In March 2026, an article on the WeAreNYUAD survey project, for which Jennifer was interviewed as PI, was published in The National. In As isolationism grows around the world, how students learn to be global citizens in the heart of the UAE, Jennifer talked about the longitudinal research study, originally funded by the Emirates Foundation, that aims to examine how identities, social attitudes, and values concerning global issues are developing among a student body that represents over 120 countries. Specifically, she highlights results from a paper published by the LSE Middle East Centre suggesting that being in a setting such as the UAE, with its melting pot of cultures, and on the NYUAD campus, with peers from different backgrounds, could contribute to  increased tolerance, empathy, and global belonging. This is underscored by the Gulf region’s approach to multilateralism, despite global trends leaning towards nationalism. Such cross-cultural experiences, in addition to the inclusive scholarship programs that NYUAD offers its students, nurture a confident mindset in the next generation of global leaders. Having a global mindset boosts students’ beliefs that they can make a tangible difference in the world, thus making the university campus a vital space for maintaining multilateralism in an increasingly polarized world.

Our fifth year of launching the data saw nearly 1000 students take part in the survey!

We launched our fourth year of data collection, garnering over 1000 responses from students.

2024 marked the first year where a full cohort of students took part in the WeAreNYUAD Survey from their first year to their senior year. As a thank you, we shared personalised Identity Dairies with all of the participating students. These snapshots of how students have changed over their time at NYUAD were well-received!

We also published our first working paper using the study’s data: Global identity in an uncertain world: a longitudinal study of the development of cosmopolitan social attitudes at an elite international university setting in the Middle East.

In our third year of launching the survey, 847 students took part in our survey.

We also met with students for a focus group discussion to better understand how the survey is received.

In June, we presented some of our findings at the European Association of Social Psychology conference in Poland.

Wave 2 of our survey, distributed to current second years who also took part last year, garnered a response rate of 79%. We also recruited 81 new second-year students (who had yet to participate last year), meaning that we have now reached 86% of the Class of 2025, with 55% of this class completing both waves of the survey. 

Our second wave survey includes questions about students’ experiences on campus and in the UAE more generally. We are looking forward to sharing some of our most exciting findings through our social media campaigns. Those who take part in the survey right up until the last wave will also be able to look back on their responses to see how their specific attitudes and values (e.g. personality, sense of belonging, and confidence) may have changed over time through data visualizations. 

We are already disseminating some of the results. We delivered a presentation at the 2022 Society for Personality and Social Psychology Annual Convention in San Francisco and presented two papers at the International Society of Political Psychology 2022 Annual Meeting in Athens.

In Fall 2021, we had a very successful launch of Wave 1 of our survey to the incoming first-year students, achieving a response rate of 83%.