November 7, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Andrea Nash
Cal Poly Women's & Gender Studies Department
805-756-1525; womst@calpoly.edu
How Viewing Race Affects the Meaning of Race
Is Topic of Nov. 19 Talk at Cal Poly
SAN LUIS OBISPO – Cal Poly psychology professor Julie Garcia will present "Bi-racial Identity in Context: How Viewing Race as a Social Construction Affects the Daily Meaning of Race" from noon to 1 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 19, in Room 104 in the Graphic Arts Building on campus.
In her talk, Garcia will discuss what situational cues lead people to feel good about themselves. Some research suggests that the number of other racially similar people in any given moment affects feelings of belonging and positive well-being, according to Garcia. “But what happens to the notion of ‘racially similar others’ for a biracial individual?”
Garcia will examine how viewing race as a social construction shapes daily responses to racial context among biracial people and how it affects the well-being among biracial participants.
Her findings illustrate that biracial people who view race as a social construction have higher daily well-being and are less affected by the racial composition of their social contexts. Although multiracial people who do not see race as a social construction show better well-being when around racially similar others.
Garcia’s research has been funded by an NSF Predoctoral Fellowship, a Ford Dissertation Fellowship, an NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship, a State Faculty Support Research Grant, and an Extramural Funding Initiative Grant.
She earned a Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Michigan in 2005. Before coming to Cal Poly, she held a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University.
The free public talk is sponsored by Cal Poly’s Women's & Gender Studies Department and the College of Liberal Arts. For more information, contact the Cal Poly Women's & Gender Studies Department, 756-1525, e-mail womst@calpoly.edu or go online to http://cla.calpoly.edu/wgs/.
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