How do you instill an appreciation of biodiversity and a desire to preserve ecosystems in the community? A team of Penn State Berks and Lehigh Valley professors tackled this very question through a multidisciplinary research project that involved participants in a meaningful community activity, linking science and the arts.
The challenges of the coronavirus pandemic led two Penn State professors — one at Penn State Berks and the other at Penn State College of Medicine — to collaborate on ideas for how health care facilities could be redesigned to provide optimal, resilient care during pandemics and other situations with mass casualties.
A series of seed grants from the Office of the Vice President for Commonwealth Campuses has provided Penn State campus leaders with the support to implement transformative initiatives and best practices that have been successful at other University campuses.
The Penn State Berks Center for the Agricultural Sciences and a Sustainable Environment is studying the role that telephone poles can play in monitoring and eradicating the invasive spotted lanternfly. The center continues to be one of the main research sites surveying effective procedures in the control of the invasive planthoppers through support from both the U.S. and Pennsylvania departments of agriculture, as well as other grant funding.
An international, Penn State-led consortium aims to improve drought risk analysis and management and increase societal resilience in Africa, funded by a three-year, $1.1 million grant from the Belmont Forum.
A new book written by Penn State Berks Professor of Latin American Studies Kirwin Shaffer explores how historical forces, people, and ideas traveled across political borders and bodies of water to shape Caribbean history. Titled "A Transnational History of the Modern Caribbean: Popular Resistance across Borders," the book discusses many of the same issues that are timely today, including same-sex marriage and LGBTQ+ rights.
"Gender and Domestic Violence: Contemporary Legal Practice and Intervention Reforms," a new book edited and authored by Brenda Russell, professor of psychology at Penn State Berks, and John Hamel, licensed clinical social worker, practitioner, researcher, and editor-in-chief of the journal Partner Abuse, presents empirical research findings and reform recommendations for prosecutors, criminal defense attorneys, policymakers, and intervention providers with the aim of rectifying shortcomings in legal and law enforcement responses to domestic violence.
The Consortium on Substance Use and Addiction recently hosted the first annual Substance Use Disorder Stigma Reduction Summit at University Park. The event brought in researchers, practitioners and government partners from across the nation to consider research, policy and practice around the issue of stigma reduction in numerous fields like criminal justice and healthcare.
Two faculty members at Penn State Berks, Jennifer Murphy, associate professor and chair of the criminal justice department, and Brenda Russell, professor of psychology, had their stigma work with students showcased at Shatterproof’s Stigma of Addiction Summit earlier this summer. Shatterproof is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to transforming addiction treatment, ending stigma, and supporting communities.
A team of Penn State researchers has received a $2 million grant from the National Science Foundation to lead a three-institution team developing the “SustainFood Network,” which will link scientists, communities and policymakers in addressing challenges at the nexus of water, energy and food security in Africa.
