When Meredith Emery photographed geography researchers conducting fieldwork, she couldn’t believe what she saw — a slew of litter along streambeds and forest lines. Now she’s sharing these images through a multimedia project blending art and science in an effort to change how the public relates to and thinks about the local environment.

Elizabeth Frankenberg is the director of the Carolina Population Center. Her research focuses on how individuals and families are affected by unexpected events, how they adapt to new circumstances, and the ways that interventions can help.

Shimul Melwani examines factors of the “dark side” of emotion in the workplace: gossip, frenemies, negativity, bad news, and close-minded leaders. Where businesses may shy away, she often finds that embracing the complexity of human emotions does more good than harm.

Senior Maya Weinberg is double-majoring in political science and Latin American studies within the UNC College of Arts & Sciences. Her research focuses on how climate change, globalization, and politics are shaping the next generation of corn farmers in the Central Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico.

As the world changes and diversifies, so do family dynamics. But research on the topic is slow to move away from the ideas established 50 years ago. To bring it into the 21st century, a team of researchers from the UNC Center for Developmental Science have written nine papers that shine a light on the modern family and offer advice for parents on how to help their teens navigate today’s multicultural world.

Angelica Leigh is a PhD student concentrating on organizational behavior within the UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School. Her research focuses on the diversity in organizations such as the influence of racial and gender stereotypes on negotiation outcomes.

A mic, a live audience, a story. That’s Carapace, a monthly storytelling event held at Manuel’s Tavern in Atlanta, Georgia. By attending this local favorite, Sarah Beth Nelson — an Atlanta native, storyteller, and UNC doctoral candidate — strives to understand how oral information sharing shapes human relationships and community dynamics.

Imagine a new kind of humanities study that emphasizes construction over criticism, personal interpretation over competitive argument, and serendipity over planned outcomes. Using digital media, Daniel Anderson changes how students and scholars interact with literature.

Claudia Flores is a project coordinator at the Environmental Finance Center within the UNC School of Government. Her research focuses on the policies surrounding climbing drinking water rates due to aging infrastructure.

Laura Ruel is an associate professor within the UNC School of Media and Journalism. Her research employs UX methods, usability testing, and eye-tracking technologies to provide insight into user behavior and cognitive processes.

Senior Annie Simpson is majoring in studio art within the UNC College of Arts & Sciences. Using a mid-20th-century analog camera, she investigates how North Carolina’s socio-political and socio-economic changes affect the built landscape and the area’s material culture. Most recently, she compiled her photos into a series of artist books for her Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) project.

A dark time in our nation’s history, the period between the end of post-Civil War Reconstruction and 1950 saw thousands of African Americans murdered via lynching – predominantly in the South. Two UNC professors hope to honor these individuals by uncovering injustices that, for decades, have been systematically erased from public memory.