Ingenuity Magazine, Fall 2011

UMASS LOWELL Learning with Purpose

INGENUITY

E X C E L L E N C E T H R O U G H I N N O VAT I O N

IN THIS ISSUE Improving the Health of Health-care Workers Teen Survivors Speak About Prostitution Scholar Mines History to Shed Light on the Present International Partnerships Transcend Cultural, National Boundaries

Nursing students learning through experience in Ghana.

More on research at UMass Lowell: www.uml.edu/research

INGENUITY

EXCELLENCE THROUGH INNOVATION

2011 Ingenuity is published by the Office of Public Affairs University of Massachusetts Lowell Chancellor Martin T. Meehan Provost Ahmed Adbelal Vice Provost for Research Julie Chen Vice Chancellor for University Relations

From the Chancellor Welcome to the new issue of Ingenuity.

Ingenuity is the right word for this publication and for UMass Lowell. Invention, innovation, imagination, ingenuity—these concepts all share the same root meaning: creativity. At UMass Lowell creativity knows no disciplinary boundaries. Our faculty, students and staff constitute a deep and broad pool of creative thought and action.

We know the way forward for our society and economy is through creative solutions to stubborn challenges. This issue of Ingenuity highlights our imaginative and insightful work in the humanities, social sciences and fine arts and our breakthrough research and outreach in education and health care.

UMass Lowell’s ingenious ways are engendered both locally and globally. We partner fully with our region, which encompasses a diverse social mosaic. Our engagement with the global community is increasing dramatically as we forge partnerships with universities and research institutions around the world.

Thank you for making time to read our publication. Please share your thoughts about the developments described here. We appreciate your interest and continued support of UMass Lowell.

Patti McCafferty Director of Publications and Publisher Mary Lou Hubbell

Martin T. Meehan Chancellor

Editor Sandra Seitz Staff Writers Sheila Eppolito Sarah McAdams Sandra Seitz The University of Massachusetts Lowell is an Equal Opportunity/ Affirmative Action, Title IX, H/V, ADA 1990 Employer Please direct address changes and comments, including requests for permission to reprint, to: Office of Public Affairs University of Massachusetts Lowell One University Avenue Lowell, MA 01854 Tel. (978) 934-3223 Email: Marylou_hubbell@uml.edu

From the Vice Provost for Research This issue of Ingenuity introduces you to the impressive range of research and scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, fine arts, education and health areas at UMass Lowell, following the previous issue’s focus on sciences, engineering and entrepreneurship.

Interdisciplinary research thrives at UMass Lowell. The studies on health care, for example, demonstrate the integration of ergonomics, behavioral intervention, economic context and policy development for a deeper and more robust understanding of the issues.

Research at UMass Lowell has an impact. Collaborative work with public agencies, practitioners and subjects leads to tangible benefits for the greater community, as described in the work on Autism Spectrum Disorder, teen sexual exploitation and other youth-focused studies.

Our research makes connections. Creative scholarly partnerships result in innovative research that reaches new audiences, as you will read about in the University in the City section. Across the globe, research and educational partnerships have been developed with key institutions in strategic areas, as described in the International section.

From epidemiology to photography, exciting and original work is being done.

For more information about the strength and breadth of our research, see uml.edu/research.

Learning with Purpose

Julie Chen Vice Provost for Research

FALL 2011

INGENUITY

Learning with Purpose

E X C E L L E N C E T H R O U G H I N N O VAT I O N Table of Contents

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HEALTH CARE Improving the Health of Health-care Workers Research on safety and health promotion strategies finds links between working conditions and health.

Related Research The cost of injury. Counting care work. Diversity in nursing.

National appointments.

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YOUTH Teen Survivors Speak About Prostitution Innovative study on commercial sexual exploitation of teens has implications for police, social workers and educators.

Related Research Asperger’s. Understanding algebra. Online leadership.

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UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY Public History Combines Scholarship and Action Scholarly work on environmental history, presented through new media, enriches public outreach and understanding.

Related Research Kerouac scholarship. Renaissance colleges. Wired city.

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INTERNATIONAL Faculty Cross Borders, Boundaries for Partnership International partnerships in strategic parts of the world go far beyond study-abroad programs to build joint programs in research and scholarship.

Related Research Iodine-deficient newborns in Thailand. Archeology in United States, Ireland. Photography in Europe.

MORE ON RESEARCH AT UMASS LOWELL: WWW.UML.EDU/RESEARCH

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Research: Health Care

Improving the Health of Health-care Workers Study Relates Work Conditions to Injury, Disease SYNOPSIS: Often overlooked as a cause, the working conditions in nursing homes have a major impact on injuries and health problems of employees. The costs of back injuries and high rates of personnel turnover make this an economic, as well as social, problem.

Funded with $10 million in grants from NIOSH, the Center for the Promotion of Health in the New England Workplace is one of only three WorkLife Centers for Excellence in the United States.

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Back injuries are common and costly.

T

he statistics are sobering. Occupational injuries among health-care workers are increasing at twice the rate for industry in general. At the same time, health care is the largest sector in the U.S. economy and growing rapidly, accounting for more than 3 percent of the labor force with almost 11 million employees. Long-term care facilities – nursing homes – form a major component.

UMass Lowell Prof. Laura Punnett of the Work Environment Department is leading a major research study, funded by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), on health providers’ lifting practices and health promotion in nursing homes. Since hospitals and nursing homes are the first and second leading workplaces for back injuries, improved lifting could prove cost effective, both for employers and the workforce.

The research, under the auspices of the Center for the Promotion of Health in the New England Workplace, is being conducted within a chain of more than 200 nursing homes in the eastern United States. The study is based on a safe resident-handling program being implemented across the chain, using newly

purchased patient-lifting devices. The research team is evaluating the health outcomes and cost-effectiveness of the program.

Safe lifting shows dramatic benefit Workers at all 200-plus nursing homes received the same basic training in safe patient lifting and monitoring. Employees were required to pass an evaluation of their skills to retain their positions. Although the beforeand-after comparisons are preliminary, “the lifting program shows dramatic benefits in reduced worker compensation claims already,” says Punnett.

Does health promotion make a difference?

In combination with the lifting program and detailed survey information, the researchers are investigating the effectiveness of health promotion programs.

“Health promotion” usually consists of providing information and advising people to change their behaviors – advice that may not be tailored to real-world working conditions.

In contrast, the study includes participatory wellness teams that meet to discuss the employees’ own health priorities and the relevant

Related Research: Health Care

“Obesity, diabetes and depression are not usually considered occupational hazards, but we see a strong link.” — Prof. Laura Punnett

Calculating the Cost of Injury on Future Wealth Monica Galizzi, Economics Department

changes needed in the workplace – a process that Punnett describes as “slow and labor-intensive,” yet with the potential to establish long-term, effective improvements.

“Our intent was to see if health promotion activities would provide a synergistic benefit to the safe-lifting program,” says Punnett, because health conditions such as obesity, lack of exercise and smoking are also risk factors for lower back pain.

Preliminary findings make it clear that certain work conditions perpetuate these unhealthy behaviors, regardless of health promotion efforts. The most prominent of these are regular night shift work, heavy lifting, low social support from one’s supervisor and recent physical assault from a patient.

“Obesity, diabetes and depression are not usually considered occupational hazards, but we see a strong link,” says Punnett. “The results suggest that workplace health promotion programs should take into account the effect of working conditions on the health of individuals. Some aspects of work conditions can be improved readily, such as the implementation of a lifting program and the encouragement of civility.”

Change is not easy Other issues are more complex. For example, is a more hierarchical or more participatory organization better for worker health? Can the problems be addressed within the current constraints of Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements? The answers to these questions may be crucial. Health-care costs are rising and a major factor for long-term care facilities is the high rate of staff turnover – up to 80 percent in a single year.

“In an effort to reduce costs, staff responsibilities are being pushed down the ladder,” says Punnett. “Often poorly paid and working two jobs, these are the employees who devote their lives to taking care of other people and get very little care and attention in return. They deserve our commitment to doing anything we can to improve their lives.”

Work-related injuries and illness are costly to society – $175 billion annually (National Safety Council 2007 estimate), but most cost assessments consider only loss of earnings.

The first research to calculate the additional impacts on workers’ wealth and consumption, job retention and probability of bankruptcy has been conducted by labor economist Monica Galizzi, in collaboration with a researcher from Ohio State University.

Laura Punnett, Work Environment, and director of the Center for the Promotion of Health in the New England Workplace The Center for the Promotion of Health in the New England Workplace is a collaborative research-to-practice initiative led by investigators from the University of Massachusetts Lowell and the University of Connecticut. It is a WorkLife Center for Excellence funded with $10 million in grants from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).

The Center’s research goal is to evaluate the feasibility, effectiveness and economic benefits of integrating occupational health and safety with health promotion interventions to improve employee health, with a strong emphasis on workplace occupational ergonomic interventions and on worker involvement. Punnett currently chairs the Scientific Committee on Musculoskeletal Disorders for the International Commission on Occupational Health.

Work Environment Department in the School of Health and Environment The Work Environment Department offers master’s and doctoral degrees in five concentrations: Cleaner Production and Pollution Prevention, Occupational and Environmental Hygiene, Epidemiology, Ergonomics and Safety and Work Environment Policy. The 18 faculty members direct more than 50 funded research projects, with an annual expenditure of about $4.5 million.

The four-year study, funded by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health in the Centers for Disease Control, used data from a national longitudinal survey collected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which tracked the individual employment histories of a large, representative population sample.

Their analysis showed that injuries causing income loss are also associated with a wealth reduction of at least 20 percent. Injured workers draw down their savings and reduce their consumption.

Injuries are also associated with higher numbers of workers who file for personal bankruptcy. Some workers have difficulty returning to work, with terminations being more common among minority workers and those who have filed a worker’s compensation claim. Finally, workers who experienced low socio-economic status in their teens carry this burden through their working lives and face a higher likelihood of experiencing multiple occupational injuries.

Because of her expertise, Galizzi has been named co-investigator of the first-ever study of Italian workers and the relationship between the health and work history of individuals, funded by a grant of €624,000 (about $840,000) from the Piedmont region of Italy. The study will analyze whether injured workers’ economic outcomes differ depending on whether they are compensated by private insurance (as in the United States) or by a national public health-care and disability system (as in Italy). Galizzi will collaborate with the Italian Centre for Employment Studies at the University of Turin.

Gallizi has authored a book, “Mobility, Relative Wages and Wage Growth,” published by Franco Angeli Editori, and her articles have appeared in the Journal of Human Resources, the Journal of Labor Economics and the American Journal of Industrial Medicine, among others.

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Related Research: Health Care National Appointments Reflect Research Excellence President Names UMass Lowell Professor to Chair the Chemical Safety Board Nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the Senate, Prof. Rafael Moure-Eraso now chairs the U.S. Chemical Safety Board, an independent agency that investigates industrial chemical accidents and makes recommendations to appropriate health and safety regulators.

An industrial hygienist, Moure-Eraso is interested in the international aspects of sustainable development and the participation of workers, and has directed more than $5 million of funded research, often working in international collaborations. He has been a senior policy adviser to government agencies, including the director of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and the National Toxicological Program.

He teaches prevention of work-related deaths and illnesses in the Work Environment Department in the School of Health and Environment.

At the same time, Mark Griffon, UMass Lowell alumnus in radiological sciences, was confirmed as a member of the Chemical Safety Board. Griffon worked in the Department of Work Environment on training programs for hazardous waste and radiation workers, and in the Toxics Use Reduction Institute on programs for electronics, chemical, plastics, paper and metal-working companies before founding his own company in 1992.

Professor Chairs Committee on Disability and Rehabilitation Research at the National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences, whose members serve as policy advisers to the nation, named UMass Lowell Prof. Emeritus David Wegman, M.D., as chair of a committee to evaluate the grant selection process, relevance and quality of funded research for the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research.

The Institute awards more than $100 million annually. Wegman continues to chair the Committee on Human-Services Integration, which is studying the role of human factors in home health care.

Dr. Wegman has previously chaired the committees on Review of NIOSH Research Programs, on Health and Safety Needs of Older Workers and on the Health and Safety Consequences of Child Labor.

Former dean of the School of Health and Environment, he has published more than 200 articles and is co-editor with Dr. Barry Levy of one of the standard textbooks in the field of occupational health, “Occupational Health: Recognition and Prevention of Work-Related Disease,” the sixth edition of which was published by Oxford University Press in 2010.

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Post-secondary education 4% Food, Personal Services 12%

Public Administration 4%

Manufacturing 10%

K-12 Education 6%

Transportation, Utilities, etc.

11%

Care Work 22% Health Care 13%

Information Services 11% Management, Admin. Support 12%

Social Care Services 5%

Wholesale, Retail Trade 13%

Study Connects Research and Public Policy for Care Work as an Economic Sector Mignon Duffy, Sociology Department Child care workers, elder care workers, health-care workers – these groups and others each fight separately for crumbs of funding from the state legislature.

What if they saw themselves as part of a larger “care sector” within the state economy?

A unique collaborative and interdisciplinary study by faculty from three of the universities in the UMass system has quantified this previously undefined group.

While paid care workers represent almost one quarter of the Massachusetts workforce, family caregivers and volunteers contribute additional hours equaling more than three times as much: almost 25 million hours a day of unpaid care.

Mignon Duffy, associate professor of sociology, joined Randy Albelda, professor of economics at UMass Boston, and Nancy Folbre, professor of economics at UMass Amherst, to examine care work as an economic sector in Massachusetts.

“We had the explicit intent of making connections between research and public policy,” says Duffy, who had convened the Massachusetts Care Policy Network to gather scholars with similar research interests, out of which the project grew.

The researchers counted 800,000 in the paid labor force (including K-12 educators, child care, elder care, social services, disability care and all forms of health care), of whom 75 percent are female. The study also calculated the value of unpaid care work, such as that provided by family members and volunteers – the equivalent of 3.1 million full-time workers and $151.6 billion in annual pay. Women provide about 64 percent of the unpaid care work.

The report, “Counting on Care Work: Human Infrastructure in Massachusetts,” was designed to be accessible to community and political leaders, advocates and workers, and presented at four public forums in urban centers.

The full report is available at www.countingcare.org.

$1 Million ‘Bring Diversity to Nursing’ Grant Helps Prepare for Profession’s Future As the nation’s ethnic minority population grows – it will comprise 35 percent of the American population by 2020, according to the U.S. Census Bureau – so, too, does the need for more nurses who understand different languages, religious beliefs and traditions.

Funded with $1 million in federal and state grants, the Bring Diversity to Nursing program was developed to recruit, retain and graduate nursing students from minority and economically disadvantaged communities.

Students receive multiple benefits including scholarships, equipment, tutoring and mentoring – all to help them succeed.

“Graduating high-quality minority nurses is important to meeting the health-care needs of our nation,” says Prof. Karen Devereaux Melillo, chair of the Nursing Department and principal investigator of the grant. “As our population grows older and more diverse, we need people who can effectively interact with patients across cultures to deliver the best care possible.”

Research:Youth

Teen Survivors Speak About Prostitution Innovative Research Leads to New Understanding

SYNOPSIS: The commercial sexual exploitation of children is difficult to research, as the subjects typically are unavailable or uncooperative. Prof. Linda Williams developed new research methods leading to policy recommendations for police, social workers and other care givers, while extending research insights.

“If your intervention assumes sad, hopeless victims, the kids perceive this as patronizing.

Service providers and law enforcement have to accept the kids’ tough exterior and work with their survival strengths.”

— Prof. Linda Williams

Victims are hard to help

H

idden in plain sight, they’re part of every urban landscape. Teenagers – perhaps runaways, perhaps thrownaways – panhandle, sleep in doorways and stand on shadowy corners, trading sex for cash, food and the “protection” of pimps.

Trying to rescue these children, however, police and social workers quickly find that intervention is complicated, often unsuccessful. The kids are tough to deal with and conflicts with authority figures lead to punishment or prosecution instead of help – a negative feedback loop that does nothing to get teens out of that life.

Researchers at UMass Lowell took the unusual and revealing approach of asking teens themselves about the pathways that led them to being prostituted, how they survived under these circumstances and how they took steps toward recovery. The report, “Pathways into and out of commercial sexual victimization of children: Understanding and responding to sexually exploited teens,” is based on intensive interviews with teens at shelters and drop-in centers, or living on the streets, in metro Boston and Washington, D.C.

Research results show strengths of teen survivors Prof. Linda Williams of the Criminal Justice and Criminology Department directed the study, with co-investigator Andrea Powell, executive director of Fair Fund Inc. in Washington, and Mary Frederick, UMass

Lowell research associate in criminal justice.

The U.S. Justice Department’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention funded the research with a grant of more than $527,000.

“The resiliency of these teens surprised me,” says Williams. “Interwoven with their vulnerabilities, the damage and harms they had suffered, they showed strengths and intelligence. They provided astute observations about systemic problems. They want better schooling and better services. And they want their voices to be heard, to help others.”

Suspending preconceptions is a challenge in all social science research, especially when the material includes accounts of hardship and suffering, struggle for survival and the brutality of exploiters. The youth in this research study were 14 to 19 years old and, as children, were forced to engage in sexual acts in exchange for money, food, drugs, shelter, clothing or protection. This is a crime that’s often missed, says Williams, since the victims are mostly runaways, homeless and transient or unemployed youth who trade sex as a means of survival.

Some leave home situations that are destructive, drug-involved or violent, and are vulnerable to adults who manipulate them for profit.

Individual stories fit a pattern While each victim has her own story, many accounts fit a pattern seen across the United States. As one interviewee said, “I ran away.

And I was gone for like a month or two and that’s when I got into prostitution. …

(I was) 16.”

Continued

Linda Williams has conducted research with more than $14 million in funding.

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Research: Youth

Related Research: Youth

Teens with no place to stay were given shelter by people who later turned them out on the streets to exchange sex for money.

A teen runaway said, “… and then they took me to this other man’s house … and I had sex with that man and he let me stay in his house for three weeks … he was really nice! He didn’t ask me for nothin’ else.”

Another teen spoke of the violence she saw: “I’ve seen people get shot in the head in front of me…seen girls get shot … And I was just like, ‘What am I gonna do?’

I had nobody…”

Conceptual Understanding in Algebra

The tough façade, transience and “don’t mess with me” attitude of the teens can get in the way of the outreach efforts of police, social workers and educators, although many youth do maintain access to health services.

Research calls for changing attitudes “If your intervention assumes sad, hopeless victims, the kids perceive this as patronizing,” says Williams. “While extremely vulnerable, many of these youth are tough to deal with. They don’t trust adults and this, combined with high mobility, presents a challenge. Service providers and law enforcement have to accept the kids’ tough exterior and work with their survival strengths.”

The report calls for consideration of many policy changes in the treatment of sexually exploited teens: expanded training, coordination of agencies across jurisdictional boundaries, better facilities and services for homeless youth.

As for law enforcement, a sense of justice would call for more arrests and serious charges lodged against the purveyors and customers of sex with children. The adults involved in the commercial side of prostitution have far more freedom of choice than the youth being prostituted.

Above all, social responses to homeless, runaway and sexually exploited teens should be empowering and build on survival strengths.

“Coping and survival is a key theme for high-risk teens,” says Williams. “Based on their own reports, they have ‘survived’ the extreme difficulties of violence in their original homes and on the streets. They have negotiated life at a very young age to deal with hunger and poverty. They see this as survival.”

Regina Panasuk, Graduate School of Education

Linda Williams, Criminal Justice and Criminology Prof. Linda Williams directs collaborative, longitudinal research on sexual exploitation of children, sex offenders, violence against women and violence prevention. Her scientific research is on the cutting edge of both topic and methodology in the field of interpersonal violence, where little previous scientific work has been done and the methodology must be created. Williams received the Research Career Achievement Award of the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children.

She has served on the National Research Council’s Panel on Violence Against Women and as co-director of the National Violence Against Women Prevention Research Center. Williams has also provided expert testimony in civil and criminal suits on recovered memory and sexual abuse in institutional settings.

Williams has been principal investigator on 15 federally funded research projects – from the U.S. Department of Justice, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect, the Department of the Navy and the U.S. Air Force. She has conducted research with more than $14 million in funding.

STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education is a signature program at UMass Lowell, with research and outreach initiatives originating in several colleges. Also, an intensive, broad partnership with K-12 schools is coordinated through the Office of School Partnerships.

Math literacy is a key area of STEM research. Prof. Regina Panasuk has contributed with a large-scale longitudinal study on students’ algebraic representations. Her research has led to development of tools for conceptual understanding in algebra: the Taxonomy and the Three-Phase Ranking Framework (for assessment).

Both the Framework and the Taxonomy offer a language to describe cognitive processes. They enable educators to make relatively reliable judgments on whether middle school students are developing conceptual understanding in algebra, beyond simple procedures.

Research papers have been published in the International Journal for Mathematics Teaching and Learning, EDUCATION: An International Journal, the College Student Journal and The Mathematics Educator. Panasuk’s research has attracted more than $720,000 in funding, including a $275,000 grant from the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education for a three-year project, Enhanced Mathematics Collaboration (EMC³), that uses Panasuk’s research-based models.

Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology UMass Lowell offers a B.S. and an M.A. in criminal justice, and a Ph.D. in criminal justice and criminology, as well as six graduate-level certificates: domestic violence prevention, leadership and policy development, forensic criminology, security studies, victims’ studies and criminal justice informatics.

The Department has a research partnership with the Middlesex Sheriff’s office.

Prof. Regina Panasuk

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Related Research: Youth

Related Research: Youth

Asperger’s Programs Combine Service and Research

Award-Winning Online Education Expands Opportunities

Ashleigh Hillier, Psychology Asperger’s Syndrome describes individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) who have difficulties in social interaction, exhibit some repetitive behaviors and are physically clumsy, but who show normal language and intellectual development.

UMass Lowell’s certificate program in behavioral intervention in autism, offered through UMass Online, reaches teachers, caregivers and others across the country with the best, most relevant instruction about this puzzling disorder – one example of the effectiveness of online education. The certificate program has been recognized with the Sloan-C Award for Most Outstanding Online Learning and Teaching.

UMass Lowell offers breadth and depth in autism studies.

Service programs reach a neglected population Undergraduate and graduate students can participate in the innovative outreach and research programs directed by Asst. Prof.

Ashleigh Hillier of the Psychology Department. The students work in interdisciplinary teams as they develop activities, lead sessions and conduct research.

Hillier’s varied and numerous programs, ranging from a monthly meeting for social and vocational skills support (The Network) to a one-on-one mentoring program (Horizons), provide essential services to adolescents and young adults with ASD, for whom there are few opportunities for recreation and social learning.

Research data are gathered through personal interviews, self-report measures and observation protocols, as well as physiological markers, such as cortisol levels and heart rate variability to measure anxiety. Hillier’s work contributes significantly to an understanding of self-esteem, loneliness, anxiety and depression of young adults with ASD. More than 150 individuals with ASD and 121 parents or guardians have participated.

The research is funded by the Joseph P. Healey Endowment, the Theodore Edson Parker Foundation and the National Association for Autism Research, among others.

Journal articles have been published in Neurocase, the Journal of Autism & Developmental Disorders, Autism and the Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology.

Multidisciplinary collaborations Two of the intervention programs are multidisciplinary collaborations. SoundScape, developed with Gena Greher of the Music Department, encourages communication and creativity through music. As part of the program, small groups of youths create their own videos: script, acting, taping, editing and soundtrack. Research

Ashleigh Hillier, left, and Deirdra Murphy plan a physical activity and relaxation program for young adults with Asperger’s.

articles on SoundScape appear in Psychology of Music and the International Journal of Education and the Arts.

Fit and Fun, developed with Deirdra Murphy and Cynthia Ferrara of the Physical Therapy Department, encourages the participants to engage in physical activity, learn relaxation techniques and build relationships.

Autism program fills need with online offering Behavioral Intervention in Autism, an online graduate certificate in autism, is one of the very few in the country available entirely online for individuals interested in expanding their knowledge of this developmental disorder.

The program was developed collaboratively with UMass Online and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center, at the UMass Medical School, which is dedicated to improving the quality of life for persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families.

With a critical shortage of skilled earlyintervention specialists in the United States, UMass Lowell’s autism program is meeting the increased demand for professionals in this field. Enrollment in the program has more than quadrupled since it was launched in 2005.

The Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C), part of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, is the most prestigious international group in higher education that promotes online learning as a means of improving educational access and opportunity. UMass Lowell has swept all five Sloan-C awards for excellence in online education: outstanding achievement by an individual, excellence in faculty development, outstanding institution-wide teaching and programming, excellence in teaching and outstanding learning and teaching program.

Pioneered more than 15 years ago under the direction of Jacqueline Moloney, executive vice chancellor, UMass Lowell’s program has grown from 400 students and a handful of courses to more than 12,000 enrollments and full degree programs offered entirely online, including an MBA. Program innovation continues, as UMass Lowell moves into “blended” programs, that combine online and classroom learning for students’ optimal educational experience.

After Hurricane Katrina, Moloney helped the Sloan Foundation to set up the “Sloan Semester,” allowing thousands of displaced college students to continue their education online until their campuses were reopened. Moloney has been named to the inaugural class of Sloan-C Fellows “in recognition of her role as a national leader.”

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Research: University in the City

Scholar Mines History to Shed Light on the Present Public History Approach Adds Understanding to Action SYNOPSIS:

We learn from the past.

Where did our environmental problems come from and what can be done about them?

UMass Lowell scholars engage in “public history” to make past experience relevant and inform the policymaking of leaders and citizens of today.

W

hen Chad Montrie travels to Appalachia each year to teach at a Mountain Justice training camp for activists, he sees people everywhere with copies of his first book, “To Save the Land and People: A History of Opposition to Surface Coal Mining in Appalachia.” Surprising, perhaps, that what started as a dissertation topic in 2001 has become an inspiration and manual for activists today, but not once you understand Montrie’s engagement in what he calls “public history.”

“I’ve always thought of history as more than just something interesting,” he says.

“We understand the past in order to understand the present. History is a way of thinking deeply about who we are, as individuals and as a society.” Montrie’s studies of labor and

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environmental history emphasize the relevance of history, as he chronicles the changes in people’s relationship with nature and work over time.

Opening the view on Lowell’s ‘other river’ To move history beyond the limits of books, journal articles, conference presentations and lectures, Montrie learned documentary filmmaking and applied it to research projects, such as the recently completed and screened “River Cycle: The Concord in Lowell.”

The Concord River joins with the Merrimack in Lowell. Its historic uses changed with economic times – first fishing and agriculture, then dams for power generation and a period of intense industrialization – a process that left a filthy river.

“Lowell has a wonderful public history infrastructure …

Related Research: University in the City

to bring history to the public in a way that leads to understanding of how history matters.” – Prof. Chad Montrie Montrie won a Creative Economy Initiatives grant to develop a public history study of the Concord, where white-water rafting has replaced industrial pollution. The grant builds on a project led by the Lowell Parks & Conservation Trust to create a Concord River Greenway along a nearly two-mile stretch of river bank.

The grant supported several collaborations of faculty and community groups. These included the creation of an outdoor classroom along the new greenway using interpretive historic signage, the development of an interactive website on the Concord, a streamside program for students, the “River Cycle” documentary and development of a new public tour led by National Park rangers.

“Lowell has a wonderful public history infrastructure in place with the University’s Tsongas Industrial History Center and the Lowell National Historical Park,” Montrie says. “There’s no other place that I could bring history to the public in a way that leads to understanding of how history matters.”

Grant extends research insights Montrie’s research on the Concord River and its environmental history added significantly to the programming and displays of the Lowell National Historical Park, in which industrial history along the Merrimack River had predominated.

Insights and content from Concord River research will also enhance Montrie’s contributions as lead scholar to the Landmarks of American History and Culture summer workshops. The program for teachers, directed by Sheila Kirschbaum of the Tsongas Industrial History Center, is funded by a National Endowment for the Humanities grant. In its sixth year and with more than $1.25 million in funding, the program will have served nearly 700 teachers and reached thousands of schoolchildren.

At UMass Lowell, Montrie and other faculty have expanded the concept of scholarship to embrace collaboration, visual media and dissemination to the broader public.

Information on Prof. Montrie’s books, multimedia projects, current research and more can be found at http://faculty.uml.edu/chad_montrie/.

Chad Montrie, History Prof. Chad Montrie is the author of three books: “To Save the Land and People: A History of Opposition to Surface Coal Mining in Appalachia” and “Making a Living: Work and Environment in the United States” were published by the University of North Carolina Press. “A People’s History of Environmentalism,” is under contract to Continuum Press.

His article in the journal Environmental History won the Aldo Leopold Award from the American Society for Environmental History for best article in 2000. His documentary films include “The Village Empowerment Project,” shot on location in the Andean villages of Peru with UMass Lowell’s energy engineering project, and “River Cycle: The Concord in Lowell.” Montrie teaches American environmental history, women’s history and social history as well as the history of documentary film and documentary filmmaking.

Tsongas Industrial History Center Sheila Kirschbaum, Director The Tsongas Industrial History Center is a partnership between the University of Massachusetts Lowell Graduate School of Education and Lowell National Historical Park.

The professional staff members offer field-trip programs and teacher workshops that incorporate hands-on activities and the authentic resources of the Lowell National Historical Park.

Its interdisciplinary approach brings history and science to life for K–12 students and teachers and serves as a resource for the students and faculty of UMass Lowell.

New Study on Renaissance Education Resonates in the Present A university exerts a great influence on the city and region in which it is located – a fact as true in Italy in the 16th and 17th centuries as it is today, according to Christopher Carlsmith.

Carlsmith, associate professor in the History Department, studied a significant turning point in the history of education, the inception of Renaissance education and the growth of early modern colleges. His book, “A Renaissance Education: Schooling in Bergamo and the Venetian Republic,” published

by University of Toronto Press, describes how the ideas of the time reached large segments of the population, who had access to education through a variety of schools, seminaries, church-based schools and orphanages.

Carlsmith also conducted extensive research on the early modern colleges and student life at the University of Bologna, 1500–1800. Like students today, he says, “They complained about the cost of textbooks and about dull professors, and they saw their education as a means to improve their career prospects.” He has presented papers on collegiate finances, student violence and honor, national identity and social hierarchy at the University.

Much of the research was conducted at Harvard University’s Villa I Tatti Center for Italian Renaissance Studies in Florence, Italy, where Carlsmith was a 2009-2010 Fellow.

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Related Research: University in the City Broadband Grant Will Bridge Digital Divide The digital divide — the gap between those who have access to technology and online content, and those who have limited or no access at all — separates the haves from the have-nots today as surely as access to electricity did for previous generations.

Kerouac’s Works Inspire Scholarship, International Attention Michael Millner, English and American Studies More than a half century after publication, the legendary 120-foot long scroll of taped-together pages of paper used by Jack Kerouac for his novel “On The Road” retains its allure.

“The scroll is simply one of the great artifacts of American print culture – up there with Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson’s poetry manuscripts,” says Michael Millner, assistant professor of English and American Studies and acting director of the Jack and Stella Kerouac Center at UMass Lowell. “The manuscript has captured the imagination of people around the world because its form suggests such energy and spontaneity – it’s like a Jackson Pollock drip painting or an improvised jazz solo.”

The scroll made its way to a five-month exhibit at the Boott Mills Museum of the Lowell National Historical Park in 2007, drawing more than 25,000 people to more than 30 related events – from poetry readings and concerts to panel talks and tours of Kerouac sites in Lowell.

The scroll and surrounding exhibit earned an award from the American Association for State and Local History.

Now a permanent Kerouac exhibit at the Lowell National Historical Park Visitor Center will be established, with the help of a Creative Economy grant from the UMass President’s Office. At the same time, a Kerouac website will be developed to help the city stake its claim on the writer. Long-term plans call for the creation of a Kerouac Center for Creativity, to be housed in a renovated city building, that will provide studio and performance space for filmmakers, musicians, writers, dancers and others.

UMass Lowell researchers aim to investigate and redress the broadband gap in the Merrimack Valley, targeting marginalized groups such as at-risk youth, the unemployed, the undereducated, seniors and immigrants. A grant of $780,000 from the U.S. Department of Commerce is funding the project, LINK — Lowell Internet, Networking and Knowledge.

Economics Prof. Carol McDonough leads the research, in collaboration with History Prof. Robert Forrant and Robin Toof, both directors of the Center for Family, Work and Community.

“We’re working specifically with disadvantaged youth groups, and the socially and economically disadvantaged,” says McDonough, noting that 11 computer centers have been created or expanded through the grant. “As to research, our team is studying the factors that determine or influence broadband use, while linking its use to socioeconomic and demographic variables.” Such findings will help others replicate this project in their communities.

Preliminary data, drawn from more than 665 total hours of training, show that 41 percent of participants are much more likely to use a computer and access the Internet after training, 27 percent are more comfortable using the computer and 32 percent are more aware of what the Internet has to offer.

McDonough's article on public/private partnerships for broadband build out was published recently in the International Journal of Management and Network Economics. Forrant serves on the editorial board of Massachusetts Benchmarks (quarterly publication of UMass and the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston) and leads research to assess UMass Lowell’s impact on the regional economy.

“With a new orientation exhibit at the Park Visitor Center, the expanded Kerouac Literary Festival (which this year featured Russell Banks, Anita Shreve and others), the go-to Kerouac website for the world and a ‘destination facility’ for those interested in Kerouac that will also be a platform for ongoing creative work, Lowell will have taken its presentation and recognition of Jack Kerouac several orbits higher,” says Paul Marion, executive director of the Office of Community and Cultural Affairs. “His literary legacy and the city’s vitality will benefit from these moves.”

Skills training and computer access are changing life options for disadvantaged groups.

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Research: International

International Partnerships Transcend Cultural, National Boundaries UMass Lowell Asserts its Role With Major Expansion SYNOPSIS: UMass Lowell is developing international partnerships that cross disciplines, aiming for uniquely deep and robust programs in research, scholarship, economic development and public policy.

G

lobal awareness has been part of UMass Lowell from its beginning, as it is set within a city of immigrants, of burgeoning population and changing technologies. Students from around the world – China, India, Ghana, Turkey, Peru – are drawn to the University today by its innovative studies and close ties to leading industries, adding their perspectives and cultural experiences to the campus.

Many professors have also pursued research relationships that easily cross national borders to accelerate understanding and innovation.

University leaders are building on this foundation with invigorated support and a focus on strategic areas around the globe. Going far beyond the traditional collegiate study abroad programs, the goal is to connect at every level – institution, department, research center, students – to establish an organic, robust relationship.

“International activity makes academic life more exciting for the faculty and the students,” says Provost Ahmed Abdelal.

Faculty members from all departments are engaged in visiting partner institutions to develop cross-cultural understanding and sustainable partnerships with each university.

Professors coordinate the six international centers that the University has established: • Center for Irish Partnerships • Center for Asian Partnerships • Center for Latin and South American Partnerships • Center for African Partnerships • Center for Middle East Partnerships • Center for Hellenic Partnerships.

International partnerships contribute to the University in several compelling ways. For example, an international approach improves the quality of the education provided to students, since a better understanding of other countries and cultures enriches students’ education overall and helps make them global citizens.

Continued

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The international centers help to strengthen research efforts, by increasing the breadth and depth of collaboration with universities, research centers and business firms in other parts of the world. The centers also enhance the University’s economic development efforts, by connecting companies and business leaders in the region to those around the world, giving industries a boost into the global marketplace.

Archeology, Art, Assistive Technology — and That’s Just the ‘A’ List

Also, international collaboration contributes to world harmony.

Institutions of higher education can foster better international communication and understanding through collaboration – an important responsibility.

Asia – rapid development in China and India

UMass Lowell has significant strengths to bring to collaborative partnerships, with leadership positions in plastics engineering, nanomanufacturing, assistive technology, the cooperative MBA program, the Intercampus Graduate School (IGS) of Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology and the IGS in Marine Sciences. Also, governmental and environmental groups from across the world have expressed interest in replicating the creative economy and environmental sustainability that are characteristic of UMass Lowell’s efforts in the region.

New ideas, heightened enthusiasm, cross-cultural experience – a campus with international programs and research is a more exciting place to be, for faculty as much as for students. That excitement is the foremost benefit of expanding partnerships. UMass Lowell also directs its partnerships to geographically strategic areas, where developed technologies, population density and existing universities offer the greatest potential benefits to both partners.

UMass Lowell’s Computer Sciences Department works in China with CERNET, the China Education and Research Network, to run a summer program for Chinese students leading to enrollment in the M.S. degree program at UMass Lowell.

Strong ties exist with Tsinghua University in Beijing, where UMass Lowell’s collaboration centers on engineered nanoparticles and understanding the link between health, environment and manufacturing. With Tsinghua’s connections to the powder technology industry in China, a team of UMass Lowell professors (from work environment, biology, plastics and mechanical engineering) can take exposure measurements, modify manufacturing processes, research nanocomposite properties and investigate toxicity.

The researchers have also submitted a joint research proposal and have been invited to speak at a U.S.-China workshop on nanostructured materials for energy and the environment.

In India, UMass Lowell’s renowned Assistive Technology program is being replicated at the B.V. Raju Institute of Technology in Hyderabad, and the Shri Vishnu Engineering College for Women in Bhimavaram. UMass Lowell staff and graduate students support Indian students, through visits and by distance communication. More than 50 projects are completed or ongoing.

Middle East – challenge, opportunity in Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Turkey University collaborations can contribute to better international communication and understanding, a goal that UMass Lowell fosters through the Middle East Center for Peace, Development and Culture.

During intersession, UMass Lowell management students joined Turkish students at Bilkent University in Ankara, where UMass Lowell's Steven Tello taught a course in Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

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In Egypt, UMass Lowell works with the University of Cairo to collaborate in Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology for graduate studies and research, and across departments of economics, political science and women’s studies. At the High Institute of Applied Arts, UMass Lowell will host an exhibition of Contemporary Egyptian Digital Art in 2011, in the first phase of a multidimensional partnership.

A joint degree program in Peace and Conflict Studies is being offered with the University of Haifa, in Israel. Similar curricula were developed by both universities, to enable seamless collaboration by faculty and students.

The partnership with Haifa was extended to include Queens University in Northern Ireland to establish the Belfast-Haifa-Lowell Educational Research Group. The group, with Asst. Profs. James Nehring and Stacy Szcesiul of the Graduate School of Education, have held a summer summit for collaboration on improving public schools set in challenging environments.

At Shenkar College of Engineering and Design, near Tel Aviv, an innovative joint graduate program in Plastics Engineering allows students in both UMass Lowell and Shenkar's Master of Science programs to attend classes and conduct research at both campuses.

In Jordan, science and engineering faculty are developing joint research projects with the University of Petra.

Collaborations with two universities in Istanbul, Turkey — Yeditepe University and Bahcesehir University — include a National Science Foundation-funded Workshop on Assistive Technology, as well as summer joint M.B.A. electives and courses in engineering.

At Bilkent University in Ankara, College of Management faculty members are teaching during the winter break, accompanied by UMass Lowell students. Joint research is planned in the areas of nanotechnology, biotechnology, plastics and biomedical engineering.

Africa – advancing science and technology in Ghana, Nigeria In the first of planned faculty and student exchanges, a UMass Lowell professor taught a semester of biology at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology in Kumasi, Ghana. Faculty in engineering and nanotechnology are building research collaborations with the University of Ilorin, in Nigeria.

Ireland – heritage ties the United States, Northern Ireland and Ireland Archeological research (described on the next page) was conducted in Massachusetts and Ireland by students and faculty of UMass Lowell and Queens University in Belfast.

The Dublin City University joined UMass Lowell and Queens University to present the first United States/Ireland Emerging Technologies conference, at which researchers discussed biopharmaceuticals, medical devices and nanotechnology with representatives of leading companies in manufacturing and product development. The second conference will be held in Ireland.

Related Research: International UMass Lowell, Irish Students Uncover Artifacts Archeologists rarely hit “pay dirt” so early. On the first day of the excavation of a former shanty town located on the grounds of St. Patrick’s Parish in Lowell, a diverse group of six UMass Lowell students unearthed a section of 150-year-old rosary beads, some remnants of a clay pipe and several iron nails. The process of learning through discovery took on new meaning as the students worked to uncover each layer of soil.

The dig – part of a collaboration between UMass Lowell and Queen’s University in Belfast, Northern Ireland – explores an area inhabited by Lowell’s early Irish settlers. The space around the church is believed to be untouched since the Irish immigrants lived there.

Susan Woskie, second from left, travels with Thai colleagues from Mahidol University to visit provincial hospitals in the research study.

Collaboration Investigates Iodine-Deficient Infants Susan Woskie, Work Environment In rural areas of Thailand, iodine deficiency in newborns is a problem that shows up persistently and concerns the Thai Ministry of Health, since iodine deficiency disorders pose a threat to the babies’ normal neurobiological development.

Pesticides are known to exacerbate the effects of iodine deficiency and, although Thailand has made great advances in exposure reduction, many pregnant women continue to be exposed to pesticides through agricultural work and pesticide-contaminated drinking water.

UMass Lowell epidemiologist Susan Woskie has begun a multidisciplinary, international collaboration with the University of Mahidol in Bangkok, along with faculty from three UMass campuses, to investigate prenatal maternal exposure to pesticides in Thailand. The pilot phase involves 108 pregnant women from three provincial hospitals, who will be interviewed and tested for pesticide exposure. Their newborns will undergo neurobehavioral testing and will be evaluated again at three to four months. Breast milk will be tested to measure for pesticide and iodine levels.

“Our objective is to use this pilot study to launch a prospective study of the impact of iodine insufficiency, pesticide exposure and other potential nutritional and environmental influences on Thai children’s neurodevelopment,” says Woskie. “As part of our capacity-building efforts we will establish a joint research Center for Work Environment and Nutrition in Human Development at the Mahidol Faculty of Public Health to facilitate researcher and student exchanges and collaboration.”

The study was initiated by the Fogerty Institute and funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. A long-term goal is to work with the Thai Ministry of Health to develop and test prevention programs in prenatal care settings.

“These early Irish settlers established a community that survived discrimination and socio-economic limitations to become an integral part of Lowell’s development,” says Frank Talty, director of academic programs in the College of Fine Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and co-director of the Center for Irish Partnerships.

The students – undergraduates and graduates, with majors as diverse as English, political science and biology – worked under the supervision of visiting archaeologists from Queen’s. As part of the exchange program, the students also excavated an abandoned rural settlement in County Fermanagh, Ireland, this summer.

The Lowell dig is one of many outcomes resulting from the University’s initiative to develop international partnerships to expand global learning experiences for students and enrich the research portfolios of the faculty.

Spirit Level Guides Students to Far Realms of Collaborative Scholarship and Artistry Art Prof. Arno Minkkinen is a highly regarded photographer whose work garners international acclaim. He is also a dedicated teacher and created the Spirit Level program, now in its fourth generation, to lead groups of UMass Lowell and international students on traveling workshops to such places as Finland, Russia and the Baltics, Italy and Mexico.

The student groups study at art school programs abroad, where they are taught by collaborating international faculty. Most importantly, the UMass Lowell students become part of a group of young photography scholars from different countries and backgrounds, mingling socially and artistically as they search for their artistic pathways.

Besides being featured in touring exhibitions, in Europe and the United States, the students’ photographs have been collected in a series of Spirit Level monographs. Spirit Level IV will be published by RMR Press this year and the work was exhibited in Florence.

Minkkinen exhibited and taught extensively in China recently, where his work was seen by millions of visitors to the Shanghai World’s Fair Expo of 2010, in the Finnish Pavilion.

Minkkinen is the subject of a documentary film titled “Still Not There” by Finnish director Kimmo Koskela, released on DVD in 2010.

His photographs have been published with six monographs: Frostbite, Waterline, Body Land, SAGA, Homework: The Finnish Photographs and Swimming in the Air.

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UMASS LOWELL TODAY: A SNAPSHOT • UMass Lowell is a comprehensive, national research university located on a high-energy campus in the heart of a global community, 25 miles from Boston.

• UMass Lowell educates students to be work ready, life ready and world ready.

• The University offers 88 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in six colleges: Sciences; Fine Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences; Education; Engineering; Health and Environment; and Management.

• 15,000 students are enrolled in undergraduate, graduate and continuing studies programs.

• US News & World Report ranks UMass Lowell in the top 200 national research universities.

• The Times of London ranks the UMass system at No. 56 of the top 200 universities in the world and at No. 19 in reputation for research and teaching.

• The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has designated UMass Lowell a “community-engaged university.”

• In 2010, UMass Lowell was named “With Distinction” to President Barack Obama’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll.

NEW Health and Social Sciences Building (HSSB) The new $40-million, 69,000-square-foot HSSB is part of an ambitious enhancement of education and research activity on campus. The building brings together three large departments – Nursing, Psychology and Criminal Justice and Criminology – that exemplify the University’s strengths in undergraduate and graduate learning, collaborative research and community outreach.

The building’s design provides for interactions that will lead to even more of the synergy and multidisciplinary work that typify UMass Lowell.

More on research at UMass Lowell: www.uml.edu/research