http://pedagogyandhumanscience.org/ ywells@suffolk.edu

My interest in Diversity is long-standing at Suffolk University. I have served for numerous years as a faculty advisor to the Black Student Union and currently collaborate with and mentor Undergraduate students in the McNair Scholars Program. I am currently working on the a public health research project " Environmental factors in food choice and obesity in people in different socioeconomic areas: How grocery stores fuel our obesity" with a promising McNair scholar. Graduate level projects near completion or completed with PhD students include, “Predictors of Success in African American Public School Students: The Impact of Student Perception"; "Exploring the World of Urban High School Youth: Hypermasculinity or Experience of Urban Violence". These projects took my students into the Boston Public schools in their research.

I am also interested in body image and health issues in the African American community and have collaborated with a former graduate student to publish, Sexual Health Counselor Preferences of African American and European American Women: A Brief Report by Mizock, L., & Wells, Y.V. (2010) in Sexuality & Culture DOI 10.1007/s12119-010-9064-z.

I also discuss my experiences in teaching courses about Diversity in publications such as:

Wells, Y. & Harkins, D. (2009) Teaching the diversity course in conservative times. Pedagogy and the Human Sciences, 1(1), 2009, 60-72.
http://pedagogyandhumanscience.org/

and:

Harkins, D. and Wells, Y. (2009). Teaching and the post-modern student, persistent
modernism in psychology. Pedagogy and the Human Sciences, 1(1) 2009, 38-49.
http://pedagogyandhumanscience.org/

I teach “Racial and Ethnic Bases of Behavior” and “Social Bases of Behavior” at the graduate level and “Socio-cultural Perspectives” to undergraduates. I teach a Freshman Seminar, "The Dynamics of Human Conflict" where culture is presented as an element of conflict and conflict resolution. In my role as an advisor to graduate and undergraduate students alike, I seek to keep students and faculty aware that uniqueness and diversity in social grouping as well as in personal style may be a useful “scaffold” as students develop mainstream skills and abilities to serve them in the Western, free-market world. I never forget the realities of my place in society as a woman of color and I never neglect to shape and construct the meaning of that reality such that I contribute fully to society. As an undergraduate and a graduate educator, I strive to support a powerful construction of self and identity in all my students.