Research

Northern Michigan University graduate student Jenny Cho has received a $1,300 Grace H. Magnaghi Research Grant from NMU to explore the “history of the Yooper dialect and its role in the English language.” The project combines her previous master's degree in anthropology from Seoul National University with her current pursuit of a master's degree from NMU's English Department in TESOL, or Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages.

Northern Michigan University history professor Kathryn Johnson has conducted four oral history interviews with global pioneers in open, distance and digital education. They include Professor Asha Kanwar, former president of the Commonwealth of Learning,; Professor Alejandro Pisanty, a Mexican scholar and early advocate for educational technology; Dr. Tony Bates, whom she describes as one of “the godfathers of distance education in Canada”; and Professor Rosibel Vicquez Abarca, a prominent leader in the field in Costa Rica. All will soon be published in scholarly journals, including one for which Johnson serves as the oral history section editor.

Grand Ethiopian Resonance Dam (GERD), the largest hydropower dam in Africa, has caused intense energy and water conflicts between Nile River countries. Scientists from around the world have conducted research and proposed solutions to help mitigate these conflicts. Dr. Jongeun You, assistant professor from the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at Northern Michigan University, contributed to these scholarly efforts and co-authored a publication in Communications Earth & Environment, a Nature journal. It was recently selected as one of the Top 25 papers of 2024 by the journal. 

Northern Michigan University will host its 29th annual Celebration of Student Scholarship on Thursday, April 17, beginning with an opening ceremony at 9 a.m. and continuing throughout the day in Jamrich Hall. This year's event will feature a broader range of presentation formats beyond the traditional research posters and 10-minute oral presentations. Students were also invited to submit projects in the form of film and video, readings, roundtables, performances, publications, artistic displays and more.

Northern Michigan University will host the 2025 Great Lakes Cannabis Collaboration Conference from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 22, at the Northern Center. The event will showcase developing trends in cannabis education and research, featuring insights from industry leaders and experts at the forefront of the evolving sector. The schedule includes speakers, an NMU alumni panel discussion, a networking lunch and student oral presentations/research posters.

Over spring break, 43 Northern Michigan University students and faculty members traveled to St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands, for immersive field courses in marine and terrestrial ecology, research, and destination catering. The experience provided hands-on learning opportunities in diverse environmental and culinary settings and fostered interdisciplinary collaboration.

The Student Scholarship Summit held Feb. 20 as part of the Peak25 professional development conference at Northern Michigan University offered a new opportunity for NMU students to showcase their research, scholarly activity and creative inquiry through poster presentations. A pool of judges representing academia, community and industry awarded financial prizes to these top three presenters:

Northern Michigan University has announced the winners of its 3-Minute Thesis (3MT) competition. NMU graduate students and McNair scholars presented their original research in only three minutes, in a language appropriate to a non-specialist audience, and with only one static PowerPoint slide. 

Northern Michigan University faculty, graduate students and alumni are represented on a collaborative research project with the DNR and Keweenaw Bay Indian Community titled “Factors limiting moose population growth in the western Upper Peninsula.” Expanding upon traditional DNR winter aerial surveys used to estimate the moose population, this collaborative initiative will begin by fitting 20 moose with GPS collars this winter, with additional moose being collared next year. The precise location data will help researchers better understand challenges the animals confront that impact their survival.

Northern Michigan University has assumed oversight of a $2.5 million research grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to evaluate an intervention approach that provides wage supplements—contingent upon documented drug abstinence—as a way to combat drug addiction, promote employment and reduce poverty among people living with opioid use disorder. The project is a collaboration involving NMU's Department of Psychological Science, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and REACH, a substance abuse recovery program in Baltimore, Md.