Heritage Dissertation Research Award

Each year, SPSP intends to award 6 grants of $2,000 each. At least two grants will be in personality psychology and at least two grants will be in social psychology. The Heritage Dissertation Awards are intended to provide assistance with the costs of conducting dissertation research in social and personality psychology.

Award Info

About the Award

This year’s recipients

Sharlene Fernandes, Georgia State University

Sharlene Fernandes is currently a PhD candidate at Dr. Eyal Aharoni’s Lab at Georgia State University. Sharlene is primarily interested in studying moral decision-making. Specifically, Sharlene's research aims to uncover how people with higher levels of antisocial traits make moral judgments and its impact on criminal behavior and punishment during economic transactions.

Katherine Lawson, University of California, Davis

Katherine (“Kailey”) M. Lawson is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Davis. She studies the nature, development, and assessment of personality traits during adolescence and emerging adulthood as well as associations between personality and life outcomes. Kailey is passionate about teaching and mentoring.

Brenda Straka, Duke University

Brenda Straka is a 5th year doctoral student in social psychology at Duke University. Broadly, her research explores the dynamics between social exclusion, social identity, and group membership. Her dissertation work investigates how exclusion may catalyze reconceptualization about collective identification to self-relevant groups for biracial and bicultural people.

Sze Yuh Nina Wang, University of Toronto

Nina Wang is a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto who is interested in moral and political psychology. She uses computational social science techniques like language analysis to study moralization and political polarization.

About the Heritage Initiative

The Heritage Initiative acknowledges personality and social psychology's rich heritage by honoring some of the great teachers and scientists who have made major contributions to the field. In doing so, the Initiative is aimed at ensuring the field’s future by assisting its next generation of scholars. The Heritage Dissertation Research Awards are the direct result of funds raised in honor of some of our fields’ leading luminaries.

view the heritage wall of fame

Eligibility

Requirements

Applicants must be graduate students in personality and/or social psychology in good standing with their university. Applicants must be enrolled full-time (or working on their dissertation research for an equivalent of full-time enrollment regardless of actual registration status).
Applicants must be student members of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology at the time they apply for the award.
Applicants must have had their dissertation proposals approved by their dissertation committees prior to application with an expected defense date no earlier than December of the application year.
Each department may endorse no more than two (2) students per year for the Heritage Dissertation Research Award. If more than two students from a department wish to apply for these funds, the department should perform an initial screening and choose only two applications for submission.
Applicants must not have previously received a Heritage Dissertation Research Award.
The dissertation research may be in any area of social or personality psychology.

How to Apply

Submission Criteria

Abstract of the dissertation proposal, not more than two pages long, single-spaced (not including references) and up to one Table or Figure.
Curriculum vitae including scientific publications, presentations, research and teaching experience.
Paragraph describing how the funds will be used to support their research. Funds can be used for research-related expenses such as participant fees, equipment, research supplies, or specialized programming. Funds may NOT be used to buy a computer, overhead, administrative support, or conference travel.
A letter of recommendation from the applicant’s academic advisor is required to complete the application process. Please note that this letter has a maximum length of (1) page, single-spaced. Please communicate to the faculty member who will write your recommendation letter the importance of adhering to this maximum page limit. In addition, please do not submit more than one letter of recommendation; only one will be forwarded for review. The letter writer will submit his/her letter on-line and The letter must also verify the following information:

the applicant is in good standing in his or her program.
the proposal has been approved by the applicant’s committee (or the equivalent designation for the Ph.D. program).
the date the student is expected to complete the dissertation.
a statement indicating that the funds are needed to complete the research.

How to Submit

apply here

The application period is February 20 - April 20.

Past Recipients

2020

Adriana Germano, University of Washington

Arvin Jagayat, Ryerson University

Isidro Landa, Washington University in St. Louis

Katharine Scott, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Stephanie Cardenas, John Jay College of Criminal Justice

Thomas Costello, Emory University

2019

Daniel Albohn, The Pennsylvania State University

Analia Albuja, Rutgers University

Katie E. Garrison, Texas A&M University

Eva-Maria Stelzer, The University of Arizona

Sanaz Talaifar, The University of Texas at Austin

Katherine Zee, Columbia University

2018

R. Thora Bjornsdottir, University of Glasgow

Katharina Block, University of British Columbia

Kimberly Chaney, Rutgers University

Maya Rossignac-Milon, Columbia University

Kate Turetsky, Columbia University

2017

Olivia Atherton, University of California, Davis

Andrew G. Christy, Texas A&M University

Jason Deska, Miami University

Franki Kung, University of Waterloo

Randi Proffitt Leyva, Texas Christian University

Chelsea Schein, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Haran Sened, Bar Ilan University

Vivian P. Ta, University of Texas at Arlington

Sarah Ward, University of Missouri

Marika Yip-Bannicq, New York University

2016

William Brady, New York University

Kassandra Cortes, University of Waterloo

Brittany Jakubiak, Carnegie Mellon University

Jinhyung Kim, Texas A&M University

Yeonjeong Kim, Carnegie Mellon University

Erin Westgate, University of Virginia

Ashley Whillans, The University of British Columbia

2015

Jeffrey Bowen, University of California, Santa Barbara

David Chester, University of Kentucky

Allison Farrell, University of Minnesota

Nicole Lawless DesJardins, University of Oregon

Chadly Stern, New York University

Konstantin Tskhay, University of Toronto

2014

Alyssa Croft, University of British Columbia

Patrick Forscher, University of Wisconsin

Nathan Hudson, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Contact

For more information, please contact awards@spsp.org

Share this page