Kevin Durrheim

Founder/Researcher

Kevin Durrheim is a professor of psychology at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. His broad interests are in the field of social psychology of intergroup relations. He has a program of research related to racism, segregation and social change which is embedded in the South African context in which he works and lives. His publications Race Trouble (Durrheim, Mtose & Brown, 2011, UKZN/ Lexington Press) and Racial Encounter (Durrheim & Dixon, 2005, Routledge) have developed from this research program. He has also published methods textbooks that have been quite widely used in South Africa:  Research in Practice(Terreblanche, Durrheim, Painter, 1999, 2006, UCT Press) and Numbers, Hypotheses and Conclusions (2002, 2006, Tredoux & Durrheim, UCT Press). His interest in methodology and intergroup contact both sparked interest in developing a technology that allows social psychologists to study intergroup phenomena like contact in evolutionary and interactive contexts. He has loved the many challenges that VIAPPL presents and the collaboration and exciting research it makes possible.

    Michael Quayle

    Founder/Researcher

    Dr Michael Quayle is a lecturer at the University of Limerick, Ireland, and an honorary senior lecturer at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Broadly, his research explores the politics of identity, and how the local and immediate concerns of identity enactment can impact on broader socio-political processes. More specifically, he explores identity in gender and masculinity, race and racism, social identity and intergroup relations, identity and health, and stereotype threat, with collaborators in South Africa, Canada, the United States, Australia, Ireland, the UK, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Uganda, and Tanzania.

     

    Colin Tredoux

    R and Statistics Specialist

    Professor of Psychology at UCT, South Africa.  PhD (UCT).

    Chaire d’Attractivité, Université de Toulouse, Jean Jaurés, France.

    Colin’s interests in Social Psychology include intergroup relations (with a particular focus on the micro-ecology of contact; seecontactecology.com), as well as social influence.  He has active research interests in some other areas, especially Psychology and Law, but these are not directly relevant to VIAPPL.  Take a look at his Google scholar overview for more detail.

    He has long been interested in data, and data modeling, and his role in VIAPPL is i) to assist with data wrangling and munging of the complex VIAPPL data, as well as ii) statistical analysis and visualization of the same.

      Larry Tooke

      Software Designer

      Larry Tooke is a Clinical Psychologist in private practice. He obtained a Masters in Social Science with a dissertation focusing on the Implicit Association Test (IAT). Prior to becoming a psychologist he completed a BSc Honours degree in Computer Science and worked as a software designer and project manager in South Africa and the USA.

        James Gleeson

        Mathematician

        Professor James Gleeson holds the Chair in Industrial and Applied Mathematics at the University of Limerick. He is a graduate of University College Dublin in Mathematical Sciences and Mathematical Physics and received his PhD in Applied Mathematics from Caltech in 1999. Following his graduation from Caltech, he was a visiting assistant professor in Arizona State University, and then moved to University College Cork for 7 years, before taking up his current position at the University of Limerick. He is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Complex Networks and a member of the editorial board of Physical Review E. He was appointed to the Irish Research Council by Minister Sean Sherlock in 2013. As co-director of MACSI, the Mathematics Applications Consortium for Science and Industry, he leads research into applications of mathematics to real-world problems with significant economic and social impact. His research interests include stochastic dynamics and contagion on complex networks. He is co-supervising the PhD work of Susan Fennell, which examines statistical and mathematical models for the VIAPLL experiments.

          Fouad Bou Zeineddine

          Post-Doctoral Researcher

          Fouad Bou Zeineddine is a postdoctoral researcher in social psychology at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. In his work, he examines the dynamics of power and empathy as they apply to human resistance and resilience in intergroup relations and societal change. He uses survey, psycholinguistic, experimental, and computational methods in an ecologically-informed perspective on these topics.

            Kim Titlestad

            Doctoral Student - Psychology

            Kim Titlestad completed her Master of Social Science at the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa in 2015 under the supervision of Dr. Michael Quayle and Prof. Kevin Durrheim. Since August 2015, she has been a PhD candidate in Social Psychology at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. Her PhD promotors are Prof. Tom Postmes and Prof. Tom Snijders and she continues to work with Dr. Michael Quayle and Prof. Kevin Durrheim. Her research interests include: the formation of social groups and identities; social networks; cooperation; the emergence of social norms.

              Kevin Chizoba Igwe

              Doctoral Student - Computer Science

              Kevin Chizoba Igwe completed his Masters of Science in Computer Science at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. He has conducted research in the field of Evolutionary Algorithms (EAs), which include Genetic Programing (GP) and Grammatical Evolution (GE).  His other research interests include Agent Based Modelling and Artificial Neural Network (ANN) for Machine Learning (ML), where he obtained a certificate. His current study proposes a co-evolutionary approach for Data-Driven Agent Based Model (DDABM) that allows for automatic optimization of agents and classifiers. The model will be integrated with the VIAPPL environment and be used to study the dynamics of human interaction at a human population level.

                Kirsty Klipp

                Masters Student - Psychology

                Kirsty Klipp is a part-time research intern currently working under the supervision of Prof Kevin Durrheim in the School of Psychology at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. She holds a Bachelor (Hons) of Social Science in Psychology (UKZN) and is currently completing her dissertation for Masters of Social Science in Research Psychology (UKZN) – coursework completed.

                Kirsty’s research interests include intergroup behaviour and social interaction, as well as research ethics. In addition to her work with Prof Kevin Durrheim, she is also a research intern at the Council on Health Development for Research (COHRED), based at UKZN.

                  Lungelo Mlangeni

                  Masters Student - Psychology

                  Lungelo Mlangeni is currently pursuing a masters degree in research psychology at the University of Kwazulu-Natal. His thesis is focused on the social psychological aspects of reciprocation. Beyond this, he is also interested in the social aspects of HIV prevention, stigma, and racism. Lungelo is currently a junior researcher at the HIV, AIDS, STIs, and TB (HAST) division of the Human Sciences Research Council.

                    Ryan Barrett

                    Student - Psychology

                    Ryan Barrett is a final year B.A. Psychology & Sociology student at the University of Limerick studying. He has used the VIAPPL this year to study the nature of self-interest and cooperation within the minimal group conditions. Specifically, his research has critically assessed the minimal group studies conducted by Tajfel in the early 1970’s and using the VIAPPL he has been attempting to build on the limitations of the early design to test the validity of Social Identity Theory (SIT).

                      Mackenzie Lynch

                      Student - Psychology

                      Mackenzie Lynch is currently completing her undergraduate degree in psychology at the University of Limerick. For her final year project, she used the VIAPPL to complete social network analysis in the minimal group paradigm, and matched these with social identity psychometrics to explore the association between the measures.