News from CLASS

CLASS professors win grant to make French globally accessible

The French Embassy in the U.S. and the French American Cultural Exchange Foundation have awarded the University of Houston French studies program the 2022 Empowering French and Francophone Studies grant. The grant will fund the completion of a free open textbook to encourage students to pursue the language.

Innovative UH Hispanic literary heritage project earns third Mellon grant

The University of Houston has been recognized by the Mellon Foundation with its third $400,000 grant to continue Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage (Recovery) sponsored by Arte Público Press in the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences. An international project, scholars will work alongside the U.S. Latino Digital Humanities (USLDH) Center to recover U.S. Latino text that has been lost or underrepresented.

Digital Technology Can Assist Toddlers with Problem Solving

Elena Grigorenko, Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished Professor of Psychology, and her colleagues, are reporting that digital devices may improve learning in a toddler by capitalizing on positive and avoiding negative mind-wandering.

Why are Women Opting Out of Marriage Around the World?

News headlines such as “Why More Women Are Choosing to Stay Single Now,” “Craving Freedom, Japan’s Women Opt Out of Marriage,” “Nearly Half of Canadians Feel ‘Marriage is Simply Not Necessary,’” and “Chileans are Marrying Less and Later,” would make it seem marriage is at a risk of survival all over the world.

CLASS researchers win $193,750 R21 grant from National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders

The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) has awarded $193,750 to the communication sciences and disorders department to assess the language skills of Black children speaking a dialect different than what is primarily spoken in the classroom.

CLASS researchers partner with former athlete in bounce reduction study

New research from the department of health and human performance addresses an uncomfortable truth. Sports bras are painful for fuller busted women, with improper fittings often escalating to bodily injury. Led by CLASS Associate Professor Stacey Gorniak and recognized in The Black Wall Street Times, the resulting research data is being creatively applied to a new line of inclusive activewear. 

Wang collaborating with Penn scholars on global climate change, child welfare study

University of Houston economist Fan Wang is a key collaborator on a global research project examining the impact of environmental and climate risks on different communities. The project recently landed a major win: a $1.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation to fund research through 2025.