FAIR
Project Period: Ongoing

Dr. Ebreo collaborates on this initiative with CIRCA-Pintig, a Chicago-based non-profit education and arts organization.  A completed project in this initiative focused on cross-generational differences in attitudes and perceptions of eldercare. The project examined possible intergenerational differences in collectivism, enculturation, ageism, eldercare beliefs and their relation to care preferences among seniors and young adults.  In addition to exploring the substantive content related to aging and the elderly, Dr. Ebreo and her community partners investigated how community members could be trained to collect and interpret qualitative data.  Other projects are under development, including an intergenerational study of sociopolitical development in immigrant families.   

Non-traditional students in selective higher education institutions
Project period: Ongoing

Led by Dr. Ebreo, this project focuses on the college success of non-traditional (NT) students in all fields of study. Currently, we are focusing on the needs and concerns of student parents and student caregivers, but we welcome collaborators who have interests in other categories of non-traditional post secondary students.

Two major activities are underway. First, our research team is identifying existing policies and practices in place at colleges and universities, in the state of Michigan. These policies and practices will be summarized and compared across types of institution (e.g., 4 year vs 2 year; public vs private) and the demographic characteristics of the institutions’ student body. Second, our research team is conducting a focused literature review related to student parents and student caregivers in order to identify knowledge gaps and areas for future research.

COVID in Color
Project period: Ongoing

More than a year since the outbreak of the global pandemic, a number of studies have attempted to gauge the impact of COVID-19 on women academics. These studies, which include institutionally sponsored surveys and research articles by scholars, offer sobering evidence of how the pandemic has exacerbated the existing problem of gender inequality in academic labor. The increased time spent at home, closure of childcare and schools, and heightened demand for emotional caregiving during a pandemic have made the attempt to achieve “work-work balance,” a significantly more difficult struggle for women academics than for their male colleagues even during the best of times, all the more challenging in the current climate.

For women of color in the academy, the challenges may be even greater. As is well-known, COVID-19 has exposed systemic inequalities that heighten health, economic, and social vulnerabilities in communities of color. In addition, the crisis has unleashed and strengthened racism, anti-Black biases and xenophobia and introduced mercurial changes in policies and practices in each of these domains, all of which may have far-reaching impact on personal and professional lives of women faculty of color.

The COVID in Color project, led by Dr. Patricia Coleman-Burns (PI) and Dr. Angela Ebreo (Co-PI) draws on the membership of UM’s Women of Color in the Academy Project (WOCAP) to address the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and understand the complex and intersectional experiences of women of color faculty. The immediate objective of the study is to identify areas of concern that existing studies on experiences of women academics on the one hand and on faculty of color on the other are failing to capture, and to gather qualitative data about challenges exacerbated by the intersectionality of gender and race.

Diverse Pathways to Student Success
Project period: Ongoing

Science Technology Engineering Arts Mathematics: Learning Enrichment Among Families (STEAM LEAF)
Project period: Ongoing

Filipino American Intergenerational Research (FAIR)
Project period: Ongoing