Education

Living-Learning Community: The Research Experience

In partnership with the Office of Residence Life, the center co-sponsors one of the university’s Living Learning Communities. As a part of the university’s Competitive Edge Program, LLCs are special floors in the residence halls where small groups of students with similar interests work on projects beyond the classroom. More information on the LLCs can be found here.

The CRSP-sponsored LLC in 2006-2007 is called The Research Experience. A dozen undergraduate students are each paired with a CRSP faculty associate to work on social science research projects, thus gaining experience and knowledge in the design and execution of programs of research, grant-writing and funding sources, and writing and publishing research findings.

The projects include:

• Allegheny County Jail Collaborative Evaluation

• Ethnic Identity & Epistemology

• Legal Socialization of Children and Youth

• Minority Access to Prime Contracts at Pittsburgh Public Schools

• Multidimensional Characteristics of Incarcerated Youth and the Role of Race

• Practicing Safety: Preventing Child Neglect and Abuse

• Seeing is Believing: Perceptions of Support and Career Outcomes Among African American Employees

• Solutions to America's Race Problems

• Teacher-Student Relationships Across the Racial Divide

• Youth Reentry Experiences from Juvenile Justice Placement: A Qualitative Study Exploring Race, Gender, and Service Needs

Mentoring

In the past five years, more than two dozen graduate and undergraduate student assistants have been employed on center-sponsored research projects. These students have come from the School of Social Work, the School of Education, the School of Arts and Sciences, the Graduate School of Public Health, the College of Business Administration, and the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs.

Student Paper Award

The center solicits papers addressing contemporary race-related social issues in an annual university-wide competition for undergraduate and graduate students of all disciplines. The award is an honorarium of $500. Students are encouraged to work with faculty to publish the winning papers in appropriate journals.

The deadline for submissions for the 2007-2008 awards is May 16, 2008. Click here for details.

Past recipients of the awards are listed below.

2007

For the first time in 2007, awards were given at both the graduate and undergraduate levels.

Hyunzee Jung, a doctoral student in School of Social Work, was chosen for her paper Stigma of Disadvantaged Socio-Economic Status and Its Effect on Life Satisfaction and Psychological Distress. She was sponsored by School of Social Work Associate Professor John Wallace.

Weilu Tan, a College of Arts and Sciences Junior triple-majoring in Political Science, Economics, and Japanese, was chosen for her paper Race, Immigration, and the Paris Riots of 2005. She was sponsored by Department of History Lecturer Anthony Novosel.

2006

Deborah Conway, doctoral student in the Department of Psychology in Education in the School of Education. Resilience in Low-Income African American Women Enrolled at a Community College,sponsored by School of Education Assistant Professor Eva Marie Shivers.

2005

Jayashree Mohanty, School of Social Work PhD candidate, for her paper Ethnic Identity and Self-Esteem among International Adoptees. Her sponsor was Dr. Gary Koeske, a professor also in the school.

2004

Kyaien Conner, a master's student in 2003-2004 in the School of Social Work. Her paper All It Takes Is a Drop: Racial Identity and Racial Pride Development in Biracial College Students was sponsored by Dr. Daniel Rosen, Assistant Professor in the School of Social Work.

2003

Two papers were chosen in the first year of the contest:

Sara Lichtenwalter, a School of Social Work Ph.D. candidate in 2002-2003. Her paper Black Women and Transportation - Making the Connection: Cars, Cash, Clocks and Capital  was sponsored by School of Social Work Professor Dr. Esther Sales.

Lindsey Smith, a Master's Degree student in the School of Social Work, was chosen for a $200 grant for her paper, Environmental Justice: Environmental Racism in Urban Environments.  Ms. Smith was sponsored by School of Social Work Assistant Professor, Dr. Daniel Rosen.