Stress in the City: Examining metabolic consequences of toxicological exposures in resilient urban corals under global change stressors
Principal Investigator: Co-Principal Investigators: Marine organisms located offshore from urban centers face potentially negative interactive effects from pollutants (heavy metals, microplastics, pharmaceuticals, increased nutrients) and global change stressors (increasing sea temperature and acidity). Corals are just one example of a marine urban organism that may be vulnerable to these stressors. One seemingly resilient coral is […]
Reentry, Employment and Persisting Inequality: Understanding the experiences of formerly incarcerated jobseekers with employment reentry programs
Principal Investigator: Co-Principal Investigator: Today in the United States, 50% of formerly incarcerated people remain unemployed in the year following their release. Over the past decades, prisoner reentry programs have increasingly provided formerly incarcerated jobseekers with services such as job training, job-placement assistance and other job-search related resources. When examining the dynamics and outcomes of […]
2020 COVID-19 Urban Research to Action Award: The “Aging Disaster” of COVID19: The Association of Social Isolation and Loneliness to Perceived Health, Psychological Wellbeing, and Material Hardship Among Boston Residents Age 60 and Older
PI: Judith G. Gonyea, PhD, MPH, Professor, BU School of Social Work (BUSSW) Co-PI: Arden O’ Donnell, PhD Student, BUSSW This project, in collaboration with the City of Boston’s Age Strong Commission, explores the experiences of Boston residents age 60 and older during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Given their risk of severe […]
2020 COVID-19 Urban Research-to-Action Award: Race, Place, and Policing During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Multi-City Study
PI: Jessica T. Simes, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, BU College of Arts & Sciences (CAS) Co-PI: Jaquelyn L. Jahn, PhD, Visiting Scholar, Department of Sociology, BU CAS and PhD candidate, Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Low-level policing—which includes enforcement and arrests based on quality-of-life offenses […]
2020 COVID-19 Urban Research-to-Action Award: How Are Cities Responding to the COVID-19 Housing Crisis?
PI: Katherine Levine Einstein, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, BU College of Arts & Sciences (CAS) Co-PI: Maxwell Palmer, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Sciences, CAS Many cities have responded to the housing crisis caused by COVID-19 with various protections and programs, ranging from financial relief funds for housing costs to eviction […]
2020 COVID-19 Urban Research-to-Action Award: From the Pediatric Frontlines: Basic Needs, Access to COVID19 Supports & Equity Among Families with Young Children in the Boston Area
PI: Megan Sandel, MD, MPH, Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics, BU School of Medicine (BUSM), Boston Medical Center (BMC), and Associate Professor, Department of Environmental Health, BU School of Public Health (SPH) Co-PI: Deborah A. Frank, MD, Professor in Child Health and Well-Being, Department of Pediatrics, BUSM, BMC, and Assistant Professor, Department of Community Health […]
2020 COVID-19 Urban Research-to-Action Award: Assessing City Health Care Workers’ SARS-CoV2 Transmission to Families
PI: Diana Ceballos, PhD, MS, CIH, Assistant Professor, Department of Environmental Health, BU School of Public Health (SPH) Co-PIs: Jessica Leibler, DrPH, ScM, Assistant Professor, Department of Environmental Health, SPH; and Jennifer Greif Green, PhD, MA, Associate Professor, Special Education Program, Wheelock College of Education & Human Development Co-Is: Jonathan Levy, ScD, Professor and Chair, […]
COVID-19 Research to Action Seed Grant Awards
The Boston University Initiative on Cities (IOC) is proud to announce the recipients of its COVID-19 Urban Research-to-Action call for proposals. Five faculty-led teams will receive seed grant awards to help catalyze new research focused on understanding and addressing the disproportionate impacts the COVID-19 pandemic is having on marginalized urban residents. Selected teams represent the […]
2020 Early Stage Urban Research Awards
In Spring 2020, the Initiative on Cities issued its sixth request for proposals to support early stage academic research endeavors focused on urban challenges and urban populations, both domestic and global. We received 27 applications from 16 schools and departments at BU, and and we are thrilled to announce we have funded ten projects, including […]
Assessing the association between combined sewer overflow events and gastrointestinal illness in the Merrimack Valley
Principal Investigator: Co-Principal Investigators: Collaborator: In combined sewer systems—which exist in more than 800 cities in the United States—household sewage, stormwater, and industrial waste are collected in a common pipe that flows to a wastewater treatment facility. Combined sewer overflow (CSO) events occur during periods of peak stormwater runoff when the system becomes overwhelmed and […]