05/08/2026: Summer 2026 Lab Outing ☀️
Took a break from research with a game of bowling! 🎳
05/08/2026: That’s a wrap!📣 The spring semester has come to an end, and the MOSAIC Lab is immensely proud of our students’ dedication to research this year! 👏
Our senior RA, Miranda, finished her last poster presentation at the Psychology Senior Honors and Capstone Poster Fair! Thank you to her mentor, Bill, for guiding her along this year-long journey! 🎉
To top it off, we had a fun outing at Jupiter’s to celebrate our hard work with some pizza and a game of pool! 🍕🎱
05/01/2026: The semester may be coming to an end, but the research never stops! Here are our amazing RAs presenting their work at the Undergraduate Research Symposium 👏
04/20/2026: ✨A recap of the MOSAIC Lab at MPA! Our amazing students did a wonderful job on their presentations!👏
04/13/2026: 📣 The MOSAIC Lab will be presenting at MPA 2026 in Chicago! The annual convention will be held from April 16th-19th. Be sure to check out everyone’s hard work!
04/07/2026: Congratulations to our PhD student, Sarah, for receiving funding from the Psychology Department to go towards her conference travel expenses! 🎉👏
03/30/2026: A fun mid-semester lab outing at Mia Za’s! 🍕🍝
03/27/2026: Congratulations to our undergraduate RA, Bryana, for receiving the Laura Bolton Research Development Scholarship! 
This award provides financial support for undergraduate students engaging in Psychology research over the summer!
03/02/2026: Another great year at SPSP!
Teresa presented her poster on “The Discriminatory Experiences of Transgender Women of Color vs Other Multiple Marginalized Women”, and Sarah presented her poster on “The Embodied Consequences of Identity Denial.”
02/16/2026: Check out this news article on our recent published paper!
02/11/2026: New Paper Alert! 📣
In a new PSPB paper, we find that the way demographic forms structure race and ethnicity questions can meaningfully affect belonging, identity threat, and perceptions of inclusion among Latine Americans.
You can read more here: https://journals-sagepub-com.proxy2.library.illinois.edu/doi/10.1177/01461672251387589
01/14/2026: Congratulations to our PhD student, Sarah Osaro, for receiving the Clara Mayo Grant from SPSSI!
This grant supports graduate research focused on the issues of racism, sexism, or prejudice.
Sarah’s research, “Embodied Consequences of Identity Denial”, investigates whether experiences of identity denial among Multiracial people shape individuals’ attitudes toward their own observable physical features.
11/20/2025: 📣New research alert! In collaboration with the DEML Lab, “AI-Faces by Illinois” serves as an alternative database with 1,152 AI-generated images depicting child faces. Both pre-print (https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/ertzx_v1) and images are available online (https://osf.io/vurm5/).
11/13/2025: 📣The MOSAIC Lab is excited to announce that two of our lab alumni will be presenting their posters at SPSP 2026 in Chicago! The annual convention will be held on Feb 26-28th. Be sure to attend Isabela’s poster on “Finding Harmony: Exploring How Diversity Ideologies Relate to Congregants’ Sense of Belonging” and Sherlock’s poster on “Digital Signals: Emoji Use and Racial Impressions.”
11/03/2025:📣The MOSAIC Lab is excited to announce that Sarah and Teresa will be presenting their posters at SPSP 2026 in Chicago! The annual convention will be held on Feb 26-28th. Be sure to attend Sarah’s poster on “Embodied Consequences of Identity Denial and Exclusion” and Teresa’s poster on “A mixed-methods study of multiply marginalized women: Daily discriminatory experiences across transgender status and racial identity”👩🏫
10/01/2025: Congratulations to Dr. Straka and her fellow team members for winning the SPSP Award for Distinguished Service to the Society! 🎉The Equity and Antiracism Task Force and Its Descendants team created a mentoring toolkit to reduce racism in mentorship. You can find more information here: https://spsp.org/about/diversity-and-inclusion/eliminating-racism-in-workplaces-and-communities/reducing-racism-in-mentorship
09/15/2025: New undergraduate RA spotlight! Lauren is a senior majoring in Developmental Psychology and minoring in Criminology, Law, & Society. She is exploring various interests in identity formation, group behavior, ethics and morality, forensic osteology, and criminology.
09/15/2025: New undergraduate RA spotlight! NyJae is a junior majoring in Intradisciplinary Psychology. She is interested in how concepts like stereotype threat and pluralistic ignorance shape minority experiences and contribute to disparities in education, work, and daily life.
08/29/2025: Welcome back to campus! As we finish off the first week of school, we would like to introduce our new lab manager, Teresa!
Teresa was an undergraduate RA at MOSAIC and will be staying with us for her postbaccalaureate. Her research interests focuses on the discriminatory experiences of queers of color and how their intersecting identities shape how they navigate such discrimination.
08/22/2025: A glimpse of Dr. Straka’s talk at the 2025 New England Future Faculty Workshop! This was a virtual conference to help postdoctoral fellows and later-stage graduate students prepare for a faculty position.
08/15/2025: It’s time to say goodbye to our two amazing team members, Sherlock and Isabela. Although we’re sad to see them go, we’re also super excited to watch them continue the next step in their academic journey!
Sherlock will be starting her PhD at the University of Michigan and Isabela will be starting her PhD at The Ohio State University!
Congratulations again to the both of you!🎉
08/14/2025: Summer 2025 Lab Outing 😎
Took a short break from the heat with Jarling’s! 🍦
08/06/2025: Congratulations Heaven on graduating!
After graduation, Heaven will be completing her Master’s in Social Work at the University of Illinois in Chicago!
A message from Heaven: Being a part of the MOSAIC Lab has taught me a tremendous amount about the research process from coding and data analysis to writing an IRB and conducting my own study. I’ve grown so much as both a researcher and a student during my time here. One of the things I’m most proud of is completing my thesis. It was a challenging and rewarding experience, and I couldn’t have done it without the support of this amazing lab. My favorite part of being in the lab has definitely been getting to collaborate with such kind, thoughtful, and driven people. The community in this lab is something I’ve cherished during my undergraduate career. Lastly, thank you so much to Sherlock Liu for being a wonderful lab manager, Alexis Morales for her constant support and mentorship, and Dr. Brenda Straka for her kindness, knowledge, and guidance as the PI!
05/09/2025: 🎉 Congratulations to Bryana for being accepted into the TRIO McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program!
She will continue working with Dr. Brenda Straka on her independent project, “Exploring Social Exclusion Among Students from Low SES Backgrounds.”
The UIUC TRIO Ronald E. McNair Scholars Program is one of the most successful graduate education pipelines in the country, and we’re so proud to see Bryana take this exciting next step! 👏✨
05/07/2025: 🎉 Happy last week of instruction!
Spring 2025 has been a busy and exciting semester for the MOSAIC Lab, wrapped up beautifully with the Senior Student Research Fair and our graduate students’ Creative Research Zine 📚✨
We’re so proud of all the hard work and creativity that went into this semester—and we can’t wait to share more cool science next semester! Stay tuned!
04/24/2025: 🎉 Big congratulations to our Capstone students for completing their theses and presenting their work at the Undergraduate Research Symposium! Your year-long dedication and hard work have officially come to a close, and we couldn’t be prouder of all you’ve accomplished. 💫👏
04/23/2025: The last lab meeting of Spring 2025 – we will miss you, graduates! 🎓 Thank you for being an amazing member of MOSAIC Lab.
04/22/2025: Welcome to the MOSAIC Lab, Sarah O! 🌟
Sarah is a first-year Ph.D. student in Social Psychology at UIUC. She earned her M.A. in Educational Measurement & Statistics and her B.S. in Psychology, with a certificate in Resilience and Trauma-Informed Perspectives, from the University of Iowa.
04/15/2025: MOSAIC Lab took over #MPA25 this past weekend! Lilian, Teresa, Abir, and Isabela all presented their Capstone projects they have been working on over this past year, amazing!
02/20/2025: MOSAIC Lab is heading to SPSP 2025 in Denver! 🎉 Be sure to catch:
✨ The Self/Identity Preconference, hosted by Dr. Straka
✨ Sherlock Liu’s two poster presentations