Batja Gomes de Mesquita

Batja Mesquita is a social psychologist, an affective scientist, and a pioneer of cultural psychology. She is a professor of psychology at the University of Leuven, Belgium, and director of the Center for Social and Cultural Psychology at the University of Leuven.

Mesquita is one of the world’s leading authorities on the psychological study of cultural differences in emotions. Most of her research focuses on the constitutional role of cultural contexts in emotion. Dr. Mesquita has published widely on topics related to cultural differences in emotions and on acculturation and emotion.

Her most recent research focuses on the role of emotions in multicultural societies. She studies how emotions affect the belonging of minoritized youth in middle schools, and the social and economic integration of “newcomers” (i.e. newly arrived immigrants).

Mesquita has been a consultant for UNICEF and the WHO, and most recently, she was a member of the core group of scientific advisors for the Happiness and Well-being (SEH) Project, and initiative of the Vatican in partnership with the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN).

She has served as Associate Editor of Cognition and Emotion and Emotion Review and is currently on the editorial boards of Emotion, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, and Social and Personality Psychology Compass.

Before coming to Leuven, she was affiliated to Wake Forest University, the University of Michigan, Stanford University, and the University of Amsterdam.