Anup Gampa
Assistant Professor of Psychology
PhD 2018, University of Virginia
As an educator, I begin with meeting students where they are in order to empower them to think about how they can shape the various realities they engage in. The motivated, conscientious and committed students and the community of faculty and staff that supports them at HMC and the wider Claremont Colleges community makes for the perfect environment for such academic engagement. I am especially excited to make my academic home at Harvey Mudd College due to my own background in engineering and the social sciences and the similar academic emphasis here.
As a scholar, I focus on the relationship between an individual’s psychology and the social—particularly social movements, racism and capitalism. For instance, my research links social movements with a decrease in individuals’ negative implicit attitudes towards marginalized people. In one line of research, I interrogate the relationship between social psychology and capitalism, especially in the way social psychology studies and attempts to fight racism. In another line, I’m investigating one’s willingness to justify the U.S economic system given one’s knowledge about wealth inequality in that system. I received my PhD in social psychology from the University of Virginia (2018), where I organized against racism and sexism in the University community and beyond.