Meet the latest round of seed grant awardees. We’re excited to support the groundbreaking work of these dynamic individuals.
Large Grant Recipients:
Channing Mathews (Psychology) is leading a project that will adapt and evaluate a “connections intervention” that aims to recognize online racism and promote resistance to racist content. It will be tailored for use among White adults (ages 18-25) through a participatory design process.
Adrienne Wood (Psychology) and co-PIs Laura Barnes (SEAS) and Bethany Teachman (Psychology) are developing WellConnected, an app that will empower young people to form and strengthen both close and casual relationships, in an effort to improve belonging and well-being.
Faith Zabek (SEHD): will create a Tamagotchi-style (handheld digital pet) robotics activity that will aim to promote mental health empowerment by helping students understand how their own digital habits impact their emotional well-being.
Small Grant Recipients:
Subigya Nepal (Computer Science), co-PI Laura Barnes (SEAS) and research collaborator Michael Sheehy (Religious Studies) will develop an app that will examine environmental mastery (the ability to manage and control one’s surroundings effectively to fit personal needs and values) among college students and how it supports well-being.
Sara Rimm-Kaufman (SEHD) and Nancy Deutsch (SEHD) will lead a pilot study that aims to understand how Jewish youth make sense of online content related to identity, and the ways in which youth link their online experience to their social identity and religious and spiritual development.
Steven Johnson (McIntire), Jingjing Li (McIntire) and their postdoctoral researcher Maggie Zhang will continue their project that investigates how Generative AI use relates to the quality of online mental health information and social support for young adults.
Student Grant Recipient:
PhD student Tiffany Meadows (SEHD) received $5K to study how digital literacies can be harnessed as tools for resilience, gender equity and cultural affirmation among Afro-Bahamian girls, an underexamined population.
Rapid Response Grant Recipients:
Last but not least, Nancy Deutsch (SEHD), Bethany Teachman (Psychology), Michael Lyons (SEHD), and Sebastian Tello Trillo (Batten) received a $100K rapid response grant for a mixed-methods study design that will explore how the Virginia Department of Education’s ban of cell phones affects youth, families and schools.
