-
FOLLOW US
Katherine Starzyk
She/Her
Professor
Katherine Starzyk, Ph.D., is a Professor in Social and Personality Psychology at the University of Manitoba. She is also a Founding Member of the Centre for Human Rights Research and the Centre for Social Science Research & Policy. Born in Poland, Katherine brings her identities as a Polish Canadian woman to her work.
Through her research, teaching, and service, Katherine aims to contribute to social justice. Her research focuses on how to shift attitudes toward past and present human rights issues. In collaboration with students in her Social Justice Laboratory and others across disciplines and sectors, Katherine’s work is multidisciplinary and involves diverse methodologies, including interviews, focus groups, and public polling; survey, correlational, and experimental methods; as well as quantitative, qualitative, and archival analysis. Through this work, Katherine aims to make both scholarly and applied contributions.
Presently, alongside a dedicated team of Indigenous and non-Indigenous partners and collaborators, Katherine is spending much of her time on the Canadian Reconciliation Barometer. To this project, Katherine brings her expertise in psychometrics, the science of psychological measurement, and intergroup relations, as well as experience managing large projects. Such a tool is one way to track progress toward reconciliation as Canada works to resolve the serious and varied past and present harms perpetrated against Indigenous Peoples.
In collaboration with Dr. Becky Choma and Dr. Iloradanon Efimoff at Toronto Metropolitan University, Katherine is also investigating the role perceived norms and individual differences play in collective action.
Finally, Dr. Starzyk is involved in the SPECTRUM project, a social policy evaluation collaborative team.
Publications/Papers
White, E. E.-L., & Starzyk, K. B. (2025). Psychological factors associated with knowing an Indigenous language. First Nations Health and Wellbeing – The Lowitja Journal.
Efimoff, I. H., & Starzyk, K. B. (2025). A mixed methods investigation of Indigenous university students’ experiences with and strategies to challenge racism. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology. Advance online publication.
Efimoff, I. H., & Starzyk, K. B. (2024). An example of embedding Indigenous research approaches into social psychology: A mixed methods program of research to reduce anti-Indigenous prejudice. SAGE Research Methods Cases: Diversifying and Decolonizing Research Case Studies.
Starzyk, K. B.1, Neufeld, K. H. S.1, Efimoff, I. H., Fontaine, A. S. M., White, E. E.-L., Moran, R., Peachey, D., Sekwan Fontaine, L., & Welch, M.-A. (2024). The Canadian Reconciliation Barometer: A rigorous tool for tracking reconciliation in Canada. R. P. Eibach, S. Eidelman, & J. Friesen (Eds.). (2024). The Political Psychology of Social Change [Special issue]. Social Justice and Political Psychology Section, Frontiers in Social Psychology, 2. 1 = shared first author.
Starzyk, K. B.1, Efimoff, I. H.1, Neufeld, K. H. S., Woolford, A., Fontaine, A. S. M., Young, J., Bunt, A., Trickey, J., Sinclair, S., & Muller, A. (2024). The influence of Survivor stories and a virtual reality representation of a residential school on reconciliation in Canada. In R. P. Eibach, S. Eidelman, & J. Friesen (Eds.), The political psychology of social change [Special issue]. Social Justice and Political Psychology Section, Frontiers in Social Psychology, 2, Article 1346101. 1 = shared first author.
Efimoff, I. H., & Starzyk, K. B. (2023). The impact of learning about historical and current injustices, individual racism, and systemic racism on anti-Indigenous racism. European Journal of Social Psychology, 1–21.
Woolford, A., Starzyk, K. B., Sinclair, S., Muller, A., & MacDonald, D. (2022). “I definitely felt like I was there”: Enacting empathy and negotiating a virtual reality Indian residential school. AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples, 18(3).
Neufeld, K. H. S., Starzyk. K. B., Boese, G. D., Efimoff, I. H., & Wright, S. (2021). “The more you know”: Critical historical knowledge about Indian Residential Schools increases non-Indigenous Canadians’ empathy for Indigenous peoples. Political Psychology, 43(4), 617–633.
Starzyk, K. B., Neufeld, K. H. S., Gaucher, D., Quesnel, M., Fontaine, A. S. M., Vorauer, J. D., & Yakubovich, A. (2021). “Is water a human right?”: Priming water as a human right increases support for government action. International Indigenous Policy Journal, 12(3), 1–28. https://doi.org/10.18584/iipj.2021.12.3.9342 (open access)
Starzyk, K. B., Fontaine, A. S. M., Strand, L. K., & Neufeld, K. H. S. (2021). Attitudes toward reconciliation in Canada: Relationships with connectedness to nature, animal-human continuity, and moral expansiveness. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, 53(4), 381-390.
Support Us
Whether you are passionate about interdisciplinary human rights research, social justice programming, or student training and mentorship, the University of Manitoba offers opportunities to support the opportunities most important to you.
