PACHworks / Research
PACH Research
The PACH team is engaged in research that provides insight into the roots of and solutions to the crisis of connection. See below for our current projects. For a list of research publications connected to the PACH framework, see this page.
The Listening Project
The mission of the Listening Project is to foster listening, curiosity, learning, connection, and a sense of common humanity among and between individuals and communities. Our method of disruption is “transformative interviewing,” a semi-structured method of interviewing that helps us reimagine ourselves and each other outside of the stereotypes that dehumanize us, and recognize and value not only our differences but also our common humanity.
Principal Investigators: Dr. Niobe Way, Dr. Joseph Nelson, Dr. Hirokazu Yoshikawa, Dr. Jinjoo Han
For more information about the Listening Project, please contact the Director, Holly Van Hare at hollyvanhare@nyu.edu.
Current Initiatives with The Listening Project
Middle School Partnerships
The Listening Project has partnerships with 7 middle and high schools in New York City. Across these schools we have worked in over 40 classrooms and have worked with over 700 students and over 50 teachers across various subject areas including English, Humanities, and Social Studies.
The Boy’s Club of New York
PACH has partnered with The Boys’ Club of New York to train youth leaders and members in the Listening Project.
The Listening Project at New York University:
Listening Project Workshops at NYU Steinhardt
PACH partnered with NYU Steinhardt to integrate the Listening Project into their school-wide programming. The Listening Project was offered to three groups of NYU administrators, faculty, and students in January 2021, and participants in the workshop have been encouraged to integrate concepts from the Listening Project into their courses and advising sessions.
Listening Project Undergraduate Course
The Listening Project will be offered as an undergraduate course that trains students in the practice of transformative interviewing, a research method used to disrupt stereotyping and to foster connection.
Listening Project at NYU Abu Dhabi and Ethiopia
The Listening Project has been taught as an undergraduate course internationally at NYU Abu Dhabi and in Ethiopia in participation with the Ethiopian Education Foundation.
The Gender Socialization Project
This project draws from a mixed method five-year study, funded by the National Science Foundation, of Black, Latino, Asian, and White families in the U.S. that was conducted as part of the Center for Research on Culture, Development, and Education. The second study is a ten-year study of families in Nanjing, China that was conducted by a team of researchers at NYU, University of Pennsylvania, and South East University in Nanjing. The project examines: (1) how mothers accommodate to and resist gender stereotypes in the raising of their children; and (2) the variation in such patterns by age of child, ethnicity, nationality, and socio-economic status. For more information, visit the research lab website.
Principal Investigator: Dr. Niobe Way
Resistance Among Youth
The Resistance Among Youth (RAY) project draws from a study of adolescents and their mothers conducted at the Center for Research on Culture, Development, and Education (CRCDE). The research examines the ways teenagers accommodate to and resist racial, gender, and sexual identity stereotypes in the construction of their identities and relationships. The study was funded by the National Science Foundation. For more information, visit the lab website.
Principal Investigator: Dr. Niobe Way
Early Childhood Development Among Syrian Refugees
As part of the Global TIES for Children Center at NYU, Hirokazu Yoshikawa and colleagues evaluate and provide input to The International Rescue Committee and Sesame Workshop. Their work, funded by the Bernard Van Leer Foundation, focuses on bridging the “us vs. them” divide among Syrian refugees and their host communities. The research team will track effects in both groups.
Principal Investigator: Dr. Hirokazu Yoshikawa
The DE-CRUIT Program
With funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, PACH members Alisha Ali and Stephan Wolfert have created and are investigating the effects of the DE-CRUIT program that uses Shakespeare to allow veterans to explore and express their traumatic experiences through written verse and to heal and grow through human connection and mutual support. This project is funded by a Research Art Works grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Principal Investigator: Dr. Alisha Ali and Dr. Stephan Wolfert
Black Male Youth Perceptions of the Police and the Role of Ethnic-Racial Socialization
Funded by NYU Steinhardt’s Institute of Human Development and Social Change, this study investigates how race and ethnic identity as well as ethnic-racial socialization shape perceptions of the police among African American, Black Immigrant, and European American males (ages 14 to 25). It also examines the psychological and physiological responses to police-related stimuli.
Principal Investigator: Crystal Clarke, Associate Director of PACH