Dr. Sapna Cheryan
Department of Psychology
University of Washington
scheryan@uw.edu

Positions

Assistant Professor, University of Washington, 2007-present

Education

Ph.D., Psychology, Stanford University, June 2007
Dissertation title: Strategies of Belonging: Defending Threatenend Identities

B.A., Psychology (Honors)/American Studies (Honors), Northwestern University, Sept 1995 - June 1999

Publications

Cheryan, S., Plaut, V.C., Davies, P., & Steele, C.M. (in press). Ambient belonging: How stereotypical environments impact gender participation in computer science. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Kaiser, C.R., Drury, B.J., Spalding, K.E., Cheryan, S., & O’Brien, L.T. (2009). The ironic consequences of Obama’s election: Decreased support for social justice, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45, 556-569.

Adams, G., Edkins, V., Lacka, D., Pickett, K., & Cheryan, S. (2008). Teaching about racism: Pernicious implications of the standard portrayal, Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 30, 1-13.

Cheryan, S., & Tsai, J. L. (2006). Ethnic Identity. In F. T. Leong, A. G. Inman, A. Ebreo, L. Yang, L. Kinoshita & M. Fu (Eds.), Handbook of Asian American Psychology. Thousand Oakes, CA: Sage.

Cheryan, S., & Monin, B. (2005). Where are you really from? Asian Americans and identity denial. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 89(5), 717-730.

Cheryan, S., & Bodenhausen, G.V. (2000). When positive stereotypes threaten intellectual performance: The psychological hazards of “model minority” status. Psychological Science, 11, 399-402.

Grants & Fellowships

National Science Foundation CAREER Award, Transforming the image of computing to increase female participation in computer science, PI: Sapna Cheryan, 2009-2014, $546,017

National Science Foundation, Transforming engineering through PEERS: Building a better experience for underrepresented students, PI: Phyllis Wise, co-PIs: Eve Riskin, Joyce Yen, Sapna Cheryan, Sheryl Burgstahler, 2009-2014, $999,998

UW Royalty Research Fund, The influence of stereotypical and non-stereotypical role models on women’s interest in computer science, PI: Sapna Cheryan, 2008-2009, $38,297

UW Institute for Ethnic Studies in the United States, Identity threat: An explanation for dietary decline among second generation immigrants to the US, PI: Sapna Cheryan, 2008-2009, $10,400

Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity (CCSRE) Teaching Fellowship, Stanford University, 2006

Michelle R. Clayman Institute for Gender Research Graduate Dissertation Fellowship, Stanford University, 2006

Graduate Research Opportunities (GRO) Research Grant, Stanford University, 2006

American Psychological Association (APA) Dissertation Research Award, 2005

Norman Anderson Graduate Student Grant, Stanford University, 2005

National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Fellowship, 2000 – 2004

Departmental Teaching Award, Stanford University, 2004

Robert Byrd Scholarship, Northwestern University, 1995 – 1999

Awards

Centennial Teaching Assistant Award, Stanford University, 2006

Marjorie Lozoff Graduate Essay Prize, Institute for Research on Women and Gender, Stanford University, 2005

Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP) Travel Award, 2005

Departmental Teaching Award, Stanford University, 2004

Phi Beta Kappa, Northwestern University, 1999

William Hunt Award for Outstanding Psychological Research, Northwestern University, 1999

William Exum Writing Award, Northwestern University, 1998

Conference Presentations

Cheryan, S. (2009, April). Ambient belonging: How stereotypical cues impact gender participation in computer science. Western Psychological Association, Portland, OR.

Cheryan, S., & Monin, B. (2006, June). Where are you really from? Asian Americans and identity denial. Paper presented at the 6th Meeting of the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, Long Beach, CA.

Cheryan, S., & Monin, B. (2005, January). Where are you really from? Asian Americans and identity denial. Paper presented at the 6th Annual Meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, New Orleans, LA.

Cheryan, S., & Monin, B. (2005, January). Describing, defining, and defending “-American”: Understanding the relationship between American and ethnic identity. Symposium co-chair at the 6th Annual Meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, New Orleans, LA.

Cheryan, S., Plaut, V.C., Davies, P., & Steele, C.M. (2005, May). “I’m not a geek”: How the sociocultural representation of computer science affects women. Paper presented at the Midwestern Psychological Association (MPA) Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL.

Cheryan, S., Plaut, V.C., Davies, P., & Steele, C.M. (2004, May). Computer geeks: How the sociocultural representation of computer science majors affects women. Paper presented at the Stanford-Berkeley talks, Stanford, CA.

Cheryan, S., & Monin, B. (2003, April). Reacting to marginal group status: Asian Americans as “Perpetual Foreigners.” Paper presented at the Stanford-Berkeley talks, Berkeley, CA.

Posters

Cheryan, S., & Monin, B. (2006, January). Explaining racial inequality: The case for making structural attributions. Poster presented at the 7th Annual Meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP), Palm Springs, CA.

Cheryan, S., & Monin, B. (2004, April). Where are you really from? Asian Americans and identity denial. Paper presented at the Claremont Graduate University Symposium on Applied Social Psychology, Claremont, CA.

Cheryan, S., & Monin, B. (2004, May). Where are you really from? Asian Americans and identity denial. Poster presented at the 16 th Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Society (APS), Chicago, IL.

Cheryan, S., Plaut, V.C., & Steele, C.M. (2004, February). “I’m not a geek”: How the sociocultural representation of computer science affects women. Poster presented at the 5 th Annual Meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP), Austin, TX.

Cheryan, S. & Monin, B. (2003, February). In-group Rejection: Asian Americans and the “Perpetual Foreigner" Stereotype. Poster presented at the 4th Annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP), Universal City, CA.

Plaut, V.C., Cheryan, S., Rios, K. & Steele, C.M. (2003, February). Diversifying sociocultural representations of computer science to increase women’s participation. Poster presented at the 4th Annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP), Universal City, CA.

Professional Experience

User Research Intern, Adobe Systems Inc., San Jose, CA, 2002 - 2007

Statistical Consultant, HopeLab, Palo Alto, CA, 2003 - 2006

Management Consultant, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Bethesda, MD, 1999 - 2001

Research Assistant, Dr. Renee Baillargeon, Infant Cognition Lab, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL. Summer 1996

Research Assistant, Dr. Dov Cohen, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL. Summer 1997

Professional Affiliations

Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP)

American Psychological Society (APS)

American Psychological Association (APA)

Midwestern Psychological Association (MPA)