Research

Falk College Research Center

The Research Center helps foster a vibrant disciplinary and inter-disciplinary research community within the College, and facilitates individual and collaborative scholarly research by faculty.

Our faculty engages in a wide variety of research activities that impact the lives of individuals, families, organizations and the community. Their fields of expertise include human development and family science, marriage and family therapy, nutrition and food studies, public health, social work and sport management.

Recent topics of funded projects include: African American dementia caregivers support program; patient-centered research network for people with disabilities and their families; conducting hot spot analysis of vulnerable older adults; the new American farmer: immigration, race, and the struggle for sustainability; a peer-led, train the trainer social marketing intervention to increase fruit and vegetable intake and prevent childhood obesity; the psychosocial and physiological consequences of taking and not taking time off; triggers of decline; addressing neighborhood violence and trauma in Syracuse; FoodPlan CNY; disability and rehabilitation research program; environmental toxicants, race, and cardiovascular disease risk in children; training veterans to conduct trauma research with fellow veterans; age-specific prevalence of specific psychiatric disorders; intellectual disabilities research ethics; mental health services and crossover to justice system involvement; wetland restoration project’s benefiting wildlife; children’s self-regulation in an urban environment; the economic security of disadvantaged and at-risk families through Social Security reform; bullying and domestic partner violence, and reduction of health disparities and promoting health and healthy lifestyles among minority communities.

Funds from private foundations as well as federal grants have supported faculty investigations. Additionally, faculty members have an active publication agenda, in the past year publishing over 60 articles in peer-reviewed journals as well as book chapters, and authoring and co-authoring books in their fields.Faculty members contribute to the numerous research institutes, centers and special programs in the college as well as in programs throughout the university, such as the Aging Studies Institute, the School of Education, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, the Department of Psychology, the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, the College of Law, the Burton Blatt Institute, and the Institute for Veterans and Military Families.

While the College is highly diverse in its disciplinary fields and areas of research interest among its faculty, all are committed to studying change and potential for change across a broad array of human needs, aspirations, and institutions; that is, to the study of human dynamics in its widest sense. The Research Center, often in collaboration with academic departments and centers or institutes, will sponsor or co-sponsor activities including seminars and Research Colloquiums highlighting cutting edge faculty research. These may involve both internal and external speakers in areas of faculty interest.

For faculty who are seeking external sponsorship to conduct their research, we provide support for their efforts. Annually, small seed grants are competitively awarded to support proposal development. We also assist in finding appropriate funding sponsors and in proposal development, as well as navigating the University sponsored-project system, including the Office of Sponsored Programs and the SU Institutional Review Board.

We look forward to working with you.

Recent Faculty Funded Research