Students represented UMass Lowell in Dubai at COP28, the annual United Nations climate summit.

Students taking the newly launched Climate Crisis and Society course worked in partnership with the city of Lowell on a climate resilience project. The work inspired them to develop their own climate projects.

Racial equity and inclusion are the focus of a new concentration for sociology majors. It’s supported by several recently hired faculty who study race and ethnicity, opening up new research opportunities for students.

Students in a sociology research methods class collaborated with the Student Government Association on a survey of undergraduates. The sociology majors got real-world experience – and the SGA is using the results to assess and advocate for student needs.

Sociology Asst. Prof. Teresa Gonzales is studying how people of color use public parks and other urban spaces for leisure – and to assert their cultures. Her “Joyful Cities” project, supported by a Ford Foundation fellowship, is teaching students about ethnographic research.

UML students, alumni and faculty have documented the pandemic experiences of Lowell and Lawrence residents for an oral history project and some of those stories will be published as a book next year.

Visiting international scholar Anna Rosinska is researching an understudied group of nannies, elder care providers and housekeepers: American-born, non-Hispanic whites. She hopes her research will lead to improved policies for all domestic careworkers.

This year’s winners of the university's Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Distinguished Service Awards have served the community through theater, community health research and volunteer work with homeless people and at-risk high school students.

Students who develop socially and emotionally also learn better, says researcher Juliette Berg. She shared her work and strategies for improving school climate and student attitudes at the College of Education’s annual Panasuk Symposium.

The UMass Lowell Labor Education Program explored how students can prepare for the future of work at “The Gig Economy, Automation and You,” a panel discussion featuring Assoc. Prof. of Management Scott Latham and Thomas Kochan, co-director of the MIT Sloan Institute for Work and Employment Research.