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EASP – European Association of Social Psychology

Travel Grant Report by Aharon Levy

25.09.2017, by Sibylle Classen in grant report

University of Groningen, The Netherlands; EASP Meeting in Appingedam & EASP-SPSSI Meeting in Woudschoten, The Netherlands

Thanks to the travel grant from the European Association of Social Psychology I was able to attend two meetings over the summer of 2017.

The first meeting was "Understanding the Winds of Change: Psychological Processes that Change Individuals in Intergroup Conflict", organized by Dr. Martijn van Zomeren & Dr. Eran Halperin. This meeting focused on psychological change and putting related research onto the scientific agenda.

The second meeting was "To be both (and more): Immigration and identity multiplicity", organized by Dr. Fenella Fleischmann, Dr. Kay Deaux, Dr. Maykel Verkuyten & Dr. Shaun Wiley. This meeting addressed three facets of the identity issue: (a) how immigrants and their offspring define, replace, and/or combine their ethnic, national, and religious identities; (b) how citizens of the receiving country as well as members of one’s own ethnic/national group, define and accept or reject the immigrant group’s portrayals; and (c) the consequences of various patterns of identity definition for individual, interpersonal and intergroup activities.

In both meetings I got the chance to present the work we have been doing on "gateway groups" which are groups characterized by a unique social categorization which enables them to be identified with more than one group within the context of intergroup relations, as well to facilitate the relations between these groups. Our work was well received, and several possible collaborations with other European researchers have begun to take shape as a result of my attendance at these meetings.

I am grateful for these experiences, and I would like to thank the EASP and especially Sibylle Classen for all her help and positivity.