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Staff profile

Overview

Dr Chuma Owuamalam

Assistant Professor

Affiliations
AffiliationTelephone
Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology+44 (0) 191 33 40983

Biography

Chuma Owuamalam is a social psychologist with professional experience across several countries, including Nigeria, the UK, Malaysia, and the US. He completed his MSc in Group Processes and Intergroup Relations from the University of Kent in 2003, followed by a PhD at Keele University in 2009, where he focused on meta-stereotyping among stigmatized groups. Chuma completed postdoctoral positions at the University of Manchester in 2010 and at Royal Holloway University of London in 2011. In 2012, he became an Assistant Professor at the University of Nottingham's Malaysia campus, rising to Associate Professor in 2021. In 2022, Chuma completed a year at Reed College, Portland (OR, USA) as a visiting Associate Professor, before joining Durham University the following year. Chuma is mostly known for his research on system justification and intergroup relations and currently serves as an Associate Editor for the British Journal of Social Psychology.

Research Interests

Chuma's research focuses on social identities and the inequalities tied to group membership, examining how these disparities influence thoughts, emotions, and behaviours across social, educational, and workplace contexts. Chuma employs a range of methods—including surveys, behavioural studies, and psychophysiological experiments—to explore issues like stereotype threat, political ideology, microaggression, hate crime and attitudes toward societal systems, often through the lens of the social identity approach. Current projects in Chuma's lab also investigate biases and their effects on attitudes toward disadvantaged groups in areas like law enforcement (e.g., gun ownership/control), healthcare (e.g., bias in pain diagnosis), and workplace dynamics (e.g., inclusive hiring practices). Chuma's goal is to translate these insights into actionable strategies for promoting social and behavioural change.

Selected Grants

  • ESRC postdoctoral fellowship (RCUK): The consequences of meta-stereotyping for members of disadvantaged groups (£75,023). PI
  • FRGS grant (Malaysia Ministry of Higher Education): Responding to terror emergencies: Does compassion bias influence the provision of aid to victims? (RM 75,200). PI
  • RKTS grant (European Association of Social Psychology): A training workshop on multi-level modelling and social justice research methods. (€3,500). PI
  • The John and Daphne Keats Endowment Research Fund (University of Newcastle, Australia): When and why do disadvantaged groups support societal systems that disadvantage them? A cross-cultural test of system justification predictions. ($7,700). Co-PI

Past Doctoral Students

As a primary advisor, Chuma has mentored the following ex-PhD students:

  • Dr. Misha'ari Weerabangsa
  • Dr. Andrea Soledad Matos
  • Dr. Jaya Kumar Karunagharan
  • Dr. Rachel Mei Ming Wong

PhD and Masters by Research Opportunities

Chuma is happy to discuss supervision on any of the following topics:

  • Racial inequality and disparities in the justice system
  • The impact of political ideology and bias on workplace outcomes for minoritized groups
  • Microaggressions, the hunchback heuristic, and their effects on the well-being of disadvantaged groups
  • Enhancing intergroup relations and fostering social cohesion
  • System justification and its role in driving or hindering social change
  • Stereotype threat and its influence on academic outcomes and career aspirations 

Publications

Journal Article

Presentation

Working Paper

Supervision students

Ahmed Faruk Saglamoz