Community Engaged Research & Creative Activity

The College of Arts & Sciences conducts community engaged research and creative activity that makes a positive, lasting impact in our region and across the state of North Dakota.  Check out what CAS faculty are doing to enhance our community!

In this study, officers employed by the Fargo Police Department responded to surveys inquiring about their health and wellbeing. Specifically, factors associated with officer stress and mental health. This research will shed light on officers' awareness of mental health services available to them. The results can be used to increase officer awareness and ultimately encourage officers to utilize the services available to them.

Stevenson Beck (Professor & Chair, Communication) conducts research on special education teams. These teams (often called IEP teams) are composed around the needs of a special needs students. These teams, which include teachers, therapists, principals, and parents), make educational decisions based on the needs of the student. Unfortunately, facilitating IEP meetings can be tricky, and educators don't receive much conflict resolution training. Professor Beck has published two articles, and made several presentations to the West Fargo, Fargo, and Moorhead School Districts to help IEP teams make better decisions and better support special needs students and families.

Dr. Boonstoppel & Dr. Nelson (along with Dr. Ethan Boldt) surveyed North Dakota college students about their attitudes toward speech regulation on college campuses. Respondents were asked to engage with questions about various types of speech and consider the circumstances under which colleges can and should regulate that speech. This is a relevant and evolving issue, one which involves many students' activities both on and off campus. Research findings were shared with administrators to help better understand the complexity of students' attitudes about important policy issues.

Liza Gilblom (Assistant Professor of Educational and Organizational Leadership), along with NDSU collaborator Angie Johnson (NDSU Farm and Ranch Safety Coordinator), were awarded a pilot grant from the National Institute of Health to conduct geospatial analysis of traumatic agricultural injuries in the upper Midwest. The team’s research serves the public by bringing awareness of agricultural injuries in the region with the intent of developing safety programs and interventions that reduce the incidence of agricultural injuries and reducing hospital visits and emergency care that Sanford Health ultimately provides.

This research engages the public by describing how the way we process information can contribute to the development of accurate and false beliefs about consuming poultry products within the context of Avian(bird) flu. It has been published in a Public Health Journal.

Health Education/Physical Education faculty Jenny Linker, Joe Deutsch, and Justin Pieterick run NDSU’s Let’s Move in Homeschool, an outreach program that provides health and physical education lessons to homeschooled children ages 4-12. Let’s Move in Homeschool runs every Tuesday for ten weeks each semester. It provides affordable lessons using best-practices, ensuring opportunities for families to supplement current homeschooling practices.

Dane Mataic & Christina Weber (Sociology & Anthropology) are collaborating with the Great Plains Food Bank (GPFB) to expand their TEFAP (The Emergency Food Assistance Program) efforts and further understand food insecurity and access in North Dakota. The faculty identified communities that have the greatest need for food resources, and then engaged with community members through a combination of interviews and surveys. The final impact of this project is to identify intersecting challenges of food access in these North Dakota communities. In addition, Mataic & Weber are making preliminary recommendations about how to address some of these challenges.

In this MacArthur Foundation funded program to increase civic journalism among teens, students from ND & MN participated in the Red River Valley Writing Project's journalism workshops to tell the stories of their rural places and people. Their student journalism is published for a national audience on the "Writing Our Future" website.

In addition, the Red River Valley Writing Project's Summer Institute offers K-12 and college educators a place to learn, share, and grow--as writers and as teachers of writing. The 2024 and upcoming 2025 institute focus on maintaining high standards for reading, writing, and critical thinking in the age of generative AI.

AJ Myer and the North Dakota Department of Correction and Rehabilitation received a federal grant from the Bureau of Justice Assistance program for $2.5 million dollars over four years. The money will be used to expand the use of adult drug treatment courts in North Dakota. NDSU and Dr. Myer will work with the six adult treatment courts in the state to adhere to evidence-based practices that decrease recidivism. Dr. Myer and graduate students will work with the six adult drug courts across the state to: (1) review and update court practices and procedures, (2) assess the adherence to EBP practices for each court, (3) evaluate the cost effectiveness of the courts, and (4) assess the impact of the courts on recidivism. Dr. Myer will also work with the state to expand the use of courts across the state.

In addition, Dr. Myer has entered an agreement with the North Dakota Department of Correction and Rehabilitation. This contract will allow Dr. Myer and graduate students to function as the research unit for the state, giving DOCR more data driven feedback on various practices.

Dr. Smith’s Intro to Museum Studies class will create an exhibit about early Fargo and Bonanza Farming that will open at Bonanzaville on May 9, 2025. Dr. Smith’s Digital History class created a Glacier, Prairie, Farm documentary that premiered at the Fargo Theatre. The film tells the story of how the Red River Valley evolved from Glacial Lake Agassi, through native American use, to white settlement, to Bonanza Farming to the present. The Fargo History Project can be found at fargohistory.com.

ONE Box Qualitative Research Project, led by Dr. Christina Weber, is a collaboration with Local Public Health Units Across North Dakota. The study is part of a larger research initiative, The ONE Program, developed by Heidi Eukel (NDSU, School of Pharmacy) and her research team. As Dr. Eukel explains, "The ONE Program has developed and piloted an initiative, titled Be the ONE, to provide naloxone rescue boxes across the state of North Dakota…for administration of naloxone during an overdose." Dr. Weber is working with three undergraduate students, Jada Ford, Lauren Lowe, and Kimaria Stevenson to understand the successes and challenges involved in the placement of ONE Boxes in communities. This project offers insight into a program that addresses opioid overdoses, a challenging public health issue in North Dakota.