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Research Resources

These faculty have expressed a willingness to work with students in either the Undergraduate Research Assistant Program (URAP), the Summer Undergraduate Research Grant (SURG) program or both. Below is a list of specific faculty and their research programs. If you find a match between your interests and theirs, please feel free to contact them.

John Mazzeo,  Anthropology
Medical anthropology and community health research in cross-cultural settings.  This can include topics related to food security and livelihood systems. I can also support applied public health research projects.  I use a mixed methods design qualitative and quantitative approaches for primary data collection through fieldwork. I encourage students to work internationally, but I am also interested in local projects. My field experience includes Haiti, Bahamas, and Zimbabwe. jmazzeo@depaul.edu

Robert Rotenberg,  Anthropology 
I am a cultural/linguistic anthropologist interested in how people derive meaning from experience and in the "history of the present."  As such, I have very broad research interests and experiences. I would be helpful to students' projects in the following areas: urban culture, especially sub-cultures, marginalized groups and hidden groups; national cultures; transnational (migrant) experiences and communities; cultural geography (the meaning people attribute to specific space(s) and place(s)); nature in the city, especially issues of micro-environments (houses, neighborhoods) and sustainability; land use issues (zoning, historic preservation, signage, community appearance); new media, especially podcasting and videocasting; questions of the nature of mind and consciousness; functional linguistics (language in use as opposed to language in the abstract); new forms of communication (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, texting); semiotics, symbols and fashion; questions of social time, calendrics, and other social rhythms; specific commodities (i.e. salt, oil, the iPod, etc.); food-based projects ( food history, food habits, craft of cooking and restaurants, specific foods); European-based projects in culture (especially in areas speaking Germanic languages, but also Mediterranean areas, not politics). rrotenbe@depaul.edu

Steve Harp Art, Media and Design
My research explores interdisciplinary approaches (both theoretical and in practice) to the photographic image, with a special interest in psychoanalytic perspectives.  Im particularly focused on Roland Barthes comment, offered in Camera Lucida: I was overcome by an ontological desire: I wanted to learn at all costs what Photography was in itself, by what essential feature it was to be distinguished from the community of images. sharp@depaul.edu

Jonathan Gross, English
Byron's marginalia, as it relates to works he read by Isaac Disraeli, Torquato Tasso, Ugo Foscolo, and other poets and writers of Regency England. Also, Graffiti, hip-hop, and visual expressions of political rebellion on subways and walls in Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles (1980s), as well as Naples, Gdansk, Paris (today)--transforming Chicago public schools through incorporating a hip-hop curriculum (working title, Cure for the Common Core: Arts Integration in the Chicago Public Schools).

James H. Murphy, English  
The culture and literature of nineteenth-century Ireland and Britain, particularly the history of the novel. The political history of nineteenth century Ireland and Britain, particularly the interaction between nationalism and the institutions of the state. jmurphy5@depaul.edu

John Shanahan, English
I work on seventeenth- and eighteenth-century English literature, the history of science, literary theory, and the changing relations of science and literature since the Renaissance. Recently I have been writing on contemporary science- and technology-themed fiction and new media narrative. jshannah1@depaul.edu

Euan Hague, Geography  
Gentrification in Chicago; race/class development of U.S. (private) housing; Scottish migration to the U.S., images of Scotland; pro-Confederate nationalism in the U.S.; monuments; mobility and U.S. highway development; radical/racist right wing politics in the U.S., international, national, and local geographies of mens soccer. ehague@depaul.edu

Elizabeth Lillihoj History of Art and Architecture 
History of Asian art and architecture; visual traditions of Buddhism; images of women in Asian art; Japanese cultural traditions; Asian art collections in Chicago and the Midwest. elilleho@depaul.edu

Antonio Morales-Pita, International Studies 
International political economy; the increase of left-wing governments in Latin America (origin and perspective developments); the study of the emerging economies (Brazil, Russia, India, and China); U.S. economy recession and its impact of the world economy; perspectives on the development of the European Union. amorale1@depaul.edu

Heidi J. Nast,  International Studies
Social theory and geography, particularly the intersections of critical race, feminist, queer, and Marxian theories. Special interest in the geography and history of political economy and reproduction. hnast@depaul.edu

Bradley Hoot,  Modern Languages
My research uses experimental methods to investigate the structure of language. I am interested in how language is represented in the minds of bilinguals, especially Spanish/English bilinguals in the United States, and I am also interested in linguistic theories of information structure (how speakers make the more informative parts of sentences prominent using word order and intonation), especially in Spanish and Hungarian. I have worked on information structure in Spanish/English and Hungarian/English bilinguals, as well as Spanish/English code-switching (the use of more than one language in a single utterance), and I have previously mentored undergraduate students interested in these topics. I am more broadly interested in bilingualism, code-switching, linguistic theory, syntax and its relationship to intonation, and quantitative methods in linguistics. bhoot@depaul.edu

Elizabeth Millan,  Philosophy
Topics and figures that I work on: Aesthetics, Latin American philosophy, Schlegel, Novalis, Alexander von Humboldt and the relation between scientific method and aesthetics, the aesthetic appreciation of nature. I am interested in projects that cross disciplinary boundaries, but do so in a way that preserves the rigor of the philosophical method. I approach all of the above-mentioned areas via a close historical method of contextualization and a philosophical analysis of the issues and texts under investigation. emillanz@depaul.edu

Chris Tirres, Religious Studies 
I am interested in how the idea of liberation has been construed within the context of the Americas. My current research focuses on the intersection between liberation theology (in Latin America and in U.S. Latino/a theology) on the one hand, and U.S. pragmatism (particularly the philosophy of John Dewey), on the other. Research interests include popular religion, ritual theory, political theology, aesthetics, and critical theory. ctirres@gmail.com

Fernando De Maio, Sociology
Social determinants of health, including income inequality and racism / discrimination; health transitions of immigrants; analysis of social surveys; Latin American political and social change. fdemaio@depaul.edu

Faculty interested in adding their information to this resource should contact Associate Dean Warren Schultz.