This month, the HEART lab hit a huge milestone: our Brazil qualitative coding is officially complete, our quantitative data collection has wrapped up, and we’ve fully entered analysis mode.
After spending months immersed in interviews, transcripts, coding meetings, and survey data, it’s incredibly exciting to finally start seeing patterns emerge across the project. And already, some themes are standing out in ways that feel deeply meaningful and unique.
We’ll be sharing much more about the findings next month as analyses continue, but one thing we can say for now: grandparents are showing up everywhere.
“My grandmother was never someone who expressed her love very clearly, but she always washed my uniform. It was very manual labor, so I was always very sweaty after a day's work, but the next day, my uniform was always very clean and smelled nice. And she always had these little gestures that are very difficult to notice, but when you stop to pay attention, it's always a cake that's ready, a meal or clothes, something that…"
Across interviews, participants spoke about grandparents with so much warmth, tenderness, and emotional closeness. They appeared in stories about care, comfort, protection, advice, food, affection, and feeling emotionally safe. And interestingly, we’re beginning to see traces of this in the quantitative analyses too. There’s something really special about watching a theme move from individual stories into broader cultural patterns
Outside of the Brazil project, May also brought major celebrations for the lab community. We’re incredibly excited to share that Dr. Saida Heshmati has officially received tenure 🎉 — a milestone that reflects years of impactful research, mentorship, and leadership.
This month also marked graduation season, and we’re so proud to celebrate multiple lab members who officially completed their MAs and PhDs. Watching our team defend dissertations, graduate, and step into new chapters has made this month feel especially meaningful. Congratulations to Ximena Giesseman (PhD), Olivia Ellis (PhD), and Andrew Villamil (MA)!
