November 5, 2025
Grants
Associate Professor Neil Lewis, Jr. received a $1,694,600 grant as Principal Investigator for his project, “Evaluating New York State Early Childhood Programs and Policies” from the New York State Council on Children and Families. The Action Research Collaborative at Cornell University will partner with the New York State Council on Children and Families to study the effects of a variety of programs and policies designed to improve the health and well-being of children in New York State, as well as the wellbeing of the adults who routinely interact with those children. After studying these processes, the Action Research Collaborative will make recommendations to the New York State Council on Children and Families about strategies that could be deployed to help the council achieve their goals, while addressing any concerns that arise during the discovery process. The project was recently featured in the Cornell Chronicle.
Associate Professor Neil Lewis, Jr., J. Michener & V. Roy received a $900,000 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant for their project “Bridging Power and Catalyzing Action to Address the Racialized Harms of Financialization in Healthcare Grant.” Neil is serving as Co-Principal Investigator on the project. Financialization—the transformation of public, private, and corporate health care entities into salable and tradable assets from which the financial sector may accumulate capital—is intensifying in the U.S. healthcare system. Financialization produces short-term profits (for investors) but compromises the provision of high-quality healthcare. The goal of this project is to develop a Strategic Action Framework that will guide the development and coordination of knowledge and action to build the power of the communities most adversely affected by financialization in healthcare.
Graduate student Beatrys Rodrigues received a $3,000 Graduate Student Research Grant from the Center for Racial Justice and Equitable Futures. This was given in support of her project “Digital Care as Resistance: Creating Sociotechnical Networks to Resist Extractive Futures.” This work will examine how technology shapes violence against activists advocating for plural environmental futures, and how to build sociotechnical structures to resist it.
Invited Lectures
On October 24, Assistant Professor Wunpini Mohammed delivered the Keynote Address at New York University’s Steinhardt Department of Media, Culture, and Communication, titled “Disruptive Stories: Cultural Production and Global Understanding.” Drawing from her forthcoming book, Wunpini explored the transformative potential of media to foster radical social change. Her keynote also traced the intersections of south–south solidarities, global Indigenous knowledges, and identity formation, highlighting the ways media can advance more inclusive and equitable narratives across cultures.
Media Coverage
Professor Katherine McComas & Research Associate Dominic Balog-Way were interviewed by Sandra Alday, University of Sydney, on the Let’s Talk Risk podcast in an episode titled Messengers and Messages: Demystifying Misinformation in the Modern Age about their recent publication: “Unpacking the Risk of Misinformation: A Communication-Based Critique.”
Lecturer Megan Sawey was interviewed by Forbes in the article, “The Next Livvy Dunne: The Search For The Next NIL Star In Women’s College Sports.” The piece explores how name, image, and likeness (NIL) deals are reshaping women’s collegiate athletics, spotlighting how social media influence, branding strategy, and gender dynamics intersect in the modern sports economy.
Professor Katherine Sender was interviewed on the Cultural Studies podcast in the episode “Katherine Sender on Filmmaking, Textiles, LGBTQ, Audiences, and Reality TV,” where she discussed her research on media representation, textiles, identity, and the cultural politics of entertainment.
Publications
Lab Manager Isabelle McLeod Daphnis, K. Wu, Q. Yu…Associate Professor Andrea Stevenson Won, “The Effects of Companionship from Strangers and Companions on Pain Thresholds in Immersive Virtual Reality: A Randomized Controlled Trial,” Pain Medicine.
This study examined whether social interaction in virtual reality (VR) could increase pain thresholds during induced pain tasks. In a within-participants experiment (N=70), participants experienced pain under four conditions—interacting with a companion or stranger in VR, interacting with a companion via Zoom, or being alone in VR. Results showed that social interaction, particularly in VR, enhanced pain thresholds, with participants preferring to engage with companions, highlighting social VR’s potential for pain management.
Associate Professor Claire Wardle, S. Urbani & E. Wang, “Evolving Health Information–Seeking Behavior in the Context of Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and Alexa: Interview Study Using the Think-Aloud Protocol,” Journal of Medical Internet Research.
This study explored how people use and perceive AI- and voice-assisted technologies when searching for health information and to evaluate whether Google Gemini Overviews, Alexa and ChatGPT are reshaping traditional patterns of health information seeking and credibility assessment.
