Image: Dr. Charles Raison.
Thanks for reading our weekly roundup of news and events at the School of Human Ecology. Have something we should know about? Email Public Relations Manager Serena Larkin, or submit your SoHE event via this form.
Upcoming speaking events
Facebook Live with Raison on the mind-body connection
Center for Healthy Minds will host a lunchtime Facebook Live event next Thursday, January 23, with faculty affiliates Dr. Charles Raison, SoHE’s Mary Sue and Mike Shannon Chair for Healthy Minds, Children & Families, and Dr. Melissa Rosenkranz, Distinguished Chair in Contemplative Neuroscience and assistant professor of Psychiatry. Learn more in their short video invitation, including how to submit your own questions for them to address during their discussion.
Awards
Grad student Clark-Barol wins community research grant from American Sociological Association
Molly Clark-Barol, a PhD candidate in Civil Society and Community Research, has won one of three Community Action Research Initiative grants from the American Sociological Association (ASA). Clark-Barol will work with Ex-Incarcerated People Organizing (EXPO) and its women members’ initiative FREE to address housing shortfalls for formerly incarcerated women as well as the continued growth of the population of incarcerated women, at nearly twice the rate of men. Read more in the ASA’s newsletter (page 2).
Undergrad team wins runners-up in NRF Foundation student competition
SoHE undergraduate students Annie Brennan, Leah Levy, Danielle Talatian, and Diana Xiong were runners-up in the highly competitive National Retail Federation Foundation’s 2020 student competition. Last week, along with Kohl’s Center for Retailing executive director Jerry O’Brien, they attended the awards ceremony and numerous networking events in New York City to celebrate the accomplishment and learn more about opportunities and developments in their field.
New research
Poehlmann-Tynan & Raison: Compassion training for parents may reduce children’s stress
A new study from researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, including Drs. Julie Poehlmann-Tynan and Charles Raison, shows that the young children of parents who take part in a compassion-based training program develop lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol over time. Published recently in the Infant Mental Health Journal, the small preliminary study suggests that Cognitively-Based Compassion Training, a program of contemplative exercises designed to strengthen and sustain compassion toward self and others, could offer a parents a way to help their children lower their stress. Read more in the University Communications press release, and hear Julie discuss the research on Wisconsin Public Radio’s Central Time program.
Is Self-Compassion Protective Among Sexual- and Gender-Minority Adolescents Across Racial Groups?
Self-compassion and mental health may differ according to degree of exposure to structural discrimination, according to a new study from Drs. Julie Poehlmann-Tynan and Abra Vigna. Vigna earned her PhD in Human Development and Family Studies (HDFS) in the School of Human Ecology and now works for the university’s Population Health Institute.
Contact between fathers in jail and their minor children
Dr. Julie Poehlmann-Tynan, along with a number of UW–Madison and other researchers, including HDFS alum Dr. Rebecca J. Shlafer, examined the characteristics and associations in contacts between incarcerated fathers and their minor children in a new paper in the Journal of Child and Family Studies.
SoHE scholars in the news
Gaddis Q&A on school lunches with Wisconsin State Journal
Civil Society and Community Studies‘ Dr. Jennifer Gaddis discussed multiple recommendations that her research shows would improve American school lunches in a Q&A with Wisconsin State Journal, also picked up in the Chippewa Herald.
Horowitz on Australian wildfires with WORT
Civil Society and Community Studies‘ Dr. Leah Horowitz joined Madison radio station WORT’s A Public Affair program to talk about the unprecedented wildfires currently plaguing Australia, which thus far have consumed more than twice the area than the 2018 California and 2019 Amazon wildfires combined.