The National Center for Institutional Diversity (NCID) and the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (ODEI) will recognize Dr. Robert Sellers, the Charles D. Moody Collegiate Professor of Psychology, as the 2023 recipient of the James S. Jackson Distinguished Career Award for Diversity Scholarship.

A distinguished lecture, panel discussions, and a reception on Oct. 28 will honor Dr. Sellers, who is an affiliate of the Research Center for Group Dynamics at the Institute for Social Research, and the James S. Jackson Distinguished University Professor of Psychology.

The award, jointly administered by NCID and ODEI, is given biennially to a senior faculty member who has made significant contributions to understanding diversity, equity and inclusion while addressing disparities in contemporary society.

Dr. Sellers’s research interests include ethnicity, racial and ethnic identity, personality and health, athletic participation, and personality. 

Dr. Sellers and his students have developed a conceptual and empirical model of African American racial identity. The model has been used by a number of researchers in the field to understand the heterogeneity in the significance and meaning that African Americans place on race in defining themselves. Dr. Sellers is also known for investigating the processes by which African American parents transmit messages about race to their children, and the ways in which African Americans suffer from and often cope with experiences of racial discrimination. Dr. Sellers has also studied the life experiences of student-athletes, and is one of the founders of the Center for the Study of Black Youth in Context. He was also a founder of the Black Graduate Conference in Psychology.

Dr. Sellers is a past President of the Society for the Psychological Study of Ethnic Minority Issues (Division 45 of the American Psychological Association). He is a fellow of Division 8 (Society for Personality and Social Psychology) and Division 45 (Society for the Psychological Study of Culture, Ethnicity, and Race) of the American Psychological Association as well as a fellow of the Association for Psychological Science. Dr. Sellers received the APS Mentor award in 2023, and was inducted this year into the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). 

The James S. Jackson Distinguished Career Award is one of several high distinctions earned by Dr. Sellers that was named for his former mentor. Most recently, Dr. Sellers was awarded the James S. Jackson Lifetime Achievement Award for Transformative Scholarship from the Association for Psychological Science.

James S. Jackson was the pioneering social psychologist known for his research on race, ethnicity, racism, health, and aging among African Americans. Jackson was an affiliate of the Research Center for Group Dynamics and was a director of the Institute for Social Research.

The October 28 event will be hybrid, with events taking place at the Rackham Graduate School Assembly Hall, from 9 to 6. The lecture will be from 3 to 4:30. Registration is open.

About the Research Center for Group Dynamics

Since its establishment in 1948, the Research Center for Group Dynamics’ mission has been to advance the understanding of human behavior in social contexts. Learn more about RCGD and its Group Dynamics seminars from http://rcgd.isr.umich.edu/. Nick Camp is co-organizer of this fall’s seminar series, open to the public, on “The Social Psychology of Systemic Racism.”