Fall & Homecoming 2016 Newsletter
Greetings Psychology Alumni!
We’re pleased to announce that Integrated Science Center 3 is now completed, and the Psychology Department has several new spaces in the building, including a new state-of-the-art EEG lab. To celebrate the new space and the spirit of the interdisciplinary collaboration that the new wing of ISC will bring, we have a joint Homecoming event on Saturday, October 15, from 10am-12pm with Applied Science, Neuroscience, Biology, and Chemistry. We hope you’ll join us in the new atrium to check out our space and visit with your favorite professors! Check out this news story on the Homecoming event: http://www.wm.edu/news/stories/2016/a-small-step-for-party-planning,-a-giant-leap-for-integrating-the-sciences.php
The Psychology Department welcomes three new faculty members this year:
Dr. Elizabeth Raposa, Ph.D, joins us an assistant professor, teaching courses on abnormal psychology, health psychology, behavior modification, and a graduate seminar on clinical psychology. Dr. Raposa recently completed post-doctoral research as a MacArthur Foundation post-doctoral fellow with at the University of Massachusetts-Boston following completion of her PhD in clinical psychology from UCLA in 2015. Her research examines how early life stressors influence later developmental outcomes, with a focus on how positive close relationships can reduce the negative impact of early stressors on later developmental challenges. She has 5 undergraduate students and 1 graduate student already actively involved in her research lab and she looks forward to fostering their passion for research!
Dr. Jiuqing Cheng, Ph.D. is a visiting assistant professor and will be teaching courses in cognitive psychology, learning and memory, and sensation and perception. He recently completed his Ph.D. in experimental psychology at Ohio University and his research interests examine decision making processes and cognitive psychology. He is already impressed by the level of interest and research insight that his students display in his classes, noting a high level of thoughtful insight and interest!
Dr. Kaitlyn Harrigan, Ph.D is a lecturer in psychology and linguistics and will teaching classes in language acquisition and psycholinguistics. She comes to us having recently completed her Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of Maryland and is already planning a new first year course for the new COLL curriculum. Her courses and research help foster overlapping interests commonly shared between psychology and linguistics students!
The department continues its emphasis on undergraduate participation in faculty-sponsored research. Many students participate in directed readings and research assistantships, others earn scholarships to work full-time in faculty labs over the summer, and select upperclassmen carry out an honors thesis in close collaboration with faculty. Here are a few examples of undergraduate-led research underway this semester: Rebecca Hill and Jacqueline Chan, working in Dr. Matt Hilimire's lab, are examining whether sub-threshold psychotic experiences (e.g., delusions, paranoia, hallucinations) are associated with emotion regulation and attentional deficits using electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings. Thomas Le, in collaboration with Dr. Cathy Forestell, is studying how conformity to social norms relates to normal and abnormal eating behaviors. Eve Pugsley, a Monroe Scholar working with Dr. Chris Conway, is investigating pain tolerance in relation to emotional disorders such as anxiety and depression. These projects are just a fraction of the diverse set of student-led studies—which span multiple research domains and involve various biological, cognitive, and social methodologies—being carried out in Psychology this semester.
We hope to see you at Homecoming! Don’t forget to visit our Facebook page: https://business.facebook.com/WMPsychology
Sincerely,
The faculty of the Psychology Department at the College of William & Mary.
