Faculty

Mary McRae

Associate Professor of Applied Psychology

Mary McRae

Phone: (212) 998 5552
Email:

Curriculum Vitae/Syllabi

Each individual is a part of family, community and society. Understanding how these groups and/or systems influence individuals experiences in the context of culture, race, ethnicity, class, gender, etc. and how individuals take on various roles as apart of this interaction is what I strive to understand.


Degrees Held

  • M.S. Brooklyn College
  • B.A. City College of New York
  • Ed.D. Columbia University, Teachers College

Selected Publications

  • McRae, M. B.& Short, E. L. (2010). Racial Cultural Dynamics in Group and Organizational Life: Crossing Boundaries. Los Angeles, CA: Sage (view)
  • McRae, M. B. & Short, E. L. (2005) Racial-Cultural Training for Group Counseling and Psychotherapy. In R.T. Carter (Ed) Handbook on Racial-Cultural Pscyhology, (pp.135-147), John Wiley & Sons.
  • McRae, M. B. (2004). How do I Talk to You, My White Sister? Center for Gender in Organizations Commentaries, No. 2. Simmons School of Management
  • McRae, M. B. (2004). Class, Race and Gender Issues in Taking up the Role of Director: Training Implications. In S. Cytrynbaum & D. Noumair (Eds.) Group Relations Reader III, (pp.225-237). A.K. Rice Institute

Research Interests

  • Group and organizational dynamics
  • Race, gender, and social class as they relate to authority and leadership in group and organizational life
  • Interpersonal and group-as-a whole communication from a psychoanalytic (relational cultural theory) and systemic approach
  • Participatory action and narrative research

Group and Intergroup Relations Work

Each spring I coordinate a weekend non-residential Group Relations, Working with Differences conference series designed to help participants learn primarily through experience and reflection.  The laboratory is a microcosm of societal institutions to provide opportunities to experience and examine systemic processes –overt and covert, conscious and unconscious- encountered in the exercise of authority, leadership, and power, especially as they relate to working with differences, such as race, ethnicity, gender, religion, sexual identity, and social class.  The conceptual framework for the conferences are based on psychodynamic and open systems theory.

Updates:

Professor McRae is the first American and person of African descent invited to take up the role of director of the 2012 Leicester Group Relations Conference. She will be directing with Mannie Sher, Director of the Group Relations Program, Tavistock Institute.  Link to the conference brochure:  Authority, Role, Organization: Coalition, Cooperation and Sustainable Society. http://www.tavinstitute.org/work/development/leicester_conference.php