety and well-being among Chinese Canadian immigrants and the moderating role of acculturation and living arrangement. Dr. Fiocco’s recent ongoing work in mindfulness meditation explores the benefits of mindfulness training for older adult Canadian immigrants (project on hold due to COVID-19).