Shopping experiences in beauty retail stores are often imagined as frivolous, temporary pursuits of pleasure. Yet, from the perspective of millennial Black women, and in the context of predominantly Black neighborhoods, the consumer experience is impacted by issues related to representation, location, and ownership. Reed’s work revolves around the historical and cultural relevance of the Black beauty supply store and how to improve beauty retail store design and community and business partnershi...
Dec 26, 2022•22 min
Misha Inniss-Thompson says we should listen to young people — in particular, young Black girls — for their lived experiences which can help shape school policies and create real safe spaces in schools. Inniss-Thompson’s work revolves around the impact of families, communities, and schools in shaping Black girls’ mental health and wellness using a cultural-assets perspective. She has also done research on trends in nationwide school discipline disparities that impact Black girls. Inniss-Thompson ...
Dec 05, 2022•24 min
When a policy is implemented, the intended purpose of it is important but what about the unintended actions or consequences of that policy? Jamein Cunningham looks at the impact that historical programs from the 1960s and 1970s have had on the socioeconomic conditions of Black Americans. Cunningham is an assistant professor in the Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy. His research agenda consists of four broad overarching themes focusing on the intersectionality of institutional discrim...
Nov 14, 2022•27 min
Translating research can take a long time. How do you help speed up the process? Melody Goodman says you should bring in the non-academic stakeholders that will benefit from your research. Melody Goodman is associate dean for research and professor of biostatistics at the School of Global Public Health at New York University. Dr. Melody Goodman’s efforts seek to understand the social risk factors that contribute to health disparities in urban areas, with the goal of developing culturally compete...
Oct 24, 2022•28 min
Janis Whitlock is research scientist emerita at the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research at Cornell, and founder/director of the Cornell Research Program on Self-injury and Recovery. While Whitlock is retiring from Cornell, it's more of a transition, where she will continue the work she has been doing.
Oct 03, 2022•27 min
Dr. Renata M. Leitão is a Brazilian/Canadian design researcher with eleven years of experience in collaborative projects with Indigenous and marginalized communities. Dr. Leitão holds a PhD in Environmental Design and a MASc in Design & Complexity (Université de Montréal). In this episode, Dr. Leitão discusses the importance of intercultural translation, including how academics and researchers can connect with the communities they are working with.
Jan 18, 2022•19 min
Dr. Adam Hoffman is an assistant professor of psychology in the College of Human Ecology at Cornell University. His research focuses on how ethnic, racial, and gender identities develop during adolescence and how they affect academic motivation and achievement, well-being and mental health. Hoffman also investigates how social identities can be leveraged to promote positive youth development. Hoffman shares with host Tony Burrow about his research with the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and ho...
Dec 14, 2021•19 min
Dr. Laura Bellows is an associate professor in the division on nutritional sciences, after spending 20 years at Colorado State University. Her research is focused on the development of eating habits and physical activity patterns in early childhood; interventions in the early care setting; and the influence of parental behaviors and the home environment on the development of these behaviors. Much of her work is focused on health disparate populations, including those with limited resources, who ...
Nov 22, 2021•19 min
This episode we hear from Deborah Sellers, director of research and evaluation for the Residential Child Care Project (RCCP) in the BCTR. Much of RCCP's work involves training staff in residential facilities and schools worldwide to respond to traumatized children in crisis without further traumatizing the child. Through her work in RCCP, Sellers helps design research studies that answer the right questions to guide decisions and uses data to evaluate how facilities can improve child safety. Deb...
Oct 25, 2021•24 min
Laura Tach and Elizabeth Day of Cornell Project 2Gen join Tony to talk about two-generation approaches to helping families thrive. They discuss why addressing the needs of both children and adults in a single family is a more effective way to create positive outcomes. Project 2Gen has extensive connections in communities and the court system. These partners have helped form the research that then benefits vulnerable families. Laura Tach is an sssociate professor of policy analysis and management...
Oct 25, 2021•23 min
Tony welcomes Jutta Dotterweich to reflect on her career with Act for Youth. Jutta retired in June after 22 years with the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research. Jutta received her MA in Psychology, Westfaelische Wilhelms University in Muenster, Germany in 1979. She has years of professional, community-based experience in the mental health and human services field in New York State and New Jersey. Jutta started as an Extension Associate at the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational R...
Sep 22, 2021•26 min
This is the debut episode of the new BCTR director Tony Burrow! Tony welcomes Patrick Hill, who studies how individuals consider and ultimately commit to a purpose for life. Hill notes that we all face difficult times where we have to decide who we are and where we want to go. He's interested in helping people find direction at times of uncertainty by determining what the best choices are for them by identifying their own direction in life. He and Tony also discuss the lifespan perspective of hi...
Jun 15, 2021•32 min
In Chris' final episode as Doing Translational Research host and director of the BCTR, he talks to his friend and colleague Andrew Papachristos, a professor of sociology doing translational criminology. How can social science help identify who will become a victim of gun violence and how to best intervene? Chris and Andy discuss this as well as Andy's path to academia, the biggest barrier in translational work and Andy's approach to mentoring graduate students. Andrew V. Papachristos is a profes...
May 15, 2021•24 min
Chris welcomes Lauren Brinkley-Rubenstein, assistant professor of social medicine at the University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill. Their wide-ranging conversation covers: the definition of social medicine, how COVID-19 more greatly impacts people in prisons and jails*, of course they cover her work with community partners, and there's a ghost named Kim. Yes, a ghost. *This episode was recorded in May, so covid numbers mentioned will have changed since then. Lauren Brinkley-Rubinstein is an assis...
Jul 15, 2020•21 min
This month we hear from our own Jane Powers, project director of ACT for Youth. Jane and Chris get into the history and work of ACT, changing communities to be better environments for young people, building capacity in practitioners, the strength of partnerships with diverse perspectives and Jane's life examining adolescent development. Jane Powers, Ph.D. is a researcher based at Cornell University's Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research. She is project director for Assets Coming Toge...
Jun 12, 2020•20 min
In our first episode recorded in coronavirus separation, Chris speaks with Tasseli McKay, a social science researcher in the division for applied justice research at Research Triangle International. They discuss the most common acts of violence: partner violence; and the interplay of family violence in the context of mass incarceration. Tasseli notes how government systems, often at odds with each other, economically hobble families and are dangerous in other ways. They discuss how programs need...
May 13, 2020•27 min
This episode Chris is joined by Emily Wang of Yale's Health Justice Lab, a collaborative, innovative interdisciplinary team focused on improving the health of individuals and communities who have been affected by mass incarceration. They discuss her work with incarcerated and recently-incarcerated patients; how the transition from incarceration to home is a particularly health-harming time; getting buy in from patients; evaluating programs; and the joy her work brings her. Dr. Emily Wang, MD, MA...
Apr 15, 2020•24 min
This month's guest is the BCTR's own Martha Holden, director of the Residential Child Care Project (RCCP). She and Chris discuss her years of studying, and training care workers, how to keep children in care safe and healthy. They cover how power struggles escalate, working with state agencies and facilities, working with children with trauma and RCCP's internationally-used training programs. Martha J. Holden is a senior extension associate with the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Resear...
Mar 14, 2020•26 min
Do we recognize our influence on others? Vanessa Bohn's research suggests we underestimate it. This episode she and Chris discuss social influence and the psychology of compliance and consent. Issues around consent and compliance arise in our romantic relationships, work life and interactions with law enforcement, to name a few, and we're not always consciously aware when they're in play. Vanessa Bohns is an associate professor in the Department of Organizational Behavior at Cornell University, ...
Feb 15, 2020•21 min
Ever since postal systems arose, people have engaged in distance learning. But how are digital technologies impacting learning contexts? This month's guest René Kizilcec discusses his work in this area, including massive online open courses (MOOCs): who uses them, what are they learning and do MOOCs improve access to knowledge? Chris and René also touch on whether digital learning perpetuates achievement gaps along race and gender lines or narrows them. René Kizilcec is an assistant professor in...
Jan 15, 2020•22 min
The foundation of his research interests stem from his background growing up in a large, working-class family in South Dakota, Dan Lichter explains. He and Chris discuss rural communities and how they develop and grow, poverty, issues of racial diversity and identity and the sentiment of disenfranchisement in rural communities. Lichter has always done work that is obviously important to the general population and acknowledges that rural America has been historically left out of consideration in ...
Nov 15, 2019•20 min
Karen Levy has a background in sociology and law and studies the social, legal and ethical implications of technology. She and Chris get into her interest in the employment of surveillance in mundane contexts: the workplace, households and in intimate partner relationships. They discuss when individuals use surveillance on each other as well as when companies watch workers and consumers. They also explore the ways surveillance data can be used to counter injustice on behalf of workers or margina...
Oct 15, 2019•22 min
Our guest Bruce Lewenstein is a professor in the Departments of Communication and of Science and Technology Studies at Cornell University. A historian and social scientist, his main focus is the public understanding of science. He and Chris discuss studying scientific controversies and the essential importance of listening to and understanding what a community values in order to work with that community. Bruce Lewenstein is an authority on public communication of science and technology, how scie...
Sep 14, 2019•21 min
Lars Andersen of the Rockwool Foundation in Copenhagen, Denmark joins us this month to discuss his research on crime and the consequences of punishment. He and Chris discuss the importance of using quality data to answer questions or reexamine existing knowledge based on poor data; how criminal justice professionals (wardens, guards, parole officers, etc.) engage with his research; and how to design sentencing policies that improve life chances instead of ruining them. Lars Højsgaard Andersen is...
Aug 15, 2019•21 min
This month guest host and BCTR associate director Maria Fitzpatrick chats with Will Hobbs about his research on sudden changes and how people adapt to them. The change in question could be personal, like the death of a friend, or societal, like a governmental policy shift. As a researcher, he's most often associated with methods such as data science using complex data sources and causal inference. William Hobbs is an assistant professor in the Department of Human Development at Cornell Universit...
Jul 15, 2019•18 min
This month we welcome Lonnie Berger, director of the Institute for Research on Poverty and Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor and Ph.D. Program Chair at the School of Social Work at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His work aims to inform public policy in order to improve its capacity to assist families in accessing resources, improving family functioning and wellbeing and ensuring that children are able to grow and develop in the best possible environments. Lonnie and Chris discuss t...
Jun 15, 2019•28 min
This month Chris chats with political scientist Jamila Michener. Jamila gets into her interest in politics and inequality from an early age; how public policy plays a role in alienating people at the economic and racial margins; and how connections to stakeholders shape her work. Jamila Michener is an assistant professor in the Department of Government at Cornell University. Her research focuses on poverty, racial inequality and public policy in the United States. Her recent book, "Fragmented De...
May 15, 2019•24 min
This time Chris is joined by his collaborator, political scientist Peter Enns. They get into Peter's work examining how how policy can be informed by public opinion in such areas as mass incarceration and unerstanding election resutls. He also explains why it's a good time for criminal justice reform. Peter K. Enns is an associate professor in the Department of Government and executive director of the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research at Cornell University. His research focuses on public ...
Apr 15, 2019•19 min
Shannon Gleeson studies workplace rights, the experiences of immigrant workers and the role of advocacy organizations in holding government bureaucracies accountable. She and Chris discuss the overlap between immigration and labor policy, immigrant labor rights, the often-overlooked importance of policy implementation and working with various stakeholders. Shannon describes her experiences working with communities, including the importance of finding the gatekeepers and not over-promising as res...
Mar 14, 2019•23 min
Melissa Ferguson is an expert in social cognition, studying how our unconscious attitudes and goals differ from our stated or self-perceived ones. She and Chris discuss her research in this area using implicit association tests to measure implicit prejudice, with the ultimate goal of changing it. They also get into the replication issues with psychology research and working with undergrad research subjects vs. subjects in the broader community. Melissa Ferguson is senior associate dean of social...
Feb 15, 2019•24 min
