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Research

Scholarly Endeavors of CAS

The faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences is deeply engaged in research. These scholarly pursuits are diverse in subject matter and explore everything from global issues to matters here in the state of Michigan. UM-Flint is uniquely positioned to offer research opportunities to undergraduate and graduate students, allowing them the opportunity to work alongside faculty in the pursuit of new knowledge. Below are some of the current research activities taking place in CAS. 

Africana Studies

The Rise of Coffee and the Demise of Colonial Autonomy
Authored by Dr. Guluma Gemeda and published in Northeast African Studies, this article examines the relationship between political centralization and the penetration of the market economy in Ethiopia during the early twentieth century. It attempts to show how increased coffee production and export, despite its contribution to the prosperity of Jimma, undermined the kingdom’s autonomy and accelerated Haile Sellassie’s drive for the creation of a centralized bureaucratic state. 

Violent Non-State Actors in Africa: Terrorists, Rebels, and Warlords
Edited by Dauda Abubakar, this book explores the rise and impact of violent non-state actors in contemporary Africa and the implications for the sovereignty and security of African states. Each chapter tackles a unique angle on violent organizations on the continent with the view of highlighting the conditions that lead to the rise and radicalization of these groups.

Communication Studies

Impact of Media on Children
How are children impacted by the media and what can they understand? Dr. Rosean’s research looks at children at different developmental stages, and even provides suggestions for parents on managing media at home. 

Older Women in Assisted Living
Dr. Heather Seipke’s research often focuses on older adults. In this article, published in the Journal of Women & Aging, she explores how older women communicate their sense of self when transitioning to assisted living facilities.

Stephen Colbert’s Satire
Dr. Marcus Paroske examines “participatory satire” when Stephen Colbert formed his own Super PAC to satirize campaign finance law. The article was published in the journal “Studies in American Humor,” and looks at the implications of Colbert participating directly with the government processes he satirizes.

Economics

Restaurant Smoking Bans
In this paper, published in The Journal of Economics, Dr. Douglas explores the impact of smoking bans on bar and restaurant sales values. The study finds that the value of restaurants decreased following the smoking ban, while the value of bars increased.

Cost Benefit Analysis
Dr. Nas’ book, Cost-Benefit Analysis: Theory and Application, is written for non-economists to explore CBA in domains such as public administration, urban studies, and health care. The reader is taken through the steps of a typical evaluation process, including the identification, measurement, and comparison of costs and benefits, and project selection.

CNN Business: The GM Workers’ Strike Probably Isn’t Worth It
Dr. Douglas contributed this piece to CNN Business, discussing the outcomes of the GM workers’ strike in October 2019. Douglas explores the comparative winners and losers from the strike.

History

The Forge at Factory Two
We have our own blacksmithing forge. Launched in 2018, the forge is an opportunity for students to integrate the knowledge of this historic craft with their classroom experiences. The forge is used in select courses or for students to use in their free time.

Lumber City Baseball Club
This public history partnership of the Department of History and Whaley Historic House Museum of Flint, Michigan explores the role of reenactment and programming in history. The team plays every summer and students may join the club as a player or interpreters.

Cemetery Preservation
Since 2016, faculty and students have worked at Flint’s oldest cemetery to identify, document, and restore the monuments at Old Calvary Cemetery. Work at Old Calvary is incorporated into History 403: Cities of the Dead, and a summer internship.

Philosophy

Dr. Jami Anderson

Books

Book Chapters

  • Reframing Punishment: Making Visible Bodies, Silence and De-humanisation (forthcoming)
    Edited by Selina Doran and Laura Bottell
    Chapter Title: “Remorse and Responsibility: Discipline and Punishment in Light of Autism” 

Journal Articles

Dr. Simon Cushing

Books

Book Chapters

Journal Articles

Dr. Aderemi Artis

Journal Articles

Dr. Benedicte Veillet

Book Chapters

 Journal Articles

Psychology

Dr. Horgan’s Social Cognition Lab

Research topics in the lab include:

  • Social Cognition
  • Appearance accuracy                                          
  • Accuracy in interpersonal perception                                  
  • Gender differences in interpersonal sensitivity
  • Nonverbal behavior and person perception/memory 
  • Sexual Objectification
  • Evolutionary Psychology: Adaptive memory

We are currently exploring the verbal and nonverbal cues used to signal romantic interest in mixed-sex and same-sex relationships. We also are examining the factors that enhance and depress perceivers’ memory for appearance and verbal statements of others.

Recent publications and presentations (since 2015):

  • Knapp, M. L., Hall, J. A., & Horgan, T. G. (expected 2020). Nonverbal communication in human interaction (9th ed.). Kendall/Hunt
  • Horgan, T.G. (2020) A New Look at Person Memory. In: Sternberg R., Kostić A. (eds) Social Intelligence and Nonverbal Communication. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34964-6_7
  • Hall, J. A., Gunnery, S. D., & Horgan, T. G. (2016). Gender differences in interpersonal accuracy.  In Hall, J. A., Schmid Mast, M., & West, T. V. (Eds.), The social psychology of perceiving others accurately (pp. 309-327). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press 
  • Horgan, T. G., Herzog, N.L., & Dyszlewski, S. (2019). Does your messy office make your mind look cluttered? Office appearance and perceivers’ judgments about the owner’s personality. Personality and Individual Differences, 138, 370-379.
  • Hall, J. A., Horgan, T. G., & Murphy, N. (2019). Nonverbal communication in the 21st century. Annual Review of Psychology, 70, 271-294.
  • Horgan, T.G., McGrath, M. P., Bastien, C., Wegman, P. A. (2017). Gender and appearance accuracy: Women’s advantage over men is restricted to dress items. The Journal of Social Psychology, 19, 1-12. doi: 10.1080/00224545.2017.1282848
  • Horgan, T. G., Grey, M., Looney, N. L., Long, T., & Lindenmulder, J. (2017). Sex doesn’t always sell: The effects of objectifying images on perceivers’ judgments of a female speaker. Psychology of Popular Media Culture. doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000145
  • Fitzgerald, C. J., Horgan, T.G., & Himes, S. M. (2016). Shaping men’s memory: The effects of a female’s waist-to-hip ratio on men’s memory for her appearance and biographical information. Evolution and Human Behavior, 37, 510-516.
  • Horgan, T. G., Broadbent, J., McKibbin, W. F., & Duehring, A. J. (2015). Show versus Tell? The effects of mating context on women’s memory for a man’s physical features and  verbal statements. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 32, 1-18.
  • Grey, M. J., Horgan, T. G., Long, T. A., Looney, N. K., Lindenmulder, J. R. (2015). Contrasting objectification and competence: Body competent images of women relieve women of self-objectification. Journal of Media Psychology, 28, 88-93. http://dx.doi.org/10.1027/1864-1105/a000159

Dr. Sela’s Recent Publications & Presentations

Dr. Sela is an experimental psychologist focused on applying an evolutionary perspective to the study of romantic relationships, sexual conflict, and religiosity.

Refereed Journal Articles

  • Otterbring, T., & Sela, Y. (2020). Sexually Arousing Ads Induce Sex-Specific Financial Decisions in Hungry Individuals. Personality and Individual Differences, 152. doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2019.109576
  • Tratner, A. E., Sela, Y., Lopes, G. S., Shackelford, T. K., McDonald, M. M., Weekes-Shackelford, V.A., & Abed, M.G. (2020). Childhood religious experiences with peers and primary caregivers: Associations with individual differences in adult religiosity. Personality and Individual Differences, 158, 109802.
  • Barbaro, N., Sela, Y., Atari, M., Shackelford, T. K., & Zeigler-Hill, V. (2019). Romantic attachment and mate retention behavior: The mediating role of perceived risk of partner infidelity. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 36, 940-956.
  • Pham, M. N., Barbaro, N., Holub, A., Holden, C. J., Mogilski, J. K., Lopes, G. S., Nicolas, S. C. A., Sela, Y., Shackelford, T. K., Zeigler-Hill, V., & Welling L. L. M. (2018). Do men produce higher-quality ejaculates when primed with thoughts of partner infidelity? Evolutionary Psychology. doi: 10.1177/1474704918757551
  • Sela, Y., Pham, M. N., Mogilski, J. K., Lopes, G. S., Shackelford, T. K., & Zeigler-Hill, V. (2018). Why do people disparage May-December romances? Condemnation of age-discrepant romantic relationships as strategic moralization. Personality and Individual Differences, 130, 6-10.
  • Atari, M., Barbaro, N., Sela, Y., Shackelford, T. K., & Chegeni, R. (2017). Consideration of cosmetic surgery as part of women’s Benefit-Provisioning mate retention strategy. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 1-7. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01389
  • Atari, M., Barbaro, N., Sela, Y., Shackelford, T. K., & Chegeni, R. (2017). The Big Five personality dimensions and mate retention behaviors in Iran. Personality and Individual Differences, 104, 286-290.
  • Barbaro, N., Sela, Y., Lopes, G. S., & Shackelford, T. K. (2017). Confirmatory factor analysis of the Coalitional Mate Retention Inventory (CMRI) and evidence for two superordinate domains. European Journal of Psychological Assessment. doi: 10.1027/1015-5759/a000439
  • Fink, B., Wübker, M., Ostner, J., Butovskaya, M. L., Mezentseva, A., Muñoz-Reyes, J. A., Sela, Y., and Shackelford, T. K. (2017) Cross-Cultural Investigation of Male Gait Perception in Relation to Physical Strength and Speed. Frontiers in Psychology, 8. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01427
  • Lopes, G. S., Barbaro, N., Sela, Y., Jeffrey, A. J., Pham, M. N., Shackelford, T. K., & Zeigler-Hill, V. (in press). Endorsement of social and personal values predicts the desirability of men and women as long-term partners. Evolutionary Psychology. doi: 10.1177/1474704917742384
  • Lopes, G. S., Sela, Y., Cataldo, Q., Shackelford, T. K., & Zeigler-Hill, V. (2017). Sex differences in performance frequency of online mate retention behaviors. Personality and Individual Differences, 114, 82-85.
  • Lopes, G. S., Sela, Y., & Shackelford, T. K. (2017). Endorsement of existence values predicts mate retention behaviors. Personality and Individual Differences, 113, 184-186.
  • Pham, M. N., Barbaro, N., Noser, A. E., Sela, Y., Shackelford, T. K., Zeigler-Hill, V., Weege, B., Fink, B. (2017). Dishonest individuals request more frequent mate retention from friends. Personal Relationships, 24, 102-113. doi: 10.1111/pere.12170
  • Sela, Y., Mogilski, J. K., Shackelford, T. K., Zeigler-Hill, V., & Fink, B. (2017). Mate value discrepancy and mate retention behaviors of self and partner. Journal of Personality, 85, 730-740.  doi: 10.1111/jopy.12281
  • Tratner, A. E., Sela, Y., Lopes, G. S., Ehrke, A., Weekes-Shackelford, V. A., & Shackelford, T. K. (2017). Development and initial psychometric assessment of the Childhood Religious Experiences with a Primary Caregiver Inventory. Personality and Individual Differences, 114, 5-9.
  • Tratner, A. E., Sela, Y., Lopes, G. S., Ehrke, A., & Weekes-Shackelford, V. A., & Shackelford, T. K. (2017). Individual Differences in Childhood Religious Experiences with Peers. Personality and Individual Differences, 119, 73-77.
  • Pham, M. N., Jeffery, A. J., Sela, Y., Lynn, J. T., Trevino, S., Willockx, Z., Tratner A., Itchue, P., Shackelford, T. K., Fink, B., McDonald, M. M. (2016). Duration of cunnilingus predicts estimated ejaculate volume in humans: A content analysis of pornography. Evolutionary Psychological Science, 2, 220-227.
  • Sela, Y., Shackelford, T. K., Pham, M. N., & Euler, H. A. (2015). Do women perform fellatio as a mate retention behavior? Personality and Individual Differences, 73, 61-66.
  • Sela, Y., Shackelford, T. K., Pham, M. N., & Zeigler-Hill, V. (2015). Women’s mate retention behaviors, personality traits, and fellatio. Personality and Individual Differences, 85, 187-191.
  • Sela, Y., Weekes-Shackelford, V. A., Shackelford, T. K., & Pham, M. N. (2015). Female copulatory orgasm and male partner’s attractiveness to his partner and other women. Personality and Individual Differences, 79, 152-156.

Book Chapters

  • Sela, Y., & Barbaro, N. (2017). Evolutionary perspectives on personality and individual differences. In V. Zeigler-Hill, and T.K. Shackelford, The SAGE handbook of personality and individual differences (pp. 1-29). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. doi: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199397747.013.22
  • Sela, Y., & Barbaro, N. (2017). Selected to kill in his name: Evolutionary perspectives on religiously-motivated violence. In J. Liddle, and T.K. Shackelford, The Oxford handbook of evolutionary perspectives on religion. Oxford University Press, USA.
  • Sela, Y., Shackelford, T. K., & Liddle, J. R. (2016). A moral guide to depravity: Religiously-motivated violence and sexual selection. In T.K. Shackelford & R.D. Hansen (Eds.), The evolution of morality (pp. 197-216). New York: Springer.
  • Sela, Y., Pham, M. N., & Shackelford, T. K. (2015). Do men and women perform oral sex as mate retention behavior? In T.K. Shackelford and R.D. Hansen (Eds.), The evolution of sexuality. (pp. 69-79). New York: Springer.
  • Sela, Y., Shackelford, T. K., & Liddle, J. R. (2015). When religion makes it worse: Religiously-motivated violence as a sexual selection weapon. In J. Slone & J. Van Slyke (Eds.), The attraction of religion (pp. 111-131). New York: Bloomsbury Academic.

Encyclopedia Entries

  • Sela, Y., & Brewer, G. Women pretending orgasm. (2018). In T.K. Shackelford and V.A. Weekes-Shackelford (Eds.), The Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. New-York: Springer.
  • Lopes, G. S., & Sela, Y. (2017). Human Genome Project. In V. Zeigler-Hill and T. K. Shackelford (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. New-York: Springer.
  • Sela, Y., & Pham, M. N. Oral sex and human sexual behavior. (2016). In T.K. Shackelford and V.A. Weekes-Shackelford (Eds.), The Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. New-York: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3624-1
  • Sela, Y., & Pham, M. N. Oral sex as mate retention. (2016). In T.K. Shackelford and V.A. Weekes-Shackelford (Eds.), The Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. New-York: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_143-1
  • Sela, Y. (2016). Mate retention. In T. K. Shackelford & V. A. Weekes-Shackelford (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer International Publishing. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_139-1
  • Sela, Y., & Shackelford, T. K. (2015). Evolution. In R. Cautin and S. Lilienfeld (Eds.), The Encyclopedia of Clinical Psychology (pp. 1-7). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell. 

Paper Presentations 

  • Tratner, A. E., Sela, Y., Shackelford, T. K., & Zeigler-Hill, V. (2018). Do religious people perform more mate retention behaviors? Human Behavior and Evolution Society Annual Conference. Amsterdam, Netherlands.
  • Otterbring, T., & Sela, Y. (2018, May). Sexy ads make hungry men financially impatient. European Marketing Academy Conference. Glasgow, UK.
  • Shackelford, T. K., Pham, M. N., Jeffery, A. J., Sela, Y., Lynn, J. T., Trevino, S., Willockx, Z., Fink, B., & McDonald, M. M. (2016). Duration of cunnilingus predicts estimated ejaculate volume in humans: A content analysis of pornography. Human Behavior and Evolution Society Annual Conference. Vancouver, Canada.
  • Sela, Y., Barbaro, N., Lopes, G. S., Shackelford, T. K., Zeigler-Hill, V., & McDonald, M. M. (2017). Satisfied mates provision benefits to loyal romantic partners: Roles of mate value, risk of infidelity, and personality. Human Behavior and Evolution Society Annual Conference. Boise, ID.
  • Sela, Y., Weekes-Shackelford, V. A., Shackelford, T. K., & Pham, M. N. (2015). Female copulatory orgasm and male partner’s attractiveness to his partner and other women. American Psychological Association Annual Convention. Toronto, Canada.
  • Sela, Y., Mogilski, J. K., & Shackelford, T. K. (2015). Mate retention discrepancy and mate value discrepancy in long-term relationships. Human Behavior and Evolution Society Annual Conference. Columbia, MO.

Poster Presentations

  • Otterbring, T., & Sela, Y. (2020, April). Sexually arousing ads induce sex-specific financial decisions in hungry individuals. Midwestern Psychological Association Annual Conference. Chicago, IL.
  • Otterbring, T., & Sela, Y. (2017, January). Sexy ads make mated men financially impatient. Society for Personality and Social Psychology Annual Conference. San Antonio, TX.
  • Sela Y., Barbaro, N., Shackelford, T. K., & Zeigler-Hill, V. (2016, June). Perceived risk of infidelity, mate value, and mate retention in women. Human Behavior and Evolution Society Annual Conference. Vancouver, Canada.
  • Sela, Y., Shackelford, T. K. (2016, May). Personality moderates the relationship between perceived risk of partner’s infidelity and women’s mate retention behaviors. 28th American Psychological Society Annual Convention. Chicago, IL.
  • Sela Y., Barbaro, N., Shackelford, T. K., & Zeigler-Hill, V. (2016, April). Mate value of self and partner, perceived risk of infidelity, women’s personality, and mate retention. Evolution of Psychopathology Conference. Rochester, MI.
  • Tratner, A. Sela., Y., Ehrke, A. D., Lopes, G. S., Weekes-Shackelford, V. A. (2016, April). Development and initial psychometric assessment of the Childhood Religious Experiences Inventory – Peers Version. Evolution of Psychopathology Conference. Rochester, MI.

Dr. Stein’s Recent Publications & Presentations

Dr. Stein’s primary research interests include functions of the right hemisphere, asymmetry in decision making, belief updating, and handedness. She is also interested in language processing and gender differences in memory. Her current research involves studying how brain differences (particularly differences in access to the right hemisphere) affect acceptance of BS.

  • Stein, J.M. (under review) Individual Differences in the Reception of Pseudo-profundity: Consistent-handers may be more susceptible to bullshit, Laterality: Asymmetries of Body, Brain & Cognition.
  • Stein, J.M., Heinze, H & Altheide, N. (2019) Symposium: Improving retention strategies in undergraduate psychology programs. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Teaching Psychology, Chicago, IL.
  • Stein, J.M. & Miller, N.S. (2018) Individual Differences in Apology Acceptance & Forgiveness: The Influence of Handedness. Laterality: Asymmetries of Body, Brain & Cognition.
  • Stein, J.M. & Eidelsafy, A. (2017) Individual differences in handedness are associated with perceptions of pseudoprofundity. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago, IL.