Global Identity in an Uncertain World
About the Survey
Our project aims to examine how outlooks such as students' attitudes toward different social groups and their sense of belonging at university evolve throughout their undergraduate years at NYU Abu Dhabi.
Our main research question reads as follows:
What is the impact of studying at an international elite university setting in the Middle East on the development of cosmopolitan values, attitudes, and identities?
As a part of a longitudinal study for the incoming class of NYUAD students, the survey is administered to each cohort at the start of every academic year. The first wave assesses the family background and worldviews that students bring with them to university, and the subsequent waves then combine these elements with measurement of on-campus activities and experiences.
Our Inspiration
Methodologically, we take inspiration from the ground-breaking study of the development of social attitudes at university conducted by political psychologists Jim Sidanius and David Sears at the University of California, Los Angeles. Our Principal Investigators, Jennifer Sheehy-Skeffington (LSE) and P.J. Henry (NYUAD), were involved in this early work, and are experts in the survey design and longitudinal analytical techniques needed to conduct a similar study.
Our Funders
We are grateful to our funders — The Emirates Foundation through the LSE Middle East Centre Academic Collaboration with Arab Universities Programme and NYU Abu Dhabi — whose generous funding has made this research possible.