DR. AVI BEN-ZEEV
SHORT BIO
Dr. Avi Ben-Zeev is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at London Metropolitan University, where he is establishing the UK counterpart to his previous US-based Cognition and Social Equity (CaSE) laboratory.
​
He received a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology from Yale University in 1997 and has served as a faculty member at Williams College, Brown University, and San Francisco State University before joining London Metropolitan University.
Dr. Ben-Zeev’s scholarship centers on uncovering and combatting social contextual factors (e.g., stereotype threat), which have been documented to cause women and other minoritized groups in STEM to underperform intellectually and to become susceptible to early exit from STEM fields.
Recently, Dr. Ben-Zeev and his team published the Speaking Truth to EmPower (STEP) intervention, which takes a novel approach by explicating the effects of structural ‘isms’ while harnessing underrepresented individuals’ lived experiences for turning intellectual threat into challenge and resilience. This intervention was funded by SF BUILD, an > $17 million NIH grant (awarded to Drs. Leticia Marquez-Magana and Avi Ben-Zeev, SFSU multiple-PIs, in 2014).
Dr. Ben-Zeev has served on the editorial boards of Psychology of Popular Media Culture and the Journal of Homosexuality and authored high impact publications in top-tier journals, such as Psychological Science, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology and Cognitive Science.

RESEARCH INTERESTS
EDUCATION
Basic and Social Cognition
Equity, Diversity & Inclusion
Stereotype Threat & EDI Interventions
The Impact of Being Authentic
1992 – 1997
Yale University (New Haven, CT, USA)
Ph.D., Cognitive Psychology
M.Ph., Cognitive Psychology
M.S., Cognitive Psychology
​
2021 – 2022
Birkbeck, University of London (London, UK)
MFA Creative Writing