Society

Society: Understanding Human Nature and Behavior

The Kids Are Not Alright

March 13, 2018

Even though more than 1.4 million American children under the age of 18 care for siblings or parents who have a chronic illness or disability, support for this demographic is in short supply. UNC geographer Elizabeth Olson and collaborators look to other countries as models for growing youth caregiver resources in the United States.

A Foreign Exchange

March 8, 2018

Last fall, UNC professor Maureen Berner visited food banks across Belgium to learn how they handle issues of poverty and food insecurity. This scholarly exchange was also a home exchange, as University of Antwerp historian Maarten Van Ginderachter came to Carolina to work on his new book and collaborate with professors.

Allison Mathews

February 21, 2018

Allison Mathews is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Social Medicine within the UNC Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases. Her research focuses on the use of crowdsourcing to learn how to better engage communities about the social and ethical implications of HIV cure clinical trials, HIV testing, and other health services.

Jordan Dodson

February 14, 2018

Senior Jordan Dodson is double-majoring in computer science and information science within the UNC School of Information and Library Science. She is a research assistant in the Interactive Information System Laboratory. Her research focuses on how collaborative agents like chatbots can assist people in their information-seeking processes.

The One Doing the Talking

February 13, 2018

Across the nation, data indicate that meaningful conversations between teachers and students from kindergarten to third grade are limited to an average of 28 total minutes per day — something that prevents children from developing their ability to communicate in important ways. The Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute’s FirstSchool initiative strives to change that.

Brotherhood of Hope

February 5, 2018

In October 2010, seven men embarked on a rare and unexpected journey — they joined a support group for widowed fathers. The experience was so instrumental in their healing that the group’s organizers, UNC researchers Don Rosenstein and Justin Yopp, wrote a book about it called, “The Group: Seven Widowed Fathers Reimagine Life.”

Higher Ed Hierarchy

November 10, 2017

Students across the United States graduate with, on average, $30,000 of student loan debt, which can take years — sometimes decades — to pay off. How this affects the Latino community, specifically, is an under-reported story. But the UNC Center for Community Capital has partnered with UndiosUS in an effort to change that.

Hashtag Politics

November 7, 2017

During the 2016 presidential election, Facebook, Twitter, Google, and Microsoft all hired dedicated teams of partisan staffers to work one-on-one with campaigns to target voters. UNC journalism professor Daniel Kreiss explains their motives in a first-of-its-kind study.

Putting the “You” in “Thank You”

September 15, 2017

Some researchers believe gratitude is a fundamental human emotion, connecting us to friends and partners who support our well-being. Two UNC psychologists focus on the long-lasting effects of living a life full of thanks.