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George �鶹��Ƶ PhD champions coral reef conservation through research and mentorship

Katarina Benson — Thu, 24 Jul 2025 18:36:41 +0000

George �鶹��Ƶ PhD champions coral reef conservation through research and mentorship Katarina Benson Thu, 07/24/2025 - 14:36

As a doctoral student at �鶹��Ƶ, Jordan Sims has spent the past several years immersed, literally and figuratively, in the underwater ecosystems of Honduras, where her research is helping solve real-world challenges in coral reef conservation.

Jordan Sims working with coral samples in the lab. Photo provided

As a marine microbial ecologist, Sims studied the invisible world of microbes living in and around coral reefs, exploring how these tiny organisms influence the health of one of the most vulnerable ecosystems on Earth. Much of Sims’s dissertation work involved coral settlement to help conservationists improve restoration techniques. She also investigated genotyping corals in restoration programs to ensure their genetic diversity supports long-term survival.

“It’s good science, and it’s important science,” said Sims, who graduated with a PhD in Environmental Science and Public Policy in May. “But it’s also applicable science. That was really fulfilling to me in my dissertation.”

Sims’s connection to Honduras came about through George �鶹��Ƶ’s SCUBA Club. The club had taken students to Honduras for years, building strong relationships with local researchers and conservationists. When Sims joined the club as a PhD student, a single trip turned into an ongoing collaboration.

“I got to go on a trip and build those relationships, and then I continued working with them independently,” she said.

With her advisor, Environmental Science and Policy professor Jennifer Salerno, Sims nurtured those partnerships beyond the initial group trips, returning to Honduras on her own to work with the Roatán Institute for Marine Sciences, where she mentored undergraduate interns involved in reef research.

Collecting reef samples in Honduras. Photo provided

Sims shared that one of her most memorable experiences at George �鶹��Ƶ was mentoring a student through the Undergraduate Research Scholars Program, offered by the university’s Office of Student Creative Activities and Research (OSCAR). The student developed a passion for reef work during a field trip to Honduras, later joined Sims on a research project, and ultimately returned to George �鶹��Ƶ to pursue a master’s degree. “Watching that journey unfold was incredibly meaningful,” Sims said. “Being part of someone discovering their path was deeply rewarding.”

Sims earned her bachelor’s degree at Rice University, where she first developed an interest in marine biology and coral reefs. When considering graduate programs, she knew she wanted a PhD that combined science with policy. “In coral reef science, applied work is so important,” she explained. “Corals are dying, and we have such limited resources, so everything we do should contribute to the bigger picture.”

In 2022, Sims was awarded a Graduate Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation (NSF), which she credits as a turning point in her academic career. After spending two years as a teaching assistant, the NSF support allowed her to shift to a research assistantship. “I was able to focus fully on my research, and I like to think I helped the reefs more because of that.”

Now, Sims is preparing to take the next step in her career: a postdoctoral position at the University of California, Berkeley. “I love doing research. I love mentoring students,” she said. “So, I’m looking for a place where I can be very hands-on with the reef but also help bring up the next generation of scientists.”

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Using virtual reality to prevent falls in older adults

Katarina Benson — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 18:51:03 +0000

Using virtual reality to prevent falls in older adults Katarina Benson Tue, 07/01/2025 - 14:51

Annually, one in four senior citizens seek emergency care from a fall-related injury. Traditionally, conventional physical therapy rehabilitation approaches have been used to help prevent falls, which are often the result of poor balance. However, many in the physical therapy field now view immersive virtual reality (VR) technology as an intriguing option. While laboratory-based experiments provide promising findings, to date this technology has yet to be translated into clinical settings.

Tiphanie Raffegeau of �鶹��Ƶ ’s School of Kinesiology in the College of Education and Human Development, and Christopher Rhea, Old Dominion University’s associate dean for Research and Innovation in Ellmer College of Health Sciences, envisioned a future where clinicians could use affordable VR technology to outperform traditional diagnostics, therapeutics, and pharmaceutical approaches in fall prevention. They saw an opportunity to develop effective uses of VR technology to detect cognitive-motor function in older adults and identify fall-risk factors for this population. They were awarded a 4-VA grant for the project.

Neuroscience major Sammana Waziri tries out the rehabilitative VR in the lab. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of University Branding

Raffegeau’s prior research focused on inducing anxiety during walking to study the fear of falling with an elevated height VR paradigm, while Rhea has primarily concentrated on examining how people adapt their steps to avoid obstacles in virtual environments. Through a 4-VA partnership, they aimed to increase accessibility to rehabilitative VR technology for interventions focused on reducing older adult fall-risk, while developing a framework for future scalable and fundable research.

Raffegeau hired three student programmers, Trevor Hsu, Chara Canfield, and Micah D Williams, from George �鶹��Ƶ’s Virginia Serious Game Institute (VSGI) to help. The student programmers were supervised by VSGI research faculty member Jacob Enfield. Two �鶹��Ƶ graduate students are also working on the project: Kelly Poretti and Mackenzie Barrowman.

After a year of research, Raffegeau noted, “Our testing proved fruitful, and we identified a number of important results.”

First, they found that experiencing fall-related anxiety in immersive VR can further impair a senior’s walking performance. Interestingly, they also found that the anxiety response tapers over time, suggesting that experiencing virtual high-elevation settings may reduce fall-related anxiety overall. They also saw that anxiety-provoking VR settings could promote stability-related adaptations during non-VR walking in impaired populations. This suggested that the VR experience could serve as a clinical intervention to improve walking.

Tiphanie Raffegeau, Mackenzie Barrowman, and Kelly Poretti with the poster of their study. Photo provided

They shared their findings at the Gait and Clinical Movement Analysis Society’s annual meeting, the American Society of Biomechanics annual meeting, and the College of Education and Human Development’s Research Symposium.

Poretti, who is working on a PhD in Education, was awarded the Switzer Research Fellowship for Doctoral Dissertation Research by the Administration for Community Living for her dissertation “Using Virtual Reality to Reduce Mobility-Related Anxiety in Lower-Limb Prosthetic Users,” which uses preliminary data from the VR project.

“This 4-VA funding provided crucial funds to support my work as an early investigator, and it has made my future grant applications stronger as evidence of institutional support for my career trajectory,” Raffegeau said.

Raffegeau and Rhea will continue to pursue this line of research. They recently submitted a proposal to the National Institutes on Aging on “Investigating Biobehavioral Responses to Mobility-Specific Anxiety Across the Menopause Transition and the Effects on Mobility and Fall-Risk,” focusing on the effect of VR-induced fall-related anxiety on walking in pre- and post-menopausal older women.

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Blast breakthroughs from Brazil bolster international engineering collaboration

Nathan Kahl — Wed, 21 May 2025 12:14:20 +0000

Blast breakthroughs from Brazil bolster international engineering collaboration Nathan Kahl Wed, 05/21/2025 - 08:14

In This Story

Girum Urgessa

A long-standing partnership between the Brazilian Air Force and �鶹��Ƶ’s College of Engineering and Computing is supporting a visiting PhD student’s investigation into explosion research, and enabling faculty to gather data that would otherwise be difficult to obtain.

Anselmo da Silva Augusto, a Brazilian Air Force major, is working with Girum Urgessa, an expert in structural engineering and mechanics, in what Urgessa calls a win-win partnership. “We provide the technical advice and mentorship and gather invaluable data from the tests Anselmo has been conducting,” said Urgessa.

This ongoing collaboration has yielded rapid results, with three peer-reviewed journal papers and five conference papers to be presented in the United States, Brazil, and Portugal.

The results of the blast, which can be digitally sent from Brazil to Anselmo. Photo provided.

Augusto is a trained civil engineer now pursuing his doctorate, who for nearly 20 years has focused on building protection. His military work led him to study explosives—specifically, how to best protect structures against blasts. The Brazilian Air Force sent him abroad, as part of a partnership with universities worldwide, where their service members study for one year.

Urgessa, a professor in the Sid and Reva Dewberry Department of Civil, Environmental, and Infrastructure Engineering, was happy to host him, having met Augusto during a previous visit to Brazil, where Urgessa was a keynote speaker at an international defense symposium.

Augusto’s work examines how steel sheets respond to near-field blasts and investigates protective systems, such as elastomers, rubber-like polymers that stretch. The technical and safety requirements make these tests impossible to conduct at George �鶹��Ƶ.

“You need to be far from urban areas, and you must have appropriate protocol for the safe handling of explosives,” said Augusto, describing the challenges of setting off an explosive roughly the size of an apple. “Also, there are several people involved, including safety experts, engineers, and technicians.”

High-speed cameras record the explosions, allowing the researchers to see the detonation in detail. “With the camera, recording at 10,000 frames per second, we are able to see the sheet deforming, which happens in about one millisecond.”

The team working in Brazil scans the damaged sheets and sends the data to Augusto, who 3D prints a replica, a completely accurate, small-scale version of the results that he can hold in his hands.

Augusto and Urgessa are using the findings to inform best practices for retrofitting structures against human-induced or accidental explosions. “If you have an existing historical building, you can apply this protective material to enhance its capacity," Augusto said. Or, in other applications, you may have a tank or a military vehicle that needs to be as light as possible and use different types of polymer composites for better protection.”

Urgessa said, “When we think about new construction, having this information helps to determine safe stand-off distances. It supports site planning decisions. We can't predict the exact magnitude of the next threat, but field-scale tests supplemented by computational models help us design resilient and secure structures.”

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Criminology, Law and Society researcher studies impact of high school principal-led interrogations

Katarina Benson — Mon, 07 Apr 2025 16:52:39 +0000

Criminology, Law and Society researcher studies impact of high school principal-led interrogations Katarina Benson Mon, 04/07/2025 - 12:52

Wrongful convictions upend lives, particularly those of youth, and can result in students becoming part of the school-to-prison pipeline. Talley Bettens, a doctoral candidate in �鶹��Ƶ’s Department of Criminology, Law and Society, seeks to trace this issue to its roots: adolescent behavior and the school environment.

Talley Bettens. Photo provided

Bettens has received a graduate research fellowship from the National Institute of Justice to support her dissertation titled “Schoolhouse Interrogations and Confessions: Perspectives from Principals and Students.” Her research will advance the understanding of school disciplinary practices and provide important insights into the factors that may contribute to wrongful convictions of youth. Allison Redlich, Distinguished University Professor of Criminology, Law and Society, is the chair of Bettens’s dissertation committee.

“This research will help us learn more about how principals investigate misconduct before deciding to discipline students. It will hopefully lead to the development of tools that improve the system and ensure that innocent youth are protected,” Bettens said.

Bettens will examine how high school principals interrogate students about potential misconduct and how these interrogation practices may influence the likelihood of coerced or false confessions from students. Bettens's study has two major phases. The first phase involves a survey of high school principals across the United States. Participants will be asked about the interrogation methods they use when questioning students and their knowledge of adolescents’ vulnerabilities when being interrogated.

The second phase involves direct work with students in Northern Virginia high schools. This phase involves a hypothetical interrogation scenario between the principal and a student. This will lead to more insight into how likely students are to confess under these circumstances. It also examines the problems faced by students in interrogations.

“We aim to gain information from both sides of the interrogation: from the principals and from the students,” Bettens said. “The use of guilt-presumptive, confession-driven interrogation methods when questioning students could increase the chance that students, even innocent ones, fall into the school to prison pipeline. By addressing the root of the issue from both sides, we can better understand how to prevent these numbers from increasing.”

The interdisciplinary approach combines criminal justice studies and psychological studies, finding common ground in how the school-to-prison pipeline may be initiated in these interrogations. Bettens said she takes a special interest in innocence, given an apparent lack of presumption of innocence for students at school, which may affect their view of themselves and their surroundings. This impact could play a large role in the students’ futures. which leads to the question Bettens aims to explore: How do we improve the tools for these educators who investigate misconduct while simultaneously protecting students?

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Chef’s KISS: Statistics PhD candidate creates new recipe for complex spatial data analysis

Teresa Donnellan — Thu, 06 Mar 2025 20:40:50 +0000

Chef’s KISS: Statistics PhD candidate creates new recipe for complex spatial data analysis Teresa Donnellan Thu, 03/06/2025 - 15:40

In This Story

Ben Seiyon Lee

Jin Hyung Lee, a PhD candidate in the Department of Statistics, in collaboration with his advisor, Assistant Professor Ben Seiyon Lee, has developed novel statistical methodology for analyzing large-scale complex data that can be up to 3,600 times faster than the current standard. He will receive the Korean International Statistical Society (KISS) 2024 Outstanding Student Paper Award for his work and present about it at the American Statistical Association’s Joint Statistical Meetings (JSM) 2025 in Nashville, Tennessee.

The primary application of Lee’s methodology is in the analysis of high-resolution satellite image data, which is inherently complex and high-dimensional. A major challenge lies in predicting values at unobserved locations within the satellite imagery. While traditional spatial modeling methods are computationally intensive and time-consuming, Lee's novel approach offers a solution that is significantly faster. This development has significant implications for various fields, such as atmospheric sciences, ecology, public health, and medical imaging.

Jin Hyung Lee, photo provided

Lee’s research focuses on the application of variational inference to massive spatial datasets using a unique machine learning algorithm. Variational inference is a method used to approximate complex probability distributions when true inference is not possible, making it a powerful method for modeling complex spatial datasets. The proposed approach significantly improves the computational efficiency of spatial data analysis, achieving speeds up to three orders of magnitude faster than existing methods while maintaining comparable accuracy.

Lee's method can be used to predict weather patterns in remote and rapidly changing environments like the Gulf Coast, southern California, and polar regions like Alaska or Antarctica. The ability to process high-dimensional data quickly and accurately is crucial for making timely and informed decisions in these regions, especially when they are at risk of geophysical hazards such as hurricanes, wildfires, or sea ice loss. Additionally, the methodology has potential applications in infectious disease modeling and public health data analysis, where rapid and accurate predictions are essential for effective intervention and policymaking.

Lee's research is part of his broader dissertation work, which focuses on developing and applying variational inference techniques to various statistical models. His goal is to simplify these methods, making them more accessible to non-experts and applicable to a wide range of data types. By doing so, Lee aims to bridge the gap between advanced statistical methodologies and practical applications, enabling more efficient and effective data analysis across different fields.

At the JSM 2025, Lee will have the opportunity to present his research to a large audience of statisticians from around the world. The conference, which attracts over 5,000 participants annually, provides a platform for sharing cutting-edge research, networking with peers, and exploring new developments in the field of statistics. Lee’s presentation will be part of a session hosted by KISS, where he and other award recipients will showcase their work and receive their awards.

Receiving the KISS Outstanding Student Paper Award is a significant milestone in Lee’s academic journey. It not only recognizes his contributions to the field but also provides him with valuable exposure and opportunities for future collaboration. As Lee continues to advance his research, his innovative methodologies and their applications are poised to make a lasting impact on the field of statistics and beyond.

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George �鶹��Ƶ PhD is living the dream in NYC with Met fellowship

Katarina Benson — Wed, 19 Feb 2025 17:57:26 +0000

George �鶹��Ƶ PhD is living the dream in NYC with Met fellowship Katarina Benson Wed, 02/19/2025 - 12:57

�鶹��Ƶ history PhD candidate Jayme Kurland is living her dream this academic year as the Jane and Morgan Whitney Fellow at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

George �鶹��Ƶ PhD candidate Jayme Kurland at the Met. Photo provided

Kurland started her college career as a viola performance major at the University of Oregon before earning her BA in music history. She then got a master’s in music history at Arizona State. As a Met fellow, Kurland is working in the musical instruments department and conducting research for her dissertation. “I’m back in my happy place,” she says, “just working with objects and thinking about the stories they can tell us.”

It’s Good to Be Back: Kurland fell in love with museum work as an undergrad when she landed a job at the Musical Instrument Museum in her hometown of Phoenix. “I never planned to move back home, but working as a curatorial assistant blended my music background with my love of museums.” She also worked as a curatorial research fellow in musical instruments at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston from 2013 to 2017.

Finding Your People: Working at the Met has allowed Kurland the opportunity to connect with scholars in the musical instruments department, as well as throughout the institution. And, of course, the resources the Met offers are unparalleled. “Returning to the museum world at an institution like the Met has been tremendously rewarding. I have been able to complete hands-on work with the museum's guitar collection and really dig into my own research.”

Guitar Heroes: Kurland’s research focuses on a group of Mexican American women who wired amplifiers, wound pickups, and assembled first guitars and amps for guitar manufacturer Fender between 1946 and 1965. In addition to examining instruments in the Met’s collection and conducting oral histories, Kurland is also working with experts at Brooklyn Lutherie, a women-owned guitar and violin repair shop, where they are building a piece of equipment called a pickup winder. “[Winding pickups] is one of the skills of the women I'm studying that was completed by hand. I think that understanding the physical skills [required of the women] is a way to better understand their experience.”

Putting Yourself Out There: In addition to working on her dissertation, Kurland gets to present her research to the public in various ways, including presenting to docents, in public programs, and in a symposium called Research Out Loud, where Met fellows discuss their work. Kurland also started a writing group for fellows that meets twice a week and “holds each other accountable for what we're working on.”

Out on the Town: When not working, Kurland explores the Big Apple. “I am living in NYC full time and really trying to take advantage of the city's music scene. I try to see as much live music as possible!”

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George �鶹��Ƶ PhD student looks at deception and human-robot interactions

Colleen Rich — Thu, 13 Feb 2025 14:20:46 +0000

George �鶹��Ƶ PhD student looks at deception and human-robot interactions Colleen Rich Thu, 02/13/2025 - 09:20

How likely are humans to trust a robot, especially if that robot has the capacity to lie? This is the question �鶹��Ƶ psychology doctoral candidate Andres Rosero is exploring in his research on human-robot interaction.

“As robots become more integrated in human society, their roles will transition into those of a collaborative nature rather than as tools used by people,” said Rosero, who works in Applied Psychology and Autonomous Systems (ALPHAS) Lab in the Human Factors and Applied Cognition Program. “In response, these robots must be programmed with enough social awareness to navigate complex interpersonal interactions to build relationships and maintain a positive interaction with the humans they share their environment with.”

Almost 500 participants took part in Rosero's study “Human perceptions of social robot deception behaviors: an exploratory analysis,” which he conducted with George �鶹��Ƶ graduate teaching assistant Harris Kelly and psychology professor Elizabeth Phillips. This study gauges how likely participants are to accept a lie told by a robot in various situational contexts and is one of the three manuscripts that comprise Rosero's dissertation.

Participants ranked specific scenarios involving robot deception and evaluated how deceptive the lie was, whether they approved of the robot’s actions, and if the robot’s behavior could be justified. The study placed these scenarios into three different environments: medical, domestic, and retail.

“The goal is to examine human perceptions of AI and robot collaborations across different complex social interactions,” explains Rosero, who received an MA in psychology from George �鶹��Ƶ in 2022. “This study is one of two that examine moral norms in robots and how in breaking these moral norms, humans accept and justify the robot's behaviors.”

Each environment presented a unique quandary for the participant. For example, in the medical environment, the robot lied to a patient with Alzheimer’s, telling the patient that her deceased husband was coming home. In the other environments, the robot was evasive rather than uttering false statements.

George �鶹��Ƶ PhD candidate Andres Rosero, pictured here with "Pepper," is exploring deception and human-robot interactions. Photo by Ron Aira/Office of University Branding

In the domestic environment, the robot did not reveal to the individual that they were being secretly filmed. And in the retail environment, the robot did not disclose that it was capable of completing an assigned task and didn’t require human assistance. Overall, participants widely believed the robot’s lie in the first scenario, but once the robot’s capacity for deception and manipulation was revealed, they became less trusting. They also were more likely to say that the robot’s behavior in the medical environment was justified than in the other two scenarios.

“Any technology that is designed with the intention of being utilized by people is an intersection of that technology and the humanities,” said Rosero. “Our challenge as psychologists is to design experiments that properly explore this interaction to provide direction to the development of these technologies in the real world.”

Technology’s ability to potentially conceal its true capabilities remains a concern of Rosero, as a focus on human-robot dynamics continues to fuel his research. "I am planning on defending my dissertation in the summer, and I am hoping to continue doing human factors research,” says Rosero. “My goal is to conduct impactful research that can assist people in their interactions with cutting-edge technology.”

When offering advice to students in an age of artificial intelligence and its advancements, Rosero recommends understanding “the practical applications of your work.”

“As an applied psychologist, one of the most important questions I ask myself is how my research can be applied in the real world,” he said. “It is important to understand how your work helps to build upon the current knowledge of the field and how it could impact the development of the larger technology in society.”

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Physics PhD student is using machine learning techniques to unlock the key to predicting solar flares

Katarina Benson — Mon, 27 Jan 2025 14:44:24 +0000

Physics PhD student is using machine learning techniques to unlock the key to predicting solar flares Katarina Benson Mon, 01/27/2025 - 09:44

João Felipe Sousa Pereira’s research on solar flares could one day help us safeguard astronauts and technology in space and even prevent widespread blackouts here on Earth. Pereira, a second-year Physics PhD student at �鶹��Ƶ, is studying solar physics with the goal of uncovering the precise triggers of solar flares.

João Felipe Sousa Pereira. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of University Branding

Pereira said solar flare prediction is key because really intense solar flares are often associated with coronal mass ejections (CMEs), which in turn can cause geomagnetic storms, carry radiation, and significantly contribute to space weather.

“CMEs, geomagnetic storms, and solar radiation can affect our satellites if we are unprepared. These events can also knock out our GPS or power grids on rare occasions,” he said. “What we really want is to figure out what is causing solar flares. We have some suspicions, but maybe machine learning techniques can find something we didn’t.”

There are already some prediction models in place now, but Pereira’s research is trying to push past the current “bottleneck” in the research. His work is not only trying to confirm previous techniques but also testing out a new one.

Pereira is the recipient of a Graduate Inclusion and Access scholarship, which works to enhance the diversity of the graduate student community at George �鶹��Ƶ by providing scholarships for first-generation doctoral students who have been historically underrepresented within their doctoral field of study. The scholarship provides funding and an opportunities to become involved in the graduate community through special events each semester.

“The grade requirements [for the scholarship] are a little higher than those of my fellow grad students, but I think the hard work is rewarding and will help me stay on track to finish within the five years.”

João Felipe Sousa Pereira outside the �鶹��Ƶ Observatory. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of University Branding

Pereira came to George �鶹��Ƶ after completing his undergraduate degree in physics and astronomy at University of Maryland (UMD), College Park. He initially became interested in space weather his freshman year at UMD. “I had an introductory electricity and magnetism course. It seemed interesting to me to learn about solar wind, the types of phenomena that occur in space, and how the physics of it all actually impacts us on Earth.”

In his junior and senior years, Pereira worked on space weather research with his then-advisor Surjalal Sharma and became interested in continuing that research in his graduate studies. He then visited George �鶹��Ƶ, where he met with his current advisor Jie Zhang of the Department of Physics and Astronomy. “[Zhang] helped me set up the possibilities for what can be done in this field, and he had the idea for the project that I'm working on now,” Pereira said.

On the same visit, Pereira had the opportunity to meet with graduate students who let him know that the PhD program wasn’t easy, but he would have the support he needed. He was able to see the graduate student culture with his own eyes, which helped him feel like he could belong at George �鶹��Ƶ.

Pereira offers advice to other students considering PhD programs. “You should talk to as many people as possible—that can help guide your decision process. Some people have good experiences, some people have bad experiences, and they’re all valid. Everyone’s on their own path.”

“Pereira’s passion to research and commitment to his doctoral program are inspiring,” said Laurence Bray, senior associate provost for graduate education. “He represents the �鶹��Ƶ Nation at heart by designing his own path to success with strength and resilience.”

Pereira’s enthusiasm for his research continues. “The reason I do physics is because I like figuring out how things work. And it's not necessarily easy, but in the end, when you have that ‘aha moment,’ it really is rewarding,” he said.

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For this historian, the Salem Witch Trials are personal

Colleen Rich — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 12:14:58 +0000

For this historian, the Salem Witch Trials are personal Colleen Rich Wed, 10/30/2024 - 08:14

When Daniel T. Howlett was a junior in high school, he needed to do a history project. Growing up in Massachusetts, near the historic Salem Village, he decided to do one on the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 and his own ancestry.

Daniel T. Howlett. Photo provided

“I knew at the time we were descended from the Putnam family, and the Putnams were the main accusing family,” said Howlett, who has completed an MA and is now working on a PhD in history at �鶹��Ƶ. “So going back 10 generations, all of the people who were making accusations are related to me.”

Howlett’s family also has an ancestor on the other side—Mary Bradbury, who was accused of witchcraft and convicted but managed to escape her death sentence.

For his project, he ended up focusing on the relationship between Reverend Cotton Mather, the Boston minister who was leading the charge against witchcraft, and Reverend George Burroughs, who was executed for witchcraft. And that provided the basis for a chapter in the dissertation he is writing.

His dissertation focuses on religion and disability in early America, and the Salem Witch Trials play a role. Howlett said, in a way, that high school project never ended for him. It just grew in scope. He has been a tour guide in Salem and estimates he has visited more than 150 cemeteries for his research, which may make him the perfect candidate for a Halloween-themed interview.

Witches? 150 cemeteries?

I'm originally from North Andover, the town where most people were accused [of witchcraft]. My high school was on the land where Sarah Osborne, one of the first accused, lived. I grew up down the street from the cemetery where Timothy Swan, one of the accusers, is buried. The Salem Witch Trials were quite literally in my backyard. I've been surrounded by this is topic for a very long time.

But part of it was more—I'm a historian. This is a historical place. It's just kind of neat. I never thought it would end up being a key component to my research.

The gravestone of Timothy Swan, one of the accusers at the witch trials. Photo provided

Do you have a favorite cemetery?

I have a bunch that I like, and I've gone back to a couple of them. So the one in my hometown, North Andover’s First Burial Ground is obviously a favorite because it's close to home. I've been there a ton of times. A lot of the important graves that I look at are from there. But I also like Marblehead's Old Burial Hill, Newburyport’s Old Hill Burying Ground, Hingham Cemetery, Plymouth’s Burial Hill. There are so many fun cemeteries out there.

Everyone goes to Salem for Halloween. Are they going to the wrong place?

I've worked as a tour guide in Salem for a summer job, and I've had Salem residents shout out that “the witches weren't from here.” Salem was larger than it is today. Salem Village, which is now the town of Danvers, where my high school was, is where it starts. Salem is like the seat of the county at the time so the trials happened there.

In your research, you’ve been able to make connections between disability and the witch trials. Can you talk about that?

When these accusations of witchcraft are being made, the young accusers are said to be falling “deaf, dumb and blind”—that’s the quote that gets used. So they're losing their speech, their hearing, and their sight because that's what they expect witchcraft afflictions to do.

"Trial of George Jacobs, August 5, 1692" by Thomkins H. Matteson (Wikimedia Commons)

All of those have very important theological meanings because you're supposed to be able to say your prayers, read the Bible, hear the minister's sermons. All your religious participation is dependent on your senses working. The idea is if your body is unable to do that, your soul can't be nourished with the faith and religion that it needs for you to gain your eternal salvation. So that's the threat that's behind a lot of these witchcraft afflictions.

But for the accusers, this is a temporary state. They get afflicted by witchcraft and then they come out of it because they arrest the witch. They pray to God and there's divine intervention that helps them pass these disabilities.

When they accuse someone of witchcraft, it's not necessarily because they have a disability. But whenever they get the chance, the accusers seem to make a connection to [the accused’s] disability. For example, Rebecca Nurse [who was convicted of witchcraft and executed in 1692] being “hard of hearing” in her own words, that's what she says in the trial transcript.

They say that's the devil, or the black man, whispering in her ear. The black man was often used as the stand-in for Satan at the time. That has a ton of racialized tones because Indigenous people were referred to as Black. There's a ton of frontier violence going on. It's one of the big threats.

For my research, I'm looking at the word disability as some stated version of difference so maybe not disability as we recognize it today. At the time, illness and disability are conflated a lot. Whatever that difference is its often used to insinuate motivation, but also proof that the devil has hardened your heart to God. You are therefore a sinner and more likely to be guilty in a witch.

That’s still a lot of cemeteries. Do you believe in ghosts?

I don't believe in ghosts. I want them to be real because I think that'd just be kind of fun. [George �鶹��Ƶ] history grad students sometimes joke that a great indie horror film would be a grad student doing their dissertation with a Ouija board to interview their sources. I've been to 150 cemeteries. I've not been haunted yet.

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New study shows that university students experienced increased psychological distress during COVID-19, but utilized fewer support services

mthomp7 — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 11:09:35 +0000

New study shows that university students experienced increased psychological distress during COVID-19, but utilized fewer support services mthomp7 Wed, 10/30/2024 - 07:09

Underrepresented students, particularly women of color, were less likely to receive mental health services during the pandemic.

PhD in Public Health candidate Elaine Russell and her mentor Kenneth Griffin, a professor in the Department of Global and Community Health, in �鶹��Ƶ’s College of Public Health, worked with Tolulope Abidogun, also a PhD in Public Health student, and former Global and Community Health professor Lisa Lindley, now of Lehigh University, to analyze data from the American College Health Association National College Health Assessment (ACHA-NCHA III) in an effort to understand how university students’ mental health needs changed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

PhD in Public Health candidate Elaine Russell studied how university students’ mental health needs changed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“More U.S. college students suffered from mental health concerns during the pandemic, but fewer received necessary mental health treatment,” says Russell.

This study is the first to use a national dataset to examine changes in university students’ psychological well-being and their utilization of mental health services from pre-COVID-19 to peak pandemic. Russell and the research team found that, consistent with prior research related to diverse populations, racial/ethnic, gender, and sexual minority groups were at a greater risk of suffering from poor mental health during the pandemic. Additional findings revealed that, during the pandemic, students of color, especially female students of color, were less likely to receive mental health services.

“When developing innovative approaches to improving mental health outcomes on college campuses, it is important to be culturally sensitive and understand the diverse needs of the specific student population,” says Russell.

The study used data from before the COVID-19 pandemic (Fall 2019 and early Spring 2020) and during the pandemic (Spring 2021) to examine mental health symptoms and utilization of mental health services among university students. The sample was limited to full-time undergraduate students aged 18-24 attending four-year universities in the United States. In addition to analyzing the entire sample of university students, the team examined demographic subgroups based on race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, and gender identity.

Several validated psychological testing scales were used in the study to indicate students’ self-reported levels of psychological distress, loneliness, overall stress, psychological well-being, and resilience. Additional survey questions asked about COVID-19 specific stressors, including the students’ concern over themselves or their loved ones getting COVID-19 and being unable to spend time with the people they care about due to the pandemic lockdowns. Students’ use of mental health services within the 12 months preceding the survey was also assessed.

“These findings are important to better understand sub-groups who disproportionally suffer from severe psychological distress but may not be accessing the necessary care,” the study reports. While issues such as a lack of access to mental health services and discrimination within the health care system are undoubtedly factors in students’ reluctance to seek mental health care, the stigma surrounding mental health is also prohibitive.

“Improvements in mental health resources must also address stigma and empower students to access necessary care,” Russell says, specifying the use of peer health educators and making efforts to normalize mental health treatment may be effective prevention strategies.

Russell concludes by calling for future research to increase understanding of the barriers to mental health service use among high-risk university students.

“Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on university students’ psychological distress, well-being, and utilization of mental health services in the United States: Populations at greatest risk” was published online in Frontiers in Public Health in October 2024.

The authors are Elaine Cooper Russell, �鶹��Ƶ; Tolulope M. Abidogun, �鶹��Ƶ; Lisa L. Lindley, Lehigh University; and Kenneth W. Griffin, �鶹��Ƶ.

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