YCAR is pleased to announce our 2019 Undergraduate Essay Award winners: Harkit Bhandal and Safa Warsi.
Safa is a fourth-year Psychology major who has spent time as a research assistant in various psychology labs at York. She is interested in culture and religion, particularly in the context of the experiences of minorities in North America. She received the award in the Asian Diaspora category. Professor Richard Lalonde nominated her PSYC 3890 paper, “Views on the Model Minority Stereotype in a South Asian Canadian Context,” for this award. The paper considers the Model Minority Stereotype (MMS), which depicts Asians as being high in certain seemingly positive attributes (e.g., competence and achievement), whilst also being high in seemingly negative traits (e.g., unsociability and emotional reservation). Research to date on this subject has largely focused on East Asian American samples, while Safa’s study explores whether MMS exists in South Asian Canadian populations.

A fourth-year undergraduate student, the majority of

Both papers will be published later this year in ‘New Voices on Asia’, a special occasional paper series at the Centre. Congratulations Harkit and Safa!
Papers for the 2019-20 academic year can be submitted at any time and will be accepted until 30 April 2020.
For more information, please visit: https://ycar.apps01.yorku.ca/research-fellowships-awards/undergraduate-asia-and-asian-diaspora-essay-awards/
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*This story was also published in YFile on 17 September 2019: http://yfile.news.yorku.ca/2019/09/16/ycar-announces-2019-undergraduate-essay-award-winners/?http://yfile.news.yorku.ca/?utm_source=YFile_Email&utm_medium=Email&utm_content=Current-News&utm_campaign=yfile