Fall Updates From the Lab
Decorative Gourds, The Power of Us launch (+ party!), exciting news from lab members, and career opportunities at NYU
Fall is in the air, which means it’s time for our favorite McSweeney’s article:
We hope everyone has had a great start to the semester and school year. This month, we’re excited to share some news about Jay’s book launch, announcements about our lab members, and new job opportunities at NYU. Plus, you’re invited to join us for a party on October 12th!
The Power of Us is here!
Jay and Dominic Packer’s new book, The Power of Us, finally hit the shelves this month on September 7th! It has been an exciting and exhausting past couple of weeks, and we’re thrilled that we have received some excellent reviews and feedback. Some highlights:
A fantastic review in Science Magazine from Alex Haslam
#1 on Amazon for new books in cognitive neuroscience
Lots of podcasts, including our favorite: Hidden Brain!
We’d like to send a huge THANKS to everyone who bought a book or helped us along the way, either by sharing the news of our book, offering us comments on our research, rating the book online, or inviting us to talk about the book. We are eternally grateful for your support and hope to pay it forward to other new authors!
Writing and sharing a book are truly collective efforts. Here is a link to a thread about the people who helped make this book possible featuring many of the scientists cited in our book—including many, many, many former and current lab members:
To learn more about the book and follow along for updates on new media and events, you can check out the book’s website and newsletter.
Celebrate with us
To celebrate, join us for a book launch party on October 12th at Book Club Bar in NYC (Thanks to Victoria for introducing us to the cool venue)! Bring your partner, a friend, or even a foe! Everyone is welcome, including non-lab members, and the party will be from 7-10pm.
If you’re planning on attending, please RSVP here so we have room.
Lab member shoutouts
One of our lab’s postdocs, Kim Doell, recently had a paper accepted in Scientific Reports! It investigates the role that positive affect plays in promoting pro-environmental actions, and you can read the preprint here:
Our PhD student Ali Javeed will be giving his first SPSP talk this year. He’ll explore how emotion regulation in White people after witnessing anti-Black racism impacts their collective action:
Our former PhD student Diego Reinero was named a Presidential Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Princeton (though you can still spot him around the lab from time-to-time, staying true to his roots)f:
And finally, our lab’s PhD student Anni Sternisko recently won the SPSP travel award!
Postdoc job opportunities
If you’re on the lookout for a postdoc position or data science job (or know someone who is), check out these recent openings at NYU:
And on that note, now might be a great time to check out Jay’s Letters to Young Scientists column, featuring tips on finding a postdoc, applying for academic jobs, mentoring, and more:
In the media
Jay was recently interviewed on one of his all-time favorite podcasts, Hidden Brain, about how the groups we identify with shape our sense of self:
This recent piece from Behavioral Scientist highlights an excerpt from The Power of Us (and heavily features research from our lab):
Jay and his co-author Dominic also wrote a piece for New York Magazine, which explores how our food preferences not only say something about who we are as people, but also reveal how our identities work:
And if you were following our feud with Facebook a few months ago, here’s an interesting update on the subject from the Wall Street Journal:
In case you missed our lab newsletter from last month:
As always, if you have any photos, news, or research you’d like to have included in this newsletter, please reach out to Katie (nyu.vanbavel.lab@gmail.com). We are also going to encourage former lab members to share exciting career updates or job opportunities in our lab newsletter (we’d love to hear what you’re up to!)
That’s all, folks—thanks for reading and we’ll see you next month!