Ram Mahalingam received his PhD in Developmental Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh. He was originally trained as a civil engineer and held more than 12 different jobs (math tutor, film script writer, children’s theater activist, poet, writer, lecturer, night watchman, dish washer, cook, book stacker and preschool teacher) including being a structural engineer for 8 years before becoming a psychologist. He is currently Professor of Psychology in the Personality and Social Contexts program at the University of Michigan. He is also a core faculty member of the Psychology and Women’s Studies Joint PhD program. He was the Director for the Honors Program in Psychology department and the founding Director for the Accelerated Master’s Degree Program in Psychology. He is currently the Director for the Barger Leader Institute.
His research is centered around intersectionality – the way that different identities we embody intersect shape how we make sense of our lives. In his empirical work, he conceptualizes intersectionality in three distinct ways (Mahalingam & Rabelo, 2013). First, he explores intersectionality as a lived experience, focusing on encounters and stressors for those with marginalized identities based on gender, ethnicity, religion, caste, sexuality, occupation, and class. Second, he studies intersectionality as identities in contexts. For example, he studied how intersecting ecological contexts shape beliefs about gender in communities with a history of female infanticide (Mahalingam, 2007b). Third, he views intersectionality as a critical social awareness of privilege and marginality for differing identities. This rich conceptualization of intersectionality connects his specific research projects to answer broader questions. With this overarching framework, He pursues three lines of research: (a) Dignity and Invisibility in workplace with a specific focus on janitors in India, US and South Korea; (b) Mindfulness, social justice and leadership with a specific focus on interconnectedness; (c) Relationship between cell phones and self. He is the Director for the Mindful Connections Lab.
Learn more about his work here
