Research Opportunities for Students
Welcome to the Doris Bergen Center for Human Development, Learning and Technologies (CHDLT) Undergraduate Research Assistant matching webpage. The CHDLT’s goal is to promote interdisciplinary research among Miami University faculty members and students. The purpose of this webpage is to improve the ability of faculty to find eager students wanting to gain research experience and to give students the ability to seek out faculty members they may or may not be familiar with.
Being an Undergraduate Research Assistant (URA) is a great opportunity for students to gain experience and skills valued by employers, graduate schools and medical schools. The role of the URA varies depending on the faculty members’ needs which is dependent on their research interests. Below is a list of faculty members accepting inquiries from interested students.
- Please copy and paste the email link provided to contact the faculty member.
- When contacting a faculty member, please include:
- Your name
- Year
- Major
- Say that you are responding to the CHDLT Research Opportunities page, as well as any additional items the faculty member requests.
I Am Actively Seeking Undergraduate Research Assistants
Dr. Sara M. Acevedo (Disability Studies), Assistant Professor
Email
acevedsm@MiamiOH.edu
Please Include:
- CV
- Writing sample
- Brief description of previous research experience and skills (one page only)
- Your major
Research Interests
I am a critical disability studies scholar. My work centers on social justice, social movement activism, and neurodiversity (among other critical studies such as feminism). I focus primarily on co- documenting community self-direction and autonomy with disabled grassroots leaders. I am a disabled person with over 12 years of experience in disability studies and 8 in applied cultural anthropology.
I am seeking a student with interest in social justice issues: disability studies, women, gender, and sexuality studies, race and ethnic studies, queer studies etc. who is keen on developing their interests and applicable knowledge in this area of study.
PS. Before applying, it is very important that the student makes sure to research the purpose and definition of disability studies as a discipline, which is often confused with a clinical and/or therapeutic field - which it most definitely is not.
Learn More
- https://www.downtothestruts.com/episodes/season-1-episode-2-sara-acevedo
- https://www.britannica.com/topic/disability-studies
- https://www.uei.ucla.edu/academic-programs/disability-studies/
Amber Franklin (Speech Pathology & Audiology)
Please Include:
- Resume and/or a short paragraph indicating why you are interested in this line of research
Research Interests
Dr. Franklin investigates linguistic variation on the Eastern Caribbean island of Anguilla, where local residents speak English and Anguillian English Creole. In addition to analyzing Anguillian English speech patterns and language attitudes, she is embarking on a new study of early literacy practices among Anguillian parents. Interested students outside the Speech Pathology and Audiology major are encouraged to contact Dr. Franklin and include a resume and/or a short paragraph indicating why you are interested in this line of research.
Yvette Harris (Psychology)
Please Include:
- Name
- Year
- Major
Research Interests
For several years, my research has been grounded in the theoretical perspective of Vygotsky, and explored the environmental contributions to cognitive development by examining the strategies that mothers use as they engage their children in a learning activity, exploring how those strategies correlate with young children's problem solving and cognitive competence, investigating how their strategies vary according to maternal beliefs, task, and task demands, and examining at what point in time do young children benefit from parental teaching/learning interactions.The research has been supported by National Science Foundation, Miami University, the Murray Center and Proctor and Gamble. Currently, I have a new line of research focusing on the challenges of family reunification as parents return from prison.
Dr. (Gerard) Trace Poll (Speech Pathology & Audiology), Assistant Professor
Please Include:
- Major, minor(s)
- GPA
- Current class (e.g. freshman, sophomore, junior...)
- Why you are interested in joining a lab.
Research Interests
My research focuses on improving assessment practices to identify adolescents and young adults with communication disorders and differences. We are currently working toward validation of a new assessment for social communication to support youth who are in transition programs from high school to jobs, independent living, and post-secondary education. We also use psycholinguistic approaches to enhance the accuracy of screening tools.
Dr. Vaishali Raval (Psychology)
Please Include:
- GPA
Research Interests
Our lab is interested in understanding parent-child relationships, emotions, and child and adolescent mental health in international populations and ethnic minority groups in the U.S. Knowledge in psychology is primary based on research conducted with White middle-class groups in Western countries, which represent less than five percent of the world’s population (Arnett, 2008). We know relatively little about parenting practices and mental health in other groups, and our lab aims to fill this gap.
I Would Consider a Student as an Undergraduate Assistant
Dr. Veronica Barrios (Family Science and Social Work)
Please Include:
- Name
- Year
- Major
- GPA
- Research interests
- How you see your research interest relating to my research
Research Interests
My research focuses primarily on the disclosure of sexual violence through a intersectional qualitative lens. I have current projects on creating an interview guide for clinical practitioners to facilitate disclosure for survivors of sexual violence; disclosure of sexual violence between siblings; and sex workers' experiences with childhood trauma. I also works on training and evaluation projects with community organizations such as Women Helping Women.
Dr. Jeffrey Hunger (Psychology)
Please Include:
- Resume
Research Interests
In my lab we study the mental and physical health consequences of being a member of a stigmatized group (e.g., racial and sexual minorities, higher weight individuals)
Elizabeth Kiel Luebbe (Psychology)
Please Include:
- GPA
Research Interests
My primary research interests are in the development of anxiety-spectrum outcomes in young children, and what it is like to parent children at risk for anxiety. I am working on an ongoing longitudinal study that examines temperamental risk for anxiety and parenting from age 1 to 6. I would be interested in developing collaborations with other faculty who do work in school readiness, as I am developing interests in how socioemotional development impacts adjustment to kindergarten. I am also interested in collaborating on projects related to emotion processes that occur in families.
Dr. Kathrine Kuvalanka (Family Science and Social Work)
Please Include:
- Brief explanation of why they are interested in joining the Trans*Kids Project as a student researcher and/or any experience they have with LGBTQ individuals or communities.
Research Interests
The Trans*Kids Project is a longitudinal study of 50 families with transgender and gender-diverse (TGD) children from across the U.S. A goal of the project is to help inform individuals and communities about how to better support TGD youth and their families. Student researchers assist with data management and analysis and other research-related
Dr. Aaron Luebbe (Psychology)
Please Include:
- Name
- Year
- Major
- Minimum GPA of 2.75
Research Interests
The Family Relationships and Mood lab studies how emotion processes, family relationships, and biological responses to stress interact to put adolescents at risk for depression and anxiety. RAs assist with data entry and management, behavioral coding (i.e., watching videos and assigning scores), data collection, and other lab tasks. A select group of students interested in neuroscience assist with collection of data using Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy.
Dr. Dawna (Cricket) Meehan (Psychology)
Please Include:
- Your interest in school mental health ~150 words
Research Interests
Examining the mental health and school success of children and adolescents through the promotion of school mental health programs and services
Thomas Misco (Teaching, Curriculum, and Educational Inquiry)
Please Include:
- GPA
- Resume
- Short personal statement of interest in research
Research Interest
My primary research interests are in controversial issue education within the context of democratic citizenship education.
Dr. Ally Murphy (Family Science and Social Work)
Please Include:
- Resume
Research Interests
I am currently working on Promoting Resilient-Single Parent Families project, I will be needing 2 undergraduate assistants in the Summer. Other research interests: Family-at-Risks, Resiliency, Adverse Childhood Adversity to Cognitive Development, Trauma-Informed.
Dr. Arnold Olszewski (Speeach Pathology & Audiology)
Please Include:
- Resume with current GPA
- Research interests.
Research Interests
The mission of the CALL Lab at Miami University is to identify barriers to young children’s acquisition of language and emergent literacy skills and to develop interventions for these skills that can be implemented feasibly in real-world settings.
Specific research goals are to:
- Identify and understand underlying barriers faced by populations of children at risk for developing language and literacy disorders (e.g., children in poverty, children with health conditions, bilingual children, minority children).
- Develop and test novel interventions to promote high quality linguistic interactions among young children and their families, teachers, and speech-language pathologists.
- Utilize principles of implementation science to evaluate and promote feasibility and sustainability of interventions in home, educational, and clinical settings.
Elise Radina (Family Science and Social Work)
Please Include:
- Name
- Year
- Major
Research Interests
Families and health. Current projects include a comparison study of breast cancer survivors in the US and India as well as Survey study about the impact of Covid-10 on families using a family resilience framework.
Dr. Racheal Rothrock (Teaching, Curriculum, and Educational Inquiry)
Please Include:
- A brief statement (~100 words) on what your research interests are and any details on plans if they have advanced to that stage.
Research Interests
My research takes up issues of equity and socio-spatial justice within education. My work has specifically taken up the notion of "community" in connection to teachers' beliefs and practices. I draw from critical and postmodern theoretical frameworks to think about inequities in education and schooling across disciplines and at different levels (e.g. K-12 classroom, K-12 school, higher education, etc.) through sociological and geographic lenses.
