Culture

Acheme, Doris
Assistant Professor, Communication Studies
website | doris.acheme@uga.edu
Research Interests include: Intergroup and intercultural communication; Social identity negotiation; Language attitudes; Racial ideologies

Ager, Mary
Associate Professor, Social Work
website | ager@uga.edu
Research Interests: Poverty, social policy, consumer debt, and social media

Banks, Leon
Assistant Professor, Social Work
website | banks03@uga.edu
Research Interests include: Bias, Discrimination, and Inequality, Culture, Diversity, Mental Health, Youth, Adolescence, and Emerging Adulthood

Brody, Gene
Regents’ Professor Emeritus, Human Development and Family Science
Distinguished Scholar, Owens Institute for Behavioral Research
website | gbrody@uga.edu
Research Interests include origins and prevention of chronic diseases

Brosius, Peter
Professor, Anthropology
Distinguished Scholar, Owens Institute for Behavioral Research
website | pbrosius@uga.edu
Research Interests include environmental anthropology, cultural politics of conversation, political ecology, hunter-gatherers, transnational environmental movements and institutions, and human ecology in SE Asia

Brown, Geoffrey
Associate Professor, Human Development and Family Science
Distinguished Scholar, 2014 GDP Graduate, Owens Institute for Behavioral Research
website | glbrown@uga.edu
Research Interests: fathering, socioemotional development, infancy, attachment, and African American families

Calabria, Jon
Professor, Landscape Architecture
website | jcalabr@uga.edu
Research Interests include: Assessment and Evaluation, Culture, Diversity, Education and Learning, Environment and Ecosystems, Geographic Information Systems, Survey Methods

Campbell, Keith
Professor, Psychology
Distinguished Scholar, Owens Institute for Behavioral Research
website | wkc@uga.edu
Research Interests include Narcissism, personality, wealth science, and shamanic medicine

Caughy, Margaret
Georgia Athletic Association Professor, Family Health Disparities
Distinguished Scholar, Owens Institute for Behavioral Research
website | margaret.caughy@uga.edu
Research Interests include academic achievement, self-regulation, and minoritized populations

Chapman-Hilliard, Collette
Associate Professor, Counseling and Human Development Services
website | collette.hilliard@uga.edu
Research Interests include: Bias, Discrimination, and Inequality, Culture, Diversity, Higher Education, Identity, Mental Health, Mental Illness and Disorders, Survey Methods, Youth, Adolescence, and Emerging Adulthood

Coverdill, James
Meigs Professor, Sociology
website | jimcov@uga.edu
Research Interests include sociology of work and organizations, work-hour reforms and surgical work

Elkins, Jennifer
Associate Professor, Social Work
website | jelkins@uga.edu
Research Interests include sexual abuse and child maltreatment, interpersonal and multigenerational trauma, violence and loss, PTSD and trauma related disorders, ecological/transactional and risk/resilience processes across the lifespan, and culturally congruent research and practice

Fields-Smith, Cheryl
Professor, Educational Theory and Practice
website | cfields@uga.edu
Research Interests include family involvement, sociocultural context of teaching and learning, multicultural education, homeschooling among African American families, and African American educational history

Fisher, Sycarah
Associate Professor, Educational Psychology
2020-22 GDP Participant, Owens Institute for Behavioral Research
website | sycarah.fisher@uga.edu
Research Interests include substance use, minorities, African Americans, school mental health, and implementation science

Galvan, Thania
Assistant Professor, Psychology
website | thania.galvan@uga.edu
Research Interests include: Mental health disparities; Latinx youth & families; Latinx immigrants; Traumatic stress; Risk & Resilience pathways

German, Laura
Professor, Anthropology
Director, Center for Integrative Conservation Research
website | lgerman@uga.edu
Research Interests include land and environmental governance, property rights, and sub-Saharan Africa

Graizbord, Diana
Assistant Professor, Sociology
website | dgraizbord@uga.edu
Research Interests include sociology of science, political sociology, globalization, and development and social change

Haas, Brian
Associate Professor, Psychology
website | bhaas@uga.edu
Research Interests include social and affective functioning in humans, decision making, and individual differences

Harrison, Ashley
Associate Professor, Educational Psychology
website | ashley.harrison@uga.edu
Research Interests include atypical emotional and social attention in childhood psychopathology, information-processing framework to examine the differential developmental trajectory of social attention among individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), and identifying ways to more effectively treat attention impairments

He, Yimin
Assistant Professor, Psychology
website | yiminhe@uga.edu
Research Interests include: Culture, Mental Health, Networks, Organizations, Physical Health and Well-being, Survey Methods, Work and Occupations

Holloway, Steven
Professor, Geography
website | holloway@uga.edu
Research Interests include the geography of youth labor markets, the impact of public housing on the geographies of poverty and crime, and the geographically contingent nature of discrimination in mortgage lending
Johnson, Tracey
Assistant Professor, History
website | tdjohnson@uga.edu
Research Interests include: Crime and Corrections, Culture, Diversity, Education and Learning, Gender, Youth, Adolescence, and Emerging Adulthood

Lapegna, Pablo
Associate Professor, Sociology
2023-2025 Grant Development Program Participant
website | plapegna@uga.edu
Research Interests include: Environmental and rural sociology; Social movements; Political sociology; Health

Lei, Man Kit (Karlo)
Associate Professor, Sociology
website | karlo@uga.edu
Research Interests include epigenetic aging, neighborhood studies, and cardiovascular disease risk

Majewska, Ania
Assistant Professor, Physiology and Pharmacology
website | majewska@uga.edu
Research Interests include: Culture, Education and Learning, Higher Education, Infectious Disease, STEM, Survey Methods

McFarlane, Soroya
Assistant Professor, Communication Studies
2021-23 GDP Participant, Owens Institute for Behavioral Research
website | soroyamcfarlane@uga.edu
Research Interests include health communication, health disparities, community-engaged research, and culture

Melcher, Katherine
Professor, College of Environment and Design
website | kmelcher@uga.edu
Research Interests include: Aging and Gerontology, Cognition, Culture, Environment and Ecosystems, Ethnography, Gender, Geographic Information Systems, Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, Identity, Mental Health, Obesity, Organizations, Physical Health and Well-being, Policy, Regulation, and Compliance, Prevention and Implementation Science, Youth, Adolescence, and Emerging Adulthood

Mihm, Stephen
Professor, History
website | mihm@uga.edu
Research Interests include: Economic history; History of organizations

Nelson, Don
Professor, Anthropology
website | dnelson@uga.edu
Research Interests include climate change, environmental governance, poverty, food security, vulnerability, and adaptation

O’Neal, Catherine
Associate Research Scientist, Human Development & Family Science
Distinguished Scholar, Owens Institute for Behavioral Research
website | cwalker1@uga.edu
Research Interests include life course, cumulative life experiences, health and well-being, adolescent life stage, vulnerable populations, military families; racial/ethnic minorities, and health outcomes

Pjesivac, Ivanka
Associate Professor, Journalism
website | ivanka@uga.edu
Research Interests include media effects, international and cross cultural communication, and virtual reality journalism

Robinson, Dawn
Professor, Sociology
Distinguished Scholar, Owens Institute for Behavioral Research
2021 OIBR Service Legacy Award Recipient
website | sodawn@uga.edu
Research Interests include emotion, culture, group processes, and social networks

Robinson, Michael
Associate Professor, Social Work
website | marobi01@uga.edu
Research Interests include social problems, juvenile delinquency, urban communities, young adults, women in recovery, nutrition, self care, and health disparities

Safadi, Hani
Associate Professor, Management Information Systems
website | hanisaf@uga.edu
Research Interests include healthcare IT, open-source organizing, social media, and online communities

Salmi, Roberta
Assistant Professor, Anthropology
website | rsalmi@uga.edu
Research Interests include: Cognition, Communication, Culture

Schlesinger, Ari
Assistant Professor, School of Computing
website | ari.schlesinger@uga.edu
Research Interests include: Bias, Discrimination, and Inequality, Communication, Computational Methods, Culture, Diversity, Education and Learning, Ethnography, Gender, Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, Identity, Media, Organizations, Policy, Regulation, and Compliance, Sexuality and Sexual Identity, STEM, Work and Occupations

Seock, Yoo-Kyoung
Professor, Textiles, Merchandising & Interiors
website | yseock@uga.edu
Research Interests include consumer psychology and behavior, cross-cultural study, and adolescents’ behavioral study

Shannon, Jerry
Associate Professor, Geography
website | jshannon@uga.edu
Research Interests include food access, food insecurity, participatory research, and urban development

Simons, Ron
Regents’ Professor, Sociology
Distinguished Scholar, Owens Institute for Behavioral Research
website | rsimons@uga.edu
Research Interests include social determinants of health, speed of biological aging, and causes of dementia

Suveg, Cynthia
Professor, Psychology
website | csuveg@uga.edu
Research Interests include child, family, and developmental psychopathology

Tanner, Susan
Associate Professor, Anthropology
website | stanner1@uga.edu
Research Interests include: Chronic Disease, Culture, Ethnography, Exercise, Food & Nutrition, Infectious Disease, Physical Health and Well-being, Prevention and Implementation Science, Risk Behaviors, Survey Methods

Terui, Sachiko
Assistant Professor, Communication Studies
2022-2024 GDP Participant, Owens Institute for Behavioral Research
website | sterui@uga.edu
Research Interests include HIV, health literacy, health disparities, intervention, and community

Thompson, Jennifer Jo
Associate Research Scientist, Crop & Soil Sciences
website | jjthomp@uga.edu
Research Interests include food systems, social justice, policy outcomes, risk perception, and sustainable food

Verma, Amitabh
Associate Professor, Environment + Design
website | averma@uga.edu
Research Interests include drawing, creativity, mental health, urban design, anxiety management, and architecture

Watkins, Kimberly
Assistant Professor, Financial Planning, Housing, and Consumer Economics
website | kimberly.watkins@uga.edu
Research Interests include: Bias, Discrimination, and Inequality, Culture, Diversity, Education and Learning, Emotion, Gender, Identity, Marriage, Family, and Close Relationships, Mental Health, Personality, Physical Health and Well-being, Sexuality and Sexual Identity, Social Psychology, Survey Methods

Wieling, Elizabeth
Professor, Human Development & Family Science
website | ewieling@uga.edu
Research Interests include traumatic stress, evidence based interventions for parenting, and Latinx families