Social-Emotional Development

Research in the Chawarska Lab focuses on the early social and emotional development of children with autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders.

Our work on social attention to puppets received a Nancy Staub Publication Award from UNIMA-USA for excellence in writing on the art of puppetry.

Fetal and Infant Neuroimaging

We hope to identify patterns of brain connectivity during the fetal and neonatal periods that predict the development of autistic traits later in childhood.

Medical Student Mental Health

The Consortium for the Study of Medical Student Mental Health is a multi-institutional collaboration investigating understudied aspects of medical student mental health with a goal of promoting medical student wellness on an individual, regional, and national level.

Our work on links between perfectionism, impostor phenomenon, and suicidal ideation in medical students was highlighted in an editorial in Academic Psychiatry.

Engineering Student Socialization

We investigated how pre-college characteristics, such as college preparatory experiences, relate to socialization and cocurricular participation.

Library as Research Lab

I participated in the IMLS-funded Library as Research Lab project. Our work focused on assessing what students learn from library instruction sessions.