An investigation of psychology's complicity in white supremacy, at Haverford College and beyond
About the Project
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Why this project?
For 14 days in the fall of 2020, the Haverford College Black Students League (BSL), Black Students Refusing Further Inaction (BSRFI), and Women of Color house led a student strike following the police murder of Walter Wallace, Jr. in West Philadelphia, and in opposition to persistent anti-Black racism on campus.
A group of over ninety psychology students in support of the strike sent a letter to the department demanding “recognition (and archival work, either by faculty members or paid students) that examines the psychology department’s role in pathologizing differences (such as Queerness, fatness, and neurodivergence) in ways that uphold white supremacy. Psychology is a science, but that does not exempt us from acknowledging the social context and repercussions of our discipline.”
This website is the output of a research project conducted in the spring of 2021 to honor that student demand.
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Guiding practices
Maximize transparency about my sources and process, so that others can carry the research forward
Focus on white supremacy, anti-Blackness and structural racism within the field of psychology
Approach all topics with an intersectional lens
Point not just to problems, but also to solutions, reparations, and redress
Question everything that's taken as a "given" within psychology and academia
About the author: My name is Lizy Szanton (she/her) and I am a student at Haverford College (class of 2022) studying psychology and sociology. I’m a white, upper middle class, Queer, cisgender woman. I’m able-bodied and neurotypical. I was raised in a Quaker family. I’m an American citizen and a settler on Indigenous land in North America.
I name my identities not to be “politically correct,” but because my life experiences influence my approach to this project. My identity molds my blind spots. I hope this practice will challenge the harmful presumption that a researcher can be entirely detached, objective, and neutral.
The project was supervised by Professor Becky Compton.
