Cancer Creator Study -Ongoing

This study examines how people who create public content about their cancer experiences understand the role of creativity, visibility, and community engagement in their lives. Rather than treating creators as merely communicators or educators, the project investigates how creative work becomes part of how individuals express themselves, sustain connections, and interpret their experience of illness. The research explores the distinctive pressures, opportunities, and responsibilities that arise when personal experience becomes part of a public creative practice. The study aims to develop a clearer framework for understanding how digital creation intersects with health, identity, and contemporary self-expression.

If you are a cancer creator (any platform, any kind) and interested in participating in the study, please send Dr. Thomas Byrne an email at ThByrne@Illinois.edu or go to the following secure form:
https://forms.gle/wJceX4CZybKxDawa8

Intimate Partner Violence Study in LGBTQ Arab American Communities – Ongoing

In collaboration with Dr. Sarah Abboud (University of Illinois Chicago), this study investigates how LGBTQ Arab Americans understand their lives during and after intimate partner violence. The project examines how cultural backgrounds, community relationships, and personal histories shape the ways individuals interpret safety, identity, and belonging. The goal is to provide a more nuanced understanding of IPV in a population that remains significantly underrepresented in existing research. Because of the sensitivity of the topic, we do not recruit through the website.

If interested please contact, via email, Dr. Sarah Abboud at Abbouds@uic.com or Dr. Thomas Byrne at ThByrne@Illinois.edu

Cancer survivorship study – Closed

This completed project investigated how people understand their lives during and after cancer treatment. The research focused on how individuals organize their time, relationships, and daily activities while adjusting to changes in health, possibility, and responsibility. The goal was to clarify how survivorship is shaped by shifting forms of meaning rather than by medical timelines alone. While the study is now closed to recruitment, its analytic work continues to inform our broader phenomenological research program.

Laboratory Life and Graduate Education Study — Closed

This study explored how graduate students interpret their academic and research environments, with particular attention to questions of self-understanding, responsibility, and institutional expectations. The project examined how students navigate the complex interpersonal and professional structures that shape scientific and academic training. Its broader aim was to clarify how academic environments influence students’ sense of direction, purpose, and belonging. Recruitment has ended, but findings continue to contribute to ongoing work on university life and institutional experience.

Study on Loss of Faith in the University — Closed

In collaboration with Dr. Heath Williams (University of Notre Dame), this completed study examined how students interpret moments when their trust in the university shifts or declines. The project investigated how institutional structures, expectations, and personal commitments shape students’ evolving relationships to higher education. Its purpose was to develop a phenomenological account of disillusionment and transformation in academic life. Recruitment is now closed.