Iván Cano-Gomez

Postdoctoral Research Associate, NYUAD

September 2019 - Present

Iván is a Postdoctoral Associate in the Division of Science (Psychology) at New York University Abu Dhabi. His research examines how inequality and social policy design shape psychological functioning, focusing on status-related appraisals and the physiological embedding of marginalisation. He studies policy levers and their potential to enhance perceived control, social worth and belonging, particularly in contexts of economic disadvantage. He completed his PhD in Psychological and Behavioural Science at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), after postgraduate study at the University of Oxford (MSc in Evidence-Based Social Intervention and Policy Evaluation) and the Autonomous University of Madrid (MSc in Psychosocial and Community Intervention).

Vukašin Gligorić

Postdoctoral Research Associate, NYUAD

May 2025 - Present

Vukašin Gligorić (1995) is a Political and Social Psychologist working as a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of Psychology at NYU Abu Dhabi. His research examines political ideology and related belief systems (such as religious or conspiracy worldviews), intra- and intergroup relations (including stereotypes and prejudice), and public perceptions of scientists and science. He is particularly interested in how overarching societal structures—such as neocolonialism and neoliberalism—shape these psychological and social processes. To address these questions, he draws on broader frameworks including world-systems theory, decoloniality, and neo-Marxist approaches, often through large-scale cross-country studies. He received his BSc from the University of Belgrade (Serbia) and his MSc (link) and PhD (link) from the University of Amsterdam (Netherlands). His work has been published in journals such as Nature Human Behavior, Social Psychological and Personality Science, and the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.

Sabrina Paiwand

PhD Student, LSE

April 2021 - Present

Sabrina is a PhD candidate in Psychological and Behavioral Science at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), supervised by Jennifer. She holds the ‘Analysing and Challenging Inequalities’ studentship awarded by the LSE’s International Inequalities Institute.

Sabrina investigates political imagination in the context of contemporary social discourses of depoliticization, de-democratization, and hyper-individualism and inequality in Chile and the United Kingdom. Sabrina is working on projects related to measurement methodology, the evaluation of existing scales, and the development of a new scale to measure contemporary forms of subjectivity.

Sabrina holds an MSc in Social and Cultural Psychology from the LSE. Before joining the PhD program, Sabrina worked as a social worker and interpreter in the German asylum system, an evaluation manager at a UK funder, and a data consultant in London. Currently, Sabrina works with evaluation research teams on racially equitable research approaches.

Sondos Eatamadi

Junior Research Scientist and Lab Manager

May 2025 - Present

Sondos graduated from NYUAD with a BA in Psychology, and a MSc in Work and Organizational Psychology from the University of Nottingham. Her research background explores the intersection between Muslim religious identity and well-being, focusing on how religious mechanisms promote wellbeing and workplace behaviors. She currently supports the lab with research projects such as the WeAreNYUAD Survey, and has previously assisted with research investigating the links between social attitudes and behaviour in social games.

Before joining the lab, Sondos supported the wider Abu Dhabi community by developing and coordinating programs focused on improving senior and patient wellbeing through community engagement and volunteering opportunities, as well organizing the second Colorism symposium to explore the implications of skin color and its intersections with structural and systemic discrimination.

Shamsa Alghfeli

Capstone Student, Spring 2026 - Spring 2027

Class of 2027, NYUAD

Shamsa is a junior majoring in Psychology. She is interested in how environmental and structural conditions shape health and behavior from a public health perspective. Her interests focus on how conditions of scarcity, including food insecurity, conflict, and economic instability, influence attention, decision-making, and social behavior. She is especially interested in understanding these patterns as responses to constraint, where behavior reflects shifting priorities rather than reduced ability.

Sofia Lopez

Capstone Student, Spring 2026 - Spring 2027

Class of 2027, NYUAD

Sofia is a junior majoring in Psychology, planning to specialize in Brain and Cognitive Sciences. She is double minoring in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Studies, and Visual Arts. She's passionate about studying how compassion shows up and is fostered in different social groups, as well as when people attribute blame for economic status and individual success, as opposed to empathy. She cares particularly about comparing these factors and what drives them in different cultural contexts, particularly Mexico and the United States.