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RESEARCH AND RESOURCE HIGHLIGHTS AT EMORY UNIVERSITY |
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"Describe an event in the last few weeks that angered you. Now explain how you dealt with that anger." This is how Robert Agnew, Professor and Chair of Sociology, introduces his students to his general strain theory of crime and delinquency. Understanding why some people turn to crime in response to particular pressures and negative emotions, while others do not, is one of the central themes of his intellectual work. Read more >
Lawrence Barsalou has been studying how people think about chairs.
Some view the eyes as windows to the soul. For Valérie Biousse, Cyrus H. Stoner Professor of Ophthalmology and Professor of Neurology, the eyes are more like windows to the brain.
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Can you imagine mapping the mind in action? DuBois Bowman, Associate Professor of Biostatistics, is doing just that. He develops statistical methods for analyzing brain functioning from an expanded spatial-temporal vantage point.
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Looking good is important. But Linda Craighead also believes in the old adage: what matters most is on the inside. A clinical research scientist and psychologist, Craighead wants to better understand and treat eating disorders and weight concerns. She promotes a healthy body image, encourages good eating habits, and wants to make the "thin ideal" a thing of the past. Ask her, and she will tell you that thinking about how you look is normal—but it can become a problem when you spend too much time thinking about it, to the detriment of your health or social life. Looking good has its place...and it's not at the front of the line. Read more >W. Edward Craighead, Psych and Behavioral Sciences
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When Marie Csete says something's in the air, she means it.
In the last twenty years, Frans de Waal has helped change the way we think of animals, particularly the way we understand apes and monkeys.
Neurologist Mahlon DeLong’s efforts to understand the causes of Parkinson’s
disease have taken him from the research lab to the bedside of patients.
Along the way, he has made unique, award-winning contributions to knowing
the origins of the disease, as well as alleviating the suffering of those
afflicted with it.
"Why in the world would anybody want to be a research scientist?" asks Doug Eaton, a professor of physiology and director of the Center for Cell
and Molecular Signaling.
When Mikhail Epstein was still living in Moscow, he imagined what it would
be like to work at an American university. He dreamed of an academic community
in which people came from all over campus—theology, physics, history,
statistics, biology—to share knowledge and intellectual imagination.
Woodruff Professor of Law, Martha Albertson Fineman, believes it is her scholarly responsibility "to challenge deeply held, relatively unexamined assumptions that underlie the way American society is organized and operates." In her books, she explores issues such as the nature and function of the family as a societal institution, the economic and political consequences of welfare and divorce reforms, and the meanings of "dependency" in American society and politics. Read more >
It's one of the last places you'd expect to find a literary theorist trained
in New Criticism. Frances Smith Foster, Charles Howard Candler Professor
of English and Women's Studies, has been spending time in the history
archives. Says Foster: "I'm interested in what domestic life was
like during slavery. I'm looking at nineteenth-century newspapers, magazines,
and letters written by African Americans in the years leading up to the
American Civil War."
Sander Gilman, Distinguished Professor of the Arts and Sciences, is reading Margaret
Mitchell's Gone With the Wind and Dr. Phil's The Ultimate Weight Solution.
Located in the town of Oxford, Georgia, only a forty-five-minute drive from Emory's
Atlanta campus, Oxford College is an integral part of a world-renowned research
university. As the birthplace of Emory University, it consists of a community
of learners dedicated to an outstanding liberal arts intensive education
for undergraduates in their first two years.
Katherine L. Heilpern, M.D., refers to the emergency room as a mirror for society's problems. Individuals who are uninsured or underinsured. Overuse of guns. Underuse of seatbelts. Drinking and driving. Drug-resistant staph infections. The problems of chronic illness. A large emergency room in an urban hospital—like Grady Memorial—sees it all. So too the emergency departments of Emory Crawford Long, Emory University Hospital and Emory Johns Creek. All of these are under the direction of the Emory Department of Emergency Medicine. READ MORE >
When Alexander Hicks, a professor of sociology with a joint appointment in
political science, sat down to write a history of government social programs
in affluent and democratic countries, his personal experiences may have
given him a special feel for the subject matter.
How does 'authority' function in a clerical context? E. Brooks Holifield,
Charles Howard Candler Professor of American Church History, challenges
traditional assumptions about the rise and fall of influence among the
Christian clergy across American religious culture.
Most victims of partner violence are not aware that their situation isn't "normal." According to Debra Houry, Assistant Professor and Director for the Center of Injury Control, "People don't recognize that they're victims of violence, they don't know to develop a safety plan, they don't know to tell friends and family about it." Advocating for these patients, and devising creative solutions to the barriers that many face, is one of the central missions of Houry's clinical and scholarly research. Read more >
Klehr is preparing to publish a collection of essays on the history of American radicalism written from 1971 through the present. The essays also reveal the trajectory of his own thought during his years at Emory. "Sometimes I still can’t believe I’ve spent nearly forty years here," he says. "It’s hard to separate myself from this place." A recipient of the Emory Williams Distinguished Teaching Award (1983), Emory’s Scholar-Teacher of the Year (1995) and the Thomas Jefferson Award (1999), Klehr has taught thousands of undergraduate students – some of whom are the children of former students – and continues to relish his time in the classroom. Read more >
For the last twenty years, neuropharmacologist Michael Kuhar has been at the
forefront of research on the chemistry of cocaine addiction. Although he doesn't believe there will be a single, magic bullet for treating drug addicts, his pioneering work
has led to a deeper understanding of how cocaine harms the brain, as well
as how we might develop new medications for addicts.
Everyone loves a good mystery, and Howard Kushner is no exception. The Nat C. Robertson Distinguished Professor of Science and Society in the Graduate Institute of the Liberal Arts at Emory College, with a joint appointment in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Health Education at the Rollins School of Public Health, Kushner is forging new ground in the applied history of medicine. Collaborative in nature, this innovative field brings together academic scientists, health care providers, and public health practitioners to solve medical mysteries. Read more >
What do the populations of Iceland (approx. 290,000) and metro Atlanta (3.5
million) have in common? Very little. Which is one of the reasons why
Emory neurologist Allan Levey, who is internationally recognized for his
pioneering work in Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease, recently
teamed up with Icelandic researchers to study the links between genes
and diseases. Read more >
Steven Levy, MD, Bernard C. Holland Professor of Psychiatry, landed his very first job by accident. Fortunately, it worked out well; he's been at his first job for more than 30 years, and he's still happy with it. "I love it here," he says. Two of his children went to Emory. His wife, who has three degrees from Emory, is on the faculty. Both of his nephews went to Emory. "We're a very Emory family," Levy comments. Ironically, Levy originally had no plans to apply for a position. He did so at the suggestion of a friend who interviewed for an Emory job. The friend did not end up at Emory, but Levy did. Read more >
Louis Pasteur said that chance favors the prepared mind. For Dennis Liotta, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Chemistry, that’s a fitting description of drug discovery in the basic sciences.
How do we define life? David Lynn, Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Chemistry
and Biology, studies the molecular structures of living systems. When
molecules make mistakes during self-assembly, or 'mis-fold' and replicate
incorrectly, these misfires can inform our understanding of the biomolecular
chemical processes that we understand as life.
Joseph Manns, Psychology and Neuroscience
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In the spring of 2002, five Emory faculty members within the Robert W. Woodruff
Health Sciences Center were recognized as being among the world's most
highly cited scientific researchers. To Kenneth Minneman's surprise, he
was one of them - and one of only 108 highly cited scientists worldwide
in the pharmacology category.
Charles Nemeroff, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
What are the long-term neurobiological consequences of childhood sexual abuse? Charles Nemeroff, Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, argues that early life traumas sensitize the developing brain in permanent ways. Using brain imaging scans and other research tools, the Nemeroff lab has isolated a sub-type of depression that appears unique to adults who suffered abuse or neglect as children. Read more >
The poet William Blake saw the world in a grain of sand. Shuming Nie sees
it in a quantum dot.
As founder of the Dance Program, Sally Radell is committed to empowering her students by giving them tools to succeed in the dance profession—or whatever they choose to do. 
Once a disease gets established somewhere, can scientists predict where it
will spread and how fast?
Running a democracy may come natural to American politicians. For the last two
hundred years, our country has grown up with the rules and procedures
for introducing bills, reaching compromises, and passing new legislation.
In January 2000, Emory created the Office of University-Community Partnerships
(OUCP), which is designed to integrate better Emory's teaching, research,
and service missions with an emphasis on serving the greater Atlanta community.
Dr. Raymond Schinazi is an explorer. His passion lies in discovering new lands, conquering new-found territories, and vanquishing foes. But for Dr. Schinazi, the lands aren't geographical; and the enemies aren't human. He explores viruses that attack the human body, and has discovered drugs that endeavor to disarm one of today's most dangerous enemies: HIV/AIDS. Read more >
What is the genetic etiology of mental retardation and other linked disorders? Stephanie Sherman, Professor of Genetics, is moving toward an answer. Sherman seeks to determine why certain errors during the formation of egg and sperm cause miscarriages or, for those women whose pregnancies make it to term, mental retardation and birth defects in their infants. This research centers on Down syndrome. Sherman also studies Fragile X syndrome, a form of mental retardation whose etiology is tied to a single gene. Read more >Jagdish Sheth, Marketing & Global Business
"Why do good companies fail?" Imagine Duane Ackerman, CEO of BellSouth Corporation, posing that question a few years ago to his advisor Jagdish Sheth, Charles H. Kellstadt Professor of Marketing at Emory.
Once upon a time there was a young man named Lucius who journeyed far and wide seeking adventure and magic. Then, one day, he met a witch. Impressed by her powers, he decided to try to imitate her. He cast a spell and accidentally turned himself into a donkey. In that form he was forced to wander the world, suffering, learning and observing human nature, until one day the goddess Isis appeared and told him to eat some roses. He did, and immediately was transformed back into a human being. Read more >
Arlene Stecenko wants to halt the progression of two diseases that devastate patients and perplex scientists: Cystic Fibrosis Diabetes and Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis.
Ora Strickland is in the business of correcting false assumptions. As Professor of Nursing in the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, Strickland participated for more than ten years in the Women's Health Initiative, a national study that made headlines with its findings about hormone therapy and other health issues that affect women. The author of the first nursing measurement textbook (soon to be printed in its fourth edition), Strickland is currently exploring two distinct areas of nursing research that long have intrigued her: expectant fathers and the menstrual cycles of women. Read more >Sharon Strocchia, Social and Cultural History of the Renaissance
Sharon Strocchia is a Renaissance woman who casts her eye over history, religion, gender, sexuality, health, medicine, and art. But no matter where her gaze falls, she views her subjects through the lens she finds most fascinating—that of the European Renaissance.
Is it possible to predict the risk of developing a major mental illness?
Elaine Walker, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience,
answers this question by investigating early signs of schizophrenia and
major depressive disorders from childhood to young adulthood. Currently,
Walker's research focuses on adolescence because this is a critical developmental
period for the emergence of behavioral signs of risk for schizophrenia. Read more >
Professor of Anthropology Pat Whitten has tapped into an area of research quite
relevant to baby boomers as they move into and through middle age. Her
research topic is menopause, and she is exploring the possibility that
phytoestrogens, a plant chemical found in foods such as soybeans, can
be used as natural treatments for menopause or as anticancer agents.
Isabel Wilkerson is a Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist, a professor of ethics, and a historian. Above all, she's a teller of stories. She is known for her narrative reporting, referred by some writers as 'the journalism of empathy.'
When John Witte was chosen in early 2001 to deliver the sixth Distinguished
Faculty Lecture at Emory, he could have talked about family law, legal
history, or the First Amendment and comparative religious liberty.
Understanding the biological and emotional nuances behind puberty, depression, sleep,
and even the long-term health effects of middle-class lifestyles are a
few of Carol Worthman's latest research projects. She is a biological
anthropologist who also draws from psychology to understand how culture
affects human development and health.
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Kathryn Yount, Social Demography and Global Health
How does gender inequality affect health disparities between men and women across the life course and in different cultural contexts? Kathryn Yount, Associate Professor in the Hubert Department of Global Health and in the Department of Sociology, has designed an innovative mixed-methods approach to answer this question. Read more >
Select from the list below to meet Emory faculty working in each area.
A Welcome from the Senior Vice Provost
