Assistant Professor Ryan Watson was featured in a Hartford Courant podcast, discussing the implications of discussing politics and identities at the holiday dinner table. Listen to the podcast here.

Professor and Department Head Eva Lefkowitz, and Associate Professor Kari Adamsons were interviewed about the department’s recent name change to Human Development and Family Sciences.  Read the article in UConn Today.

Human Rights Campaign (HRC) published an article about Assistant Professor Ryan Watson’s project on PrEP (among many other experiences) among Black & Latinx young MSM. Read the article here.

Abdul Khaleque was invited to contribute a chapter on Fathers’ neglect of children for the Sage Handbook of Domestic Violence to be edited by Todd K. Shackelford, and published by the Sage Publications Ltd in 2020.

Professor Rebecca Puhl was quoted in a UConn Today article, Weight Stigma Doesn’t Discriminate. Weight stigma is just as common among sexual minority adults as among heterosexual adults. Read the article.

Also, the podcast The Measure of Everyday Life recently interviewed Rebecca Puhl on the topic of communication about obesity, and the impact of weight stigma. Hear the podcast.

This past Spring, long-time HDFS professor Steve Wisensale retired after 35 years of teaching at UConn. During his time in HDFS, Wisensale held many important roles, including Acting Dean of the School of Family Studies. During his tenure he received three Fulbright Fellowships, allowing him to teach and study family policy and aging in Germany, the Czech Republic, and Japan. He also received several university-wide teaching awards, including the 1992 Faculty Excellence in Teaching Award and the 2008 Honors Faculty Member of the Year Award. In recent years, Wisensale was perhaps best known to his students for his popular class, Baseball and Society: Politics, Economics, Race, and Gender, that he designed and introduced. This non-traditional course made deep connections between baseball and the broader historical changes that have happened in society. Wisensale’s passion for baseball and teaching was undeniable, leading hundreds of students to apply for a spot in his class each time it was taught. Wisensale left a lasting impression on the HDFS department and UConn as a whole, and his regular presence will be deeply missed.

Assistant Professor Caitlin Lombardi’s article was selected for the 2017 Editor’s Choice Award for the Journal of Cognition and Development. The award was announced at the October 2019 Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Development Society. Article: Casey, B. M., Lombardi, C. M., Pollock, A., Fineman, B., & Pezaris, E. (2017). Girls’ spatial skills and arithmetic strategies in first grade as predictors of fifth grade analytical math reasoning. Journal of Cognition and Development, 5, 530-555.

Professor and Department Head Eva Lefkowitz’s research with former student Rose Wesche on the influence of friends and romantic partners on alcohol use, was featured in the NY Times.

Laura Mauldin’s book entitled, Made to Hear: Cochlear Implants and Raising Deaf Children, was recently featured with a 12 min ASL synopsis at acadeafic.org

Associate Professor Beth Russell’s research with colleagues in Social Work and Psychology, targeting substance abuse through Emotion Regulation interventions, was featured in UConn Today