✨A recap of the MOSAIC Lab at MPA! Our amazing students did a wonderful job on their presentations!👏

📣 The MOSAIC Lab will be presenting at MPA 2026 in Chicago! The annual convention will be held from April 16th-19th. Be sure to check out everyone’s hard work!

Congratulations to our PhD student, Sarah, for receiving funding from the Psychology Department to go towards her conference travel expenses! 🎉👏

A fun mid-semester lab outing at Mia Za’s! 🍕🍝

Congratulations to our undergraduate RA, Bryana, for receiving the Laura Bolton Research Development Scholarship! 👏🎉

This award provides financial support for undergraduate students engaging in Psychology research over the summer!

Demographic forms can undermine a sense of belonging in Latino Americans The way Latino Americans' identity is represented on demographic forms can undermine their fundamental sense of belonging in the U.S., says new research. Across four experiments that surveyed more tha...

Check out this news article on our latest published paper!

phys.org/news/2026-02...

SPSP Day 2-3: Teresa presented her poster on “The Discriminatory Experiences of Transgender Women of Color vs Other Multiple Marginalized Women”, and Sarah presented her poster on “The Embodied Consequences of Identity Denial.”

Another great year at SPSP!

MOSAIC lab representing at @spspnews.bsky.social preconferences! Sarah presented on the generalizability of minimal groups and Sherlock showcased her racialized emojis project!

MOSAIC lab representing at @spspnews.bsky.social preconferences! Sarah presented on the generalizability of minimal groups and Sherlock showcased her racialized emojis project!

Congratulations to our undergraduate RA, Miranda, for receiving the Conference Travel Grant! 👏🎉

This grant is awarded to students to help subsidize the cost of presenting their research at in-person and virtual professional conferences.

Check out this news article on our recent published paper!
news.illinois.edu/study-demogr...

Great news! 📣
In a new PSPB paper, we find that the way demographic forms structure race and ethnicity questions can meaningfully affect belonging, identity threat, and perceptions of inclusion among Latine Americans.
Read more here: journals-sagepub-com.proxy2.library.illinois.edu/doi/10.1177/...

Congratulations to our lab alumna, Sherlock Liu, for winning SPSP Graduate Student Poster Award!

This award is given to only 5 graduate students annually and recognizes their excellence in research! 🎖️

Congratulations to our PhD student, Sarah Osaro, for receiving the Clara Mayo Grant from SPSSI!

Sarah's research investigates whether experiences of identity denial among Multiracial people shape individuals' attitudes toward their own observable physical features.

🦃Happy Thanksgiving from the MOSAIC Lab!
The MOSAIC Lab is currently on fall break, but we want to wish everyone a safe and warm holiday! 🍂
PS Here’s a photo taken from our joint lab meetup at Curtis Orchard with the TREE Lab!

"AI-Faces by Illinois" include 1,152 AI-generated images of children by age (3-15), gender, eight racial background, and emotion (smile, angry, sad). Images (osf.io/vurm5/) and Preprint available(doi.org/10.31234/osf...) with @brendacstraka.bsky.social and @Dr. Michael Rizzo!

📣The MOSAIC Lab is excited to announce that two of our lab alumni will be presenting their posters at SPSP 2026 in Chicago! The annual convention will be held on Feb 26-28th. Be sure to attend their posters!

📣The MOSAIC Lab is excited to announce that Sarah and Teresa will be presenting their posters at SPSP 2026 in Chicago! The annual convention will be held on Feb 26-28th. Be sure to attend their posters!👩‍🏫

Undergraduate RA spotlight! ✨ Bryana is a junior, double majoring in Clinical/Community Psychology and Spanish with a minor in Adult Development. Bryana hopes to attend graduate school and obtain a PhD in clinical psychology!

Undergraduate RA spotlight! Miranda is a senior majoring in Clinical-Community Psychology with a double minor in Criminology and Social Work. After undergrad, Miranda plans to go to graduate school to obtain a doctorate in Forensic Psychology!

Undergraduate RA Spotlight! ✨ Isabella is a senior majoring in Psychology (with a concentration in Clinical-Community) and minoring in Latino/a Studies. She is interested in topics like nature vs. nurture, attachment styles, relationships, and the development of children’s personalities.

Congratulations to Dr. Straka and her fellow team members for winning the SPSP Award for Distinguished Service to the Society! 🎊 🎉
The Equity and Antiracism Task Force and Its Descendants created a mentoring toolkit to reduce racism in mentorship. More information here: spsp.org/about/divers...

New undergraduate RA spotlight! Lauren is a senior majoring in Developmental Psychology and minoring in Criminology, Law, & Society. She is exploring various interests in identity formation, group behavior, ethics and morality, forensic osteology, and criminology.

New undergraduate RA spotlight! NyJae is a junior majoring in Intradisciplinary Psychology. She is interested in how concepts like stereotype threat and pluralistic ignorance shape minority experiences and contribute to disparities in education, work, and daily life.

Welcome back to campus! As we finish off the first week of school, we would like to introduce our new lab manager, Teresa!

Her research interest focuses on the discriminatory experiences of queers of color and how their intersecting identities shape how they navigate such discrimination.

A glimpse of Dr. Straka’s talk at the 2025 New England Future Faculty Workshop! This was a virtual conference to help postdoctoral fellows and later-stage graduate students prepare for a faculty position in STEM, Health Sciences, and Social Sciences and Humanities.

It's time to say goodbye to our two amazing team members, Sherlock and Isabela.

Sherlock will be starting her PhD at the University of Michigan and Isabela will be starting her PhD at The Ohio State University!

Congratulations again to the both of you! 🎉

Summer 2025 Lab Outing 😎

Took a short break from the heat with Jarling’s! 🍦

Happy Graduation! 🎊 Huge congratulations to Heaven who will be continuing her academic journey this fall at the University of Illinois in Chicago pursuing a Master's in Social Work! Heaven was one of the first members of our team and we will surely miss her! ❤️

New paper alert! 🚨 With our collaborators at Duke, this article reviews the structure, availability, and quality of peer mental health support programs available across different U.S. college and universities. pubmed-ncbi-nlm-nih-gov.proxy2.library.illinois.edu/40659550/