College of Liberal Arts → A Cornerstone College Texas A&M University

Proposed College Research Strengths

Five proposed research strengths for the College of Liberal Arts were developed from white papers submitted by faculty in the college. The college’s ad hoc Research Strengths Advisory Committee reviewed these papers and advised the dean on these strengths. The five strengths listed below include brief descriptions of the specific areas and possible research clusters or combined areas of research interests associated with these strengths. All white papers submitted for this review were categorized as falling into one or more areas and are listed by the name of the submitting faculty and the paper title. Authors of white papers should feel free to seek a different association if they believe that their proposal is more appropriate for another research strength.

As provided on the links for each proposed research strength, faculty are invited to comment on these proposed strengths and to express interest in working on working on proposals associated with this area.

  • Diversity and Society -

    This research strength recognizes that the human experience involves the social categorization and construction of differing groups. Research in the College has focused on the consequences of social categorization for societies, organizations, and individuals. These experiences include systematic differences in such areas as education, health, and economic opportunities that result from disadvantages based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, disabilities, and social class. Additionally, scholarly interests include research on diversity resulting from large population changes which have long-term implications for opportunities and challenges in society – locally and globally. Scholarly inquiry is also directed toward the recognition that different groups use various forms of expression in art, literature, film, and other media in different places and at different times, and part of the human experience involves learning to interpret and appreciate such varied styles of self-expression.

  • Governance, Social Institutions, and Behavior -

    The central focus of this research strength is the empirical analysis of international, governmental, non-governmental, and social institutions. These analyses include the development of theory, the collection and analysis of data, and the discussion of implications for society. The scholarship on American political institutions and behavior illuminates the practice of democracy in America. The research also examines governance across nations, thus bringing greater understanding to politics from a comparative perspective. This research strength also includes the empirical examination of families and family relationships, including their development over time. Empirical examination of complex organizations also contributes to this research strength by focusing on including how organizations change, how they respond to their environment, and how they resolve conflicts and crises.

  • Culture and Change -

    This research strength in the College encompasses an examination and appreciation of the complex content of cultures, the media, and dynamics of cultural exchanges around the world in the present and across time. Basic research advances an understanding of the centrality of culture in defining, valuing and revaluing, and constraining human relations, productions, and behaviors. This research includes the discovery and preservation of materials from cultures in the past, and the application of new technologies to advance new modes of research on the human past. Scholarship also extends and deepens our understanding of culture and change in the human experience as preserved in the arts, letters, artifacts, and other historical evidence, and expressed in contemporary media and popular culture.

  • Transnationalism, Globalism, and International Systems -

    The college’s research strength in internationalism focuses on the growing interdependence between countries, international flows of people, ideas, culture, communication, technology, capital, and goods and services, and conflicts between nations and with terrorist groups. Research strengths include area specialists in Latin America, Europe, and Asia (especially China) who explore social, economic, and political conditions in single nation-states and multiple countries in comparative studies. Researchers also illuminate the roles of media by focusing on communication systems for international information, images, ideas, and cultural materials. Scholars also examine patterns of international relations among nation-states, including economic relations, national and international security, and political violence.

  • Health and Health Care -

    Research strength in the area of health and health care encompasses medical/physical, mental, and psychological well-being, human development and aging, and the organized and institutionalized provision of healthcare and its associated and social services. Researchers examine the contributions of basic neuroscience research to understand drug abuse, the effects of stress, and the recovery of physical functions affected by disease or accidents. Researchers focusing on factors affecting mental health and well-being include those examining children and family health care needs, interpersonal relations, stress and deviance, and substance abuse. The role of communication in public health campaigns and doctor-patient communications are subjects of researchers in this area of research strength. Researchers also explore health policy by examining micro, meso, and macro factors affecting health care markets, government policies and spending, and generational burdens for health care.