Diane Hughes, Program Director
(212) 998-7906 phone
hughes@xp.psych.nyu.edu e-mail
(212) 995-4018 fax

For application materials contact:
Gina DeCaprio Veroesi
(212) 998-7860 phone
gina@xp.psych.nyu.edu e-mail
(212) 998-7781 fax

Our location in New York at a large and diverse research university makes the doctoral program in Community Psychology at New York University an especially exciting place for students interested in social issues and social change. We have access to a diverse range of populations and settings for both research and action. Faculty and students are involved in studies involving groups who are typically difficult to access, including homeless families and children; adolescents from immigrant families; urban poor African American and Latino adolescents in inner city school; middle class Afican American and White early adolescents in suburban communities; immigrant Asian and Pacific Islanders at risk for HIV infection' gay and lesbian parents and their children. Our program emphasis the development of strong quantitative research and skills and, at the same time, sensitivity to the values and goals of diverse cultural groups. Students spend half of their time involved in independent or faculty sponsored research during the first three years of their doctoral training.

Our program also emphasizes the importance of theory development and action to understanding pressing social issues. Through course work, students develop a firm grounding in perspectives regarding relationships between people and settings. Students engage in a one-year supervised practicum placement in a wide range of settings available in New York City.

Students also have the opportunity to participate in course work and activities outside if the community psychology program. Many of the students in our program fulfill the requirments of the Developmental Concentration and the Quantitative minor. They also take courses at the Wagner School of Public Administration and in the departments of Anthropology and Education.

The Community Psychology program at NYU places a particular emphasis on issues of diversity, both in terms of the recruitment and retention of faculty and students and in terms of the research questions of interest to us. Currently, 40% of our active students are members of ethnic minority groups (2 African Americans females, 1 African American/Native American female, 4 Asian females; 2 Hispanic females out of 22 students), as are many of our most recent graduates. Our 5 person faculty includes one African American female (Diane Hughes) and one Japanese male (Hiro Yoshikawa) Our courses also reflect the diversity of interest among faculty and students. Our advanced electives include courses focusing on diverse populations and issues (e.g., Special Issues in the social development of African American Children; Culture and child development; poverty; homeless families). As noted previously, faculty research also focuses on diverse and hard to reach populations (e.g., homeless and poor housed families and children; immigrant adolescents and adults; inner city poor youth; middle-upper middle class, ethnically diverse youth in integrated suburban settings).