Scholars program empowers researchers to explore concerns across the globe
The Institute for Society, Culture, and Environment Scholars Program provides funding for new and more experienced faculty investigators to pursue work in new or existing areas of the social sciences.
The 2025-26 Institute for Society, Culture, and Environment Scholars include (back row, from left) Eranga Galappaththi, Andrew McCumber, Anderson Norton (front row, from left) Heather Davis, Roberta Freitas-Lemos, and Caroline Hornburg. Photo by Becca Halm for Virginia Tech.
From binge eating and Brazilian food policy to preschoolers and Inuit communities in Canada, the research of the newest cohort of the Institute for Society, Culture, and Environment (ISCE) Scholars Program is focused on a wide range of issues across both the lifespan and worldwide locations.
Spanning university departments, institutes, and colleges, the 2025-26 scholars were awarded up to $30,000 each to advance their research, enabling them to compete for funding from external agencies. Within six months of completing the program, the research teams are expected to apply for external funding from agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and private foundations.
“The five selected projects represent a range of topics within the social sciences and align with the institute’s key focus areas and the Virginia Tech Research Frontiers,” said Karen Roberto, University Distinguished Professor and the institute’s executive director. “Engaging in the scholars program provides both new and seasoned faculty with essential support to collect pilot data, assess the viability of their approach, and enhance collaborations and partnerships — key components for crafting competitive external grant proposals.”
This is the eighth cohort of the year-long ISCE Scholars Program, which was an expansion of the institute's Summer Scholars program that ran from 2007-17. Focusing broadly on the social sciences, the institute promotes research in four thematic areas: global policies and practices, health and human development, risk and resilience, and community and environments. Virginia Tech’s Research Frontiers are artificial intelligence, health, security, and quantum.
The 2025-26 scholars, their research goals, and their collaborators are:
Heather Davis, assistant professor of psychology
Project: "Developing a Single Session Digital Intervention to Target Shame Following Binge Eating"
Goal: To develop an accessible, low-cost, and low burden digital single-session intervention to reduce shame and future eating disorder symptoms immediately following a binge eating episode. Once the initial study is complete, the team plans to submit its findings as part of a R61/R33 proposal offered through the National Institute of Mental Health to evaluate the intervention’s efficacy in a randomized controlled trial.
“In addition to this intervention fulfilling a critical clinical need in our community, this is a total passion project for me as a researcher,” Davis said. “I have been studying binge eating’s impact on shame for nearly a decade. I’m so thrilled to have ISCE’s support to apply the knowledge I’ve accumulated from my participants and clinical patients to develop an intervention to address this harmful emotion immediately following binge eating, and hopefully, prevent its negative downstream consequences.”
Collaborators:
- Pearl Chiu, professor, Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC and Department of Psychology
- Blair Burnette, assistant professor of psychology at Michigan State University
Eranga K. Galappaththi, assistant professor of geography
Project: "Enhancing Climate-Food-Health Resilience Among Inuit in the Arctic"
Goal: To establish a foundation for a large-scale research initiative on the intersection of climate, food systems, and health in the Arctic, with a focus on Inuit communities in Pangnirtung, Canada. The research team plans to develop a large-scale grant proposal for the National Science Foundation to expand its research into a long-term initiative, co-developed with Inuit communities, academic institutions, and international partners to align with global food systems and health governance frameworks.
“Sustaining community-engaged research, especially in the Arctic, is incredibly challenging,” Galappaththi said. “With ISCE's support, we will be able to complete our research co-planning project with the Inuit community of Pangnirtung on Baffin Island, Canada.”
Collaborators:
- Markus Wilcke, council member of the Hamlet of Pangnirtung in Canada
- Gayanthi Ilangarathna, graduate student, geography
- Sithuni Jayasekara, graduate student, geography
Caroline Hornburg, associate professor of human development and family science
Project: "Understanding Children's Constructions of Perpendicularity"
Goal: To examine preschoolers’ developing conceptions of perpendicularity, a concept of spatial reasoning, and its relation to other early skills, such as mental rotation and perspective taking. Once the initial study is completed, the researchers plan to apply to the National Science Foundation’s STEM K-12 program or to private foundations that support education research, such as the Spencer Foundation.
“The ISCE Scholars funding is supporting our interdisciplinary approach to understanding young children's spatial thinking, through the lens of both Mathematics and Human Development and Family Science,” Hornburg said.
Collaborators:
- Anderson Norton, professor of mathematics
- Maegan Colbert, Ph.D. candidate, human development and family science
- Clare Bassano, graduate student, mathematics
Roberta Freitas-Lemos, assistant professor with the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC and the Department of Psychology.
Project: "Development and Testing of an Experimental Grocery Store in Brazil to Investigate the Effects of Food Policy on Consumer Behavior"
Goal: To improve public health in Brazil by addressing the growing consumption of ultra-processed foods, which is linked to serious health problems such as diet-related diseases. Freitas-Lemos will use the preliminary data collected from this project to submit a proposal to the National Institutes of Health.
“This support arrives at a critical moment as Brazil confronts an alarming rise in diet related diseases,” Freitas-Lemos said. “With this funding we will develop an innovative virtual grocery store to rigorously examine how food policies such as taxes on ultra-processed foods and subsidies for fruits and vegetables can influence consumer behavior in a realistic and controlled setting.”
Andrew McCumber, assistant professor of sociology
Project: "Climate Havens: The Cultural Geography of Safety and Danger in a Warming World"
Goal: To examine perspectives of climate-motivated movers, real estate agents, and community members on climate-motivated migration in search of social mechanisms within this process that either mitigate or exacerbate inequalities. McCumber plans to apply for funding from the National Science Foundation.
“The funding allows me to conduct and analyze interviews and fieldwork with prospective movers to Vermont and local real estate agents, focused on the impact of climate change on movers' perceptions of safety, desirability, and value,” McCumber said. “More broadly, the project will offer insights into how Americans are imagining the future social impacts of climate change and how these perceptions are shaping important life decisions.”