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Radow College of Humanities and Social Sciences 2022-2023 Projects

Click here to return to the main project listings page. Questions: Email our@kennesaw.edu. 

    • Ever notice on the credits of your favorite films that most of the screenwriters are men? You’re not just imagining it. The numbers are pretty dismal. Of the top 250-grossing films from 2021, only 18% were written by women.  

      There are many efforts underway to change these statistics and get more women’s voices on screen, but one thing is certain… we need to begin recognizing and celebrating women’s contributions to screen storytelling over the years. 

      If you’re interested in film and television, this project may be for you! Students working on this project will research critically acclaimed, commercially successful, and forgotten films and television programs written by women, compiling data and short biographies about the women writers who contributed to these screen stories. Students' research will include women screenwriters of color, global women screenwriters, and other marginalized women screenwriters, including writers whose work was influential, well-received, or in some way intriguing in retrospect but whose names may or may not be commonplace to those who create, consume, or analyze film and television.  

      The Women Writers of Film & Television project will culminate in a searchable, online database of women screenwriters and their work, including feature films, made-for-television movies, television mini-series, and television shows and episodes. This digital publication will serve as a much-needed scholarly resource for those studying the history of women writers of film and television. We currently have a soft launch of the website, so students working on this project will be contributing to the site-in-development in preparation for the hard launch in Summer 2023.

      Here’s something you should know: The first-year scholars who worked on the project in 2021/22 presented research at the Spring ’22 Southeastern Women’s Studies Association conference, and our 2021/22 sophomore scholar presented at the National Council on Undergraduate Research and Posters at the Georgia Capitol. Our sophomore scholar was also featured in The College Tour television show (steaming on Amazon Prime!) in a segment on “Research with Relevance.” 

      This project is an excellent opportunity for students with an interest in film and television, screenwriting, or women's representation in media to explore online archives and obtain critical research skills. Students should be comfortable working independently, collaboratively with other student scholars, and under faculty supervision. Most work will be independent, so students should be willing and eager to conduct most research on their own. 

      • Conduct scholarly research using online archives and databases.
      • Compile data in an organized, easily accessible format.
      • Critically analyze films and television shows (and their screenplays).
      • Review previous research and synthesize findings.
      • Work in WordPress, adding to a database and tagging content.
      • Summarize research findings in written and oral presentations.
      • Locating and reviewing previous research on women screenwriters.
      • Conducting new research through online databases and archives.
      • Viewing and analyzing films and TV shows, or reading screenplays.
      • Compiling research and summarizing findings.
      • Writing short biographies of women film and television writers.
      • Working on the WordPress site.
    • A mix of both.

    • Anna Weinstein, aweinst6@kennesaw.edu

    • Do you know that Kennesaw has quite a few outside art installations on both campuses? Do you know where they are located and what they look like? This project involves creating small scale models/replicas  of those pieces of art and other landmarks using a 3D laser scanner and 3D printers. You do not need any prior knowledge of 3D scanning, modeling, or printing. Training will be provided by your faculty mentors and other students who are working on this project.

      • This project will provide a unique research training to students in combining the scanning and 3D printing of real-world art displays and landscapes.
      • Students will learn how to use a laser scanner which is a cutting-edge technology. 
      • Students will learn how to process and analyze the collected data. 
      • Students will learn how to export the collected data and produce 3d printed small scale models of the scanned objects. 
      • Students will learn how to create a poster summarizing the project and their findings. 
    • This project requires the students to be on the Kennesaw campus in order to use the equipment and computers. The timing is somewhat flexible. They can set their own hours, but we do have a weekly in-person meeting with the students. 

    • The student will 3D scan art objects, buildings, and landscapes. They will then import, process, and analyze the scanned data in point cloud data format. They will then produce a digital 3D model of the scanned objects, and create a 3D print of the objects. 

    • Uli Ingram, uingram@kennesaw.edu

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    • This project will train students in using an under-water drone to image the bed and under-water environment of a lake around the KSU campus. It will be followed by using a laser scanner (terrestrial Lidar) to image the above water surrounding landscape of the lake. The resulting data will be used to create digital models and 3D prints. Students do not need any prior knowledge of the drone, modeling, or printing. Training will be provided by your faculty mentors and other students who are working on this project. 

      • This project will provide industry training to students in learning about water resources with the help of an under-water drone, laser scanner, and 3D printing. 
      • Students will learn how to use an under-water drone and collect high resolution imagery of the lakebed and environment. 
      • Students will learn how to process the above data and create digital replicas/models. 
      • Students will learn how to export the collected data and produce 3D printed models of water landscapes such as lakes and rivers. 
      • Students will learn how to create a poster summarizing the project and their findings. 
      • The students will use an under-water drone to scan and image a lake bed and environment.
      • They will then import, process, and analyze the data collected by the drone and laser scanner.
      • They will then produce digital 3D models of the under-water and above-water environments to create 3D prints.
    • This project requires the students to be on the Kennesaw campus in order to use the equipment and computers. The timing is somewhat flexible. They can set their own hours, but we do have a weekly in-person meeting with the students. 

    • Ranbir Kang, rkang4@kennesaw.edu

    • This project explores psychosocial and contextual factors that influence the behavioral health (i.e., mental health, substance use) of youth who experience adversity in the forms of violence, disconnection, and poverty. Youth behavioral health problems have been recognized as a public health challenge for some time and have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Citing increasing rates of youth depression, helplessness, and suicidality, the U.S. Surgeon General issued an advisory on the “youth mental health crisis” in December 2021 and called for a quick and robust response to this public health problem. The American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and the Children’s Hospital Association released a similar joint statement (also in 2021) declaring child and adolescent mental health a “national state of emergency,” noting specific actions to address this need. These actions were in the areas of screening, access to care, school-based mental health, prevention programs in a variety of settings, and trauma-informed services (among others). Unfortunately, however, the practice field still encounters a lack of evidence-based practices, policies, and interventions (EBIs; either in availability or in scale). Research on the psychosocial risk and protective factors involved in the development of the behavioral health problems faced by youth remain understudied but vastly important for informing the development and adaptation of culturally relevant, trauma-informed EBIs.

      This project includes two parts: (a) the analysis of data on risk and protective factors that has already been collected from 8th, 10th, and 12th grade students, and (b) a planned study that will involve interviewing youth who are not currently in school or work, commonly referred to as “disconnected youth” or “opportunity youth.” First-year scholars will have the opportunity to work on the first study right away as the data are already collected and to contribute to the design and implementation of the second study as it is in its initial phases. In both cases, first-year scholars will be supported to pursue research questions they are passionate about pursuing.

    • At the end of this project, first-year scholars will gain skills, experience, and practice in:

      • Defining seminal youth development and prevention-related theories.
      • Describing prior research that has been conducted with opportunity youth.
      • Explaining the purpose of qualitative, youth-focused research.
      • Describing ethical practices in psychological research.
      • Working effectively as part of a team.
      • Explaining the importance of applied psychological research for prevention/public health.
      • Describing how their research experience can help prepare them for continued studies and employment.

    • First-year scholars participating in this project will be involved in all aspects of the research process, the tasks for which differ from week to week. An overview of the types of duties scholars can expect include: 

      • Participating in weekly lab meetings.
      • Attending meetings with their project mentor.
      • Working with other lab members on this project.
      • Reading articles or taking trainings on topics of research, equity, and ethics.
      • Participating in discussions on topics of research, equity, and ethics.
      • Creating data collection instruments, including surveys and interview guides.
      • Assisting with data collection and analysis.
      • Engaging in professional development activities, such as writing a resume/CV, practicing interview skills, learning about graduate school/careers.
    • Students’ work on this project will be hybrid. Lab meetings will take place in-person on campus; some data collection and other tasks may also be in-person; and students will also be able to work on some tasks remotely through independent work and virtual meeting platforms.

    • Chanler Hilley, chilley2@kennesaw.edu

  •  

    • This project seeks to systematically compare psychosocial domains and cognitive processes in EAs by self-disclosed recovery status and substance use. Emerging adulthood (EA) marks the transition between adolescence and adulthood with unifying themes of identity exploration, experimentation, and independence (Arnett, 2000). Emerging adults (18-25) represent a vulnerable age group for the development of diagnosed alcohol or substance use disorders (ASUD), with 37% reporting illicit substance use in the last year, and 24% meeting criteria for ASUD, yet only 1.3% reporting receiving treatment for substance use (SAMHSA, 2020).  Unfortunately, young adults fare worse in treatment outcomes compared to adolescents and older adults and are more likely to leave ASUD treatment early (Andersson et al, 2018). Sampling from recovery-oriented systems of care (ROSC) that serve EAs, such as collegiate recovery communities, can overcome the barrier of ASUD treatment dropout to characterize underlying recovery processes in EAs.  For example, measurements of executive function (EF) capture high-order cognitive processes that guide decision making and self-control. Subdomains of EF include working memory, inhibitory control, and cognitive flexibility. EF develops through adolescence and reaches stabilization during EA. Investigations of the neuropsychological correlates of continued use of alcohol and other drugs (AOD) in older adults report impaired executive function (EF) due to enduring substance use, EF improvements with abstinence and interventions targeting EF improves treatment-outcomes. Impairments in EF in EAs predict problematic substance use, yet little is known regarding EF in resolving ASUD and how this impacts EA milestone achievement. Further, there is no consensus on the definition of recovery and complicates efforts to study recovery mechanisms as distinct and separable processes of addiction.  

      This project allows students to study facilitators and inhibitors of psychosocial development and executive function in EAs as it pertains to substance use and recovery status. Students will have the opportunity to engage in active data collection including psychometric surveys, administering computer-based tasks to assess executive function, and to conduct secondary analysis on previously collected data with the MAPme initiative in collaboration with Dr. Rohan Palmer’s research team at Emory. MAPme is a research and educational initiative where students and professors work together to understand how genes, cognitive abilities, and personality relate to lifestyle behaviors and mental well-being in college students, with a specific interest in substance use, to educate the study population of our findings, engage students in discussion around common health issue occurrences, and empower students to achieve better health. 

    • Students who participate in this project will:

      • Read, discuss, and apply seminal papers in the neuropsychology of addiction, dependence, recovery, and executive function.
      • Gain foundational knowledge in neuroscience and psychology.
      • Receive training on ethics of research with human subjects.
      • Collect data using surveys and computer-based cognitive tasks.
      • Analyze and interpret survey data and cognitive performance.
      • Communicate findings in both written and oral presentations.
      • Disseminating recruitment materials in the community and follow-up with individuals who have expressed interest in participation.
    • Hybrid

    • Students will be expected to: 

      • Review, compile, and analyze literature related to the outlined project. 
      • Attend weekly meetings with research team and actively participate in discussions. 
      • Assist in recruitment of participants.
      • Assist in data collection and analysis.
      • Collaborate in the creation of recruitment flyers, infographics, and social media outreach. 
      • Create and present oral presentations and/or poster presentations for conferences. 

    • Dr. Erica Holliday, ehollid1@kennesaw.edu

      • [Introduction to the Problem] In which direction (either to the left or to the right) would you steer your car to avoid an unexpected obstacle in the middle of the road? Of course, you may want to slam the brake pedal. Along with the braking, if you needed to steer as well, would that be left steering, or right? This research question is also related to general human behavior: Do humans avoid an obstacle by moving to the left or right? In this research project, we will examine this interesting research question, especially in the context of a self-driving car malfunctioning. 
      • [Importance of the Problem] Self-driving cars are already on the road. However, they are not perfect. Human drivers are still responsible for monitoring the driving behavior of the vehicle and need to step in if necessary (i.e., manually drive the car to avoid an accident). Researchers are developing technologies that can help such a transition from the self-driving mode to the manual-driving mode. For example, some researchers are developing technology that informs the human driver which direction to steer to avoid an obstacle. To develop such technology, it is critical to answer the above research question. 
      • [Method] In this driving-simulator study that also involves virtual reality, we will examine how human drivers behave when their self-driving cars are malfunctioning. Specifically, after a while of successful driving, the self-driving car will go straight at a T-shape intersection without stopping. Therefore, the participant drivers would have to steer the car either to the right or left, especially when braking is not enough to stop the car. The study outcome would reveal how often the drivers try to stop, steer to the left, or to the right in such a situation. In addition, we will examine the reaction time associated with each driving pattern (i.e., stopping, left steering, and right steering). 
      • [Other Factors to Examine] We will also examine other factors that can affect the evasive driving pattern. Here are some examples:
        a. Handedness of the driver.
        b. Which hand was the driver using when the driver initiated manual driving.
        c. Which direction is easier to rotate the steering wheel for each hand: up or down.
        d. The cars position on the road at the moment of self-driving malfunction.
        e. The conventional driving side of the country.

      The first-year scholars can explore other factors of their own interests.

      • Describe past research studies regarding human drivers’ behavior when self-driving cars malfunction and articulate how the research study contributes to the topic.
      • Practice literature review by locating the primary sources and develop a hypothesis. 
      • Learn the basics of programming language for building a driving simulator that could be also used for generating any computer-based experiments*.

      *No previous programming experience required. Students will learn a game-development platform called Unity, which is one of the most widely used platforms for 2D/3D video games as well as virtual-reality games. Notably, many psychological experiments and video games have commonalities: For example, presenting target objects on a computer screen and scoring human performance based on their speed and accuracy. Therefore, the benefits of learning Unity are not limited to a certain group of students such as computer-science students. Students from social sciences would find value in learning Unity and conducting human experiments using the platform. Therefore, the project welcomes students from any field.

      • Have hands-on experience of collecting and analyzing data from human participants.
      • Present the data via conferences or research papers.
      • Reflect on their research project via reflection essays. There will be two reflection-essay assignments to reflect on strengths, weaknesses, and things they would do differently in another research context. The reflection essay would help the student scholars identify the areas that were improved through the research experience such as, time management, self-confidence/self-esteem, independent thinking, problem-solving, organizational skills, intrinsic motivation, persistence on tasks, and so on.

      In addition, the first-year scholar may explore each individual scholar’s research idea that utilizes the driving simulator. As the driving simulator that utilizes virtual reality is a very recent research tool, their ideas might have not been examined by previous studies. 

    • There are three stages in this year-long research process. To achieve the goals of each stage, the first-year scholars will set monthly and weekly goals by themselves. Their progress will be evaluated by the faculty through meetings.

      [Stage 1: Approximately 2 months]

      • Completing online training in ethics (CITI training).
      • IRB approval was already obtained for this driving-simulator study. Therefore, the first-year scholars will assist in the completion of IRB proposals only if it is necessary as the scholar wants to explore her own research idea.
      • Searching databases to identify relevant research.
      • Reading and evaluating research articles, and write article summaries.
      • Generate hypotheses regarding evasive driving behaviors expected in our driving scenarios.

      [Stage 2: Approximately 2 months]

      • Familiarizing themselves with Unity by reading manuals and taking online tutorials.
      • Develop various driving scenarios using Unity.
      • Test the scenarios that they have developed.
      • Set up the experiment.

      [Stage 3: Approximately 3 months] 

      • Facilitating data collection.
      • Performing data analyses using statistical software.
      • Reporting the results (e.g., poster presentation, ideally by writing a journal manuscript). 

      The first-year scholars will write a reflection essay at the end of each semester. In addition, as mentioned in the above section, the first-year scholars can explore their own research idea that utilizes the driving simulator. This will be an optional task that the student would need to do along with the given tasks by the advisor. In case the first-year scholar works on two research ideas (one given by the advisor and the other one of her own), she will explore her own research idea following the similar research schedule with three stages as addressed in this section.

    • Hybrid (33% online / 67% face-to-face)

    • Kyung Hun Jung (Jay), kjung2@kennesaw.edu

      Dal Hyung Kim, dkim97@kennesaw.edu

  •  

    • Several occupations are at a higher risk of negative psychological consequences (e.g., stress, burnout) and reduced well-being due to the design of their work. From an occupational health perspective, there is evidence of how job demand and resources predict stress response, well-being, and performance. Workers who have limited access to stable organizational resources and have few personal resources are more likely to accumulate job strain and increase the risk of burnout. The Job Demand Resources Model is a well-established model for understanding health and strain in work contexts. Job demands refer to physical, psychological, social, or organizational aspects of the job that require sustained physical and/or psychological effort or skills and are associated with certain physiological and/or psychological costs. Meanwhile, job resources refer to those physical, social, or organizational aspects of the job that may do any of the following: (a) be functional in achieving work goals; (b) reduce job demands and the associated physiological and psychological costs; (c) stimulate personal growth and development. Personal resources are the psychological characteristics or aspects of the self that are generally associated with resiliency and that refer to the ability to control and impact one’s environment successfully. Understanding the link between the specific demands and resources in highly stressful occupations is crucial to developing intervention strategies. 

      Currently, we are working on two projects to explore the interconnectedness of demands and resources on stress, resilience, and work outcomes. The first project aims to understand the precursors of work-related stress and well-being among nursing personnel. As part of this project, we expect to identify the coping strategies used by nursing personnel to deal with daily demands and the effect of job and personal resources on their psychological health and performance. The second project aims to analyze how the gender identity of women in managerial positions affects their psychosocial well-being and their type of leadership. Specifically, in this project, we aim to identify women's leadership style in managerial positions and further analyze how the fit or misfit between the gender identity of women in managerial positions and the stereotyped characteristic of the position affects psychosocial well-being. During the course of the year, we will be launching new projects to work with other populations, especially emergency services personnel. 

    • Students will have the opportunity to:

      • Learn concepts and theories related to occupational health, well-being, and health promotion.
      • Identify gaps in the literature and develop research questions/hypotheses.
      • Conduct literature review.
      • Format questionnaires to collect data (paper and pencil, online).
      • Develop skills to analyze data using statistical software.
      • Learn ways to report research findings (oral presentation/poster, or manuscripts).
      • Collaborate in the development of manuscripts for publications.
      • Work collaboratively with a research team to help to develop teamwork, communication skills, critical thinking, and collaboration.

    • During the participation in the project, students are expected to:

      • Review and compile literature related to the project.
      • Read relevant literature and participate in collaborative discussions related to the project.
      • Collaborate in the design and development of questionnaires on online platforms.
      • Assist in data collection.
      • Collaborate in data analysis.
      • Assist in the development of academic manuscripts for publication and conference presentations.
      • Participate in weekly research lab meetings.
      • Collaborate in administrative tasks related to the project.
    • Students will work face-to-face on this project. 

    • Israel Sánchez-Cardona, Isanche7@kennesaw.edu

  •  

    • People intuitively endorse social essentialist beliefs, assuming that social group membership is determined by a deep, underlying essence such as one’s DNA. For example, people often believe that racial, gender, and national identities are determined by birth and cannot change over time. Previous literature has suggested that people across diverse societies apply essentialist thinking to a wide range of social categories. 

      As a domain-general cognitive framework, essentialist thinking provides us with a simplified structure to organize our mental world. However, it inevitably leads to a set of negative social and cognitive consequences by ignoring individual variability and over-intensifying category boundaries. Essentialist beliefs were found to be linked with increased social stereotypes (Bastian & Haslam, 2006) and lower domain-general creativity (Tadmor et al., 2013). Moreover, our recent findings have demonstrated that essentialist belief plays an additional role in affecting lay participants’ culpability judgment and sentencing decisions when evaluating criminal offenders (Xu et al., 2021). 

      Little research, if any, has explored effective intervention method to mitigate the essentialist bias. The current project will use mindfulness training, a commonly practiced strategy to enhance the monitor activity of the mind (Condon, 2017), as a potential intervention tool to reduce essentialist thinking. Originated from the Buddhism, mindfulness training encourages people to “bring their complete attention to the present experience” (Baer, 2003) with a neutral, non-judgmental perspective to observe and accept their current cognitive and emotional states. Mindfulness training was shown to increase self-reported empathy and compassion (e.g., Shapiro, Schwartz & Bonner, 1998; Neff & Germer, 2013), as well as to increase daily reported positive emotions, positive relations with others and perceived social connections (Fredrickson et al., 2008; Kok et al., 2013). On the behavioural level, experimental evidence further demonstrated that participants who have received 8-week meditation classes were more likely to conduct compassionate act to a suffering stranger (Condon et al., 2013). 

      The current project thus aims to explore the potential intervention effects of mindfulness training on reducing essentialist bias. According to the Innate Compassion Training (ICT) Model, mindfulness practices encourage people to stay open and sensitive to others, with the recognition that others are “more than one’s limited, shifting and biased perceptions on them” (Dodson-Lavelle, 2014). By increasing perceived social connections with out-group members, mindfulness training raises compassion and motivates people to appreciate individual values and uniqueness, which may lead to a less essentialist account to view the world.

    • Students will gain research skills/knowledge/experience in the following aspects: 

      • Literature review.
      • Experimental design.
      • Participant recruitment.
      • Online data collection.
      • Data cleaning & analysis.
      • Data visualization.
      • Research dissemination in written and oral formats.

    • The student will:

      • Conduct literature review on developmental and contextual effects on social essentialism.
      • Assist with study design and programming on Qualtrics.
      • Assist with the pre-registration of the study on OSF.
      • Assist with IRB preparation and submission.
      • Assist with participant recruitment and compensation.
      • Assist with data cleaning and data analysis.
      • Produce a poster and present at student research conference/symposium.
    • It is expected that the student meets with the faculty mentor in person. 

    • Dr. Yian Xu, yxu11@kennesaw.edu

    • This project aims to explore Korean cuisine culture by making a short documentary about Korean restaurants and immigrants in metro Atlanta. The food reveals cultural identity and traditional values that shape a society, so it can be a compelling element in understanding the uniqueness of the Korean community. According to the U.S. Census in 2019, the Asian population in the 10-county Atlanta region has more than doubled since 2000. The Korean community has also grown significantly, bringing fascinating food culture and daily life to metro Atlanta. This creative activity will especially focus on Koreans in Gwinnett County, considered the Seoul of the South. Gwinnett is home to the largest Korean population in Georgia, and it’s a dynamic place to examine how this community has flourished with their intrinsic lifestyles. 

      Documentary production can be an excellent method to examine how human culture can be interpreted in our society. A first-year student will not only learn how to be a creative researcher, but also how to be a media maker. This will help them understand Korean values and represent their artistic discovery through involvement in this creative activity. They will contribute to the success of this project by researching, filming, and editing under the faculty’s mentoring. The documentary will be invaluable for film festivals and academic conference presentations. Also, this project is an excellent opportunity for a student to gain experience in developing their fieldwork research skills, artistic interpretation, and network through community involvement. The School of Communication & Media will be the home for these first-year students, and they will experience excellent resources, including media equipment, state- of-the-art facilities, and practical education. 

    • This project is designed to help students:

      • Learn about academic and creative approaches in media production from pre-production to post- production.
      • Gain fieldwork and media production skills by utilizing media equipment.
      • Study and analyze visual storytelling skills to communicate with audiences.
      • Develop a documentary that demonstrates an understanding of the basic principles of fieldwork and audio-visualization.
      • Develop teamwork and leadership skills to complete a project on a deadline.
      • Understand how to disseminate creative work through conferences, film festivals, and local events. 
      • Identify the purpose of the documentary and find subjects.
      • Conduct research to understand the topic and relevant resources. 
      • View and analyze documentaries and develop a storytelling strategy.
      • Select and practice utilizing media equipment for production.
      • Arrange a schedule for film subjects.
      • Conduct interviews and film subjects in Gwinnett County.
      • Write a script and create a story structure.
      • Edit footage to create a documentary.
      • Submit work to festivals, conferences, and local events. 
    • Face-to-Face

    • Prof. Sangsun Choi, schoi36@kennesaw.edu

    • The project will examine the narratives of female lawyers, lobbyists, and law enforcement workers. It will provide clarification and contradictions necessary to understand the layers of communicating in a masculine profession. A masculine profession is one that has historically been held by men. In addition, the rules, norms, and culture of the profession are rooted in masculine values (i.e. competition, aggression, and power etc.). Participants tell stories about their work experiences, and we search to answer the research questions below. 

      • How do women communication advice and mentorship within a masculine profession? 
      • How do women communicate to navigate professional assimilation (joining a profession or organization)? 

      This is a wonderful opportunity to network with women that have careers in various areas of law (transactional or trial), law enforcement, and legislation. You will have conversations with women at the state capitol and/or Georgia Association of Women Lawyers. 

    • Skills Obtained or Refined (Note: These skills will be useful in your undergraduate studies and transferable to a number of career choices).

      • Library Research 
      • Data collection (surveys and interviews)
      • Data analysis (qualitative coding) 

      Transferable Experiences

      • Present at Undergraduate Research Conference sponsored by the Eastern Communication Association, March 30-April 1st. 
      • Present at the Symposium of Student Scholars at KSU 

    • First-year scholar will have one weekly check-in on Mondays via MS Teams. 

      The weekly deliverables will be completion of 2 minimum below:

      1. 1-2 interviews a week.
      2. Analysis and coding of 1 interview.
      3. Abstract one scholarly article.
    • This project will be completed in a hybrid format. Some meetings will be on MS Teams and some in person in my office, English Building #57.

    • Dr. Robin Smith Mathis, rmathi18@kennesaw.edu

    • Many families rarely talk about death, grief, and end of life before one our loved ones is going through it. Even then, the topic is so taboo in the United States, that many continue to avoid conversations surrounding death or grief altogether. But research has shown us that when parents talk to their children about major, often taboo, issues, like sex, alcohol, or drugs, kids are likely to engage in healthier habits overall. These kids are also more likely to talk to others about these issues (like romantic partners or friends when it comes up) and to feel like they can go to their parents if they need to about these types of topics. So why would the same not be the case when it comes to death? That is, if we talk to our loved ones about death in some way (relationships, laughing, story-telling, love, religion, final wishes, identity), would their children be better able to have conversations with their own families, talk about their grief with others (including therapists), and better able to cope overall? That is what we are hoping to find out. And along the way, we hope to destigmatize death and grief, especially during a time in our society, when it seems to surround us. 

      • Make credible arguments
      • Locate, synthesize, and subsequently use primary and secondary sources
      • Articulate importance for research and a particular project
      • Read journal articles effectively and efficiently
      • Use various software to adapt to college and working force
      • Develop hypotheses or research questions, and know when each are appropriate
      • Synthesize, organize, and analyze data to respond to H/RQs
      • (Critically) Think and synthesize past research and current data together to make arguments and problem solve
      • Write the various parts of a research study/paper
      • Articulate the importance of the field to others
      • Articulate the importance of their own field in relation to others
      • Articulate what they learned in relation to courses and hirable skills
      • Engage in professional manner – with professionals in field, at conferences, networking, preparing for meetings, preparing for conferences, etc.
      • Pinpoint what they did well and where they could improve personally and within the project
      • Articulate/write improvements for research for future research
      • Time management & organization 
      • Problem solving
      • Independence, flexibility, and use of creativity
      • Apply for a presentation at a conference 
      • Develop public speaking skills
        • Organization
        • Vocalics
        • Online presentations
        • Non verbal cues
        • Timing
        • Visual Aids – importance of, how to use, proper use, effective visual aids

    • A student on our project would meet with me and my colleagues every other week, and me on alternating weeks. During these meetings, we will recap progress, work through current issues/conduct current business (of data collection, coding, writing, etc. nature), and create our to do list for upcoming weeks. Meetings with FYSP individually will go over any duties they have and go through steps of the research process. This allows us to go through more basic research methods and writing method questions, and workshop through things. If the student decides to develop their own research questions and hypotheses after working within our data and with my colleagues for a while, these one-on one meetings will also be a time to work together through the scientific method, data analysis, writing, and preparing for presentations. Students will see the process from data collection to presentation, including coding qualitative data, working through coding discrepancies, finding themes, making sense of data, collecting literature, making sense of past literature, and the write up process. I hope that students working with us will submit to the Clevenger Undergraduate Honors Conference in April as well as the Symposium of Student Scholars at KSU.

    • Mostly virtual, as my colleagues on this project are spread across the country. But happy to meet face to face with the student when doing one-on-one.
    • Emily Scheinfeld, escheinf@kennesaw.edu

    • As an interdisciplinary project, this research may be of interest to students across various majors and areas of study, including public health, nursing, sociology, psychology, gender studies, disabilities, and those interested in the pursuit of other medical fields.

      Autoimmune disease is where one’s own immune system attacks their healthy cells and organs; two well-known types include Rheumatoid arthritis and Lupus. Lupus is an inflammatory disease which impacts various parts of the body including skin, joints, kidneys, and other organs often resulting in pain, fatigue, joint pain, rashes, and other life-impacting conditions which can potentially lead to disability.  The vast majority (90%) of those diagnosed are women.  This significant gendered difference can result in challenges of diagnosis and treatment for men.  While men generally experience the same clinical manifestations as women, the symptoms/impact are often more severe—perhaps due to biological aspects, or perhaps due to social aspects such as later diagnosis and delayed treatment, gendered behaviors, or even the belief that lupus is a “women’s disease.”

      This project seeks to explore the lived experience of men diagnosed with lupus from a social/public-health perspective.  It is important to explore the social factors that men experience along their healthcare journey to a diagnosis of lupus and how their treatment and life transform after diagnosis.  This illness often has symptoms that may be “invisible” to family, friends, and colleagues, which may bring challenges as one adjusts to a new normal.  

      Given the limited literature on men and lupus, this project is integral towards expanding knowledge about the experiences of men to inform those diagnosed with lupus, their families, and healthcare providers. This project will take students through the full scope of the qualitative interview process, culminating in the interviewing of men with lupus and analysis of transcripts.  Over the course of the project students will collect and synthesize academic literature and online resources, collaborate in developing an interview guide, building qualitive research skills, possibly participate with interviews (interview will be primarily administered by faculty mentor), and collaborate in the grounded analysis of these interviews.  The culmination will be student selected topic of specific interest within the data, analysis, and poster presentation at a regional sociology conference.

    • As a result of engaging in this experience, scholars will:

      • Build literature research skills linked to effective library research.
      • Identify, describe, summarize, and integrate published research about lupus.
      • Collaborate with faculty in the development of an interview guide and IRB application.
      • Be familiarized with human-subject research and complete CITI IRB training.
      • Apply research methods to design materials and procedures in order to collect, code, analyze, and interpret data.
      • Communicate the results of partial sample of interviews into an oral presentation (preferably at a regional conference).
      • Identify professional development goals and formulate strategies to connect this research experience to their goals.

    • Scholars would be expected to engage in the following activities each week: 

      • Attending meetings arranged with their mentor – this may occur in-person or via Teams.
      • Completing tasks assigned each week which contribute to the research (e.g., reading articles, writing summaries, developing research materials, coding data).
      • Proofing of interview transcripts (in comparison to recordings).
      • Offer coding suggestions.
      • Engaging in professional development activities (e.g., resume/CV development, interview skills).  
    • Students are expected to work on this project in a hybrid fashion. Some meetings may occur in-person or via Teams, with a variety of independent work/activities across the semester, with frequent email contact.
    • Daniel Farr, dfarr4@kennesaw.edu

    • In 2016, several other KSU faculty members and I published an Open Educational Resource (OER) – essentially a free, online textbook – currently titled Online Technical Communication; we’re using this OER as the sole required text for all sections of the introductory-level technical communication course (TCOM 2010) at KSU. We have Google Analytics running on the OER’S back end, and we can use the data from Google Analytics to track students’ usage of the OER. Basically, I want to find out answers to these seemingly simple questions that nobody has ever been able to answer:

      • Do students read the textbook they’ve been assigned?
      • If they do, when do they use the book?
      • Specifically, do students read the textbook when readings are assigned? When quizzes are due? When they’re working on major assignments?

      I’ve already completed and published the results of a small-scale study, basically a pilot test, in the 2018 Proceedings of the IEEE International Professional Communication Conference. In this study, I found some interesting answers, but that data was limited to three sections of TCOM 2010 taught by one instructor during two semesters. At present, though, there is about five years of Google Analytics data involving multiple instructors teaching multiple sections of TCOM 2010. For example, in Fall 2021 alone, 11 instructors taught 29 sections.

      Accordingly, there is a great amount of Google Analytics data and syllabus data that needs to be extracted, sorted, and correlated. I need an assistant who can sort through instructors’ syllabi, harvest assignment dates for readings, quizzes, and major assignments; and go through Google Analytics and harvest access data.

      Beyond these basic activities, if the students are able to use MS Excel effectively, they can run reports and analyze the data for total numbers of users, new users, sessions, bounce rates, pages per session, session durations, and correlations between bumps in access rates and the aforementioned due dates. The primary job, though, will be collecting and organizing data.

      The data-collection job itself isn’t difficult; there’s just a lot of data, and I need someone who’s detail-oriented to access it, create records, and keep everything organized.

    • The primary benefits to student assistants will be in the Self-Identity/Improvement area. Students working on this project will need to manage their time in order to complete the required work before the semester’s end; will exercise organizational skills (a key factor in this kind of research); and will need to be persistent, as half-collected data will result in a serious problem.

      In terms of content- and skill-based outcomes, as students work on the project, they will become immersed in Google Analytics web tracking data. They will learn how to organize and interpret the research data, as well as learn to explain how the collected data answers the study’s research questions.  Furthermore, if the student assistants are sufficiently skilled with MS Excel, they could also be involved in running analytics on the data. 

      I would be open to allowing students to present at an academic conference and discuss their contributions toward the project. 

    • Student assistants will log into a Google Analytics account, run reports, download data, and capture data visualizations. Students will then create folders to save these reports and visualizations according to a predetermined naming format, and they will save these materials online in a shared drive. The students will then enter numerical data from the saved reports into MS Excel spreadsheets. 

    • The student assistants and I will work f2f in getting the project started, but once the student assistants know what they are doing, they will work on this project on their own time, in their own workspace, on their own devices, and will deliver the results online.
    • Jonathan Arnett, jarnet11@kennesaw.edu








 

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