Winner of the CPED 2025 Thesis Prize

Congratulations to Béatrice STERNBERG, winner of the 2025 Thesis Prize from CPED, for her thesis in social psychology at Paris Nanterre University, titled “Sociocognitive Processes Involved in Intersectionality-Based Invisibility: The Role of Perceived Identity Incongruence.Drawing on the case of gay men of North African origin in France, Béatrice STERNBERG demonstrates that individuals belonging to multiple stigmatized groups are more likely to be rendered invisible when their identities are perceived as incongruous with each other.

She was selected from about forty applications, coming from 26 member institutions of the CPED, and from a wide range of disciplines¹, ranging from humanities and social sciences to fundamental sciences. The jury, composed of equality and diversity officers, highlighted the excellence of Béatrice STERNBERG's work as well as the interest and usefulness of her analysis of the concept of intersectionality for the work of equality and diversity missions in higher education and research institutions. The theoretical and methodological perspectives open up a particularly interesting field of reflection that echoes the issue of siloed EDI policies and the value of cross-cutting or intersectional approaches. Furthermore, the perceived.

In addition to the €1,500 prize, the winner will be invited to present his thesis at the next CPED conference in 2026 ! The award of this thesis prize is part of CPED's commitment to supporting research into gender, equality and diversity. 

For this second edition, the jury of the thesis prize was composed of : 

• Catherine Minet-Letalle, former Vice President for Equality, Anti-Discrimination and VSS and Professor of Private Law at the Université du Littoral Côte d'Opale ; 
• Dorothée Guérin, Vice-Chairwoman for Gender Equality and the Fight against SGBV and Professor of Private Law at the Université de Bretagne Occidentale - Brest;  
• Pascal Tisserant, EDI Vice-Chairman and Senior Lecturer in Social Psychology, Université de Lorraine - Metz; 
• Françoise Le Fichant, Vice President Social Responsibility and lecturer in private law at the University of Nantes; 
• Véronique Van De Bor, Vice-President, Social Policy, Equality and Diversity, and researcher in developmental biology at the Université Côte d'Azur ; 
• Clotilde Coron, EDI Vice-President and Professor of Management Sciences at Université Paris-Saclay;
• Camille Fauth, Vice President for Equality, Parity, Diversity and the Fight against Discrimination at the University of Strasbourg; ; 
• Stéphanie Geneix-Rabault, in charge of the «Equality - Diversity» project at the University of New Caledonia; ; 
• Julie Malet-Vigneaux, Project Manager for Equality, Secularism, and the Fight Against Discrimination, Harassment, and Sexual and Gender-Based Violence in Student Life at the University of the Littoral Côte d’Opale; ;
• Sophie Louargant, Vice-President of Equality, Parity, and Non-discrimination at the University of Grenoble Alpes; ; 
• Christine Morin-Messabel, Vice-President for Discrimination, Equality, VSS and Social Action at Université Lumière Lyon 2; ; 
• Nicolas Bourbon, Vice-President of Equality, Inclusion and Non-Discrimination at Université Paris Nanterre; ; 
• Annabelle Boutet-Diéye, Co-lead, Gender Equality Mission at IMT Atlantique (Brest campus)

Her thesis abstract:

“The objective of this research work was to examine when and how people belonging to several stigmatized groups are likely to experience a specific form of discrimination, known as intersectional invisibility. Following a systematic review of the literature (Chapter 2), we tested the role of a plausible yet little-examined moderator: perceived incongruence between the identities of targets. Taking the example of gay men of North African origin in France, we argued that people belonging to multiple stigmatized groups are more likely to be invisibilized when their identities are perceived as incongruent with each other. In two sets of empirical studies, we investigated how this invisibility could constitute both a «disadvantage», in terms of memorization processes, and a relative «advantage», in terms of intergroup bias. When their identities were perceived as incongruent with each other, the speeches of gay men of North African origin were less well memorized than those of other targets, this being possibly explained by the hypervisibility of their identities, to the detriment of the memorization of their speeches (Chapter 3). They were, however, evaluated as less threatening than heterosexual men of North African origin, partly because they were perceived as less typical examples of the North African male group (Chapter 4). Overall, these results confirm our thesis that perceived incongruence between identities plays a role in the invisibility of people belonging to multiple stigmatized groups.”

1.  Gender studies; management sciences; social, clinical, and developmental psychology; cognitive sciences; immunology; education and training sciences; history; sociology, digital sociology; public law; ethnology; physics; performing arts; philosophy and epistemology; geography; virology; language sciences, linguistics, and language didactics; economics; information and communication sciences; anthropology.
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