What started as a conversation among faculty imagining a more connected approach to health research across the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences has grown into a developing website and a community that keeps expanding.
On September 2nd, faculty and staff filled a classroom — with more joining by Zoom — for the second CLAS Health Futures gathering, a follow-up to the initiative's kickoff last October. The event doubled as a launch party for the CLAS Health Research Collaborative (HRC). More than 55 CLAS faculty members have signed up to be part of the HRC, which seeks to catalyze the already significant body of health scholarship happening in CLAS, including a website that gathers the college's extensive health-related programs, research, and student resources in one place.
"Health research and education are happening all over the college, in many disciplines," said Lisa Keränen, professor in the Department of Communication, who organized and emceed the event and whose own research examines the rhetoric of health and medicine. The launch gathering was organized by Keränen with History Professor Marjorie Levine-Clark, English professor Colleen Donnelly, and English Associate Professor Kari Campeau, all of whom research health topics from humanities perspectives.
A College-Wide Effort
The scope of health research across CLAS is vast, supported by many programs in the health professions and other health pathways like social work or health communication.
Keränen pointed to examples spanning the college: a modern languages faculty member developing medical Spanish and translation micro-credentials to close language gaps in healthcare; a geography researcher studying how the design of Denver's bus stations and transit centers affects riders' well-being; a Health and Behavioral Sciences doctoral student, Laura Meyer, who recently received a PEO Scholar award for her research on end-of-life communication and aging; and faculty across chemistry, English, psychology, biology, history, philosophy, physics, and geography all pursuing health-related questions from different angles.
The initiative has raised more than $35,000 to fund its inaugural year, drawing support from the CLAS Health Futures Seed Fund, the CU Denver Research Development Office, and several academic departments, including Communication, English, Health and Behavioral Sciences, Sociology, and History.
With momentum from its first year and a growing base of faculty support behind it, the initiative is positioning itself as a lasting home for health scholarship across CLAS.
The next CLAS HRC meeting is on October 8 at 12:30 pm for lunch and lightening talks. Faculty are invited to share research projects.
