Columbian College Faculty Out Front
What do our faculty research?
GW Columbian College faculty are prolific authors, award-winning scholars and noted innovators and artists. They are recipients of Pulitzers, Guggenheims and NEH fellowships, and their impactful work represents the breadth of the engaged liberal arts.
These highlights are a sampling of projects our faculty conduct in their labs and research centers.
Research in Action
Permafrost Protector
Professor of Geography Dmitry Streletskiy has provided clear global evidence that permafrost is thawing across much of the planet. His recent publication, the first global assessment of long-term active layer monitoring data, collected data from researchers and monitoring sites around the world. The team found significant increases in active layer thickness across the majority of monitored regions.
Model Researcher
Professor of Economics and International Affairs Tara M. Sinclair created new AI-powered tech to study economic conditions. Her simulation, SIM Fed, is a virtual laboratory that gives economists a window into one of the most consequential decision-making processes in the world. Grounded in real-time data, it models policy deliberations that simulate the drama inside the Fed’s D.C. headquarters — but within a computer database.
Animal Whisperer
Associate Professor of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences and Anthropology Francys Subiaul researches the secrets of social learning — that is, the ways in which humans and animals acquire knowledge by observing others. From toddlers to terriers, he explores the science of social learning to reveal how animals acquire knowledge, and what makes humans so good at it. His popular labs draw new students each year, with majors ranging from anthropology to business.
Social Learning Scholar
Associate Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience Gabriela Rosenblau specializes in behavioral studies of autism. Working with large samples of autistic and non-autistic individuals, she developed a landmark study examining how autistic and non-autistic people learn about one another’s preferences and understand one another.
Smartphone Expert
For nearly a decade, Professor of Anthropology and International Affairs Alexander Dent has studied cell phones. He is the principal investigator of the Cellular Connections Project, a National Science Foundation-funded research initiative studying the effects of cellular technology on teens. His work was the subject of an exhibition at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History.
Environmental Chemist
Assistant Professor of Chemistry Lauren Pincus doesn’t always work in a sterile high-tech research facility. Recently, she donned waterproof hip waders and traveled to the brackish waters of northern New Jersey bays to test and collect samples of plastic pollution. Back in her lab at GW, she and her team of student researchers study samples to see how harmful microplastics degrade in nature.