Doing Translational Research

The foundation of his research interests stem from his background growing up in a large, working-class family in South Dakota, Dan Lichter explains. He and Chris discuss rural communities and how they develop and grow, poverty, issues of racial diversity and identity and the sentiment of disenfranchisement in rural communities. Lichter has always done work that is obviously important to the general population and acknowledges that rural America has been historically left out of consideration in academia. Daniel T. Lichter is the Ferris Family professor in the Department of Policy Analysis and Management at Cornell University and Professor of Sociology. Lichter has published widely on topics in population and public policy, including studies of concentrated poverty and inequality, intermarriage, cohabitation and marriage among disadvantaged women and immigrant incorporation.

Karen Levy has a background in sociology and law and studies the social, legal and ethical implications of technology. She and Chris get into her interest in the employment of surveillance in mundane contexts: the workplace, households and in intimate partner relationships. They discuss when individuals use surveillance on each other as well as when companies watch workers and consumers. They also explore the ways surveillance data can be used to counter injustice on behalf of workers or marginalized populations. Karen Levy is an assistant professor in the Department of Information Science at Cornell University, and associate member of the faculty of Cornell Law School. She researches how law and technology interact to regulate social life, with particular focus on social and organizational aspects of surveillance. Much of Dr. Levy's research analyzes the uses of monitoring for social control in various contexts, from long-haul trucking to intimate relationships. She is also interested in how data collection

Our guest Bruce Lewenstein is a professor in the Departments of Communication and of Science and Technology Studies at Cornell University. A historian and social scientist, his main focus is the public understanding of science. He and Chris discuss studying scientific controversies and the essential importance of listening to and understanding what a community values in order to work with that community. Bruce Lewenstein is an authority on public communication of science and technology, how science and technology are reported to the public and how the public understands controversial scientific issues and "emerging technologies" such as biotechnology and nanotechnology. Trained as a historian of science, he often uses historical case studies in his research. He has also done extensive work evaluating "citizen science" outreach projects, in which citizens fully participate in the scientific process by gathering, entering and sometimes analyzing scientific data. In recent years, he has helped connect the "publ

Lars Andersen of the Rockwool Foundation in Copenhagen, Denmark joins us this month to discuss his research on crime and the consequences of punishment. He and Chris discuss the importance of using quality data to answer questions or reexamine existing knowledge based on poor data; how criminal justice professionals (wardens, guards, parole officers, etc.) engage with his research; and how to design sentencing policies that improve life chances instead of ruining them. Lars Højsgaard Andersen is a senior researcher at the Rockwool Foundation Research Unit in Copenhagen, Denmark. His research interests include how criminal justice contact concentrates within and across generations, how conditions of confinement affect people and the role of family processes for these topics.

This month guest host and BCTR associate director Maria Fitzpatrick chats with Will Hobbs about his research on sudden changes and how people adapt to them. The change in question could be personal, like the death of a friend, or societal, like a governmental policy shift. As a researcher, he's most often associated with methods such as data science using complex data sources and causal inference. William Hobbs is an assistant professor in the Department of Human Development at Cornell University. He is also in the Department of Government and on the graduate field faculty in Information Science. Hobbs studies politics and health, especially the social effects of government actions and how small groups of people adapt to sudden changes in their lives. His recent projects have studied the development of public attitudes toward the Affordable Care Act, how social networks heal after a death, and unintended consequences of online censorship in China.

This month we welcome Lonnie Berger, director of the Institute for Research on Poverty and Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor and Ph.D. Program Chair at the School of Social Work at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His work aims to inform public policy in order to improve its capacity to assist families in accessing resources, improving family functioning and wellbeing and ensuring that children are able to grow and develop in the best possible environments. Lonnie and Chris discuss the intersection of public policy, family structures and family resources and how those affect child wellbeing. How Lonnie's grounding in social work, as opposed to a social science disipline, informs and broadens his research. Lonnie has extensive experience working with state agencies in Wisconsin around child wellbeing generally and also the foster system. He descibes specific examples of issues and successes in partnering with state agencies to further child wellbeing. Lonnie Berger is the director of the Institute

This month Chris chats with political scientist Jamila Michener. Jamila gets into her interest in politics and inequality from an early age; how public policy plays a role in alienating people at the economic and racial margins; and how connections to stakeholders shape her work. Jamila Michener is an assistant professor in the Department of Government at Cornell University. Her research focuses on poverty, racial inequality and public policy in the United States. Her recent book, "Fragmented Democracy: Medicaid, Federalism and Unequal Politics," examines how Medicaid affects democratic citizenship. "Fragmented Democracy" assesses American political life from the vantage point(s) of those who are living in or near poverty, (disproportionately) Black or Latino, and reliant on a federated government for vital resources.

This time Chris is joined by his collaborator, political scientist Peter Enns. They get into Peter's work examining how how policy can be informed by public opinion in such areas as mass incarceration and unerstanding election resutls. He also explains why it's a good time for criminal justice reform. Peter K. Enns is an associate professor in the Department of Government and executive director of the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research at Cornell University. His research focuses on public opinion, representation, mass incarceration and inequality. His recent book "Incarceration Nation" explains why the public became more punitive in the 1960s, 70s, 80, and 90s, and how this increasing punitiveness led to the rise of mass incarceration in the United States.

Shannon Gleeson studies workplace rights, the experiences of immigrant workers and the role of advocacy organizations in holding government bureaucracies accountable. She and Chris discuss the overlap between immigration and labor policy, immigrant labor rights, the often-overlooked importance of policy implementation and working with various stakeholders. Shannon describes her experiences working with communities, including the importance of finding the gatekeepers and not over-promising as researchers, Shannon Gleeson is an associate professor of labor relations, law, and history in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations. Gleeson’s first book, "Conflicting Commitments: The Politics of Enforcing Immigrant Worker Rights in San Jose and Houston," was published in 2012 by Cornell University Press. Her second book, "Precarious Claims: The Promise and Failure of Workplace Protections in the United States," (forthcoming, University of California Press) examines U.S. labor and employment laws, the challenges

Melissa Ferguson is an expert in social cognition, studying how our unconscious attitudes and goals differ from our stated or self-perceived ones. She and Chris discuss her research in this area using implicit association tests to measure implicit prejudice, with the ultimate goal of changing it. They also get into the replication issues with psychology research and working with undergrad research subjects vs. subjects in the broader community. Melissa Ferguson is senior associate dean of social sciences and a professor of psychology at Cornell University. Her work addresses how classical psychological constructs, including attitudes, goals, judgments, and ideology, operate in an unconscious, unintentional manner. She has found that creative solutions to difficult problems can be tracked non-consciously, even before the person consciously grasps the solution.

This month we happily welcome Phyllis Moen, current McKnight Endowed Presidential Chair in Sociology at the University of Minnesota, and former Cornell faculty and founding director of the Bronfenbrenner Life Course Center at Cornell. Chris and Phyllis discuss her research on the mismatch between outdated work-time and career/retirement scripts and 21st century workforce and economic realities. She also studies gender differences and disparities at all stages of the changing life course. The old templates of work life no longer fit changing demographics and culture. Trying to apply these old work formats today leads to issues in the health, mental health, and family life of workers. Moen specifically discusses the problem areas and how to update our ideas of how work should work. Phyllis Moen is a life course scholar interested in the mismatch between 20th century clocks and calendars shaping work, careers and the gendered life course and 21st century demographies, technologies, risks and realities. She dire

Amanda Purington is our guest this episode. She and host Janis Whitlock discuss Amanda's work on Social Media TestDrive, a program that gives youth a safe, simulated online experience. TestDrive also sparks conversations between youth, youth practitioners and parents about online safety, cyberbullying, and positive online experiences. Amanda has long-standing relationships with various non-researcher stakeholders and talks about the ways those rich connections improve both practice and research. Amanda Purington is the director of evaluation and research for ACT for Youth within the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research. She also studies communication as a PhD student within the Social Media Lab at Cornell University. Professionally and academically, Amanda is passionate about using research and evaluation to promote the health and well-being of youth.

Chris is joined by bethany ojalehto of Cornell's Department of Human Development this episode. They discuss bethany's work examining how we conceptualize the natural world and how our perspectives influence what we find possible in that context. She works with the indigenous Ngöbe communities of Panama and non-indigenous people in the US and elsewhere in the "west," examining how ideas of sustainability vary across these cultures. bethany ojalehto is assistant professor of human development at Cornell University. Her research explores how people conceptualize agency and ecologies, with a focus on cultural variation in social cognition and human-environment relationships. She has been privileged to develop these research perspectives through partnership with Indigenous Ngöbe communities of Panama, where she has participated in research and collaboration since 2010.

Guest host Janis Whitlock talks to Kimberly Kopko about her research on parenting, parenting education, and working with communities. Kopko notes the importance of getting buy-in from the right people at community agencies when collaborating on a research project, and the need to work to give all children an equally strong start in life. Kimberly Kopko is senior extension associate, associate director of Cornell Cooperative Extension and associate director of extension and outreach in the College of Human Ecology at Cornell University. Her research and Extension work examines parenting and family processes. Current research and outreach projects include: parenting and child learning, parenting education in School-Based Health Centers (SBHCs), teens being raised by custodial grandparents, and the use of research and evidence-based parent education programs to promote positive parenting behaviors and strengthen families. Ongoing academic and research interests incorporate an international dimension with a focu

In our first episode with host and new BCTR Director Chris Wildeman, we hear from Bruce Western, who studies incarceration and reentry into society. They discuss incarceration's effect on social and economic inequality; Dr Western's feeling that big datasets weren't telling the whole story about incarceration and reentry - and how his research took a different approach; and how understanding and expanding the idea of justice in the lives of disadvantaged people can improve social problems. Bruce Western is professor of sociology, Columbia University; co-director, Columbia Justice Lab; and distinguished visiting research professor, University of Queensland, Australia. Western's research examines trends in American economic inequality and the growth of the US penal population. These topics are joined by an interest in the shifting landscape of American poverty over the last 40 years. He is the author of "Punishment and Inequality in America" (2007) and "Homeward: Life in the Year After Prison" (2018). Wester

Our guest Neil Lewis studies how the interplay between social identity and social contexts shape motivation and goal-pursuit processes. He uses this framework to understand social disparities, particularly disparities in education and health outcomes. He and Karl discuss ways that identity and social situations can affect health outcomes, obstacles when working with communities, and why education is so important for communities, not just individuals. Neil A. Lewis, Jr. is an assistant professor of communication and social behavior at Cornell University with graduate field appointments in communication and psychology. He earned his B.A. in economics and psychology at Cornell University, and his M.S. and Ph.D. in social psychology at the University of Michigan.

It's our 20th episode! This seemed like a good moment to address a question we often hear: What is translational research? To tackle this important question Karl is joined by BCTR associate director John Eckenrode. They cover the origins of translational research, and how it differs from "basic" and "applied" research. There are some examples of translational research projects and throughout the conversation they touch on why this research method is so effective and more and more in-demand by funders, policymakers and practitioners. John Eckenrode is a social psychologist and professor of human development and associate director of the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research. He is also founder and co-director of the National Data Archive of Child Abuse and Neglect. His research concerns child abuse and neglect, the effects of preventive interventions, translational research, and stress and coping processes.

BCTR associate director Chris Wildeman sits in for Karl Pillemer this episode. Our guest James Garbarino argues that teenage killers are not doomed to a life of violence and most can be reahabilitated by the time they are fully-developed adults. They also talk about sentencing in these cases, how the judicial system deals with young killers, and what could be changed to better serve this youth while keeping the public safe. James Garbarino holds the Maude Clarke Chair in Psychology and was founding director of the Center for the Human Rights of Children at Loyola University Chicago. His research focuses on issues in the social ecology of child and adolescent development. He has a long-standing interest in a wide range of violence-related issues, including war, child maltreatment, childhood aggression, and juvenile delinquency. Since 1994, he has served as a scientific expert witness in murder cases. Among the books he has authored are: "Miller’s Children: Why Giving Teenage Killers a Second Chance Matters fo

Maria Fitzpatrick, the current Milman Fellow in the Bronfenbrenner Center, sat down with Karl to talk about her work centering on creating well being for the most vulnerable: children and elder adults. Maria is the first economist we've had on the podcast! They discuss mortality and retirement, the opoid crisis and child maltreatment, Maria's insights into working with policy makers, and the importance of high-quality early childhood programs. Maria Fitzpatrick is an associate professor in the Department of Policy and Management, Milman Fellow at the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research, and research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. She is also an affiliate in the CESifo Research Network, the Cornell Populations Center, the Center for the Study of Inequality, and the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research. Her main area of focus is the economics of education. Specifically her research focuses on early childhood education policies, and higher education and teache

In this episode we hear from Janis Whitock, director of the Youth Risk and Opportunity Lab in the Bronfenbrenner Center at Cornell University. She and Karl talk about how she unexpectedly began to study self-injury in youth, and how that focus has widened to examine the risks youth face in their transition to adulthood. Dr. Whitlock also discusses how to best communicate with policymakers and practitioners, among other topics. Janis Whitlock is a research scientist in the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research. She is also the director of the Cornell Youth Risk and Opportunity Lab. She is the author of publications on non-suicidal self-injury in adolescence and young adulthood, social media and mental health, and in youth connectedness to schools and communities. She earned a doctorate in Developmental Psychology from Cornell University (2003), a Masters of Public Health from UNC Chapel Hill (1994), and a BA from the University of California at Berkeley (1988). Her current primary research focus i