On the following pages you will find descriptions of the 2012-2013 Emerging Scholars projects.
Descriptions are organized alphabetically by the faculty researcher’s last name. If you have questions
please contact the Center for Women & Work at cww@uml.edu or 978-934-4380. Student applications
are due on Monday July 9.
Faculty Researchers: Andrew Harris & Judith Davidson
Associate Professor, Criminal Justice & Associate Professor, Graduate School of Education and
Gender Studies
“Building a Prevention Framework to Address Teen ‘Sexting’ Behavior Project”
The “Building a Prevention Framework to Address Teen ‘Sexting’ Behavior Project” is in its second year
of existence. Funded by the US Justice Department, it is a three-state, multidisciplinary, mixed methods
study of teens’, parents’, and educators’ views of sexting. The aim of the study is to examine the views of
young people and their caregivers in order to better understand the best way to build prevention
programs and strategies that will address this aspect of cyber safety. We have collected data from focus
groups of youth, parents, and educators in selected high school sites in Massachusetts, Ohio, and South
Carolina. These materials have been organized into data bases using quantitative software (SPSS) and
qualitative data analysis software (NVivo). We are now engaged in the process of conducting new
analyses of the materials, writing, and presenting about the project. October 5, 2012, we will sponsor a
three-state face-to-face and virtual practitioners’ conference (including participation from our Federal
sponsor) in which we will share our findings with participants and work with them to use the findings from
the study to build a prevention agenda.
Skills desired from student:
 Reliability, good work habits, self-starter, responsible, able to ask for help when needed
 Good communication skills—oral and written.
 Excitement about inquiry—desire to practice real research
 Comfort with online communication tools and learning new technologies
 Humor; we are a very funny group.
 Interest in issues of social change, culture, technology and society, youth, etc. (The issue of
sexting and cyber safety touches on many different disciplines and areas of study. It’s eclectic.)
Potential project tasks:
 Online team meetings (monthly)
 Face-to-face local meetings with research supervisor(s) (weekly)
 Training in NVivo software
 Literature searches
 Review, analysis, and discussion of selected portions of data
 Writing memos
 Drafting components of papers or presentations
 Reviewing and editing manuscripts
 Making presentations on a selected topic related to the project
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On the following pages you will find descriptions of the 2012-2013 Emerging Scholars projects.
Descriptions are organized alphabetically by the faculty researcher’s last name. If you have questions
please contact the Center for Women & Work at cww@uml.edu or 978-934-4380. Student applications
are due on Monday July 9.
Faculty Researcher: Michelle Haynes
Associate Professor, Psychology
“The Healthy Diversity Project”
Professor Michelle Haynes in collaboration with Meg Bond (PI) and Robin Toof (Co-PI) are working on the
second phase of their research: the Healthy Diversity project. Recently funded by the University of
Massachusetts President’s Office (Creative Economy Grant), the Healthy Diversity team is currently
focused on identifying models that promote the diversification of the health care workforce. In their
previous work surveying Massachusetts Community Health Centers (CHCs), they found that one
challenge faced by CHCs is recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce that mirrors the population(s) it
serves. They identified entry-level workers’ lack of access to training and development opportunities as
one of the primary barriers faced by CHCs for sustaining higher-level workforce participation among
diverse workers. Some CHCs, however, have been successful in addressing this challenge by
developing innovative educational partnerships with colleges, universities, and/or hospitals that can serve
as models of workforce development. These partnership models, while seemingly rare, appear to be
promising avenues for helping CHCs to diversify their workforces, one of the key elements of providing
culturally competent community-based health care. Through interviews and surveys, the Healthy
Diversity team plan to gather and disseminate information about these partnership models to assist other
CHCs facing similar challenges. They have recently completed the survey development component of
this project and have just received IRB approval to collect data.
Skills desired from student:
 Organized & reliable
 Excellent communication skills – written & oral
 Familiarity with literature searches
 Familiarity with social science research methods
 Ability to work collaboratively; a team player
 Interested in issues of diversity in organizations
 Knowledge of SPSS desirable but not required
Potential project tasks:
 Assistance with literature searches
 Assistance with conducting participant interviews
 Possible transcription and analysis of quantitative and qualitative data analysis
 Assistance with the development of a research report
 Assistance with hosting a conference/summit to disseminate results
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On the following pages you will find descriptions of the 2012-2013 Emerging Scholars projects.
Descriptions are organized alphabetically by the faculty researcher’s last name. If you have questions
please contact the Center for Women & Work at cww@uml.edu or 978-934-4380. Student applications
are due on Monday July 9.
Faculty Researcher: Maria Matz
Associate Professor, Cultural Studies
“A Feminine Perspective through the Works of Latin American Female Playwrights”
Professor Maria Matz’s research interests cross several fields and aim to be as interdisciplinary as
possible, drawing from anthropology, history and literature. In her research, she focuses on the literary
text and its uniqueness as a genre that is able to evolve rapidly along with society and culture. The
project in the 2012-2013 academic year is based on the work of Latin American female play writers. While
a feminine perspective has become more common on Latin American stages since the late 1960s, few of
the women dramatists who have contributed to this new viewpoint have received scholarly attention. A
study of plays written by specific Latin American playwrights is long overdue. This manuscript will be part
of a much needed type of scholarly work, with introductory and background material about the author, as
well as a brief summary of the situation of women play writers in each specific country. It will examine the
message of the individual plays and their ties to life and society outside the play. It will be a useful source
book for anyone interested in theatre by women of the Americas.
Skills desired from student:
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
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Familiar with library research, online databases and how to find information on them
Proficient in Spanish. Reading level must be superior while written and spoken levels do not need
to be more than intermediate high
Good writer
Knows how to create a basic bibliography
Potential project tasks:
 Finding appropriate sources
 Putting together a review of relevant literature
 Creating a list of female play writers by countries
 Helping to identify the key plays within their dramatic work
 Reading the selected plays in Spanish and writing a summary in English
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On the following pages you will find descriptions of the 2012-2013 Emerging Scholars projects.
Descriptions are organized alphabetically by the faculty researcher’s last name. If you have questions
please contact the Center for Women & Work at cww@uml.edu or 978-934-4380. Student applications
are due on Monday July 9.
Faculty Researcher: Marlowe A. Miller
Professor, English and Gender Studies Departments
“The Representation of Domestic Space in Novels by Women Authors”
Professor Marlowe Miller’s project will explore the representation of domestic space in several modernist
novels written by women as a way of exploring the changing representation of gender roles in the modernist
period. Virginia Woolf famously said that “On or about December 1910, human character changed....”
Relations between ''masters and servants, husbands and wives, parents and children'' shifted, she wrote,
''and when human relations change there is at the same time a change in religion, conduct, politics and
literature.'' Assuming this shift did happen over the course of the modernist period, and that it did, indeed,
manifest in the literature of the time, this project will explore reactions to domestic space as it reflected or
resisted modernist change in gender relations and domestic arrangements.
Skills desired from student:
 Research skills for conducting research reviews and collecting relevant secondary sources
 Analytic skills -- to review primary texts in order to identify and record relevant passages
 Organizational skills for coding passages of text as related to specific themes, topics, or images
 Skills of close-reading and analyzing literature for literary elements (theme, figurative language,
symbolism, repetition, etc.)
Potential project tasks:
 A literature review to identify other research on this specific topic
 Careful review of about a dozen novels to analyze the representation of domestic space within
each
 A review of the broader topic of theories about material culture as explored in related disciplines
(cultural anthropology, sociology, and cultural studies)
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On the following pages you will find descriptions of the 2012-2013 Emerging Scholars projects.
Descriptions are organized alphabetically by the faculty researcher’s last name. If you have questions
please contact the Center for Women & Work at cww@uml.edu or 978-934-4380. Student applications
are due on Monday July 9.
Faculty Researcher: Alex Ruthmann
Associate Professor, Music Department
“A Math, Science and Technology Approach to Music and Education”
Professor Alex Ruthmann’s research project is located at the intersection of STEM fields (science,
technology, engineering, and mathematics), music and education. The Emerging Scholar will assist in the
development, implementation and evaluation of school- and community workshop-based curricula for
youth in the Greater Lowell area that blend concepts within math, computing and music. Building on the
National Science Foundation-funded Performamatics work - http://www.performamatics.org - here at
UMass Lowell, the scholar will work with me in the development of research data collection measures and
associated analyses of data. The scholar may also help develop new technology projects working
independently and collaboratively with creative music and sound production software, such as Audacity,
GarageBand, the Scratch visual programming environment and simple sensor interfaces. This project
overlaps two major research projects of mine - Performamatics and a new set of studies exploring
creative pedagogies of musical timbre and space as operationalized by audio engineers and music
producers.
Skills desired from student:
 Strong interest (but not necessarily a formal background) in STEM subjects (math, science,
engineering, technology, math, computer science), music, music theory, psychology, sociology
and/or music composition/production
 Expertise in using (or the willingness to learn how to use) audio editing, music composing, and
graphical computer programming software
 Ability to work both independently and collaboratively
 Detail oriented
 Exudes the general dispositions of curiosity, creativity and a willingness to ask questions
Potential project tasks:
 Help design, facilitate and evaluate creative music technology with Lowell area children in both
school- and community-based settings
 Assist in researching the effectiveness of the projects as implemented
 Help create and maintain a database of prior research at the intersection of STEM, music and
education
 Co-author a public presentation and possible print publication reporting the results of the projects
 Complete a CORI background check if working with children in schools and the community
 Complete IRB human subjects research ethics training
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On the following pages you will find descriptions of the 2012-2013 Emerging Scholars projects.
Descriptions are organized alphabetically by the faculty researcher’s last name. If you have questions
please contact the Center for Women & Work at cww@uml.edu or 978-934-4380. Student applications
are due on Monday July 9.
Faculty Researcher: Carole Salmon
Associate Professor, Cultural Studies
“The Franco-American French language and culture in the collective memory”
Professor Carole Salmon’s research project in sociolinguistics specifically focuses on two main
Francophone communities in the United States: the Cajuns in Louisiana and the Franco-Americans in
New England. Salmon has completed a pilot study of 10 interviews in the Lowell community, in
Massachusetts and through the course of that study realized that very few scholars in the field are
currently working on the Franco- American communities in New England. For these reasons, in the Fall of
2011, she gathered a sociolinguistics audio corpus of Franco-American French and Franco-American
English across the six States of New England (Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts,
Connecticut, and Rhode Island). This audio corpus is now named the Sociolinguistics Corpus of FrancoAmerican French and English (2011). It contains 124 interviews, gathered from 62 speakers: 62
interviews in Franco-American French and 62 in Franco-American English, since each speaker has been
interviewed twice. This database is currently the only one covering the six States of New England with
French interviews led by an interviewer who is a member of the Franco-American community himself.
Therefore, this corpus will undoubtedly serve as a unique sample of speech production. Beyond its
sociolinguistic use, this corpus already plays an important role in the preservation of Franco-American
French language and culture in the collective memory as this variety of French is rapidly disappearing.
Skills desired from student:
 A student who speaks French fluently OR an English-speaking student who can focus on the
interviews in English
 Organized
 Knowledge of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and some notion of statistics
 An interest in discovering what sociolinguists do
Potential project tasks:
 Transcription of Interviews: 4 interviews per State (2 men and 2 women), that is 24 interviews (4 x
6 =24)
 Qualitative and/or quantitative Analysis of interview data
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On the following pages you will find descriptions of the 2012-2013 Emerging Scholars projects.
Descriptions are organized alphabetically by the faculty researcher’s last name. If you have questions
please contact the Center for Women & Work at cww@uml.edu or 978-934-4380. Student applications
are due on Monday July 9.
Faculty Researcher: Richard Serna
Associate Professor, Psychology Department
“Analysis of Online Training Methods in Behavioral Intervention for Children with Autism
Spectrum Disorders”
Professor Richard Serna is studying online training methods for therapists and teachers in the
fundamental procedures used in behavioral intervention with children who have Autism Spectrum
Disorders (ASDs). ASDs are behavioral-neurological disorders, typically diagnosed before the age of
three, that profoundly affect the young child’s ability to communicate, develop language, form social
relationships, and respond appropriately to their environments. Recent estimates of prevalence rates in
the U.S. are as high as 1 in every 88 children. Discrete-Trial Training (DTT) is a common instructional
method used by special education teachers, paraprofessionals, teacher aides and parents (collectively
known as "practitioners") to teach children with autism and other developmental disabilities a wide array
of fundamental pre-academic and daily living skills needed to foster greater life independence. The DTT
method is a very precise one; it requires practitioners to follow a prescribed set of steps to accomplish the
learning goal. DTT is an important component of teaching and treatment procedures that are used in
behavioral intervention for children with autism and other developmental disabilities. It is widely
recognized that there currently exists a critical shortage of practitioners that are well versed in DTT and
related methods.
Practitioner training typically progresses from classroom instruction to supervised hands-on
experience, in which trainees work directly with children who have special learning needs. The
extent to which trainees are prepared for and will succeed in the hands-on training phase depends largely
on the quality of the classroom instruction. To extend classroom training to geographically disparate
trainees, parents and others, Richard Serna and his colleagues from the UMass Medical School, Shriver
Center have developed an online training package for paraprofessionals, the funding for which came from
the National Institutes of Health. As part of the larger evaluation of that package, Professor Serna has
begun a research program here at UML to determine the extent to which computer-based learning will
transfer (generalize) to live teaching performance. Using a combination of educational video, video
demonstrations and Flash®-based simulation exercises presented via computer, UML college-student
participants will be taught the fundamental elements of how to implement DTT to teach simple tasks. The
objective of this research is to determine whether the computer training will result in subsequent accurate
live performance with a "student" (a college-student experimenter playing the part of a child learner) as
well as with children who are on the Autism Spectrum.
Skills desired from student:
 Interest in and knowledge of Autism Spectrum Disorders
 Knowledge of fundamental principles of learning
 Good observation skills
 Good organizational skills
 Willingness to accommodate participants' early or late schedules
Potential project tasks:
 Meetings to discuss the rationale of study, research design and protocol
 Contribute to IRB approval
 Literature search
 One-on-one data collection with participants
 Data coding and analysis
 Dissemination of findings through posters and/or presentations
 Preparation of elements of a manuscript
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On the following pages you will find descriptions of the 2012-2013 Emerging Scholars projects.
Descriptions are organized alphabetically by the faculty researcher’s last name. If you have questions
please contact the Center for Women & Work at cww@uml.edu or 978-934-4380. Student applications
are due on Monday July 9.
Faculty Researcher: John Wooding
Professor, Political Science and Economic and Social Development of Regions
“An in-depth Look at the Life of Noted Pacifist and Advocate of Non-Violence, Richard Gregg”
Professor John Wooding’s research project involves a study of the noted pacifist and advocate of nonviolence, Richard Gregg. Gregg studied with Gandhi and was influential on the thinking of Martin Luther
King. He also inspired pacifists across the globe before, during and after WW2. He was particularly
influential on the Peace Pledge Union (Bertram Russell was one of the founders) that was very active in
Britain and Europe during the 1930s and 1940s. Gregg’s writing is archived at the Thoreau Society in
Concord MA but I may have access to unpublished and un-catalogued notebooks that will need to be
read and assessed. The student will work on an initial bibliography of the work of Gregg and the Peace
Pledge Union and potentially help with the evaluation of the unpublished notebooks. It is hoped that this
work will result in a book length manuscript on the impact of Gregg on peace movements in the 20th
Century. The student scholar will work closely with Professor Wooding on planning an initial article for
which there may be a potential for co-authorship.
Skills desired from student:
 Research skills for conducting literature reviews and collecting relevant sources
 Analytic skills -- to review primary texts in order to identify and record relevant passages
 Good writing skills
 Organizational skills
Potential project tasks:
 Literature search on all aspects of Gregg’s work and writing about him. Literature search on the
work of the Peace Pledge Union and related organizations.
 Writing summary bibliographic essays
 Examining and cataloguing unpublished notebooks
 Writing chronological summary of Gregg’s life in biographical form
 Possible travel to the Thoreau Society in Concord, MA (the extent of this piece of the project is
not yet known and student would not be expected to travel solo so a car is not necessary)
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On the following pages you will find descriptions of the 2012-2013 Emerging Scholars projects.
Descriptions are organized alphabetically by the faculty researcher’s last name. If you have questions
please contact the Center for Women & Work at cww@uml.edu or 978-934-4380. Student applications
are due on Monday July 9.
Faculty Researcher: Jenifer Whitten-Woodring
Associate Professor, Political Science and Peace and Conflict Studies
“Let’s Give Them Something to Talk About: When Climate Change in the News Leads to Climate
Change in Congress”
When does news coverage of climate change influence policy makers? Professor Whitten-Woodring’s
project begins with the argument that most news coverage of abstract issues like climate change will fail
to attract Congressional attention because, by itself climate change is perceived as a vague and distant
threat and thus of little concern to Congress and the general public. However, it is theorized that when
journalists cover extreme weather (especially hurricanes, heat waves and droughts) and connect these
events to climate change (even if the connection is incorrect), people become concerned about climate
change, which in turn encourages and pressures Congress to address the problem. We call this process
a connection frame, in which an abstract ambiguous issue (in this case climate change) is linked to an
event that has a high level of cultural resonance and/or magnitude (an extreme weather event). Through
this linkage the abstract issue is identified as the cause of a problem and this facilitates moral judgments
and creates a more pressing need for a remedy. This need is manifested in heightened public interest
and concern in that particular issue. We test our connection frame hypotheses using a combination of
content and statistical analyses of coverage of climate change in news and in congressional hearings
from 1980 to 2007. A preliminary version of this study won the Best Paper award from the International
Communication Section of the International Studies Association. This is a collaborative project with
Professor Amy Below, an expert in environmental politics at Oregon State University.
Skills desired from student:
 Ideally the student assigned to this project would have some interest in communication,
environmental issues, and/or politics
 The willingness to learn how to use content analysis and statistical analysis software (we will
provide training)
Potential project tasks:
 Completing training in QDA/WordStat (content analysis software) and STATA (statistical analysis
software)
 Running congressional hearings and presidential addresses through the content analysis
program
 Assisting with compiling the results into a STATA database
 Assisting with the literature review
 Helping to develop research presentation for the International Studies Association Annual
Meeting (April 2013)
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