Human Development and Family Sciences
Research Areas
Interdisciplinary fields such as HDFS are ideally suited to address the grand challenges and big debates that affect every citizen of our world. We have nationally and internationally renowned faculty engaged in research on child development, early care programs, systems and policy, early literacy, the relationship between poverty, development and family functioning, domestic violence and the legal system, globalization, food insecurity, stigma, health, and many other family and community related topics.
Importantly, their expertise is not just situated in lab-based research settings: instead, they work in local and global communities and bring their experiences to the classroom on a daily basis. See how we’re making a difference in the world.
News
Young, promising scholars recognized for their outstanding research September 18, 2025 From the tiniest microbes to the earliest years of human life, Aditya Kunjapur, assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, and Anamarie Whitaker, …
Wading in the creek behind University of Delaware’s The College School, elementary students laughed and cheered as they met a challenge their teacher Laurie Drumm posed only a few months prior: build a robot that travels through water, mimics the chara …
Sustainable food systems major Evyn Appel bridges the gap between agriculture, policy and food access to create a more sustainable and equitable food system Many students seeking careers in agriculture grew up on or near a farm, but for Evyn Appel, a s …