Identity, Diversity, and Inclusion Lab
Dr. Sonia Kang | Principal Investigator
Dr. Sonia Kang holds the Canada Research Chair in Identity, Diversity, and Inclusion, and is an Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management at the University of Toronto, where she is also a Faculty Research Fellow at the Rotman School of Management’s Institute for Gender and the Economy (GATE) and Chief Scientist, Organizations in the Behavioural Economics in Action Research Centre at Rotman (BEAR). Sonia earned a PhD in Social Psychology from the University of Toronto and completed a SSHRC Post-Doctoral Fellowship at Northwestern University.
Postdoctoral Fellows & Graduate Students
Odilia Yim | Postdoctoral Fellow
Odilia Yim completed her PhD in Psychology at the University of Ottawa. Her research focuses on the social evaluations and attitudes towards ethnic minority individuals living and working in linguistically and culturally diverse contexts. Her dissertation examined the consequences of bilingualism and how language switching relates to attitudes, cultural identity, and group solidarity. Her work has demonstrated that speech practices can racialize minorities and invalidate individuals’ ethnic identity and ingroup membership, suggesting that language variation and social identity influence social judgements and impact intergroup relations and communication. Odilia’s research has centered around special and vulnerable populations, such as first- and second-generation immigrants and ethnic minority communities, with the intention to promote linguistic diversity, cultural inclusion, and better accessibility within society.
Grusha Agarwal | Ph.D. Student
Grusha Agarwal is a second-year PhD student in the Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management department (OBHRM) at Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. Her research interests revolve around investigating behavioral approaches to diversity, focusing on organizational initiatives or nudges that can challenge and disrupt existing gender/racial biases. Another line of research involves using a racial labeling framework to understand identity and inclusion. Particularly, she is interested in whether superordinate racial labels for minority groups like POC are appropriate and inclusive, and how perceptions of these labels affect prosocial and ally behaviors at the workplace.
Caren Colaco | Ph.D. Student
Caren Colaco is a first-year PhD student in the Department of Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management (OBHRM) at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. Prior to this, she earned her MA in Industrial-Organizational Psychology at the University of Guelph and a BSc in Psychology from York University. Caren's work encompasses both research and practical applications, with a focus on understanding the unique obstacles faced by traditionally marginalized workers. Specifically, she investigates the structures and processes that amplify these challenges while striving to identify effective strategies for mitigating them, drawing from an interdisciplinary and intersectional lens.
Work Study Students & Research Assistants
John Cui | Work Study Student
John is a 4th year undergraduate student at the University of Toronto who specializes in Psychology. His involvement in the IDI lab originated from hosting a PSA seminar on the intersection of organizational behaviour and psychology. In addition to the lab, John is also one of the only undergraduate students on the U of T Psychology EDI committee, and has contributed to numerous initiatives like diversifying psychology syllabi, supporting undergraduate research assistants, and creating outreach to minority high school students. During his studies, John has investigated various areas of psychology, and developed a fascination with social psychology. His specific interests range from sports and performance psychology to diversity and equity issues in organizations. He hopes to pursue the intersection between IDI issues and the performance of sports organizations, specifically highlighting how stress in the workplace can result in stress in the player.
Ayushi Singh| Work Study Student
I am a fourth-year undergraduate student at the University of Toronto currently pursuing a double major in Biology for Health Science and Psychology. My interest revolves around mental health and well-being. I am currently working on a research project to study the effect of Music Therapy to help build resiliency towards ongoing COVID-related stress cross-culturally and assist post-COVID recovery. Through my interest in such projects, I have developed an enthusiasm for performing research related to social behaviour, mental health and gender prejudice and discrimination in the workplace. My personal interests involve travelling, dancing, yoga and doing meditation. My career interest is to promote gender equality in the workplace and advocate for mental health resources for the public, especially the racialized minorities.
Bianca Yuen | Work Study Student
Bianca Yuen is a third-year undergraduate student at the University of Toronto studying Psychology and Linguistics. Her research interests revolve around questions exploring the formation of identity in different social contexts, particularly in organizational settings. Her fascination with language also prompts her to investigate and learn about the role of language in our sense of self and cultural identity, especially for minority individuals. She hopes to apply her knowledge about behavioral psychology to understand how we can better promote diversity and inclusion for individuals in both linguistically and culturally diverse contexts.
Sabrina Chan | Research Assistant
Sabrina completed her Honors Bachelor's of Science at the UofT, with a Psychology Research specialist and a Mental Health minor. At the IDI lab, she works directly with Dr. Sonia Kang. She is also part of Odilia's qualitative research on name whitening. In the clinical realm, Sabrina works as a Research Analyst at CAMH. Her research interest spans across multiple disciplines, but revolves around social cognition, clinical interventions, and EDI practices in organizations and health services. In her spare time, Sabrina enjoys doing Muay Thai, teaching children art, and having academic debates with friends and strangers.
David Fang | Research Assistant
I am a fourth-year student specializing in management. My research interests involve how identity-based factors (such as gender, culture, race etc.) can affect service perceptions and outcomes. As an extension of this interest, I completed a paper over the summer examining how service recovery outcomes can differ between different same gender vs. different gender service interactions. As well I am also interested in how we can harness behavioural science to live a more productive and fulfilling life. One of the current research topics I am investigating is how to utilize nudges to reduce phone usage. Some hobbies I indulge in during my free time are going to the gym, reading fiction and non-fiction, and cooking!
Myera Iftikhar | Research Assistant
Myera Iftikhar is a recent graduate from the University of Toronto completing a double major in psychology and management. Her involvement with IDI lab stems from her passion in social justice and in breaking down barriers for historically underrepresented groups around access to knowledge and resources. Myera’s research interests revolve around exploring nudges to influence behaviour for the recruitment and retention of minority groups, diversity dishonesty, as well as understanding mental health and burnout experienced by members of these groups. Through her coursework and experiences, she enjoys applying behavioural science towards workplaces, healthcare, and education, hoping to bridge the communication gap between research and the general public.
Fatima Khanam | Research Assistant
Fatima completed her Masters of Science in Occupational Therapy in 2021 at the University of Toronto. She completed her undergraduate degree in Psychology and Rehabilitation Services at York University, and wrote her undergraduate research paper on the effects of implicit racial biases on social interaction. Her broad interests involve investigating proactive measures to address social stigmas that affect healthcare for both provider and patient. Her career interests include improving diversity among healthcare workers and advocating against health inequities that affect low-income and BIPOC communities.
Laura Peters | Research Assistant
Laura holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Queen’s University (Class of 2021), and is currently working at an executive search and consulting firm in Toronto. Her research interests include identifying barriers to diversity and inclusion within corporate talent selection and recruitment processes, as well as broadly studying gender differences, segregation, and inclusion dynamics within the workplace. Laura is thrilled for the opportunity to contribute to research within the IDI lab which leverages behavioural insights and organizational design in creating more inclusive and diverse corporate cultures. She looks forward to a career in which she can balance her research and industry interests in implementing evidence-based D&I initiatives aimed at promoting positive individual, organizational, and societal change.
Lab Alumni
Yuxin Yan | Research Assistant
Yuxin is currently a first year Master of Information student, studying User Experience Design and Information System Design. She has graduated from the University of Toronto with a Bachelor of Science degree in 2020, specializing in psychology. She is interested in improving user's experiences when interacting with different information systems in different organizational settings, such as healthcare institutions. She hopes to improve accessibility for everyone, especially minorities and individuals with disabilities, in order to foster inclusion and diversity.
Elizabeth Chen | Research Assistant
Elizabeth Chen holds a Bachelor of Science with a Psychology Specialist and Environment and Behaviour Minor at the University of Toronto, from the Class of 2023. Elizabeth's research interests include diversity, equity, and inclusion; the impact of prejudice, discrimination, and biases; and mental health. She hopes to be able to apply psychological research to improve employees' experiences in an organizational context and promote equality and positive change. Her personal interests include environmental issues, reading, and writing.
Joyce He | Ph.D. Candidate
Joyce He is a Ph.D. candidate in Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management. Her research focuses on understanding mechanisms for the continued persistence of gender inequality in labor markets, and what organizations can do to disrupt them. In her dissertation work, she departs from approaches that aim to “fix the women” or “fix the sexists” and focuses instead on structural changes rooted in organizational design to reduce inequality. Her findings so far demonstrate that changing promotion schemes from an opt-in choice frame (requiring self-nomination) to an opt-out choice frame (applicants are automatically considered) attenuates the gender gap in application rates by increasing women’s participation, suggesting the effectiveness of “opt-out” promotions in closing the gender promotion gap in organizations. Joyce’s research has been published in Nature Human Behavior, Academy of Management Journal, and Journal of Vocational Behavior, and her work has been featured in Scientific American and Harvard Business Review. Joyce will be starting as an Assistant Professor of Management and Organizations at UCLA Anderson School of Management in July, 2021.
Juliana Luque | Research Analyst
Juliana combines her business acumen with research to assist organizations in embracing a meaningful and practical approach to DEI, redesigning the talent lifecycle, and navigating organizational transformation. Also, she is currently part of the IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Accessibility) database of practitioners for the NASA Astrophysics Division and a Program Leader of the online Executive Presence Program at Wharton School. Prior to her current role, Juliana worked at RBC and EY. Juliana holds an MBA from the University of Toronto, a master’s in engineering from Universidad de Los Andes, and a BEng in Industrial Engineering from Universidad Industrial de Santander.
Jianmeng Song | Work Study Student
Jianmeng is a Master student at University of Toronto, Institute of Medical Science. Her primary research interests are in the areas of clinical research neuroscience. In particular, she is interested in the symptoms, treatment response, medication adherence and insight of psychiatric illness such as schizophrenia. She also has previous clinical research experience in dementia and memory. She is interested in learning about various topics in psychology research.
Rameen Rashid | Research Assistant
Rameen is a third-year student specializing in Finance. She worked as a research intern for a Research and Consulting Company, from where she grew her interest in markets, equity, and macro-economics research. She enjoys learning and understanding human behaviour and believes this is essential in today's diverse world. Throughout her time at UTM, she has taken many psychology courses and has developed an interest in social psychology specifically. Her areas of research interest lie in organizational behaviour, understanding unconscious stereotypes, cultural bias, and stigmas. In particular, she wants to understand human behaviour in different circumstances and the factors that impact one's sense of belonging, productivity, and self-confidence.