Jonathan Mendel

I am currently completing an honours degree with Dr. Stephen Wright and his Making Ends Meat Poverty Simulator study. I am working closely with Odilia Dys-Steenberger to help facilitate the poverty simulation  with the hope of eventually bringing the simulation into the community at large.

This project is very important to me as I have volunteered extensively in the Downtown East Side and am motivated to challenge many of the negative stereotypes and attributions associated with impoverished people in Vancouver. My research interests include dehumanization, both in the socio-economic and healthcare contexts, as well as reciprocal dehumanization. I am hoping to continue my inter group-relations research through graduate school ultimately obtaining a graduate degree in social psychology.

Email: jmendel@sfu.ca

Maitland Waddell

I completed my BSc in biochemistry at McMaster University and am in the process of completing a BA in psychology at SFU. I am currently completing an honours degree with Dr. Stephen Wright and his research into destructive intergroup behaviour, as well as assisting Odilia Dys-Steenbergen with Making Ends Meat, our labs BC-specific poverty simulator. In addition to managing the Intergroup Relations and Social Justice Lab, I also manage the Self in Social Context Lab headed by Dr. Michael Schmitt. I hope to continue collective action and activist-oriented research through a graduate degree in social psychology - maybe even here at SFU. I'm particularly interested in the factors that encourage identification as an activist, as well as the psychological barriers people must overcome to do so.

Email: mwaddell@sfu.ca