Transdisciplinary Research Incubator

Fordham's transdisciplinary research incubator promises to be a distinctive and bold initiative, uniquely positioning the university as an innovator in higher education. The incubator will:

• Meet a Crucial Need: The incubator will sponsor research teams that directly address today's challenges by pursuing applied research.
• Embrace a Holistic Approach: The incubator will transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries, bringing together diverse research teams to develop more robust and practical solutions to complex problems.  
• Engage with External Partners: The incubator will actively involve external partners in the research process to combine the university's intellectual depth with the innovative spirit and practical knowledge of collaborators beyond the academy.  
• Create Actionable Results: The incubator will prioritize producing actionable research outcomes, ensuring that the work product has a tangible impact.  

Transdisciplinary teams of Faculty, students, and external partners will tackle pressing issues, including those related to climate change, artificial intelligence, democracy, and migration, as well as other critical topics.

March 2026: 

RFP will be published on March 17, 2026. 

Faculty form research teams and prepare RFP documents.

April 2026: 

Faculty RFPs are due.

Project team topics and faculty members will be announced for the 2026-2027 academic year. 

Student applications open.

Student applications are reviewed, and students are notified of team selection.

Project teams, including faculty and students, are formed and announced.

May-August 2026: 

Identification of external partners.

September 2026: 

TRI Kickoff for the 2026-2027 AY.

Atinuke (Tinu) Adediran, Professor of Law

Orit Avishai, Professor of Sociology and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; Dean Fellow for Interdisciplinarity and Program Review

Megan Bogia, Associate Director for Academic Programs and Strategic Initiatives, Fordham University Center for Ethics Education; Director, Master's Degree Program in Ethics and Society; Director, Undergraduate Bioethics Minor 

Lenny Cassuto, Professor, English

Holly Curtis, Assistant Provost for Corporate Relations

Greg Donovan, Associate Professor of Communication and Media Studies

Lauri Goldkind, Professor, Graduate School of Social Services

Jessica Lang, Dean of Arts and Sciences; Professor of English

Liz Matthews, Associate Professor, Graduate School of Social Services

Adam Orford, Associate Professor of Law

Brian J. Reilly, Associate Professor, Department of Languages and Cultures & Director, Center for Medieval Studies, Fordham University

Yilu Zhou (GSB), Associate Professor and Area Chair, Information, Technology, and Operations, Gabelli School of Business

Ex Officio:  

Jonathan Crystal, Vice Provost for Academic Affairs

George Hong, Professor, Chief Research Officer & Associate Provost for Research

Beth Semaya, Associate Provost for Graduate Programs 

In its inaugural year 2026-2027, the Transdisciplinary Research Incubator brings together eight research teams. The teams and descriptions of their projects follow:  

1. Math Learning and Teaching with Generative AI
   
   Project Lead:  Jing Tian, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology
   Juntao Chen, Assistant Professor, Department of Computer and Information Sciences
   Peter Zangari, AI/Finance, Senior Business Leader and Instructor at the Gabelli School of Business 
   
   Project Description
   While AI-supported math instruction is not new, prior generations of educational technologies have seen limited adoption despite demonstrated benefits. Generative AI marks a qualitative shift: it is highly accessible, adaptive, and already embedded in students’ everyday learning practices. Emerging evidence suggests that generative AI can enhance learning through immediate, personalized feedback and practice problems to address misconceptions. At the same time, there are significant concerns. Students may over-rely on AI-generated answers, engage less deeply with materials, or fail to evaluate the correctness of outputs. Teachers also report mixed attitudes toward integrating AI into teaching and learning, ranging from enthusiasm to concerns about accuracy, pedagogy, and ethics.
   
   To prepare students and educators for this new landscape, foundational research is needed to understand how cognitive and motivational processes unfold when learning occurs through interactions with the AI systems. The proposed project serves as an initial step of this inquiry by focusing on rational number learning (fractions, decimals, and percentages) as a testbed. Mastery of rational numbers is a well-documented challenge and a key bottleneck for success in more advanced mathematics
   
   This project pursues three questions: (1) To what extent is AI-generated feedback conceptually comparable to feedback from human instructors? (2) Can AI-generated practice effectively diagnose and remediate student misconceptions? (3) Which student-level factors (e.g., prior knowledge, motivation) shape learning outcomes in AI-supported environments?  We position this work as a series of pilot studies to establish feasibility, refine measures, and generate effect size estimates for future large-scale research.
   
   The project team integrates complementary expertise: a developmental psychologist specializing in cognitive and motivational processes in math learning, an AI expert in generative systems, and a practitioner experienced in applying AI in instructional contexts. This collaboration enables a rigorous and ecologically valid examination of human–AI interactions in learning.
   
   
   
2. Putting the Story Before the Sentence: How do sentencing mitigation videos inform the decisions of Judges and District Attorneys?
   
   Project Lead: Sharif Mowlabocus, Faculty of Arts & Science
   Cheryl Bader, Clinical Associate Professor of Law
   David Simpson, Fordham Law Criminal Defense Clinic  
   
   Project Description
   Whether as a form of evidence, a means of giving testimony, or as a mechanism for informing the public, recorded video has been a mainstay of the US criminal justice system for over fifty years. Most recently, this medium has begun to be used by criminal defense attorneys during plea negotiations and sentencing conferences.  Initially, sentencing mitigation videos were only available to those able to afford the cost of production, but public defenders in New York City have led the way in creating opportunities for their clients to benefit from these ‘social biographies’ in both pre- and post-conviction settings.
   
   While there is a strong sense that these videos can play an important role in case resolutions and sentencing decisions, there is almost no evidence-based research that confirms this. Little is known about how Judges and prosecutors perceive and evaluate such videos, and even less is known about the effect that they have on those who participate in their production (including family members, community members and the individuals facing charges). This project sets out to address that lacunae and aims to identify both the primary and secondary effects of sentencing mitigation videos.
   
   Achieving such a goal requires a multi-year, transdisciplinary approach; one that draws on expertise from the fields of Law, Psychology and Media and Cultural Studies. It requires a critical understanding of this visual form, a comparative analysis of sentencing decisions, and a social-psychological assessment of viewer engagement. It also requires genuine and sustained collaboration with key stakeholders in the criminal justice system including the NY Legal Aid Society, video producers (such as Courthouse Documentaries), Prosecutors and Judges. Finally, it requires a diverse set of methodological tools including surveys, interviews, textual analysis, workshops and archival research. Through such a process, this project will clarify the utility of this video form, and examine the affordances that social biography can offer key stakeholders in the criminal justice system.
   
   
   
3. The Language Justice Lab: A Transdisciplinary Pilot
   
   Project Lead: Carey Kasten, Professor, Department of Languages and Cultures
   Emerson Argueta, Associate Director, Feerick Center for Social Justice
   Audrey Evrard, Associate Professor of French
   Carl Fischer, Professor of Spanish
   Dora Galacatos, Senior Advisor, Feerick Center for Social Justice
   Lisa Landau, Executive Director, Feerick Center for Social Justice
   Andrew Rasmussen, Professor of Psychology
   Vicente Rubio, Advanced Lecturer of Spanish
   
   Project Description
   The Language Justice Lab is a transdisciplinary initiative designed to bridge the “competency gap” in legal and clinical services where professional expertise often fails to reach non-English speaking communities. Grounded in the principle that language justice--the right everyone has to communicate in the language in which they feel most comfortable--is a fundamental human right, this pilot addresses the acute shortage of qualified translation and interpretation services within campus-based initiatives and local community partnerships.
   
   By merging the linguistic and cultural competencies of the Languages and Cultures faculty with professional domains across the university and its surrounding communities, the Language Justice Lab creates a rigorous framework where advanced heritage and native-speaking students integrate their language skills with academic knowledge and specialized professional training.
   
   Key components of the pilot include:
   
   Specialized Certification: Students undergo rigorous field-specific translation/interpretation training.
   Experiential Internships: Students will work 5–10 hours/month, providing critical linguistic support at sites such as Fordham’s Community Mental Health Clinic, The Feerick Center for Social Justice, St. Nicholas of Tolentine and other campus clinics.
   Reflective Pedagogy: A 2-credit course combines field work with theory and reflection.
   
   Starting with Spanish to meet immediate local needs, this model establishes a scalable infrastructure for future expansion into languages such as French, Mandarin, Russian, and Arabic. Ultimately, the Language Justice Lab fulfills the university’s Jesuit mission by equipping students to address communication barriers and promote equity across our local and global communities.
   
   
   
4. Co-Designing the Migrant Accompaniment Lab
   
   Project Lead: Gregory Donovan, Associate Professor, Department of Communication and Media Studies
   Leo Guardado, Associate Professor, Department of Theology
   Annika Hinze, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science
   Carey Kasten, Professor, Department of Languages and Cultures
   Sarah Lockhart, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science
   Jim McCartin, Associate Professor, Department of Theology
   Alma Rodenas-Ruano, Associate Professor, Department of Natural Sciences/Neuroscience
   
   Project Description
   A significant gap often persists between high-level academic research and the practical, on-the ground realities of migrant accompaniment. While scholars possess the resources to study migration, the pressures of academic publication frequently can limit the utility of their findings for practitioners in the field. Accompaniment is a deeply relational practice—encompassing legal, digital, spiritual, and cultural dimensions—yet there are currently few mechanisms to systematically share these specialized capacities across organizations.
   
   The Co-Designing the Migrant Accompaniment Lab project addresses these silos by forming a transdisciplinary team to identify systemic gaps and integrate diverse methodologies. The goal is to develop a formal, non-extractive interface for ongoing research and support between Fordham and Community-Based Organizations (CBOs). This project extends the work of the Initiative on Migrants, Migration, and Human Dignity and is led by an interdisciplinary team of faculty from the Departments of Communication and Media Studies, Theology, Political Science, Languages and Cultures, and Natural Sciences. As such, it builds on a strong foundation of migration accompaniment practices among the faculty involved and in collaboration with our community partners.
   
   The project is structured into three distinct phases surrounding an anticipated two-day workshop at Fordham in May 2027:
   
   Phase 1 (Fall 2026) focuses on asset mapping and needs assessments. This includes surveys of workshop participants and focus groups exploring comparable models at other Jesuit universities worldwide.
   Phase 2 (Spring 2027) analyses findings from the first phase to develop thematic, transdisciplinary lectures, activities, and discussions for the spring workshop.
   Phase 3 (May – Summer 2027) involves the two-day workshop that will bring together faculty, CBO leaders, and Fordham students to engage in collaborative work. Following the event, the team will synthesize findings to produce academic publications and research-informed funding proposals for the Lab’s realization.
   
   
   
5. Stomping and Scraping: Investigating Media Coverage and Public Perception around Invasive Species Management
   
   Project Lead: Ellen van Wilgenburg, Assistant Professor, Department of Natural Sciences
   Zoey Rosen, Assistant Professor, Communication and Media Studies
   
   Project Description
   The media plays an important role in communicating scientific information and can significantly shape public behavior by influencing how people understand issues, assess risks, and decide to act. This project examines how media coverage of the spotted lanternfly has shaped public understanding and behavior.
   
   The spotted lanternfly is an invasive planthopper that was first detected in the United States in 2014 and has since rapidly expanded across the northeastern United States. In the years following its arrival, the spotted lanternfly has become a cultural phenomenon, generating extraordinary media coverage, from front-page newspaper stories to viral TikToks and YouTube tutorials. Few invasive species have achieved this level of public visibility, making it a compelling case for how scientific information travels through media ecosystems and shapes behavior.
   
   Despite the wide reach of public campaigns urging people to stomp on lanternflies and scrape their egg masses, a survey of 485 U.S. adults already conducted by our team revealed a striking disconnect: while 92% of respondents reported stomping on lanternflies, only 16% engaged in egg scraping, the more ecologically effective behavior.
   
   This project investigates how the stomp-and-scrape message has been constructed, circulated, and interpreted across media platforms, and how it might be improved. Through a content analysis of U.S. media coverage paired with our existing survey data, we aim to identify the communication gaps that have allowed a high-visibility campaign to fall short of its ecological goals. Once identified, we will design and test social marketing communication campaigns to see what strategies may be more effective.
   
   The project brings together expertise in invasion biology and science communication, and will involve Fordham undergraduate students at every stage. Ultimately, this research aims to produce evidence-based communication frameworks that can support more effective public engagement with invasive species management and environmental science more broadly.
   
   
   
6. Functional Biodiversity and Climate Resilience: Integrating Ecology, Economics, Law, and Communication
   
   Project Lead: Evon Hekkala, Professor and Chair, Department of Biological Sciences
   Marc Conte, Associate Professor, Department of Economics
   Adam Orford, Associate Professor of Law
   Zoey Rosen, Assistant Professor of Science Communication
   
   Project Description
   Climate change is reshaping ecosystems in ways that directly influence biodiversity, economic stability, and human well-being. Yet current approaches to climate resilience often treat biodiversity simply as species richness, overlooking the fact that species differ dramatically in the ecological roles they perform. This project investigates how variation in species’ ecological functions contributes to ecosystem resilience and how these contributions can be better incorporated into economic models, legal frameworks, and public understanding.
   
   The project builds on ongoing ecological and genomic research in the Tahoe Basin examining chipmunk species that differ in their roles dispersing mycorrhizal fungi essential for forest health, nutrient cycling, and disturbance recovery. Preliminary findings suggest that species contributing most strongly to these ecosystem functions may also be among the most vulnerable to environmental change, raising important questions about cascading effects on forest productivity, wildfire dynamics, and regional economies.
   
   We are addressing these challenges via a transdisciplinary framework integrating Biological Sciences, Economics, Law, and Communication. Ecological and genetic data will be linked with economic analyses of ecosystem productivity and climate-related risk using spatial and causal inference approaches. Legal scholarship will evaluate how regulatory and benefit-cost frameworks account for ecological function, while communication research will examine how the public understands biodiversity’s role in climate resilience and societal well-being.
   
   The project also establishes a scalable collaborative model for future research at Fordham University by connecting existing strengths in biodiversity science, sustainability, policy, and public engagement. Undergraduate researchers will participate in paired transdisciplinary teams, creating new opportunities for collaborative training at the intersection of science, society, and climate resilience.
   
   
   
7. AI Data Centers’ Energy and Water Consumption: Addressing an Existential Threat from an Economic and Legal Perspective
   
   Project Lead: Marc Conte, Associate Professor Department of Economics
   Kimberly Diamond, Adjunct Professor of Law
   
   Generative AI comprises up to hundreds of thousands of graphics processing units (“GPUs”). GPUs conduct computations almost continuously, generating substantial heat. To prevent GPU heat damage, AI data centers supporting generative AI (“ADCs”) require cooling systems, and options include open systems that consume massive quantities of water or closed systems that demand less water but use more energy. ADCs consume water in parallel with their energy consumption and cooling needs, enough to fill over 3,000 Olympic-size pools in certain cases. Colossal demand for generative AI user queries, driven by artificially-low prices not evidencing electricity’s and water’s true costs, has required construction of enormous, Manhattan-sized ADCs.
   
   ADCs’ scale of accelerating energy demand and astronomical water consumption, coupled with unpriced impacts on human well-being via CO2 contributions to anthropogenic climate change, is highly problematic; causes adverse impacts to the environment, wildlife, Indigenous nations, and humanity generally; and poses an existential threat if not addressed expeditiously through immediate policy action (the “Issue”).
   
   Due to a general lack of localized legal guardrails sufficient to address the Issue, divergent legal theories governing water rights nationally, and judges generally applying legal balancing tests myopically when weighing the economic utility of actors’ conduct against that conduct’s environmental impacts, new legal methodologies, legislative and administrative approaches, and innovative solutions must address ADCs’ water intake.
   
   The project leads are Professor Marc Conte, an environmental economist in the Department of Economics, and Professor Kimberly Diamond, a transactional finance and energy lawyer in the Law School. Interested law students and undergraduate research assistants will help them develop potential solutions to the Issue by exploring two critical areas: (1) ADCs’ legal treatment, pre- and post-construction and (2) the economic analysis identifying how tradeoffs facing AI firms and society regarding the choice between open and closed-loop cooling systems vary depending on ACDs’ locations.
   
   
8. Subway Science for Informed Riders
   
   Project Lead: Fran Blumberg, Associate Professor, Graduate School of Education
   
   Public service announcements (PSAs) sharing current research findings about digital media effects on child and adolescent development (e.g., relationship between social media usage and perceived friendship support among adolescent females) will be posted in New York City subway cars. PSAs targeting developmental content are not the norm on the New York City subway and are needed to bring science to the public, especially when the public is deluged with misinformation. The PSAs will be prepared as 2-3 sentences designed to informally educate riders about the effects of digital media on development, as grounded in scientific research rather than unsubstantiated moral panic. Exposure to content based on the latter leaves the public vulnerable to misinformation and leads to uninformed decisions about how to use digital media effectively and safely. This campaign is designed as one way to counter this misinformation. The target audience will include riders of all ages and all socioeconomic statuses. PSA content will be selected by a curriculum advisory board overseen by Graduate School of Education professor Fran Blumberg. She is a cognitive developmental psychologist whose research addresses media effects on children and early adolescents. Her work also addresses media and AI literacy. The committee will include faculty, researchers, and administrators within and outside Fordham who study the effects of media on children’s development.  This committee will be charged with identifying content addressing a particular digital media focus (e.g., social media, artificial intelligence) for the initial project cycle (4-6 weeks). The community advisory board, comprises parents, children, and community leaders, who will provide further review of the content to ensure that it is accessible and engaging.
   
   
   

Please submit TRI proposals via this link. 

• The deadline for proposals is Friday, April 10, 2026, at 5 pm.  
• Candidates will be notified by April 17, 2026

The student applications cycle will open in April 2026. A link to the application will be shared here by the end of March, 2026.