Research Mentors

Angélica Amezcua

Assistant Professor, Spanish and Portugese Studies, Director of the Heritage Language Program

aamezcua@uw.edu

My research examines how university Spanish heritage language (SHL) courses can play an important role in counteracting the devaluation of minoritized languages and in helping narrow the Latinx/e students’ achievement gap. It also advocates for the design and implementation of Spanish Heritage Language curricula that not only reclaim and promote the use of Spanish in a society with low ethnolinguistic vitality, but also recognize and strengthen the diverse types of capital that heritage language learners bring to the SHL courses. In sum, I conduct research on bilingual education, Spanish language maintenance, and student retention. Students working with me will learn how to conduct qualitative research ––from writing an IRB (Institutional Review Board) application, organizing a research conceptual framework (connecting research questions, literature review, theoretical framework, and data analysis), conducting semi-structured interviews, to understanding the importance of triangulating methods, and exploring different approaches to data analysis. 

Jessica Bissett Perea

Associate Professor, American Indian Studies; Adjunct Associate Professor of Comparative History of Ideas; Adjunct Associate Professor of Music History

jbperea@uw.edu

The Indigenous Arts Collaboratory was created in 2023 and gathers together an intergenerational network of artists, scholars, and activists who are committed to pursuing Indigenous-led and arts-based projects to generate transformative possibilities for more just futures locally and globally. We are committed to working with, by, and for American Indian and Indigenous artists and arts communities to: (1) build sustainable support networks; (2) to commission new work from artists and writers; and (3) to develop relational public programming practices. Students who join our collaboratory will learn how to gather and analyze existing work (e.g., from writing, media, library archives, and museum collections) and to document and share Indigenous arts research-creation projects (e.g., audio/video recording, photography, social media posts) with a range of UW- and Seattle-based communities.

Katie Bunn-Marcuse

Associate Professor, Art History; Curator of Northwest Native American Art, Burke Museum

kbunn@uw.edu

My research is focused on Indigenous arts, in particular Northwest Coast (WA, BC, AK) both historical and contemporary. My current projects focus on Salish arts and weaving as well as women’s productions all along the Coast. I am interested in the digital humanities, archival research, and decolonizing practices for museums as well as Indigenous research methodology. In my role as curator, I collaborate with First Nations and Native American communities and artists to identify research priorities and to activate the Burke Museum’s holdings in ways that are responsive to cultural revitalization efforts. Students join in historical, archives, and collections research and engaging with contemporary Indigenous artists.

Aria Fani

Assistant Professor, Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures

ariafani@uw.edu

My research explores the cultural and literary history of Persian-speaking communities across Iran, Afghanistan, and Central and South Asia, with a strong focus on the politics and practice of translation. I study how literature—especially poetry—circulates across borders and languages, shaping ideas of identity, language, and belonging in contexts of colonialism, migration, and war. Translation is not just a tool but a critical method in my work, helping us understand how texts are transformed as they move across cultures. Students working with me will gain experience in close reading, historical analysis, literary translation, and cross-cultural interpretation.

Stephen Groening

Associate Professor, Cinema and Media Studies

groening@uw.edu

My research is on Black actors during the studio era in Hollywood. Specifically I will be tracing the career of one actor whose work spanned Westerns, blaxploitation, European art cinema, television and B-horror films. Students that join my research project will learn how to do archival research of popular magazines and trade publications. In addition, they will be viewing and analyzing a catalog of films and television from the 20th century.

Chan Lu

Associate Professor, Asian Languages and Literature

chanlu@uw.edu

Ted Poor

Associate Professor, School of Music, DXARTS

tedpoor@uw.edu

Sara Curran

Professor, International Studies, Sociology, Public Policy; Director, Center for Studies in Demography & Ecology; Associate Vice Provost for Research

scurran@uw.edu

Our research focuses on the interactions between society, demographics, and environment. We have projects that focus on low and middle-income countries and reforestation and there is a lot of data to analyze and learn from. We also have projects that examine how natural disasters affect human settlements, migration, and recovery. Students that join our team will learn how to conduct literature reviews, code data, and analyze it.

Sara Kover

Professor, Speech and Hearing Sciences

skover@uw.edu

Our research is focused on communication and language in the context of developmental disabilities. The overarching goal of this work is to increase access to communication for individuals with disabilities by understanding how language learning processes work and how speech-language pathologists can be better supported in providing services to children from a wide range of backgrounds. Students in our research group will gain exposure to a variety of quantitative and qualitative methods (examples include observational coding of eye-gaze as an indicator of language processing and thematic coding of interview data to gain insight into the lived experience of individuals with disabilities).

Kelli O’Laughlin

Associate Professor, Emergency Medicine, Global Health; International Clinical Research Center (ICRC)

kolaugh@uw.edu

Jennifer Otten

Professor, Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, Food Systems, Nutrition, and Health program

jotten@uw.edu

Our research focuses on understanding, changing and evaluating food systems and food systems policies as they relate to public health and nutrition outcomes; and, getting that work to the public policy table. Students who join our research team will work with us to use qualitative and quantitative tools, including policy analyses, and policy process and program evaluations to assess food systems challenges and solutions.

Paula Saravia

Assistant Teaching Professor, Anthropology

psaravia@uw.edu

Our research focuses on how people care for and respond emotionally to environmental changes like climate change and natural disasters. We look at how emotions help people connect with changing landscapes and the rapid environmental damage caused by industrialization, affecting both indigenous and non-indigenous communities. We study the impact of colonization, how different communities view nature, and their connections to the environment. We also explore how people understand human-caused changes and interpret environmental crises. These topics are discussed in relation to health, well-being, and political involvement, including participation in social organizations and political institutions. Students who join our research group will learn to manage and organize academic sources, collect data, conduct literature reviews, and analyze qualitative data through thematic analysis and coding.

Elizabeth Umphress

Professor, Business

eu4@uw.edu

My research focuses on social justice issues within organizations. I am currently conducting research on how disclosure of a neurodiversity identity influences coworker reactions to that individual. We suggest that some types of disclosure (e.g., and advocacy disclosure) can lead to more positive reactions toward the neurodiverse individual. This research helps to understand the positive and negative consequences of identity disclosure, and how to remedy potential negative consequences. Students working with me could learn how to conduct experiments, analyze data, and test hypotheses.

Suzanne Withers

Associate Professor, Geography; Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology, Centers for Statistics and the Social Sciences

swithers@uw.edu

Tim Billo

Lecturer, Program on the Environment

timbillo@uw.edu

This project seeks to restore a rare oak ecosystem in South Seattle that was historically established and maintained by the Duwamish people. The ecosystem is currently degraded due to a century of neglect, and this project will help to restore and bring attention to a culturally significant site that historically provided food for the Duwamish people. Students who join this project will conduct literature reviews, outreach to the public and tribes, and do field work in restoration ecology (including restoration and field experiments to determine best practices for oak and camas restoration).

Patrick Boyle

Associate Professor, Bioengineering; Adjunct Associate Professor, Cardiology; Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, Center for Cardiovascular Biology, eScience Institute

pmjboyle@uw.edu

Our research focuses on developing AI- and simulation-based technologies to address real-world challenges in cardiac electrophysiology. By using explainable machine learning, we aim to personalize care for patients with heart rhythm disorders. Students who join our lab participate in a variety of projects and learn about diverse subjects, including how to conduct computational simulations, analyze medical data, and apply machine learning techniques to improve patient outcomes. I am passionate about mentoring students and helping them discover the exciting possibilities in bioengineering. Together, we strive to make a meaningful impact on heart health.

Brandi Cossairt

Professor, Chemistry

cossairt@uw.edu

Our research explores new ways to make and modify nanomaterials for applications in light harvesting, light emission, catalysis, and quantum information. Students who join our research team will learn how to make and characterize nanomaterials, evaluate growth and assembly mechanisms, plot and analyze data, read and evaluate scientific literature, and engage in collaborative research discussions and presentations.

Ronald Kwon

Associate Professor, Orthopaedic Surgery and Sports Medicine; Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine

ronkwon@uw.edu

We are an interdisciplinary team of engineers, scientists, and physicians interested in maximizing the regenerative potential of the skeleton. Our research revolves around understanding genetic risk for osteoporosis, as well as identify how genes control skeletal development. We primarily use zebrafish as a model system. Students that join our team will learn about genetics, biomedical image processing, statistical hypothesis testing, and how to place your findings within a broader context of the scientific literature.

Ayokunle Olanrewaju

Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering, Bioengineering

ayokunle@uw.edu

Inter-individual variations in medication adherence and drug pharmacokinetics are significant contributors to treatment failure and the development of drug resistance. Current therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) technologies are often prohibitively expensive and labor-intensive. The development of accessible TDM solutions for bedside or home use could revolutionize treatment monitoring and dose individualization, particularly in resource-limited settings. Our lab is at the forefront of this innovation, focusing on the development of enzymatic assays and autonomous microfluidic systems for point-of-care TDM. We have successfully created user-friendly reverse transcriptase activity assays to monitor adherence to HIV therapy, which have shown excellent concordance with gold-standard mass spectrometry measurements. Currently, we are integrating these assays into minimally instrumented microfluidic devices designed for use in decentralized settings.

Adam Steinbrenner

Associate Professor, Biology

astein10@uw.edu

Our lab works to understand how plants are resistant to insect pests such as caterpillars. At the molecular level, we study the plant immune system which detects different attackers and activates defense responses, for example formation of toxic compounds which fight the pest. Students will learn assays to measure plant defenses, how to manipulate plant genes to study their immune systems, and how to collect, analyze, and present their own datasets.

Amy Van Cise

Assistant Professor, Aquatic and Fishery Sciences

vancise@uw.edu

Our lab studies the evolution, ecology, and conservation of marine mammals (mostly whales and dolphins) using a combination of advanced technologies including various genetic approaches and acoustics. Students who join our lab will gain skills in genetic lab techniques and bioinformatics, and will use genetic data to describe ecological patterns in marine mammals.