Faculty, Fellows, & Graduate Students

Jennifer A. Richeson, PhD

Jennifer A. Richeson is the Philip R. Allen  Professor of Psychology at Yale University and Director of the Social Perception and Communication Lab. She received a Bachelor of Science in psychology from Brown University, and both an MA and PhD in social psychology from Harvard University. Prior to joining the Yale faculty in 2016, she was the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Professor of Psychology at Northwestern University, where she was also a Faculty Fellow at the Institute for Policy Research. Through her research & teaching, Professor Richeson seeks to identify ways to create cohesive  environments that are also culturally diverse. Outside of lab, professor Richeson enjoys running about with her dog, Midas, playing most word & card games, but would almost always rather be at the beach.
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Hyeonjin Bak, PhD
Hyeonjin is a Postdoctoral Associate in the SPCL. She received her PhD in social psychology from the University of Virginia, working with Dr. Sophie Trawalter, and her BA in psychology from the University of Minnesota. In her research, Hyeonjin seeks to understand why and when people engage in discriminatory behaviors and identify ways to reduce intergroup biases and conflicts. In her free time, she enjoys watching sports and trying out a new cocktail recipe.

Xanni Brown

Xanni is a sixth year PhD candidate in the SPCL. Her main work explores psychological and behavioral reactions to the prospect of increasing diversity, with a focus on racial group status threat and its downstream consequences. Some of her other work focuses on the impact of racially stereotyped mascots on campus belonging, on confronting biased behavior, and on the consequences for accountability of attributing discriminatory behavior to implicit (vs explicit) bias. Her non-research interests include campaign finance reform, bicycle touring, and rugby.

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Ajua Duker

Ajua is a sixth-year PhD candidate in the SPCL. Her primary line of research examnes and tests how different emotion regulation strategies used in other psychological contexts can help members of marginalized groups adaptively cope with discrimination experiences, without dampening the affective fuel necessary to advocate for social change and engage in collective action. In her free time, she enjoys ballet and contemporary dance, music, going to art museums, and taking long walks.

[cv email]

Enya Kuo

Enya is a second-year doctoral student in the SPCL, social psychology program and is broadly interested in intergroup relations and political psychology in racially diverse contexts. She received her B.A. in psychology and political science from UCLA in 2019. Enya enjoys paintball and comedy.

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Alannah Caillat

Alannah is a Postgraduate Associate in the SPCL. She graduated in 2021 from Yale College with a B.S. in Psychology, where her research focused on intragroup discrimination and identity policing within the queer community. She is pursuing an MPH at the Yale School of Public Health in the Social and Behavioral Science Department, to study how structural stigma affects the physical and mental health of sexual and racial minorities. Ultimately, her goal is to learn more about the mechanisms underlying prejudice to help identify interventions that can motivate compassion and understanding. Outside of the lab, she loves spending time with her dog, going to trivia nights, and writing poetry.

Brittany Torrez

Brittany is a fifth year graduate student in Organizational Behavior at the Yale School of Management. Her current research examines the psychological processes and organizational practices that reproduce racial inequality in the workplace. Brittany did her undergraduate training at Stanford University where she majored in psychology before working as a lab manager at the USC’s Marshall School of Business. When Brittany is not conducting research, she enjoys going to the beach, cooking, and cuddling with her dog, Chalupa.

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