CROW Research

Sexual Harassment of Teens in Memphis Middle and High Schools

An investigation of the frequency, types, and long-term impact of sexual harassment experienced by teenagers in Memphis middle and high schools.  Supported in part by The Urban Child Institute and the University of Memphis Faculty Research Grant Program.

Memphis Safe Campus Consortium

Project to reduce and prevent violence against women on Memphis college campuses. Partnership with Rhodes College, Christian Brothers University, & Crichton College. Supported in part by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Violence Against Women.

Infant Mortality in Memphis

Project evaluating a new intervention, Community Voice, implemented by the March of Dimes in response to Governor Bredesen’s Tennessee Infant Mortality Initiative. Evaluation supported in part by the Tennessee Governor’s Office of Children’s Care Coordination.

Preconception Health

Developing project that would address pregnancy planning, timing, and preparation for healthy pregnancy among urban adolescent girls, with goals to prevent unintended pregnancy and adverse birth outcomes.

Women’s Economic Self-Sufficiency and Workforce Development Efforts in Memphis

Partnership with the Memphis Area Women’s Council and the Women’s Foundation for a Greater Memphis to assess current local workforce developments efforts for women and create a long term plan to improve women’s economic self sufficiency in Memphis and Shelby County.

Strategic Plan to Reduce and Prevent Adolescent and Unintended Pregnancies in Shelby County

Proposal in development to use an Action-driven Community-based Transformation (ACT) protocol to 1) assess the scope and segmentation of adolescent sexual behavior in Shelby County; 2) conduct asset inventory and gap analyses with respect to services related to adolescent reproductive health; 3) document the extent to which current programming adhere to best practices established at the national level, and 4) develop benchmarks, recommendations, and a strategic plan for use by the community.

Supporting Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics

Developing program to systematically increase the recruitment, retention, and advancement of women faculty in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) disciplines. Proposal to be submitted to the National Science Foundation.

Completed Research Projects:

Memphis & the U.S. South

• Across Races and Nations: Building New Communities in the U.S. South
• Globalization and the Paradoxes of Place: Poverty and Power in Memphis
• Globalization and Flexible Labor in the Memphis Logistics Sector
• Sexist Naming Practices in Collegiate Athletics in the Southern United States
• Who Pays for Free Trade: Community Effects of a NAFTA Corridor
• Women and the Workforce: Job Training for Low-Income Memphians

Health & Social Welfare

• Assessing the Cost of Health Disparities among Black and White Adults with Diabetes Mellitus
• Is There Equity in the Home Health Care Market?
• Social Capital and Institutional Support Systems: Neighborhood Effects on the Well-Being of Women and Girls
• The State of the Heart
• Welfare, Children and Families: A Three City Study
• Women, Development, and Food Security in Less Industrialized Societies
• Women's Experience with Violence

Social Activism

• Hunger Strikes as Social Protest
• Sport and Social Change in Post-Apartheid South Africa