Lucia Dunn, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Economics, studies a wide range of topics in the realm of empirical economics. She talks about her vast body of research, which covers topics from baseball cards and credit cards to wages in the U.S. Army. Dunn discusses her research emphasis on labor market economics, where she’s employed many unconventional methodologies like in-person interviews to provide more comprehensive data and conclusions. She also talks about the value of survey data generated by the OSU Center for Human Resource Research, which allowed herself and her fellow researchers unique access to valuable, more specific data.

John E. Davidson, Professor of Germanic Languages and Literature and Founding Director of OSU’s Film Studies program, discusses film as a field of study and its power to shape social memory. Davidson outlines recent research on the postwar “disappearance of race” in Germany and the work of Dadaist Hans Arp and his contemporaries. He also talks about his role as Faculty Athletics Representative, which he’s held since 2015, advising on academic issues, compliance, and student-athlete wellbeing, offering views on NIL and skepticism about a proposed “sports” major.

Felecia Ross, Associate Professor in the School of Communication, discusses her research and writing on the history and influence of the Black press. She describes her field research contributions to the PBS documentary Bombshell, particularly journalist Charles Loeb and his reporting on the truth about radiation casualties in Hiroshima. Ross also describes other projects, including one on Booker T. Washington’s influence on the Black press and the remembrance of the Reconstruction Era and the Civil War.

Nima Dahir, Assistant Professor and Provost’s Fellow in the Department of Sociology, discusses her research in urban sociology and the intersections of race, ethnicity, and immigration. She talks about a current project on the historic presence of Black immigrants in cities, including New York’s Harlem neighborhood and Columbus, and their portrayal in both media and government documents. She also discusses other projects she has worked on, namely “Re-learning to be a woman: virtual space and post-migration womanhood in the Somali diaspora”, where she used a public phone line to further understand how Somali Women “learn and practice the new identity of ‘immigrant woman’”.

Agus Munoz-Garcia, Associate Professor in the Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology at the Ohio State Mansfield Campus, explains his research in physiological ecology, including studies on resource allocation (how animals distribute limited nutrients among different biological functions) using a unique cockroach species that he raises in the lab. He also discusses his current research project with fellow Ohio State Professor Karl Obrietan in the Neuroscience Department, where they are investigating the possible applications of controlling regulatory proteins in the treatment of cancer.

John Hunter, Associate Professor in the Department of Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology at the Ohio State Newark campus, discusses his research in the evolution, paleoecology, and biogeography of mammals and dinosaurs. He talks about his recently published research on duck-billed dinosaurs, where he studied roughly 75 to 80 million year old fossils found in Montana. Hunter also explains his focus on teeth within his research, elaborating on the unique and beneficial properties of teeth to paleontologists and what they can show us about how different animals lived and evolved.

John Hunter holding tooth rows of duckbill dinosaurs: (1) Adult, (2) nestling, and (3) hatchling. Photo Credit: Karen Goodell

Klaus Honscheid, Professor of Physics, talks about dark energy, dark matter, and his work on the Dark Energy Survey (DES) and the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI). He discusses the universe’s accelerating expansion, the unknowns of dark energy, and how working with cosmology has impacted his view on human life and history. Honscheid recently delivered the 16th Annual Biard Lecture, hosted by Ohio State’s Center for Cosmology and AstroParticle Physics. Honscheid outlined his extensive contributions to DESI, and the questions these contributions are helping scientists answer about the universe.

Kurt Gray, Professor and Weary Foundation Endowed Chair in Social Psychology at the Ohio State University, talks about his research on morality, political division, beliefs, and polarization. He discusses his novel, Outraged: Why we Fight about Morality and Politics and How to Find Common Ground, in which he makes conclusions about division, common morals, and possible ways to bridge gaps between opposing groups. Gray also delves into his work with the Deepest Beliefs Lab and the Collaborative on the Science of Polarization and Misinformation, where he works with graduate and undergraduate students from all across the College of the Arts and Sciences.