About

Germine Awad is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Michigan, serving as the Area Chair for Gender & Feminist Psychology and focusing on University Diversity and Social Transformation. Her scholarship is characterized by three interrelated areas of inquiry: prejudice and discrimination, identity and acculturation, and multicultural research methodology. Much of her research is guided by questions such as 'What factors lead to discrimination against minoritized ethnic groups?' and 'What impacts perceptions of experienced discrimination?' She has primarily focused on Arab/Middle Eastern Americans and African Americans, examining how prejudicial attitudes and ideology influence attitudes towards these groups in various domains such as the workplace and higher education. Additionally, she investigates how racial and ethnic identity and acculturation impact perceptions of discrimination, including studies testing combined race and ethnicity questions with MENA/Arab Americans to understand how this community identifies in terms of race and ethnicity.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Sociology
• Ethnology
• Anthropology
• Gender studies
• Geography
• Social psychology
• Law
• Psychology
• Demography

Selected publications

• Combating Racial Inequities in the Field of Educational Psychology

  2026-04-22

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  As a field, educational psychology is in the midst of a long and slow journey to rectify its involvement in fomenting racial inequities and contributing to harms committed against people of color. Given that the “Father of Educational Psychology” E.L. Thorndike had a foundational role in testing and assessment, his actions led to enduring systematic inequities for communities of color. Systemic racism is insidious and difficult to combat. Therefore, it is imperative that educational psychologists engage in a multi-pronged approach to begin to dismantle these oppressive systems. In this chapter, we review the historical focus of the field of educational psychology, highlight psychologists who have been overlooked in the field of education, discuss the role of context and structures, outline how methodological preferences impact scholarship, and provide recommendations for preventing and fighting racial inequalities.

  PublisherDOI

• Sexism in Relation to Evaluations of Kamala Harris and Voting Behaviors

  Journal of Individual Differences · 2026-01-01

  articleSenior author

  Abstract: Gendered racism occurs when the mistreatment of women is grounded in both gender and racial stereotypes and it is often used to target women of color directly (e.g., angry Black woman or cold Asian woman stereotypes). Prior research demonstrates that sexist attitudes are related to evaluations of White women in politics; expanding on this, we examine color-blind racial ideology (CBRI) as an individual difference factor influencing the relationship between sexist attitudes and evaluations of Kamala Harris. Approximately 769 college students completed measures of candidate warmth and competence, voting intentions, hostile and benevolent sexism, and color-blind racial attitudes. We found that CBRI moderated the relationship between benevolent sexism and evaluations of Harris. For participants strongly endorsing CBRI, complementary benevolence was positively associated with Harris warmth, while heteronormative benevolence was negatively related with Harris competence. CBRI also interacted with gender in relation to voting behaviors. Results showed an 8% chance of voting for Biden (not Trump) among women strongly endorsing CBRI, compared to a 17% chance of voting for Biden (not Trump) among men strongly endorsing CBRI. This study illuminates how CBRI influences how sexist attitudes and gender are related to important political outcomes, suggesting that there are consequences for women defying traditional gender norms regarding warmth.

  PublisherDOI

• Racial/Ethnic Identification and Impacts of Prejudice, Racism, and Discrimination for Communities of Arab, Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) Descent

  Social and Personality Psychology Compass · 2025-10-01 · 3 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  ABSTRACT Although many believe that discrimination and racism against Arabs and Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) communities started after the events of 9/11, prejudice and discrimination toward this group was documented as early as the 1900s. In psychology, this population is often overlooked in scholarship on racism and discrimination with communities of color. This omission is in part due to the mischaracterization of this pan‐ethnic group as White racially. This paper will present a history of the racialization of the Arab/MENA community in the United States followed by a discussion of the conflation of Muslim and Arab that complicates and sometimes obscures the ethnic minority experiences of this population. We will also explain the simultaneous invisibility and hypervisibility that is common with this population. The current literature on prejudice and discrimination toward Arab/MENA Americans will be reviewed and the Cumulative Racial/Ethnic Trauma Model (CRET) will serve as a framework of the unique factors involved in the racism and discrimination experiences of this community. This paper will also provide recommendations for future research on racial/ethnic identity, prejudice and discrimination for the Arab/MENA community.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• A student like me: Black student achievement moderates the relationship between teacher-student racial matching and the occupational wellbeing of Black teachers in the United States

  Teaching and Teacher Education · 2025-03-22 · 1 citations

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Somatization and Hypervigilance: The Influence of Colorism and Discrimination Among Asian, Latinx, and Black University Students

  Journal of College Student Mental Health · 2025-03-25 · 4 citations

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Arab/Middle Eastern North African (MENA) women’s experiences of infantilization, burnout, and job satisfaction in the workplace.

  Consulting psychology journal · 2025-03-01 · 4 citations

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Relationships Among Autonomy Relevant Instruction, Classroom Racial Climate, and Student Engagement

  The Journal of Experimental Education · 2025-10-09

  article

  psychological need satisfaction, as well as interactions between autonomy support and CRC. In Study 1, promotion of cultural competence and cultural socialization were associated with students' need satisfaction and, in turn, classroom engagement over and above perceptions of autonomy support. Study 2 replicated these results, showing that cultural competence and socialization were significantly indirectly associated with engagement through need satisfaction. Multigroup analyses found no significant differences across racial/ethnic groups. Across both studies, non-significant CRC and autonomy support interactions suggested that the CRC did not alter the effect of autonomy support on needs or engagement. Overall, these findings highlight the importance of considering racial dynamics in class as critical contextual factors that influence racially/ethnically minoritized students' basic psychological needs and engagement.

  PublisherDOI

• “Our Voices Will Get Louder”: A Qualitative Exploration of Factors Influencing Arab/Middle Eastern North African (MENA) American Patient Participation in US-Based Health Care and Health Research

  Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities · 2024-12-09 · 2 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• The influence of acculturation, enculturation, and religious orientation on Arab/Middle Eastern North African (MENA) Americans’ help-seeking attitudes.

  American Journal of Orthopsychiatry · 2024-07-08

  articleSenior author

  Help-seeking attitudes among Arab/Middle Eastern North African (MENA) Americans remain an understudied outcome, despite significant levels of reported mental health concerns. Hierarchical linear regression was used to examine whether Arab/MENA Christians and Muslims' help-seeking attitudes were significantly associated with acculturation, enculturation, and religious orientation. Results indicated that acculturation levels were positively associated with help-seeking attitudes, wherein individuals with higher levels of dominant society immersion were more likely to report more positive attitudes toward help seeking. Extrinsic social religious orientation (ESRO) interacted with religious affiliation (i.e., Christian or Muslim) wherein higher levels of ESRO were associated with lower help-seeking attitudes for Muslims but not Christians. Moreover, enculturation and religious affiliation interacted so that higher levels of enculturation were associated with less positive help-seeking attitudes for Christians and more positive help-seeking attitudes for Muslims. Finally, intrinsic religious orientation interacted with religious affiliation so that increasing levels of intrinsic religious orientation predicted lower levels of help-seeking attitudes for Muslims and higher levels for Christians. These findings have implications for working with Arab/MENA groups and implementing interventions to improve access and attitudes toward mental health services, which are often stigmatized (i.e., socially devalued) in this population. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

  PublisherDOI

• The Role of Advisor Relationship, Impostor Feelings, and Perfectionistic Strivings in Ethnically Minoritized Doctoral Student Burnout Experiences

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2024-01-01

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Hanan Hashem

  William James College

  11 shared

• Kevin Cokley

  8 shared

• Nadia N. Abuelezam

  Boston College

  8 shared

• Matthew Jaber Stiffler

  Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services

  6 shared

• S. Bennett

  6 shared

• Rashanta A. Bledman

  6 shared

• Susan Kashubeck‐West

  University of Missouri–St. Louis

  6 shared

• Angela D. Coker

  San Diego State University

  6 shared

Education

• PhD, Department of Psychology

  Southern Illinois University-Carbondale

  2005