I have research interests across many avenues of criminal justice. Some of my more recent interests are within the areas of eyewitness reliability and prison experiences. I also continue to research peer processes and how one's friends in adolescence shape outcomes later in life. In addition, I am involved in pedagogical research on how certain educational strategies influence student attitudes and outcomes.
As an educational psychologist, I believe that research is an integral part of the study of teaching and learning. Research is meaningful when it is used to improve teaching strategies and student learning. My research approach is rooted in a continual assessment of student learning using a feedback loop for ongoing improvement. I use quantitative and qualitative methods. Quantitative methods are used to measure changes in student learning from the beginning to the end of the course while qualitative methods are used to detect information about the learning process that occurs in the course and service context. Qualitative data are used to refine, explain, and extend quantitative findings. The use of this mixed-method approach contributes to a deeper, more complete understanding of student development and learning.
My research agenda is divided into two broad areas: pedagogical scholarship and program evaluation. In the area of pedagogical scholarship, my work has focused on the impact of academic- and cultural-based service-learning on student learning and to evaluate the contributions that student service activities make in the community. I also include community partners in the development and implementation phases of assessment. In this context research serves a dual purpose. It enhances the educational experiences of students and enriches students' contributions to the community. Assessment efforts are used to refine pedagogical methods and to most effectively tailor teaching practices to both students' and partners' needs.
In the area of program evaluation, I have worked with organizations and programs to evaluate the effectiveness of community interventions and make recommendations for improvement. In a recent study, I assessed addiction professionals' views in collaboration with the Pennsylvania Certification Board. I devote my research efforts on projects that have value for undergraduate students and community partners. My recent work with community partners, as well as my scholarship on service-learning cultivates a climate of student engagement in research among students who collaborate with me on research. This is particularly important to me because it provides students with an opportunity to put their knowledge of psychological research into practice and strengthens the university-community partnership.
Dr. Singh’s research interests are focused on understanding central and peripheral nervous system injuries including brain, spinal cord and brachial plexus injuries. She also investigates prevention and treatment options using bioengineering approaches and tools for these injuries. She is currently involved in understanding the biomechanical, functional and structural injury thresholds for neonatal brachial plexus palsy.
I identify as an educator, a sexologist, and an interculturalist. As such, my research agenda is focused on combining these professional identities. As an educator, my interest lies in the development of curricula, interventions, and in the evaluation of sexuality education in communities, schools, and professional settings.
As a sexologist, I am incredibly interested in the implications of sexual diversity on professionals' practice, whether they are working as educators, counselors/therapists, or researchers. As an interculturalist, I am interested in exploring the role that intersecting cultures play in the provision of service to individuals and groups that are culturally different from that of the provider. Each of these interests combines with the others throughout my research agenda. The focus of my scholarship is the measurement of the guided development of dispositions and skills in sexologists that reflect culturally sensitive practice that is responsive to sexological diversity. Sexological diversity is a term that references all aspects of human sexuality and their many iterations and facets, the variety of sexual expression, identities, and the many ways they manifest in individuals, societies, and cultures or subcultures. Historically, scholars have struggled to measure professional training designed to develop sensitivity to this diversity. I am working to define, develop, and understand sexological worldview, a construct that explains people's varied perspectives on human sexuality that is informed by their life experience, socialization, and cultural background.
In addition, I am moving toward publishing and presenting further on the construct's use in approaches to education and training. Until now, the Intercultural Development Continuum (Hammer et al., 2003) and the related Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) have been used to inform and evaluate training that is done with human service professionals to develop intercultural skills and dispositions. I have developed several learning activities, assignments, and other ways to engage students in the development of a sexological worldview that is interculturally sensitive.
Broadly speaking, I am interested in researching the topics of psychodynamic psychotherapy, culture, and relationships. For the last few years my work has focused primarily on the study of an applied psychology of religion and spirituality. I am interested in the integration of religion and spirituality into psychoanalytic theory, psychotherapy, and professional training. I also enjoy partnering with students to better understand the psychological experiences of marginalized groups, such as gay black men, individuals diagnosed with stigmatizing mental illness, and transgender clients seeking gender confirmation surgery.
I am primarily interested in how people from Africa, the Americas, and Europe created a new world for all in the centuries following Columbus’s arrival in the Americas.
My first book, The Invention of Rum: Creating the Quintessential Atlantic Commodity, will be published by the University of Pennsylvania Press in September 2025. I am now studying how familial, financial, and political considerations intersected in the eighteenth-century Atlantic world. By studying the lives of several generations of the influential Martin family, “Antigua at the Center of the World: The Martin Family and a Violent Atlantic,” will offer new insights into the very personal decisions that shaped the culture and politics of Britain’s empire.
Since coming to Widener, I have also engaged in conversations with Chester community members regarding the city’s history. I research and present on topics ranging from William Penn’s landing to civil rights protests that engulfed the city (and Widener campus) in the early 1960s.
Dr. Song’s research interests include pattern recognition and machine learning, spanning fundamental modeling challenges to multidisciplinary applications, including robotic vision, artificial intelligence, brain-machine interface, biomedical imaging, multi-sensor fusion, and signal and image processing.
My research interests include organizational context issues, trauma, field supervision, and issues of deviance and stigma in mental health.
Can we predict to what extent consumers sanction brands for their transgressions? There are many factors that mediate the consumer-brand relationship before, during, and after a brand's transgression. A brand transgression is defined as a violation of consumer-brand relationship norms. This breach of trust can have serious implications for a brand.
In my research, I examine the effect of variables such as brand personality, product category, ethnocentrism, and brand-country associations on consumer response to a brand transgression. I also conduct research on automatic consumer behavior. I use implicit and indirect consumer attitude instruments to measure attitudes outside of conscious awareness. In this secondary research area, I examine the automatic components of brand relationship, brand identification, cultural identity, and consumer decision making.
My research interests are in radio-frequency (RF) systems for communications and sensing. I'm also interested in the physical principles underlying the design of these systems.
I primarily research and write about retirement and pension planning topics. I have over 100 published articles. An article I authored on calculating retirement needs helped to change how people determine the amount they need to retire.
My research interests include fiction writing and narrative theory. In addition, I hear the cases of juvenile offenders in Chester, and I taught one class a day at Chester High School for the school year. I am concerned about the school-to-prison pipeline, juvenile sentencing practices, and mass incarceration.
My overarching research interest concerns the nature of comprehension in general, which underlies my interests in reading comprehension and developmental psycholinguistics. My teaching duties continually push me to study current literature in educational psychology, research methods, and statistics. Misunderstanding and misuse of brain research in educational settings has led me to study brain research that is enhancing our understanding of language and reading difficulties so that my students will develop a higher level of sophistication with that literature.
My research interests include control, nonlinear systems, state estimation, system modeling, electric power systems, and microgrid power systems. I am particularly interested in the control applications in microgrid power systems, including power system modeling, power quality control, fault analysis, power data analysis, and power consumption evaluation and prediction.
My main research interests include bioheat transfer, biofluid mechanics and thermal energy storage systems.