Dr. Laurence Dumouchel’s research focuses on reconstructing the environmental conditions in which our ancestors evolved. Specifically, she works on Eastern African animal fossils associated with the environments of Australopithecus anamensis, an early bipedal hominin who lived about 4 million years ago. She is also interested in the study of the human diet in deep time. She is involved in several projects aiming to refine our understanding of the taphonomic traces (tooth marks, trampling, polishing, etc.) found recording and preserving evidence of behavior in the fossil record. Dr. Dumouchel is significantly involved in public outreach and science communication.
Project Abstract:
The research plan for this proposal involves the comparison of traces left on bones by several feline species who chew them. To that effect, I will collaborate with Cedar Cove Feline Conservation and Education Center in Louisburg, Kansas to collect bones eaten by their lions, tigers, and other felids. To analyze the traces left by these carnivorans, I will use a method I contributed to publishing last year. This novel, low-cost, low-tech semi-quantitative method uses 5 stages to qualify the extent of the damage made on bones by carnivores and has thus far only been applied to a single lion-damaged assemblage. My results will allow paleoanthropologists to recognize the action of each carnivore taxon in the fossil record and successfully distinguish them from human-induced traces. Identifying the makers of bone damage will also help to refine the reconstruction of past environments.
Dr. Jeoung Min Lee is an Assistant Professor in the School of Social Work at Wichita State University. She received her MSW at Soong Sil University in South Korea, M.S in Human Development and Family Studies at Michigan State University, and her Ph.D. in Social Work at Wayne State University. Her research interests include bias-based bullying and cyberbullying. She is particularly interested in bias-based bullying experienced by racial and ethnic minorities and sexual minorities.
Project Abstract:
Cyberbullying has rapidly increased in the past decade, and it is a serious concern for students, parents, teachers, schools, and the general public. Recently, because of Covid-19, most college students have online/hybrid classes which could increase their exposure to cyberbullying than during previous school years. Studies found that victims of traditional bullying by peers have low levels of self-esteem, high levels of depression, somatization, and hostility that are likely to become victims of cyberbullying. Consequently, victims of cyberbullying frequently report psychosocial distress (e.g., depression, anxiety), physical health problems, risk behaviors (e.g., substance use), and suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Although there is a significant risk of increasing cyberbullying victimization, no study has explored protective factors associated with college students' cyberbullying involvement during the Covid-19 period in Kansas. A survey will be distributed throughout Facebook advertising and will use a probability sampling method to collect college students who experienced cyberbullying victimization in Kansas. Applying Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems perspective explores factors correlated with cyberbullying victimization among college students (ages 18-24) who were involved in peer victimization in their middle and high schools in Kansas. This study will provide an intervention strategy to minimize cyberbullying victimization, which considers the individual and microsystem levels of influence and the mesosystem, exosystem, and macrosystem levels.
Dr. Lu received a PhD in philosophy from the University of Kansas in 2000. She has been teaching at WSU since 2001. She teaches a variety of courses which include: Phil 100/ Meaning of Philosophy, Phil 105/Critical Reasoning, Phil 313/ Political Philosophy, Phil 345/ Philosophy of Sex and Love, and Phil 350/Ancient Chinese Philosophy among others. In recent years, her research focuses on ancient Chinese philosophy, ethics, and political theories.
Project Abstract:
This project will focus on the meaning of modern Chinese nationalism, and how it plays out in the crisis of the Covid-19 pandemic. One goal of this project is to correct some of the misunderstanding and distortion of contemporary Chinese society caused by ignorance of traditional Chinese philosophy and culture. I will take the analytical philosophical approach to critically evaluate the relevant works in relation to history and current events. The research project of this summer is part of a long-term project which aims at a publication of a more comprehensive project on Chinese Nationalism—the Thriving of the Confucian Sentiment in the Era of Globalization – which intends to correct some of the most serious misconceptions in Western academia. Given what is going on in the crisis of the pandemic, and the tension between China and the U.S. at the national and international levels, the need for an adequate understanding of Chinese history and culture has been made more urgent.
Dr. Ruowen Shen
Assistant Professor
Hugo Wall School of Public Affairs
Dr. Ruowen Shen joined the Hugo Wall School of Public Affairs as an Assistant Professor in 2019. Her research focuses on urban sustainability policy and local collaborative governance.
Project Abstract:
This study is to understand how policy action implemented by city government shapes the urban built environment, which in turn affects healthy behaviors and population health. Specifically, this study investigates (1) the association between bike infrastructure expansion policy implemented by city governments and multiple health outcomes including leisure-time physical inactivity, obesity and coronary heart disease (CHD); (2) the extent to which bike infrastructure expansion policy affects health outcomes through bike use for commuting and recreation; (3) whether the health effects of bike infrastructure expansion policy are scalable across cities of different size. Hierarchical linear regression analysis and Sobel-Goodman mediation tests will be conducted. This study adopts an ecology approach from urban planning to examine the effectiveness of a public policy. This cross-disciplinary work would provide practitioners with evidence-based guidance on encouraging physical activity through the design of a more accessible built environment. In addition, this analysis focuses on 500 largest cities in the United States. It contributes to the literature by analyzing the largest set of cities to date.
Photo: Left to Right, Alexandra Olmstead (undergraduate Physics major and Computer
Science minor), Dr. Erin O’Bryan, Dr. Huabo Lu
Dr. Erin O'Bryan
Assistant Professor
Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD)
Erin O'Bryan, PhD, CCC-SLP, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD) at Wichita State University. Dr. O'Bryan is a licensed and certified Speech-Language Pathologist. She teaches graduate courses in Aphasia, Dysphagia, and Voice Disorders and an undergraduate course in Anatomy and Physiology of Speech and Hearing Mechanisms. Dr. O'Bryan's research interests include aphasia treatment, sentence comprehension and production, and computer-based therapy applications.
Dr. Huabo Lu
Huabo Lu, PhD, is an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Dr. Lu teaches Object-Oriented Programming class and Data Structures class. His research interests are Anonymous Communication Networking and Data Anonymization.
Project Abstract:
The purpose of the proposed project is to begin a collaboration between the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD) and the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) in order to develop a computerized therapy tool for people with aphasia, an acquired language disorder resulting from stroke or brain injury. The goals of the project are as follows: 1) to conduct an aphasia treatment efficacy study using a computerized sentence building task based on the results of last year’s successful pilot study, 2) to process and analyze the large amount of accuracy and reaction time data generated by the computerized sentence building program, requiring collaboration with computer programmers from EECS, and 3) to begin planning of an Android app that would allow people with aphasia to use and customize the computerized therapy tool at home. The project will fund research positions for one undergraduate computer science student and one graduate student in the clinical speech language pathology Master’s program.
Dr. Li Yao
Associate Professor
Department of Biological Sciences
Project Abstract:
Nerve injury affects millions of people worldwide annually. Biomaterials has been investigated to fabricate scaffolds that can bridge the nerve gap and conduct nerve re-growth. However, these studies have shown limited success. It is necessary to optimize the chemical component of the bioscaffolds to improve the therapeutic effect. The hydrogel shows similar mechanical properties of hydrogels to neural tissues. When grafted to the neural lesion, little mechanical stress is generated to the surrounding tissues. Collagen hydrogel that mimics the native nerve microenvironment can conduct axonal growth. The effective modulation of immunological response in the injured nerve will improve the neural regeneration process. Soybean protein has been studied to generate biomaterials for tissue repair and drug delivery. It was shown that the soybean protein can control immunological reaction of animal tissue because it decreases the proinflammatory cytokine production of mononuclear cells in animal peripheral blood. Meanwhile, soy protein has tunable structures and desirable mechanical properties depending on the processing treatment and it can be fabricated into a variety of biomaterial structures, including hydrogels and thin films. The objective of the proposed research is to create soy protein-collagen composite hydrogel that will be used to repair injured nerve. The soy protein isolate component will help to control the immunological response in the nerve regeneration process and enhance the mechanical properties and stability of the resulting hydrogel structures. The soy protein-collagen hydrogel will create a permissive environment to conduct nerve growth.
Dr. Kapildeb Ambal is an Assistant Professor of Physics at Wichita State University. He received a B.Sc. with Honors in Physics from the University of Calcutta, India, an M.Sc. in Physics from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, India, and an M.S. and a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Utah. His doctoral research focused on Imaging and spectroscopy of individual paramagnetic quantum states at the atomic scale. Before joining Wichita State University, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Maryland and a guest researcher at the National Institute of Standard Technology (NIST), where he worked on measuring properties of emerging magnetic memory (MRAM) devices. His current research interest focuses on investigating fundamental physics that controls the spin and charge transport in condensed matter devices. The projects he is currently working on are; 1) interface engineering for low-cost solar cells using sustainable materials, 2) measurement of magnetic properties of magnetic nanoparticles for novel magnetic technologies (MRAM) and medical applications, and 3) enhancing 3D printed metal parts' quality and corrosion resistance using quantum metrology.
Project Abstract:
Magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) based hyperthermia is emerging and non-invasive cancer therapy. Magnetic hyperthermia is a remote and localized treatment, thereby minimizing damage to nearby healthy cells. Recently, there has been a flurry of research activities dedicated to designing novel and highly efficient MNPs. However, MNP development is notoriously suffering from a lack of experimental measurement methods to quantify an individual MNP's surface and near-surface temperature at the nanoscale. Improving the therapeutic efficacy of MNP-based hyperthermia treatment depends on the nanoscale characterization of individual nanoparticles' calorimetric properties. For example, the surface and local surrounding temperature of MNPs is pivotal in deciding the treatment efficacy and quantifying the desired therapeutic dose parameters accurately. The existing state-of-the-art technologies use macroscopic/ensemble methods to characterize the calorimetric properties of MNPs. The macroscopic measurement schemes lead to significant uncertainties while extracting the nanoscale parameters and functions that causing performance inefficiency.
Developing a smart, fast, and ultra-sensitive characterization method is the focus of this proposal. The proposed novel experimental method will measure the surface and local surrounding temperature of magnetic nanoparticles with nanoscale precision. The proposed platform will be developed based on quantum sensor technology referred to as a nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center. The far-reaching impact of the proposed goal is that it will make a paradigm shift on how we effectively and accurately characterize the magnetic nanoparticles and, thus, effectively speed up the process of developing efficient magnetic nanoparticles for hyperthermia treatment. The outcomes from the proposed project will improve magnetic nanoparticle-assisted hyperthermia treatment, which will improve human health.
Dr. Breanna Boppre
Assistant Professor, Graduate Coordinator
Department of Criminal Justice
Dr. Breanna Boppre is an Assistant Professor (tenure-track) in the School of Criminal Justice at Wichita State University. Dr. Boppre’s research assesses how victimization, adversity, and trauma lead to system-involvement. She critically examines legal and carceral responses, and the impacts of such responses on system-involved individuals and their families. Much of her work uses a gendered and intersectional lens. Dr. Boppre seeks to amplify the voices of system-impacted people through her scholarship. Her research appears in numerous peer-reviewed outlets including Justice Quarterly, the International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, Corrections: Policy, Practice, and Research, Feminist Criminology, and Victims & Offenders.
Project Abstract:
The novel coronavirus has upended the lives of Americans. Incarcerated populations face increased risk for contracting the virus and subsequent health issues due to the conditions of prisons and jails across the U.S. For each of the 2.2 million people incarcerated, they leave behind a family system on the outside. These families face distinct stressors related to having a loved one incarcerated, including adverse financial, social, and psychological consequences. Factor in a global pandemic, and these stressors are intensified. Using a mixed methods approach, this study will provide an in-depth examination of familial incarceration during the COVID-19 pandemic. Importantly, the narratives from families will provide insight about how correctional agencies are handling the pandemic across the nation.
Dr. Sindhu Preetham Burugupally
Assistant Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Sindhu Preetham Burugupally is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Wichita State University. He received his PhD from Washington State University in 2014, and his BS from the Indian Institute of Technology, Dhanbad in 2009, both in Mechanical Engineering. Between his PhD and current position, he performed a cumulative of two years of postdoctoral appointment in the Dept. of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at The Ohio State University and the University of Notre Dame. He investigates the fundamental physics of micrometer and millimeter scale systems in which the design and fabrication are challenged because of their length-scales. He has made several research contributions to the field of thermal and electrostatic actuators, served as the technical program committee chair for the PowerMEMS2019 conference, and is currently leading a research project funded by KS NSF EPSCoR.
Project Abstract:
Inspired by biology, researchers have begun creating miniature robots – tiny machines that walk, crawl, jump, swim, or fly – that mimic insects. For practical applications such as search operations during disaster management or infrastructure inspection, these miniature robots are required to meet certain performance metrics such as: low cost to transport, consume less power, be lightweight, and be autonomous. For this, there is a need for an efficient actuator. This project aims to develop an efficient electrostatic actuator by coupling multiple physics at micrometer and millimeter scales. The proposed actuator will be fabricated from flexible polymers and ultra-thin metal films using traditional Origami/Kirigami and micromachining techniques. The overarching goal is to integrate the actuator in miniature robots whose capabilities match real-life insects, which are currently not achievable.
Dr. Terrance Figy is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics, Mathematics, and Statistics. Terrance Figy is a theoretical particle physicist. He became interested in mathematics and physics at a very young age. He attended the Summer Science Camp at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire (UWEC), Eau Claire, WI in 1992. This experience fueled his desire to become a particle physicist. He started an undergraduate degree in physics and mathematics in 1996 at UWEC and graduated in 2000. Subsequently, Terrance Figy completed a Ph.D. in physics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the 2006. He has held postdoctoral appointments at the University of Durham, Durham, United Kingdom, European Organization for Nuclear Research, Geneva, Switzerland, and the University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom.
Project Abstract:
The current understanding of the structure of matter is that it is built of a finite set out of fundamental building blocks. Using machines that accelerate proton near the speed of light and colliding these proton beams, experimentalists at collider facilities such as the Large Hadron Collider located at the European Organization for Research (CERN) are able to learn about the structure of matter. In order to test our mathematical models, theorists have developed software tools that simulate the collision of two proton beams. While many calculations are possible with existing technology, one still needs large amounts of computing power to predict kinematic features such as energy and momentum of outgoing particles that result from proton collisions at CERN.
The research project entails developing software tools that allow users to predict histograms for the energy and momentum of outgoing particle after two proton beams collide. The primary goal of this project is to develop a new algorithm that will significantly reduce the amount of computing needed to predict these histograms.
Dr. Brian Hepburn
Associate Professor, Undergraduate Coordinator
Department of Philosophy
Dr. Hepburn has a BASc in Physics and Philosophy (Honours), from the University of Lethbridge, and a PhD in the History and Philosophy of Science from the University of Pittsburgh.
He was a Teaching Postdoctoral Fellow and then Instructor at the University of British Columbia for 4 years. Between that and joining the Philosophy department at Wichita State in 2014, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow for 3 years as part of The Philosophy of Contemporary Science in Practice research group (PI: Hanne Andersen) at the Center for Science Studies in Aarhus, Denmark.
Dr. Hepburn's research interests are located at the intersections of explanation, formal languages, and problem-solving in scientific practice. His focus has been how calculus, particularly using the analytic formalism, facilitated an explosion in problem solving in 18th century mechanics. Insights gleaned studying that period will now inform a new phase of research on the roles of normativity and inter-expertise explanation in problem solving in engineering and applied sciences.
Project Abstract:
Engineering problems never have unique solutions, let alone perfect ones. Solving any engineering problem requires choices about the best course of action, the best balance among constraints of time, budget, aesthetics, and many other values, including those of various stakeholders. These choices are normative choices, and they are integral to engineering practice (and STEM generally). Judgments about values, or what is best, are decisions which require more than technical expertise. Even as a part of technical problem solving, it takes normative expertise to make and justify any normative decision, But the ethics of engineering is usually treated as something additional to engineering proper, rather than integral. This project, therefore, will compile case studies illustrating how ethics is integral to engineering problem-solving in practice, using materials archived at the Linda Hall Library, Kansas City. Dr. Hepburn and an undergraduate research assistant will examine the way normative concepts and arguments are used and communicated in engineering practice.
Dr. Dosun Ko
Assistant Professor of Elementary Education
Department of Curriculum & Instruction
Dosun Ko is an Assistant Professor in the School of Education. He received his Ph.D. in special education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2020. Formerly, he worked as an inclusive elementary classroom teacher in South Korea. As an immigrant scholar, his scholarship centers primarily on equity issues in special/inclusive education at the intersection of different social markers. He has been working with urban and rural school communities to design and implement culturally responsive behavioral support systems to address racial disproportionality in school discipline and special education. He serves as a vice president of the Council for Exceptional Children Division of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Exceptional Learners.
Project Abstract:
Students of color from economically marginalized urban communities encounter multiple forms of marginalization in learning opportunities with consequential outcomes. Systemic transformation is needed to ensure students of color with and without disabilities are equally engaged in learning and have access to learning opportunities that will lead to meaningful educational progress. Consistent with recent critical inclusive education scholarship, this project investigates the use of Learning Lab to design a culturally sustaining, universal design for learning support system at one Midwestern urban middle school that has been struggling with disparities in the achievement gap and school discipline at the intersection of race, class, disability, and other intersecting social makers. Learning Lab is a community-driven, systemic design process in which administrators, educators, family, and community members work together to identify systemic challenges in the existing school system and design locally meaningful solutions in response to local schools’ goals, needs, and ever-changing local dynamics. To investigate the systemic design process, this study will utilize a critical design ethnography methodology that involves the combination of critical ethnography and community-based participatory design work aimed at systemic transformation. This project will empower school stakeholders to restructure their school system to better serve all students in the post COVID-19 era by developing a culturally sustaining, inclusive support system. Also, this community-based systemic design project will impact theory and practice by providing a participatory research-practice partnership model by leveraging local stakeholders’ ingenuity, cultural resources, and experiential knowledge to generate locally meaningful solutions to inequities in education.
Dr. Quan Lei
Assistant Professor
Department of Psychology
Dr. Quan Lei is an Assistant Professor in the Human Factors program, Department of Psychology. Before joining WSU, he got his PhD from Northeastern University and received postdoc training at University of Minnesota and University of California, Berkeley. His research focuses on basic and applied aspects of human visual processing (attention, perception and memory). A current emphasis is on the investigation of visual impairment and related accessibility issues, with the goal to promote the design of accessible spaces and products (including autonomous vehicles). He directs the Vision and Accessibility (VISA) Lab.
Project Abstract:
Both globally and in the US, the number of individuals with blindness or visual impairment (BVI) is rising rapidly. Among the many consequences of BVI, the loss of independence due to the inability to drive and travel freely is a major factor contributing to compromised quality of life for affected individuals and adds significant burden to their caregivers. The emerging technology of autonomous vehicle (AV) holds great potential in enabling independent travel for the BVI community. BVI encompasses a whole spectrum of visual capabilities ranging from mild impairment to complete blindness, and understanding how the visual capability of an individual affects their preferences and accessibility needs for AV is an important starting point for making the technology accessible. This URCA project is aimed to provide this critical information by collecting input from the BVI community through an online survey and a focus group study. The online survey will examine the connection between the visual capability of BVI individuals and their preferences for several aspects of AV: level of automation, mode of interaction, and situational awareness. The focus group study will further explore practical strategies for implementing accessibility features in AV. Outcomes from this project will set the stage for future lab studies to assess the safety and user experience consequences of accessibility features in AV, and inform the industry on the design of vehicles that conform to the principle of universal design to meet the accessibility needs of individuals with varying visual capabilities.
Mathew Muether
Associate Professor, Graduate Coordinator
Department of Physics
Dr. Muether's research is focused on experimental high energy particle physics and nuclear physics. He worked on the G0 Experiment at Jefferson National Laboratory (JLAB) studying parity-violating electron scattering from nuclear targets to probe nucleon sea quarks distributions. Recently, he is focusing on understanding the nature of neutrinos and their interactions with matter. He is a member of the Fermilab based NOvA and DUNE experiments. NOvA uses a pair of tracking calorimeters, one located in Chicagoland and the other in northern Minnesota, to study an intense beam of neutrinos produced at Fermilab. DUNE is a future high percision Fermilab based neutrino oscillation experiment
Project Abstract:
Neutrinos are among the most abundant particles in the universe, emanating from stars, nuclear reactors, the core of the earth and even interactions from the early universe. Despite their abundance, there is limited knowledge about many fundamental properties of neutrinos such as their mass and matter-antimatter symmetry. Professor Muether, part of the Wichita State University (WSU) experimental high energy particle physics (HEP) group, is leading a research effort to characterize neutrino interactions with matter using the NuMI Off-axis electron-neutrino Appearance experiment (NOvA) near detector. NOvA is an international collaboration of more than 300 physicists working to understand neutrinos. The NOvA near detector is a 300 Ton calorimeter located in an intense source of high energy neutrino generated with the NuMI neutrino beamline at Fermilab, just outside Chicago, Illinois. This setup is capable of providing detailed images of neutrino interactions. An essential requirement in understanding neutrinos is identifying the particles generated during an interaction and their associated energy. NOvA is pioneering the use of convolutional visual networks (CVN), an image analysis artificial intelligence framework, for classification of neutrino interactions. The training of these networks is performed on GPU clusters, like those available on the BeoShock system at WSU. With support from this URCA, Professor Muether’s HEP group will train the NOvA CVN networks to identify multiple interaction vertices on the BeoShock GPU cluster enable new neutrino physics and further establish the computing capabilities of WSU.
Dr. Robert M. Owens
Professor of History
Department of History
Dr. Robert M. Owens earned his Ph.D. in History from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and serves as Professor of History at Wichita State University. He is the author of Mr. Jefferson's Hammer: William Henry Harrison and the Origins of American Indian Policy (Oklahoma, 2007), Red Dreams, White Nightmares: Pan-Indian Alliances in the Anglo-American Mind, 1763-1815 (Oklahoma, 2015), and the document reader 'Indian Wars' and the Struggle for Eastern North America, 1763-1842 (Routledge, 2019). His current projects examine the intersection of murder and diplomacy on the Early American Frontier, and the posthumous treatment of friends and foes in Early America.
Project Abstract:
Much like their European contemporaries, colonial and Native Americans often did not allow death to end the dialogue with friend or foe. Whether it was army officers giving military funerals to prominent native leaders, Native American 'ritual cannibalism' of fallen enemies, or multiple groups mutilating the corpses of adversaries, early America saw numerous attempts to posthumously honor, desecrate, or incorporate the dead. I will explore the motivations and logic pursued in these actions upon the body. Was there a deeper purpose, besides instilling terror or conveying gratitude, to these treatments? How did they change over time? What can shifting attitudes about 'the body' - ritual cannibalism and scalping fell from favor, while elaborate funerary rites became more popular - tell us about life, and death, in early America?
By exploring these questions, I hope to provide a greater understanding of how all groups in early America -- colonists, slaves, Native Americans -- viewed the significance of existence and value of their lives, and deaths. This grant will allow me to read the private and official correspondence of numerous early American figures -- government officials, merchants, Native leaders (often second hand in the sources), common citizens, etc. I will visit the Georgia Archives in Atlanta, the South Carolina Historical Society in Charleston, and the P.K. Yonge Library at the University of Florida – Gainesville.
Dr. Rachel Showstack received a PhD in Hispanic linguistics from the University of Texas at Austin and an MA in Spanish from Sacramento State University. Dr. Showstack’s research explores the ways in which collaborative processes can address health and educational inequities that affect minoritized language communities in Kansas and in the United States more broadly. In 2020, she engaged a diverse range of stakeholders in discussions about health equity for Spanish speakers in Kansas through a community-based initiative that aims to improve language access in health care contexts in the state. Her recent work has appeared in Applied Linguistics, Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, Hispanic Healthcare International, Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, and Language in Intercultural Communication. Dr. Showstack aims to teach her linguistics and Spanish language courses within a social justice framework, providing students with opportunities to examine the role of language in health, education, and public life, critically examine societal assumptions about language and identity, and explore their own roles in working toward a more just society. She currently serves as the American Association for Applied Linguistics Public Affairs and Engagement Committee Vice Chair.
Project Abstract:
Social Justice and Language Education in Challenging Times: Examining Spanish Teacher’s Personal Histories and Classroom Practices in Post-Pandemic Kansas
This project aims to determine how the personal experiences of Spanish teachers in Kansas, the sociopolitical contexts in which they teach, and focused conversations about social justice in language education shape their practices and beliefs as teachers with respect to linguistic, cultural, and racial diversity. The objectives of the study are: (a) to obtain information about the teaching beliefs and practices of teachers from different language learning and teacher training backgrounds who teach Spanish in Kansas schools, particularly with respect to incorporating issues of equity and diversity in the classroom and community, (b) to examine how teachers make sense of their own positioning, including positions of privilege and marginalization, when incorporating social justice components in their teaching, and (c) to provide information that will improve language teacher education in Kansas and strengthen partnerships between the academy and the schools. Dr. Showstack and her graduate assistants will conduct in-depth case studies on the experiences, beliefs, and practices of individual Spanish teachers who teach in public schools and participate in professional development activities focused social justice in language education. The interviews will be analyzed using a grounded theory approach in order to understand the relationship between teachers’ individual histories and their teaching practices. Findings will contribute to an understanding of how to incorporate social justice approaches in language teacher education and will add to the emerging inquiry in the field of applied linguistics on the relationship between teachers’ backgrounds and experiences and their teaching practices.
Joshua A. Smith
Assistant Professor of Design
School of Art, Design & Creative Industries
Joshua A. Smith is a new Assistant Professor of Design at Wichita State University. A Wichita native, he received his BFA and then MFA from Fort Hays State University before spending nearly a decade teaching at Crowder College. Therein, he built from scratch and ran a thriving program of study in Graphic Design that spanned across multiple campus locations all the while running his own Graphic Design business.. He brings his passion for the arts to the classroom while expertly assisting students to grasp difficult concepts around the ever-changing digital tools. He believes that art, both in the act of making and in connections made from sharing, makes the world a better place, one human experience at a time.
Project Abstract:
In his book titled, “The Gift” Lewis Hyde describes Art as a pure essential service in culture. The infinite forms of the Art Artifacts are ‘Value Paid Forward’ toward a shared experience so that we can be reminded, even in a divisive and diverse society, that we are all, at the core, equal and sharing in the same human experience.
“And this is what artists do in culture — artists provide that gift to the culture so that people have something in common. If I like Mozart and you like Mozart then our capacity to [harbor hate for] one another has been diminished.”
There is no more divisive a space than the political realm, nor is there a social space more in need of the gift of commonality that Artists provide.
My creative activity aims to highlight potential solutions to fix and improve our eroded governmental institutions through the medium of poetic storytelling complimented by detailed illustrations on a shareable website. The goal of these scrollable webpages is to delight and inform, building a beautiful journey illuminated by typographic & illustrated analogies into an accessibly more considered space.
This current work outlines the solution of integrating a Nation-Wide Voucher Program that would allow each voter the power to financially support political candidates of their choice. This would potentially clean the otherwise murky waters surrounding campaign finance in an effort to bring the political realm to a more personal retail level, redesigning the incentives embedded in our legislature for the better.
Dr. Smita Srivastava
Assistant Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship
Department of Management
Project Abstract:
“The sting of failure is a motivational tool for entrepreneurs who want to succeed….what is important is learning from failure”, Elon Musk, CEO Tesla. Although failure of a business provides an opportunity for an entrepreneur to learn from it and use the learning in the subsequent businesses, not all entrepreneurs learn alike from their failures. We examine why some entrepreneurs learn less from failure than others and under what conditions the learning from failure can be facilitated. Prior research has shown that some entrepreneurs may not learn after failure due to the negative emotions such as grief that may interfere with entrepreneurs’ ability to process information and others may not learn because of cognitive biases to attribute their own failure to external factors. But we argue that even if entrepreneurs can recover from negative emotions or overcome cognitive biases, they may still not learn from failure if they lack the motivation to do so. We focus on the motivational aspect of learning from failure and posit that entrepreneurs will be motivated to learn from failure due to two important factors, that is, if they have positive self-image (how I see myself) and high desire to prove others wrong. We address our research questions using two survey-based longitudinal studies, Study 1 with young entrepreneurs participating at the Shockers New Venture Competition at WSU & Study 2, with experienced entrepreneurs using Crowdfunding campaigns. The results will fundamentally contribute to our understanding on the learning orientation of entrepreneurs’ especially after they have experienced failure.
Dr. Siyu Wang
Assistant Professor
Department of Economics
2020 Institute for the Study of Economic Growth Research Fellow
Dr. Siyu Wang is an applied microeconomist who works on bridging the gap between academic ideas and real-world problems. Previously she served as a behavioral economist and data scientist at Ford Motor Company and as an assistant professor at Missouri State University, where she directed a behavioral economics laboratory. She received her Ph.D. in economics from George Mason University in 2016. Her research approach relies on insights from experimental economics, in the tradition of Nobel laureate Vernon Smith, to investigate market mechanisms, managerial policies, and individual behavior. Her research is published in Games and Economic Behavior, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Journal of Economic Psychology, Journal of Neuroscience, Psychology, and Economics.
Project Abstract:
Public messaging in the US has diverged sharply along partisan lines. Not only do Americans hold different beliefs over objective facts, they also trust different news sources. Using controlled economic laboratory experiments, this project proposes an empirical test to carefully address a crucial question: how do people update their beliefs given the various credibility of information sources? Around 300 participants from university and online platforms will be recruited to participate the experiment and survey regarding COVID-19 and global warming. The results will fundamentally contribute to our understanding of belief updating system.
Dr. Min Xiao
Assistant Professor
Elliott School of Communication
Dr. Min Xiao is an assistant professor of communication. His research is focused on influencer marketing, green marketing, electronic word-of-mouth communication, and eSports & video gaming. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Florida. Dr. Xiao teaches Integrated Marketing Communication, Communication Research & Inquiry, Quantitative Research Methods, and Media Analytics and Audience Behaviors at Wichita State University.
Project Abstract:
Over 200 million U.S. consumers have shopped online, and this number will continue to grow. The rapid advancement of media technology brings consumers resources, such as user-generated product reviews, that help them make purchase decisions. This research project will examine how product review scores, number of reviews, review valence (i.e., positivity or negativity of reviews), and product involvement (i.e., product types) affect consumers’ intention to purchase a product online. Specifically, two online experiments will be conducted to examine how product review scores interact with number of reviews, review valence, and product involvement to affect consumers’ bandwagon perception and purchase intention. A mock ecommerce site that displays products and product reviews will be constructed for the purpose of the research. Experiment participants will be recruited on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk) platform.