NCID-1681
M. Dalal Safa
NSF SBE Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Harvard Graduate School of Education
Education/Degree:
1 Family and Human Development (Arizona State University)
About
Dr. M. Dalal Safa is an NSF SBE postdoctoral research fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her program of research examines antecedents and consequents of biculturalism. She is currently funded by the National Science Foundation and the Society for Research in Child Development to investigate the mechanisms by which immigrant and ethnic-racial minority adolescents develop bicultural identities and competencies, and the associations between bicultural identity formation processes and positive development. Dr. Safa earned her PhD in family and human development from Arizona State University and her MA in social and intercultural psychology from the Université Livre de Bruxelles. At a personal level, she considers herself a multicultural Latina who has had the amazing opportunity to live in five countries across three continents.
Current Work
Dr. Safa’s scholarship focuses on how individuals exposed to multiple cultural systems (e.g., ethnic-racial and national) incorporate those systems into their sense of self and develop strategies and competencies to respond to multicultural demands. She is currently leading the Bicultural Identity and Competence Development project (BICD) alongside Dr. Umaña-Taylor. BICD is a research study that aims to better understand how adolescents think about their cultural backgrounds and their lives in the U.S. The primary objective is to learn via focus groups about the type of tools, strategies, and experiences that help adolescents to successfully manage multiple cultural demands and identities. Qualitative data will be used to develop content that will be added to an existing youth program that helps youth explore and understand their cultural background and upbringing.
Research Area Keyword(s)
Biculturalism, development, dual-cultural adaptation, Migration, multiculturalism