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Faculty from the College of Community and Public Affairs (CCPA) and Harpur College’s Psychology Department are researching real-world issues to find practical solutions that benefit the entire community. Their work covers a wide range of topics, including the politics of dating, using AI to improve reading outcomes, understanding policy navigation for individuals with disabilities and collaborating with Cornell Cooperative Extension to explore methods of delivering mental health services in underserved communities.

Five ������ý faculty members have been selected for the annual Research Excellence Awards, a competitive, seed-grant program providing initial support for proposed collaborative research projects with strong potential to attract external funding. Research funds are disbursed from CCPA and the Division of Research.

Learn more about the awards and the research proposals:

Melissa Hardesty, an associate professor in Social Work, and Richard Mattson, a professor in Psychology, received $14,999.06 for their proposed study, “Dating Across the Political Divide: The Impact of Gendered Political Polarization on Romantic Partner Choice.”

Amid the successful presidential campaigns of Donald Trump in 2016 and 2024, the media honed in on stories describing how political differences are fracturing already-established intimate relationships and preventing new relationships from forming across partisan divides. Shifting ideologies about masculinity and femininity have fueled much of the disagreement, which centers on the relative contributions of nature and culture to human social behavior and institutions. This mixed-methods study will examine the role gender has played in cultural and political conflicts in the United States and the increase in gendered political polarization. Hardesty and Mattson hope to add to the research on how these dynamics play out among people actively seeking partners.

Nicole Fenty, associate professor and chair of the Department of Teaching, Learning and Educational Leadership, was awarded $6,648 for her collaboration with ������ý City School District, “Exploring the use of Generative Artificial Intelligence to Support Self-Determination and Reading Outcomes in Adolescents with Reading Difficulties.”

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) has been growing in the field of education. One of the primary benefits of AI is its ability to use large amounts of data to interpret information, understand patterns and complete tasks. The majority of students who struggle in the classroom struggle in the area of reading and meeting the needs of this population is difficult, primarily due to challenges in accessing appropriate texts aligned to reading ability levels. As a result, this population of students often experiences low motivation and interest in reading. AI has the potential to support adolescent reading development. The proposed project will use a category of AI known as GenAI, which allows for the creation of new content. GenAI can process complex information, such as student interests and reading abilities, to generate engaging, relevant and skill-appropriate text-based resources, providing opportunities for students with reading difficulties to actively participate in creating their own text resources. Project outcomes will focus on exploring student and teacher experiences and perspectives.

Associate Professor and Chair of Social Work Stacey Shipe’s collaboration with Joshua Felver, extension associate faculty of the College of Human Ecology’s Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research at Cornell University, netted a $15,000 award for the proposed study, “Expanding Mental Health First Aid: Advancing Community Support Across New York State.”

New York state (NYS) youth and underserved rural communities are experiencing a mental health crisis. Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) is a widely used, evidence-based program that teaches individuals to recognize and respond to mental health crises, including facilitating access to professional services and responding to individuals at risk for suicide. MHFA has been successfully implemented across multiple statewide extension systems; however, NYS has yet to implement it systematically. This project will initiate a partnership between the College of Community and Public Affairs and the Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) to implement and evaluate MHFA across CCE’s statewide infrastructure. The study employs a convergent, longitudinal, mixed-methods approach integrating quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews to assess the implementation of MHFA in regional CCE offices, generating essential data to inform a future large-scale implementation grant proposal to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Matthew Borus, a professor in the Department of Social Work, was awarded $10,426 for his proposed study, “Navigating Disability Policy in a New Administration.”

A wide range of social institutions engage with the concept of disability, defining the concept in divergent, often-contradictory ways that create an uneven policy landscape through which disabled people must find their way, in a process referred to as “policy navigation.” Using research gathered in 2022 and 2023, the proposed study will conduct follow-up interviews and recruit new participants to broaden the research scope. The research explores the active labor disabled people perform in three social arenas: the workplace, disability-specific income support programs, and congregate care facilities such as nursing homes. With a new presidential administration now demonstrating hostility toward a wide range of key disability policies, this study asks whether and how the process of policy navigation has changed. Findings will offer insight into how an often-overlooked sector of the population experiences a period of political upheaval and uncertainty.