Iseul Cha-Ju

Iseul Cha-Ju is a second-year graduate student in the Social Psychology Ph.D. program at Northwestern University under the mentorship of Dr. Sylvia Perry. They received their BA from the University of California, Irvine in psychological science and minored in gender & sexuality studies. They are interested in studying racial socialization processes and their influences on identity and bias development among racially minoritized populations in the U.S. They are particularly interested in examining race-related conversation practices amongst Asian American caregivers, and their influences on youth racial identity and intergroup attitude development.

Iseul is originally from Los Angeles, California. In their free time they enjoy watching movies, collecting movie stub tickets and cassette tapes, and reading graphic novels and comics. They also enjoy journaling, playing the guitar, and dabbling in photography.

Jonathan Doriscar  📧 (CV)

Jonathan Doriscar is a fourth-year graduate student in the Social Psychology Ph.D. program and a master’s student in Statistics and Data Science at Northwestern University under the co-mentorship of  Dr. Sylvia Perry and Dr. Wendi Gardner. He received his BA from Knox College in psychology and minored in composition & rhetoric. Jonathan utilizes both experimental and computational approaches (i.e., NLP, Machine Learning) to understand cultural change at varying societal levels (e.g., micro, meso, and macro). He is particularly interested in understanding the antecedents (i.e., barriers & facilitators) and outcomes of change cultures (e.g., Police reform).

He is a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow and an Edward Bouchet Graduate Honor Society Scholar. He has received funding from several organizations such as the American Psychological Association, the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, the Midwestern Psychological Association, and Northwestern University’s Institute for Policy Research. He has published his work in several journals such as the Annual Review of Psychology, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, The Journal of Psychology, and Nature Energy.

Jonathan is originally from Miami, Florida, and in his free time, he enjoys watching anime, South Korean TV shows & movies, and reality TV with friends. He also enjoys playing video games and spending time with his curious cat Luna.

Amaya Mitchell

Amaya Mitchell is a fourth-year doctoral student whose research examines how racial hierarchies and broader systems of oppression shape the dynamics of close relationships. Her work examines how racism and racialized stereotypes are reproduced in romantic partnerships through intergroup processes and person perception, all operating within enduring structures of power. Grounded in critical theories, her research explores the psychological mechanisms underlying phenomena like racialized attraction, romantic preferences, and the instrumentalization of people of color in relational life. She uses experimental, survey-based, and reflexive qualitative methods to inform theory and develop applied strategies for dismantling inequality in systems of social and emotional intimacy.

Daniel Sanji

Daniel Sanji is a second-year graduate student in the Social Psychology Ph.D. program mentored by Dr. Michael Kraus and Dr. Sylvia Perry. He received his BS in Psychology and History with a minor in Asian American Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2022. Prior to matriculating into graduate school, Daniel spent two transformative years as Dr. Sa-kiera Hudson’s inaugural lab manager at the University of California, Berkeley. Daniel researches how non-prototypical minority groups (e.g., Asian Americans, multiracial individuals, nonbinary individuals) perceive stereotypes about themselves, how others perceive these stereotypes, and how these perceptions interact to influence intergroup relations (e.g., conflict and solidarity, collective action, political behavior) and identity development. He received the National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) award (2024) for his project, Ambivalent stereotypes of Asian Americans and their hierarchy-enhancing function in US society.

Daniel is originally from the northwest suburbs of Chicago, Illinois. In his free time, Daniel enjoys cooking Japanese comfort food, weightlifting, and collecting small knick knacks to display in his apartment. He also enjoys drawing, going to concerts, and engaging with the Midwestern Japanese American (nikkei) and Asian American communities.