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Special Issue Title: Racism, Anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, Privilege, and Violence: Advancing Science to Inform Practice and Policy

Special issue editors:  Lama Hassoun Ayoub, Bonnie Duran, Gabe Kuperminc, Maury Nation, David Sugarman, Nicole Yuan, and Sherry Hamby

Submission deadlineDecember 8, 2017

People have been marching in the streets in support of openly racist, anti-Semitic, and Islamophobic ideologies in numbers that have not been seen in the United States for at least half a century. Bias-motivated aggressive beliefs and behaviors add substantially to the health burden of affected individuals and communities.

Psychology and other social sciences have important roles to play to further understanding of these biases and to develop strategies and interventions that will reduce prejudice, discrimination, and un-earned race and class privilege. There is limited research on the effects of prejudice, and even less scientific study of the characteristics and dynamics of race and class privilege, or the mechanisms leading to the perpetration of hate-motivated violence. Further, most research on violence and aggression continues to use race, religion, and ethnicity as “social address” markers, instead of unpacking the sources for group differences, such as the burden of discrimination, and disparities in access to treatment and the level of care received during treatment. More sophisticated analyses of the underlying causes and mechanisms of social and health disparities are needed.

This special issue is designed to advance the scientific knowledge about racism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and other bias-motivated forms of aggressive cognitions and behaviors, with a goal of advancing prevention, intervention, and policy.

We hope the special issue will comprise a range of methodologies and approaches to these questions, including quantitative and qualitative methods and reviews of the literature. We also welcome studies that adopt a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach.

Topics may include but are not limited to:

  • Studies that explore the traumatic impact of victimizations motivated by racism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and other forms of prejudice. We are especially interested in studies that go beyond merely using race, ethnicity, religion, immigration status or other sociodemographic characteristics as mere “social address” markers, and systematically investigate the factors that contribute to health and social disparities.
  • Studies on hate-motivated crime of all types, including studies of interpersonal conflict and inter-group conflict. Studies on perpetrators of hate-motivated crime are especially welcome.
  • Psychometric studies on measures of racism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, race privilege, class privilege, or other forms of discrimination and unequitable treatment that lead to aggression, victimization, and trauma.
  • Studies on structural racism and/or historical trauma, especially efforts to improve assessment and analysis of institutional or societal factors that contribute to discrimination.
  • Studies on intersectionality among these and other identities.  For example, individuals who identify as Black and Muslim; multi-faith families; and also intersections with other identities such as LGBTQ or gender.
  • Conceptual and theoretical papers on the links between racism, religious prejudice, violence, victimization, and post-traumatic stress or other psychological sequelae.
  • Evaluations of prevention and intervention programs designed to reduce racism, anti-Semitism, or other forms of prejudice, that include aggression, victimization, post-traumatic stress or related factors as outcome variables.  We are especially interested in strengths-based approaches to prevention and studies on resilience.
  • “Lessons learned” and other reflections on efforts to advance the scientific understanding of, or intervene against, racism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and race or class privilege.

Manuscripts can be submitted through the journal’s submission portal. Please note in your cover letter that you are submitting for the special issue.

Deadline for submitting manuscripts is December 8, 2017. Inquiries regarding topic or scope for the special issue or for other manuscripts can be sent to [email protected] or [email protected].