Joan Ostrove

Joan Ostrove’s research concerns the connections between individual psychology and social structure. She is interested in the ways in which our positions in the social hierarchy (specifically with respect to gender, social class, race, and disability) shape our individual psychological experiences. Joan’s recent work examines the qualities of effective alliances across differences of social identity (e.g., alliances between people of color and white people, between people with disabilities and non-disabled people, and between Deaf and hearing people), particularly the qualities that members of non-dominant groups look for in a potential dominant-group ally. She is part of a research team that studied the well-being of disabled people during the COVID pandemic, and is currently co-editing (with Professor Thomas Dirth) a Handbook of the Social Psychology of Disability that will be published by Edward Elgar Publishing.

Education

BA: Williams College

PhD: University of Michigan

Certificate in Women’s Studies: University of Michigan

Selected publications

Adler, J.M., Manning, R.B., Pieterse, K., Cowan, H.R., Bogart, K.R., Lowe, S.R., Nario-Redmond, M.R., Ostrove, J.M., & Wang, K. (2026).  “Just getting along, together.”  The relationship between narratives of interdependence and psychological well-being among American adults with disabilities during the first three years of the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 130(1). 109-128. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000571 [open access].

Wang, K., Ostrove, J.M., Manning III, R. B., Fodero, S., *Ash, S., Whang, J., Bogart, K., Cipollina, R., Nario-Redmond, M. R., Adler, J. M., & Lowe, S. R. (2024). Ableism in mental healthcare settings: A qualitative study among U.S. adults with disabilities. SSM: Qualitative Research in Health, 6, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmqr.2024.100498 [open access].

Nishida, A., & Ostrove, J. M. (2023). Power as control / power as resistance and vision: Disability and gender in psychology (and beyond). In E. Zurbriggen & R. Capdevila (Eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of Psychology, Power, and Gender (pp. 277-295). London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Adler, J. M., Manning, R. B., Hennein, R., Winschel, J., Baldari, A., Bogart, K. R., Nario-Redmond, M. R., Ostrove, J. M., Lowe, S. R., & Wang, K. (2022). Narrative identity among people with disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic: The interdependent self. Journal of Research in Personality, 101. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2022.104302 [open access].

Gillen-O’Neel, C., *Roebuck, E., & Ostrove, J. M. (2021). Class and the classroom: The role of individual- and school-level socioeconomic factors in predicting college students’ academic behaviors. Emerging Adulthood. 10.1177/2167696818815359

Coffman, S., & Ostrove, J. M. (2020).  Engaging a collaborative practice: Reflections on feminist/critical disability studies by two psychologists. In S. Fenstermaker & A. J. Stewart (Eds.). Gender, considered: Feminist reflections across the U.S. social sciences (pp.191 – 217). London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Ostrove, J. M., *Kornfeld, M, & *Ibrahim, M. (2019). Actors against ableism?: Qualities of non-disabled allies from the perspective of people with physical disabilities. Journal of Social Issues, 75, 924-942.

Ostrove, J. M., & Brown, K. T. (2018). Are allies who we think they are?: A comparative analysis. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 48, 194-204.

*denotes Macalester student