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Minds on Social groups and Identity Cognition Lab @uiucmosaiclab.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

The MOSAIC Lab is pleased to announce that Dr. Straka will be giving a talk for the Racial Hierarchy Maintenance at Structural, Organizational, and Interpersonal Levels symposium at SPSP! See you in Philadelphia! ✈️

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Minds on Social groups and Identity Cognition Lab @uiucmosaiclab.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

Summer 2026 Lab Outing ☀️ Took a break from research with a game of bowling! 🎳

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Minds on Social groups and Identity Cognition Lab @uiucmosaiclab.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

Congratulations to Sarah for presenting her poster at the Black Graduate Conference in Psychology (BGCP)! The BGCP provides students with a supportive environment to present their research, gain professional development experiences, and network with their fellow graduate students and faculty.

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Minds on Social groups and Identity Cognition Lab @uiucmosaiclab.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

📣That’s a wrap! The spring semester has come to an end, and our senior RA, Miranda, finished her last poster presentation at the Psychology Senior Honors and Capstone Poster Fair!👏 To celebrate all of our hard work this year, we had a fun outing at Jupiter's Pizzeria & Billiards! 🍕

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Minds on Social groups and Identity Cognition Lab @uiucmosaiclab.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

The semester may be coming to an end, but the research never stops! Here are our amazing RAs presenting their work at the Undergraduate Research Symposium 👏

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Minds on Social groups and Identity Cognition Lab @uiucmosaiclab.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

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

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Minds on Social groups and Identity Cognition Lab @uiucmosaiclab.bsky.social · 13/04/2026

📣 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!

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Minds on Social groups and Identity Cognition Lab @uiucmosaiclab.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

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

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Minds on Social groups and Identity Cognition Lab @uiucmosaiclab.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

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!

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Minds on Social groups and Identity Cognition Lab @uiucmosaiclab.bsky.social · 02/03/2026

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!

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Minds on Social groups and Identity Cognition Lab @uiucmosaiclab.bsky.social · 28/02/2026

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

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Minds on Social groups and Identity Cognition Lab @uiucmosaiclab.bsky.social · 28/02/2026

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

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Minds on Social groups and Identity Cognition Lab @uiucmosaiclab.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

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.

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Minds on Social groups and Identity Cognition Lab @uiucmosaiclab.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

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/...

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Minds on Social groups and Identity Cognition Lab @uiucmosaiclab.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

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! 🎖️

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Minds on Social groups and Identity Cognition Lab @uiucmosaiclab.bsky.social · 09/01/2026

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.

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Minds on Social groups and Identity Cognition Lab @uiucmosaiclab.bsky.social · 27/11/2025

🦃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!

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Tim (Wei-Ting) Chao @timchao.bsky.social · 15/11/2025

"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!

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Minds on Social groups and Identity Cognition Lab @uiucmosaiclab.bsky.social · 14/11/2025

📣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!

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Minds on Social groups and Identity Cognition Lab @uiucmosaiclab.bsky.social · 03/11/2025

📣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!👩‍🏫

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Minds on Social groups and Identity Cognition Lab @uiucmosaiclab.bsky.social · 13/10/2025

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!

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Minds on Social groups and Identity Cognition Lab @uiucmosaiclab.bsky.social · 06/10/2025

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!

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Minds on Social groups and Identity Cognition Lab @uiucmosaiclab.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

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.

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Minds on Social groups and Identity Cognition Lab @uiucmosaiclab.bsky.social · 26/09/2025

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...

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Minds on Social groups and Identity Cognition Lab @uiucmosaiclab.bsky.social · 15/09/2025

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.

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Minds on Social groups and Identity Cognition Lab @uiucmosaiclab.bsky.social · 15/09/2025

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.

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Minds on Social groups and Identity Cognition Lab @uiucmosaiclab.bsky.social · 29/08/2025

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.

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Minds on Social groups and Identity Cognition Lab @uiucmosaiclab.bsky.social · 23/08/2025

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.

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Minds on Social groups and Identity Cognition Lab @uiucmosaiclab.bsky.social · 16/08/2025

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! 🎉

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Minds on Social groups and Identity Cognition Lab @uiucmosaiclab.bsky.social · 14/08/2025

Summer 2025 Lab Outing 😎 Took a short break from the heat with Jarling’s! 🍦

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Minds on Social groups and Identity Cognition Lab @uiucmosaiclab.bsky.social · 07/08/2025

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! ❤️

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Minds on Social groups and Identity Cognition Lab @uiucmosaiclab.bsky.social · 24/07/2025

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/

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Minds on Social groups and Identity Cognition Lab @uiucmosaiclab.bsky.social · 27/06/2025

More post graduation news! 🥳Congratulations to Sherlock continuing her academic career in the PhD program in Personality and Social Context Psychology at the University of Michigan this fall! Sherlock was integral to building the MOSAIC lab and we are so excited to follow her academic journey! 🌟

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Minds on Social groups and Identity Cognition Lab @uiucmosaiclab.bsky.social · 06/06/2025

Post Graduation Announcement! 👩‍🎓Huge congratulations to Isabela who will be continuing her academic journey this fall at The Ohio State University pursuing a PhD in Social Psychology ✨ Isabela has been with the MOSAIC lab since the start and she is now off to do more amazing work! #psychology

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Minds on Social groups and Identity Cognition Lab @uiucmosaiclab.bsky.social · 24/05/2025

Congratulations to our incredible students who graduated last weekend! Sherlock graduated from the MSPS program and Seniors Heaven, Teresa, Lilian, Abir, and Isabella all graduated with honors! 🥳 💙🧡

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Minds on Social groups and Identity Cognition Lab @uiucmosaiclab.bsky.social · 10/05/2025

🎉 Happy last week of instruction! Spring 2025 has been a busy semester for MOSAIC Lab, wrapped up beautifully with Senior Student Research Fair and our graduate students’ Creative Research Zine! We’re proud of all the hard work that went into this semester-can’t wait to share more cool science!

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Minds on Social groups and Identity Cognition Lab @uiucmosaiclab.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

🎉 Congratulations to Bryana for being accepted into the TRIO McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program! She will continue working with Dr. Brenda Straka on her independent project, “Exploring Social Exclusion Among Students from Low SES Backgrounds.” 👏✨ #uiuc #socialpsych #uiucmosaiclab

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Minds on Social groups and Identity Cognition Lab @uiucmosaiclab.bsky.social · 02/05/2025

🎉 Big congratulations to our Capstone students for completing their theses and presenting their work at the Undergraduate Research Symposium! Your year-long dedication and hard work have officially come to a close, and we couldn’t be prouder of all you’ve accomplished. 💫👏 #uiuc #socialpsychology

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Minds on Social groups and Identity Cognition Lab @uiucmosaiclab.bsky.social · 22/04/2025

Welcome to the MOSAIC Lab, Sarah O! 🌟 Sarah is a first-year Ph.D. student in Social Psychology at UIUC. She earned her M.A. in Educational Measurement & Statistics and her B.S. in Psychology, with a certificate in Resilience and Trauma-Informed Perspectives, from the University of Iowa.

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Dr. Brenda Straka @brendacstraka.bsky.social · 15/04/2025

@uiucmosaiclab.bsky.social took over #MPA25 this year! So proud of these incredible students 🤩

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Minds on Social groups and Identity Cognition Lab @uiucmosaiclab.bsky.social · 15/04/2025

MOSAIC Lab took over #MPA25 this past weekend! Lilian, Teresa, Abir, and Isabela all presented their Capstone projects they have been working on over this past year, amazing!

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Minds on Social groups and Identity Cognition Lab @uiucmosaiclab.bsky.social · 04/04/2025

🎉 Big congratulations to our graduate student, Sherlock Liu, for receiving the 2025 MPA Diversity Travel Award! MOSAIC Lab is excited to be part of MPA—don’t miss presentations from incredible PI, graduate student, and undergraduate researchers! Come support and celebrate all the amazing work!

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Minds on Social groups and Identity Cognition Lab @uiucmosaiclab.bsky.social · 03/04/2025

Hello and welcome to the MOSAIC Lab! 👋 We're here to explore the experiences of historically underrepresented populations regarding belonging, social exclusion, and group-based social identities. Follow us on this journey of discovery! More info on our lab website: publish.illinois.edu/mosaic-lab/

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