Global Resilience Institute hosts ‘community resilience’ flash talks, featuring over a dozen Northeastern University researchers

Community resilience was the theme for the Global Resilience Institute’s (GRI) second round of flash talks, hosted Monday on the Northeastern University Campus. More than a dozen Northeastern researchers participated, exploring the theme from varied perspectives including health, immigration, and media innovation.

In this opening remarks, Stephen Flynn, founding director of GRI, underscored the institute’s commitment to advancing the health, security, and sustainability of communities around the world, News@Northeastern reported. Flynn said, “We’re harnessing the research going on around the entire university and bringing it together to meet this imperative,” adding, “The university is going to be a leader in this.”

The flash talks were a series of four-minute presentations, and marked the second time GRI has hosted the event. Some of Monday’s participants were also recipients of GRI’s interdisciplinary resilience research seed grant program. The application period for the next round of funding has begun, with applications due at the end of January.

Within the theme of resilience, the Institute’s seed grants support multi-disciplinary research in eight strategic focus areas that draw on the diversity of resilience-related expertise that already exists at Northeastern This includes research capacity in network science, health sciences, coastal and urban sustainability, engineering, cyber-security and privacy, social and behavioral sciences, public policy, urban affairs, business, law, game design, architecture, and geospatial analysis.

Monday’s Flash Talk presentations touched on nearly all of these categories; “Environmental Health in Puerto Rico,” (Phil Brown, Social Science Environmental Health Research Institute, College of Social Sciences & Humanities, Bouve College of Health Sciences); “Coastal Resilience Investments in Developing Countries,” (Laura Kuhl, International Affairs, School of Public Policy & Urban Affairs, College of Social Sciences & Humanities); “Resilience in the Built Environment: Expanding Access to Information to Tenants & Homeowners” (Michele Laboy, School of Architecture, College of Arts, Media and Design); “Resilience of Women’s Networks Underlying Social Disruptions of Activist Communities,” (Ryan Gallagher, GRI, Network Science Institute); “The Political Efficacy of Communities: Spatial Insights,” (Ted Johnson, College of Professional Studies); “Local Media and Community Resilience,” (John Wihbey, School of Journalism, College of Arts, Media and Design); “Data Literacy & Data Visualization for Community Resilience,” (Aleszu Bajak, School of Journalism, College of Arts, Media and Design); “Immigration and the Safe City: Legal Realities and Possibilities,” (Martha Davis, School of Law); “Sanctuary Cities & Community Resilience: Engaging with Immigrant Communities,” (Betul Eksi, GRI, College of Social Sciences & Humanities); “Someone to lean on: Mobile phone data in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon Bombing,” (David Lazer, Political Science, NULab, College of Computer & Information Science, College of Social Sciences & Humanities); “Building Resilience Healthcare Networks: The Case of the Infant Mortality Collaborative Improvement Network,” (Francesca Grippa, College of Professional Studies); “Community Resilience in the Era of Land Grabbing: Proposal for a Global Land Tenure Security Index” (Alfred Brownell, Program on Human Rights, School of Law); “Bridging the Gap: A Proposal for a Framework to Integrate Individual & Community Resilience to Violence” (Madeline Manning, Applied Psychology, Bouve College of Health Sciences); “Leadership for Resilient Communities (Rebecca Riccio, Social Impact Lab, School of Public Policy & Urban Affairs, College of Social Sciences & Humanities); and “Resilient Global Peace” (Denise Garcia, Political Science, International Affairs, College of Social Sciences & Humanities).

To read the full News@Northeastern article about Monday’s Flash Talks event, click here

For more information about the seed grant program, or to apply, click here