The Division of Research & Innovation at Wayne State University is pleased to announce the awardees of the fourth annual Social Sciences Research Support Program, which focuses on research, creative and scholarly projects that engage the social sciences in carrying out the university's research mission.

Awarded projects aim to lay the foundation for further work beyond the award end date and it is envisioned that support of the proposed projects will lead to external funding.

Awardees for this year’s program include:

• Reyna Esquivel-King, Ph.D., assistant professor, Center for Latino/a and Latin American Studies/Department of History, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences: “Restoring Lost Voices: The Ehlers Sisters’ Contributions to Early Mexican Cinema.” Esquivel-King’s research aims to reshape critical conversations in both film history and labor studies by uncovering the pioneering work of Adriana and Dolores Ehlers, the first prominent female filmmakers in Mexico, whose innovative contributions to cinema were matched by their political influence. This research will aim show how their contributions significantly influenced both the development of early Mexican cinema and the evolution of labor rights in the industry, despite being largely overlooked by labor scholars due to gender biases.
• Felicien Goudou, Ph.D., assistant professor, Department of Economics, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences: “Climate Policy, Financial Frictions and Aggregate Productivity.”  Goudou’s research aims examine the effects of climate policy on aggregate productivity and economic growth. It will take a unique approach by analyzing a newer, prominent climate policy known as “green financing” alongside more established policies such as the carbon tax.
• Dalia Khalil, Ph.D., associate professor, College of Nursing: “Augmented Reality to Overcome Social and Emotional Dysfunction in Immigrant and Refugee Mothers.”  Khalil’s research aims to conduct an intervention for recent refugee and immigrant mothers in the Detroit metro area and Wayne County using highly innovative augmented reality (AR) technology to help decrease social anxiety, loneliness, lower maternal acculturative stress, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. The use of AR includes interactive human-computer technology that enables adding virtual objects to individuals’ actual physical reality, assuring contextual relevance and improving real-world social functioning.
• Thomas Killion, Ph.D., associate professor, Department of Anthropology, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences: “The Gardens of Alpuente: History, resilience and sustainability of village horticulture in highland Valencia, Spain.” Killion’s work aims to support research in anthropological archaeology on traditional horticultural practices in Alpuente, Valencia, Spain. He aims to generate a model for the origin, development and organization of village gardens, historically a centerpiece of traditional terrace agriculture in highland Valencia. The model will provide a framework for investigation of village gardening practices as a resilient component of long-term agriculture and a potential sustainable guide to agricultural development in the face of climate changes impacting the Mediterranean highlands today.
• Xing Liu, Ph.D., assistant professor, Department of Management, Mike Ilitch School of Business: “The Impact of Insurance Coverage for Fertility Treatment on Female Employees Facing Infertility Challenges.” Liu’s research aims to explore how insurance coverage for fertility treatment, particularly in-vitro fertilization (IVF), affects employee attitudes, experiences, outcomes and well-being. It will investigate how IVF insurance coverage influences workers’ attitudes toward infertility and organizational support for women workers undergoing such treatment. It will also look at how IVF insurance coverage impacts the disclosure behavior of women workers undergoing IVF after they disclose their infertility journey, including the supervisor and coworker support they receive, their job-related outcomes and overall well-being.
• Lisa O’Donnell, Ph.D., associate professor, School of Social Work: “Exploring the Influence of Neurofeedback on People with Co-Occurring OCD and PTSD.” O’Donnell’s project aims to explore the use of neurofeedback as an adjunctive approach to help increase overall well-being and determine whether increased overall well-being subsequently contributes to the alleviation of PTSD and OCD symptoms to a level where exposure response prevention is more tolerable among people with these co-occurring conditions. In this study, selected participants will receive eight to 12 neurofeedback training sessions, with the goal of helping establish a foundation of emotional regulation that will allow them to derive maximum benefit from exposure-response prevention.
• Yuning Wu, Ph.D., professor, Department of Criminal Justice, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences: “Police Officer Race, Procedural Justice, and Citizen Cooperation.” This study aims to better understand the underlying psychological mechanisms and social conditions under which police race and behavior influence public responses. Wu will aim to develop and test a novel theoretical perspective of public cooperation with the police that incorporates important social psychological theories into the traditional procedural justice framework. It also aims to assess the causal effects of police behaviors in shaping public perceptions and cooperation tendencies by employing a randomized experimental design via a web-based survey that goes beyond traditional correlational research relying mainly on mail, phone or in-person surveys.

“I am pleased to be able to continue to award our Social Sciences Research Support Program for projects that will advance basic knowledge in the respective fields of these seven faculty members,” said Ezemenari M. Obasi, Ph.D., vice president for research & innovation at Wayne State University. “All of the projects were carefully peer reviewed by a committee composed of both Wayne State colleagues and leadership in the social sciences. These projects will offer new research perspectives and enhance learning opportunities for our students.”