SCR offers small grants to UO faculty, postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, and undergraduate students to conduct science communication research that advances the missions of SCR and the University of Oregon. Our interdisciplinary research collaborations advance the science of science communication and improve the understanding and use of science.

Applications for the 2023 – 2024 grant program are now open and due Friday, November 3rd for faculty and graduate students.

Applications for undergraduate students are accepted on a rolling basis.

2023 – 2024 Awardees

SCR Associates

Dan Chapman
Postdoctoral Researcher, School of Journalism and Communication 

Project Title: Using infographics to communicate about wildfire smoke risk to a population with limited prior exposure. 

“This grant provides the funding to conduct an experiment investigating how visualizations of air quality information influence public perceptions of wildfire smoke health risks. Building off our ongoing research in the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia, this experiment will be the first my collaborators and I conduct in the eastern United States, which is increasingly experiencing wildfire smoke as it spreads vast distances during wildfire events across North America. Findings from this program of research will assist in identifying best practices for effective science communication about the health risks of wildfire smoke, including in populations with more limited historical exposure.“ 

Brittany Shoots-Reinhard
Senior Research Associate, School of Journalism and Communication 

Project Title: Motivated wisdom: Biased processing of science communication by those higher in crystallized intelligence

“Our research has begun to identify crystallized intelligence (depth and breadth of knowledge) as an important predictor of polarization and motivated reasoning. This award will allow us to resolve a puzzling replication failure by showing that these failures are due to selection of numeracy (i.e., ability to understand and use numbers) vs. crystallized intelligence as the key contributor to motivated reasoning as well as further identify whether different mechanisms underlie polarization among those higher and lower in crystallized intelligence. Our expected results will be highly important for advancing our understanding of what mental processes facilitate motivated reasoning.“ 

SCR Emerging Scholars

Angelique Allen
Doctoral Student, Biology

Project Title: Learning to see the world from different eyes: A children’s picture book that will introduce students to polarized light and the scientists from underrepresented groups who study them

“As a scientist, I know that communicating my work is essential in getting people excited about discovery-based research. I am currently studying how octopuses think about (or process) polarized light, which is the angle of light. This is tricky to imagine because humans cannot see polarized light. Therefore, I am excited to create a children’s book that illustrates how animals see things we cannot with the support of the SCR small grant. This book will also highlight the underrepresented scientists who have made these exciting discoveries about animal vision, which I hope will inspire the next generations of scientists.”

Jon Benedik Bunquin
Doctoral Student, SOJC

Project Title: Personal and Large Network Dynamics of Scientific Risk Perception in Digital Media: Risk information processing as a networked phenomenon

 

Samantha Lorenzo
Doctoral Student, SOJC

Project Title: #Storytime: An Analysis of Health Crisis Narratives, Conspiracies & New Digital Media

“My research project aims to dissect the origin of conspiracy theories from narratives surrounding major crisis events with a primary focus on health-related crises – namely, the COVID-19 pandemic. This grant allows me to investigate how crisis narratives may perpetuate conspiratorial thinking and how modern communication platforms and tactics amplify the dissemination of conspiratorial ideologies. Through this research, I hope to be able to identify and recommend communication strategies that can better mitigate the propagation of conspiracy theories during major crisis events, as well as foster trust and informed decision-making in the face of public challenges.”

Beatriz Mira
Doctoral Student, SOJC

Project Title: Reporting on the Brazilian Atlantic Forest: Centering culture in environmental journalism

“This grant will provide the support I need to continue data collection for my research in the Atlantic Forest, located in Southern Brazil. This is an under-researched area that is especially vulnerable to environmental threats. In this project, I investigate processes of production and consumption of environmental journalism in coastal Paraná through an identity framework and examine how journalists and community members experience common challenges previously identified in Brazilian and Latin American environmental journalism literature. Ultimately, I hope to develop a culturally situated, place-based best-practices resource, designed for local communicators.”

Faria Shaikh
Doctoral Student, SOJC

Project Title: Emotional Resonance in Health Communication: Affect Heuristic as a Tool for Equity-Centric Family Planning Advertisements

“This SCR grant offers me a wonderful opportunity to further my research studying the impact of family planning advertising on reproductive health behaviors in Karachi, Pakistan. As a researcher dedicated to reproductive health, I understand the significance of science communication in addressing critical global challenges such as overpopulation. This grant will enable the data collection needed to explore the subtleties of behavioral change in this domain. With the support by SCR, this project not only aims to bridge the gap between scientific research and public understanding but also encourage a well-informed community ready to solve the critical health challenges.”

Mallory Mitchell
Undergraduate Student, Clark Honors’ College

Project Title: Numeracy and Affective Motivated Reasoning About Solutions to Health Threats

 “Our research aims to investigate how numeracy (i.e., numeric literacy) and emotions can interact to influence a person’s feelings toward and judgments of a solution to a health threat. Understanding how people can be influenced towards or away from solutions to various health threats based on their numeracy and their emotional responses could have a significant impact on how health information is presented and communicated. This is especially important since lower numeracy is associated with poorer health outcomes. This SCR grant will allow me to begin data collection and work towards understanding how to better communicate health information.”

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2022 – 2023 Awardees

SCR is pleased to highlight the winners of our second annual Small Grant Program cohort. These two faculty members (SCR Associates) and three graduate students (SCR Emerging Scholars) represent the diversity of science communication research happening at the University of Oregon. Many of the applications were interdisciplinary; others included a community member as a collaborator. All applications embody the mission and purpose of the SCR.

SCR Associates

Catalina de Onís
Core Faculty, Clark Honors College

Project Title: Translating Climate Justice for Multilingual and Young Audiences”

“This grant offers needed support for translating climate disruption and associated disproportionate experiences in the Willamette Valley for young readers. This interdisciplinary, multilingual children’s book understands young people as current and future science communicators who can learn about and express the importance of climate justice in their communities. This collaborative creation—which includes coauthoring with Clark Honors College and other students—will inform future studies of climate in/justice, privilege, and power locally to examine how science communication must center heterogeneous communities in ways that attend to ethnic, racial, age, linguistic, place-based, and other differences to build more equitable, just co-existences.”

Cathy Slavik 
Postdoctoral Researcher, School of Journalism and Communication 

Project Title: Testing maps as a science communication and risk education tool for radon

“This grant will help me run an experiment to investigate how map-based visuals can be used to communicate environmental health risks and influence risk-mitigating behaviors. The project’s findings will fill key knowledge gaps around how information is interpreted from geovisualizations and will be used to advance current best practices for science communication using geovisualizations. The grant has also led to a research collaboration with a public health agency to grow this project’s impact, allowing me to expand my research network with new collaborators.” 

SCR Emerging Scholars

Anna Lueck
Multimedia Journalism Masters Program, SOJC

Project Title: Science Communication Project Research: Washington Seaweed Knowledge Symposium

“This grant allowed me and another student to attend the inaugural Washington Seaweed Symposium in Lacey, WA. For me, this served as a research and networking opportunity for a series of films I am producing about kelp loss and restoration in Oregon and Washington. Within the last decade, kelp forests have been collapsing up and down the West Coast of America. At the same time, the idea of kelp farming—for commercial, restoration, and water filtration purposes—has exploded in popularity. Attending this symposium helped ground me in all the available science and major unknowns of this emerging field, and helped me build connections with potential film subjects.”

Emmanuel Maduneme
Doctoral Student, SOJC

Project Title: Effects of Solutions Journalism Stories on Climate Change Behavioral Intentions: The Mediating Role of Collective Efficacy

“Scientific issues, such as climate change, are better understood when they are effectively communicated through the media. This grant provides me with the opportunity to empirically investigate the effects of solution-oriented journalistic storytelling on the public’s understanding of the scientific technologies and innovations being adopted to address climate change.”

Eden McCall
Undergraduate Student, SOJC

Project Title: How Do Wetland Ecosystems Sustain Humans and Wildlife? – Video 3: Yakutat Forelands and Aleutian Terns

“This grant provides me with the funding and support to produce a film intended to connect people across the globe with remote Alaskan wetland ecosystems. These ecosystems are critical for migratory birds, fisheries and recreation industries, and subsistence living and cultural Indigenous practices. However, most people may not even be aware of these sites. Place-based visual storytelling, grounded in the sciences of ecology, wildlife biology, and indigenous knowledge, enables a wider range of people to better understand and value wetland ecosystems and nearby communities that rely on and help sustain them. This project also enables me to improve my skills in journalism, videography, and remote and independent fieldwork while building lasting connections with community members and scientists which directly relates to my future career aspirations in place-based science storytelling.“

Project Title: Presenting Center for Science Communication Research’s The Fire Story at Wildland-Urban Interface Conference

“This grant enables me to present about the research and journalistic podcast “The Fire Story” I co-produced in 2022, funded by the SCR, about adapting to wildfire in the Western United States. The opportunity to attend the International Association of Fire Chiefs’ 2023 Wildland-Urban Interface Conference increased my awareness about fire science communication gaps and helped foster connections between stakeholders, from firefighters to policy experts, invested in solving the wildfire problem across the country with the University of Oregon’s SCR.”

Waseq Rahman
Doctoral Student, SOJC

Project Title: Climate Change Board Games: Role of Eudaimonic Entertainment in Influencing Audience Perceptions and Civic Engagement with Climate Science

“With support from the SCR small grant fund, this study explores the use of board games to simulate climate change crises, moving beyond traditional formats like text and video. The study primarily focuses on players’ experience of psychological processes during playing environmental board games that are fundamental to human experience. By analyzing the play experience through the lens of entertainment theory, the study aims to uncover how intrinsic elements of the board game medium can foster eudaimonic (non-hedonic) experiences that may influence reflections on environmental insights. Specifically, the study investigates whether experiences of non-hedonic affective responses and the fulfillment of basic psychological needs can enhance players’ perception of climate science in ways that inspires a sense of efficacy for pro-environmental commitment and behavior.”

Courtney Tabor
Doctoral Student, SOJC

Project Title: Perceived risk, estimation relief, and punitive policies: Mitigating the mismatch between perceived crime victimization and actual crime statistics through estimation

“The SCR small grant will support my research on social psychology and messaging around crime and public policy. Numeracy is an important part of science communication and has thus far been understudied as a relevant part of crime framing. Public perceptions of crime rates are greatly out of step with real crime statistics, with fear of crime being much higher than the actual risk. The project this grant supports will explore ways to communicate statistics to support pro-social policies and mitigate fear. SCR’s support will help me develop a stronger research agenda for my career and deliver important information on crime messaging to key stakeholders.”

Nate Wilson
Undergraduate Student, SOJC

Project Title: Climate Change in Ghana and Alaska: Finding Similarity in Difference

 “This grant provides me with the opportunity to present my project, which compares climate change in Accra, Ghana, and Cordova, Alaska, at the Conference on Communication and the Environment. By attending, I will become more embedded in the field of science communication and I’ll be able to further explore how climate change relates to place, culture and emotion.”

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2021 – 2022 Awardees

SCR is pleased to highlight the winners of our second annual Small Grant Program cohort. These two faculty members (SCR Associates) and three graduate students (SCR Emerging Scholars) represent the diversity of science communication research happening at the University of Oregon. Many of the applications were interdisciplinary; others included a community member as a collaborator. All applications embody the mission and purpose of the SCR.

SCR Associates

Dave Markowitz
Assistant Professor, Advertising, School of Journalism and Communication

Project Title: Deceptive dehumanization: Exploring How Lying About Perceived Outgroups is Revealed in Language

“This grant will be helpful to run further experiments and explore deeper relationships between deception and dehumanization. We are just starting to understand how people lie and tell the truth about groups they view as less-than-human; these funds will be instrumental to push our thinking forward.”

Ellen Peters & Kathryn Thier
Professor, Advertising, School of Journalism and Communication & Doctoral Candidate, School of Communications, University of Maryland

Project Title: Journalistic solutions for climate change: The effects of solutions- versus problem-oriented journalism on audience emotions, efficacy, and support for collective action

“This grant allows me to pursue theoretically driven solutions journalism media effects research, which scholars have called for, with a non-convenience sample that is more representative of the American news consumer public. Through this research, I hope to show journalists that providing useful and meaningful coverage of climate change requires informing audiences about the solutions, not just the problems.” – Doctoral Candidate Kathryn Their

SCR Emerging Scholars

Isaac Bisilki
Doctoral Student, SOJC

Project Title: Exploring the strategic use of social media in environmental sanitation campaigns in Ghana

“This grant came at the right time as it will accelerate the process of data collection for my dissertation, which explores the strategic use of social media in messaging on environmental sanitation problems. I hope this study will contribute to the literature on strategic ways of maximizing the impact of these platforms in environmental sanitation campaigns”

Stuart Stiedle-Nix
Masters Student, Geography

Project Title: Testing Presence, Assessing Attitudes: Study of a Virtual Tour in an “Aesthetically Challenged” Landscape

“This grant will contribute to my dissertation project, which extends visual communication research to wildfire. Outcomes seek to advance theory, practice, publications and support for future projects and funding.”

Tingyu Zou
Doctoral Student, School of Journalism and Communication

Project Title: The role of modality and user characteristics in smoking cessation intervention delivered through a chatbot

“The SCR small grant will allow me to start my dissertation project, which explores the persuasive effects of smoking cessation intervention delivered through an AI-powered chatbot. According to the World Health Organization, smoking has long been a public health challenge. In addition, smokers are more likely to develop severe disease with COVID-19, compared to non-smokers. I hope the findings will not only provide timely empirical evidence for smoking cessation intervention practice, but also further our understanding of human-robot communication in the context of health persuasion and underlying psychological mechanisms of its persuasive effects.”

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2020 – 2021 Awardees

SCR is pleased to highlight the winners of our inaugural 2020 cohort of SCR small grant program awardees. These three faculty members (SCR Associates) and five graduate students (SCR Emerging Scholars) represent the diversity of science communication research happening at the University of Oregon. Many of the applications were interdisciplinary, while others included a community member as a collaborator. All applications embody the mission and purpose of the SCR.

SCR Associates

Taeho Lee
Assistant Professor, Public Relations, School of Journalism and Communication

Project Title: How Do State Environmental Departments in the Ten Most Populated States Dialogically Communicate Waste Recycling Online? A Content Analysis of Official Websites, Facebook, and Twitter Accounts

“This grant will allow me to start a new line of research in environmental communication, building on my previous work on institutional theory. Specifically, I hope this project on waste recycling communication produces peer-reviewed publications, and preliminary data for subsequent studies as well as external funding.”

Dave Markowitz
Assistant Professor, Advertising, School of Journalism and Communication

Project Title: Dehumanization and Deception: Linking How We Treat Others to Our Own Ethical Behavior

“This grant will be instrumental in jump-starting new lines of inquiry for my research program. I have published extensively on deception and dehumanization, but the connect between the two is theoretically interesting and under-explored. I hope to use these resources to perform impactful research investigating topics involving both concepts.”

James Muruthi
Assistant Professor, Counseling Psychology and Human Services, College of Education

Project Title: Disaster Communication and Preparedness Among Middle Age and Older Latino Migrants and Seasonal Farmworkers in Western Oregon

“Receiving the SCR SGP grant will help me further my independent researcher career. Precisely, the support will allow me to pursue studies to improve disaster-related health communication and wellness among marginalized Latinx farmworkers in a limited resource setting. The information learned from the funded project will allow me to advance my career through publications, community partnerships, academic presentations, and developing preliminary data for future studies and funding.”

SCR Emerging Scholars

Megan Lipsett
Doctoral Student, Social and Personality, Psychology

Project Title: Preventing Type 2 Diabetes through using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Principles to Target Illness Perceptions and Controllability Awareness in Educational Materials

“The SCR small grant will allow me to conduct independent research that will inform the development of a larger intervention targeting illness perceptions in noncommunicable diseases. This data will lay the foundation for a program of research that will address the need for improvements in self-management of conditions and illness-related distress based on theory derived from both health psychology and behavior change literatures. “

Jared Macary
Doctoral Student, School of Journalism and Communication

Project Title: Viewing Images of Major Wildfires and their Effects on Young Adults’ Emotions, Beliefs and Intentions about Wildfire Causes and Mitigation

“This grant will contribute to my dissertation project, which extends visual communication research to wildfire. Outcomes seek to advance theory, practice, publications and support for future projects and funding.”

Waseq Rahman
Doctoral Student, School of Journalism and Communication

Project Title: Board games as tools for environmental communication: Role of game narratives in addressing climate change skepticism

“[The SCR small grant] will contribute to implementing a behavioral measure and hopefully lead to data that will inform the development of a larger-scale study on how gameplay can reduce audience resistance to schema inconsistent messaging in diverse participant groups”

Michael Silverstein
Doctoral Student, Social and Personality, Psychology

Project Title: Confidence and Motivation to Deliberate

“Receiving the SCR SGP [grant] allows me to explore an area of interest independently. Funding from the grant will hopefully lead to data that I can use as part of a national grant that would substantially advance my career in research.”

Thipkanok “Ping” Wongphothiphan
Doctoral Student, School of Journalism and Communication

Project Title: The Effects of Narrative- Versus Science-Oriented Messages on Parents’ Attitudes towards MMR Vaccines: The Moderation of Conspiracy Beliefs in Vaccination

“The SCR small grant program has accelerated my career by funding my dissertation project. By being selecting as an awardee, the program ensures that the implication of my science is impactful enough for society and is worth exploring throughout my lifelong journey of research.”