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Story Movements: How Documentaries Empower People and Inspire Social Change

Communications ·

Award-Winning Book Reveals the Power of Documentary Storytelling

There’s much more to artistic, investigative documentaries than entertainment value alone.
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Spinach leaves

Research ·

Spinach: Good for Popeye and the Planet

Spinach, when converted from its leafy, edible form into carbon nanosheets, acts as a catalyst for an oxygen reduction reaction in fuel cells and metal-air batteries.
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Henry Graves in front of computer

Research ·

‘The Boogaloo Ballad of Henry Graves’ Outlines Movement’s Tactics of Misinformation in COVID-19 Era

An animated video co-created by AU's Polarization and Extremism Innovation Lab seeks to educate viewers about the activities of the boogaloo movement.
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Philadelphia fishtown district

Research ·

Housing and Policing Practices Have an Impact on Overdose Mortality in Philadelphia

SPA Assistant Professor Lallen Johnson and graduate student Tayler Shreve (SPA/PhD ’23) analyzed the variations in fatalities of drug overdose mortality rate across neighborhoods and found housing conditions and policing patterns played a role.
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Kurt Braddock

Communications ·

Braddock Brings Counter-Radicalization Messaging Expertise to AU SOC

Braddock’s research focuses on the persuasive strategies used by violent extremist groups to recruit and radicalize audiences targeted by their propaganda.
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Pile of lead pipes in garbage heap in urban setting.

Research ·

SPA Researchers and D.C. Address Inequities in Lead Pipe Removal Program

Karen Baehler, SPA scholar in residence, was the first-named author of a study, supported by SPA graduate students Carley Weted and Theo Laguna, analyzing data from a lead pipe replacement program in the District of Columbia between 2009 and 2018.
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Police officer speaks into walkie talkie with police car in background.

Research ·

A Look at How Police Respond to Same-Sex Partner Violence Calls in Wake of Cultural Change

SPA Professor Lynn Addington received a grant to explore police response to same-sex intimate partner violence (IPV) and consider the link between  public opinion, policy, and the arrest patterns in these cases.
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antiracist word cloud

Research ·

AU Launches Anti-Racist Pedagogy Library Subject Guide

This week, American University unveiled its new Antiracist Praxis, which gives the entire AU community easy access to the main ideas, key terms, and definitions within the scholarship that inform antiracist practice.
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Katie Holton talking with Kenyan villager

Research ·

Research Shows How a Diet Change Might Help U.S. Veterans with Gulf War Illness

The study, published in the journal Nutrients, details the experiments in a clinical trial of 40 veterans with GWI.
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Aparna Soni

Research ·

Research finds long-term benefits to Medicaid expansion

A new study by SPA Assistant Professor Aparna Soni provides evidence that Medicaid expansion, which increases access to health insurance and care, does indeed improve the health behaviors of vulnerable Americans in the long term.
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