Society

Society: Understanding Human Nature and Behavior

Lamar Graham

Lamar Graham is an assistant professor of Spanish in the Department of Romance Studies within the UNC College of Arts & Sciences. He studies historical grammar and sound changes within the Spanish language and compares them to those found in other Romance languages.

the word Cherokee switching from English to Cherokee

graphic by Corina Cudebec

The Sanctity of Cherokee

As a result of systemic oppression, there are fewer than 200 native Cherokee speakers in North Carolina. To keep the language alive and pass it to the next generation, UNC-Chapel Hill researcher and Eastern Band Cherokeean citizen Benjamin Frey has teamed up with computer scientists Mohit Bansal and Shiyue Zhang to create a new translation model and grow the literary library of works available in Cherokee.

Carolina Textile District members gather around a table

Putting Skill to Work

Nichola Lowe spotted the gaps in the U.S. workforce long before the pandemic shined a light on them. She’s spent the last 15 years studying how employees develop and use skills at work, and how employers encourage development of those skills. Most recently, she’s written a book on the topic and is using lessons from the pandemic to drive her current research.

photo by Megan May

Rainier Masa

Rainier Masa is an assistant professor in the UNC School of Social Work. He studies the intersection of socioeconomic precarity, stigma, and HIV in adolescents and young adults.

The Time Tracker

The pace of life varies often. Sometimes it drags, others it races. But if time always moves at the same rate, why does it feel different? That’s a question UNC-Chapel Hill philosopher Carla Merino-Rajme strives to answer.

a woman holds a sign that reads "the real pandemic is racism"

Taking On Discrimination

Julian Rucker wants to motivate people to address the stark racial disparities that have characterized the history of the United States. As a UNC-Chapel Hill postdoctoral researcher, he uses social psychology to unpack why structural racism exists, how people perceive it, and why we must change policies to eliminate it from our society.

Photo: A young woman in black leans into a large device of wood and metal. She is lit from behind by an open window.

A Respectable Use of Time

How do official records of the American past differ from those documented by the everyday women who lived through it? Danielle Burke, a master’s student in the UNC-Chapel Hill Department of American Studies, is combining studio art with archival and ethnographic research to explore class, gender, and identity through an overlooked sector of craftspeople: handweavers and lacemakers.

Siddharth Maruvada, Arnav Meduri, and Abhinav Meduri sort through potatoes

A High-Tech Solution to Hunger

With a passion for technology, a drive to make a real-world impact in their community, and some help from UNC-Chapel Hill researchers, three local high school students created Pantry Patrol, a user-friendly application designed to help food pantries better combat hunger.

Divide and Conquer

Jason Mihalik and Johna Register-Mihalik — both exercise and sport science professors — have spent the past 17 years beautifully navigating the personal-professional divide at UNC-Chapel Hill. Not only did they meet and get married at Carolina, but they’ve since gained tenure and now oversee innovative and complementary research programs within the field of sports-related concussion.

photo by Mackenzie Kern

Paige Ouimet

Paige Ouimet is a professor of finance in the UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School. Through the lens of societal challenges like income inequality, gender diversity, and the opioid epidemic, she studies how businesses impact society and how society impacts businesses.