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Faculty & Student Research
Our faculty and students work around the world in labs, studios, archives, and libraries making discoveries that address real-world problems and ambitions.
Student's Research Earns National Grant
Shelby Scott, third-year graduate student in the clinical psychology Ph.D. program, was named the recipient of the 2013 Roy Scrivner Memorial Research Grant from the American Psychological Foundation. The $12,000 grant seeks to encourage the study of LGBT family psychology and therapy through its support of promising young investigators, whose graduate research is oriented toward issues in this area.
Throughout her graduate career, Scott has worked on several national projects that focus on understanding romantic relationships. Her personal research interests include creating and adapting interventions for underserved and understudied populations, particularly LGBTQ couples. She is currently working on adapting a relationship intervention for lesbian couples and her dissertation will focus on analyzing communication styles and the role of gay-related stressors in this population. Her research will help lead to practical guidelines for mental health practitioners and quality services for LGBTQ couples and families.
Anthropology Department Receives Award
ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH LED TO NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK STATUS
Kudos to the University of Denver's anthropology department which received the Stephen H. Hart Award for Historic Preservation for research conducted at the Ludlow Tent Colony site in southern Colorado. The award was presented in February at History Colorado's 27th Annual Historic Preservation Awards Ceremony, which honors outstanding people and projects that preserve and protect Colorado's diverse history and heritage.
The Ludlow Tent Colony, located 20 miles north of Trinidad, housed miners and their families throughout a prolonged coal strike, known as the Colorado Coal Field War, of 1913-1914. Tensions between labor and management were high, and on April 20, 1914, two women and eleven children died in a tent cellar when Colorado militia, battling with striking miners, set fire to the tent. Eight miners were also killed during the conflict.
The DU anthropology department, led by Professor Dean Saitta, worked in collaboration with teams from Binghamton University and Fort Lewis College from 1997 to 2002 to survey, test, excavate, analyze artifacts, and create interpretive displays and materials of the site. Dozens of students were involved over the course of the project in setting the research agenda and doing the archaeological fieldwork and data analyses. The project yielded a wealth of knowledge about the physical nature of the site as well as what camp life was like during the strike. On January 16, 2009, the Ludlow Tent Colony site was designated a National Historic Landmark by the National Park Service.
"The award is significant independent validation of the quality of the research, teaching, and public scholarship that we do in the department," said Dean Saitta. "It is especially gratifying because it was original and innovative archaeological research—and not any new library or archival research—that sealed Ludlow's nomination for National Historic Landmark status."
"This was the most significant accomplishment of my career because of what NHL status means for the descendant community of coal miners and trade unionists in southeastern Colorado and around the nation and even the world," Saitta added. "Ludlow has always been sacred ground for working people everywhere. Now these folks have official validation of that belief from the United States government. It's rare for sites like Ludlow, that testify to the violence and tragedies of American history, to get NHL recognition."
Click here to learn more about DU's Ludlow Tent Colony project.