Education
PhD - Social and organizational psychology, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY
MA - Bank Street College of Education, New York, NY
BA - Education, Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio.
Bio
Professor Susan Opotow is a social psychologist and justice researcher at the City University of New York (CUNY), where she is a faculty member in the Sociology Department at John Jay College and the PhD Program in Critical Social/Personality Psychology at the Graduate Center. A scholar of conflict and injustice, her research examines social psychological conditions and processes that widen and narrow the scope of justice over time. She situates her studies of exclusionary and inclusionary change in a range of conflictual contexts that include: environmental degradation, societal changes after the USA Civil War and World War II, and museums that represent past injustice. She is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and three of its divisions. She was Editor of Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology (2010-2013), a member of the American Psychological Association’s Committee on International Relations in Psychology (2010-2013), Secretary of the International Society of Justice Research (2010-2012), and President of the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI, Division 9 of the American Psychological Association, 2008-2009). She is currently program head for the PhD Program in Critical Social/Personality Psychology at the CUNY Graduate Center and is Chair of the American Psychology Association’s Board for the Advancement of Psychology in the Public Interest.
Scholarly Work
Publications from 2011-2017
Opotow, S. (2017). Morton Deutsch (1920–2017): Pioneer for a peaceful world. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 23(4), 339-345.
Belmonte, K., & Opotow, S. (2017). Archivists on archives and social justice. Qualitative Psychology, 4(1), 58.
Opotow, S. (2016). Social justice theory and practice: Fostering inclusion in exclusionary contexts. In P. Hammack (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of social psychology and social justice. New York: Oxford University Press. Retrieved from http://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199938735.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199938735-e-2.
Opotow, S. & Belmonte, K. (2016). Archives and social justice research. In C. Sabbagh & M. Schmitt (Eds.). Handbook of social justice theory and research (pp. 445-457). New York: Springer.
Opotow, S. (2016). Protest and policing: Conflict, justice, and history in Ferguson, Missouri. In D.R. Forsyth & D. T. Kong (Eds.), Leading through Conflict: Into the Fray (pp. 155-178). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Opotow, S. (2015). Historicizing injustice: The Museum of Memory and Human Rights, Santiago, Chile. Journal of Social Issues, 71(2), 229-243.
Opotow, S. (2014). Gandhi’s inclusionary trajectory in South Africa. Gandhi Marg Quarterly, 35(4): 541–560.
Opotow, S. (2014). Exclusion: Overview. In T. Teo (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology (pp. 639-643), New York: Springer.
Liu, W., & Opotow, S. (2014). Aggression and violence: Causes and correctives. In P. T. Coleman, M. Deutsch, & E.C. Marcus (Eds.), Handbook of conflict resolution: Theory and practice, Third Ed. (pp. 681-707). San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
Belmonte, K., & Opotow, S. (2017). Archivists on archives and social justice. Qualitative Psychology, 4(1), 58.
Opotow, S. (2016). Social justice theory and practice: Fostering inclusion in exclusionary contexts. In P. Hammack (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of social psychology and social justice. New York: Oxford University Press. Retrieved from http://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199938735.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199938735-e-2.
Opotow, S. & Belmonte, K. (2016). Archives and social justice research. In C. Sabbagh & M. Schmitt (Eds.). Handbook of social justice theory and research (pp. 445-457). New York: Springer.
Opotow, S. (2016). Protest and policing: Conflict, justice, and history in Ferguson, Missouri. In D.R. Forsyth & D. T. Kong (Eds.), Leading through Conflict: Into the Fray (pp. 155-178). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Opotow, S. (2015). Historicizing injustice: The Museum of Memory and Human Rights, Santiago, Chile. Journal of Social Issues, 71(2), 229-243.
Opotow, S. (2014). Gandhi’s inclusionary trajectory in South Africa. Gandhi Marg Quarterly, 35(4): 541–560.
Opotow, S. (2014). Exclusion: Overview. In T. Teo (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology (pp. 639-643), New York: Springer.
Liu, W., & Opotow, S. (2014). Aggression and violence: Causes and correctives. In P. T. Coleman, M. Deutsch, & E.C. Marcus (Eds.), Handbook of conflict resolution: Theory and practice, Third Ed. (pp. 681-707). San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
Sweeney, P., & Opotow, S. (2013). “Why there?” Islamophobia, environmental conflict, and justice at Ground Zero. Social Justice Research, 26(4), 492-512
Muñoz Proto, C. & Opotow, S. (2012). Justice, activity, and narrative: Studying the World March for Peace and Nonviolence. In M. Deutsch & P. Coleman (Eds.), Psychological components of sustainable peace (pp. 177-196). New York, NY: Springer.
Opotow, S. (2012) Environmental injustice, collaborative action, and the inclusionary shift. In S. Clayton (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of environmental and conservation psychology (pp. 414-427). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Opotow, S. (2012). The scope of justice, intergroup conflict, and peace. In L.R. Tropp (Ed.), Oxford handbook of intergroup conflict and peace (pp. 72-86). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Opotow, S. (2012). Moral exclusion. In D.J. Christie (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Peace Psychology, Vol 2 (pp. 672-676). Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
Opotow, S. (2012). Social injustice. In D.J. Christie (Ed.), The Encyclopedia of Peace Psychology, Vol. 3 (pp. 1023-1027). Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
McClelland, S. I., & Opotow, S. (2011). Studying injustice in the macro and micro spheres: Four generations of social psychological research. In P.T. Coleman (Ed.), Conflict, Interdependence and justice: The intellectual legacy of Morton Deutsch (pp. 119-145). New York: Springer.
Opotow, S. (2011). Absence and presence: Interpreting moral exclusion in the Jewish Museum Berlin. In E. Kals & J. Maes (Eds.), Justice and conflicts: Theoretical and empirical contributions (pp. 53-74). Dordrecht: Netherlands: Springer.
Martin-Peña, J., Opotow, S., & Rodríguez-Carballeira, Á. (2011). Amenazados y víctimas del entramado de ETA en Euskadi: un estudio desde la teoría de la exclusión moral [Threatened people and victims of ETA's network in the Basque Country: A study from moral exclusion theory]. Revista de Psicologia Social, 26(2), 177-190.
Opotow, S. (2011). How this was possible: Interpreting the Holocaust. Journal of Social Issues, 67(1), 205-224.
Opotow, S., & Gieseking, J. (2011). Foreground and background: Environment as site and social issue. Journal of Social Issues, 67(1), 179-196.
Martín-Peña, J., & Opotow, S. (2011). The legitimization of political violence: A case study of ETA in the Basque Country. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 17(2), 132-150.
