Research

Mississippi State Associate Professor Holli Seitz studies how health messages influence behavior, with research focused on campaigns promoting healthy eating, proper medication storage and vaccine-preventable diseases. A communication expert in MSU’s Department of Communication, Media and Theatre and a 2025 Grisham Master Teacher, Seitz collaborates widely across MSU as well as with researchers at institutions such as Oklahoma State University and Appalachian State University. Her work centers on health and science communication, message effects, and media effects—areas that have gained renewed attention in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing public health challenges.

From genetics lessons to environmental education, Mississippi State researcher Lourdes Cardozo Gaibisso is working to make science more accessible for multilingual students. An assistant professor of TESOL and linguistics in MSU’s Department of English, Cardozo Gaibisso studies how multilingual students learn science and how educators can create more effective learning experiences. Through a Design-Based Research and Implementation (DBRI) approach, she develops, tests and refines instructional strategies that help connect science concepts to students’ languages, cultures and communities.

A rare book in Mississippi State University’s archives is reshaping what historians know about the origins of Juneteenth. For years, the earliest widely recognized Juneteenth celebration was believed to be an 1866 observance in Galveston, Texas, marking the anniversary of freedom for enslaved people there. But research by MSU historian Susannah J. Ural and her colleagues points to an even earlier celebration of emancipation in New Orleans during the summer of 1864.