Sylvia Perry

During her year as a research affiliate, Sylvia Perry will co-direct the CASBS Summer Institute on Diversity, which successfully launched its inaugural class in the summer of 2023. The CASBS Summer Institute focuses on understanding when, how, and why difference makes a difference in the social sciences. By fostering collaboration, providing support within an academic community, and offering professional development opportunities, the Institute aims to empower early career scholars from underrepresented backgrounds in higher education. Perry will spend the year further developing and implementing the Institute's initiatives centered on diversity. Her research is situated at the intersection of social, developmental, and health psychology, and she investigates how racial bias awareness develops, and the implications of bias awareness for prejudice reduction, intergroup contact, and health disparities. Specifically, her work answers questions such as (1) To what extent do norms around admitting and discussing racism contribute to anti-racism? and (2) How does White parental racial socialization shape the development of their children’s attitudes and behaviors toward Black individuals? Perry is an associate professor of psychology and an Institute for Policy Research faculty fellow at Northwestern University. Her work has been published in top journals such as the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Social Science and Medicine, and Developmental Psychology. Perry is the recipient of the Society fo­r Personality and Social Psychology's SAGE Young Scholar Award (2020) and the Ann L. Brown Award for excellence in developmental research (2024). Perry was the 2022-23 SAGE Sara Miller McCune CASBS Fellow.