Research

Seed Grantees

Image of a snowy Pitt Campus with the Cathedral of Learning in the center of the frame

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has announced the recipients of grants totaling $2.5 million. The University of Pittsburgh is one of 10 schools who will be receiving $250,000 for a two-year seed grant to help make and implement plans that will help advance more diverse and equitable doctoral STEM programs. After the two-year period universities will be eligible to apply for a four-year, $1.4 million implementation grant from Sloan. That grant will also include scholarship funds for students in those STEM departments.

Structural Racism

Image of Lorraine Blatt

Lorraine Blatt, a Graduate Student Researcher with the University’s Psychology Department was recently published in the American Academy of Pediatrics for her study on structural racism. Blatt used Allegheny County as her research grounds to see how structural racism leads to fewer opportunities for children today. The study explored how these systems of racism often lead to higher accounts of poverty, poor healthcare, and fewer resources for education as well as other detrimental outcomes.

New Book by Dietrich School Distinguished Professor Analyzes the Extremist White Supremacist Movement and Its Grip on Politics

Kathy Blee

Drawing on their decades of expertise and field research, Dietrich School Distinguished Professor of Sociology Kathleen M. Blee and her coauthors connect the dots from the ideas and customs of the extremist white supremacist movement they’ve tracked directly to the disinformation-fueled rage of the Capitol insurrectionists.

Read the article here.

Dietrich School Faculty Member Receives Funding from Four Major Foundations

Professor Dutt

Gurudev Dutt, associate professor in the Dietrich School's Department of Physics and Astronomy, is among 11 physics researchers whose innovative projects were selected for funding by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the Simons Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the John Templeton Foundation.

Dietrich School Faculty Member Says Black Westerns Are Emblematic of a Large Shift in Black Representation

Alaina Roberts

This November, the "Yellowstone" universe expanded to include a miniseries called "Lawmen", and the first lawman featured is Bass Reeves, a Black larger-than-life 19th-century U.S. deputy marshal. Dietrich School historian Alaina Robers says this is emblematic of a larger shift in Black representation that, if we’re lucky, may be here to stay.

Read the article here

Water Collaboratory Releases Interactive Water Quality Map

Pittsburgh's rivers

The Pittsburgh Collaboratory for Water Research, Education, and Outreach (Pittsburgh Water Collaboratory), founded and directed by faculty members from the Dietrich School's Department of Geology and Environmental Science, released an interactive site on Pittsburgh's Three Rivers and Their Tributaries, the culmination of a years-long data collection effort. This project was funded by the University of Pittsburgh Year of Engagement.