The Academic Minute: Recent Episodes
The Academic Minute
What do green clay tennis courts have to do with climate change?
Jonathan Lambert, visiting assistant professor of Interdisciplinary Climate Science at New York University, says it’s more than you might think.
Faculty Bio:
Jonathan Lambert is a geochemist and paleoclimatologist in the interdisciplinary-focused Gallatin School of Individualized Study at NYU. His research themes are twofold - past climate change and modern climate solutions. In his paleoclimate research, he uses fossil plankton to reconstruct ocean conditions in the Pacific over the past 1.5 Million years. In his climate solutions work, he evaluates carbon dioxide removal strategies such as enhanced rock weathering, and develops new teaching and outreach approaches for emerging climate solutions. He teaches interdisciplinary seminars on ancient earth extremes, local climate change, and climate solutions. Dr. Lambert believes that engaging students of all backgrounds and interests in climate change education, outreach, and research is a bridge to better environmental understanding and contributes to lowering climate anxiety through the power of practical knowledge.
Transcript:
*If you have seen one of the thousands of green clay tennis courts in America, you have witnessed a climate change mitigation technique called enhanced rock weathering. This is a natural process in which rocks like basalt undergo chemical weathering which converts atmospheric carbon dioxide into stable bicarbonate ions that do not contribute to global warming.
Crushing these rocks and spreading them over large areas expedites weathering, and dozens of startups are applying this technique on farmland. Research is expanding on other suitable areas for enhanced weathering, and for our study we quantified its climate impact on green clay tennis courts – the American counterpart of the red clay courts common in Europe. As opposed to the crushed brick of red clay, all green clay courts are built using weatherable metabasalt.
We used a database of 17,000 green clay courts and built a model to calculate the gross carbon sequestration at each court given the rocks’ grain size, chemical composition, and local air temperature. We also calculated carbon emissions associated with mining and transportation of material to each court during construction and maintenance.
In total, we found that all courts in the US sequester a net total of approximately 25,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year – equivalent to the emissions of 4,200 passenger cars. Additionally, compared to the more common concrete courts, green clay courts emit at least 1.6 times less carbon dioxide from construction.
Green clay courts therefore have high climate mitigation potential, and one simple opportunity to increase their carbon sequestration is to shift the proportion of newly built courts to favor clay over concrete. Additional climate benefits can be found by using smaller grain size materials for new clay courts, and by rigorously tracking and iterating on court maintenance practices.*
Read More:
[NYU] - Green Clay Courts Serve Up Environmental Solutions by Absorbing Carbon Dioxide
Pavia Lab at UW
Carbon dioxide removal by enhanced weathering on American green clay tennis courts
Revisiting the history of the National Alliance of Black Feminists provides a new lens through which to view intersectionality.
Victoria Fields, doctoral candidate and instructor of record in Communication at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, explores this.
Faculty Bio:
Victoria T. Fields is an award-winning educator and scholar. She is currently a doctoral candidate and instructor of record in the Department of Communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Victoria is also a graduate assistant for instructional design at the John N. Gardner Institute for Excellence in Higher Education, where she crafts content for Gardner Institute academies and co-leads faculty workshops on topics such as engaged pedagogy, moral imagination, and civic engagement in the classroom. Victoria’s research focuses on the rhetoric of Black women, archival rhetorics, and social movements. In 2025, Victoria was the recipient of the K. Patricia Cross Future Leaders Award from the Association for American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U). Her work has been published in Volume 11 of the Eastern Michigan University McNair Scholars Journal and Bloomsbury Press, along with co-authorshipinthe International Review for the Sociology of Sport, the Sociology of Sport Journal, and Political Communication.
Transcript:
As Black women were excluded from leadership in both the Black Freedom Movement and mainstream white feminism, they turned to one another to form independent organizations and advance critiques of racism, sexism, and capitalism—grounding their intersectional oppression within their lived experiences.
One of the organizations that arose was the National Alliance of Black Feminists, or NABF, a nonprofit organization, active between 1976-1981 and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. NABF was committed to achieving full equality for Black women in America. NABF was led by founder and executive director Brenda Eichelberger, who was a guidance counselor in the Chicago Public Schools.
NABF used media to promote and generate critical awareness of Black women’s intersectional oppression. Their efforts are seen in public appearances on the Phil Donahue Show, published essays in the Chicago Defender, women’s news for a Change…and Essence Magazine. In addition, NABF led, organized, and facilitated consciousness-raising sessions, conferences, and assertiveness training for Black women. These rhetorical strategies functioned as key sites of NABF’s engagement in political education and organizing, yet the NABF has been understudied and undervalued within dominant historical and feminist scholarship.
Revisiting the NABF allows us to uncover the depth and complexity of their rhetorical strategies and contributions to what we now recognize as “intersectionality.” NABF’s work rested on the premise that Black feminism is infused with humanism, linking their identity as Black women to humanity, one that has historically been subject to surveillance, regulation, and violence. They recreated the Bill of Rights through a Black feminist lens—insisting that dignity, agency, and liberation are inseparable.
While the NABF was short-lived, the Alliance reframed ephemerality not as failure but as an intentional and responsive space for Black feminist organizing. The NABF’s legacy offers a living template of constructive engagement guiding our collective journey toward liberation.
MondayVictoria Fields, doctoral candidate and instructor of record in Communication at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, explores the history of the National Alliance of Black Feminists.
TuesdayJonathan Lambert, visiting assistant professor of Interdisciplinary Climate Science at New York University, says green clay tennis courts can be used for climate mitigation.
WednesdayKim Plofker, associate professor of mathematics at Union College, examines the history of collaboration in mathematics.
ThursdayAmaryllis Tsiknia, neuroscience PhD candidate at the University of Southern California, may have found a clue for early Alzheimer’s detection.
FridayNancy Huang, professor at the Institute of Biosciences and Technology at Texas A&M University, determines how one aggressive form of cancer can be set off by an accident in our cells.
Catch up with The Academic Minute from 8/3 - 8/7MondayNikki Keene Woods - Wichita State UniversityWhy Patient Trust Determines Whether Technology Improves Care During PregnancyDr. Nikki Keene Woods is an applied behavioral scientist and public health professor. She joined WSU in 2012. She has master’s degrees in behavioral science and public health in addition to a PhD in Behavioral Psychology from the University of Kansas. She is a member of the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) and the local chapter the Kansas ACHE. Her research centers on maternal/child health, with an emphasis on advancing health outcomes for women and underserved populations through applied interdisciplinary research. She has led or co-led numerous federally and state-funded projects, including a National Institutes of Health grant on wearable devices for fetal heart rate monitoring, a PCORI grant to improve women’s health, and authored more than 40 peer-reviewed publications. Dr. Keene Woods’ scholarship integrates community-engaged methods and applied data analytics to improve population health outcomes in Kansas and beyond.
TuesdayHeidi VanRavenhorst-Bell - Wichita State UniversityMeasuring Performance of the Mighty Human TongueDr. Heidi VanRavenhorst-Bell has an established interdisciplinary line of research in clinical exercise physiology and orofacial myology. Her work in promoting healthy tongue muscle performance through physical activity has been internationally recognized and showcased on NPR’s Science Friday with Ira Flatow. Her research also includes R&D and product validation in the health & fitness industry.
WednesdayJaeHwan Byun - Wichita State UniversityRethinking Learning with AIDr. JaeHwan Byun is an Associate Professor in the School of Education, College of Applied Studies at Wichita State University. He joined WSU in 2015 and currently serves as Program Chair for the Master of Education in Learning and Instructional Design and Director of the Applied AI in Education Research Lab. Dr. Byun’s work focuses on how educators and learners can engage in learning experiences that are engaging, infused with meaning, and experienced as coherent and complete. Building on longstanding work in educational technology, his current scholarship foregrounds generative AI (GenAI) in education, including studies of teacher adoption and needs, design-based approaches to educator preparation, and how GenAI can function as “design material” that reshapes instructional activity and learning paradigms.
ThursdayWaruna Seneviratne - Wichita State UniversityAutomated Toolless Manufacturing of Composite Structures in SpaceWaruna Seneviratne is the Director of the Advanced Technologies Lab for Aerospace Systems (ATLAS) at the National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR), Wichita State University. With over 25 years at NIAR, he leads a diverse research portfolio in advanced manufacturing, inspection, durability, damage tolerance, certification, and aging of composite aircraft structures—supported by agencies including the FAA, DoD, DHS, NASA, and major aerospace manufacturers.
FridayNick Solomey - Wichita State University Helping NASA Study Energy From The Solar CoreNickolas Solomey’s research is in the area of experimental particle and astroparticle physics, in the past he worked extensively on quark flavor physics by rare decays of hadrons, CP violation with Kaons, the study of nuclear states of matter and hadronic interaction physics. He was the co-spokesman of the Fermilab E907 experiment.
The Academic Minute airs on the WAMC Northeast Public Radio network at 7:30 a.m. and 3:56 p.m. weekdays.
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On Wichita State University Week: What can we learn about the core of the Sun?
Nick Solomey, professor at the Farimount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, looks for answers.
Faculty Bio:
Nickolas Solomey’s research is in the area of experimental particle and astroparticle physics, in the past he worked extensively on quark flavor physics by rare decays of hadrons, CP violation with Kaons, the study of nuclear states of matter and hadronic interaction physics. He was the co-spokesman of the Fermilab E907 experiment. He is also author of the book The Elusive Neutrino, and continues as editor of the Conference series on Hyperon, Charm and Beauty Hadrons, and has over 200 referred articles in physics research. His current experiments include neutrino experiments of NOvA and DUNE at Fermilab, and he is the PI of a new NASA project Neutrino Solar Orbiting Laboratory that aims to do unique neutrino science with a neutrino space-craft. Since 2018 he has been NASA Innovation Advanced Concept Fellow.
Transcript:
In 2016, I brought what many considered a “crazy” idea to NASA. It relates to neutrinos, which are mysterious subatomic particles that can go through matter as if it’s not there. Neutrinos should be massless, but we’ve proven they have mass. Most neutrino detectors are massive and experiments must be conducted underground. I suggested studying solar neutrinos, and noted that a small detector would be powerful enough to allow us to learn more about the solar neutrinos produced inside the Sun’s core.
At the time, NASA was preparing to launch a spacecraft that would travel close to the Sun. Named the Parker Solar Probe, it entered space in 2018 and is still making close passes by the Sun.
Solar neutrinos fly directly to and through the Earth at nearly the speed of light, and the number of these particles increases dramatically closer to the Sun—about 1,000 times higher at seven solar radii than at Earth. A detector placed there becomes effectively 1,000 times more powerful. Building a 250-killigram detector would result in, by far, the largest terrestrial solar neutrino experiment ever.
The detector would allow us to study the nuclear fusion core of the Sun in unprecedented detail, and to investigate neutrino properties in new ways, including measuring how solar neutrinos change with distance.
We’re now preparing to launch a .1 kg test detector into low-Earth polar orbit, with funding to operate it for one year. Ultimately, we hope to propose a small spacecraft carrying an approximately 250 kg detector close to the Sun. Operating for 5 to 10 years, such a mission would dramatically improve our understanding of the Sun’s fusion core—the source of the energy that sustains life on Earth.
Read More:
In-Space Neutrino Detection
On Wichita State University Week: Reducing lift-off weight can be crucial for spaceflight.
Waruna Seneviratne, director of the Advanced Technologies Lab for Aerospace Systems (ATLAS) at the National Institute for Aviation Research, explores one way to do so.
Faculty Bio:
Waruna Seneviratne is the Director of the Advanced Technologies Lab for Aerospace Systems (ATLAS) at the National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR), Wichita State University. With over 25 years at NIAR, he leads a diverse research portfolio in advanced manufacturing, inspection, durability, damage tolerance, certification, and aging of composite aircraft structures—supported by agencies including the FAA, DoD, DHS, NASA, and major aerospace manufacturers.
In 2019, he founded the NIAR ATLAS Manufacturing Innovation Center to create a makerspace-style environment for accelerating advanced manufacturing research and prototyping. He also leads the Manufacturing for Affordable Sustainable Composites (MASC) initiative, sponsored by the Air Force Research Lab, which focuses on integrating in-process inspection technologies into manufacturing. His team’s automated fiber placement (AFP) inspection system received the 2023 JEC Composites Innovation Award for Digital, AI & Data. In 2024, his work on thermoplastic injection overmolded aircraft window plugs—adapting automotive technologies for high-rate aerospace production—earned both the Best Technical Paper Award at SAMPE and the CAMX Innovation Award.
Waruna serves on the Technical Oversight Committee for NASA’s Advanced Composites Consortium (HiCAM) and the Executive Steering Committee for the Office of Naval Research’s Composites Manufacturing Technology Center through The Composites Consortium. He is a recipient of NASA’s Group Achievement Award (2022) for his contributions to the Advanced Composites Project, and the “Turning Goals into Reality” Honor Award (2002) for his work with the AGATE Alliance.
Before joining NIAR, Waruna worked as a stress analyst on the Airbus A380 program, ensuring compliance with FAA and EASA certification standards. He holds BS, MS, and PhD degrees in Aerospace Engineering from Wichita State University and has lived in Wichita for over 30 years.
Transcript:
Today’s space structures are built to survive one of the most violent environments imaginable—launch. As a result, they are often overdesigned, carrying extra mass, cost, and complexity just to endure those few critical minutes. At the same time, everything we send to space must fit within the space of a payload bay. This constraint forces engineers to fold structures into compact, origami-like forms—packed with joints, motors, and deployment mechanisms that add weight, introduce risk, and create potential points of failure.
But what if we didn’t have to build everything on Earth?
What if we could build them in space instead?
To meet this challenge, a new approach is emerging: Automated Tool-less Manufacturing, or AToM. This system uses two coordinated robotic arms to fabricate high-performance thermoplastic composite structures directly in space. Working together, they place continuous fibers with precision, creating strong, lightweight, three-dimensional parts—without molds, without ovens or autocalves, and without the constraints of traditional manufacturing.
Think of it as additive manufacturing—but engineered for structural strength with continuous fiber composites.
The impact is transformative. By eliminating tooling and reducing dependence on multiple launches, AToM removes traditional limits on size, weight, and complexity. Structures no longer need to fold or deploy—they can be built exactly as designed, with fewer joints and far less mechanical complexity and weight.
And this isn’t theoretical. At the NIAR ATLAS Manufacturing Innovation Center, this technology has already demonstrated the ability to rapidly produce aerospace-quality composite structures on-site.
Even more, the thermoplastic materials used are recyclable—opening the door to a circular manufacturing economy in space, where every resource matters.
From orbit to the Moon, to Mars and beyond, this technology redefines not just how we build—but where we build.
Read More:
Advanced Technologies Lab for Aerospace Systems - ATLAS
New Technology Can Create Composite Structures in Space
In-Situ Consolidation Thermoplastic Process Development for Toolless Automated Fiber Placement Manufacturing in Space
On Wichita State University Week: Should we change the way we think about using generative AI for learning?
JaeHwan Byun, associate professor in the College of Education, explores this question.
Faculty Bio:
Dr. JaeHwan Byun is an Associate Professor in the School of Education, College of Applied Studies at Wichita State University. He joined WSU in 2015 and currently serves as Program Chair for the Master of Education in Learning and Instructional Design and Director of the Applied AI in Education Research Lab. Dr. Byun’s work focuses on how educators and learners can engage in learning experiences that are engaging, infused with meaning, and experienced as coherent and complete. Building on longstanding work in educational technology, his current scholarship foregrounds generative AI (GenAI) in education, including studies of teacher adoption and needs, design-based approaches to educator preparation, and how GenAI can function as “design material” that reshapes instructional activity and learning paradigms.
Transcript:
*Today, many see GenAI as a quick tool to get answers. A shortcut. This view misses its real potential and leads to widespread concerns about cheating and shallow learning.
My research, conducted with my colleague Dr. Mara Alagić, proposes a new paradigm called Generativism. We argue that real learning with GenAI isn’t about the answer it gives you. It’s about the cognitive work you do with that answer.
We define this deep learning in a cycle: You prompt. The GenAI generates. And then, the most important part begins: the critique.
That critique then becomes a new prompt to ask GenAI. This process iterates, until you and the AI build a refined learning outcome. This is a moment of critical reflection followed by action.
The GenAI acts as a partner that challenges your thinking. Your job isn’t to simply accept its answer. Your job is to question it, validate it, and refine it. That reflective, iterative process is the learning in the era of GenAI.
This process creates a dynamic learning space. The AI provides a “scaffold” that pushes you just beyond what you already know. In this model, the GenAI isn’t a simple tool. It’s a semi-autonomous partner and collaborator.
Therefore, the learner cannot be a passive receiver. They must become the orchestrator of this complex process.
The “ah-ha” moment is this: The true goal of GenAI in education is not to deliver information. It is to provoke the critical reflection and deep engagement needed to build real, lasting understanding.
For the younger generations who will inevitably live with this technology, this means teaching them how to think critically is more important than ever.*
Read More:
College of Education
On Wichita State University Week: Your tongue matters more than you might think.
Heidi VanRavenhorst-Bell, chair and associate professor in the Department of Human Performance Studies, explores why.
Faculty Bio:
Dr. Heidi VanRavenhorst-Bell has an established interdisciplinary line of research in clinical exercise physiology and orofacial myology. Her work in promoting healthy tongue muscle performance through physical activity has been internationally recognized and showcased on NPR’s Science Friday with Ira Flatow. Her research also includes R&D and product validation in the health & fitness industry. Dr. Bell has developed a systematic network purposed toward bridging the gap between healthcare and fitness. Her entrepreneurial background has further led to three start-up companies, secured intellectual property and established a platform to mentor students aspiring to be the next leaders in the field. Besides serving as Chair and Associate Professor of the Department of Human Performance Studies at Wichita State, Bell is the undergraduate coordinator for Exercise Science, manager of the Human Performance Laboratory, a Faculty Fellow for the Dorothy and Bill Cohen Honors College, and an affiliated faculty member in the Department of Biomedical Engineering.
Transcript:
Eight muscles. One tongue. And it might be the hardest-working muscle group you never think about. That is, unless you bite it. The tongue helps us speak, chew, swallow, and even keep the airway open during sleep. But for more than one in three people, tongue and facial movement patterns don’t work as efficiently as they should—what clinicians call orofacial myofunctional disorders, or OMD.
Here’s the tricky part: in clinic, tongue performance measures are often recorded with tools that capture only a slice of what the tongue does. One challenge is slippage of the oral device within the mouth. The tongue’s anterior and posterior have different muscle fiber composition and functional roles, so even small shifts can change what’s actually measured. We tested and patented an oral-safe anti-slip patch, and participants reported better stability without meaningful changes in the pressure values, which is clinically important. Another area of consideration during assessments is head posture. Research shows even the simplest change in position may shift lingual measures.
Measuring tongue motion and force in real life—not just during brief clinical visits—presents challenges, too. PARROT, a patented research prototype, could address this. Fitting like a palatal mouthpiece, it wirelessly captures spatial positioning of the tongue within the oral cavity, while also mapping how hard and for how long the tongue is pressing against various structures. The scientific goal? Attain objective, repeatable data that can improve screening, guide therapy, and support telepractice.
A deeper physiology question involves fascia, which links human body structures from the tip of the tongue down the tips of the toes. Manipulating fascia and other physiological factors through physical activity and targeted stretching are shown to favor tongue strength or endurance.
So, the next time you swallow, yawn, talk or even exercise… remember: your tongue is doing a quiet biomechanical ballet.
Read More:
Department of Public Health Sciences
[Science Friday] - When Your Tongue Needs A Tuneup
On Wichita State University Week: Technology can only help if people are willing to use it.
Nikki Keene Woods, professor and chair of Public Health Sciences, reveals why some may not trust devices that could help them.
Faculty Bio:
Dr. Nikki Keene Woods is an applied behavioral scientist and public health professor. She joined WSU in 2012. She has master’s degrees in behavioral science and public health in addition to a PhD in Behavioral Psychology from the University of Kansas. She is a member of the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) and the local chapter the Kansas ACHE. Her research centers on maternal/child health, with an emphasis on advancing health outcomes for women and underserved populations through applied interdisciplinary research. She has led or co-led numerous federally and state-funded projects, including a National Institutes of Health grant on wearable devices for fetal heart rate monitoring, a PCORI grant to improve women’s health, and authored more than 40 peer-reviewed publications. Dr. Keene Woods’ scholarship integrates community-engaged methods and applied data analytics to improve population health outcomes in Kansas and beyond.
Transcript:
*When we think about new health technology, we often assume that better tools automatically lead to better care. But when it comes to care during pregnancy, that is not always the case.
In my research, my team and I studied how women feel about using wearable devices that allow health care providers to remotely monitor a baby’s heart rate. These tools have great potential, especially for women in rural areas or communities with limited access to prenatal services.
We surveyed women of reproductive age to understand what would make them willing or hesitant to use a remote fetal heart monitoring device. What we found was both practical and revealing.
First, acceptance depended heavily on whether the technology fits into everyday life. Women were not opposed to technology, but they were clear about their expectations. Comfort and size mattered. Most women said the device would need to be small and fit easily into their daily routines.
Second, age mattered in unexpected ways. Women in their thirties and forties were more accepting of the technology than younger women. We often assume that being younger automatically means being more comfortable or accepting of health technology, but pregnancy has a way of rewriting those assumptions. During pregnancy, trust, experience, and perceived risk may matter more than comfort with technology.
Finally, privacy and accuracy were concerns as some women worried about who would have access to their data, and whether inconsistent readings might increase anxiety instead of providing reassurance.
The takeaway is simple but important. If we want technology to improve care during pregnancy and reduce disparities, we have to design it with women. It’s about adding technology thoughtfully, in ways that make care feel more supportive, more human, and improve quality. Listening to women’s experiences and concerns is not a barrier to innovation. It is how innovation succeeds.*
Read More:
Public Health Sciences at Wichita State University
MondayNikki Keene Woods, professor and chair of Public Health Sciences, says technology can only help if people are willing to use it.
TuesdayHeidi VanRavenhorst-Bell, chair and associate professor in the Department of Human Performance Studies, explores the mighty human tongue.
WednesdayJaeHwan Byun, associate professor in the College of Education, asks if we should change the way we think about using generative AI for learning.
ThursdayWaruna Seneviratne, director of the Advanced Technologies Lab for Aerospace Systems (ATLAS) at the National Institute for Aviation Research, determines how to reduce lift-off weight for space flight.
FridayNick Solomey, professor at the Farimount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, looks to learn more about the core of the sun.
Catch up with The Academic Minute from 7/27 - 7/31MondayEsti Blanco-Elorrieta - New York UniversityPutting a Number on Bilingual ExperienceI am an Assistant Professor of Psychology and Neural Science at New York University. In my research, I combine insights from monolingual and multilingual individuals, who process language through speech or sign, to inform an inclusive and comprehensive neurobiology of language. My research combines data from neuroimaging, computational and behavioral methods with theoretical insights from linguistics, psychology and neuroscience.
TuesdayAaron Barbey - Notre Dame UniversityIntelligence Emerges When the Whole Brain Works As OneAron Barbey is also the director of the University of Notre Dame Human Neuroimaging Center and the Decision Neuroscience Laboratory.
Barbey’s research investigates how intelligence emerges from the network organization and dynamics of the human connectome, applying methods from cognitive neuroscience, experimental psychology and computer science. His work aims to achieve a deeper understanding of the neural foundations of intelligence and to enable scientific innovation in cognitive enhancement, neurorehabilitation and biologically inspired artificial intelligence.
WednesdayErin M. Kenney - Hartwick CollegeTaking a Closer Look at the Impact of Parent-Child ConversationsErin M. Kenney is an assistant professor of psychology at Hartwick College in Oneonta, New York.
Dr. Kenney’s interdisciplinary work includes time as an early childhood teacher, administrator, professor, and researcher. Her areas of expertise include developmental psychology, early childhood education, parent-child conversation.
Kenney’s dedication to bridging the gap between developmental science and developmentally appropriate practice includes a commitment to research practices that center participants as knowledge producers and values community engagement. She and the members of the Family and Developmental Studies Research Lab study a variety of topics including parent-child conversation, neurodiversity, and personal intelligence.
ThursdayZihan Chen - Brown UniversityThe Hidden Cost of a 1965 Medicare RuleZihan Chen is a PhD candidate in Health Services Research at Brown University. She studies Medicare policy, with a focus on post-acute and long-term care.
FridaySharaya Jones - George Mason University Why Choosing Stuff to Share is an OrdealSharaya M. Jones is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Costello College of Business. Sharaya received her PhD in Marketing from the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado Boulder, and her bachelor's degree from the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. Her research focuses on questions about how consumer perceptions shape consumer responses. In one stream of research, she examines how perceptions of congruity influence consumer responses such as donation behavior and new product appeal. In a second stream of research, she uncovers how consumers experience and make decisions for shared consumption, which are both heavily influenced by perceptions of group members’ preferences.
The Academic Minute airs on the WAMC Northeast Public Radio network at 7:30 a.m. and 3:56 p.m. weekdays.
It is also carried by:
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Funding support comes from the American Association of Colleges and Universities:
Making a decision about an activity for a group of friends can be stressful.
Sharaya Jones, Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Costello College of Business at George Mason University, examines why emotions play a huge part in the process.
Faculty Bio:
Sharaya M. Jones is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Costello College of Business. Sharaya received her PhD in Marketing from the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado Boulder, and her bachelor's degree from the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. Her research focuses on questions about how consumer perceptions shape consumer responses. In one stream of research, she examines how perceptions of congruity influence consumer responses such as donation behavior and new product appeal. In a second stream of research, she uncovers how consumers experience and make decisions for shared consumption, which are both heavily influenced by perceptions of group members’ preferences.
Transcript:
Picture this: you’re picking a restaurant for date night, snacks for a movie night with friends, or a group activity for a trip. Why does it feel like a struggle to choose something that will work for everyone?
Seven experiments with over 2000 people revealed something surprising: these decisions aren’t actually harder than choosing for yourself – they’re more emotional. You feel a heightened sense of responsibility to avoid getting it wrong, and the less you know about others’ preferences, the less confident you feel that you’ll be able to make everyone, including yourself, happy. The anxiety is real and it shapes your choices.
It’s why people gravitate toward “most popular” labels and choose variety packs: those options are a safer bet when satisfying everyone – including yourself.
Here’s what’s exciting for brands right now: With AI and social media, we now have real-time signals about who a decision is for. Someone asking an AI “what book should I choose for my book club?” or commenting on a TikTok, asking their tagged friend “should we go to this?” are signals that smart brands can act on. Brands can create bundles or promote “crowd pleasers” for group decisions, as opposed to personalized picks for solo shoppers. These strategies not only help consumers but may also lead to higher conversion.
For consumers: ask people what they want and if that fails, give them some options to help them reveal their preferences. And if someone else is choosing for a shared experience, don’t shy away from stating your preferences. It will reduce their anxiety and make the whole experience better for everyone.
Read More:
[George Mason] - Why choosing stuff to share is an ordeal
[Sage Journals] - The Decision-Making Process and Impact of Individual Decisions for Joint Consumption
An old Medicare rule is keeping older adults in hospitals longer than necessary, so what can be done?
Zoey Chen, PhD candidate in health services research at Brown University, looks into this.
Faculty Bio:
Zihan Chen is a PhD candidate in Health Services Research at Brown University. She studies Medicare policy, with a focus on post-acute and long-term care.
Transcript:
*Imagine this: an older adult falls at home and is hospitalized with a hip fracture. After two days, their doctor says they’re medically stable and ready to leave the hospital—to continue recovery in a nursing home with physical therapy and monitoring.
But they can’t leave.
Not because of their health—but because of a rule.
Medicare requires a minimum three-day hospital stay before it will cover care in a skilled nursing facility. This is known as the “three-day rule,” and it dates back to 1965.
More than half a century later, this rule still shapes care for millions of older adults. Many argue that the three-day threshold is arbitrary, rigid, and inefficient. However, we didn’t have strong evidence on how the rule actually affects care.
That changed in May 2023, when the rule was reinstated after being waived during the COVID-19 pandemic. This created a rare natural experiment.
What we found was surprising. After this rule was reinstated, more patients stayed in hospitals just over three days. And the increase was larger among patients with dementia or hip fracture, who were mostly likely to need post-hospital care in nursing homes. Patients didn’t use nursing homes any less, they were just staying in hospitals longer than medically necessary to qualify.
The result? Thousands of extra hospital days, higher costs for hospitals, and no clear savings for Medicare.
This highlights a bigger issue: healthcare is full of eligibility rules like this. They might be valuable, but if we don’t evaluate these rules carefully, they can end up creating bottlenecks—delaying care, increasing costs, and potentially harming patients.*
Read More:
[National Library of Medicine] - Changes in Inpatient and Skilled Nursing Facility Care After the Medicare 3-Day Rule Reinstatement
How do children learn to talk about themselves and other people?
Erin M. Kenney, assistant professor of psychology at Hartwick College, looks into this using preschool-aged children.
Faculty Bio:
Erin M. Kenney is an assistant professor of psychology at Hartwick College in Oneonta, New York.
Dr. Kenney’s interdisciplinary work includes time as an early childhood teacher, administrator, professor, and researcher. Her areas of expertise include developmental psychology, early childhood education, parent-child conversation.
Kenney’s dedication to bridging the gap between developmental science and developmentally appropriate practice includes a commitment to research practices that center participants as knowledge producers and values community engagement. She and the members of the Family and Developmental Studies Research Lab study a variety of topics including parent-child conversation, neurodiversity, and personal intelligence.
She earned her B.S. from the University of New England and her M.Ed. from the University of Hartford. She earned her M.A. and Ph.D. in developmental psychology from the University of New Hampshire.
Transcript:
We live in a world in which people are constantly judging other people.
My research seeks to understand how kids learn to talk about others by investigating parent-and-child conversations. I am interested in the influence that a parent’s own personal intelligence has on a child’s development of personal intelligence, often described as the capacity to reason about personalities, both one’s own and those with whom we come into contact.
Parent/child conversation research has existed for decades, but the act of including personal intelligence is brand new. It is all about understanding how children truly understand or interact with people, situations and other things that are different or similar to themselves.
Our work is aimed at better understanding how kids develop the ability to describe other people using personality trait terms. They’re asked to have a conversation with their parent describing recent positive and negative interactions with a peer or friend. How do they build that skill set to make those determinations of what a good or bad friend is?
The reason I went with three and four-year-olds is I used to be a preschool teacher. I understand that three- and four-year-old kids are very concerned with who’s doing the right thing, who’s doing the wrong thing. They’re also very much learning how to describe themselves and how to talk about other people--and my big question is: What are the mechanisms that underlie that?
It appears that parents have a huge role in terms of how children learn to talk about the world around them and our interviews reveal that most parents seem to be trying to do the best they can. Through this research, we can gain insights that may be able to help society understand how to better shape future generations to be less divisive and better able to label and understand personality related behavior.
Read More:
Psychology | Hartwick College
We are redefining our view of human intelligence.
Aron Barbey, the Andrew J. McKenna Family Professor of Psychology at the University of Notre Dame, looks at how our brain organizes information to do so.
Faculty Bio:
Aron Barbey is also the director of the University of Notre Dame Human Neuroimaging Center and the Decision Neuroscience Laboratory.
Barbey’s research investigates how intelligence emerges from the network organization and dynamics of the human connectome, applying methods from cognitive neuroscience, experimental psychology and computer science. His work aims to achieve a deeper understanding of the neural foundations of intelligence and to enable scientific innovation in cognitive enhancement, neurorehabilitation and biologically inspired artificial intelligence.
Over the course of his career, Barbey’s research group has won more than $26 million in research funding, with support from organizations including the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Department of Defense, the White House BRAIN Initiative, the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and private industry sponsors such as Abbott Nutrition, Google Brain and PepsiCo.
Transcript:
General intelligence is our ability to solve problems across many areas of life, helping us go beyond what we’ve experienced, make sense of the unfamiliar, and adapt to new challenges. What’s remarkable is not just this capacity, but its source: a finite, fragile system, the human brain, a three-pound organ powered by less energy than a lightbulb. The question is how the brain’s finite architecture makes such flexible intelligence possible.
The answer may lie in how knowledge is organized in the brain. Rather than stored in one location, information is distributed across regions. The brain coordinates activity across these regions to construct mental models of the world. These models are built from reusable components of knowledge — information about people, objects, actions and events. Because these components can be combined in different ways across contexts, the brain can generate a variety of thoughts from a finite set of building blocks.
But if knowledge is distributed and its components can be recombined in many ways, what determines which combinations are possible? The answer may lie in the network of connections linking brain regions. Like a city’s map, this network defines the possible routes of communication between different parts of the brain.
Some regions communicate easily through direct connections, while others are more difficult to link. The brain’s flexibility arises from its physical wiring.
This redefines how we understand human intelligence. The brain does not simply process thoughts, it gives them their structure. By shaping which ideas can be linked, how easily they can be reached, and how efficiently they can be recombined, it makes general intelligence possible in a finite system. Intelligence, therefore, is the ability to move through a landscape of ideas whose terrain determines what can be even thought at all.
Read More:
[Notre Dame News] - Key to human intelligence lies in how brain networks work together
Decision Neuroscience Lab
Putting a figure on a person’s bilingual experience can be daunting.
Esti Blanco-Elorrieta, assistant professor of psychology and neural science at New York University, looks into one way to do so.
Faculty Bio:
I am an Assistant Professor of Psychology and Neural Science at New York University. In my research, I combine insights from monolingual and multilingual individuals, who process language through speech or sign, to inform an inclusive and comprehensive neurobiology of language. My research combines data from neuroimaging, computational and behavioral methods with theoretical insights from linguistics, psychology and neuroscience.
I obtained my PhD from New York University, where I worked at the Neuroscience of Language lab under Liina Pylkkänen’s supervision and completed my post-doctoral training at Harvard University, working in the Cognitive Neuropsychology lab under Alfonso Caramazza’s supervision. In 2019, I was recognized as a Forbes 30 under 30 scientist, and in 2025, I received the Early Career Award from the Society for the Neurobiology of Language.
Transcript:
*For decades, bilingualism researchers have faced a deceptively simple question: how do we actually measure how bilingual someone is?
We often collect rich language histories, but when it comes time to analyze the data, there’s no standard way to turn all that information into a single, interpretable number. As a result, different studies define “language dominance” and “degree of bilingualism” in very different ways, making it hard to compare results across labs and populations.
In my research with my collaborator Jessica Chen, we set out to develop a simple, theoretically grounded way to quantify two things: how dominant someone is in one language versus another, and where they fall on the continuum from monolingual to highly multilingual.
We built our approach around two variables that decades of work show are fundamental: self-rated proficiency and age of acquisition. Age of acquisition matters because the brain’s capacity for language learning changes over development, and later exposure typically limits ultimate attainment. Proficiency matters because it reflects how well the language is actually represented and used.
We combined these factors into a formula that produces a continuous dominance score, ranging from perfectly balanced bilinguals to strongly dominant speakers of one language. We also introduced a multilingualism score that places individuals on a spectrum from monolingual to polyglot, while giving diminishing weight to each additional language, reflecting the fact that the jump from one to two languages is larger than from four to five.
We validated these measures in large datasets, including both healthy adults and bilingual individuals with aphasia, and showed that our simple formulas closely match much more complex statistical methods.
Our goal is to offer the field a transparent, biologically informed, and easily reproducible way to characterize language experience—so that when we talk about bilingualism, we’re finally speaking the same quantitative language.*
Read More:
[NYU] - Neuroscientists Devise Formulas to Measure Multilingualism
MondayEsti Blanco-Elorrieta, assistant professor of psychology and neural science at New York University, says putting a figure on a person’s bilingual experience can be daunting.
TuesdayAron Barbey, the Andrew J. McKenna Family Professor of Psychology at the University of Notre Dame, looks at how our brain organizes information.
WednesdayErin M. Kenney, assistant professor of psychology at Hartwick College, delves into how children talk about themselves and other people.
ThursdayZoey Chen, PhD candidate in health services research at Brown University, examines how an old Medicare rule is keeping older adults in hospitals longer than necessary.
FridaySharaya Jones, Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Costello College of Business at George Mason University, explores why emotions play a huge part in the process of choosing things for a group.
Catch up with The Academic Minute from 7/20 - 7/24MondayKristin Bidoshi - Union CollegeWhat Does it Mean to Teach Language During War?Kristin Bidoshi, professor of Russian in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, discusses this through language teaching in Ukraine.
TuesdayGuillermina Seri - Union CollegeDemocracy, Markets, Rights, and Emergency RuleGuillermina Seri is a Professor in the Department of Political Science at Union College, NY, where she teaches courses in political theory and Latin American Politics. Seri is the author of the books Seguridad: Crime, Police Power, and Democracy in Argentina (Continuum, 2012) and Neoliberalism and Unlawful Governance. The Crisis of Democratic Rights (University of Michigan Press, 2026), and co-editor of the volume Police Abuse in Contemporary Democracies (Palgrave, 2018.
WednesdayHolli Frey - Union CollegeTick, Tick… Boom! Unraveling the Secrets of Caribbean VolcanoesHolli Frey is a professor of Geosciences from Union College (NY). She studies volcanoes, trying to understand the plumbing systems beneath them, looking for clues as to how and why they erupt. She is particularly interested in mineral chemistry and chronology and uses a variety of analytical tools to address fundamental questions about magma evolution.
ThursdayStephen Schmidt - Union CollegeMaking A [Tax] Effort for Black Students’ EducationStephen Schmidt has been professor of economics at Union College since 1994, after completing his Ph.D. in economics at Stanford University. He was appointed the Kenneth B. Sharpe Professor of Economics in September 2019. His research interests include the economics of education, especially education finance, and the normative evaluation of economic outcomes and policies. He has published articles in American Economic Review (Papers & Proceedings), Journal of Public Economics, Contemporary Economic Policy, Economics of Education Review, Journal of Higher Education, Theoria, Restoration Ecology, Journal of Economic Education, Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, Southern Economic Journal, International Journal of Industrial Organization, and others. He teaches courses in econometrics, game theory, intermediate microeconomics, the economics of race, and normative economics, as well as the College’s first-year inquiry seminar.
FridayMariah Purol - Union College What Happens to Our Love Lives When the Rest of Life Gets MessyMariah received her PhD in Social & Personality Psychology from Michigan State University in 2024. She is currently a faculty member in the Psychology department of Union College. Her work examines how both individuals’ and their partners’ characteristics influence their relationship satisfaction, life satisfaction, and well-being. To that end, she’s interested in how we create happy, satisfying lives as individuals (studying traits like gratitude and optimism), and as relationship members (studying constructs like interpersonal perceptions and personality in romantic relationships/friendships).
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On Union College Week: What happens to our love lives when the rest of life gets messy?
Mariah Purol, assistant professor of psychology, examines this.
Faculty Bio:
Mariah received her PhD in Social & Personality Psychology from Michigan State University in 2024. She is currently a faculty member in the Psychology department of Union College. Her work examines how both individuals’ and their partners’ characteristics influence their relationship satisfaction, life satisfaction, and well-being. To that end, she’s interested in how we create happy, satisfying lives as individuals (studying traits like gratitude and optimism), and as relationship members (studying constructs like interpersonal perceptions and personality in romantic relationships/friendships).
Transcript:
We have lots of ideas about how life events, especially negative ones, might impact our romantic relationships. For example, what happens to a couple when one of them gets diagnosed with a chronic health condition? Has a parent pass away? Loses a child? Does relationship quality degrade in the face of these stressors, or do couples draw closer?
In a recent project, I examined the relationship trajectories of over 10,000 couples in the U.S., the Netherlands, and Switzerland. I did this by combining data from three longitudinal datasets, each of which had information about couples’ relationship quality—like their satisfaction, their levels of support, or their closeness— and the life events that they experienced together.
With this data, I examined how changes in relationship quality may be associated with the occurrence of these life events. Overall, it was extremely rare for negative life events to predict negative relationship outcomes (like decreased satisfaction). In a handful of cases, experiencing negative life events was associated with positive relationship outcomes. For example, individuals who experienced a potentially stressful life transition, like beginning a new job or experiencing a new negative health event, also reported feeling more support and responsiveness from their partner over time.
However, these effects were rare, and, when significant, the size of the effects were very small. It was much more common for the occurrence of these life events to be unassociated with changes in relationship quality. While this may seem surprising, these results emphasize a point relationships theorists have been making for decades: the presence of a negative event alone is not enough to make or break a romantic relationship.
On Union College Week: What can we do to improve education for Black students in majority white communities?
Stephen Schmidt, Kenneth B. Sharpe Professor of Economics, examines possible solutions.
Faculty Bio:
Stephen Schmidt has been professor of economics at Union College since 1994, after completing his Ph.D. in economics at Stanford University. He was appointed the Kenneth B. Sharpe Professor of Economics in September 2019. His research interests include the economics of education, especially education finance, and the normative evaluation of economic outcomes and policies. He has published articles in American Economic Review (Papers & Proceedings), Journal of Public Economics, Contemporary Economic Policy, Economics of Education Review, Journal of Higher Education, Theoria, Restoration Ecology, Journal of Economic Education, Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, Southern Economic Journal, International Journal of Industrial Organization, and others. He teaches courses in econometrics, game theory, intermediate microeconomics, the economics of race, and normative economics, as well as the College’s first-year inquiry seminar.
Transcript:
There is a racial divide in the United States economy, which means that people of different racial and ethnic identities don’t have the same economic prospects in life. One source of this divide is differences in education. Students of color, especially African-Americans, often don’t get the same level of education funding that other students get. One explanation for this pattern is stigmatization theory. It says that when members of a majority stigmatize a minority, they spend less on public services, since the stigmatized group cannot be excluded from the benefits of those services. My research examines the way school districts set spending levels to see if the patterns that stigmatization theory predicts are found in the data. In particular, I look to see whether the racial composition of a district’s student body affects spending levels differently when the adult voters in the district are dominantly White. There is good news, which is that in districts where the adult voters are less than about 90% White, education funding is higher when the student body contains more African-American or Hispanic students - presumably to address disadvantages children in those communities face. But, in districts with more than about 90% White voters, this effect is found only for Hispanic students, not for African-American students. Why are only African-American students, not Hispanic students, treated differently when districts have highly White voters? Stigmatization can explain this pattern. If White voters stigmatize African-American children - but not Hispanic children – and they can only act on this stigmatization when they are dominant in education politics, then we would see the pattern that we actually see in the data. What should we do? We can redraw district lines in ways that increase the diversity of voters, not just students, where that is possible. When it isn’t possible, state governments could provide funding that local voters are reluctant to provide.
Racial Stratification and Local Education Funding
On Union College Week: How do we unravel the secrets of volcanoes?
Holli Frey, professor of geosciences, examines tiny crystals to gather clues.
Faculty Bio:
Holli Frey is a professor of Geosciences from Union College (NY). She studies volcanoes, trying to understand the plumbing systems beneath them, looking for clues as to how and why they erupt. She is particularly interested in mineral chemistry and chronology and uses a variety of analytical tools to address fundamental questions about magma evolution. She has active field-based projects in the Caribbean (St. Vincent and Dominica) and Central Oregon (Tumalo Tuff) and previously did work in the western Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt and plutons in coastal Maine. She enjoys mentoring students, who are frequently co-authors on her publications. Her most recent work is on the eruptions of St. Vincent and she is a project partner of Dr. Jenni Barclay (University of Bristol) on a funded, collaborative grant, “Ex-X: Expecting the Unexpected (Understanding Dangerous Volcanic Transitions)”. This summer, Dr. Frey will take several students to Dominica, continuing to explore the eruptive history of the island. Dr. Frey received her B.A. in geology from Franklin and Marshall College and her PhD in geosciences from University of Michigan, supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.
Transcript:
In early 2021, the volcano La Soufrière in St. Vincent in the Caribbean rumbled to life after more than 40 years. Thick lava slowly oozed out at the summit, not a real threat to the 16,000 people living in its shadow.
Then, in April, everything changed. The shaking beneath the volcano shifted, prompting an evacuation. In less than 24 hours, powerful explosions began, sending ash high into the atmosphere. For two weeks, more than 30 explosions rocked the island, transforming the landscape and destroying more than 1000 homes.
So, what happened inside the volcano during that sudden transition?
To find out, we turned to the crystals locked inside the rocks that erupted in the first 48 hours. It was the smallest crystals – called microlites – that were key to understanding the volcano’s behavior. The microlites are like time capsules; they preserve clues about where magma has been and what it experienced on its journey to the surface. As these tiny crystals formed, they caused the magma to become more gas rich, increasing the pressure past a tipping point which caused the explosions.
What we found in the microlite chemistry tells a story of magma moving through two very different environments on its way to the surface.
The first crystals formed deep underground, more than fifteen kilometers beneath the volcano, where magma sat under intense pressure and water-rich conditions. Those crystals were carried upward, survivors from deep in the volcanic plumbing system.
The next series of microlites didn’t come from depth however. They crystallized as the magma was moving more quickly to the surface, after the initial throat clearing first blasts that destroyed the lava dome.
By reading the record preserved in the tiny crystals, we can better understand how quiet dome-building eruptions suddenly become explosive and hopefully improve how we anticipate hazards at active volcanoes.
Read More:
[Lyell Collection] - Petrology of the explosive deposits from the April 2021 eruption of La Soufrière volcano, St Vincent: a time-series analysis of microlites
[Union] - Frey Awarded NSF RAPID Grant
[U.S. National Science Foundation] - Award Abstract # 2132566 RAPID: The effusive to explosive transition of La Soufrière, St. Vincent: Insights from petrology and hygrometry
DangerousVolcanoes.org
On Union College Week: Why are democracies suspending the rights of their people?
Guillermina Seri, professor of political science, explores this.
Faculty Bio:
Guillermina Seri is a Professor in the Department of Political Science at Union College, NY, where she teaches courses in political theory and Latin American Politics. Seri is the author of the books Seguridad: Crime, Police Power, and Democracy in Argentina (Continuum, 2012) and Neoliberalism and Unlawful Governance. The Crisis of Democratic Rights (University of Michigan Press, 2026), and co-editor of the volume Police Abuse in Contemporary Democracies (Palgrave, 2018).
Transcript:
We often assume democracies are safe havens for human rights, but my research tracks a troubling trend: Across a number of democracies, state abuses and police violence are starting to mirror the abuses linked to emergency measures that suspend rights in authoritarian regimes.
Drawing on media and archival research, I’ve found that while emergency powers used to be the tool of dictators in the 1970s, by the mid-2000s, democratic governments were actually using them more often than nondemocracies. These records challenge established beliefs in political science that democracies “almost never” suspend rights.
Why is this happening? One trend associated with the rise of emergency regimes is the subordination of politics to protecting markets. We’ve entered an era where protecting the market has become the state's highest priority—its Reason of State—often bypassing legal safeguards. This global experiment began under the military dictatorship of 1970s Chile, then extended through and from the Global North. Today, it thrives in the “chainsaw” economics of Javier Milei's Argentina by subjecting everyone and everything to a market rationale, even when it may undermine rights protections.
However, my research also highlights the democratic extraordinary moments when citizens reclaim voice and rights. These are the moments that open possibilities to strengthen democracy and take care of both people and the planet.
Read More:
[University of Michigan Press] - Neoliberalism and Unlawful Governance
On Union College Week: Learning goes on, even during war.
Kristin Bidoshi, professor of Russian in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, discusses this through language teaching in Ukraine.
Faculty Bio:
Kristin Bidoshi is a professor of Russian in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures and the director of Russian and East European Studies program at Union College, a small liberal arts college in Schenectady, NY. She conducts fieldwork in Eastern Europe and publishes on topics including the use of oral tradition in the works of Anton Chekov, Nikolai Gogol and Liudimila Petrushevskaia. She also publishes in applied linguistics, specifically in Russian language pedagogy, and has recently presented workshops on building, evaluating and using custom AI tools in the language classroom.
Kristin also directs a Teaching English Practicum in which Union College students teach English as a Second Language (ESL) classes online to Ukrainian children or in-person ESL classes to refugees and immigrants in the NY Capital District.
Transcript:
What does it mean to teach language during war? The answer seems obvious. Language instruction can resume remotely, focusing on basic communicative skills. But this captures only part of the problem. War-time language teaching is never pedagogically neutral. Instruction unfolds within asymmetries of vulnerability and responsibility as classrooms become places where global politics and ethical judgment emerge.
My research, grounded in applied linguistics, examines foreign language education during war. Drawing on Michael Byram’s theory of intercultural citizenship, qualitative data from student teachers’ reflections and classroom observations of their remote English classes with Ukrainian children, this research examines how wartime English instruction moves beyond its expected focus on grammar and communication to become an ethical and civic practice, reshaping everyday instructional approaches, classroom roles and even student teachers’ understandings of language teaching, power and civic responsibility.
A student’s apology for missing class because “the power was out,” is a stark reminder of how the war shapes daily life. When a student mentions life “before the war,” grammar becomes less important as the teacher decides how to preserve instructional routine and acknowledge hardship. In these moments, skill instruction gives way to responding with care to lives shaped by conflict.
In times of war, education is fragile. This research reminds us that language pedagogy, theorized through intercultural citizenship, can sustain human connection when war seeks to undo it.
Read More:
[Space of Knowledge] - English speaking club with American students
MondayKristin Bidoshi, professor of Russian in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, discusses how learning goes on even during war.
TuesdayGuillermina Seri, professor of political science, explores why democracies are suspending the right of their people.
WednesdayHolli Frey, professor of geosciences, examines tiny crystal to unravel the secrets of volcanoes.
ThursdayStephen Schmidt, Kenneth B. Sharpe professor of economics, examines possible solutions to improving education for black students in majority white communities.
FridayMariah Purol, assistant professor of psychology, examines what happens to our love lives when the rest of life gets messy.
Catch up with The Academic Minute from 7/13 - 7/17MondayJean-Baptiste Ruffio - University of California, San DiegoHow Big Can a Planet Be?Jean-Baptiste Ruffio is a research scientist studying extra-solar planets in the Astronomy & Astrophysics department at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). He has been developing statistical and instrumentation techniques to push the frontiers of planet detection and characterization with the largest telescopes in the world, both on the ground and in space.
TuesdayJean Wactawski-Wende - University at BuffaloA Women’s Health Study for the AgesJean Wactawski-Wende, PhD, is a SUNY Distinguished Professor and dean of the University at Buffalo School of Public Health and Health Professions. She is an epidemiologist who focuses her research on understanding factors that influence women’s health.
WednesdayKim Miller - Wheaton CollegeAfrican Women’s Friendships as Hidden HistoriesKim Miller is Professor of Art History, and Coordinator of the Peace and Social Justice Studies Program at Wheaton College. Formerly, she directed Wheaton’s Women’s and Gender Studies Program (2006 – 2020), served as co-director of the Institute for the Interdisciplinary Humanities, and held the Jane Oxford Keiter Endowed Chair in the Humanities and Social Sciences.
ThursdayJonas Mureika - Loyola Marymount UniversityCan You Paint Like Jackson Pollock? Physics has the AnswerJonas Mureika serves as chair and professor of physics at Loyola Marymount University. Mureika spent much of his academic training at the University of Toronto, where he earned his B.S. in astronomy and physics and Ph.D. specializing in theoretical cosmology. He also holds an M.S. from the University of Waterloo where he studied particle physics.
FridayCarrie Cuttler - Washington State University From Future Tasks to Past Events Cannabis Intoxication Disrupts Memory in Many WaysDr. Carrie Cuttler is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology and Co-Director of the Cannabis Research Center at Washington State University. She directs the Health and Cognition (THC) Lab, where her research examines both the beneficial and detrimental effects of cannabis and cannabinoids. Her recent work focuses on the therapeutic potential of cannabigerol (CBG) and the effects of chronic cannabis use and acute cannabis intoxication on cognition (e.g., memory, creativity, executive functioning), mental health (e.g., depression, anxiety, autism, ADHD), physical health (e.g., pain, sleep), and stress. Dr. Cuttler has published several books and more than 80 peer-reviewed journal articles.
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Food is the main event of most Thanksgivings. Ashli Stokes, associate professor in the department of communication studies at the University of North Carolina Charlotte, discusses the importance of preparing something tasty for your family to enjoy this holiday. Dr. Ashli Quesinberry Stokes is an Associate Professor of Communication Studies and the Director of the […]
The importance of odors to your taste buds might be greater than you think. Putu Agus Khorisantono, postdoctoral researcher at the Karolinska Institutet, delves into this. I am a cognitive and behavioural neuroscientist based in the Department of Clinical Neuroscience (Psychology Division) of Karolinska Institutet, with a background in statistics, functional neuroimaging and neuroeconomics. My […]
How we treat obesity may need to be reshaped. Nabil Alshurafa, associate professor of preventive medicine and computer science at Northwestern University, determines what wearable sensors can achieve. Dr. Nabil Alshurafa is an associate professor at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine and the McCormick School of Engineering, known for his work in mobile and […]
AI may be able to help in the fight against cancer. Kun-Hsing Yu, associate professor in the department of biomedical informatics at Harvard Medical School, looks into how it can help. Kun-Hsing “Kun” Yu, M.D., Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Informatics at Harvard Medical School. He pioneered the first fully […]
How can we save certain bird species? By changing our behavior. Shelby Carlson, research associate at Cornell University, looks into this. Shelby Carlson is a research associate at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. As a conservation social scientist, Dr. Carlson applies theories and methods from the fields of sociology and psychology to understand human-wildlife interactions. […]
We still have a lot to learn about the first pandemic thousands of years ago. Rays Jiang, associate professor in the department of global, environmental, and genomic health at the University of South Florida, digs into the Earth to find out more. As the first genomics lab in University of South Florida, Rays Jiang lab […]
How do we tell if a pattern of ecological disasters is new or old? Mohamad Junaid, associate professor of sociology, anthropology and social work at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, looks through history to explore this. I am an anthropologist with a strong belief in teaching as crucial to creating a just, sustainable, and […]
How do we best help students navigate the ups and downs of college life? Alexis Redding, faculty co-chair of Higher Education and Lecturer on education at Harvard University, examines the W-curve to find out. Alexis Redding is a developmental psychologist whose who specializes in supporting young adults during the college years and the transition to […]
What does the future hold for computer science? Imran Mirza, associate professor of physics at Miami University, explores this through quantum computing. Dr. Imran Mirza is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Physics at Miami University of Ohio. Before his appointment at Miami, he served as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of […]
Iron isn’t just important for us – viruses need it too. Katherine Wander, associate professor of anthropology at Binghamton University, examines how this plays a role in COVID infections. Kathy Wander is a biological anthropologist in Binghamton University’s department of Anthropology. She received her BA from the Ohio State University and her MPH and PhD […]
Can receiving a Purple Heart medal for a combat injury lower the risk of suicide in combat veterans? Jayna Moceri-Brooks, clinical assistant professor at the Rory Meyers College of Nursing at New York University, explores whether this recognition has an effect. Jayna Moceri-Brooks, PhD, RN, is a Clinical Assistant Professor at NYU Rory Meyers College […]
Is there a better way to explore space without using rockets for propulsion? Manasvi Lingam, assistant professor of astrobiology at the Florida Institute of Technology, examines one potential technology. Manasvi Lingam, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of astrobiology at Florida Institute of Technology (Florida Tech) in Melbourne, Florida. After completing his undergraduate degree at the […]
On Syracuse University Week: Trees need a long time to adapt to climate change. David Fastovich, assistant professor of geography, explains why. Dr. David Fastovich was a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Bhattacharya Paleoclimate Dynamics lab at Syracuse University and will soon be starting as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography at the University […]
On Syracuse University Week: Global trade has been a major topic in recent headlines. Kristy Buzard, associate professor and Melvin A. Eggers Economics Faculty Scholar, explores the power of multilateralism. Kristy Buzard is an Associate Professor of Economics and Melvin A. Eggers Economics Faculty Scholar at Syracuse University. She received a Ph.D. in Economics from […]
On Syracuse University Week: Does Earth’s memory hold the key to our future? Claire Rubbelke, Ph.D. graduate at Syracuse University and Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellow of Engineering at the University of Notre Dame, digs in to find out. I recently completed my Ph.D. at Syracuse University and started a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Notre […]
On Syracuse University Week: Being perfect under pressure is a difficult task. Rachael Dailey Goodwin, assistant professor of management and Lender Center Research Affiliate, examines this through the lens of ballet. Rachael Dailey Goodwin is an Assistant Professor of Management at Syracuse University. She completed a Ph.D. at the University of Utah and a research […]
On Syracuse University Week: The fertility rate in the United States may pose challenges in the future. Leonard M. Lopoo, Paul Volcker Chair in Behavioral Economics, says certain policies may do more harm than good. Leonard M. Lopoo is the Paul Volcker Chair in Behavioral Economics; Associate Dean and Chair of the Department of Public […]
Health among those afflicted with diabetes is improving, but obtaining work remains a challenge. Jack Chapel, assistant professor of health policy and management at the University of Southern California, examines why. Jack Chapel is an assistant professor (research) of health policy and management at the University of Southern California’s (USC) Price School of Public Policy […]
Games can influence our world in many ways. Samuel Pizelo, assistant professor of game studies at the University of Toronto, Mississauga, explores games as system-modeling tools. Samuel Pizelo is an Assistant Professor of Game Studies at the Institute for Communication, Culture, Information and Technology at the University of Toronto, Mississauga. He completed his PhD at […]
Can the evolution of one species copy from another? Jonathan Losos, William H. Danforth distinguished university professor at Washington University in St. Louis, looks to answer this. Jonathan Losos is a renowned evolutionary biologist at Washington University in St. Louis. His lab researches the behavioral and evolutionary ecology of lizards as well as the evolutionary […]
Understanding how humans learn language provides a blueprint for designing other intelligent learning systems. Jon Rawski, assistant professor in the department of linguistics and language development at San Jose State University, discusses how to do so. Jon Rawski is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Linguistics and Language Development at San José State University […]
On New York University Week: Your behavior can affect the city you live in. Takahiro Yabe, assistant professor in the department of technology management and innovation and the Center for Urban Science and Progress, details the relationship. Takahiro Yabe is an Assistant Professor at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering Department of Technology Management and […]
On this Student Spotlight during New York University Week: Structural factors can shape psychotic experiences in young adults. Jackie Cosse, Ph.D. candidate and adjunct professor in the Silver School of Social Work, examines how. Jacqueline (Jackie) Cosse, LMSW, is a PhD candidate and adjunct instructor at New York University’s Silver School of Social Work, with […]
On New York University Week: What’s in a name? Erin Morrison, clinical associate professor in liberal studies, looks at one colorful bird to find out. Dr. Erin Morrison is a Clinical Associate Professor in Liberal Studies at New York University. She holds a B.A. in Biology from Amherst College and received her Ph.D. in Ecology […]
On New York University Week: Listening to music can have many benefits. Pablo Ripollés, assistant professor of music technology and psychology, investigates why it may be helpful for those recovering from a stroke. Pablo Ripollés is an Assistant Professor with a joint position between the Department of Psychology and the Music and Audio Research Laboratory […]
On New York University Week: Green spaces are key for cooling cities, but not every urban area has enough. Rumi Chunara, associate professor of computer science and engineering and biostatistics, investigates this from an urban planning perspective. The overarching goal of Rumi Chunara’s research is to develop computational and statistical approaches for acquiring, integrating and […]
Hope could be on the way for those with vision loss. Jiarui Nie, postdoctoral fellow at the National Eye institute, National Institutes of Health and PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Brown University, delves into this. Jiarui Nie is a postdoctoral fellow at the National Eye Institute, NIH. She completed her Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering at […]
We still have questions to answer about the Earth’s relationship with the Sun. Lauren Blum, assistant professor of astrophysical and planetary science at the University of Colorado Boulder, examines some. Lauren Blum is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder. Prior to 2020, she was a research […]
If you help someone out, that builds trust with them – right? Stephen Lee, assistant professor of management at the Carson College of Business at Washington State University, says that might not always be the case. Dr. Stephen Lee is an Assistant Professor of Management in the Department of Management, Information Systems, and Entrepreneurship (MISE) […]
Can reading be an act of resistance? Amy Krug, senior lecturer of English at the University of Dayton, examines this. Amy Krug is a senior lecturer at the University of Dayton. She specializes in the scholarly study of popular romance novels, particularly how romance novels function in community. With her students, she is developing a […]
How do we stop infectious disease transmission while patients are in the hospital? Alexander Sundermann, Dr.P.H., assistant professor of infectious diseases at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, looks into one way to do so. Since 2015, Dr. Alexander Sundermann has been part of the Microbial Genomic Epidemiology Laboratory (MiGEL) studying the impact of […]
On University of Southern California Dornsife Week: Can watching earthquakes unfold lead us to a new path for prediction in the future? Sylvain Barbot, associate professor of earth sciences, looks into this. Dr. Sylvain Barbot studied earthquake physics and tectonic geodesy at the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, the Institute of Geophysics and […]
On University of Southern California Dornsife Week: Excessive eating can have many harmful effects. Scott Kanoski, professor of biological sciences, tries to understand the mechanisms behind these effects. Professor of Biological Sciences at USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, Scott Kanoski’s research focuses on behavioral neuroscience, ingestive behavior, energy balance, neuroendocrinology, learning & […]
On University of Southern California Dornsife Week: We’re still seeking to better understand dark matter in our universe. Vera Glusevic, associate professor of physics and astronomy, examines one way to do so. Vera received her B.Sc. from University of Belgrade (Serbia) in 2007, and her Ph.D. from Caltech in 2013. After completing a postdoctoral fellowship […]
On this Student Spotlight during University of Southern California Dornsife Week: What does your brain learn from rejection? Begüm G Babür, Ph. D student in social psychology, analyzes the results. Begüm is a Ph.D. student in the Social Connection Lab at USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. She received her B.A. in Psychology […]
On University of Southern California Dornsife Week: What happens in childhood has an impact – especially when it comes to money. Deborah Finkel, research professor at the center for economic and social research and department of psychology, examines why. Deborah Finkel is a research professor (50%) at CESR. She earned her PhD in behavior genetics from the […]
Two places on the globe that seem far apart may have more in common than previously thought. Jenna Grace Sciuto, professor of global anglophone literature at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, explores a couple. Jenna Grace Sciuto is a professor of English at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. She received her BA from […]
If we can catch early signs of dyslexia and dysgraphia, we can get children the care they need. Venu Govindaraju, SUNY distinguished professor in the department of computer science and engineering at the University at Buffalo, looks at how to do so. Venu Govindaraju is vice president for research and economic development at the University […]
Keeping tabs on sharks could help conservation, and AI may be able to help. Francesco Ferretti, assistant professor of fisheries management and conservation at Virginia Tech, dives in. Dr. Francesco Ferretti is a quantitative computational ecologist specialized in research synthesis. He combines ecology, statistical modeling, and data science to approach questions on animal abundance, species […]
How do we replace stigma with compassion for lung cancer patients? Timothy Williamson, assistant professor of psychological science at Loyola Marymount University, discusses this issue. Timothy J. Williamson is an assistant professor of psychological science and director of the Psychosocial Risk & Resilience in Stress & Medicine (PRRISM) Research Laboratory in the Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts […]
What if a student sues a professor because of a bad grade? Kent Kauffman, associate professor of business law and ethics at Purdue University Fort Wayne, looks into this. Kent Kauffman is associate professor of Business Law and Ethics, and is the MBA Programs Faculty Liaison in the Doermer School of Business at Purdue University […]
On New York University: Do we need to take AI to kindergarten? Cristina Savin, associate professor in neural science and data science, says AI needs to start learning more like humans. CS is an Assoc. Professor in Neural Science and Data Science at NYU and the Director for Graduate Studies (PhD) in the Center for […]
On New York University Week: Not all building-related issues are reported in cities, so how can machine learning help fill the gaps? Daniel Neill, professor of computer science, public service, and urban analytics and Director of the Machine Learning for Good Laboratory, delves into this question. Daniel B. Neill, Ph.D., is Professor of Computer Science, […]
On New York University Week: We’re always making decisions in life, so how can we improve our decision-making? Marcelo Mattar, assistant professor of psychology and neural science, uses tiny AI models to find out. Dr Marcelo Mattar is an Assistant Professor of Psychology and Neural Science at New York University. He holds a PhD in […]
On New York University Week: Bird wings aren’t just made for flying. David Fouhey, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, examines another benefit. David Fouhey is an Assistant Professor at NYU, jointly appointed between Computer Science in the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences and Electrical and Computer Engineering in the Tandon School of Engineering. […]
Treating prostate cancer is challenging, but help may be on the way. Joshi Alumkal, Wicha family professor of oncology at the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center, explores how. Alumkal spent most of his childhood and early adulthood in Texas. He graduated summa cum laude from the University of Texas with a bachelor’s in biology. […]
Our understanding of dementia may need an update. Annemari Kilpelainen, doctoral researcher at the University of Eastern Finland, tells us why. Annemari Kilpeläinen is a neurologist at the Neurocenter of Kuopio University Hospital and a PhD researcher at the University of Eastern Finland. Her clinical interests focus on epilepsy and movement disorders, while her research […]
How can we bring joy into education? Johanna Smith, professor of theater education and entrepreneurship at California State University, San Bernardino, finds a way to incorporate it. Johanna Smith is a Professor of Theatre Education and Entrepreneurship at California State University, San Bernardino. She has served as an artist and educator for professional theatres, museums, […]
Relationships are important to our health, so how do we foster them? Julianne Holt-Lunstad, Scientific Leadership Council Chair and Board Member, Foundation for Social Connection, and Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience and Director of the Social Connections Lab at Brigham Young University, details how to get connected. Dr. Julianne Holt-Lunstad is the founding scientific chair […]
What can our children’s screen time teach us about family relationships? Cecilia Sada Garibay, graduate student in communication at the University of Arizona, observes to find the answer. Before entering her Ph.D. program, Sada Garibay was a professor and researcher at the School of Communication at Universidad Panamericana in Mexico City. There, she taught courses […]
How can we tell when a newborn is in pain? Tina Ho, associate professor of pediatrics at the University of South Florida, helps determine this. Tina Ho joined USF in 2016 as a neonatologist in the Morsani College of Medicine Pediatrics Department, Neonatology Division and the Jennifer Leigh Muma NICU at Muma Children’s Hospital at […]
AI takes a lot of energy, so how do we lighten the load? Mosharaf Chowdhury, associate professor of computer science at the University of Michigan, gets computer chips working together toward a solution. Dr. Mosharaf Chowdhury is a computer scientist interested in all facets of efficient systems: from software runtimes to the hardware resources they […]
How we deal with stressful situations may be influenced by who we’re with at the time. Alexei Morozov, research scientist with the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at Virginia Tech University, looks into the social influence. Alexei Morozov, a research scientist with the Virginia Tech’s Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC. Sex Differences in how Mice […]
If you’re feeling depressed, should you get up and move? Silje Steinsbekk, full professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, discusses whether physical activity is the answer. Silje Steinsbekk is a full professor of clinical child- and adolescent psychology, and co-PI of the Trondheim Early Secure Study (TESS) at the Dept. of Psychology, […]
How can employers support employees suffering from mental illness? Emily Rosado-Solomon, assistant professor of management at Babson College, explores this topic with care. Emily Rosado-Solomon is an Assistant Professor of Management at Babson College. She received her PhD at Rutgers University School of Management and Labor Relations, and previously served on the faculty at California […]
Bed bugs aren’t just a nuisance to humans – they annoy bats too. Lindsay Miles, postdoctoral researcher at Virginia Tech, looks at the genetics of these pests. I look through the lens of population genetics and molecular evolution to understand how urbanization impacts organisms. I am co-founder of the urban evolution blog that summarizes urban […]
We still have more to learn about the pituitary cells regulating puberty and reproduction. Karine Rizzoti, research scientist in the stem cell biology and developmental genetics lab at the Francis Crick Institute, examines. Karine Rizzoti completed her Ph.D. at the University Paul Sabatier in Toulouse, France, where she studied cell movements during early embryonic development. […]
Staying ahead of viruses can be challenging. Can AI help? Noor Youssef, Scientific lead of the Predictive Modeling for Vaccine Design group at Harvard Medical School, details why the answer may be yes. Dr. Noor Youssef is a mathematician turned biologist driven by a passion for using mathematics and computer science to tackle pressing challenges […]
How important is a syllabus? Kent Kauffman, associate professor of business law and ethics at Purdue University Fort Wayne, discusses this. Kent Kauffman is associate professor of Business Law and Ethics, and is the MBA Programs Faculty Liaison in the Doermer School of Business at Purdue University Fort Wayne, where he teaches in the undergraduate […]
If you like grapes, there’s good news ahead. John Pezzuto, professor and dean of the college of pharmacy and health sciences at Western New England University, details why grapes should be part of your diet. Dr. John Pezzuto is professor and dean of the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences at Western New England University […]
Text-to-video AI is here, but it’s far from perfect. Jiebo Luo, Albert Arendt Hopeman professor of Engineering and professor of computer science at the University of Rochester, identifies a solution to one challenge. Jiebo Luo is the Albert Arendt Hopeman Professor of Engineering and Professor of Computer Science at the University of Rochester. He is a Fellow of […]
Understanding how your body senses muscle movement is essential for balance. Katherine Wilkinson, professor of biology at San Jose State University, examines how it works. Katherine Wilkinson is a Professor of biology at San José State University in San Jose, California. Wilkinson’s specialty is studying and understanding proprioception–how our brains understand our physical presence in […]
What factors lead someone to believe a conspiracy theory over the official account of events? Ryan Ceresola, associate professor of sociology and chair of the department of sociology, criminology and human services at Hartwick College, takes a look at this phenomenon. Ryan Ceresola is an Associate Professor of Sociology and Chair of the Department of […]
Pests are evolving to become resistant to genetically engineered crops. Bruce E. Tabashnik, regent’s professor and head of the department of entomology at the University of Arizona, looks to stay one step ahead. My research team studies the evolution and management of insect resistance to crops genetically engineered for pest control. Current work focuses on […]
Mindfulness may help to lower anxiety for some, but not all. How do we know who is who? Resh Gupta, postdoctoral research associate at Washington University in St. Louis, looks into the research. Resh Gupta is a postdoctoral research associate with the Mindfulness Science & Practice Cluster and the Cognitive Control & Psychopathology Laboratory at […]
On Pomona College Week: Did you binge-watch last weekend? Ryan Engley, assistant professor of media studies, examines why we stay up to keep watching. Ryan Engley researches the intersection of psychoanalytic theory and media studies. His current book manuscript, Seriality: Media and the Psychic Form of Everyday Life, casts the notion of seriality as a […]
On Pomona College Week: Natural climate solutions have a role to play in fighting climate change. Charlotte Chang, assistant professor of biology and environmental analysis, explores how. Charlotte Chang is a computational sustainability scientist whose work focuses on finding solutions for nature and people to thrive together. Chang is the inaugural One Conservancy Visiting Science […]
On Pomona College Week: Wildfires in California have a long history. Char Miller, W. M. Keck professor of environmental analysis and history, examines this. Char Miller is the W. M. Keck Professor of Environmental Analysis and History at Pomona College, where he teaches classes on public lands, water, fire, urbanization. Why is California on Fire? […]
On Pomona College Week: What is the Random Forest prediction model? Jo Hardin, professor of math and statistics and Hardison Chair of analytical thinking, explores how it works. Jo Hardin is Professor of Mathematics & Statistics and Hardison Chair of Analytical Thinking at Pomona College. Her research areas include machine learning, methods development for biological […]
On Pomona College Week: Unclaimed deaths are on the rise. Pamela Prickett, associate professor of sociology, examines how some have come together to honor them. Pamela Prickett is an associate professor of sociology at Pomona College and former journalist. She is the author of two books about Los Angeles, including The Unclaimed: Abandonment and Hope in the […]
On Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business Week: E-commerce is a big deal in China. Lizhu Liu, associate professor, discusses why. Lizhi Liu is an Assistant Professor at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business and the author of the award-winning book From Click to Boom: The Political Economy of E-commerce in China (Princeton University Press, […]
On Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business Week: Can algorithms be used to eliminate implicit biases in financial decisions? Francesco D’Acunto, Clark Chair in Global Real Estate and Provost Distinguished professor of finance, determines the possibilities. Francesco D’Acunto is the A. James Clark Chair in Global Real Estate and Provost Distinguished Associate Professor of Finance […]
On Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business Week: Creators want to get paid for their work, but should they also release content for free as well? Ziwei Cong, assistant professor of marketing, says yes. Ziwei Cong is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University. Her research employs econometrics and machine […]
On Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business Week: A lot of our clothes we buy end up in landfills. Vishal Agrawal, Professor and Henry J. Blommer Family Endowed Chair in sustainable business, looks to reduce this. Vishal Agrawal is Henry J. Blommer Family Endowed Chair in Sustainable Business, Professor of Operations and Information Management, and […]
On Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business Week: Cutting costs has benefits, but also hidden costs. Yunan Ji, assistant professor of strategy at the McDonough School of Business, discusses this as it relates to health care. Yunan Ji is an Assistant Professor of Strategy at the Georgetown University McDonough School of Business. Her research focuses on […]
Angry birds aren’t just a videogame; they have a biological reason to be angry in real life too. Sara Lipshutz, assistant professor of biology at Duke University, explores why. Sara Lipshutz is an Assistant Professor in the Biology Department at Duke University. Her lab’s research focuses on the evolution of behavior across weird and wonderfully […]
We’re still making new discoveries about pregnancy. Donghai Liang, associate professor of environmental health at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health, examines how exposure to certain chemicals may affect mothers and babies. As an exposure scientist and molecular epidemiologist, Dr. Donghai Liang is particularly interested in characterizing the human exposome and elucidating the molecular […]
Mosquitos and ticks are parts of the summer, so how do we best avoid them? Lee Haines, associate research professor in Medical Entomology at the University of Notre Dame, discusses. Lee Haines is a researcher with a PhD in Tropical Medicine and an MSc in Parasite Biochemistry and Microbiology, who specializes in diseases transmitted by […]
Collaboration can happen anywhere these days and bring lots of benefits. Andrew Osborne, faculty lecturer at Douglas College, explores collaboration in an academic framework. Andrew Osborne is a faculty lecturer in intercultural communication at Douglas College in New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada. In his intercultural communication teaching practice, Andrew has developed and led six Collaborative […]
On this Student Spotlight: Teens aren’t the only ones who should be studied when it comes to social media use. Alison Tuck, Ph. D candidate in clinical psychology at Washington University in St. Louis, researches adult use as well. Alison Tuck is a doctoral candidate in clinical psychology at Washington University in St. Louis. Her […]
Drones can help us with wildfire detection and suppression. Matthew Spencer, associate professor of engineering at Harvey Mudd College, takes a bird’s eye view. Matthew Spencer (Member, IEEE) received B.S. and M.Eng. degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2007 and 2008, respectively, and a Ph.D. degree from the University of California, Berkeley, in […]
We think we know what causes mutations in dogs at Chornobyl, right? Megan Dillon, PhD graduate from the Genetics program at North Carolina State University, says that might not be the case. Megan is a recent PhD graduate from the Genetics program at North Carolina State University. Her dissertation work focused on the free-breeding dogs […]
We’re still learning about how to best serve those with autism. Catherine Talbot, assistant professor in the school of psychology at the Florida Institute of Technology, discusses how a hormone for social behavior could help. Catherine F. Talbot is an Assistant Professor in the School of Psychology at Florida Tech. After receiving her B.S. in […]
Could the moon of another planet be a source for life as we know it? Antonin Affholder, post-doctoral researcher at the University of Arizona, discusses. Antonin Affholder obtained his PhD from the École Normale Supérieure, in Paris, France, working on developing models of ecosystems on other worlds to assess their habitability and to research biosignatures. […]
Why do meteorites that land on Earth not match their asteroid brethren in space? Patrick Shober, postdoctoral fellow at the Paris Observatory and NASA’s Johnson Space Center, watches the skies for answers. Patrick Shober is a planetary scientist who investigates small solar-system bodies—from asteroids and comets to the spectacular fireballs their debris creates in Earth’s […]
Early detection is key in preventing parasites invading shellfish. Andrew Davinack, assistant professor of biology at Wheaton College in Massachusetts, takes a practical approach to doing so. I am an aquatic biologist with a strong focus on invasive invertebrates and the parasites which infect them. In particular, I am interested in understanding how human activities […]
We are still learning about all the effects of cannabis use. Raphael Cuomo, professor of medicine at the University of California, San Diego, explores how it may tie in with one affliction. Raphael E. Cuomo, PhD, is a globally recognized authority in biomedical science and non-communicable disease epidemiology. His research has shaped how scientists and […]
E-cigarette use is declining, but nicotine pouch usage is on the rise. Dae Hee Han, researcher associate in the department of population and public health sciences at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, delves into why. As a behavioral scientist, Dr. Dae-Hee Han specializes in investigating the behavioral and health-related […]
Air pollution has gone down, but wildfire smoke is here to replace it. Nick Muller, professor of economics, engineering, and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University, explores how to address this. Nicholas Muller is the Lester and Judith Lave Professor of Economics, Engineering, and Public Policy and works at the intersection of environmental policy and […]
Lung cancer has a high chance of relapse, so how do we get out of ahead of it? Nancy Guo, SUNY Empire Innovation Professor in the school of computing at Binghamton University, discusses technology that helps us do so. Nancy Guo is one of the newest additions to the Binghamton University School of Computing as […]
On University at Albany Week: One community resource is well positioned to help people engage with AI. Maria Gascó-Hernandez, research director at the Center for Technology in Government and Associate professor of public administration and policy, explores. Mila Gascó-Hernandez is the Research Director at the University at Albany’s Center for Technology in Government (CTG UAlbany). […]
On University at Albany Week: Problem gambling can affect anyone, especially students. Laura Longo, researcher with the Center for Behavioral Health Promotion and Applied Research, explores how to combat this. Laura Longo is a licensed psychologist and researcher with the Center for Behavioral Health Promotion and Applied Research at UAlbany, as well as a senior […]
On University at Albany Week: Understanding what drives antimicrobial resistance is crucial. Cheryl Andam, associate professor in the department of biological sciences at the RNA Institute, identifies a new mechanism. Cheryl Andam is an associate professor in UAlbany’s Department of Biological Sciences. She works on the genome evolution of bacterial pathogens, with a focus on antimicrobial […]
On University at Albany Week: Knowing what came before can help us prepare for what’s ahead in our climate’s future. Mathias Vuille, professor in the department of atmospheric and environmental sciences, digs in to search for clues. Mathias Vuille is a professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences at the University at Albany. […]
On University at Albany Week: Preparing for disasters is crucial. Alex Greer, associate professor in the department of emergency management and homeland security, looks into one avenue to do so. Alex Greer is an associate professor in the Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security at the University at Albany. Greer’s research focuses on a number […]
How can AI help students get information while not replacing human interactions in the process? Tirumala Chimpiri, senior programmer analyst and independent researcher at Stony Brook University, examines the possibilities. Tirumala Rao Chimpiri is a Senior Programmer Analyst and Independent Researcher at Stony Brook University, NY. He is a seasoned software professional with over 26 […]
Crimes of passion against women are a problem in Italy. Julia Khrebtan-Hörhager, associate professor of communication studies at Colorado State University, delves into why. Julia Khrebtan-Hörhager is an Associate Professor of Communication at Colorado State University and a Director of Education Abroad programs in Europe. She is a holder of three International Communication Association Top […]
Not everyone’s brain ages at the same rate. Andria L. Ford, professor of neurology, adult stroke & cerebrovascular disease at Washington University of St. Louis Medicine, looks into one reason why. Dr. Andria L. Ford is a neurologist at WashU Medicine specializing in stroke, cerebrovascular diseases, and the neurological complications of sickle cell disease. Her […]
Knowing what your co-workers may lead to unintended consequences. Boris Maciejovsky, associate professor of management at the University of California Riverside School of Business, outlines why. Boris Maciejovsky is an award winning researcher and teacher, a TEDx speaker, and an Associate Professor of Management. His research interests are decision-making in economic, social, and organizational contexts. […]
We all hate waiting for road maintenance to be completed; what if we didn’t have to wait? Rae Robertson-Anderson, professor of physics and biophysics and associate provost for engaged scholarship at the University of San Diego, explores how this could be possible. Robertson-Anderson is Associate Provost for Engaged Scholarship at University of San Diego, where […]
On Tippie College of Business at the University of Iowa Week: What do Antiques Roadshow and NFTs have in common? Soogand Alavi, assistant professor of marketing, says more than you might think. Soogand Alavi is an assistant professor of marketing in the University of Iowa’s Tippie College of Business. She studies emerging technologies such as […]
On Tippie College of Business at the University of Iowa Week: How do we reduce biases in AI learning models? Qihang Lin, Henry B. Tippie research fellow and associate professor in the department of business analytics, explores the options. Qihang Lin is Henry B. Tippie Research Fellow and Associate Professor in the Department of Business […]
On this Student Spotlight during Tippie College of Business at the University of Iowa Week: Should companies use slang on social media? Probably not. Bryce Pyrah, PhD student in marketing, explains why. Bryce Pyrah is a PhD student in marketing at the University of Iowa’s Tippie College of Business, University of Iowa. His research focuses […]
On Tippie College of Business at the University of Iowa Week: Do you know a co-worker with a side hustle? Jennifer Nahrgang, professor and Henry B. Tippie Excellence Chair of Management and Entrepreneurship, discusses how it might affect them at work. Jennifer D. Nahrgang is Professor and Henry B. Tippie Excellence Chair of Management and […]
On Tippie College of Business at the University of Iowa Week: How do we fix the loneliness epidemic? Emily Campion, assistant professor of management and entrepreneurship, discusses one place you can foster closeness. Emily Campion is an assistant professor of management and entrepreneurship in the Tippie College of Business at the University of Iowa. Her research […]
On Harvey Mudd College Week: It takes time to read a lot of information, and what if you need it fast?
Xanda Schofield, assistant professor of computer science, looks beyond AI.
Xanda Schofield is an Assistant Professor in Computer Science at Harvey Mudd College. She completed her B.S. in Computer Science and Mathematics at Harvey Mudd in 2013, and her Ph.D. in Computer Science at Cornell University in 2019. Her work focuses on practical applications of small-scale natural language processing (NLP) to research in the humanities and social sciences. She is also passionate about improving ethical and inclusive practice in her field.
Making Sense of Text with Topic Modelshttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/06-20-25-Harvey-Mudd-Making-Sense-of-Text-with-Topic-Models.mp3When confronted with a pile of documents too long to read, you might ask: can I find out what’s in here without looking at all of it?
Decades before ChatGPT and large language models, linguistics and statistics came together to answer this question with topic models. Topic models take the idea of context clues to a massive scale: they use counts of what words show up together in the same documents, whether those are news articles, customer complaints, or kids’ book chapters. Those statistics help to split the text into groups of words that show up together, which we call topics.
These topics often correspond to themes that someone who knows the text can recognize. If we look at kids’ books and see a topic emphasizing the words “store,” “money,” and “mall,” we might guess that wherever this topic shows up, people are talking about shopping.
Topic models can help with text research: they can measure common trends and distinguish unusual text to explore more. So why aren’t we seeing topic models everywhere? A few years ago, I recruited a team of undergraduate research students to help me figure out why.
We interviewed fifteen different text experts who had used topic models to find out what slowed their projects down. We found that for topic models to be useful, expert human intervention was necessary. Decisions like whether two words should be treated as the same or whether a model was good enough for an application required knowing a lot about the underlying text. Applying that knowledge was sometimes slow, but without that work, the model wouldn’t be useful.
This changed my thinking about my job as someone who works in AI. I want to help people make decisions by using AI as a support tool for human expertise and decision-making, not a substitute.
Read More:
A blog post about topic models and kid lit, led by Quinn Dombrowski
A shorter paper using topic models to make sense of companies’ Twitter behavior around corporate social responsibility
A paper diving into the details of what makes topic modeling work so complicated
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On Harvey Mudd College Week: To solve big problems, we may need to look small.
Albert Dato, associate professor of engineering, explains why.
Albert Dato is an Associate Professor of Engineering at Harvey Mudd College (HMC). His undergraduate research program at HMC focuses on the synthesis and applications of advanced materials that can address challenges in climate, energy, and the environment. His work on polymer-matrix nanocomposites is supported by a National Science Foundation CAREER award. Under the mentorship of Prof. Michael Frenklach, he received his Ph.D. in Applied Science & Technology in 2009 from the University of California, Berkeley, which is where he discovered the substrate-free gas-phase synthesis of graphene. After receiving his Ph.D., he founded one of the first companies to bring graphene to market. He also worked in the Silicon Valley as a process development engineer at Novellus Systems Inc. and as a scientist at Air Liquide Electronics US LP. His decision to join the faculty of HMC in 2014 was driven by his deep desires to (1) teach undergraduates, (2) mentor students in scientific research, and (3) increase diversity in science and engineering.
Can Tiny Carbon Flakes Solve Big Environmental Problemshttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/06-19-25-Harvey-Mudd-Can-Tiny-Carbon-Flakes-Solve-Big-Environmental-Problems.mp3Imagine surfaces that harvest water directly from air, or materials that alleviate climate change by capturing carbon dioxide emissions, or energy storage devices that enable electric cars to travel farther on a single charge. Many potential technologies that can benefit the planet could be achieved with atomically thin flakes of carbon called graphene.
However, manufacturing graphene usually involves breaking down graphite. Mining for graphite emits carbon and can harm ecosystems. Furthermore, processes that turn graphite into graphene can generate hazardous waste and require large quantities of water. For graphene to be a solution to major environmental issues, the tiny material must be produced in environmentally friendly ways.
Undergraduate students in my laboratory are discovering solutions to problems in our planet through research on a form of graphene that is created through a sustainable process. Gas-phase-synthesized graphene, or GSG for short, is produced by sending pure drinking alcohol into an atmospheric plasma reactor that can be powered using renewable energy.
Our studies have revealed many intriguing properties of GSG, such as its high strength, remarkable electrical conductivity, and unparalleled water repellency. Incorporating GSG into polymers has resulted in strong and lightweight composites. Slippery surfaces that could be used for atmospheric water harvesting have been created by covering surfaces with GSG. A research collaboration with a national laboratory has shown that GSG can significantly increase the energy storage capacity of 3D printed electrode materials, as well as improve membranes for capturing carbon dioxide.
Therefore, technologies that harness the unique properties of tiny GSG flakes could solve big problems in climate, energy, and the environment.
Read More:
[C&En] – A simple route to water-repellent graphene
[Mudd] – A Lighter, Stronger Polymer
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On Harvey Mudd College Week: Reducing the cost of capturing energy from the sun could be crucial to our future.
Hal Van Ryswyk, John Stauffer professor of chemistry, looks at one way to do so.
Hal Van Ryswyk is a materials chemist doing fundamental research on low-cost photovoltaics with undergraduate coworkers at Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California. A graduate of Carleton College with a PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he has served as chair of the Department of Chemistry at Harvey Mudd, as a member of the American Chemical Society Committee on the Petroleum Research Fund, and as a visiting professor at MIT, Stanford, Northwestern, and ETH-Zürich.
Printing Solar Cellshttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/06-18-25-Harvey-Mudd-Printing-Solar-Cells.mp3Solar energy is available on a scale that dwarfs all other renewable energy sources: the sun sends the Earth more energy in 20 minutes than humanity uses in a year.
While the price of silicon solar panels has decreased enough to make solar cheaper than fossil fuels, fundamental barriers prevent silicon solar panels from becoming affordable enough to supply the world’s energy needs. It’s a question of scale and cost.
To put the scale in context, to power the US economy requires solar panels with an area equivalent to the entire federal interstate highway system. To put the cost in context, current silicon solar panels cost about $100 per square yard, and that’s simply too much!
Third-generation solar cells can be built with a fraction of the material and energy required to build silicon solar panels, thereby drastically reducing cost. In our lab, we use quantum dots in place of silicon.
These semiconductor nanoparticles are used to create inks which can be sprayed, blade-coated, or printed. When the ink dries, the resulting solar cell is thinner than a layer of commercial housepaint. To make good on the promise of third-generation solar cells, we fine-tune quantum dot surface chemistry to maximize efficiency and to allow for cheap, easy processing.
Our goal is to mass produce solar cells on flexible substrates that are 3 feet wide and hundreds of feet long with a cost per square yard equal to that of housepaint, about $20. Reaching this goal would make third generation solar cells a disruptive technology, and market forces would funnel users world-wide to affordable, ubiquitous solar power.
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On Harvey Mudd College Week: What can fish teach us when they’re out of the water?
Leah Mendelson, associate professor of engineering, looks into this.
Dr. Leah Mendelson holds a B.S. from Olin College (2011) and a M.S. (2013) and Ph.D. (2017) from MIT, all in mechanical engineering. At Harvey Mudd College, Dr. Mendelson teaches classes and mentors students in engineering design and solid and fluid mechanics. She also directs the Flow Imaging Lab at Mudd (FILM). Her research interests include biological fluid mechanics, bio-inspired mechanism design, and techniques for fluid flow measurement in both research and educational settings.
Fish Out of Waterhttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/06-17-25-Harvey-Mudd-Fish-Out-of-Water.mp3We know well what it means to “Swim like a fish.” Fish exemplify how to move efficiently and elegantly through the water. It’s why we go to the aquarium. We might think about fish when we’re swimming ourselves. And engineers have taken notice too.
Fish have inspired engineers to design underwater vehicles and robots that are more agile and efficient than your typical boat or robot. These designs let us explore and study the marine environment in new ways.
But fish don’t always swim in limitless open water. My work instead looks at when a fish leaves the water. Fish jump to avoid predators, migrate to a new habitat, or capture prey living outside the water, like insects. The same variety of movements that you’ll see watching fish swimming at the aquarium happens with their jumping as well.
Jumping out of the water can be a lot harder than just swimming through it, especially when caught half in and half out of the water. Pushing against air doesn’t propel a fish the way water does. Splashing and making waves at the surface costs energy.
Using a mechanical model of the fish’s undulating motion, like a fin for an underwater robot, we’ve found that the size of the surface disturbance has a big influence on how much thrust we achieve and how efficiently our jumping fish would move. This is a new way to think about how the fish moves as it leaves the water. Controlling the surface disturbance is also an important design consideration for a semiaquatic robot, especially if we want to avoid disrupting the environment our robot is moving in.
For my work, being a fish out of water represents a big opportunity.
Read More:
[Harvey Mudd College] – NSF Supports Mudders in the Splash Zone of Bioinspired Fluid Mechanics
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On Harvey Mudd College Week: Coral reefs are at risk, but other types of coral may flourish in the future.
Catherine McFadden, Vivian & D. Kenneth Baker professor of life sciences, dives in to take a look.
Catherine S. McFadden has been a faculty member at Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California since 1991, where she holds the position of Vivian and D. Kenneth Baker Professor of Biology. She is also a Research Associate at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History. Her research interests lie in the patterns of distribution and mechanisms that generate biodiversity in the marine environment, with a specific focus on the anthozoan corals, especially octocorals (soft corals and sea fans). Her research group develops and uses molecular and genomic approaches to understand species boundary problems as well as deep phylogenetic relationships and trait evolution in octocorals.
Coral Communities of the Futurehttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/06-16-25-Harvey-Mudd-Coral-Communities-of-the-Future.mp3Corals and the huge reef structures they construct are threatened by rapidly warming ocean temperatures. Several scientific studies have predicted that reef-building corals may be extinct by the end of the 21st century. As so-called “rainforests of the sea” coral reefs support millions of other species whose existence will also be threatened by loss of the corals that provide their habitat.
But not all corals build reefs, and as reef-building corals decline we are witnessing increases in populations of other types of corals that may survive better under current and future climate scenarios. My research focuses on understanding these other types of corals, commonly referred to as soft corals or sea fans. These non reef-building corals generate a different type of habitat but one that nonetheless supports many other species. Will they be the coral communities of the near future?
In order to answer that question we need to understand much more about these other corals which have historically been understudied relative to their reef-building counterparts. We still lack very basic information about them including how many species there are, where those species live, and how to distinguish them from one another. That basic knowledge is necessary in order to track which species seem to be benefitting from environmental change and which others are suffering and declining along with the reef-building corals.
My research lab has developed DNA-based tools that are allowing us to better identify, distinguish and monitor species of soft corals and sea fans as they increase or decrease in response to changes in the environment. We are applying these tools to study soft coral-dominated reefs in the Indo-Pacific, sea fan-dominated communities in the Caribbean, and to track the spread and ecological impacts of non-native species of soft corals that have been introduced to reefs in the Caribbean and elsewhere.
A soft coral-dominated reef landscape in the Red Sea.Reef in the Florida Keys dominated by sea fans.The post Catherine McFadden, Harvey Mudd College – Coral Communities of the Future appeared first on The Academic Minute.
Harvey Mudd College Week on The Academic Minute 2025.06.16
MondayCatherine McFadden, Vivian & D. Kenneth Baker professor of life sciences, dives in to take a look at the coral communities of the future.
TuesdayLeah Mendelson, associate professor of engineering, looks into what fish can teach us when they’re out of the water.
WednesdayHal Van Ryswyk, John Stauffer professor of chemistry, examines one way of reducing the cost of capturing energy from the sun.
ThursdayAlbert Dato, associate professor of engineering, explains why we may need to look small to solve big problems.
FridayXanda Schofield, assistant professor of computer science, looks beyond AI for ways to gather a bunch of information from a document quickly.
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MondayWill Berelson – University of Southern California DornsifeUrban Greenery Plays a Bigger Role in Offsetting Fossil Fuel Emissions than Expected
Will Berelson is the Paxson Offield Professor of Earth Sciences, Environmental Studies and Spatial Sciences at USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. His research involves studies of chemical cycling in the air and ocean, largely focusing on the carbon cycle. He is part of an interdisciplinary USC team leading the USC Urban Trees Initiative and the Carbon Census group, a program to study hyperlocal distributions of CO2 and other air constituents in Los Angeles neighborhoods.
TuesdayShun Ye – George Mason UniversityAI Tools and Human Decision Making
Shun Ye is an Associate professor of Information Systems and Operations Management at George Mason University’s Costello College of Business. With a Ph.D. in Management Information Systems from the University of Maryland, Dr. Ye’s research interests focus on digital platforms and open innovation. Published in top leading journals like MIS Quarterly and Information Systems Research, Dr. Ye engages in various professional organizations, such as the Association for Information Systems (AIS) and INFORMS. A multiple award winner for his teaching excellence, including the George Mason University Teaching Excellence Award, he teaches undergraduate, MBA, and MS Business Analytics programs.
Wednesday
Sonja Molfenter – New York UniversityPublic Awareness of Dysphagia
Dr. Sonja Molfenter is a clinically-trained Speech Language Pathologist whose research specializes in understanding the physiological features of both normal swallowing and disordered swallowing (known as dysphagia). Swallowing function is commonly disrupted after many conditions including stroke, brain injury, head and neck cancer and spinal cord injury. Her over-arching research goal is to produce clinically-relevant research to inform front-line clinical practice. Her research focuses on naturally-occurring muscle loss in the pharynx as the result of aging. Dr. Molfenter’s work aims to understand the impact of these age-related changes on swallowing function and explore methods to prevent or reverse these changes.
ThursdayAustin Garner – Syracuse UniversityFishy Friction through Microscopic Modification
Austin M. Garner is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology and BioInspired Institute at Syracuse University. His research focuses on how animals interface with their environment with a particular focus on how animals attach to surfaces in variable conditions. He employs an interdisciplinary research approach that combines expertise in both life and physical sciences. Garner’s research currently focuses on attachment and locomotion of lizards (geckos and anoles), sea urchins, and marine sculpins. Prior to joining Syracuse University, Garner was a Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow at Villanova University from 2021-2022. Garner earned a Ph.D. in Integrated Bioscience in 2021 and a B.S. in Biology (magna cum laude) in 2016, both from the University of Akron.
FridayBonnie Le – University of RochesterHere’s the Truth About Honesty in Romantic Relationships
Bonnie Le is an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Rochester whose research focuses on how emotions and motivations shape well-being in interpersonal relationships. The goal of her research is to understand how emotional and motivational processes may help or hinder the maintenance of satisfying and supportive relationships, which are vital to psychological and physical health.
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Are you honest with your romantic partner?
Bonnie Le, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Rochester, explains the benefits of doing so.
Bonnie Le is an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Rochester whose research focuses on how emotions and motivations shape well-being in interpersonal relationships. The goal of her research is to understand how emotional and motivational processes may help or hinder the maintenance of satisfying and supportive relationships, which are vital to psychological and physical health.
Here’s the truth about honesty in romantic relationshipshttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/06-13-25-Rochester-Heres-the-truth-about-honesty-in-romantic-relationships.mp3It’s human nature to value honesty in our closest relationships. But we’ve all been in a situation where we’re torn between telling a loved one what we really think and telling them what we think they want to hear. If you’ve ever had a spouse or romantic partner ask, “Do I look good in this outfit?” you know what I mean.
I’m a psychologist and my research focuses on how emotions, motivations to care for others, and character strengths shape well-being in interpersonal relationships.
I’ve found that, as the old saying goes, honesty is the best policy in our closest relationships — even when the truth may hurt.
That finding is based on a study of more than 200 couples who we asked to share changes they’d like their partner to make about themselves. We looked at how expressing honesty, as well as how the receiver of the change news perceived their partner’s honesty.
The result? Honesty led to better personal well-being and stronger relationships for both partners. When people were honest about what they wanted to change, it helped them feel closer to their partner and motivated the other person to change.
Interestingly, what mattered most was the effort to be truthful and how much each person felt that their partner was being truthful. So, the mere act of partners opening up — and feeling that the other was being honest — was enough to improve their relationship. Those things build trust and make both partners feel more connected.
One thing to note about this study is that it focused on couples in relatively stable relationships. We haven’t yet tested couples facing more challenging times.
But the findings still suggest that honesty — especially in tough or delicate conversations — strengthens relationships in the long run. Even if the truth hurts, it’s worth it.
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Underwater organisms have things to teach us about how to keep our grip in extreme conditions.
Austin Garner, assistant professor of integrative animal biology at Syracuse University, explores how.
Austin M. Garner is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology and BioInspired Institute at Syracuse University. His research focuses on how animals interface with their environment with a particular focus on how animals attach to surfaces in variable conditions. He employs an interdisciplinary research approach that combines expertise in both life and physical sciences. Garner’s research currently focuses on attachment and locomotion of lizards (geckos and anoles), sea urchins, and marine sculpins. Prior to joining Syracuse University, Garner was a Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow at Villanova University from 2021-2022. Garner earned a Ph.D. in Integrated Bioscience in 2021 and a B.S. in Biology (magna cum laude) in 2016, both from the University of Akron.
Fishy Friction through Microscopic Modificationhttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/06-12-25-Syracuse-Fishy-Friction-through-Microscopic-Modification.mp3Organisms of the rocky intertidal zone are often subjected to extreme environmental conditions. Crashing waves, for example, expose intertidal organisms to huge forces, threatening to dislodge bottom-dwelling, benthic organisms from surfaces they are moving or resting on. As such, many mobile benthic organisms of the rocky intertidal zone have evolved discrete attachment systems like suction cups or adhesive secreting discs to reversibly attach to surfaces. However, not all marine intertidal organisms use such systems to stay put in these challenging conditions.
Sculpins are a group of fishes closely related to sea robins, lionfishes, stonefishes, and rockfishes. Most species of sculpin are benthic, using the claw-like tips of their pectoral fins to grip rocks and other substrates. Most research has focused on how the large-scale aspects of their pectoral fins allow sculpins to live this benthic lifestyle under extreme flow.
Dr. Emily Kane, Assistant Professor of Biology at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and her group used a scanning electron microscope to visualize the surface of sculpin fin rays and found that they were covered in microscopic, fibrillar projections. Dr. Kane noticed the resemblance of these new structures to those that geckos use to attach to surfaces and reached out to begin a new collaboration between our groups. Through rigorous microscopic study of the fin ray surfaces of four species of sculpin, we not only described the morphology of these fibrillar projections for the first time but also found that intertidal species have different arrangements of these structures. The similarity of these structures to those found in the discrete attachment systems of other organisms and the differences we observed between sculpin species suggest that these structures may function to increase friction or adhesion with underwater surfaces.
Read More:
[Royal Society Publishing] – Epidermal microstructures on the paired fins of marine sculpins suggest new functional hypotheses supporting benthic station-holding
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Not all common medical conditions are well studied.
Sonja Molfenter, associate professor in communicate sciences and disorders at New York University, examines one that needs more attention.
Dr. Sonja Molfenter is a clinically-trained Speech Language Pathologist whose research specializes in understanding the physiological features of both normal swallowing and disordered swallowing (known as dysphagia). Swallowing function is commonly disrupted after many conditions including stroke, brain injury, head and neck cancer and spinal cord injury. Her over-arching research goal is to produce clinically-relevant research to inform front-line clinical practice. Her research focuses on naturally-occurring muscle loss in the pharynx as the result of aging. Dr. Molfenter’s work aims to understand the impact of these age-related changes on swallowing function and explore methods to prevent or reverse these changes.
Public Awareness of Dysphagiahttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/06-11-25-NYU-Public-Awareness-of-Dysphagia.mp3The act of swallowing is something that most people take for granted. However, when swallowing is impaired (a condition known as “Dysphagia”), there are serious consequences for health and quality of life. For example, if food or liquid is misdirected during swallowing, it can end up in the lungs and result in pneumonia. Dysphagia is a common sequalae of many medical conditions including stroke, head and neck cancer, and neurodegenerative diseases and is estimated to impact between 5-10% of Americans. And yet, the public’s understanding of this debilitating and yet relatively common condition is not clear.
Therefore, my lab team, including 4 summer undergraduate research interns, conducted a large-scale survey designed to capture people’s knowledge about dysphagia. The survey included 2000 adults with proportional representation across demographic and geographic factors. In addition to dysphagia, we asked about other health conditions: Vertigo, Insomnia, and Ataxia, so that we could compare the results across conditions and to their relative prevalence rates.
Our questions focused on four main constructs: 1) is the public aware of the condition, 2) what is the source of their knowledge, 3) do they understand the health impact of the condition, and 4) do they know which medical professionals treat the condition. Our findings revealed a consistent and notable gap in public awareness for dysphagia compared with conditions, despite dysphagia’s higher prevalence than vertigo and ataxia.
This information can be used to champion efforts to improve public understanding of dysphagia. Ultimately, increased public awareness can lead to earlier identification and intervention for individuals experiencing the condition, potentially improving their health outcomes and quality of life.
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Shun Ye, Assistant Professor, ISOM, School of Business. Photo by Creative Services/George Mason UniversityAI may help us make decisions, but are they the right decisions?
Shun Ye, associate professor of information systems and operations management at George Mason University, examines the outcomes.
Shun Ye is an Associate professor of Information Systems and Operations Management at George Mason University’s Costello College of Business. With a Ph.D. in Management Information Systems from the University of Maryland, Dr. Ye’s research interests focus on digital platforms and open innovation. Published in top leading journals like MIS Quarterly and Information Systems Research, Dr. Ye engages in various professional organizations, such as the Association for Information Systems (AIS) and INFORMS. A multiple award winner for his teaching excellence, including the George Mason University Teaching Excellence Award, he teaches undergraduate, MBA, and MS Business Analytics programs.
AI Tools and Human Decision Makinghttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/06-10-25-George-Mason-AI-Tools-and-Human-Decision-Making.mp3AI-driven tools and features on online platforms aim to simplify and speed up consumer decision-making. However, my research shows that while this approach appears effective for locating information more quickly, it might unintentionally lead consumers to make poorer choices.
For our study, my co-authors and I used data from two widely used restaurant review platforms, Yelp and TripAdvisor, to assess the impact of Yelp’s AI-powered image categorization feature. This feature categorizes restaurant review images into five sections – food, drinks, menu, inside, and outside. The idea is to make it easier to find relevant restaurant images, so that users can choose restaurants more efficiently. For our experiment, we compared Yelp’s data, with TripAdvisor’s data, matching corresponding restaurants across 10 U.S. cities. These comparisons allowed us to track how Yelp’s AI feature changed actual consumer decisions, by analyzing ratings before and after the AI was added. We saw that while the AI photo categorizer appeared to cut down search time, it also led consumers to overlook relevant information that is often better captured in written reviews – like service quality. As a result, the caliber of decision-making declined.
We also found that Yelp’s AI feature caused what is called cognitive miser behavior, where consumers favor less mentally taxing information, such as AI images, over more complex or in-depth content – like written reviews. So, while review images can show off to consumers the tangible – cozy ambiance and mouthwatering food – this feature misses the mark on the intangible and led to an increase in consumer complaints related to service.
To make the most of these findings, platform managers and business owners who wish to implement AI tools on their platforms should consider complementing these features with existing tools, such as written reviews, in order to balance convenience and comprehensive decision-making.
Read More:
Email: sye2@gmu.edu
Phone: (703) 993-1844
Relevant Publications:
- Lianlian Jiang, Shun Ye, Liang Zhao, and Bin Gu. “ Do Reductions in Search Costs for Partial Information on Online Platforms Lead to Better Consumer Decisions? Evidence of Cognitive Miser Behavior from a Natural Experiment,” Information Systems Research, forthcoming
- Pallab Sanyal, and Shun Ye. “An Examination of the Dynamics of Crowdsourcing Contests: Role of Feedback Type,” Information Systems Research (35:1), 2024, pp. 394-413.
- Raveesh Mayya, Shun Ye, Siva Viswanathan, and Rajshree Agarwal. “Who Forgoes Screening in Online Markets and Why? Evidence from Airbnb,” MIS Quarterly (45:4), 2021, pp.1745-1776.
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Trees don’t need to be in a forest to help combat climate change.
Will Berelson, Paxson Offield professor of Earth Sciences, Environmental Studies and Spatial Sciences at the University of Southern California Dornsife, looks at reducing emissions in urban areas.
Will Berelson is the Paxson Offield Professor of Earth Sciences, Environmental Studies and Spatial Sciences at USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. His research involves studies of chemical cycling in the air and ocean, largely focusing on the carbon cycle. He is part of an interdisciplinary USC team leading the USC Urban Trees Initiative and the Carbon Census group, a program to study hyperlocal distributions of CO2 and other air constituents in Los Angeles neighborhoods.
Urban Greenery Plays a Bigger Role in Offsetting Fossil Fuel Emissions than Expectedhttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/06-09-23-USC-Dornsife-Urban-Greenery-Plays-a-Bigger-Role-in-Offsetting-Fossil-Fuel-Emissions-than-Expected.mp3As climate change worsens urban heat and pollution, trees do more than provide shade—they absorb CO2 emissions. Our research offers a model for cities to measure how much CO₂ their trees capture.
In a dense Los Angeles neighborhood, we found trees working harder than expected. During spring and summer, they absorb up to 60% of daytime carbon emissions. Annually, that drops to about 30%.
We deployed 12 high-resolution carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide sensors across a 14 mile by 4 mile area, encompassing downtown Los Angeles, to track CO₂ movement in real time. Factoring in wind speed, direction, and urban density, we mapped how local greenery offset fossil fuel emissions.
Traditional estimates rely on fuel sales, traffic data, or single-point sensors. Our approach measured CO₂ directly, providing an accurate, long time averaged and localized view.
Think of emissions like passengers on a train—pollution moves through the city, some gets picked up, and some gets dropped off. Our array of sensors captured this process in action.
Surprisingly, trees absorbed the most CO₂ in summer. Despite L.A.’s dry climate, irrigation, groundwater from leaky pipes, and drought-resistant trees keep the city’s greenery active year-round.
But trees alone can’t keep up. CO₂ levels still spiked during rush hour, underscoring the need for clean energy and public transit. In L.A., we’re expanding the Carbon Census network and we believe this real-time monitoring can help cities worldwide keep track of emissions and maximize urban greenery’s impact.
Nature is helping—but we can’t expect it to do all the work.
Read More:
[USC Dornsife] – L.A.’s urban trees absorb more carbon than expected, USC Dornsife study finds
The post Will Berelson, University of Southern California, Dornsife – Urban Greenery Plays a Bigger Role in Offsetting Fossil Fuel Emissions than Expected appeared first on The Academic Minute.
This Week on The Academic Minute 2025.06.09
MondayWill Berelson, Paxson Offield professor of Earth Sciences, Environmental Studies and Spatial Sciences at the University of Southern California Dornsife, looks at reducing emissions in urban areas.
TuesdayShun Ye, associate professor of information systems and operations management at George Mason University, whether AI is helping us make the right decisions when it comes to where to eat.
WednesdaySonja Molfenter, associate professor in communicate sciences and disorders at New York University, examines one medical condition that needs more attention.
ThursdayAustin Garner, assistant professor of integrative animal biology at Syracuse University, explores how underwater organisms have things to teach us about how to keep our grip in extreme conditions.
FridayBonnie Le, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Rochester, explains the benefits of being honest in your romantic relationships.
The post This Week on The Academic Minute (2025.06.09) appeared first on The Academic Minute.
MondayElahe Solanaghai – University of Illinois Urbana ChampaignSensing Beneath the Forest Canopy: A New Tool for Wildfire Prevention
Elahe Soltanaghai is an assistant professor of Computer Science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her research spans the areas of wireless networking and sensing with applications in IoT, Cyber-Physical Systems, and Mixed Reality. Previously, she was a postdoctoral researcher at Carnegie Mellon University. She received her PhD in Computer Science from University of Virginia. Her work has been published in premier conferences and journals in the areas of mobile and ubiquitous computing and network systems. She has been named one of the 10 Rising Star Women in Networking and Communications in 2021. She is also the recipient of Google Research Scholar Award (2022), and ACM SIGMOBILE Dissertation Award (2021).
TuesdayLee Haines – University of Notre DameDo Mosquitos Harbor Viruses Without Falling Ill?
Lee Haines is a researcher with a PhD in Tropical Medicine and an MSc in Parasite Biochemistry and Microbiology, who specializes in diseases transmitted by arthropods.
Her work delves into the intricate relationships between insects, their microbiota, and the pathogens they spread, covering projects from basic to translational science. With over 20 years of experience managing large insect colonies, she has garnered a deep understanding of insect biology and disease transmission.
Wednesday
Christopher Baldassano – Columbia UniversityThe Brain Organizes Narratives Into Meaningful Event Memories
Christopher Baldassano is an Associate Professor in the Psychology Department at Columbia University. He was an undergraduate in Electrical Engineering at Princeton University, received his PhD in Computer Science at Stanford University, and was a postdoc at the Princeton Neuroscience Institute. His lab’s research focuses on how knowledge about the world – including semantic knowledge, temporal structure, spatial maps, or schematic scripts – is used to understand and remember complex naturalistic experiences. By applying machine learning techniques to data from behavioral and neuroimaging experiments, his work aims to uncover how dynamic representations in the mind and brain during perception lead to the formation of event memories.
ThursdayDiana Aga – University at BuffaloBacteria Found to Eat Forever Chemicals
Diana Aga is an environmental and analytical chemist. As Henry M. Woodburn Chair and SUNY Distinguished Professor in the University at Buffalo Department of Chemistry, Aga leads a team that studies how a wide range of chemicals affect the environment. This work has included research on persistent organic pollutants, including per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), also known as “forever chemicals.”
Projects have focused on detecting known and unknown contaminants, removing them from municipal and agricultural wastewater, developing new technologies to degrade persistent organic pollutants, and understanding the impact of pollutants on the environment, humans and wildlife.
FridayStephanie Madsen – McDaniel CollegeImaginary Athletes in Social Development
Stephanie Madsen is professor of psychology at McDaniel College. She joined the college in 2001 after earning her master’s and Ph.D. in child psychology from the University of Minnesota, and graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota.
Her research examines the impact of close relationships on various aspects of social development. She has looked at adolescent relationships with parents and romantic partners, as well as imaginary companions in the context of athletics. Her most recent article, “Imaginary athletes: Prevalence, forms, and developmental functions,” co-authored by Wellesley College Professor Tracy Gleason, was published by Social Development in February 2025. As an author of numerous articles for scholarly publications and peer-reviewed journals, Madsen has presented at various conferences and been interviewed by the NPR and the Wall Street Journal.
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Children have imaginary friends, but what about adults?
Stephanie Madsen, professor of psychology at McDaniel College, examines this with athletes in mind.
Stephanie Madsen is professor of psychology at McDaniel College. She joined the college in 2001 after earning her master’s and Ph.D. in child psychology from the University of Minnesota, and graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota.
Her research examines the impact of close relationships on various aspects of social development. She has looked at adolescent relationships with parents and romantic partners, as well as imaginary companions in the context of athletics. Her most recent article, “Imaginary athletes: Prevalence, forms, and developmental functions,” co-authored by Wellesley College Professor Tracy Gleason, was published by Social Development in February 2025. As an author of numerous articles for scholarly publications and peer-reviewed journals, Madsen has presented at various conferences and been interviewed by the NPR and the Wall Street Journal.
At McDaniel, Madsen teaches a variety of courses in the Department of Psychology and has led the creation of Honors Seminars, Senior Capstones, and the First Year Seminar Power of Play. She has also directed independent undergraduate student research projects.
In addition to teaching, she served as McDaniel College’s associate dean of student success and was director of the Honors Program. She is also a self-taught watercolor artist, and her work can be found in corporate collections, galleries, retail locations, and online at stephaniemadsen.art.
Imaginary Athletes in Social Developmenthttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/06-06-25-McDaniel-Imaginary-athletes-in-social-development.mp3While imaginary companions and their role in social development has been researched, the existence of imaginary athletes had never before been considered on its own.
I first became aware of imaginary others in the context of athletics when students in my First Year Seminar on The Power of Play began sharing personal stories of interacting with these pretend characters. Unlike typical imaginary companions, imaginary athletes were described as pretend beings representing an opponent or audience and used to motivate, visualize strategies, or enhance athletic performance, and did not necessarily provide a relationship.
Interested in learning more, I partnered with Wellesley College Professor Tracy Gleason to investigate the role of imaginary athletes in development.
Through a retrospective survey of 225 undergraduate students, our findings demonstrated that imaginary athletes are a distinct and separate subgenre of imaginary beings. While imaginary companions are more common among females, imaginary athletes were reported primarily by males. They are also more prevalent in middle childhood, from ages 6 through 12, as opposed to other imaginary relationships commonly found among young children.
Imaginary athletes exist within both team and individual sports, and fit within three distinct profiles: placeholders, such as ghost runners created to facilitate a game; athletic tools, who provide challenge to hone athletic skills; and social relationships that provide companionship and emotional support, and are often used to combat loneliness.
Creating imaginary athletes appears to be a common experience in middle childhood, particularly among boys. These figures are important developmental tools, helping children master new athletic and social skills.
Read More:
Article authored by Stephanie Madsen (McDaniel College) and Tracy Gleason (Wellesley College) in “Social Development” titled “Imaginary athletes: Prevalence, forms, and developmental functions”
Psychology Department at McDaniel College
Information about First Year Seminars at McDaniel College
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We may have found an ally in our fight against PFAS chemicals.
Diana Aga, Henry M. Woodburn Chair and SUNY Distinguished Professor of chemistry and the director of the RENEW Institute at the University at Buffalo, looks into this.
Diana Aga is an environmental and analytical chemist. As Henry M. Woodburn Chair and SUNY Distinguished Professor in the University at Buffalo Department of Chemistry, Aga leads a team that studies how a wide range of chemicals affect the environment. This work has included research on persistent organic pollutants, including per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), also known as “forever chemicals.”
Projects have focused on detecting known and unknown contaminants, removing them from municipal and agricultural wastewater, developing new technologies to degrade persistent organic pollutants, and understanding the impact of pollutants on the environment, humans and wildlife.
Aga’s work is local and global, ranging from studies on the bioaccumulation of pollutants in fish and common terns in the Great Lakes region, to research investigating the presence of pharmaceuticals, personal care products, antibiotics and antibiotics resistance genes in waters in the U.S., Asia and Europe. She has engaged with international institutions, including the World Health Organization, to combat antimicrobial resistance, one of the greatest threats in modern medicine and public health.
Aga is director of the UB RENEW Institute, a university-wide, multidisciplinary research institute that focuses on complex energy and environmental issues, as well as the social and economic issues with which they are connected.
Bacteria Found to Eat Forever Chemicalshttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/06-05-25-Buffalo-Bacteria-found-to-eat-forever-chemicals.mp3In the quest to take the “forever” out of “forever chemicals,” bacteria might be our ally.
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, have been called “forever chemicals” because of their worrisome persistence. These chemicals, which have now been found to contaminate all types of environments, can have harmful effects on people, even at very low concentrations. Most of the efforts to remove PFAS from the environment involve capturing PFAS in solid materials. But the problem with this approach is that you still need to find a way to dispose the materials so that PFAS do not re-contaminate the environment again.
My colleagues and I explored a different approach: to break apart PFAS into less harmful forms using bacteria that can destroy the carbon-fluorine bonds that make PFAS very persistent. This bacterial strain, called Labrys portucalensis F11—have never been tested for their ability to degrade PFAS. So, we decided to try it.
We placed the bacteria in sealed flasks with three types of PFAS for about 3 months; one of these PFAS was perfluorooctane sulfonic acid, or PFOS, which is detected globally, and that was designated as hazardous by the United States Environmental Protection Agency last year.
What sets our study apart from other biodegradation studies reported to date is that we accounted for the PFAS byproducts formed, and demonstrated that F11 bacteria broke some of these byproducts into smaller PFAS, and eventually to undetectable levels.
Someday, we hope to see F11 be used to clean up PFAS contamination in the environment. But there are still many steps needed to get to this point. Meanwhile, our next step in advancing this research will be to learn how to encourage F11 to break down PFAS even when more readily accessible energy sources are available for them to eat, which is the case in real-world scenarios.
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How we experience an event may change how we remember it.
Christopher Baldassano, associate professor of psychology at Columbia University, looks into our past experiences for clues.
Christopher Baldassano is an Associate Professor in the Psychology Department at Columbia University. He was an undergraduate in Electrical Engineering at Princeton University, received his PhD in Computer Science at Stanford University, and was a postdoc at the Princeton Neuroscience Institute. His lab’s research focuses on how knowledge about the world – including semantic knowledge, temporal structure, spatial maps, or schematic scripts – is used to understand and remember complex naturalistic experiences. By applying machine learning techniques to data from behavioral and neuroimaging experiments, his work aims to uncover how dynamic representations in the mind and brain during perception lead to the formation of event memories.
The Brain Organizes Narratives Into Meaningful Event Memorieshttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/06-04-25-Columbia-The-brain-organizes-narratives-into-meaningful-event-memories.mp3Our experiences in the world unfold over time in a constant stream, and you might imagine that your memory is like a continuous, unbroken filmstrip of your life. But research has shown that our minds divide up an experience into separate memory traces, drawing boundaries between events at key moments like when you walk out the front door or get a phone call. Using functional MRI, we can detect these boundaries in the brain, by looking for moments when brain activity suddenly shifts to a new pattern to start a new event memory.
In this study we wanted to test whether these key moments always come from sudden changes in the outside world, or if your mind can choose when to create an event boundary based on your goals and knowledge. We had people listen to stories that had two intertwining kinds of events in them, like a marriage proposal happening at a restaurant. We told some people to focus on story details related to the marriage proposal, like what the ring looked like, and some people to focus on details related to the restaurant, like what food the couple ordered. These different goals changed the kind of details that people remembered, and also changed the way that their brains divided up the story into events. In the medial prefrontal cortex, the part of your brain right behind the middle of your forehead, we found that events like the food arriving to the table would only trigger a pattern shift (and the start of a new mental chapter) for listeners who were focused on the restaurant-related details of the story.
One key conclusion from this study is that your brain is not just passively taking in events from the world like a video recorder. Based on your expectations and what you are paying attention to, you have control over how you organize the event memories you form.
Read More:
[Current Biology] – Top-down attention shifts behavioral and neural event boundaries in narratives with overlapping event scripts
[Quanta Magazine] – How ‘Event Scripts’ Structure Our Personal Memories
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Why can mosquitoes harbor viruses without being affected while others cannot?
Lee Haines, associate research professor in Medical Entomology at the University of Notre Dame, explores this.
Lee Haines is a researcher with a PhD in Tropical Medicine and an MSc in Parasite Biochemistry and Microbiology, who specializes in diseases transmitted by arthropods.
Her work delves into the intricate relationships between insects, their microbiota, and the pathogens they spread, covering projects from basic to translational science. With over 20 years of experience managing large insect colonies, she has garnered a deep understanding of insect biology and disease transmission.
Beyond research, Lee is a passionate science communicator, engaging in public seminars, social mobility youth workshops, sciart collaborations, podcasts, and radio interviews to inspire awe and respect for insects and microbes. She believes in the power of storytelling to inspire curiosity about the natural world, particularly the often-misunderstood realm of insects and microbes. Science has the ability to connect the past, present, and future, and by co-creating with artists, scientific messages can transcend boundaries to create spaces where knowledge exchange, scientific trust and creativity can flourish.
Do Mosquitoes Harbor Viruses Without Falling Ill?https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/06-03-25-Notre-Dame-Do-mosquitoes-harbor-viruses-without-falling-ill.mp3Have you ever wondered what life is like for a female mosquito?
In the United States, she’s more than just a nuisance – she spreads many nasty viruses like Eastern equine encephalitis (also known as Triple E), West Nile virus, Dengue and Zika. But what happens inside her body when she bites an infected bird or animal is nothing short of incredible.
When she drinks virus-contaminated blood, the virus is carried into her midgut – essentially her version of a stomach and intestines. But here’s where things get interesting – the virus quickly infects her midgut cells & quietly multiplies without detection. This sneaky approach is crucial for how the virus survives in an incredibly hostile digestive environment.
What’s even more fascinating is how mosquitos and viruses have forged an almost symbiotic relationship. For reasons we still don’t fully understand, the mosquito’s primitive immune system barely notices the virus, which allows for a persistent infection without causing illness! Unlike humans with our complex immune responses, mosquitoes typically tolerate these viral passengers for the rest of their short lives. It’s a biological delivery system millions of years in the making.
Insect-borne viruses have mastered the art of exploiting female mosquitoes as both a means for transportation and a safe environment where they can replicate. Although the mosquito doesn’t suffer as much as we do when we get infected, they do not survive completely unscathed either. Now whether they deserve our empathy or not is another question entirely…
Striking Image This is the top view of a tsetse, the vector of African trypanosomiasis, that was fed a dye to make it fluoresce under UV light. The three brightly glowing light-sensing primitive eyes (called ocelli) can be clearly seen nested between this fly’s compound eyes.Read More:
- Interview for 5th Episode of the new podcast series Rust Belt Science “All Things Insects”.
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We need new tools for wildfire prevention going forward.
Elahe Soltanaghai, assistant professor of computer science and electrical and computer engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, aims to deliver one.
Elahe Soltanaghai is an assistant professor of Computer Science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her research spans the areas of wireless networking and sensing with applications in IoT, Cyber-Physical Systems, and Mixed Reality. Previously, she was a postdoctoral researcher at Carnegie Mellon University. She received her PhD in Computer Science from University of Virginia. Her work has been published in premier conferences and journals in the areas of mobile and ubiquitous computing and network systems. She has been named one of the 10 Rising Star Women in Networking and Communications in 2021. She is also the recipient of Google Research Scholar Award (2022), and ACM SIGMOBILE Dissertation Award (2021).
Sensing Beneath the Forest Canopy: A New Tool for Wildfire Preventionhttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/06-02-25-Illinois-Urbana-Champaign-Sensing-Beneath-the-Forest-Canopy-A-New-Tool-for-Wildfire-Prevention.mp3Wildfires are unpredictable, fast-moving, and devastating. Making them even harder to manage is fuel hidden beneath the trees – dry vegetation on the forest floor that can turn a small fire into an uncontrollable blaze. Traditional remote sensing tools struggle to see through the dense canopy and assess what’s underneath, leaving a critical gap in wildfire prediction and prevention.
That’s where our work comes in. We’re developing a drone-based system equipped with ultra-wideband radar that penetrates the canopy and maps understory fuel conditions with high precision – offering analysis that can estimate fuel load, moisture content, and distribution beneath the trees.
A key innovation in our system is the use of backscatter tags – tiny, battery-free devices that act as passive radar reflectors. These tags are strategically placed in fire-prone areas and are designed to enhance the radar’s ability to detect and characterize ground-level fuels. By modulating their reflections, the tags provide additional signal contrast, allowing us to differentiate dry vegetation from non-fuel objects like rocks or damp soil. This improves the accuracy of fuel mapping and enables continuous long-term monitoring without requiring power sources in the field.
Our system will also merge data from drones, radar, and satellites to build better wildfire prediction models. By equipping firefighters and forest managers with real-time data, this system has the potential to prevent disasters before they happen.
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This Week on The Academic Minute 2025.06.02
MondayElahe Soltanaghai, assistant professor of computer science and electrical and computer engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, aims to deliver a new tool of aid in wildfire prevention.
TuesdayLee Haines, associate research professor in Medical Entomology at the University of Notre Dame, explores how mosquitoes can harbor viruses without falling ill.
WednesdayChristopher Baldassano, associate professor of psychology at Columbia University, looks into how the brain organizes narratives into meaningful event memories.
ThursdayDiana Aga, Henry M. Woodburn Chair and SUNY Distinguished Professor of chemistry and the director of the RENEW Institute at the University at Buffalo, explores how bacteria may be able to help us in the fight against forever chemicals.
FridayStephanie Madsen, professor of psychology at McDaniel College, examines imaginary beings with athletes in mind.
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MondayJacob Sawyer – Alma CollegeExamining Myths About Grief and Bereavement
Jacob Sawyer is a counseling psychologist interested in factors related to mental health and well-being. His background and training as a clinician strongly inform his approach to his work as a faculty member. His career at Alma began in 2022.
TuesdayJovan Kamcev – University of MichiganNew Water Purification Technology
Jovan Kamcev develops technologies for affordable and sustainable water and energy, with a focus on membranes and sorbent materials for water treatment, energy storage, and energy generation. He earned his PhD in chemical engineering at The University of Texas at Austin. After graduating, he was further trained as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkley. He grew up in New York City.
Wednesday
Susanna Calkins – Rosalind Franklin UniversityScaling Inclusive Teaching
Susanna Calkins is the founding director of the Nexus for Faculty Success and an associate professor in the School of Graduate and Postgraduate Studies at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science in North Chicago. Prior to joining RFUMS in fall 2022, Dr Calkins directed faculty initiatives at the Searle Center for Advancing Learning and Teaching at Northwestern University for almost 20 years, focusing on inclusive teaching, curricular and pedagogical innovation, assessment of student learning and program evaluation. She has co-authored two academic books (Learning and Teaching in Higher Education: The Reflective Professional (Sage, 2009) and Reflective Teaching (Bloomsbury, 2020, 2024), with a third Reflective Doctoral Education (Bloomsbury Press) in development. She was a co-PI on an NSF-IUSE grant that created the Inclusive STEM Teaching Project, an open-access course which has served over 11000 educators across the United States to date. She earned her PhD and MA in history (British history, women and gender studies) from Purdue and an MS in higher ed administration from Northwestern University.
ThursdayKarmel Choi – Harvard Medical SchoolLinking Genes to Depression
Karmel Choi is a Clinical Psychologist, Director of the Precision Prevention Program in the Center for Precision Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital, and Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School. Her group uses methods from data science, epidemiology, and statistical genetics to understand the development of depression across the life course and identify actionable strategies for prevention. She serves as the outreach representative for the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium’s Major Depressive Disorder Working Group, which seeks to discover how genetic factors contribute to depression.
FridayYunsuh Nike Wee – Oklahoma State UniversityOrigins of Laws About Bodily Damage
Yunsuh (Nike) Wee is a Ph.D. student in experimental psychology working with Dr. Daniel Sznycer. Her research focuses on how the mind computes values and how evaluative systems interface with emotion systems. Her research draws on social psychology, evolutionary psychology, and behavioral ecology.
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On this Student Spotlight: Laws change all the time, but some have carried on for centuries. Why is this?
Yunsuh Nike Wee, Ph.D. student in the department of psychology at Oklahoma State University, discusses some.
Yunsuh (Nike) Wee is a Ph.D. student in experimental psychology working with Dr. Daniel Sznycer. Her research focuses on how the mind computes values and how evaluative systems interface with emotion systems. Her research draws on social psychology, evolutionary psychology, and behavioral ecology.
Origins of Laws About Bodily Damagehttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/05-30-25-Oklahoma-State-Origins-of-Laws-About-Bodily-Damage.mp3Since ancient times, laws have sought to establish compensation for the loss of body parts or life. The most iconic example is “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,” but similar principles are found everywhere.
In medieval times, laws about wergild, or “man price,” dictated how much you had to pay if you killed or injured someone. This practice was found worldwide: among the Anglo-Saxons, the Nuer people of South Sudan, and indigenous groups in the Pacific Northwest.
In modern times, workers’ compensation laws protect employees injured in workplace accidents. These laws set specific amounts for injuries to different body parts, like a damaged hand or loss of hearing.
But where do these laws come from? One theory suggests that laws are cultural creations that vary across societies and historical eras. But we explored a different theory: that laws about bodily harm originate from shared intuitions about the value of body parts—intuitions that are part of human nature.
Some body parts are more critical than others. Life without a toe may be inconvenient, but life without the head is impossible. Laws about bodily damage may reflect this intuitive understanding.
We tested this hypothesis by comparing how laypeople from the United States and India valued different body parts. We also examined whether laypeople’s valuations matched the compensations set by workers’ compensation laws in the United States, Korea, and the United Arab Emirates, as well as medieval laws from England and Sweden.
The results were striking. Despite massive distances in space and time, we found that people value body parts in much the same way. This suggests that the blueprints for laws about bodily damage are embedded in the evaluative mechanisms of the brain. Laws about bodily harm, and the psychology behind them, seem to be part of human nature.
Read More:
[ScienceAdvances] – Laws about bodily damage originate from shared intuitions about the value of body parts
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There is still a lot to learn about the causes of depression.
Karmel Choi, clinical psychologist and assistant professor of psychology at the Harvard Medical School, takes a look inside our genes for clues.
Karmel Choi is a Clinical Psychologist, Director of the Precision Prevention Program in the Center for Precision Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital, and Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School. Her group uses methods from data science, epidemiology, and statistical genetics to understand the development of depression across the life course and identify actionable strategies for prevention. She serves as the outreach representative for the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium’s Major Depressive Disorder Working Group, which seeks to discover how genetic factors contribute to depression.
Linking Genes to Depressionhttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/05-29-25-Harvard-Medical-School-Linking-Genes-to-Depression.mp3Depression is a common condition and one of the leading causes of disability worldwide, affecting more than one in five people in their lifetime. While it’s been clear for some time that genetics contribute to depression, the exact genes and biological processes involved have remained largely unknown.
To address this gap, researchers from 29 countries conducted the largest genetic study of depression to date. We analyzed anonymized genetic data from over five million people, both with and without depression. This was the first study of its kind to include participants from many different ancestry backgrounds, making the findings more globally relevant.
We identified 697 genetic variants—specific places along the genome—that were linked to depression. Nearly 300 of these were previously unknown. Each variant contributes a small increase to the risk of depression, but together, their effects add up. By incorporating new knowledge about these variants, we improved on our ability to predict an individual’s depression risk.
We also mapped these genetic variants to biological pathways. We found key roles for neurons—brain cells that send and receive signals—as well as brain regions involved in regulating emotions, like the amygdala, hippocampus, and thalamus. We also identified processes like calcium signaling and endocytosis that may influence how neurons function in depression.
Interestingly, some of the identified genes overlap with those targeted by existing drugs not only for depression, but also sleep disorders and pain. This opens the door to refining current treatments and repurposing existing medications to more effectively treat depression.
This study underscores the strong biological basis of depression and highlights the value of large, collaborative genetics research in advancing personalized and effective treatments.
Read More:
[Cell] – Trans-ancestry genome-wide study of depression identifies 697 associations implicating cell types and pharmacotherapies
Psychiatric Genomics Consortium
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How do we make STEM classes more inclusive going forward?
Susanna Calkins, director of the Nexus for Faculty Success and associate professor in the School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies at Rosalind Franklin University, looks into this.
Susanna Calkins is the founding director of the Nexus for Faculty Success and an associate professor in the School of Graduate and Postgraduate Studies at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science in North Chicago. Prior to joining RFUMS in fall 2022, Dr Calkins directed faculty initiatives at the Searle Center for Advancing Learning and Teaching at Northwestern University for almost 20 years, focusing on inclusive teaching, curricular and pedagogical innovation, assessment of student learning and program evaluation. She has co-authored two academic books (Learning and Teaching in Higher Education: The Reflective Professional (Sage, 2009) and Reflective Teaching (Bloomsbury, 2020, 2024), with a third Reflective Doctoral Education (Bloomsbury Press) in development. She was a co-PI on an NSF-IUSE grant that created the Inclusive STEM Teaching Project, an open-access course which has served over 11000 educators across the United States to date. She earned her PhD and MA in history (British history, women and gender studies) from Purdue and an MS in higher ed administration from Northwestern University.
Scaling Inclusive Teachinghttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/05-28-25-Rosalind-Franklin-Scaling-Inclusive-Teaching.mp3Over the last few decades, calls for more inclusive learning environments, particularly in STEM courses, have grown more insistent across higher education. Many students, especially those who hold historically marginalized identities, may feel alienated and excluded by common teaching practices. Even more problematically, across the United States, marginalized students leave STEM majors – and STEM careers – at significantly higher rates than majority students, leading to a persistent lack of representation across STEM fields. Compounding the problem is that STEM instructors, who largely hold majority identities, generally receive little professional development in pedagogy and instruction, and even less in inclusive teaching. Thus, our challenge: Can we build educator awareness and capacity around inclusive teaching practices to help address this persistent intransigence in advancing diversity in STEM higher education more broadly? As millions of students annually take introductory STEM courses, addressing this challenge at a national scale is essential.
My colleagues and I from 7 different institutions of higher education developed a free asynchronous online course that centers learning about identity, power, positionality, and privilege to support inclusive teaching for STEM faculty and future faculty. Over eleven thousand instructors participated from across all institution types, with many participating in an optional learning community facilitated by project-trained facilitation teams.
We found that participants were highly engaged in the online course content, rated the content positively, and demonstrated increases in awareness, confidence, and intent to apply inclusive teaching strategies. The outcomes additionally demonstrate that the key features of the course, including embodied case studies, were viewed as unique teaching development opportunities that created valuable learning for our participants.
We hope to add our findings to the communities’ collective understanding of components that best advance STEM instructor awareness, confidence, and application of inclusive teaching strategies, and of barriers, reluctances, and other challenges that may persist and require additional attention.
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There’s plenty of water in the ocean, so how do we make it drinkable?
Jovan Kamcev, assistant professor of chemical engineering at the University of Michigan, determines the best process for desalination.
Jovan Kamcev develops technologies for affordable and sustainable water and energy, with a focus on membranes and sorbent materials for water treatment, energy storage, and energy generation. He earned his PhD in chemical engineering at The University of Texas at Austin. After graduating, he was further trained as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkley. He grew up in New York City.
New Water Purification Technologyhttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/05-27-25-Michigan-New-Water-Purification-Technology.mp3Turning seawater into drinking water could get cheaper and more energy efficient, thanks to a new technology developed in conjunction with Professor Menachem Elimelech from Rice University.
Our technology uses custom-made electrodes to remove boron from seawater using electricity. This is an important step of safely connecting the tap to the ocean. The boron concentration in seawater is around twice as high as the World Health Organization’s limits for safe drinking water, and it’s five to 12 times higher than the tolerance of many agricultural plants.
Unfortunately, boron sneaks through most reverse osmosis filters because it’s very small and chemically neutral in seawater. Conventional filters are designed to remove larger salts. To remove boron, desalination plants usually add base to give boron a negative charge, then perform another round of energy-intensive reverse osmosis. Afterwards, the base is neutralized with acid.
The extra treatment steps are costly, but with our new technology, desalination plants could skip them. Our electrodes remove boron by trapping it inside pores decorated with oxygen-containing structures. We still need to give boron a negative charge, and we do so by using a bipolar membrane to electrically separate water molecules into acid and base, eliminating the need for added chemicals. We are excited about this technology because the boron-trapping structures on the electrodes could also be modified to trap other drinking water contaminants, such as arsenic.
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Grief carries many myths.
Jacob Sawyer, assistant professor of psychology at Alma College, determines what’s real and what’s not.
Jacob Sawyer is a counseling psychologist interested in factors related to mental health and well-being. His background and training as a clinician strongly inform his approach to his work as a faculty member. His career at Alma began in 2022.
Examining Myths About Grief and Bereavementhttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/05-22-24-Alma-Examining-Myths-about-Grief-and-Bereavement.mp3Do beliefs that people endorse about grief and bereavement correspond with recent research findings? It is likely that some do not, even among mental health professionals.
For the past several decades, researchers have suggested that myths about grief and bereavement are fairly common. One common myth is the notion that most people need to engage in intensive emotional expression during bereavement, or “grief work”, as originally proposed by Sigmund Freud. Another is the belief in linear stage models of grief, such as the five stages of grief. Researchers have increasingly noted that grief does not progress through predictable stages, and have cautioned that the belief in stage models of grief could actually be harmful for the bereaved.
To assess beliefs and potential myths, my co-authors and I developed a survey with 12 statements about grief and bereavement, and analyzed data from a sample of mental health professionals and the general public. While mental health professionals were less likely to endorse myths about grief and bereavement compared to the general public, 85% percent of mental health professionals significantly overestimated the proportion of individuals who go on to develop intense, long-term distress during bereavement, and close to half endorsed a belief in stage models of grief. Similarly, 68% of the general public endorsed a belief in stage models of grief.
Findings from the study highlight the work that is still necessary in promoting what researchers have termed “grief literacy”, which consists of knowledge, skills, and values related to grief. Increased grief literacy is necessary for the general public, since we will all experience grief, and for mental health professionals, who will need to competently assist bereaved individuals in their clinical work.
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This Week on The Academic Minute 2025.05.26
MondayJacob Sawyer, assistant professor of psychology at Alma College, discusses the myths around grief and bereavement.
TuesdayJovan Kamcev, assistant professor of chemical engineering at the University of Michigan, determines the best process for desalination.
WednesdaySusanna Calkins, director of the Nexus for Faculty Success and associate professor in the School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies at Rosalind Franklin University, looks into scaling inclusive teaching in STEM.
ThursdayKarmel Choi, clinical psychologist and assistant professor of psychology at the Harvard Medical School, takes a look inside our genes for clues to the causes of depression.
FridayYunsuh Nike Wee, Ph.D. student in the department of psychology at Oklahoma State University, discusses the origins of laws about bodily damage.
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MondayKatherine Perry – Soka University of AmericaThe Mathematics of Hiding in Plain Sight
Katherine Perry is a mathematician specializing in graph theory, design theory, and combinatorics. She is especially interested in breaking apart graphs into smaller subgraphs with special properties. She has a BA in mathematics from Scripps College and received both her master’s and PhD in mathematics from Auburn University. Prior to joining Soka University of America, she was a postdoc at the University of Denver.
In her classrooms, she aims to create an atmosphere of discovery through a variety of techniques designed to activate students’ abilities to think critically. Rather than simply explaining the material, she challenges students to see a problem and organically develop a process to solve it themselves, with confidence at efficiency. She teaches a variety of math courses, but some of her favorites are discrete mathematics, graph theory, mathematics for liberal arts, and linear algebra.
TuesdayNiels Mede – University of ZurichIs There a Crisis of Trust in Science?
Niels G. Mede is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, and fellow of the Digital Democracy Centre in Odense, Denmark. He studies science communication, focusing on digital media, public perceptions of science, and harassment of scholars. He currently co-leads the TISP project, a global survey study on public attitudes to science.
Wednesday
Patrick Barry – University of Michigan LawArt and Advocacy
Patrick Barry is a clinical assistant professor and the director of digital academic initiatives at the University of Michigan Law School, as well as a visiting lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School and the UCLA School of Law. An All-American soccer player in college, Patrick is the author of twelve books, and he has also created four online series for the educational platform Coursera, including
“Good with Words: Writing and Editing” and “AI for Lawyers and Other Advocates.” Among his teaching awards are the Wayne Booth Prize for Excellence in Teaching, the Provost’s Innovation in Teaching Prize, and the Outstanding Research Mentor Award. His research focuses on persuasion, creativity, team, dynamics, and artificial intelligence, and he frequently collaborates with law firms, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations.
ThursdayJonathan Morduch – New York UniversityDesigning Guaranteed Income Programs
Jonathan Morduch is Professor of Public Policy and Economics at the Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at New York University. Morduch’s research focuses on finance, poverty, and inequality. He is a founder and Executive Director of the NYU Financial Access Initiative.
Morduch is the author with Rachel Schneider of The Financial Diaries: How American Families Cope in a World of Uncertainty (Princeton 2017; project site) and co-author ofPortfolios of the Poor: How the World’s Poor Live on $2 a Day (Princeton 2009) and The Economics of Microfinance (MIT Press 2010). He is co-editor of Banking the World: Empirical Foundations of Financial Inclusion (MIT Press). Together with Dean Karlan, Morduch is the author of Economics(McGraw-Hill 2024), an empirically-oriented principles of economics text now in its 4th edition.
Morduch has taught on the Economics faculty at Harvard, and has held visiting positions at Stanford, Princeton, Hitotsubashi University and the University of Tokyo. He received a BA from Brown, Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard, and an honorary doctorate from the Free University of Brussels for his work on microfinance.
FridayLeo Porter – University of California San DiegoComputer Programming in the Generative AI Era
Leo Porter is a Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at UC San Diego interested in computer science education research and computer architecture. Leo co-founded the Computing Education Research Laboratory, which is dedicated to better understanding how students learn computing and creating instructional environments where a diverse group of students can succeed.
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Artificial intelligence is changing who can be a computer programmer.
Leo Porter, professor of computer science and engineering at the University of California San Diego, explores how.
Leo Porter is a Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at UC San Diego interested in computer science education research and computer architecture. Leo co-founded the Computing Education Research Laboratory, which is dedicated to better understanding how students learn computing and creating instructional environments where a diverse group of students can succeed.
Daniel Zingaro is an Associate Teaching Professor at University of Toronto. He has taught introductory Python programming to thousands of students over the past 15 years, and has written both no-GenAI and, with Leo Porter, GenAI Python textbooks. Dan has also authored and co-authored textbooks on algorithms and competitive programming, and incorporates as much research-backed instruction as he can into his writing.
Daniel Zingaro is an Associate Teaching Professor at University of Toronto. He has taught introductory Python programming to thousands of students over the past 15 years, and has written both no-GenAI and, with Leo Porter, GenAI Python textbooks. Dan has also authored and co-authored textbooks on algorithms and competitive programming, and incorporates as much research-backed instruction as he can into his writing.
Computer Programming in the Generative AIhttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/05-23-25-UC-San-Diego-Computer-Programming-in-the-Generative-AI-Era.mp3When you think about computer programming, you might imagine arcane notations, perhaps spending time wrestling with words and symbols to get them exactly correct. And you’d be right – when writing programs from scratch in languages like Java and Python, these syntax rules pose significant challenges for people learning to program.
Today, Generative AI tools are changing how people program because they can generate syntactically correct code quickly. But because they can make higher level mistakes, they still need human supervision.
In our new introductory programming course, we teach students how to program in Python using Generative AI tools. We teach students how to prompt the AI in English, so that the AI can respond with Python code. Importantly, we teach students the skills they need to evaluate and correct that code.
It’s an open research question about how to best teach students to program. But our initial research into our new course is yielding positive findings.
For example, we have found that the course enables students to successfully complete large, meaningful apps, including games, visualizations, and analyses of large datasets. Encouragingly, these tasks are much more complex than students could complete In prior non-AI courses.
In surveys of our students, we found that almost 80% of students are comfortable programming with the support of generative AI, and that almost 60% felt that generative AI improved their conceptual understanding of programming. That said, some students felt that they had become over-reliant on the AI tools, or were confused by the code provided by Generative AI.
Contrary to what you might expect, the majority of students in our course are not Computer Science majors. They are in disciplines like sociology, psychology, business, engineering and science. We continue to study how these students may use generative AI to boost their careers through programming.
Read More:
Paper that contains the findings presented above:
Annapurna Vadaparty, Daniel Zingaro, David H. Smith IV, Mounika Padala, Christine Alvarado, Jamie Gorson Benario, and Leo Porter. 2024. CS1-LLM: Integrating LLMs into CS1 Instruction. In Proceedings of the 2024 Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education V. 1
https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3649217.3653584
Our book that our new introductory CS course is based on:
Leo Porter and Daniel Zingaro. Learn AI-Assisted Python Programming, 2nd Edition
https://www.manning.com/books/learn-ai-assisted-python-programming-second-edition
Other relevant articles/videos we’ve authored
AI helps students skip right to the good stuff in this intro programming course
https://www.newspronto.com/news/the-conversation/110495-ai-helps-students-skip-right-to-the-good-stuff-in-this-intro-programming-course
AI gives nonprogrammers a boost in writing computer code
https://theconversation.com/ai-gives-nonprogrammers-a-boost-in-writing-computer-code-242256
Integrating generative AI with introductory programming
https://youtu.be/C5cxDcl6VQ0
LLMs: A New Way to Teach Programming with Daniel Zingaro and Leo Porter
https://learning.acm.org/techtalks/llmprogramming
James Prather, Juho Leinonen, Natalie Kiesler, Jamie Gorson Benario, Sam Lau, Stephen MacNeil, Narges Norouzi, Simone Opel, Vee Pettit, Leo Porter, Brent N. Reeves, Jaromir Savelka, David H. Smith, Sven Strickroth, and Daniel Zingaro. 2025. Beyond the Hype: A Comprehensive Review of Current Trends in Generative AI Research, Teaching Practices, and Tools. In 2024 Working Group Reports on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education (ITiCSE 2024).
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3689187.3709614
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Guaranteed income programs can have benefits, but often should the money be deposited?
Jonathan Morduch, professor of public policy and economics at New York University, looks to data for answers.
Jonathan Morduch is Professor of Public Policy and Economics at the Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at New York University.
Morduch’s research focuses on finance, poverty, and inequality. He is a founder and Executive Director of the NYU Financial Access Initiative.
Morduch is the author with Rachel Schneider of The Financial Diaries: How American Families Cope in a World of Uncertainty (Princeton 2017; project site) and co-author ofPortfolios of the Poor: How the World’s Poor Live on $2 a Day (Princeton 2009) and The Economics of Microfinance (MIT Press 2010). He is co-editor of Banking the World: Empirical Foundations of Financial Inclusion (MIT Press). Together with Dean Karlan, Morduch is the author of Economics(McGraw-Hill 2024), an empirically-oriented principles of economics text now in its 4th edition.
Morduch has taught on the Economics faculty at Harvard, and has held visiting positions at Stanford, Princeton, Hitotsubashi University and the University of Tokyo. He received a BA from Brown, Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard, and an honorary doctorate from the Free University of Brussels for his work on microfinance.
Designing Guaranteed Income Programshttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/05-22-25-NYU-Designing-guaranteed-income-programs.mp3Many government programs involve giving people money. Guaranteed income
programs, for example, usually transfer $500 or $1000 each month to households
struggling economically.
Monthly transfers are the norm. But in principle some households might benefit
more if they received smaller amounts of money but more often. Smaller, steadier
transfers could help them keep food on the table and ensure that bills are paid
throughout the month. It’s not an accident that many workers in America are paid
twice a month or every two weeks, not monthly.
Alternatively, some households might gain more from bigger-sized transfers
received less often. Getting money in bigger chunks could better support investing;
paying for schooling, home or car repairs; or buying bigger consumer items.
So: can money have a bigger impact if transfers are steadier? Or instead lumpier?
We investigated that question in the context of a guaranteed income program
promoted by the former mayor of Compton, California and implemented with the
Fund for Guaranteed Income.
With colleagues from NYU, Stanford, Cornell, and the Jain Family Institute, we
used a randomized trial to evaluate impacts of getting about $6000 a year. Half of
eligible recipients received transfers every two weeks. The other half instead
received transfers every 3 months – but in bigger amounts.
It turned out that often the form and frequency of the money did not matter. In key
dimensions, simply getting money mattered more than its timing.
But we did find some advantages to smaller, steadier transfers – households
reported greater food security, and they ended up with less credit card debt, and
increased car ownership. In these cases, steadier flows enabled steadier bill-paying.
This research shows cases where simple changes in the design of transfers –
without increasing the overall program budget – helped households use the money
more effectively.
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Being an advocate is important; so, what’s the most effective process for becoming one?
Patrick Barry, clinical assistant professor at the University of Michigan Law School, takes a trip to find the answer.
Patrick Barry is a clinical assistant professor and the director of digital academic initiatives at the University of Michigan Law School, as well as a visiting lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School and the UCLA School of Law. An All-American soccer player in college, Patrick is the author of twelve books, and he has also created four online series for the educational platform Coursera, including
“Good with Words: Writing and Editing” and “AI for Lawyers and Other Advocates.” Among his teaching awards are the Wayne Booth Prize for Excellence in Teaching, the Provost’s Innovation in Teaching Prize, and the Outstanding Research Mentor Award. His research focuses on persuasion, creativity, team, dynamics, and artificial intelligence, and he frequently collaborates with law firms, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations.
Art and Advocacyhttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/05-21-25-Michigan-Law-School-Art-and-Advocacy.mp3I like taking lawyers and law students to art museums. Sometimes our trips are built into the courses I teach. Other times they’re standalone events and workshops. But the goal is always the same: Try to learn as much as possible not just from the artists whose work appears in the museums but from the professional curators in charge of skillfully putting that work on display.
We take this approach because one of the core functions of the legal profession—advocacy—is in many ways an act of curation. It requires thematic thinking. It requires informed selection. It places a huge premium on context, contrast, and having a bold, transformative vision. Most of all, though, it involves the imaginative capacity to simultaneously connect with an audience and push them to look at a case, person, place, issue, or even entire worldview in a completely new way.
A compliment paid to the longtime curator of the Pasadena Art Museum, Bill Agee, captures that last quality well. “Studying an artist or a painting with Bill could feel like a great adventure,” one of his former students, herself a curator, observed after Agee’s death in 2023. She added that “he often addressed his audience as ‘we,’ implying that they were with him in the search for further understanding.”
That’s what the best advocates do too. They don’t force their perspective on people. They don’t bludgeon us with dogma and irrelevant details. They instead serve as knowledgeably creative guides. Like skillful curators, their role is to focus our attention in a way that ultimately empowers us to make more-informed, evidence-based judgments and decisions. Illumination—not coercion—is the goal.
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When it comes to trust in science, it depends where you look.
Niels Mede, science communication researcher at the University of Zurich, delves in.
Niels G. Mede is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, and fellow of the Digital Democracy Centre in Odense, Denmark. He studies science communication, focusing on digital media, public perceptions of science, and harassment of scholars. He currently co-leads the TISP project, a global survey study on public attitudes to science.
Is There a Crisis of Trust in Science?https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/05-20-25-Zurich-Is-there-a-crisis-of-trust-in-science.mp3There is a widespread crisis of public trust in science, they say. Who says that? Pundits. Media headlines. Your uncle at the dinner table. Often without robust scientific evidence.
A trust crisis would be a problem. Science needs to be trusted to inform people’s decisions on whether they should get vaccinated or eat GM food, for example.
So, we need to find out if there is a trust crisis – and that’s what we did: We surveyed almost 72,000 people in 68 countries, using a standardized online questionnaire.
What did these people say? In all 68 countries, most of them think that scientists are competent, have integrity, act in the interest of the public, and are open to other’s feedback – all of which are components of trust in science. So: No widespread crisis of trust in science after all.
But it’s more complicated. There are differences between countries: Several African countries have higher trust, but it’s less in others like the US. Also, there are differences within countries: In the US, conservatives and right-leaning people have lower trust.
So, there are pockets of the population who do not perceive scientists as trustworthy. This is a reason for concern.
What we can we do to increase trust in scientists? We as scientists, journalists, and nephews of your uncle?
We can engage more with those who have low trust – at schools, on social media, at the dinner table. Have honest conversations with them, take their concerns seriously. Have an academic minute before the dessert. Even if it may cause a small family crisis, it will prevent a societal crisis of trust in science.
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Can you hide in plain sight?
Katherine Perry, assistant professor of mathematics at Soka University of America, explores if mathematics can.
Katherine Perry is a mathematician specializing in graph theory, design theory, and combinatorics. She is especially interested in breaking apart graphs into smaller subgraphs with special properties. She has a BA in mathematics from Scripps College and received both her master’s and PhD in mathematics from Auburn University. Prior to joining Soka University of America, she was a postdoc at the University of Denver.
In her classrooms, she aims to create an atmosphere of discovery through a variety of techniques designed to activate students’ abilities to think critically. Rather than simply explaining the material, she challenges students to see a problem and organically develop a process to solve it themselves, with confidence at efficiency. She teaches a variety of math courses, but some of her favorites are discrete mathematics, graph theory, mathematics for liberal arts, and linear algebra.
The Mathematics of Hiding in Plain Sighthttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/05-19-25-Soka-The-Mathematics-of-Hiding-in-Plain-Sight.mp3How do we tell things apart? This question might seem simple, but in mathematics, it has profound implications. My research focuses on distinguishing numbers and paint cost in graph theory—how we can uniquely label elements of a network so that no two are confused.
Consider a perfect k-ary tree—a structured network where each node branches into k others. In my recent work, we introduce the concept of the paint cost spectrum, which measures the minimum effort needed to uniquely label such trees. This concept is not just theoretical—it has applications in cybersecurity, chemistry, and even robotics.
For example, in cybersecurity, networks must be structured so that an intruder can’t disguise themselves within the system. In chemistry, molecules can be modeled as networks, and distinguishing numbers help identify unique structures among similar compounds.
A key part of my research investigates how efficiently we can distinguish a network with the fewest possible labels. While some graphs are easily distinguished, others require surprisingly many labels, revealing deeper structural patterns. Understanding these properties helps optimize algorithms that identify vulnerabilities in networks or improve data organization.
This work connects to a larger question in mathematics: How do we quantify symmetry and uniqueness? By understanding these patterns, we can improve algorithms that identify vulnerabilities in networks or optimize search strategies in large datasets.
Mathematics often reveals hidden complexity in seemingly simple problems. By exploring the symmetry, we gain insights that shape the way we understand and navigate the interconnected world around us.
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This Week on The Academic Minute 2025.05.19
MondayKatherine Perry, assistant professor of mathematics at Soka University of America, explores if mathematics can hide in plain sight.
TuesdayNiels Mede, science communication researcher at the University of Zurich, asks if there is a crisis of trust in science.
WednesdayPatrick Barry, clinical assistant professor at the University of Michigan Law School, examines why it’s important to take law school students to art museums.
ThursdayJonathan Morduch, professor of public policy and economics at New York University, looks to data for answers on the best way forward for guaranteed income programs.
FridayLeo Porter, professor of computer science and engineering at the University of California San Diego, explores computer programming in the generative AI era.
The post This Week on The Academic Minute (2025.05.19) appeared first on The Academic Minute.
MondayReena Aggarwal – Georgetown UniversityPublic Sentiment and Investing
Professor Aggarwal is a globally renowned expert in the field of finance. She specializes in financial markets and regulation, market microstructure, capital raising, IPOs, ETFs, short term funding markets, corporate governance, institutional investors, and digital assets. She has had tremendous impact at the intersection of financial markets and policy globally having advised several countries. Outside of teaching, she has been a FINRA Academic Fellow, an Academic Fellow at the U.S. SEC, and a Visiting Research Scholar at the IMF, World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on the Future of Financing and Capital, Fulbright Scholar to Brazil, Distinguished Scholar at the Reserve Bank of India’s CAFRAL, and was awarded the Pembroke Visiting Professorship in International Finance at the University of Cambridge.
TuesdayAmanda Marcy – University of ScrantonTowards a More Civil Workplace
Amanda S. Marcy, Ph.D., assistant professor of accounting at The University of Scranton, has twice received the Curt Verschoor Ethics Feature of the Year Award from the Institute of Management Accountants’ Committee on Ethics and Strategic Finance for research articles she has co-authored. She serves as moderator of Scranton’s Nu Kappa chapter of Beta Alpha Psi, which was recognized for multiple years with Gold Chapter status by the international honor society for financial information students and professionals, A Certified Public Accountant, Dr. Marcy was named assistant professor of accounting at Scranton in 2018 and previously served as a faculty specialist in the department. She is a three-time graduate of The University of Scranton, having earned her bachelor’s degree, MBA and Ph.D. from Scranton.
Wednesday
Emily Rogalski – University of ChicagoUnlocking the Secrets of SuperAgers
Dr. Rogalski is the Rosalind Franklin Professor of Neurology and the Director of the Healthy Aging & Alzheimer’s Care (HAARC) Center at the University of Chicago. Her multimodal research focuses on two aging perspectives: primary progressive aphasia (PPA), in which neurodegenerative disease invades the language network, and SuperAging, in which 80+-year-olds are resistant to memory decline associated with aging. Her PPA research helps characterize its clinical and anatomical features, drivers of disease progression, identification of risk factors, and refinement of cognitive neuroscience of language. She leads a global randomized controlled trial for Communication Bridge, a novel nonpharmacologic intervention delivered via telemedicine for individuals with PPA. She operationalized the SuperAging phenotype and leads the international SuperAging Research Initiative, which holds promise for identifying protective factors for avoiding AD, optimizing health span, and reducing aging stigma.
ThursdayRune Iversen – University of CopenhagenWhen the Sun Darkened 5,000 Years Ago
Rune Iversen is Associate Professor of Archaeology at the University of Copenhagen. His research focuses on the European Neolithic, including migrations, cultural interactions, art, and iconography. He is deeply engaged in cross-disciplinary research where the migration aspect of the Neolithization of Europe and the later Neolithic is a central aspect of his collaboration with geneticists and linguists. He is also principal editor of the international Open Access Danish Journal of Archaeology.
FridayAdam Jussel – University of Wisconsin MilwaukeeCaring Communities and Meaning of Work
Dr. Adam Jussel serves as the Dean of Students for University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, where he helps assist with student advocacy and engagement, support resources, including basic needs, crisis management, and campus healing initiatives. Before UWM, Adam was the Assistant Dean of Students and Director of Student Conduct at Washington State University. He previously represented WSU as an assistant attorney general, and has a certification in higher education law and policy from NASPA Adam served as a faculty member for the Foundations Track at the 2018 Gehring Academy, and has been fortunate to speak at a number of conferences about how to better serve students, including the National Conference on Law and Higher Education, University of Vermont Legal Issues Conference, the Higher Education Alcohol Other Drug & Wellness Summit, and the National Conference on Campus Sexual Assault and Violence. Adam was also a member of NASPA’s Culture of Respect CORE Constructs Advisory Board, advising NASPA on creating best practices regarding sex and gender based violence. Adam is also a faculty member for higher education law and policy at Marquette University. Adam received his juris doctorate from Seattle University and his Bachelor of Science in Business Information Systems from California Lutheran University. He is a member of the Washington bar..
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Stress is high, so how can work lower it?
Adam Jussel, Dean of Students at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, looks into this.
Dr. Adam Jussel serves as the Dean of Students for University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, where he helps assist with student advocacy and engagement, support resources, including basic needs, crisis management, and campus healing initiatives. Before UWM, Adam was the Assistant Dean of Students and Director of Student Conduct at Washington State University. He previously represented WSU as an assistant attorney general, and has a certification in higher education law and policy from NASPA Adam served as a faculty member for the Foundations Track at the 2018 Gehring Academy, and has been fortunate to speak at a number of conferences about how to better serve students, including the National Conference on Law and Higher Education, University of Vermont Legal Issues Conference, the Higher Education Alcohol Other Drug & Wellness Summit, and the National Conference on Campus Sexual Assault and Violence. Adam was also a member of NASPA’s Culture of Respect CORE Constructs Advisory Board, advising NASPA on creating best practices regarding sex and gender based violence. Adam is also a faculty member for higher education law and policy at Marquette University. Adam received his juris doctorate from Seattle University and his Bachelor of Science in Business Information Systems from California Lutheran University. He is a member of the Washington bar.
Caring Communities and Meaning of Workhttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/05-16-25-Wisconsin-Milwaukee-Caring-Communities-and-Meaning-of-Work.mp3What can staff do to foster meaningful work for their teams (and themselves). How does finding meaning in your work reduce stress?
Meaningful work is, in part, based on how individuals connect their values to their work. In addition, it is how they see their work supporting a greater cause or purpose, including serving others.
You can do a bunch of low-cost high rewards things to foster this, but the first thing is to just be aware of its benefits and build it into your daily practices. This meta-awareness can help bolster your general sense and empathy for your team, and own self-compassion. One way to build it in is to set aside time for individuals and teams to explore what is meaningful to them, and how that might translate to their work. For some that is just connection with others, for some it is service and support, and some it is compensation. No judgment to their why, its just important to know it.
You can also set aside time for more collaboration and connection. Cross-disciplinary teams are very impactful in fostering meaning in work. Creating space for relationships to be more horizontal (not hierarchical) fosters mutuality, safety, and transparency. It also gives space for individuals to branch out across their silos, and ‘zoom out’ to recognize how their work impacts the whole.
One thing to watch out for—we need to be wary of overtaxing individuals who find meaning in their work, as this can lead to burnout. Empowering staff to set barriers and boundaries will enable them to be their best at work.
Meaningful work helps enhance organizational and individual well-being and work life balance. So get out there and try some of these tips.
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Archaeologists have solved another mystery from thousands of years ago.
Rune Iversen, associate professor of archaeology at the University of Copenhagen, digs in to tell us more.
Rune Iversen is Associate Professor of Archaeology at the University of Copenhagen. His research focuses on the European Neolithic, including migrations, cultural interactions, art, and iconography. He is deeply engaged in cross-disciplinary research where the migration aspect of the Neolithization of Europe and the later Neolithic is a central aspect of his collaboration with geneticists and linguists. He is also principal editor of the international Open Access Danish Journal of Archaeology.
When the Sun Darkened 5000 Years Agohttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/05-15-25-Copenhagen-When-the-Sun-Darkened-5000-Years-Ago.mp3The Neolithic site of Vasagård on the Danish island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea has revealed over 600 small, engraved stone plaques dated to around 2900 BC.
The plaques are referred to as ‘sun stones’ due to the rayed images that characterize many of them.
Figurative images are rare at this time so we were puzzled as to why we would find large numbers of sun images dating to this specific period. This made us think that they might be related to a natural disaster of some kind that could have caused the Neolithic population to sacrifice large numbers of sun images.
Fossil tree rings from northern Europe and USA indicate spring and summer frost events around 2900 BC and ice cores from both Greenland and Antarctica show that a major volcanic eruption took place at that time.
Volcanic eruptions inject sulphate into the stratosphere creating a haze, which reflects solar radiation back into space and causes global cooling. This would likely have affected weather and harvest across the northern hemisphere for several years causing crop failure and famine.
We link the massive deposition of sun images at Vasagård to this cold climate event. What we see in the archaeological layers is probably the result of a joint effort to deal with the darkened sun and to restore the harvest.
Read More:
[Cambridge University Press] – Sun stones and the darkened sun: Neolithic miniature art from the island of Bornholm, Denmark
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We all want to age well, so let’s learn from those who already have.
Emily Rogalski, Rosalind Franklin professor and Director of the Healthy Aging & Alzheimer’s Research Care Center at the University of Chicago, delves into the secrets.
Dr. Rogalski is the Rosalind Franklin Professor of Neurology and the Director of the Healthy Aging & Alzheimer’s Care (HAARC) Center at the University of Chicago. Her multimodal research focuses on two aging perspectives: primary progressive aphasia (PPA), in which neurodegenerative disease invades the language network, and SuperAging, in which 80+-year-olds are resistant to memory decline associated with aging. Her PPA research helps characterize its clinical and anatomical features, drivers of disease progression, identification of risk factors, and refinement of cognitive neuroscience of language. She leads a global randomized controlled trial for Communication Bridge, a novel nonpharmacologic intervention delivered via telemedicine for individuals with PPA. She operationalized the SuperAging phenotype and leads the international SuperAging Research Initiative, which holds promise for identifying protective factors for avoiding AD, optimizing health span, and reducing aging stigma.
Unlocking the Secrets of SuperAgershttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/05-14-25-Chicago-Unlocking-the-Secrets-of-SuperAgers.mp3What if living to age 80 or beyond didn’t mean losing your memory but instead retaining it as sharp as someone 30 years younger? That’s the extraordinary reality for a rare group called SuperAgers. These individuals, aged 80 and older, demonstrate exceptional memory skills, defying the usual cognitive declines associated with aging.
SuperAgers offer a unique lens to study the biology of brain aging, resilience, and resistance. By exploring what keeps their memories intact, researchers aim to identify strategies to maintain cognitive health and stave off Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.
The initiative’s multidisciplinary approach includes brain imaging, genetic testing, and biospecimen analysis, alongside cutting-edge wearable technologies. Participants’ sleep, physical activity, and social engagement are tracked to uncover patterns that might protect against cognitive decline.
Importantly, the SuperAging Research Initiative prioritizes diversity, striving to include participants from various backgrounds to ensure findings benefit everyone.
By studying SuperAgers, researchers hope to reveal modifiable factors—lifestyle changes or interventions—that could help others preserve memory and quality of life into old age. In our early biologic studies we discovered that the thickness of the cortex (or outer layer of the brain) is thicker, resembling that of a 50-year-old rather than an 80-year-old. From a lifestyle standpoint, SuperAgers tend to endorse strong social connections with others. The promise of this research isn’t just understanding these exceptional individuals but using their insights to promote healthier aging for all.
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How do we foster a more civil tone in the workplace?
Amanda Marcy, assistant professor of accounting at the University of Scranton, examines this question.
Amanda S. Marcy, Ph.D., assistant professor of accounting at The University of Scranton, has twice received the Curt Verschoor Ethics Feature of the Year Award from the Institute of Management Accountants’ Committee on Ethics and Strategic Finance for research articles she has co-authored. She serves as moderator of Scranton’s Nu Kappa chapter of Beta Alpha Psi, which was recognized for multiple years with Gold Chapter status by the international honor society for financial information students and professionals, A Certified Public Accountant, Dr. Marcy was named assistant professor of accounting at Scranton in 2018 and previously served as a faculty specialist in the department. She is a three-time graduate of The University of Scranton, having earned her bachelor’s degree, MBA and Ph.D. from Scranton.
Toward A More Civil Workplacehttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/05-13-25-Scranton-Toward-A-More-Civil-Workplace.mp3Incivility in the workplace mirrors the way we speak to and treat each other in today’s society. At work, these behaviors can lead to decreased productivity, job satisfaction and commitment, not to mention employee turnover.
Our survey of 190 finance and accounting professionals found that three-quarters experienced incivility from a supervisor, while six in 10 faced it from a co-worker. Prior research confirms that uncivil acts permeate all professions.
From ignoring feedback to publicly criticizing someone to speaking to a worker in a condescending way, there are myriad examples of both subtle and direct incivility.
Our research shows supervisor incivility impacts job satisfaction more significantly than co-worker incivility.
Organizations often fail to consciously create positive and supportive workplace environments, and employees may lack strategies to deal with uncivil acts against them.
Successful leaders set a tone that establishes expectations related to civility, and they demonstrate what civility means within their organization. They spell out civil norms in company policies, job applications and employee contracts. They have programs that reward civil behavior and have consequences for uncivil acts, as well as training that fosters respect for co-workers.
Employees who rise above uncivil acts are those who don’t take incidents personally, remain calm, read the situation, avoid workplace bullies where possible and seek assistance from leaders or human resources to defuse difficult situations.
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There’s more information than ever for investors, so how does the public use it?
Reena Aggarwal, Robert E. McDonough professor of finance and director at the McDonough’s Psaros Center for Financial Markets and Policy at Georgetown University, examines this.
Professor Aggarwal is a globally renowned expert in the field of finance. She specializes in financial markets and regulation, market microstructure, capital raising, IPOs, ETFs, short term funding markets, corporate governance, institutional investors, and digital assets. She has had tremendous impact at the intersection of financial markets and policy globally having advised several countries. Outside of teaching, she has been a FINRA Academic Fellow, an Academic Fellow at the U.S. SEC, and a Visiting Research Scholar at the IMF, World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on the Future of Financing and Capital, Fulbright Scholar to Brazil, Distinguished Scholar at the Reserve Bank of India’s CAFRAL, and was awarded the Pembroke Visiting Professorship in International Finance at the University of Cambridge.
Public Sentiment and Investinghttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/05-12-25-Georgetown-Public-Sentiment-and-Investing.mp3Public sentiment regarding corporate practices has become increasingly pronounced, particularly with the rise of social media and the democratization of information. This heightened public engagement encompasses a variety of issues including, for example, a company’s financial performance, products, environmental policies, and treatment of employees. Traditional media coverage and social media interactions serve as platforms for capturing public sentiment. Public sentiment can not only influence a corporation’s management and its board of directors, but it also affects shareholders, including large institutional investors such as mutual funds, pension funds, and asset managers. Institutional investors typically monitor public sentiment alongside conducting other research to inform their investment decisions.
Shareholders can voice their dissent by submitting shareholder proposals that get voted on at a firm’s annual shareholder meetings. Employing a novel approach with unique data on public sentiment and a new metric on shareholder concerns, we find an association between shareholder actions and public sentiment about a firm. The number of shareholder proposals effectively captures investor dissatisfaction. We find that negative public sentiment about financial, and other issues such as governance and social issues is associated with more shareholder proposals showing investor unhappiness. Further, a larger number of shareholder proposals appears to result in higher turnover for CEOs and directors.
Our insights have significant implications for corporate leaders and investors alike. For management, the message is clear: ignoring public opinion can lead to increased shareholder activism and leadership turnover. For investors, our findings highlight the effectiveness of voting to push for meaningful corporate change.
In today’s world, companies can no longer operate behind closed doors, shielded from public scrutiny. Shareholders, armed with public sentiment data, are increasingly willing to hold management accountable. This new reality underscores the importance of transparency and responsiveness in maintaining investor trust and long-term value creation.
Read More:
[SSRN] – Public Sentiment Decomposition and Shareholder Actions
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This Week on The Academic Minute 2025.05.12
MondayReena Aggarwal, Robert E. McDonough professor of finance and director at the McDonough’s Psaros Center for Financial Markets and Policy at Georgetown University, examines how there’s more information than ever for investors, and the ways the public uses it.
TuesdayAmanda March, assistant professor of accounting at the University of Scranton, explores how to foster a more civil tone in the workplace.
WednesdayEmily Rogalski, Rosalind Franklin professor and Director of the Healthy Aging & Alzheimer’s Research Care Center at the University of Chicago, delves into the secrets behind the SuperAgers.
ThursdayRune Iversen, associate professor of archaeology at the University of Copenhagen, digs in to tell us more about why the Sun darkened 5000 years ago.
FridayAdam Jussel, Dean of Students at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, looks into how having meaning in your work can lower stress levels.
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MondayRyan Allen – Soka University of AmericaBeyond the Numbers of Dead and Dying Colleges
Ryan M. Allen is the Associate Professor of Comparative and International Education and Leadership in the Educational Leadership and Societal Change Program at Soka University of America. His research centers on internationalization of higher education, EdTech, intersections between education and urbanism, and the East Asian region. He has published in numerous academic publications and popular outlets such as his most recent co-edited volume entitled Online Teaching and Learning in Higher Education during COVID-19: International Perspectives and Experiences (Routledge, 2021). He is the current host of the KIX E-MAP Podcast, where he interviews scholars, policymakers, and educators on national development on the Europe, Asia, Pacific regions. Dr. Allen holds a PhD in Comparative and International Education from Teachers College, Columbia University, an MA in International Relations from Yonsei University (Seoul, South Korea), and a BA in Public Relations from the University of Central Oklahoma.
TuesdayDeike Peters – Soka University of AmericaUrban Nature in Need of Ecological Restor(y)ation
Deike Peters is a German-American environmental urbanist whose focus is on ‘getting cities right.’ She has published extensively on sustainable and green urbanism, rail- and megaproject-oriented urban redevelopment, gendered mobility patterns, active transportation, natural playscapes, and on planning theory and pedagogy. Before becoming a college professor, she was a bicycle activist and sustainable mobility advocate based in New York City and an international consultant and advisor to the World Bank and UN Habitat. Her current research focuses on ecological restoration and the creation of biophilic built environments that represent a fair-minded balance between human and non-human living spaces.
Wednesday
Marie Nydam – Soka University of AmericaTracking Introduced Species on Coral Reefs
Marie Nydam has a BS in Evolution and Ecology from the University of California, Davis. She earned a PhD in Evolutionary Biology from Cornell University and worked as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Nydam is a marine evolutionary geneticist who uses phylogenomic and population genetic tools to study evolutionary questions. She incorporates undergraduate researchers into all of her research projects, and frequently publishes with undergraduate co-authors. She particularly enjoys working with undergraduates who are interested in marine biology, ecology, genetics/genomics, and/or molecular biology.
ThursdayShane Barter – Soka University of AmericaPartial Sovereignty: Self-Government for Minority Nations
Dr. Shane Joshua Barter is Professor of Comparative Politics at Soka University of America. He earned his PhD in 2011 at the University of British Columbia. He has published several articles and books related to civilians in Southeast Asian secessionist conflicts, peace and elections, and the prospects for managing secessionism through forms of self-government.
FridaySandrine Simeon – Soka University of AmericaThe Ethics, Aesthetics and Accessibility of Live Theater on Film
Originally from Paris, Sandrine Simeon completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Paris III, the Sorbonne Nouvelle, and received a master’s degree in film from Concordia University in Montréal before working in the film industry. Returning to her academic endeavors, she earned additional degrees in French and Francophone Studies from Penn State University, where she wrote a doctoral dissertation on the filming of live theater. Her research continues to focus on the filming of theater and the teaching methods of theater through film. She co-edited two volumes on anglophone and digital theater and published several articles in peer-reviewed journals.
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On Soka University of America Week: Movie theaters can be used for more than just movies.
Sandrine Siméon, assistant dean of global citizenship and associate professor of French language & culture, examines another form of entertainment that can fill the screens.
Originally from Paris, Sandrine Siméon completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Paris III, the Sorbonne Nouvelle, and received a master’s degree in film from Concordia University in Montréal before working in the film industry. Returning to her academic endeavors, she earned additional degrees in French and Francophone Studies from Penn State University, where she wrote a doctoral dissertation on the filming of live theater. Her research continues to focus on the filming of theater and the teaching methods of theater through film. She co-edited two volumes on anglophone and digital theater and published several articles in peer-reviewed journals.
The Ethics, Aesthetics and Accessibility of Live Theater on Filmhttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/05-09-25-Soka-The-Ethics-Aesthetics-and-Accessibility-of-Live-Theater-on-Film.mp3Where can you go if you want to see a play? How much do you pay to watch a performance from a velvet seat in a grand theater? How far will you travel to enjoy it live? Or could you experience it in a movie theater near you, or even on one of your own screens?
Since the early days of cinema, live theater has been captured on film. Yet, despite this long history, advances in technology, and the rising popularity of digital theater broadcasts, these films are still rarely recognized as an art form in their own right. Instead, we see through them as if they were merely a window onto the stage. But it is not just about what we see, it’s how we see it. The filmmaker’s choices in framing, camera angles and movement matter because they guide how we engage with the performance.
I am tracing the influence of live French theater on how stage performances are captured on screen. Aesthetically, these films deserve the same scholarly attention as their fiction and documentary counterparts. Ethically, they have social and educational value. They strive to create an immersive experience and increase public participation, allowing diverse audiences to engage with theater beyond traditional live settings. And of course, they fulfill an important role in preserving cultural heritage while creating new opportunities for the film industry.
These are just some of the reasons why live performance films deserve critical recognition. Not too long ago, the COVID-19 pandemic reminded us of their importance: they became the only safe stage when live productions could not go on.
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On Soka University of America Week: Autonomous states around the world and the reasons behind them can be misunderstood.
Shane Barter, professor of comparative politics, delves into why.
Dr. Shane Joshua Barter is Professor of Comparative Politics at Soka University of America. He earned his PhD in 2011 at the University of British Columbia. He has published several articles and books related to civilians in Southeast Asian secessionist conflicts, peace and elections, and the prospects for managing secessionism through forms of self-government.
Partial Sovereignty – Self-Government for Minority Nationshttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/05-08-25-Soka-Partial-Sovereignty-Self-Government-for-Minority-Nations.mp3My research examines territorial autonomy—special forms of self-government for territorially concentrated minorities. This political system helps to manage secessionist conflict and protect minority cultures. The groups in question typically see themselves not just as ethnic minorities, but rather minority nations, with histories of self-rule before incorporation into host states.
We might know larger autonomous regions in Western democracies: Quebec, Scotland, and Catalonia, but also Wales, Åland, South Tyrol, Puerto Rico, and more. Other regions have used autonomy to manage violence, such as Northern Ireland, the Basque Region, Kurdistan, Aceh, Papua, Mindanao, and Bougainville. Autonomy also exists within authoritarian states, where it may provide some cultural protection. Examples are found in Russia, Central Asia, and China. Autonomy can also serve Indigenous peoples, as in Greenland and Nunavut, Panama and Nicaragua, but also smaller territories in Canada, Bolivia, India, and more. The range of cases, powers, and purposes for autonomy underline that it is a flexible and global institution.
Governments typically fear that territorial autonomy will provide regions with a stepping stone to independence. This fear is misplaced. There has yet to be a clear case where special autonomy has led to independence. Rather, a refusal to grant autonomy or trying to rescind leads to new countries.
My research seeks to unravel contradictions inherent in autonomy. While decentralizing power and protecting minorities, autonomous regions tend to be centralized, with groups using autonomous powers to nation-build. This makes it essential to support the rights of minorities within autonomous regions.
At its heart, territorial autonomy confronts the idea of homogenous nation-states—one nation, indivisible—instead recognizing countries as multinational. Autonomy represents a compromise between incorporation into a host state and independence from it, granting partial sovereignty.
Read More:
[Cambridge University Press] – Fighting Armed Conflicts in Southeast Asia
[Springer Nature Link] – Moving within Borders
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On Soka University of America Week: Introduced species can be a threat to coral reefs.
Marie Nydam, associate professor of biology, dives down to take a look.
Marie Nydam has a BS in Evolution and Ecology from the University of California, Davis. She earned a PhD in Evolutionary Biology from Cornell University and worked as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Nydam is a marine evolutionary geneticist who uses phylogenomic and population genetic tools to study evolutionary questions. She incorporates undergraduate researchers into all of her research projects, and frequently publishes with undergraduate co-authors. She particularly enjoys working with undergraduates who are interested in marine biology, ecology, genetics/genomics, and/or molecular biology.
Tracking Introduced Species on Coral Reefshttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/05-07-25-Soka-Tracking-Introduced-Species-on-Coral-Reefs.mp3The Mesoamerican Reef stretches 250 km from Mexico to Guatemala and is the second longest continuous reef in the world. The section of the reef in Belize holds high economic value for the Belizean economy. Belizean reefs are threatened by an abundance of fish-traps and gill nets, nutrient pollution, and a lack of areas fully protected from fishing. Additionally, coral and overall ecosystem declines may be exacerbated by a yet unexplored factor: the presence of non-indigenous or introduced species. Indeed, biological invasions cause significant economic and ecological damage.
Marine invertebrates called ascidians (or “sea squirts”) have been proposed as ideal models for studying marine invasion processes; however, few countries currently possess a species catalog of these animals. In the absence of this information, the frequency of introduction events and their cascading impacts on ecosystem health and services cannot be determined. Moreover, ascidians have also been overgrowing and outcompeting corals for over 25 years. Newly introduced marine species are commonly observed first on artificial substrates in harbors prior to secondary spread into native ecosystems. In Belize, no ascidian inventory exists, and no natural habitats have been extensively surveyed since the mid-1990s.
My colleagues and I, working with local Belizean guides, surveyed coral reefs, seagrasses, mangroves, and harbors, to develop a comprehensive catalog of the ascidian species in Belize. This summer, we will communicate our results to Belizean stakeholders, who are central partners in monitoring ascidian communities for newly introduced species.
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Deike Peters, associate professor of environmental planning & practice, poses for a portrait on Tuesday, March 4, 2025. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda/ Soka University of America)On Soka University of America Week: Can we reimagine our urban spaces to more align with the natural world?
Deike Peters, associate professor of environmental planning and practice, discusses.
Deike Peters is a German-American environmental urbanist whose focus is on ‘getting cities right.’ She has published extensively on sustainable and green urbanism, rail- and megaproject-oriented urban redevelopment, gendered mobility patterns, active transportation, natural playscapes, and on planning theory and pedagogy. Before becoming a college professor, she was a bicycle activist and sustainable mobility advocate based in New York City and an international consultant and advisor to the World Bank and UN Habitat. Her current research focuses on ecological restoration and the creation of biophilic built environments that represent a fair-minded balance between human and non-human living spaces.
Urban Nature in Need of Ecological Restor(y)ationhttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/05-06-25-Soka-Urban-Nature-in-Need-of-Ecological-Restoryation.mp3Cities are often – falsely – seen in opposition to nature and wilderness. Yet more ‘nature’ makes for more sustainable human settlements. ‘Nature’ is not something ‘out there’ but something inescapably spliced into our lives. In the post-industrial era, many urban restoration efforts seek to re-naturalize places that were polluted or deprived of their natural functions. Yet there is no clear consensus over “which kind of nature” should be restored in such blasted urban landscapes. How ‘designed,’ or how ‘wild’ should urban nature be?
My current research looks at how different disciplines have traditionally understood urban nature. I identify three broad frameworks: Redesign – Restore – Re-story. Urban planners, designers, geographers, and landscape architects have typically focused on designing ‘nature-based solutions’ that still primarily serve humans. Ecologists and other biologists, by contrast, often focus on repairing or restoring nature via ‘rewilding’ initiatives that seek to remove humans from the landscapes. Meanwhile, scholars in the social sciences and humanities are engaged in rich, interdisciplinary conversations that re-story urban natures as entangled, metabolic spaces.
Ultimately, I am interested in geo-storytelling a new, interdisciplinary vision of a “spliced city” where humans find new ways of cohabiting in a multi-layered, multispecies world. Planners, designers, architects, and restoration ecologists have much to learn from social scientists and people in the environmental humanities and the arts. Together with the musician and composer Daniel Rothman, I recently organized the “Listening to Ballona” Symposium and Sound Installation as a creative way of bringing alive the diverse human and nonhuman voices of LA’s last wetland.
Read More:
Listening to Ballona
Geostorytelling Ballona
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On Soka University Week: Colleges are closing across the country, so what happens next to the spaces they occupied?
Ryan Allen, associate professor of comparative and international education and leadership, looks around to find answers.
Ryan M. Allen is the Associate Professor of Comparative and International Education and Leadership in the Educational Leadership and Societal Change Program at Soka University of America. His research centers on internationalization of higher education, EdTech, intersections between education and urbanism, and the East Asian region. He has published in numerous academic publications and popular outlets such as his most recent co-edited volume entitled Online Teaching and Learning in Higher Education during COVID-19: International Perspectives and Experiences (Routledge, 2021). He is the current host of the KIX E-MAP Podcast, where he interviews scholars, policymakers, and educators on national development on the Europe, Asia, Pacific regions. Dr. Allen holds a PhD in Comparative and International Education from Teachers College, Columbia University, an MA in International Relations from Yonsei University (Seoul, South Korea), and a BA in Public Relations from the University of Central Oklahoma.
Beyond the Numbers of Dead and Dying Collegeshttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/05-05-25-Soka-Beyond-the-Numbers-of-Dead-and-Dying-Colleges.mp3Truly an eye-popping number of universities or colleges have closed over the past few years, at a rate of roughly one closure per week. They are closing all over the US, not just in rural spaces or the rust belt, but also in urban areas and the high price coasts. I’ve embarked on an ethnographic road to visit as many closed or closing universities as I can. I’m up to 30 now from across the country.
Sometimes the visits feel like I’m exploring the ruins of a forgotten civilization.
Once the students are gone, animals and nature slowly return. At Urbana University in Ohio, I stumbled on a herd of deer grazing. Alone and at sunset, the herd was a majestic sight.
Plants, too, thrived without lost freshmen late for class making desire paths across the grass. I’m reminded that the grounds crews are the unsung heroes of higher ed.
Other campuses were more akin to funerals or graveyards, with somber community members morning the loss of their beloved institutions. At Wells College, I was fortunate enough to join a small group of alum and former staff for one final tradition of ringing the dinner bell before the 156 year old college shuttered for good.
But the closures were not all dreary. Nope. Some had hope. Hope that the spaces could live on and continue the mission in new and exciting ways. Like Medaille University in Buffalo N.Y. that was being transformed into a charter school, or St. Gregs in Shawnee, Oklahoma, where I arrived to find volunteers from across the state cleaning up the campus after a heavy storm, ready to reimagine the space anew.
Through this research, I want to humanize the closing colleges, digging deeper behind the numbers to understand the students, faculty, staff, and the broader community left behind.
Read More:
[Inside Higher Ed] – A Road Trip to Dead and Dying Colleges
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This Week on The Academic Minute 2025.05.05
MondayRyan Allen, associate professor of comparative and international education and leadership, takes a journey to look beyond the numbers of dead and dying colleges.
TuesdayDeike Peters, associate professor of environmental planning and practice, discusses whether we can reimagine our urban spaces to more align with the natural world.
WednesdayMarie Nydam, associate professor of biology, dives down to take a look at how introduced species are threatening coral reefs.
ThursdayShane Barter, professor of comparative politics, delves into autonomous states and the reasons behind them.
FridaySandrine Simeon, assistant dean of global citizenship and associate professor of French language & culture, examines another form of entertainment that can fill the screens of cinemas.
The post This Week on The Academic Minute (2025.05.05) appeared first on The Academic Minute.
MondayDongqing Wang – George Mason UniversityPreterm Birth and Nutritional Supplements
Dongqing Wang is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Global and Community Health. Wang’s research focuses on the nutritional determinants of maternal, child, and adolescent health in low- and middle-income countries. A primary domain of Wang’s research is the distributions, determinants, and consequences of inadequate and excessive gestational weight gain in low- and middle-income countries. Wang’s research addresses knowledge gaps related to gestational weight gain by pooling individual participant data from national surveys, observational cohort studies, and randomized controlled trials. Another key area of Wang’s work is the impacts of maternal nutrient and food supplementation on the short- and long-term health of mothers and children. Wang is also interested in adolescent nutrition and school-based interventions to address the double burden of adolescent malnutrition. Wang is the Co-Investigator of several randomized controlled trials of nutritional interventions among mothers, children, and adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa. Before coming to Mason, Wang was a Research Associate in the Department of Global Health and Population at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
TuesdayBradley Cannon – Binghamton UniversityHaving the ‘Right’ Friends May Hold Secret to Building Wealth
Brad Cannon, assistant professor of finance at Binghamton University
Dr. Cannon’s research interests include behavioral finance, household finance, investments and financial technology.
The study, titled “Friends with Benefits: Social Capital and Household Financial Behavior,” was published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, and it was co-authored by researchers from the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business and Baylor University’s Hankamer School of Business.
Dr. Cannon has a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science from Utah State University and a PhD from Ohio State University.
Wednesday
Sawsan Wehbi – University of ArizonaResolving the Order of Amino Acid Recruitment Into the Genetic Code
I am a fourth year PhD candidate majoring in genetics and minoring in astrobiology. I am interested in the origins of life on Earth. My research focuses on early life proteins and the evolution of the genetic code. I am currently funded by the NASA Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology (FINESST) grant.
ThursdayMarcos Fernandez-Tous – University of North DakotaDamage in the Heat Shield of the ORION Capsule
Assistant professor of space technology, I teach courses on rocket propulsion and hypersonic aerodynamics at the University of North Dakota. Between 2001 and 2016 I have been working in the aeronautical industry in Europe between Madrid and Brussels. Experience in research projects management and development. M.S. in Aerospace Engineering (Polytechnic University of Madrid, 2001) and PhD in Space Sciences (University of North Dakota, 2022).
FridayQi Luo – University of IowaNews Media Conglomeration and Financial Markets
Qi Luo’s research focuses on data-driven decision-making in operations management and emerging mobility systems. His work has been recognized with several prestigious awards, including the TRB Kikuchi-Karlaftis Best Paper Award, INFORMS APS Best Student Paper (finalist), IEEE-IV Best Paper (finalist), and the IISE Best Paper Award (Work Systems Division). Luo’s research is supported by multiple federal grants, including the National Science Foundation.
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How do we make the trucking industry more efficient?
Qi Luo, assistant professor in the department of business analytics at the University of Iowa, examines one possible solution.
Qi Luo’s research focuses on data-driven decision-making in operations management and emerging mobility systems. His work has been recognized with several prestigious awards, including the TRB Kikuchi-Karlaftis Best Paper Award, INFORMS APS Best Student Paper (finalist), IEEE-IV Best Paper (finalist), and the IISE Best Paper Award (Work Systems Division). Luo’s research is supported by multiple federal grants, including the National Science Foundation.
Designating Rural Highway Lanes For Semi-Automated Truckshttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/05-02-25-Iowa-Designating-Rural-Highway-Lanes-For-Semi-Automated-Trucks-.mp3The heavy-truck industry in the United States is facing significant challenges that are going to get worse. A severe driver shortage, stricter compliance regulations, and rising fuel costs have combined to put unprecedented pressure on freight haulers. For example, the American Trucking Association estimated a shortage of around 80,000 drivers in 2021. This shortage leads to longer shipping times, higher operational costs, and strained supply chains.
To address these challenges, we propose opening nighttime truck-only lanes on rural highways. These lanes would be reserved for semi-autonomous trucks during overnight hours when roads are at their emptiest. Semi-autonomous trucks can assist drivers by handling much of the driving on dedicated lanes and reduce their workload.
Our optimization framework and case studies have revealed the substantial benefits of this approach in enhancing delivery efficiency. Moving trucks to nighttime lanes would reduce daytime traffic congestion, allowing both trucks and passenger cars to travel faster. Trucks could also form platoons to improve fuel efficiency. Additionally, semi-autonomous technology can reduce accidents caused by driver fatigue, which contributes to 15% – 40% of truck-related crashes.
Our goal is to emphasize the importance of building an ecosystem where autonomy assists drivers, not replaces them. Truck drivers are essential workers in complex environments, but their roles would shift to supervisory tasks as operators in these nighttime truck-only lanes. We can leverage smart infrastructure, autonomous driving technology, novel fleet management strategies, and supportive transport policy, to create a more efficient and sustainable trucking industry.
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Re-entry from space is challenging because of many factors, including heat.
Marcos Fernandez-Tous, assistant professor in the department of space studies at the University of North Dakota, details how a new trajectory may help cool things down.
Assistant professor of space technology, I teach courses on rocket propulsion and hypersonic aerodynamics at the University of North Dakota. Between 2001 and 2016 I have been working in the aeronautical industry in Europe between Madrid and Brussels. Experience in research projects management and development. M.S. in Aerospace Engineering (Polytechnic University of Madrid, 2001) and PhD in Space Sciences (University of North Dakota, 2022).
Damage in the Heat Shield of the ORION Capsulehttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/05-01-25-North-Dakota-Damage-in-the-Heat-Shield-of-the-ORION-Capsule.mp3Off the coast of Baja California, the sea sparkles around the USS Portland as Navy officials scan the sky. Suddenly, a glowing spot appears, growing into the Orion capsule hurtling back from a 25-day mission to the Moon. After traveling over 270,000 miles, Orion reenters Earth’s atmosphere at 27,000 mph, deploying parachutes before splashing into the ocean. But as the capsule is hoisted aboard the ship, cracks on its heat shield raise concerns.
The heat shield, critical for protecting future astronauts, endured reentry temperatures of 5,000°F. As Orion skimmed the atmosphere, the friction generated a glowing sheath of charged particles called plasma. To withstand such high temperatures, the shield is designed to sacrifice material through melting and evaporation, preventing the heat from reaching the inner structure of the capsule. But the Orion shield, inherited from Apollo-era designs, was showing unexpected damage.
NASA determined that during Orion’s skip-guidance reentry, heat flow had been underestimated. As the surface was exposed to the plasma, the resin melted and receded exposing the fiberglass, that produced a black structure called char. The shield released the gases from the resin, but as Orion ascended briefly, the resin froze again, trapping heat and gas inside the structure. On its final descent, the gases expanded before they could be released, causing surface cracks and damaging the protective char layer.
Artemis II mission will be designed with a modified reentry trajectory to prevent the accumulation of heat inside. With Artemis III, NASA plans to implement new manufacturing methods, producing a more permeable structure. Will it still be hot outside during reentry? It sure will. But the astronauts will be kept in a cozy space all the way through splashdown when, rocked by the gentle waves, will just need to wait for another amphibious transport dock to bring them home.
Read More:
Space Studies Propulsion Lab (SSPL) – University of North Dakota
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Our genetic code still holds mysteries for us to discover.
Sawsan Wehbi, Genetics Ph.D. candidate at the University of Arizona, takes a look.
I am a fourth year PhD candidate majoring in genetics and minoring in astrobiology. I am interested in the origins of life on Earth. My research focuses on early life proteins and the evolution of the genetic code. I am currently funded by the NASA Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology (FINESST) grant.
Resolving the Order of Amino Acid Recruitment Into the Genetic Codehttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/04-30-25-Arizona-Resolving-the-Order-of-Amino-Acid-Recruitment-Into-the-Genetic-Code.mp3For years, scientists thought that twenty amino acids were added to the genetic code in a specific order. One that was largely based on abiotic synthesis metrics like the famous Urey-Miller experiment. But this approach had limitations. For example, the Urey-Miller experiment didn’t include sulfur, excluding the possibility of forming any sulfur-containing amino acids and consequently labelling them as later additions to the code. This is why we wanted to take a fresh look at this question, using actual biological evidence rather than just chemical assumptions.
So, instead of looking at early Earth chemistry, we studied some of the oldest protein sequences—ones that go all the way back to LUCA, the last universal common ancestor of all life. By analyzing how amino acid usage changed over time, we could track when different amino acids were added to the genetic code.
What we found was surprising! Amino acids like cysteine and methionine, which contain sulfur, were added much earlier than we thought. Histidine, a key amino acid for binding metals, also showed up earlier than we assumed. That means early life may have been using sulfur-based chemistry and metal-binding proteins far sooner than expected.
Even more interesting, some of the most ancient proteins—ones that existed before LUCA even formed had very different amino acid compositions—having a higher usage of ring-containing amino acids. We think this indicates that there might have been alternative genetic codes before the one we use today!
These discoveries don’t just rewrite the story of early life on Earth; they also have big implications for how we search for life beyond our planet. If life elsewhere followed a different path, we might need to rethink what we’re looking for.
Read More:
[PNAS] – Order of amino acid recruitment into the genetic code resolved by last universal common ancestor’s protein domains
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Bradley Cannon, Assistant Professor, Finance, School of Management, Monday, August 29, 2022.Having the right friends might mean a more secure financial future.
Bradley Cannon, assistant professor of finance within the School of Management at Binghamton University, outlines the link.
Brad Cannon, assistant professor of finance at Binghamton University
Dr. Cannon’s research interests include behavioral finance, household finance, investments and financial technology.
The study, titled “Friends with Benefits: Social Capital and Household Financial Behavior,” was published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, and it was co-authored by researchers from the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business and Baylor University’s Hankamer School of Business.
Dr. Cannon has a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science from Utah State University and a PhD from Ohio State University.
Having the ‘Right’ Friends May Hold the Secret to Building Wealthhttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/04-29-25-Binghamton-Having-the-‘Right-Friends-May-Hold-the-Secret-to-Building-Wealth.mp3Friendship and money are often compared to oil and water: they don’t mix. But there might be a need to rethink that.
According to new research by myself and colleagues at USC and Baylor University, having wealthy people in your social network can significantly boost the likelihood that you’ll participate in stock markets and savings plans.
Many U.S. households, particularly lower-income families, do not own stocks. And given that the total return to the U.S. stock market since 1980 has been over 12,000%, this creates a disparity in wealth for those who participate and those who don’t.
In our study, we looked at whether social capital was related to savings decisions. Social capital is the value that comes from being in a group or having dense social networks. With Facebook friendship data, we measured social capital for each county in the US. We combined this with the IRS’s interest and dividend income tax return data, which allowed us to determine if a person had a bank savings account or owned stocks.
We then compared the savings behavior of counties where people could connect with others of higher socioeconomic status to counties with less potential for such interactions.
In counties where friendships with prosperous individuals are more common, investment and savings tend to be higher. For every 10% increase in friends of high socioeconomic status, there was a nearly 3% greater chance of stock-market participation and a 5% increase in the chance they saved money.
Of course, making wealthy friends alone does not guarantee you’ll invest or save more. But this suggests that creating more opportunities in communities to interact socially with wealthy people or people who have experience investing could benefit people from those interactions to save more.
Read More:
BingUNews: June 10, 2024
Want to make more money? You can start by spending time with the right friends, new research reveals
School of Management Assistant Professor Brad Cannon co-authors study examining how social interactions affect choices about personal finances
https://www.binghamton.edu/news/story/4993/how-to-make-more-money-friends-benefits-new-research-binghamton-university
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How do we lower the amount of preterm or low weight births?
Dongqing Wang, Assistant Professor in the Department of Global and Community Health at George Mason University’s College of Public Health, examines one solution.
Dongqing Wang is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Global and Community Health. Wang’s research focuses on the nutritional determinants of maternal, child, and adolescent health in low- and middle-income countries. A primary domain of Wang’s research is the distributions, determinants, and consequences of inadequate and excessive gestational weight gain in low- and middle-income countries. Wang’s research addresses knowledge gaps related to gestational weight gain by pooling individual participant data from national surveys, observational cohort studies, and randomized controlled trials. Another key area of Wang’s work is the impacts of maternal nutrient and food supplementation on the short- and long-term health of mothers and children. Wang is also interested in adolescent nutrition and school-based interventions to address the double burden of adolescent malnutrition. Wang is the Co-Investigator of several randomized controlled trials of nutritional interventions among mothers, children, and adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa. Before coming to Mason, Wang was a Research Associate in the Department of Global Health and Population at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Preterm Birth and Nutritional Supplementshttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/04-28-25-George-Mason-Preterm-Birth-and-Nutritional-Supplements.mp3Preterm birth, low birthweight, and small-for-gestational-age births are the birth outcomes most likely to result in infant death. In the past, these outcomes were studied and treated as separate conditions. We know that prenatal nutritional supplements can reduce the risk of these outcomes, but small vulnerable newborn types may have distinct challenges and health impact and require additional intervention strategies. For example, low birthweight can occur either because of a short pregnancy duration or because of fetal growth restrictions that lead to babies born too small for their gestational age.
Our team looked at these birth outcomes, not as isolated occurrences but in combinations. We wanted to know how prenatal nutritional supplements affect the risks of different types of small vulnerable newborns. Iron and folic acid supplements have been the standard of care since the 1970s, but we hypothesized that supplements using multiple micronutrients could more effectively prevent the occurrence of small vulnerable babies and thereby reduce infant mortality.
We combined data from 16 randomized controlled trials where women received multiple micronutrient supplements, or MMS during pregnancy. We focused on low- and middle-income countries in this work, because the majority of small vulnerable babies occur in these settings. We found that using MMS during pregnancy can lower the risk of giving birth to small and vulnerable newborns by as much as 27% compared to iron and folic acid supplements alone. Our work suggests that MMS should replace iron and folic acid as the standard prenatal care in low- and middle-income countries.
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This Week on The Academic Minute 2025.04.28
MondayDongqing Wang, Assistant Professor in the Department of Global and Community Health at George Mason University’s College of Public Health, examines one solution to lowering the amount of preterm births.
TuesdayBradley Cannon, assistant professor of finance within the School of Management at Binghamton University, outlines the link between having certain types of friends and building wealth.
WednesdaySawsan Wehbi, Genetics Ph.D. candidate at the University of Arizona, takes a look at how our genetic code still has mysteries to solve.
ThursdayMarcos Fernandez-Tous, assistant professor in the department of space studies at the University of North Dakota, details how a new trajectory may help cool things down for rockets during re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere.
FridayQi Luo, assistant professor in the department of business analytics at the University of Iowa, examines one possible solution to making the trucking industry more efficient.
The post This Week on The Academic Minute (2025.04.28) appeared first on The Academic Minute.
The Academic Minute from 4.21 – 4.25MondayJohn Daily – University of ColoradoWildfires Need Science
Dr. Daily is Emeritus Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He studied Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan (B.S. 1968, M.S. 1969) and at Stanford University (Ph.D. 1975.) After receiving the Ph.D., he was a faculty member at the University of California at Berkeley until 1988, when he joined the faculty at the University of Colorado. While at Colorado he served as a department chair and as Director of the Center for Combustion and Environmental Research. He also served as the Program Director for Combustion and Fire Systems at the National Science Foundation. He is a Fellow of The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and The Combustion Institute.
TuesdayEleanor Schille-Hudson – Stanford UniversityThe Problem-Solving Power of Prayer
A cognitive scientist by training, she studies how people rely on their priors, habituated behaviors, social networks, and cultural context to make sense of the world around them, seen and unseen.
Wednesday
Alison Gernand – Penn State UniversityVitamin D Matters During First Trimester of Pregnancy
Alison Gernand is an Assistant Professor of Nutritional Sciences at Penn State University. The focus of her research is the impact of maternal micronutrient status on adverse pregnancy outcomes. She received a master’s degree in public health from the University of Texas School of Public Health and a PhD in human nutrition and international health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is also a Registered Dietitian with extensive experience in public health nutrition. She is a member of the Center for Reproductive Biology and Health and the Center for Women’s Health Research at Penn State.
ThursdayArt Jipson – University of DaytonUnderstanding Extremism
Arthur “Art” Jipson is an associate professor of sociology and criminology at the University of Dayton, where he has taught since 2001. From 2005 to 2016, Jipson was director of UD’s criminal justice studies program. His work has been published in The Conversation, the Journal of Criminal Justice Education, the Journal of the Institute of Justice & International Studies, Research in Political Sociology, The American Sociologist, The Justice Professional, American Journal of Criminal Justice, The International Review of Law, Computers and Technology, and Popular Music and Society. He edited a special issue of Sociological Focus with UD colleague Paul Becker on research on white racial extremism, online extremism, white nationalism and hate crime. His primary research has focused on extremism, radicalization, nationalism, social deviance, Internet culture, and efforts to prevent radicalization through pathways that create a healthy inclusive community. His secondary research has explored roadside memorials and legal regulation of memorials and the popular music industry, popular culture and youth in American society.
FridayFlora Sun – Binghamton UniversityNews Media Conglomeration and Financial Markets
Dr. Sun’s research interests include disclosure and information production in capital markets, focusing on the determinants of media coverage and its impact on capital markets. Sun is
also interested in studying how investors use financial information from other information intermediaries, such as sell-side equity analysts and credit-rating agencies.
The study, “Common Media Holding Companies and the Uniqueness of Business Press Content,” was published in The Accounting Review, an American Accounting Association journal. Sun co-authored the paper along with faculty researchers from Indiana University, Harvard Business School and Texas A&M University.
Dr. Sun has a Bachelor of Business Administration, from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, a Master of Public Administration from the University of Austin, Texas and a PhD from Indiana University.
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Flora Sun, New Faculty, Assistant Professor, Accounting, School of Management, August 5, 2024.The conglomeration of news media is having impacts on financial markets.
Flora Sun, assistant professor of accounting at Binghamton University, explains why.
Dr. Sun’s research interests include disclosure and information production in capital markets, focusing on the determinants of media coverage and its impact on capital markets. Sun is
also interested in studying how investors use financial information from other information intermediaries, such as sell-side equity analysts and credit-rating agencies.
The study, “Common Media Holding Companies and the Uniqueness of Business Press Content,” was published in The Accounting Review, an American Accounting Association journal. Sun co-authored the paper along with faculty researchers from Indiana University, Harvard Business School and Texas A&M University.
Dr. Sun has a Bachelor of Business Administration, from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, a Master’s in Professional Accounting from The University of Texas at Austin and a PhD from Indiana University.
News Media Conglomeration and Financial Marketshttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/04-25-25-Binghamton-News-Media-Conglomeration-and-Financial-Markets.mp3Have you ever noticed a swath of similar business news stories about a particular topic during a Google search?
Why might a story on a news site in New York be so similar to one from a site in, for example, Wisconsin? It’s likely because the same media company owns them — and it’s become more commonplace nationwide as news outlets grapple with dwindling resources.
This consolidation of news outlets is key to new research I co-authored that examines how business news outlets that produce similar news stories could have negative implications for financial markets. Fewer options for unique news content could make investors less efficient at interpreting important information in earnings reports.
For the study, we reviewed news articles about earnings announcements in 34 major media outlets involving almost 4,500 publicly traded companies between 2007 and 2019. In all, more than 280,000 articles covering over 95,000 earnings announcements were examined.
Using various statistical tools to analyze the data, we have determined that individual members of group media companies often take similar approaches when portraying the same event in their news coverage.
Many market participants are likely unaware of this, as these media outlets often appear unrelated and consolidation of media companies nationwide may weaken the media’s role as an information intermediary.
This indicates how media outlets today likely have higher incentives to share content due to economic pressures. These pressures could produce similar content at the expense of individual quality.
It’s important to remember that this research doesn’t say the media is always biased; however, it does demonstrate how investors should be aware of this scenario in today’s media landscape and how it could affect the market.
Read More:
BingUNews: December 11, 2024
How can similar news stories influence financial markets? Here’s what investors need to know
New study co-authored by Flora Sun, assistant professor of accounting, Binghamton University School of Management, as she explores the impact of common media companies that publish similar business content in different news outlets.
https://www.binghamton.edu/news/story/5274/business-news-financial-impact-investors-shared-content-common-media-companies-finance-research
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Understanding extremism can be key to our future.
Art Jipson, associate professor of sociology and criminology at the University of Dayton, explores why.
Arthur “Art” Jipson is an associate professor of sociology and criminology at the University of Dayton, where he has taught since 2001. From 2005 to 2016, Jipson was director of UD’s criminal justice studies program. His work has been published in The Conversation, the Journal of Criminal Justice Education, the Journal of the Institute of Justice & International Studies, Research in Political Sociology, The American Sociologist, The Justice Professional, American Journal of Criminal Justice, The International Review of Law, Computers and Technology, and Popular Music and Society. He edited a special issue of Sociological Focus with UD colleague Paul Becker on research on white racial extremism, online extremism, white nationalism and hate crime. His primary research has focused on extremism, radicalization, nationalism, social deviance, Internet culture, and efforts to prevent radicalization through pathways that create a healthy inclusive community. His secondary research has explored roadside memorials and legal regulation of memorials and the popular music industry, popular culture and youth in American society.
Understanding Extremismhttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/04-24-25-Dayton-Understanding-Extremism.mp3Extremism is a belief system that rejects society’s norms and pushes for radical change. It appears in many forms, from social conspiracies like QAnon to far-right groups like the Proud Boys. Extremists often share common traits: intolerance for other views, and a willingness to use violence or coercion to achieve their goals.
White supremacy is a dangerous form of extremism. It promotes the idea that white people are superior to others. It often calls for controlling or eliminating non-white communities. These beliefs can come from social and economic frustrations. People facing job losses or growing inequalities may turn to extremist ideas for identity and belonging.
Digital platforms have made recruitment easier. Many groups use social media to spread their message. These online spaces create echo chambers. They reinforce extremist views and push people toward violence.
My research shows to counter extremism, law enforcement must monitor and respond to threats, but collaboration among local, state and federal agencies is critical. Community organizations also play a key role in fostering resilience by supporting marginalized groups and promoting inclusivity.
Education also is essential. Initiatives that teach the dangers of intolerance and the value of diversity help dismantle extremist narratives.
And legislative efforts, such as stronger hate crime laws, can further protect vulnerable communities.
Fighting extremism requires a collective approach. Through education, community support, and strong enforcement of laws, we can build stronger, more inclusive societies that resist harmful ideologies.
Read More:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arthur-jipson-014338a/
Twitter/X: https://x.com/artjipson
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drjytaa/
Radio Show: https://yourtuesdayafternoonalternative.com/
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What role does vitamin D play in pregnancy?
Alison Gernand, associate professor of nutritional sciences at Penn State University, shows us the importance.
Alison Gernand is an Assistant Professor of Nutritional Sciences at Penn State University. The focus of her research is the impact of maternal micronutrient status on adverse pregnancy outcomes. She received a master’s degree in public health from the University of Texas School of Public Health and a PhD in human nutrition and international health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is also a Registered Dietitian with extensive experience in public health nutrition. She is a member of the Center for Reproductive Biology and Health and the Center for Women’s Health Research at Penn State.
Vitamin D Matters During the First Trimester of Pregnancyhttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/04-23-25-Penn-State-Vitamin-D-Matters-During-the-First-Trimester-of-Pregnancy.mp3Low vitamin D status during pregnancy is common in the United States. Most prior research has focused on maternal vitamin D status in mid- to late-pregnancy in relation to health outcomes, and less is known about early pregnancy vitamin D status.
Our research examined first and second trimester maternal vitamin D in relation to growth of the fetus throughout pregnancy, and also in relation to risk for preterm birth. To do this, we measured vitamin D levels from blood samples that were collected for 351 women, who were part of a large study conducted at multiple sites in the United States between 2010-2013. We used ultrasound and birth measurements to compare fetal growth patterns and risk of preterm birth by vitamin D status.
We found that babies were longer who were born to women with high versus low first trimester vitamin D status. We also found that women with low status in the first trimester had over 4 times the risk of giving birth early compared to women with high vitamin D status. We found weaker associations between second trimester vitamin D and outcomes, suggesting that early pregnancy may represent a more critical time point for intervention for women who are vitamin D deficient. However, this is a single observational study with a relatively small number of preterm births, and these relationships should be tested in additional, larger studies.
Testing for vitamin D status is not currently part of standard prenatal care in the US. Clinical care providers should consider talking to pregnant patients about vitamin D at the first prenatal visit. We hope that our research can promote awareness of the importance of vitamin D to help improve health outcomes for both the mother and baby.
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Is prayer a form of problem solving for the person praying?
Eleanor Schille-Hudson, postdoctoral research scientist in the department of anthropology at Stanford University, discusses why it may be the case.
A cognitive scientist by training, she studies how people rely on their priors, habituated behaviors, social networks, and cultural context to make sense of the world around them, seen and unseen.
The Problem-Solving Power of Prayerhttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/04-22-25-Stanford-The-Problem-Solving-Power-of-Prayer.mp3Through over 100 interviews with U.S. Christians, I learned that prayer is not only a quiet moment in the day, a time to ask God for blessings, or an opportunity to state beliefs. Rather, prayer is a cognitive practice chock full of problem-solving resources. Prayer helps people identify and articulate the problems they are facing, make plans for solving the problem, and reflect on past solutions and pitfalls. To people who pray regularly, God is not a deus ex machina, swooping in and solving problems on their behalf, but a collaborator.
Interviewees described a delegation process in which they “gave parts of the problem to God,” especially parts of the problem outside their control like the feelings or behaviors of other people. In doing so, they could focus on the parts of the problem that they could control, releasing the other parts of the problem to God, whom they trusted.
As an outside observer, what matters is not whether God exists, but that God exists to these people. I also set aside whether what they pray for “comes true.” Rather, I investigated the ways that prayer is a part of practitioners’ problem solving processes. It may seem strange to think about prayer as either collaborative or as problem solving. In fact, psychological research tells us that collaboration is a primary way that people approach their problems.
Figuring out how to solve a problem is itself a hard problem. It requires finding information, but it also involves persistence. It takes motivation and grit to stick with a problem and work your way through it. We can think about prayer as an everyday tool that people reach for to untangle everyday problems, helping them to feel less alone as they do so.
Read More:
[Aeon] – The Power of Prayer
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Wildfires are a topic that is demanding our attention these days.
John Daily, emeritus professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Colorado, says science can teach us what we need to know.
Dr. Daily is Emeritus Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He studied Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan (B.S. 1968, M.S. 1969) and at Stanford University (Ph.D. 1975.) After receiving the Ph.D., he was a faculty member at the University of California at Berkeley until 1988, when he joined the faculty at the University of Colorado. While at Colorado he served as a department chair and as Director of the Center for Combustion and Environmental Research. He also served as the Program Director for Combustion and Fire Systems at the National Science Foundation. He is a Fellow of The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and The Combustion Institute.
Wildfires Need Sciencehttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/04-21-25-Colorado-Wildfires-Need-Science.mp3Wildland and wildland/urban fires have become more serious in recent years. What steps can be taken to reduce the risk of such fires? Here is what science tells us.
All fires need fuel, oxygen, and heat. Remove any one of them and no fire.
In wildland fire, the available fuels are trees, bushes, grasses, etc. It is not feasible to remove all the fuels. We need forests for both practical and environmental reasons. However, science can guide us in selectively thinning forests with best effect.
In wildland/urban fires there is a mix of plant-based fuels and building materials that can burn. It is often the burning shrubs and trees that carry the fire forward and ignite buildings. Science tells us that by controlling the plants around our houses and using fire safe building materials we can reduce the effect of fires.
The oxygen provided to a fire comes from air that is 21% oxygen. Without wind, fires burn locally available oxygen and slow down. Wind increases the available oxygen, speeds burning, and causes the fire to move faster. This means that it is important for fire fighters to be able to predict the weather and weather prediction is done by scientists.
Once a fire is burning, knowing what it will do helps firefighters allocate resources like personnel, water, aircraft, etc. Predictions of fire behavior are carried out using computer calculations that are continually being improved upon by scientists.
In short, the entire wildfire story involves the use of scientific knowledge for both prevention and fighting.
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This Week on The Academic Minute 2025.04.21
MondayJohn Daily, emeritus professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Colorado, says science can teach us what we need to know about wildfires.
TuesdayEleanor Schille-Hudson, postdoctoral research scientist in the department of anthropology at Stanford University, discusses why prayer may be a form of problem-solving for some.
WednesdayAlison Gernand, associate professor of nutritional sciences at Penn State University, shows us the importance of vitamin D during the first trimester of pregnancy.
ThursdayArt Jipson, associate professor of sociology and criminology at the University of Dayton, explores why understanding extremism is important.
FridayFlora Sun, assistant professor of accounting at Binghamton University, discusses the conglomeration of news media and its impact on financial markets.
The post This Week on The Academic Minute (2025.04.21) appeared first on The Academic Minute.
The Academic Minute from 4.14 – 4.18MondayGabe Kwong – Georgia Tech UniversityUsing Computer Logic to Enhance Cancer Detection
Gabe A. Kwong, Ph.D. is the Robert A. Milton Endowed Chair and Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory School of Medicine. Dr. Kwong’s research program is centered at the interface of bioengineering, immunology, and medicine. His groundbreaking accomplishments in advancing biosensors and cell therapies to address frontier challenges in biomedicine, particularly within oncology, have resulted in first-in-class biotechnologies, the founding of multiple start-up companies, and widespread recognition. Among his distinctions, Dr. Kwong is a recipient of the NIH Director’s New Innovator and Pioneer Awards, and currently leads the $49.5 million Cancer and Organ Degradome Atlas (CODA) project, a multi-institutional research enterprise supported by ARPA-H to revolutionize multi-cancer early detection. Dr. Kwong co-founded 2 biotechnology companies and holds 40 issued or pending patents. He earned his B.S. from UC Berkeley, his Ph.D. from Caltech, and completed postdoctoral studies at MIT.
TuesdaySarah Kakadellis – University of California DavisStates Unlikely to Meet U.S. Food Waste Reduction Goals
Kakadellis’ research addresses the significant yet mostly untapped potential of food loss and waste solutions for the design of sustainable, circular, and resilient food systems. She is particularly interested in assessing the environmental and social dimensions of food waste reduction policies and technology adoption. She holds a B.Sc. in Biochemistry, an M.Sc. in Environmental Technology, and an interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Environmental Policy. Sarah is also a keen science communicator and is committed to bringing her research to policymakers and the public through outreach activities.
Wednesday
Jasmine Loveland – University of ViennaA Super Enzyme in Overdrive: How Ruffs Lower Testosterone
Dr. Jasmine Loveland is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Vienna and a guest scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence. Her main interests are in molecular evolution, comparative neuroanatomy and the evolution of animal behavior. Dr. Loveland received her BA from Hampshire College, a MSc from Smith College and a PhD in Biology from Stanford University. She has published articles on a wide variety of topics, including evolution of bacterial ribozymes, taste processing in the brain, and neural correlates for social behaviors in fishes and birds. Most recently, her research combines behavior, hormones, neuroanatomy and gene expression analyses to understand how alternative mating tactics link to a chromosome inversion in male ruffs. Her most recent paper, published in Science, describes how a super enzyme helps male ruffs lower testosterone levels in their blood.
ThursdayAnita Rao – Georgetown UniversityThe Impact of Voluntary Labeling
Anita Rao, Beyer Family Associate Professor at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, is an empirical marketing researcher. Her work focuses on causally measuring consumer reactions to deceptive practices such as false claims, fake news ads and misinformation. She was recently a visiting scholar at the Federal Trade Commission, Bureau of Economics and is a senior policy scholar at Georgetown McDonough’s Center for Business and Public Policy. Rao was named a 2019 Marketing Science Institute (MSI) Young Scholar and a 2023 MSI Scholar.
FridayPeter Serles – California Institute of TechnologyMachine Learning Could Make Superefficient Planes
Dr. Peter Serles received his PhD from the University of Toronto working with Prof. Tobin Filleter where he was a Vanier Scholar and was awarded the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineers Gold Medal. Dr. Serles is now a Schmidt Science Fellow at Caltech and USC Stem Cell. His research seeks to cross disciplinary boundaries by combining nanomaterials, additive manufacturing, stem cell development, and computational techniques to find outcomes that no single discipline could achieve.
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3D printing may hold the key to making airplanes superefficient.
Peter Serles, Schmidt Science Fellow at the California Institute of Technology, looks to let this research take off.
Dr. Peter Serles received his PhD from the University of Toronto working with Prof. Tobin Filleter where he was a Vanier Scholar and was awarded the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineers Gold Medal. Dr. Serles is now a Schmidt Science Fellow at Caltech and USC Stem Cell. His research seeks to cross disciplinary boundaries by combining nanomaterials, additive manufacturing, stem cell development, and computational techniques to find outcomes that no single discipline could achieve.
Machine Learning Could Make Superefficient Planeshttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/04-18-25-Caltech-Machine-Learning-Could-Make-Superefficient-Planes.mp3What would it look like if a car or a plane was as strong and safe as it is now, but weighed only as much as Styrofoam? For one, you could pick it up and put it on a shelf when you park. But more importantly, this would lead to enormous fuel savings, increased efficiencies, and much lower CO2 emissions.
By combining machine learning with nanoscale 3D printing, we’ve developed a new type of nano-structured material that’s as strong as steel, but as light as Styrofoam, with the potential to change the paradigm of how new materials are designed.
This new material is made up of millions of nanoscale lattices that are 3D printed with carefully engineered shapes. This is a lot like how you’d use triangles to build a sturdy bridge, but each piece of the lattice is about 200x smaller than a human hair, just a couple hundred nanometers wide. And, while triangular lattices have worked well in the past, we instead wanted to take advantage of machine learning to predict what other shapes might give us super strong but super lightweight properties.
What we found was shocking – The machine learning algorithm suggested new shapes that were not obvious for a designer to come up with. But, when we tested them, they more than doubled the strength of the material simply by reshaping some of the features. When we nano-3D printed these new shapes out of carbon, they set a new benchmark for strength-to-weight, about five times better than titanium. And, by printing nearly 20 million of these lattices stacked together, we showed they could be scaled up and actually held in your hand.
This intersection of fields: machine learning, nano-3D printing, and laser optics, together gives us previously impossible engineering properties. And, offers to revolutionize how we engineer new materials in the years to come.
Read More:
[Wiley Advanced Materials] – Ultrahigh Specific Strength by Bayesian Optimization of Carbon Nanolattices
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Labels on products showing ‘healthier’ information, may not be telling the whole story.
Anita Rao, Beyer Family associate professor at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University, tells us why.
Anita Rao, Beyer Family Associate Professor at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, is an empirical marketing researcher. Her work focuses on causally measuring consumer reactions to deceptive practices such as false claims, fake news ads and misinformation. She was recently a visiting scholar at the Federal Trade Commission, Bureau of Economics and is a senior policy scholar at Georgetown McDonough’s Center for Business and Public Policy. Rao was named a 2019 Marketing Science Institute (MSI) Young Scholar and a 2023 MSI Scholar.
The Impact of Voluntary Labelinghttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/04-17-25-Georgetown-The-Impact-of-Voluntary-Labeling.mp3Firms often engage in selective marketing showcasing features to convince consumers to buy their product. In many cases these selective features can be informative, for example, a “gluten-free” label can help a consumer looking to avoid gluten easily pick the product. In other cases, such features can be misleading. A label stating “contains 7 essential vitamins and minerals” could mislead consumers into thinking the product is healthy and cause them to ignore other relevant attributes like the sugar content of the product (which in the absence of the label they might have paid attention to).
We examine this practice with the “no high fructose corn syrup” or the “no HFCS” label. HFCS was used as a substitute for sugar, but it soon became a controversial ingredient. Today, however, the consensus is that any form of added sugar is bad and singling out any one caloric sweetener can be misleading. So, the question is does the voluntary “no HFCS” label serve as an informative feature for those wishing to steer clear of the controversial ingredient, or could it obfuscate consumers causing them to ignore a product’s overall sugar content, leading them to make a less healthy choice.
We examined products across 24 different categories and found that products using the “no HFCS” label were more sugary compared to their counterparts.
We also found, through two online shopping experiments, that in the presence of the label participants were buying more sugary products and also spending less effort searching.
These results showcase how voluntary labels can impact consumers and inform managers and policymakers of whether and how voluntary labels should be displayed.
Read More:
[SSRN] – The Impact of Voluntary Labeling
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What can birds teach us about testosterone?
Jasmine Loveland, Lise Meitner postdoctoral fellow at the University of Vienna, examines this.
Dr. Jasmine Loveland is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Vienna and a guest scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence. Her main interests are in molecular evolution, comparative neuroanatomy and the evolution of animal behavior. Dr. Loveland received her BA from Hampshire College, a MSc from Smith College and a PhD in Biology from Stanford University. She has published articles on a wide variety of topics, including evolution of bacterial ribozymes, taste processing in the brain, and neural correlates for social behaviors in fishes and birds. Most recently, her research combines behavior, hormones, neuroanatomy and gene expression analyses to understand how alternative mating tactics link to a chromosome inversion in male ruffs. Her most recent paper, published in Science, describes how a super enzyme helps male ruffs lower testosterone levels in their blood.
A Super Enzyme in Overdrive: How Ruffs Lower Testosteronehttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/04-16-25-Vienna-A-Super-Enzyme-in-Overdrive-How-Ruffs-Lower-Testosterone.mp3We often think of testosterone as associated with male strength, aggressive behavior and dominance. Most of the testosterone in males is produced in the testes, where it is released into the bloodstream. In the brain, the hypothalamus senses blood testosterone and, with the pituitary, signals the testes to adjust production.
I study ruffs, a spectacular migratory shorebird where some males have nearly eliminated all testosterone from their blood, while still keeping a very robust powerhouse of testosterone production in the testes. How have they managed to do that?
Let’s set the scene.
Male ruffs come in three types, or morphs, each with its own distinct look and mating strategy. Independent morphs, are the showiest, with dark extravagant feathers around their neck. They are large and defend their territories aggressively, competing for female attention. The second morph, Satellites, have light colored ruffs and never claim a territory. Instead, they form alliances with Independents, joining in courtship displays. The rarest morph, Faeders, are small, drab masters of disguise, sneaking into mating arenas as lookalike females.
Ruff morphs are set by genetics: in Faeders and Satellites, a DNA segment was cut, flipped, and reinserted. This is called a chromosome inversion.
Their inversions harbor a gene that codes for an enzyme that breaks down testosterone. We discovered that in Satellites and Faeders, this gene accumulated mutations that turned it into a “super enzyme” able to do its job much faster than the version found in the aggressive Independents. On top of that, Satellites and Faeders had over a thousand times more of this super enzyme in their blood.
This super enzyme’s dramatic effect on testosterone opens new research avenues. Next, we aim to study how ruffs regulate complex social behaviors and explore sex-based diversity further.
(© MPI for Biological Intelligence / Axel Griesch)(© MPI for Biological Intelligence / Axel Griesch)Read More:
Original article: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adp5936
Jasmine L. Loveland et al., A single gene orchestrates androgen variation underlying male mating morphs in ruffs. Science 387, 406-412 (2025). DOI:10.1126/science.adp5936
Press release: https://www.bi.mpg.de/news/2025-01-kuepper?c=1509873
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Federal food waste reduction goals are proving hard for states to meet.
Sarah Kakadellis, postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Food Science and Technology at the University of California, Davis, explains why.
Kakadellis’ research addresses the significant yet mostly untapped potential of food loss and waste solutions for the design of sustainable, circular, and resilient food systems. She is particularly interested in assessing the environmental and social dimensions of food waste reduction policies and technology adoption. She holds a B.Sc. in Biochemistry, an M.Sc. in Environmental Technology, and an interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Environmental Policy. Sarah is also a keen science communicator and is committed to bringing her research to policymakers and the public through outreach activities.
States Unlikely To Meet U.S. Food Waste Reduction Goalhttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/04-15-25-UC-Davis-States-Unlikely-To-Meet-US-Food-Waste-Reduction-Goal.mp3One third of all food produced in the world is either lost or wasted. Food waste is responsible for up to 10% of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. At the same time, some 18 million households faced food insecurity in 2023 in the United States alone.
To address this, the US Environmental Protection Agency and the US Department of Food and Agriculture set a goal to cut national food waste in half by 2030. That would mean reducing the amount of food waste a person generates in a year down to a 164 pounds. Achieving this goal relies on policies implemented by individual states across the nation. But how effective are these policies, and are states on track to reach the federal goal?
To answer these questions, we partnered with non-profit ReFED and developed a model to quantify how much food waste could be reduced based on four broad policy categories. They include preventing and rescuing food, repurposing food for other uses like animal feed, and recycling.
Our analysis shows that based on state policies alone, no state can meet the federal target. Instead, we found that overall, states could only divert as much as 30 pounds per person. This is mainly due to the overwhelming emphasis that states place on recycling strategies. By definition, recycling does not contribute towards reducing food waste generation. Without a shift to prevention, rescue and repurposing, food waste generation in the US is likely to remain high.
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Finding the right treatment for cancer is difficult at times, so how can computing power help us with this goal?
Gabe Kwong, the Robert A. Milton associate professor of biomedical engineering at Georgia Tech University, examines.
Gabe A. Kwong, Ph.D. is the Robert A. Milton Endowed Chair and Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory School of Medicine. Dr. Kwong’s research program is centered at the interface of bioengineering, immunology, and medicine. His groundbreaking accomplishments in advancing biosensors and cell therapies to address frontier challenges in biomedicine, particularly within oncology, have resulted in first-in-class biotechnologies, the founding of multiple start-up companies, and widespread recognition. Among his distinctions, Dr. Kwong is a recipient of the NIH Director’s New Innovator and Pioneer Awards, and currently leads the $49.5 million Cancer and Organ Degradome Atlas (CODA) project, a multi-institutional research enterprise supported by ARPA-H to revolutionize multi-cancer early detection. Dr. Kwong co-founded 2 biotechnology companies and holds 40 issued or pending patents. He earned his B.S. from UC Berkeley, his Ph.D. from Caltech, and completed postdoctoral studies at MIT.
Using Computer Logic to Enhance Cancer Detectionhttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/04-14-25-Georgia-Tech-Using-Computer-Logic-to-Enhance-Cancer-Detection.mp3How can computer logic be used to enhance cancer detection?
Traditional biosensors typically rely on genetic materials like cells or fragments of DNA. While effective, these methods can be complex, costly, and sometimes yield false positives. Our approach is different.
We’ve engineered smarter biosensors that operate like the “AND” function in computer logic. Much like how you need both a username and password to access your account, our biosensors require multiple biological inputs, happening at the same time, to unlock a detection signal.
In animal studies, our logic-based biosensors successfully distinguished between tumors that responded to a common cancer treatment called immune checkpoint blockade therapy, and those that did not. This is crucial because it means our sensors can help identify which tumors are likely to respond to certain treatments, leading to more personalized and effective therapy plans.
Our sensors also proved adept at avoiding false signals from unrelated health issues. For instance, when the immune system was fighting a flu infection in the lungs, away from the tumor, the biosensors did not produce false positives. This precision is vital for monitoring disease and reducing unnecessary treatments.
Perhaps most importantly, our biosensors are simple and precise to manufacture. Because they’re made from synthetic molecules, they are easier to produce and less prone to the issues that can affect biologically based sensors, which are more complex to create. This makes them more practical for clinical use and could lead to more widespread adoption in healthcare settings.
Our findings show that biosensors designed to implement computer logic can significantly improve cancer detection, offering the potential to revolutionize how we approach cancer diagnostics and treatment planning.
Read More:
[Nature Nanotechnology] – AND-gated protease-activated nanosensors for programmable detection of anti-tumour immunity
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This Week on The Academic Minute 2025.04.14
MondayGabe Kwong, the Robert A. Milton associate professor of biomedical engineering at Georgia Tech University, examines how finding the right treatment for cancer is difficult at times, and computing power may help us with this goal.
TuesdaySarah Kakadellis, postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Food Science and Technology at the University of California, Davis, explains why federal food waste reduction goals are proving hard for states to meet.
WednesdayJasmine Loveland, Lise Meitner postdoctoral fellow at the University of Vienna, determines what birds can teach us about testosterone.
ThursdayAnita Rao, Beyer Family associate professor at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University, tells us why food labels on products may not be telling the whole story.
FridayPeter Serles, Schmidt Science Fellow at the California Institute of Technology, looks to machine learning and 3d printing to make planes for efficient in the future.
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The Academic Minute from 4.7 – 4.11MondayRafaela Fontes – Virginia Tech UniversityPersistence with Abstinence from Substance Use
Rafaela Fontes is a research scientist in the Addiction Recovery Research Center at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC. Her work focuses on decision-making processes in individuals with substance use disorders (SUD), using models of choice to inform more effective treatments. She also investigates factors influencing recovery, aiming to identify diverse pathways that lead to successful outcomes across different substances.
She and her colleagues from the institute drew from the International Quit & Recovery for their recent research on substance use cessation.
TuesdayPraveen Arany – University at BuffaloLight Treatments – Myths and Facts
Dr. Arany trained as a dentist, oral pathologist, and biomedical engineer. He served as an Assistant Clinical Investigator at NIDCR/NIH, Bethesda, from 2012 to 2015. He is currently an Associate Professor at the University at Buffalo, NY. He has 6 patents, over 150 scientific publications with over 10000 citations, and an h-index of 40. His work has been featured in many mainstream media highlights in over 70 countries. He has received numerous awards recognizing his research contributions, including the Young Investigator National Institutes of Health and Wound Healing Society, Horrace Furomoto American Society for Lasers in Surgery and Medicine, and the Theodore Maiman Award from the Academy of Laser Dentistry. He has been invited to speak in various national and international forums, reviews for over 75 scientific journals, serves on nine journal editorial boards, including associate editor in four, and reviews grants for national and international funding agencies. He is the immediate past president of the World & North American Association for Photobiomodulation Therapy, Chair of the PBM group in SPIE and Optica (OSA), and Chair-elect of Lasers Biophotonics Group, International Association of Dental Research.
Wednesday
Tali Caspi – University of California, DavisHow Cities Shape What Animals Eat
Tali’s work on urban wildlife focuses on emerging patterns and underlying mechanisms of individual variation across the urban landscape to better understand the factors that allow animals to effectively respond to urbanization. She integrates animal behavior, organismal biology, and urban ecology to assess how the built environment shapes the ecology of urban carnivores. Her current research with the Mammalian Ecology and Conservation Unit explores the nutritional ecology of urban coyotes in San Francisco. As a science communicator, Tali aims to promote human-wildlife coexistence in urban areas.
ThursdayBrandon Vaidyanthan – Catholic University of AmericaScience is a Quest for Beauty
Dr. Brandon Vaidyanathan is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Institutional Flourishing Lab at The Catholic University of America. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business administration from St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia and HEC Montreal respectively, and a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Notre Dame. His research examines the cultural dimensions of religious, commercial, and scientific institutions, and has been widely published in peer-reviewed journals. He is also Founder of Beauty at Work, a media platform which includes a podcast and YouTube channel.
FridayFrank McAndrew – Knox CollegeWhy Do Old People Hate New Music?
To the extent that there is a common theme tying my research together, it is that I study human social behavior from an evolutionary perspective. I am especially interested in understanding the psychology of everyday life. Why do we enjoy gossip about celebrities? Why do some people name their children after themselves while others do not? Why are mass shooters almost always young men? My book on Environmental Psychology has been translated into several languages and is recognized as a classic text in the history of that discipline.
I have also become something of a purveyor of psychological science to lay audiences. My blog at Psychology Today Magazine and other op-ed articles have attracted over 25 million readers, and one of my essays even appeared in the playbill of a play on London’s West End.
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Certain age groups think the music of today is not as a good as it used to be.
Frank McAndrew, Cornelia H. Dudley professor of psychology at Knox College, explores why this may be.
To the extent that there is a common theme tying my research together, it is that I study human social behavior from an evolutionary perspective. I am especially interested in understanding the psychology of everyday life. Why do we enjoy gossip about celebrities? Why do some people name their children after themselves while others do not? Why are mass shooters almost always young men? My book on Environmental Psychology has been translated into several languages and is recognized as a classic text in the history of that discipline.
I have also become something of a purveyor of psychological science to lay audiences. My blog at Psychology Today Magazine and other op-ed articles have attracted over 25 million readers, and one of my essays even appeared in the playbill of a play on London’s West End
Why Do Old People Hate New Music?https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/04-11-25-Knox-Why-Do-Old-People-Hate-New-Music.mp3Older people often say that “they just don’t make good music like they used to.” Why do we do this?
Musical tastes begin to solidify as early as age 13 or 14, and they get locked into place pretty firmly in our early 20s. Most of us stop exploring new music entirely by the time we turn 33, and if a song was released when you were in your early teens, that song is likely to remain quite popular among your age group forever.
Curiously, men are even less likely than women to explore new music and listen to new artists as they get older.
There is evidence that the brain’s ability to make subtle distinctions between chords and other musical elements gets worse with age. So, new, unfamiliar songs may in fact sound more alike to older ears than to younger ears.
But I believe that the aversion that older people often have to new music has a simpler explanation: the mere exposure effect.
In short, the more familiar we are with something, the more we tend to like it, and it is the music that we hear when we are young that is most familiar to us. In your teens, you probably spent a lot of time listening to music and discussing it with your friends, and the songs and artists from this time became familiar, comforting parts of your life.
Later, life becomes too busy to allocate much attention to discovering new music, and so we listen to comforting old favorites that connect us to a simpler time and place. With familiar songs, we fill in words and sounds that elude us even when there is a lot of background noise or other distractions.
Also, the teen years are famously turbulent, and the emotions that we experience then are intense.
Strong emotions make for strong memories and strong likes and dislikes—including the music we listen to.
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Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but is it also in science?
Brandon Vaidyanathan, professor of sociology at the Catholic University of America, takes a closer look.
Dr. Brandon Vaidyanathan is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Institutional Flourishing Lab at The Catholic University of America. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business administration from St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia and HEC Montreal respectively, and a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Notre Dame. His research examines the cultural dimensions of religious, commercial, and scientific institutions, and has been widely published in peer-reviewed journals. He is also Founder of Beauty at Work, a media platform which includes a podcast and YouTube channel.
Science is a Quest for Beautyhttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/04-10-25-Catholic-U-of-America-Science-is-a-Quest-for-Beauty.mp3Many of us associate science with words like rational, analytical, or methodical. But what about beautiful?
It might seem surprising to juxtapose beauty and science, but my research finds that beauty plays a central role in scientific inquiry. My team and I conducted the world’s first large-scale study of beauty in science, surveying nearly 3,500 scientists across four countries. We found that beauty shapes their work in three distinct ways.
First, sensory beauty—the intricate patterns of a cell under a microscope or the awe-inspiring symmetries of the universe—draws many scientists to their fields in the first place.
Second, useful beauty is when scientists rely on beauty as a heuristic or shortcut. For instance, they may see the simplicity and elegance of a theory as an indicator of its truth, though these qualities aren’t always reliable.
The most profound motivator, however, is the beauty of understanding—those “aha” moments of insight when we uncover the hidden order or inner logic of things. The scientists we interviewed described such understanding as a profound aesthetic experience. And nearly 95 percent in our study reported experiencing this kind of beauty in their work.
Yet, not all of science is beautiful. Scientists often contend with toxic work environments, unhealthy competition, and burnout. Many leave the profession altogether as a result. Those who persist are often sustained by the beauty at the heart of their quest. But we need to do more.
By recognizing the central role of beauty in science, we can better understand not only why scientists do what they do but how we can better support their quest for discovery. This beauty doesn’t just inspire—it’s essential for keeping science alive, creative, and thriving.
Read More:
Work and Well-Being in Science
[Aeon] – How the Search for Beauty Drives Scientific Enquiry
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What do animals eat when they live in urban spaces?
Tali Caspi, urban ecologist and Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, Davis, takes off the lid.
Tali’s work on urban wildlife focuses on emerging patterns and underlying mechanisms of individual variation across the urban landscape to better understand the factors that allow animals to effectively respond to urbanization. She integrates animal behavior, organismal biology, and urban ecology to assess how the built environment shapes the ecology of urban carnivores. Her current research with the Mammalian Ecology and Conservation Unit explores the nutritional ecology of urban coyotes in San Francisco. As a science communicator, Tali aims to promote human-wildlife coexistence in urban areas.
How Cities Shape What Animals Eathttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/04-09-25-UC-Davis-How-Cities-Shape-What-Animals-Eat.mp3Animals of the city mostly go about their business unnoticed, but that doesn’t mean people aren’t profoundly shaping their lives. In San Francisco, California, coyotes made a comeback at the turn of the century, decades after their extirpation. But as natural areas have given way to restaurants, apartments, and sidewalks, these urban carnivores have shifted what they eat.
To better understand how the diets of San Francisco’s coyotes are shaped by urban infrastructure and human activity, we collected and analyzed hundreds of coyote scats from across the city. In the lab, we extracted and amplified DNA from each scat to identify the vertebrate prey it contained. With this molecular data, we determined the most frequently consumed diet items and examined how coyote diets varied from city block to block.
Overall, the scat samples contained 59 distinct diet items, the most common of which included human-provided foods—primarily chicken and pork—along with pocket gophers, raccoons, voles, rats, mice, pigeons, and ducks. Our DNA-based method was even sensitive enough to detect some rare items like sea lion and fin whale.
Although human-sourced food was the largest contributor to overall coyote diet, not all individuals consumed it equally. Coyotes living in more urbanized parts of the city ate more human-sourced food than their neighbors with more access to undeveloped green spaces. We also found that the number of restaurants in a coyote’s territory was correlated with the consumption of invasive rats and mice.
Ultimately, the variation in coyote diets across neighborhoods with differing land cover shines a spotlight on the ways in which human behavior and built infrastructure shape the foraging strategies of individual animals in cities. At the same time, our findings highlight the diverse set of dietary and habitat affinities coyotes can adopt, demonstrating their flexibility and resilience in a rapidly urbanizing world.
Read More:
[Ecosphere] – Impervious surface cover and number of restaurants shape diet variation in an urban carnivore
bayareacoyote.org
Tali on BlueSky
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There are always new wellness treatments, but should we believe the hype?
Praveen Arany, associate professor of oral biology and biomedical engineering and surgery at the University at Buffalo, examines one.
Dr. Arany trained as a dentist, oral pathologist, and biomedical engineer. He served as an Assistant Clinical Investigator at NIDCR/NIH, Bethesda, from 2012 to 2015. He is currently an Associate Professor at the University at Buffalo, NY. He has 6 patents, over 150 scientific publications with over 10000 citations, and an h-index of 40. His work has been featured in many mainstream media highlights in over 70 countries. He has received numerous awards recognizing his research contributions, including the Young Investigator National Institutes of Health and Wound Healing Society, Horrace Furomoto American Society for Lasers in Surgery and Medicine, and the Theodore Maiman Award from the Academy of Laser Dentistry. He has been invited to speak in various national and international forums, reviews for over 75 scientific journals, serves on nine journal editorial boards, including associate editor in four, and reviews grants for national and international funding agencies. He is the immediate past president of the World & North American Association for Photobiomodulation Therapy, Chair of the PBM group in SPIE and Optica (OSA), and Chair-elect of Lasers Biophotonics Group, International Association of Dental Research.
Light Treatments – Myths and Factshttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/04-08-25-Buffalo-Light-Treatments-–-Myths-and-Facts.mp3Red light treatments are gaining much attention on social media and popular press. The ability to counter the age-related skin ailments and improve overall wellness has become very popular. Moreover, the ready availability of several light devices adds to the strong potential for this innovative treatment in improving our lives. A major question that is being asked is if this is a legitimate field or simply hype.
The field of low dose, non-heating light treatments is termed Photobiomodulation Therapy. There has been major progress in the field recently in both lab research as well human clinical trials. Studies in cell culture outline several light-activated molecules that are capable of therapeutic benefits. This parallels the ability of the human body to visualize our environment with visible light using specialized structures in our eye. Data analyzed by multiple scientific professional societies namely, Multinational Association for Supportive Care in Cancer, International Society for Oral Oncology, World and North American Association for Photobiomodulation therapy have highlighted the efficacy of light treatments in supportive cancer care. This implies every cancer patient undergoing chemotherapy, radiation therapy or bone marrow-stem cell transplants will benefit from light treatments that can reduce cancer treatment complications.
Besides these supportive cancer care treatments, there are several studies that have focused on the use of light treatments to increase hair growth, improve skin tone and reduce aging-associated changes. LED devices are very popular especially for home use and very large treatment modes such as beds or canopies. Laser devices, on the other hand, are usually focused probes or fibers that are used in a clinical setting to deliver light treatments. Many of these studies use red light while others have explored other colors such as blue, green, and infrared among others. There have been no reports of untoward incidences when light treatment is used in an appropriate manner at the right dose ranges. Overall, light treatment is an attractive non-invasive, non-pharmacological approach that can benefit human health and wellness.
Read More:
[The Conversation] – Red light therapy shows promise for pain relief, inflammation and skin conditions – but other claims might be hyped
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How long does it take for successful abstinence from substance use?
Rafaela Fontes, research scientist at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at Virginia Tech University, takes a look.
Rafaela Fontes is a research scientist in the Addiction Recovery Research Center at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC. Her work focuses on decision-making processes in individuals with substance use disorders (SUD), using models of choice to inform more effective treatments. She also investigates factors influencing recovery, aiming to identify diverse pathways that lead to successful outcomes across different substances.
She and her colleagues from the institute drew from the International Quit & Recovery for their recent research on substance use cessation.
Persistence with Abstinence from Substance Usehttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/04-07-25-Virginia-Tech-Persistence-with-Abstinence-from-Substance-Use.mp3Relapse is common when someone is trying to quit an addiction. And even though we know addiction is a chronic condition, we treat it as an acute disorder.
My colleagues and I wanted to answer this question: How many quit attempts are needed for successful abstinence? We also wanted to know if this number was different depending on the substance someone is trying to quit.
To find out, we recruited participants from the International Quit & Recovery Registry, a tool created by the late Dr. Warren Bickel to better understand success in overcoming addiction. We drew our findings from 344 people who reported abstinence from at least one substance. Their responses showed that some substances do require more attempts, and are harder to quit.
Opioids and pain medication required significantly more attempts than all other substances — with an estimated mean around 6 attempts. Notably, substances with a higher number of quit attempts are also the ones that can bring on severe physical withdrawal symptoms, like pain, nausea, and anxiety.
Our results also showed that it took more attempts for people with a more severe or longer history of substance use to achieve abstinence. That means that early intervention is better. For those on the severe end of the spectrum, more intense or a combination of interventions might be needed.
Importantly, these numbers might not be final for every participant, as we know that relapse is common. In our sample, the average time in abstinence was more than seven years across substances.
We hope these findings help inform treatment by demonstrating that each substance is associated with unique challenges. We also hope this helps people who are going through recovery. If they know failure is part of the process, they might be encouraged to stay the course, realizing they’ll get there eventually.
Read More:
- Referenced study
- https://www.quitandrecovery.org
- Addiction Recovery Research Center
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This Week on The Academic Minute 2025.04.07
MondayRafaela Fontes, research scientist at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at Virginia Tech University, takes a look at how long it takes for successful abstinence from substance use.
TuesdayPraveen Arany, associate professor of oral biology and biomedical engineering and surgery at the University at Buffalo, examines whether we should believe the hype for a new wellness treatment.
WednesdayTali Caspi, urban ecologist and Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, Davis, discusses how cities shape what urban animals eat.
ThursdayBrandon Vaidyanathan, professor of sociology at the Catholic University of America, explores how science is a quest for beauty.
FridayFrank McAndrew, Cornelia H. Dudley professor of psychology at Knox College, examines the reasons most old people don’t enjoy new music.
The post This Week on The Academic Minute (2025.04.07) appeared first on The Academic Minute.
The Academic Minute from 3.31 – 4.3MondayLaura Jelliffe-Pawlowski – New York UniversityPreterm Births on the Rise
Dr. Laura Jelliffe-Pawlowski is a Professor of Epidemiology and Precision Health at NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing and an Emeritus Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics in the UCSF School of Medicine. She is the Founder and Lead of the International HOPE Research Consortium and Primary Investigator of the HOPE, PROMPT, and THRIVE studies. Her research focuses on identifying causes and interventions for preterm birth and adverse pregnancy outcomes with a focus on developing new tools, tests, and technologies with global applications. She has received funding from the NIH, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the March of Dimes, and UCSF’s California Preterm Birth Initiative, among others. With over 150 scientific papers and patents for predictive blood tests and algorithms, her work has been featured in the New York Times, The Atlantic, WIRED, CNN, NPR, BBC, and more. In 2023 she was recognized by Forbes on their 50 over 50 list of women leaders in innovation.
TuesdayJoseph Cimpain – New York UniversityProgress and Setbacks in the STEM Gender Gap
Joseph Cimpian is Professor of Economics and Education Policy at New York University’s Steinhardt and Wagner Schools. His research focuses on understanding and addressing social and educational inequities, with particular emphasis on gender gaps in STEM fields, the effects of English learner reclassification policies, and educational experiences of LGBTQ+ youth. His work has appeared in leading journals including Science, and has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, and NPR. Using large-scale data analysis and innovative statistical methods, Dr. Cimpian’s research identifies patterns of inequality and evaluates potential policy solutions. His current work examines how institutional environments affect gender representation in physics, engineering, and computer science across different types of universities.
Wednesday
Amanda Mauri – New York UniversityA Growing U.S. Mental Health Safety Net
Amanda Mauri is an Assistant Professor/Faculty Fellow at the New York University School of Global Public Health. Her interdisciplinary research focuses on assessing variations in access to community behavioral health care and crisis services. She is particularly interested in the implementation and impact of Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic initiatives, with a special focus on those related to Medicaid. Her scholarly work has appeared in Health Affairs, the Milbank Quarterly, and JAMA Health Forum. Amanda holds dual Ph.D. degrees in Health Policy and Political Science from the University of Michigan.
ThursdaySophie Arnold – New York UniversityUnraveling the Gender Gap in Negotiation
Sophie Arnold is PhD Candidate in Psychology at New York University. Her research investigates the early emerging beliefs and behaviors that contribute to real-world disparities like the gender wage gap. Her research has been published in top journals such as Psychological Science and the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General and funded by the National Science Foundation.
FridayOlivia Pomerenk – New York University**Hula Hoop Levitation
Olivia Pomerenk is a fifth-year graduate student at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at NYU, working towards a Ph.D. in mathematics after receiving a bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics from Caltech. Olivia is interested in the dynamics and interactions of fluids and solids.
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On New York University Week: How does a hula hoop work?
Olivia Pomerenk, Ph. D candidate in mathematics, looks at the science.
Olivia Pomerenk is a fifth-year graduate student at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at NYU, working towards a Ph.D. in mathematics after receiving a bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics from Caltech. Olivia is interested in the dynamics and interactions of fluids and solids.
Hula Hoop Levitationhttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/04-04-25-NYU-Hula-Hoop-Levitation.mp3Humans have been hula-hooping for millennia. The practice of hula-hooping as recreation, exercise, or even religious ceremony appears in historical records as early as 500 BCE, resurfacing across myriad cultures throughout history. Despite its enduring presence, the dynamics of hula-hooping have not been thoroughly studied. The most fundamental question remains unanswered: how does the hoop stay up and “levitate” against gravity?
Using a combination of modeling and experiments, we set out to finally resolve this mystery. We 3D-printed different small plastic “body shapes”: a cylinder, a cone, and a hyperboloid (an hourglass). Each shape was driven to gyrate, mimicking the motion of a hula-hooping human, and small plastic hoops were twirled around them. Results revealed striking differences. The cylinder, with straight sides, was completely ineffective: no matter the speed of gyration, the hoop inevitably slid down and fell. The cone, with sloped sides, fared slightly better but still failed. The hoop either spun up and flew off the point, or it slid downward and fell. Only the hourglass shape successfully sustained hula-hooping. The hoop consistently settled below the hourglass’s narrowest point, or “waist,” and remained indefinitely trapped there as long as gyration continued.
Using a mathematical model, we confirmed that body shape is the key to successful hula-hooping. Two conditions must be met: the body must have sufficient slope (to provide an upward force counteracting gravity) and sufficient curvature (to trap the hoop in place). On a human, this corresponds to hips (for slope) and waist (for curvature). These findings resolve the mystery of hula-hooping, shedding light on an enduring human pastime, and offer broader insight into the mechanics of “gripping” an object via gyration, which could be useful in harvesting energy and improving robots.
X. Zhu, O. Pomerenk, L. Ristroph, Geometrically modulated contact forces enable hula hoop levitation, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.
122 (1) e2411588121,
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2411588121 (2025).The post Olivia Pomerenk, New York University – Hula Hoop Levitation appeared first on The Academic Minute.
On this Student Spotlight during New York University Week: Does the gender pay gap start in childhood?
Sophie Arnold, Ph.D. candidate in psychology, examines.
Sophie Arnold is PhD Candidate in Psychology at New York University. Her research investigates the early emerging beliefs and behaviors that contribute to real-world disparities like the gender wage gap. Her research has been published in top journals such as Psychological Science and the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General and funded by the National Science Foundation.
Unraveling the Gender Gap in Negotiationhttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/04-03-25-NYU-Unraveling-the-Gender-Gap-in-Negotiation.mp3Wage gaps persist between men and women in workplaces across America, with negotiation playing a key role. Research has shown that women negotiate less frequently and ask for less than men. But when do these differences first emerge?
Our research with children ages 6 to 12 revealed that gender differences in negotiation begin early. When children completed work and negotiated their reward with an adult, boys asked for significantly more than girls. This wasn’t because boys performed better—they didn’t.
Instead, the gender gap emerged from two key factors. First, boys consistently overestimated their own performance compared to girls, even though their actual performance was equal. Second, boys were more likely to “push the boundaries” when they viewed negotiation positively. Girls often had equally positive views about negotiation—they thought that it was okay and common to make large requests—but they didn’t act on those views to actually make higher requests for themselves.
These findings suggest that negotiation differences between men and women may originate in childhood perceptions of competence and deservingness. Boys’ inflated self-perceptions and greater willingness to stretch the limits of acceptable requests combine to create early advantages in negotiation outcomes. Understanding these childhood roots of gender differences in negotiation provides new insights into addressing workplace inequities before they become entrenched.
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On New York University Week: The more people with access to mental health services, the better.
Amanda Mauri, assistant professor and faculty fellow at the School of Global Public Health, discusses the rise in care.
Amanda Mauri is an Assistant Professor/Faculty Fellow at the New York University School of Global Public Health. Her interdisciplinary research focuses on assessing variations in access to community behavioral health care and crisis services. She is particularly interested in the implementation and impact of Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic initiatives, with a special focus on those related to Medicaid. Her scholarly work has appeared in Health Affairs, the Milbank Quarterly, and JAMA Health Forum. Amanda holds dual Ph.D. degrees in Health Policy and Political Science from the University of Michigan.
A Growing US Mental Health Safety Nethttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/04-02-25-NYU-A-Growing-US-Mental-Health-Safety-Net.mp3The federal government has allocated over $10 billion to increase the number of certified community behavioral health clinics, or CCBHCs. These clinics are a subset of community behavioral health providers required to fulfill federal criteria for delivering a broad spectrum of mental health and substance use services across nine categories. Since CCBHCs have to provide care regardless of ability to pay and Medicaid is their largest payor, they might be a way to increase the availability of behavioral health care for people who are uninsured, underinsured, and low income – populations with high burdens of mental health and substance use disorders.
We’re digging into this investment to see what it’s achieving. So far, we’ve found that more people have access to a CCBHC. Back in 2016 when the first clinics were designated, only about 5% of the U.S. population and counties resided in a CCBHC service area. Today, it’s jumped to over 60% of the population and around 40% of counties.
But the big question is, do CCBHCs offer increased access to care, enhanced quality of treatment, or improved health outcomes relative to other outpatient behavioral health providers? Some early signs are good, especially with services for mental health crises — a particularly important service category given the rise in the number of people dying by suicide and attention toward alternatives to police responding to individuals experiencing a mental health crisis. Indeed, our research shows that CCBHC initiatives might increase the availability of crisis services around the country.
CCHBCs have been a cornerstone of bipartisan strategies to increase access to behavioral health care in the United States. Overall, our research suggests that CCBHCs remain a promising strategy to improve behavioral health care availability, particularly for disadvantaged populations, and we’re excited to continue studying our country’s growing mental health safety net.
Read More:
[Psychiatry Online] – Characterizing Crisis Services Offered by Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics: Results From a National Survey
[JAMA Network] – Proportion of US Counties and Population Served by Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics
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On New York University Week: There’s more diversity in STEM than before, but there’s more work to be done.
Joseph Cimpian, professor of economics and education policy, examines where help is needed.
Joseph Cimpian is Professor of Economics and Education Policy at New York University’s Steinhardt and Wagner Schools. His research focuses on understanding and addressing social and educational inequities, with particular emphasis on gender gaps in STEM fields, the effects of English learner reclassification policies, and educational experiences of LGBTQ+ youth. His work has appeared in leading journals including Science, and has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, and NPR. Using large-scale data analysis and innovative statistical methods, Dr. Cimpian’s research identifies patterns of inequality and evaluates potential policy solutions. His current work examines how institutional environments affect gender representation in physics, engineering, and computer science across different types of universities.
Progress and Setbacks in the STEM Gender Gaphttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/04-01-25-NYU-Progress-and-Setbacks-in-the-STEM-Gender-Gap.mp3When we talk about the gender gap in physics, engineering, and computer science, we often focus on the overall numbers, about four men for every one woman at the undergraduate level. But my research reveals a more complex story about who gets to become a scientist or engineer in America.
Analyzing over 34 million college degrees awarded over two decades, my colleague Jo R. King and I discovered dramatically different patterns across universities based on their average math SAT scores. At institutions with the highest math achievement, we’ve seen remarkable progress toward gender equality. In 2002, these schools had about two men for every woman in physics, engineering, and computer science majors. By 2022, that gap had narrowed to just three men for every two women.
But at institutions serving the majority of American students, we found a concerning trend. Among institutions with the lowest math scores, what started as three men for every woman in 2002 grew to seven men for every woman by 2022. These schools struggle both to attract and retain women in these majors.
These patterns persist even when comparing men and women with similar math abilities, prior coursework, and initial interest in these fields. This suggests that something about the college environment is attracting men while repelling women at less selective institutions, while more selective schools have created environments where women and men persist at similar rates.
Previous research has identified promising strategies like mentorship programs and research opportunities, but these programs are largely concentrated at highly selective universities. The challenge is ensuring these strategies work effectively at all institutions, particularly those serving women of color and students who may have fewer opportunities for these high-paying careers.
Read More:
[Science] – An institution-level analysis of gender gaps in STEM over time
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On New York University Week: Reducing the rising rate of preterm births is an important goal for the future.
Laura Jelliffe-Pawlowski, professor of epidemiology and precision health at the Rory Meyers College of Nursing, looks into the data to find solutions.
Dr. Laura Jelliffe-Pawlowski is a Professor of Epidemiology and Precision Health at NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing and an Emeritus Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics in the UCSF School of Medicine. She is the Founder and Lead of the International HOPE Research Consortium and Primary Investigator of the HOPE, PROMPT, and THRIVE studies. Her research focuses on identifying causes and interventions for preterm birth and adverse pregnancy outcomes with a focus on developing new tools, tests, and technologies with global applications. She has received funding from the NIH, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the March of Dimes, and UCSF’s California Preterm Birth Initiative, among others. With over 150 scientific papers and patents for predictive blood tests and algorithms, her work has been featured in the New York Times, The Atlantic, WIRED, CNN, NPR, BBC, and more. In 2023 she was recognized by Forbes on their 50 over 50 list of women leaders in innovation.
Preterm Births on the Risehttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/03-31-25-NYU-Preterm-Births-on-the-Rise.mp3Preterm birth, or giving birth before 37 weeks of gestation, remains a leading cause of major health complications and death in infants and children. Despite medical advancements, rates of preterm birth continue to rise.
In a recent study of more than 5.4 million births in California, we examined rates and patterns of preterm birth. We also looked at patterns with respect to known risk factors.
Our study found that from 2011 to 2022, the rate of preterm birth across the state increased by 10.6% with some groups experiencing especially stark increases. For example, we found that the preterm births increased by nearly 50% in low-income Native American groups. We also found that rates in preterm birth differed dramatically across groups ranging from about 5.8% in White individuals with private insurance to 11.3% among Black individuals with public insurance.
We identified several factors that may be contributing to these trends. For example, rates in risk factors like having hypertension or diabetes present before pregnancy or having a mental health condition were found to have increased in most groups, sometimes by more than 50%.
Study data point to an urgent need to increase population-level understanding about preterm birth and its long-term impacts and to prioritize our focus on addressing actionable risk factors.
We know for example that taking low-dose aspirin can help reduce rates of preterm birth in those with hypertension or diabetes present before pregnancy but we also know that less than one in two people with these conditions take it. Changing this could go a long way towards reducing rates of preterm birth.
Read More:
[Forbes Profile] – Laura Jelliffe-Pawlowski
[NYU] – Preterm Births are on the Rise, with Ongoing Racial and Economic Gaps
[NBC News] – Existing newborn screenings may be able to identify risk of sudden infant death syndrome, study finds
[LA Times] – Blood test at birth could eventually identify babies at increased risk of SIDS
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New York University Week on The Academic Minute 2025.03.31
MondayLaura Jelliffe-Pawlowski, professor of epidemiology and precision health at the Rory Meyers College of Nursing, looks into the data to find solutions to the rising rate of preterm births.
TuesdayJoseph Cimpian, professor of economics and education policy, says while there’s more diversity in STEM today, more work needs to be done.
WednesdayAmanda Mauri, assistant professor and faculty fellow at the School of Global Public Health, discusses the rise in mental health care in the U.S..
ThursdaySophie Arnold, Ph.D. candidate in psychology, examines how the gender gap in negotiation could start in childhood.
FridayOlivia Pomerenk, Ph. D candidate in mathematics, looks at the science being hula hoop levitation.
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The Academic Minute from 3.24 – 3.28MondayOak McCoy – University of New EnglandSocial Security and National Parks Enduring Legacies of the New Deal
Dr. Oak McCoy is an Assistant Professor of Economics in the College of Business at the University of New England, where he studies economic history to inform contemporary policy. His research focuses on how landmark programs like the New Deal addressed critical issues such as economic security for the elderly through Social Security and job creation for the unemployed through Civilian Conservation Corps. These programs not only provided immediate relief but also had transformative, long-lasting impacts on the U.S. economy and infrastructure, including the development of state and national parks. Outside of academia, Oak combines his passion for economic history and the open road, riding his vintage BMW motorcycles to explore the enduring legacy of the New Deal-era projects. Today, he’ll discuss how the innovative strategies of the New Deal continue to influence economic security and infrastructure development in the modern era.
TuesdayNorm O’Reilly – University of New EnglandSponsorship in 2025
Norm O’Reilly, Dean of the College of Business at the University of New England, where he is also Executive Director of the Center for Sport & Business Innovation and a full Professor. Dr. O’Reilly has co-authored 20 books and more than 160 management journal articles.
Wednesday
Connor Blake – University of New EnglandThe NIL Era in College Athletics
Connor Blake is the Manager of the Center for Sport and Business Innovation at the University of New England, where they lead initiatives in sport management, student engagement, and industry innovation. Their work focuses on creating experiential learning opportunities, fostering academic-industry partnerships, and advancing research in sport and business innovation. Blake has a particular interest in the intersections of sport, data analytics, and community impact, with projects spanning parasports, NIL policy, and student entrepreneurship.
ThursdayGolshan Madraki – University of New EnglandPolarized Social Media Networks
Dr. Golshan Madraki is currently a tenured Associate Professor of Supply Chain Management in the College of Business at the University of New England (UNE), Maine, USA. Before joining UNE, she was an Associate Professor of Engineering and Management in the Reh School of Business and the Associate Director of the Honors Program at Clarkson University. She received her Ph.D. in Industrial and Systems Engineering from Ohio University in 2017. Her research focuses on various applications of algorithms and data analytics, graph theory, operations research, and mathematical modeling in manufacturing systems, supply chain networks, social media networks, and related societal issues. Dr. Madraki has taught a variety of courses, including Business Analytics, Systems Engineering and Management, Project Management, and Engineering Economics, at the University of New England, Clarkson University, and Ohio University. She has received several internal and external research grants, as well as multiple teaching and research awards throughout her career.
FridayAimee Vlachos – University of New EnglandShe Surfs Good…For a Girl
While attending Western State College of Colorado for my undergraduate degree, my passion for outdoor recreation blossomed. I was fortunate that the recreation classes I completed included a number of field work experiences. This included: ice climbing up frozen waterfalls, building winter snow caves at the top of a 16,000 foot mountain, river rafting through the Grand Canyon, and planning skateboard contests. I have been teaching sport management and outdoor recreation courses for the past 18 years. In addition to my education and teaching experience, I also the owned a recreation business for 12 years and am a non-profit executive director. I am the founder and executive director of Wahine Kai International (www.wahinekai.org**) and the goal of the 501(c)7 is to promote amateur women’s surfing across the country and soon around the world. We have chapters set up across the country and we currently have 500 paid members. I am very proud of what we have accomplished over the past 20 years. My research focuses on gender inequality in alternative sports. It is the idea that women feel “less than” men while participating in sports such as surfing, skateboarding, and snowboarding and why this happens that interests me.
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On University of New England College of Business Week: Surfing has a gender gap issue.
Aimee Vlachos, teaching professor and program director of Outdoor Business & Innovation, suggests a solution.
While attending Western State College of Colorado for my undergraduate degree, my passion for outdoor recreation blossomed. I was fortunate that the recreation classes I completed included a number of field work experiences. This included: ice climbing up frozen waterfalls, building winter snow caves at the top of a 16,000 foot mountain, river rafting through the Grand Canyon, and planning skateboard contests. I have been teaching sport management and outdoor recreation courses for the past 18 years. In addition to my education and teaching experience, I also the owned a recreation business for 12 years and am a non-profit executive director. I am the founder and executive director of Wahine Kai International (www.wahinekai.org) and the goal of the 501(c)7 is to promote amateur women’s surfing across the country and soon around the world. We have chapters set up across the country and we currently have 500 paid members. I am very proud of what we have accomplished over the past 20 years. My research focuses on gender inequality in alternative sports. It is the idea that women feel “less than” men while participating in sports such as surfing, skateboarding, and snowboarding and why this happens that interests me.
She Surfs Good…For a Girlhttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/03-28-25-UNE-She-Surfs-Good.For-a-Girl.mp3In 2008, I conducted a study examining gender inequality among women surfers in southern California. As a female surfer myself, I have seen the disparities firsthand. My research — which has spanned over fifteen years — highlights common themes among women in male-dominated sports.
The interview questions for my first study were designed to explore women surfers’ experiences in southern California, focusing on gender inequality, surfing ability, frequency, locations, and companions. The goal was to determine whether gender inequality exists in surfing and how it shapes the experiences of women. A follow-up study in 2018 revisited this topic, comparing the experiences of women surfers in Huntington Beach over the past decade.
Since conducting the original study, significant progress has been made for women surfers. In November 2016, Sarah Gerhardt became the first woman to surf Maverick’s, a legendary wave in northern California capable of producing 60-foot swells. In 2017, the Agadir Open in Morocco introduced a women’s division for the first time, and by 2019, equal prize money for male and female surfers was announced.
Despite these advancements, the 2018 study revealed that gender inequality persists in surfing. The research highlighted the enduring challenges faced by women in this male-dominated sport, critically examining the resilience and determination required to carve out a space for themselves.
A predominant theme that emerged in the interviews was female intimidation. A majority of the participants complained of coercion in the water because their male counterparts are incredibly aggressive. This concept has a direct connection to the theme of male surfer aggressiveness. This ongoing struggle underscores the broader barriers women encounter when participating in male-dominated sports.
Read More:
[Taylor & Francis] – Narratives of Women Surfers
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On University of New England College of Business Week: Everything is polarized these days, including social media networks.
Golshan Madraki, associate professor of supply chain management in the college of business and director of the Supply Chain Management Center, looks to quantify this.
Dr. Golshan Madraki is currently a tenured Associate Professor of Supply Chain Management in the College of Business at the University of New England (UNE), Maine, USA. Before joining UNE, she was an Associate Professor of Engineering and Management in the Reh School of Business and the Associate Director of the Honors Program at Clarkson University. She received her Ph.D. in Industrial and Systems Engineering from Ohio University in 2017. Her research focuses on various applications of algorithms and data analytics, graph theory, operations research, and mathematical modeling in manufacturing systems, supply chain networks, social media networks, and related societal issues. Dr. Madraki has taught a variety of courses, including Business Analytics, Systems Engineering and Management, Project Management, and Engineering Economics, at the University of New England, Clarkson University, and Ohio University. She has received several internal and external research grants, as well as multiple teaching and research awards throughout her career.
Polarized Social Media Networkshttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/03-27-25-UNE-Polarized-Social-Media-Networks.mp3A key aspect of research into social media polarization is the development of methods to quantify individual users’ polarization. This approach focuses on the connections within a network, modeling it as a directed graph and computing a new metric called “Connectivity Score” for each individual user based on their follower/following relationships. This method relies on objective, public, and memory-efficient data.
We applied our method to the Twitter network of the 116th U.S. Congressmembers and compared with two measures : 1)content-based measures, 2) real-world political behavior-based polarization measure such as voting patterns and co-sponsoring bills in congress. The results highlight that users’ social media connections reflect their polarization behavior. Furthermore, a significant correlation was observed between Connectivity Scores and real-world political behavior measures like Roll Call and Ideology scores.
Interestingly, Democrats’ behavior on social media showed stronger alignment with their legislative actions compared to Republicans. These findings emphasize the potential of network-based approaches to provide deeper insights into polarization dynamics.
By leveraging structural data, this research advances the understanding of political polarization on social media. Moreover, the results underscore the importance of whom we follow on social media.
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On University of New England College of Business Week: The Name, Image, and Likeness era has brought many complexities to college athletics.
Connor Blake, manager of the Center for Sport and Business Innovation, explores the challenges.
Connor Blake is the Manager of the Center for Sport and Business Innovation at the University of New England, where they lead initiatives in sport management, student engagement, and industry innovation. Their work focuses on creating experiential learning opportunities, fostering academic-industry partnerships, and advancing research in sport and business innovation. Blake has a particular interest in the intersections of sport, data analytics, and community impact, with projects spanning parasports, NIL policy, and student entrepreneurship.
The NIL Era in College Athleticshttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/03-26-25-UNE-The-NIL-Era-in-College-Athletics.mp3College athletics has entered a new era with the rise of Name, Image, and Likeness—commonly called NIL. For the first time, athletes can earn compensation for endorsements, appearances, and other commercial opportunities, leveraging their unique brands while still competing at the collegiate level.
This policy shift reflects the growing recognition of the value athletes bring to their schools and communities. However, it also introduces new complexities. Different states have different NIL laws, creating a patchwork of rules that schools and athletes must navigate. International athletes face even more hurdles, as visa regulations often limit their ability to participate in NIL opportunities.
Despite these challenges, the potential of NIL is transformative. Athletes now have the chance to gain financial independence, build their professional networks, and prepare for life after sports. For institutions, NIL changes the way they approach recruiting, marketing, and alumni engagement.
At the same time, questions remain. What role should schools play in helping athletes manage these opportunities? How can equity be ensured across sports, genders, and institutions of different sizes? And how do we balance the commercialization of college athletics with its educational mission?
NIL isn’t just about athletes making money—it’s a case study in how business, law, and education intersect in real time. By examining its impacts and challenges, we can better understand how to support athletes and institutions in this evolving space.
The NIL era represents a defining moment in college sports, and its story is still being written.
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On University of New England College of Business Week: Sponsors are changing the way they use their marketing dollars.
Norm O’Reilly, full professor and Dean of the College of Business, explores how.
Norm O’Reilly, Dean of the College of Business at the University of New England, where he is also Executive Director of the Center for Sport & Business Innovation and a full Professor. Dr. O’Reilly has co-authored 20 books and more than 160 management journal articles.
Sponsorship in 2025https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/03-25-25-UNE-Sponsorship-in-2025.mp3Sponsorship is a well-known marketing tactic when a brand uses its marketing dollars to partner with a property that aligns with its target audience(s). Examples include major global partnerships between Coca-Cola and the Olympic Games, Adidas and the FIFA World Cup, Rolex and the Academy Awards (Oscars), and Apple Music and the Super Bowl halftime show.
Our recent research has shown that the total spending by brands on sponsorship has returned, and in some cases increased, since the pandemic, but they are being much smarter in how they spend, “with activation” increasing relative to rights fees. Activation is the amount invested in addition to a rights fee paid for the ability to associate with a given property and its marketing assets. This represents a more sophisticated and effective approach to the marketing tool, as return for the brand is much higher when they can activate it more.
For example, in 2018, let’s say a brand spent $100,000 for the right to associate with a professional women’s basketball club, and they set aside another $100,000 to amplify the impact of that investment with additional media spots, athlete ambassadors, a dedicated social media channel, and an email marketing campaign. This results in a 1:1 activation ratio.
In 2025, if we assume that this sponsorship is representative of all sponsorships and that inflation is held constant, it is likely that this sponsorship is now approximately $80k in rights fees and $120k in activation. The only challenge is that the rights fees going to properties in return for their marketing rights are under pressure. To illustrate this dynamic, if you’re a music festival and you’ve felt this shift, you have a partner who is likely happier with the return on the sponsorship due to more activation, which is good, but with less money going directly to your operations to help run your festival.
Read More:
[University of Toronto Press] – Business the NHL Way
[Routledge] – Sports Business Management: Decision Making Around the Globe
[Routledge] – Sport Sponsorship Insights
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On University of New England College of Business Week: The New Deal gave us many important things we still rely on today.
Oak McCoy, assistant professor of economics in the college of business, examines a couple.
Dr. Oak McCoy is an Assistant Professor of Economics in the College of Business at the University of New England, where he studies economic history to inform contemporary policy. His research focuses on how landmark programs like the New Deal addressed critical issues such as economic security for the elderly through Social Security and job creation for the unemployed through Civilian Conservation Corps. These programs not only provided immediate relief but also had transformative, long-lasting impacts on the U.S. economy and infrastructure, including the development of state and national parks. Outside of academia, Oak combines his passion for economic history and the open road, riding his vintage BMW motorcycles to explore the enduring legacy of the New Deal-era projects. Today, he’ll discuss how the innovative strategies of the New Deal continue to influence economic security and infrastructure development in the modern era.
Social Security and National Parks Enduring Legacies of the New Dealhttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/03-24-25-UNE-Social-Security-and-National-Parks-Enduring-Legacies-of-the-New-Deal.mp3The New Deal helped America recover from the Great Depression while reshaping its policies and public spaces. My research investigates two enduring legacies of this transformative era: the evolution of Social Security and the development of state and national parks.
Social Security fundamentally changed how Americans viewed government responsibility by creating a financial safety net for those exiting the workforce. The program has become a cornerstone of economic security, providing critical stability for retirees. However, its initial exclusions—particularly of agricultural and domestic workers, who were disproportionately African Americans and women—reflect the inequities embedded in early policy design. My work examines how Social Security has evolved over time to address these disparities, including its growing impact on same-sex couples. While significant progress has been made, these analyses highlight the ongoing need for reform to achieve greater equity.
At the same time, the New Deal reshaped the physical landscape of the nation through investments in public lands. Programs like the Civilian Conservation Corps didn’t just create jobs during a time of mass unemployment—they also built trails, planted trees, and laid the foundation for much of the infrastructure in today’s state and national parks. The trails, campgrounds, and comfort stations in these parks reflect the contributions of one of the most ambitious public works projects in American economic history. My public-facing work combines archival research with innovative approaches to create digital projects, making the legacy of the New Deal accessible and engaging for a broader audience.
Together, Social Security and the development of parks demonstrate the wide-ranging impact of the New Deal, extending from economic security for individuals to the transformation of the nation’s physical landscape. By studying these legacies, my work highlights how past policies addressed urgent needs while offering lessons for shaping equitable and lasting outcomes today.
Read More:
The Original Oak Economics – Accessible curricula informed by meaningful research
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University of New England College of Business Week on The Academic Minute 2025.03.24
MondayOak McCoy, assistant professor of economics in the college of business, examines a couple enduring legacies of the New Deal.
TuesdayNorm O’Reilly, full professor and Dean of the College of Business, explores how sponsorship is changing in 2025.
WednesdayConnor Blake, manager of the Center for Sport and Business Innovation, discusses the challenges the NIL era has brought to college athletics.
ThursdayGolshan Madraki, associate professor of supply chain management in the college of business and director of the Supply Chain Management Center, looks to quantify polarization on social media networks.
FridayAimee Vlachos, teaching professor and program director of Outdoor Business & Innovation, suggests a solution to the gender gap in surfing.
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The Academic Minute from 3.17 – 3.21MondayAndrea King – University of ChicagoQuestioning the Dark Side of Addiction
Andrea King is a clinical and research psychologist with expertise in addictive disorders, including alcohol use disorder.
TuesdayJoshua Rovner – American UniversityStrategy and Grand Strategy
Joshua Rovner is associate professor of international relations at American University. His most recent book is Strategy and Grand Strategy (International Institute for Strategic Studies, Adelphi Series, 2025).
Wednesday
Daile Zhang – University of North DakotaLightning Strikes Makes Collecting Parasitic Fungus A Deadly Pursuit
Daile Zhang is an Assistant Professor at University of North Dakota. Her research focuses on atmospheric electricity and remote sensing. Daile received her PhD degree in Atmospheric Sciences from the University of Arizona and was an Assistant Research Scientist at the University of Maryland.
ThursdayThomas Scott – University of OxfordPlants ‘Eavesdrop’ on Fungal Networks
Thomas Scott is a postdoctoral researcher in evolutionary theory at the University of Oxford. In his research, he uses mathematical models to tackle questions about the evolution of adaptation, especially social behaviors, and the resolution of evolutionary conflicts. His work has been recognized by an Early Career Investigator Award from the American Society of Naturalists.
FridayScott N. Taylor – Babson College**A Conceptual Model of Entrepreneurial Leadership
Scott N. Taylor is a professor of organizational behavior and the Arthur M. Blank Endowed Chair for Values-Based Leadership at The Blank School at Babson College. He is also a research fellow with the Coaching Research Lab at Case Western Reserve University, and a core member of the Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations (CREIO).
The primary focus of his research is leader assessment and development. As a result, his research has focused on competency development (especially emotional and social competence), leader self-awareness, 360-degree feedback assessment, executive coaching, gender, and sustainable individual change.
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Entrepreneurial leaders lead differently, so how can they be their best?
Scott N. Taylor, professor of organizational behavior and the Arthur M. Blank Endowed Chair for Values-Based Leadership at The Blank School at Babson College, suggests a strategy.
Scott N. Taylor is a professor of organizational behavior and the Arthur M. Blank Endowed Chair for Values-Based Leadership at The Blank School at Babson College. He is also a research fellow with the Coaching Research Lab at Case Western Reserve University, and a core member of the Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations (CREIO).
The primary focus of his research is leader assessment and development. As a result, his research has focused on competency development (especially emotional and social competence), leader self-awareness, 360-degree feedback assessment, executive coaching, gender, and sustainable individual change.
A Conceptual Model of Entrepreneurial Leadershiphttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/03-21-25-Babson-A-Conceptual-Model-of-Entrepreneurial-Leadership.mp3Until now, entrepreneurial leadership has not been defined or differentiated from traditional leadership theories. My co-authors and I have devoted years to conducting research to create a distinct model for this unique type of leadership.
Through analyzing existing leadership development research and firsthand experience training hundreds of executives, we propose entrepreneurial leadership as a concept that blends leadership and entrepreneurship to enable leaders and their teams to recognize and pursue innovative opportunities. Unlike traditional leadership styles, entrepreneurial leadership is focused on fostering collaboration, innovation, and shared responsibility between leaders and followers. Drawing from self-determination theory, our model emphasizes satisfying three innate human needs—autonomy, relatedness, and competence—to intrinsically motivate followers to act entrepreneurially.
The unique skills of entrepreneurial leaders allow them to build meaningful relationships with their followers, inspire creativity, and support risk-taking behaviors. Unlike traditional leadership approaches, which often emphasize hierarchy and structure, entrepreneurial leaders focus on flexibility, adaptability, and encouraging entrepreneurial thought and action.
Emotional, cognitive, and hormonal functions play an essential role in unleashing human potential in others. Positive emotions, empathetic brain networks, and parasympathetic nervous system activation enhance relational focus, creativity, and openness, while negative emotions and stress-related responses inhibit these capabilities, highlighting the entrepreneurial leader’s need for balance and adaptability.
The leader-follower dynamic is central to entrepreneurial leadership, with the leader’s mindset and emotional intelligence playing a critical role in fostering a culture of innovation and collaboration.
Our proposed conceptual model argues that entrepreneurial leadership is a relational process, not just a set of traits. Leaders and followers work together to identify opportunities, share ideas, and take action in uncertain environments. Ultimately, entrepreneurial leadership encourages proactive, innovative, and risk-taking behavior, making it essential for both startups and established organizations aiming to adapt and thrive in a rapidly changing world.
Read More:
A Conceptual Model of Entrepreneurial Leadership: How Entrepreneurial Leaders Enable Entrepreneurial Behavior
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Plants have their own underground network with each other, but how do they use it?
Thomas Scott, postdoctoral researcher in evolutionary theory at the University of Oxford, digs in to find out.
Thomas Scott is a postdoctoral researcher in evolutionary theory at the University of Oxford. In his research, he uses mathematical models to tackle questions about the evolution of adaptation, especially social behaviors, and the resolution of evolutionary conflicts. His work has been recognized by an Early Career Investigator Award from the American Society of Naturalists.
Plants ‘Eavesdrop’ on Fungal Networkshttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/03-20-25-Oxford-Plants-Eavesdrop-on-Fungal-Networks.mp3Land plants can be connected to a complex, underground fungal network known popularly as ‘the wood wide web.’ Networks emerge because mycorrhizal fungi form symbiotic partnerships with plant roots, through which the plants receive nutrients and the fungi receive carbon. It’s been demonstrated that plant resources and information can be transmitted through the fungal network and be used by other plants.
Previous studies have found that, if a plant is attacked by a herbivore or pathogen, this often leads to other plants connected to the same fungal network upregulating their defence mechanisms. However, it hasn’t been clear whether plants being attacked by herbivores actively signal through this network, to warn others to activate their defences.
Active signalling between plants appears to contradict evolutionary theory, which suggests that this kind of behaviour would only be favoured when it provides a benefit to both the sender and the receiver of the signal. This presented a conundrum – why should a plant being attacked send signals to warn its neighbours?
My coauthors and I investigated this using mathematical models. We found that it’s extremely unlikely that plants would be evolutionarily selected to warn their fellows of impending attack. The reason for this is that plants compete with neighbours for resources such as sunlight and nutrients, and so don’t benefit from helping neighbouring competitors.
Our mathematical models challenge the idea that plants behave altruistically, and suggest that we need to consider alternative hypotheses for why neighbouring plants upregulate their defence mechanisms when one is attacked. One possibility is that plants release an involuntary cue that they can’t suppress, which other plants eavesdrop on. Another possibility is that fungi monitor their plant partners, detect when one has been attacked, and then warn the other plants in their network.
Read More:
This research was recently published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: “The evolution of signaling and monitoring in plant–fungal networks” https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.2420701122
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What do lightning storms on a remote mountain plateau have to do with fungus?
Daile Zhang, assistant professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of North Dakota, explores the connection.
Daile Zhang is an Assistant Professor at University of North Dakota. Her research focuses on atmospheric electricity and remote sensing. Daile received her PhD degree in Atmospheric Sciences from the University of Arizona and was an Assistant Research Scientist at the University of Maryland.
Lightning Strikes Make Collecting Parasitic Fungus A Deadly Pursuithttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/03-19-25-North-Dakota-Lightning-Strikes-Make-Collecting-Parasitic-Fungus-A-Deadly-Pursuit.mp3Imagine a fungus worth an astounding $63,000 per pound. It is so valuable that people risk their lives to collect and sell. Sound unbelievable? This is happening on the remote Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. This isn’t just any mushroom. Known as caterpillar fungus, it has a bizarre life cycle – the fungus infects caterpillars, consumes them from the inside, and then sprouts like grass from their heads. But here’s where the story takes a darker turn.
Every year, local villagers climb dangerous mountain slopes to collect this precious fungus, but they’re doing so at the worst possible time – peak lightning season. In the past decade, lightning strikes have claimed at least 31 lives and injured another 58 during these harvests. And that’s not all. Villagers also face severe weather, wild animals, and remote terrain with little access to help if something goes wrong. So why take such risks? The answer lies in poverty. In this remote region, there simply aren’t many ways to make a living.
For many villagers, it’s either risk their lives harvesting the fungus or face severe hardship. But there’s another issue. The intense harvesting is damaging the delicate mountain ecosystem. Scientists warn that the fungus could disappear in the coming decades. While there are efforts to farm the fungus and regulate its collection, the real solution is addressing the poverty that drives this dangerous practice. This isn’t just about a valuable fungus – it’s about finding new ways to help these communities thrive without putting their lives on the line. Better infrastructure, education, and new economic opportunities could transform this story from one of desperate risk-taking to one of sustainable progress.
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What’s your strategy for navigating tricky circumstances?
Joshua Rovner, associate professor in the School of International Service at American University, delves into the difference between strategy and grand strategy.
Joshua Rovner is associate professor of international relations at American University. His most recent book is Strategy and Grand Strategy (International Institute for Strategic Studies, Adelphi Series, 2025).
Strategy and Grand Strategyhttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/03-18-25-American-Strategy-and-Grand-Strategy.mp3The United States has been fighting the war on terrorism since September 11, despite the fact that the war has been deeply frustrating. Why does it persist?
The US is also modernizing its nuclear forces, even though no one has used nuclear weapons since the Second World War. Why does it invest in weapons it will probably never use?
Solving these puzzles requires attention to two concepts: strategy and grand strategy. These terms are often used interchangeably, but they are not the same.
Strategy is a theory of victory. Grand strategy is a theory of security. My research explores how these concepts interact in history and in the present. The results are often surprising – and a little unsettling.
For example, strategic excellence can be counterproductive if wartime strategy serves a deeply flawed grand strategy. Perversely, victory can reinforce misguided ideas about the sources of national security.
In such cases, states are better off losing.
Another finding that military decisions are perplexing in terms of strategy, but they make sense in terms of grand strategy. Take the war on terrorism. Strategy doesn’t help us here, because there is no obvious way of defining victory.
But the point of grand strategy is security, which is a subjective perception, not victory, which requires achieving some specific political goal. So the US can continue military operations to reduce its sense of vulnerability, even if it cannot imagine winning the war.
Similarly, the idea of nuclear strategy seems logically absurd, because no wartime goals could justify the costs of a nuclear strike. But leaders have other reasons for building nuclear forces, including deterrence and allied diplomacy.
These broader purposes support the US theory of security – its grand strategy – even if nuclear attacks are unthinkable in terms of strategy.
Read More:
[Routledge] – Strategy and Grand Strategy
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Our understanding of alcohol addiction may need a re-write.
Andrea King, professor of psychiatry and behavioral neuroscience at the University of Chicago, tells us why.
Andrea King is a clinical and research psychologist with expertise in addictive disorders, including alcohol use disorder.
Questioning the Dark Side of Addictionhttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/03-17-25-Chicago-Questioning-the-Dark-Side-of-Addiction.mp3There is a long-held belief that many people drink large amounts of alcohol to self-medicate and reduce negative feelings. In other words, they seek alcohol and consume large quantities to take away the bad feelings and forget their troubles.
But new research conducted by my team challenges that notion and some leading theories on the development of addiction.
We followed a group of 232 people across the U.S. between the ages of 21 and 35. Half of the group met the criteria for alcohol use disorder, or alcoholism. Half of the group had also experienced depression in the past year.
These participants reported on their mood states on our smartphone app during a typical alcohol drinking episode. It turns out that people with alcohol use disorder and depression had the same high sensitivity to alcohol’s positive and rewarding effects as those without depression. And these pleasurable alcohol effects were much more pronounced than in lighter drinkers.
This calls into question the supposed “dark side of addiction,” as proposed in the predominant theory in our field – that people shift from drinking for pleasure to drinking to avoid withdrawal and negative mood. In this study, and in our longitudinal work, we see that drinking alcohol to intoxication is related more to heightened positive effects rather than a dampening of negative states.
Our findings suggest that we may be focusing on the wrong target when we treat people with both alcohol use disorder and depression. We often focus on resolving stress and symptoms of depression, but that is only one side of the coin if we don’t also address the heightened rewarding effects that they experience from alcohol. No matter what your emotional state, we see that alcohol still exerts a powerful force on the pleasure centers of the brain.
Read More:
- Press release: https://biologicalsciences.uchicago.edu/news/alcohol-depression-study
- New Study: https://psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.ajp.20240069
- Related research: https://www.uchicagomedicine.org/forefront/research-and-discoveries-articles/people-with-alcohol-use-disorder-impaired-after-heavy-drinking-despite-claims-of-higher-tolerance
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This Week on The Academic Minute 2025.03.17
MondayAndrea King, professor of psychiatry and behavioral neuroscience at the University of Chicago, tells us why our understanding of alcohol addiction may need a re-write.
TuesdayJoshua Rovner, associate professor in the School of International Service at American University, delves into the difference between strategy and grand strategy.
WednesdayDaile Zhang, assistant professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of North Dakota, explores what lightning storms on a remote mountain plateau have to do with fungus.
ThursdayThomas Scott, postdoctoral researcher in evolutionary theory at the University of Oxford, digs in to find out why plants have their own underground network with each other.
FridayScott N. Taylor, professor of organizational behavior and the Arthur M. Blank Endowed Chair for Values-Based Leadership at The Blank School at Babson College, wonders how entrepreneurial leaders can be their best.
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The Academic Minute from 3.10 – 3.14MondayMarcia Bjornerud – Lawrence UniversityThe Dark Side of the Enlightenment
Marcia Bjornerud is a structural geologist whose research focuses on the physics of earthquakes and mountain building. She is the author of several books for popular audiences: Reading the Rocks, Timefulness, Geopedia and the recently published Turning to Stone: Discovering the Subtle Wisdom of Rocks.
TuesdayCara Furman – Hunter CollegeEthical Decision Making as a Teacher: Practical Wisdom
Cara Furman is a former New York City progressive public elementary school teacher and Associate Professor of Early Childhood Education at Hunter College. She is author of Teaching from an Ethical Center: Practical Wisdom for Daily Instruction, co-author of Descriptive Inquiry in Teacher Practice: Cultivating Practical Wisdom to Create Democratic Schools, and co-editor of Teachers and Philosophy: Essays on the Contact Zone. She hoststhe podcast Teaching from an Ethical Center: An Inquiry Among Friends and co-hosts Thinking in the Midst. She writes about teacher-decision making, ethics, Descriptive Inquiry, inquiry, asset-based inclusive teaching, and progressive literacy practices. She has a doctorate in philosophy and education and a masters in Inclusive Elementary Education from Teachers College, Columbia.
Wednesday
Danica Knight – Texas Christian UniversityHope Connection 2.0
Danica Kalling Knight, Ph.D. serves as Professor of Psychology and Rees-Jones Director of the Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development (KPICD) at Texas Christian University (TCU). As director, her primary responsibility is to ensure that Karyn’s dream of “bringing hope and healing to children around the world” is realized through the institute’s mission of research, education, and outreach efforts. Her current efforts focus on the dissemination and implementation of Trust-based Relational Intervention® (TBRI®), a whole-child, attachment-based, trauma-informed, and sensory-rich approach to addressing the needs of children who’ve experienced trauma. TBRI’s applicability and effectiveness within and across systems of care, including juvenile justice, child welfare, courts, schools, etc., provides rich opportunities to transform communities and affect outcomes for children and families around the world.
ThursdayRichard Addante – Florida International UniversityDiscovery of a New Kind of Human Memory Process
Dr. Richard J. Addante, associate professor of psychology at Florida Institute of Technology, is a 3-time winner of an LRP Award from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and an LRP Fellow from the National Institute of Health. His research has focused on human memory, brain states, and metacognition, resulting in discoveries such as a new kind of human memory, the first neural correlates of the Dunning-Kruger Effect, and the first proof that implicit memory depends upon the human hippocampus. Addante earned a BA in Psychology from The College of New Jersey and a PhD in Neuroscience at UC Davis as a Diversity Fellow of the American Psychological Association, then completed a Post-doctoral Fellowship in Neuroimaging with University of Texas at Dallas with UT-Southwestern Medical School.
FridayJamie Hartmann-Boyce – University of Massachusetts Amherst**Best Ways to Quit Vaping
Jamie Hartmann-Boyce is an Assistant Professor of Health Promotion and Policy at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her research mainly consists of applied evidence synthesis for health policy, including in the areas of tobacco control, electronic cigarettes, diet, physical activity, and management of long-term conditions. She works closely with Cochrane and leads a number of research programs focusing on smoking cessation and electronic cigarettes. She is passionate about communicating complex information and data to inform policy and public action.
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Quitting an addiction is never easy.
Jamie Hartmann-Boyce, assistant professor of health policy and management at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, explores one new way to try.
Jamie Hartmann-Boyce is an Assistant Professor of Health Promotion and Policy at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her research mainly consists of applied evidence synthesis for health policy, including in the areas of tobacco control, electronic cigarettes, diet, physical activity, and management of long-term conditions. She works closely with Cochrane and leads a number of research programs focusing on smoking cessation and electronic cigarettes. She is passionate about communicating complex information and data to inform policy and public action.
Best Ways to Quit Vapinghttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/03-14-25-UMass-Best-Ways-to-Quit-Vaping.mp3Vapes – also known as electronic cigarettes – are hand-held devices that heat liquid that contains a mix of flavors and, often, nicotine. Lots of people who vape are interested in quitting, but nicotine is addictive, and quitting nicotine vapes can be difficult. We set out to review the evidence on the best ways to help people quit vaping.
We found nine studies, including over 5,000 participants. Studies tested nicotine replacement therapy, cytisine and varenicline – all medications that are effective for helping people stop smoking. Studies also tested a text message-based intervention for young people, and a plan to help people reduce the nicotine in their vapes.
We found some evidence that a text-message based intervention may help youth and young adults stop vaping nicotine. We do not know whether we would find the same results for other text message-based interventions or in older adults. We also found some evidence that the medication varenicline may help people to stop vaping nicotine, but this was just in one study, and more evidence is needed. Varenicline is available via prescription. It helps by blocking the rewarding effects of nicotine.
There was not enough information to say whether any of the other interventions helped people to stop vaping long-term.
There are stories in the news of people turning to cigarettes in order to quit vaping. No studies test this, because vaping nicotine is substantially less dangerous than smoking traditional cigarettes. Evidence is clear that no one should start smoking as a way to quit vaping. Most of the harms that come from smoking come from burning tobacco. Electronic cigarettes don’t contain tobacco leaf, and vaping doesn’t involve burning anything.
Lots of people want to know how to safely and effectively quit vaping. More studies of evidence-based interventions for quitting vaping are underway. Through a process called a living systematic review, we will keep looking for new studies and updating our review when important new findings emerge.
Read More:
[Cochrane] – What are the best ways to help people to stop vaping nicotine and do they have any unwanted effects?
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Could our ideas about human memory be about to change?
Richard Addante, associate professor in the College of Psychology and Liberal Arts at the Florida Institute of Technology, looks into this.
Dr. Richard J. Addante, associate professor of psychology at Florida Institute of Technology, is a 3-time winner of an LRP Award from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and an LRP Fellow from the National Institute of Health. His research has focused on human memory, brain states, and metacognition, resulting in discoveries such as a new kind of human memory, the first neural correlates of the Dunning-Kruger Effect, and the first proof that implicit memory depends upon the human hippocampus. Addante earned a BA in Psychology from The College of New Jersey and a PhD in Neuroscience at UC Davis as a Diversity Fellow of the American Psychological Association, then completed a Post-doctoral Fellowship in Neuroimaging with University of Texas at Dallas with UT-Southwestern Medical School.
Discovery of a New Kind of Human Memory Processhttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/03-13-25-FIT-Discovery-of-a-New-Kind-of-Human-Memory-Process-.mp3Everyone can recall a time when we’ve been able to remember the context of a memory–such as where something occurred or who we were with—without being able to recall additional details.
My research has identified this cognitive process as “context familiarity” and its discovery may change our understanding of human memory.
Episodic memory is the part of our long-term memory process that involves remembering events. The existing framework divides episodic memory into two separate processes: recollection, which is the ability to retrieve full contextual details of a memory; and familiarity, which is lower-confidence recognition in which you can’t retrieve certain details, such as remembering what you had for breakfast but not what time you ate.
Context familiarity is its own distinct third process that separates familiarity into item familiarity–the ability to recall specific details of an event but not the context–and context familiarity, where the context is recalled but not any specifics. Both exist separately from recollection, which represents successful retrieval of both item and context memory.
Existing theories don’t completely account for scenarios in which people remember contextual information about an event–such as witnessing a crime–without being able to accurately retrieve specific details, such as what the criminal was wearing. My research departs from longstanding principles, which categorized the retrieval of context–a key facet of the context familiarity concept – as a type of recollection, but not its own process.
This new model for episodic memory counters psychologists’ existing framework of how memory is thought to operate.
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said,” Maya Angelou once observed, “people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
Her message captures what context familiarity is all about. Someone may not remember the specifics of a situation, but they may still remember its essence.
Read More:
[ScienceDirect] – Context familiarity is a third kind of episodic memory distinct from item familiarity and recollection
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On New York University Week: Does a nation stand to benefit as a whole when their national sports team succeeds on a global stage? Anasse Bari, professor at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, digs into the data. Prof. Anasse Bari is an award-winning professor of Computer Science at New York University’s Courant Institute of […]
On New York University Week: When does consciousness start for newborns? Claudia Passos-Ferreira, assistant professor of bioethics, considers this question. Claudia Passos-Ferreira is Assistant Professor of Bioethics at New York University’s School of Global Public Health. She has a Ph.D. in Public Health from the State University of Rio de Janeiro and a second Ph.D. […]
On New York University Week: Dogs aren’t the only animals that help out with therapy. Katherine Compitus, clinical assistant professor at the Silver School of Social Work, examines another. Katherine Compitus is a Clinical Assistant Professor at NYU Silver School of Social Work and the Coordinator of the School’s Westchester and Rockland County, New York […]
On New York University Week: What is music and what is speech? Andrew Chang, Leon Levy postdoctoral fellow, asks our brains to listen in. Andrew Chang is postdoctoral fellow at New York University, supported by National Institute of Health and Leon Levy Scholarship in Neuroscience. He studies the neural mechanisms of auditory perception, and how […]
On New York University Week: New discoveries by archaeologists are changing our view of Neanderthals. Radu Iovita, associate professor of anthropology, glues it all together. Radu Iovita is an archaeologist researching how ancient humans used technology to disperse through diverse environments and adapt to the harsh climatic changes of the last Ice Age. He has […]
This Week on The Academic Minute 2024.09.30
MondayRadu Iovita, associate professor of anthropology, looks into how new discoveries by archaeologists are changing our view of Neanderthals.
TuesdayAndrew Chang, Leon Levy postdoctoral fellow, asks how our brains differentiate between music and speech.
WednesdayKatherine Compitus, clinical assistant professor at the Silver School of Social Work, examines how dogs aren’t only animals that can help out with mental health therapy.
ThursdayClaudia Passos-Ferreira, assistant professor of bioethics, considers when consciousness starts for newborns.
FridayAnasse Bari, professor at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, digs into whether a nation stands to benefit as a whole when their national sports team succeeds on a global stage.
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The Academic Minute from 9.23 – 9.27MondayMatt Knutson – University of North DakotaArcade Games and Accessible Sport
Matt Knutson (he/him) is an assistant professor at the University of North Dakota, where he directs the academic program in esports. His research focuses on the temporality of competitive gaming and the pre-history of esports.
TuesdayAnthony James – Miami UniversityChronic Absenteeism
Dr. Anthony G. James Jr. is a professor in the Department of Family Science and Social Work at Miami University. He earned a bachelor of science degree in sociology with a minor in military science from Lincoln University (Missouri). He also holds a master of science degree and a doctorate of philosophy in human development and family studies from the University of Missouri.
His areas of research include positive youth development, religion and spirituality, diverse family systems, family processes, and program evaluation. His research and thought leadership has appeared in publications such as Diverse Issue in Higher Education and TIME and numerous peer reviewed journals. He is also the editor of Black Families: A Systems Approach, co-editor of Essays of Advice, and the author of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion: A Practical Guide.”
Wednesday
Charles Silver – University of Texas at AustinPut Consumers in Charge of Health Care
Charles Silver teaches courses on civil procedure, health law, and professional responsibility. His current research focuses on aggregate lawsuits, attorneys’ fees, professional responsibility, and health care law and policy. He previously worked with a group of empirical researchers on studies of medical malpractice litigation in Texas for over a decade. Professor Silver has authored several publications, including his most recent books “Medical Malpractice Litigation: How It Works, What It Does, And Why Tort Reform Hasn’t Helped” and “Overcharged: Why Americans Pay Too Much for Health Care.”
ThursdayC. Michael White – University of ConnecticutKetamine and Electroconvulsive Therapy
Michael White, Pharm.D., FCP, FCCP, FASHP has ~500 publications resulting in 18288 citations with an H-index of 70; placing him within an elite group of researchers. Dr. White’s research interests are in the areas of comparative effectiveness and preventing adverse events from drugs, devices, dietary supplements, and illicit substances. His work has been published in JAMA, Lancet, Annals of Internal Medicine and Circulation (among others) with research coverage by NBC News, Good Morning America, BBC, CNN, NY Times, Washington Post, LA Times, Boston Globe, PBSNewsHour, WNPR Morning Edition, Prevention Magazine, and hundreds of other (inter)national media outlets. He has received the American College of Clinical Pharmacist Young Investigator Award, American Society of Health-System Pharmacists Award for Sustained Contributions to the Literature and the Drug Therapy Research Award, and the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy Lyman Award and the Weaver Award.
FridayTimothy Keiningham – St. John’s University**Social Profit Orientation
Timothy Keiningham, Ph.D., is the J. Donald Kennedy Endowed Chair in E-Commerce at St. John’s University’s Tobin College of Business. He is a recipient of the American Marketing Association’s Christopher Lovelock Career Contributions Award, the highest honor in service marketing. A prolific author, Dr. Keiningham has written or edited nine books, including the New York Times bestseller The Wallet Allocation Rule. His research, published in top-tier journals across marketing, strategy, and service management, has earned multiple accolades, including awards from the Journal of Marketing, Journal of Service Research, and Journal of Service Management. Dr. Keiningham’s work bridges the gap between leading scientific research and management best practices, making significant contributions to both academia and industry.
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What is businesses could make a profile while also doing good for society? Timothy Keiningham, professor of marketing at the Tobin College of Business at St. John’s University, examines how to do so. Timothy Keiningham, Ph.D., is the J. Donald Kennedy Endowed Chair in E-Commerce at St. John’s University’s Tobin College of Business. He is […]
Depression sufferers may have a new choice for treatment. C. Michael White, distinguished professor and chair of pharmacy practice at the University of Connecticut School of Pharmacy, explains. Michael White, Pharm.D., FCP, FCCP, FASHP has ~500 publications resulting in 18288 citations with an H-index of 70; placing him within an elite group of researchers. Dr. […]
There are many nightmare stories about dealing with the healthcare system in the U.S.; so how do we change it? Charles Silver, Roy W. and Eugenia C. McDonald endowed chair in civil procedure at the University of Texas at Austin School of Law, suggests a solution. Charles Silver teaches courses on civil procedure, health law, […]
The pandemic has brought many challenges to the fore in K-12 schools. Anthony James, professor and interim chair of family science and social work at Miami University, details how to fight back against one of these. Dr. Anthony G. James Jr. is a professor in the Department of Family Science and Social Work at Miami University. He earned […]
Accessible competitive gaming is a growing industry with a long history. Matt Knutson, assistant professor at the University of North Dakota, fires up the games to find out more. Matt Knutson (he/him) is an assistant professor at the University of North Dakota, where he directs the academic program in esports. His research focuses on the […]
What is vocal placement and why do some people use it when talking? Lydia Kruse, clinical assistant professor at Purdue University, explores this. Lydia Kruse is a Speech-Language Pathologist and Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences at Purdue University. She teaches in the MS-SLP program and provides clinical practicum […]
Would you rather finish second or third in a competition? Andrea Luangrath, associate professor of marketing in the Tippie College of Business at the University of Iowa, says the answer may be surprising for athletes. Andrea Luangrath is an Associate Professor and the Director of Graduate Studies in Marketing in the Tippie College of Business […]
How does hunting affect the population of a species? Alex Erwin, assistant professor of law at Florida International University, explores this. Professor John (Alex) Erwin is an Assistant Professor of Law at Florida International University College of Law. Combining his legal training with his background as a wildlife biologist, his research is situated at the […]
Will artificial intelligence replace content creators? Jiasun Li, associate professor of finance at the George Mason University Costello College of Business, says not quite. Jiasun Li is an associate professor of finance at the George Mason University Costello College of Business and has a Ph.D. in Finance from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). […]
Do we need to recommit to the Rule of Law in the United States? Ray Brescia, associate dean for research and intellectual life, Hon. Harold R Tyler Chair in law and technology at Albany Law School, says yes. Professor Brescia is the author of “The Future of Change: How Technology Shapes Social Revolutions” (Cornell University […]
Would you let your car drive for you? Kathryn Robinson-Tay, PhD student in science and risk communication at Washington State University, determines what you might stop you. Kathryn Robinson-Tay is a third-year PhD student studying science and risk communication in the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication. Her research focuses primarily on how institutional and […]
Is artificial intelligence the right tool for those in higher education to be using? Helen Choi, senior lecturer in the engineering in society program at the University of Southern California, asks us to think about the question ethically. Helen Choi is a Senior Lecturer in the Engineering in Society Program at the University of Southern […]
Conspiracy theories are causing a lot of damage, but how did they migrate to the mainstream? Christina Cliff, associate professor of political science and security studies at Franklin Pierce University, looks into this question. Christina Cliff is an associate professor of political science and security studies at Franklin Pierce University in Rindge, N.H., where she […]
Are you lucky? Mark Rank, Herbert S. Hadley professor of social welfare at the Washington University in St. Louis, says if so, you may be in for a better future. Mark Robert Rank is widely recognized as one of the foremost experts in the country on issues of poverty, inequality, and social justice. To date […]
How creative are children? Megan Brandow-Faller, professor of history at the City University of New York Kingsborough, examines one figure from history who has an answer. Megan Brandow-Faller is Professor of History at the City University of New York Kingsborough and also teaches at the CUNY Graduate Center and the 92nd Street Y. Her research focuses […]
On Florida International University Week: Many students can struggle while taking a calculus course. Laird Kramer, founding director of the STEM Transformation Institute professor of physics at Florida International University, attempts to find a way to change things. Laird Kramer’s work focuses on facilitating institutional change in STEM instruction through implementation of, and research on, […]
On Florida International University Week: The growing issue of harmful algal blooms in waterways may be solved by…growing flowers? Jazmin Locke-Rodriguez, post-doctoral research associate, explains. Dr. Jazmin Locke-Rodriguez completed her doctoral research in the Fall of 2024 under the supervision of Dr. Krish Jayachandran, as part of both the Agroecology and NSF CREST Aquatic Chemistry […]
On Florida International University Week: Learning a second language can be important, especially for premature babies. Melissa Baralt, Associate Professor in Modern Languages at Florida International University, explains why. Melissa Baralt’s funded studies explore how bilingualism moderates executive function in children born prematurely. She and her team are working with FIU’s biomedical engineering faculty to […]
On Florida International University Week: What happens when treatment options for cancer diagnoses run out? Diana Azzam, assistant professor in the department of environmental health sciences, looks into taking the guesswork out of this process. Diana Azzam, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at Florida International University. She has a Masters in Biochemistry from the American […]
On Florida International University Week: How do we improve forensic science? Kenneth G. Furton, distinguished university professor in the department of chemistry and biochemistry, explores a way. Dr. Kenneth G. Furton is the executive director of the Global Forensic and Justice Center and the chief scientific officer of Florida International University. He is a distinguished university […]
On Texas Christian University Week: We might be thinking about strength training for women in the wrong way. Joshua Carr, assistant professor in the department of kinesiology, examines some new research that could help develop resistance training for women. Dr. Joshua Carr is an Assistant Professor at Texas Christian University. He earned his Ph.D. in […]
On Texas Christian University Week: Sex trafficking survivors face a long and complex recovery. Mary Twis, master of social work program director and associate professor, determines what brings about best outcomes. Mary Twis is an associate professor in the Department of Social Work at TCU, where she researches human trafficking prevention and intervention strategies. She […]
On Texas Christian University Week: Social media and smartphones can harm body image, but A.I. could help. Robyn Trocchio, graduate program director and associate professor, explores how. Dr. Robyn Trocchio is an associate professor of kinesiology and the director of the sport and exercise psychology lab at Texas Christian University. She also serves as the […]
On Texas Christian University Week: How do we empower Hispanic agricultural workers to get the health care they need? Carol Howe, Paula R. and Ronald C. Parker Endowed professor of Nursing and Director of Nursing Research & Scholarship, delves into this. Carol Howe, Ph.D., is the Paula R. and Ronald C. Parker Endowed Professor of […]
On Texas Christian University Week: Children who are deaf or hard of hearing may have a different relationship to language than other children. Emily Lund, associate professor at the Davies School of Communication Sciences & Disorders, examines how to help bridge the gap. Emily Lund is an Associate Professor in the Davies School of Communication […]
What determines whether teachers stay or go? Melissa Beck Wells, assistant professor and interim director of teaching, learning and faculty development at Empire State University, finds out. Melissa Beck Wells is a lifelong educator, formally a special educator in the New York City public schools. She holds her doctoral degree in Special Education, and is […]
On this Student Spotlight: We’ve heard a lot about active learning, but what is it exactly? Danielle Clevenger, Ph. D. candidate in philosophy at the University of Wisconsin Madison, examines this question. Danielle (Dani) Clevenger is currently a Philosophy Ph.D. candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research spans a number of sub-disciplines in philosophy […]
There is a diversity of experiences in higher education. Ebony Aya, program manager and teaching faculty at Macalester College, explores why some are more disadvantaged than others. Ebony Aya is a recent PhD graduate of the University of Minnesota in Curriculum and Instruction, with minors in Culture and Teaching and African American and African Studies. […]
How do institutions make a good first impression on students at the beginning of a new school year? Alexis Redding, faculty co-chair of higher education and lecturer at Harvard University, says they have only a few days to do so. Alexis Redding is a developmental psychologist whose work focuses on the college experience and what […]
Screen time in schools isn’t going away, how do we make it make it the best it can be? Jeff Frank, professor of education at St. Lawrence University, examines. Jeff Frank is a philosopher of education. He is a professor of education at St. Lawrence University, and the inaugural director of St. Lawrence’s Center for […]
This Week on The Academic Minute 2024.08.19
MondayJeff Frank, professor of education at St. Lawrence University, thinks philosophically about screentime in schools.
TuesdayAlexis Redding, faculty co-chair of higher education and lecturer at Harvard University, says institutions only a have a few days to make a good impression on students.
WednesdayEbony Aya, program manager and teaching faculty at Macalester College, explores why some in higher education are more disadvantaged than others.
ThursdayDanielle Clevenger, Ph. D. candidate in philosophy at the University of Wisconsin Madison, examines active learning.
FridayMelissa Beck Wells, assistant professor and interim director of teaching, learning and faculty development at Empire State University, finds out what determines whether teachers stay or go.
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The Academic Minute from 8.12 – 8.16MondayMichael Hoberman – Fitchburg State UniversityJews in the North American Wilderness
Michael Hoberman is a professor of American literature at Fitchburg State University. He is the author of several books on Jewish history in the US, including New Israel/New England: Jews and Puritans in Early America and A Hundred Acres of America: The Geography of Jewish American Literary History. His latest book, Imagining Early American Jews, will be published by Oxford University Press in late 2025, and he is currently at work on a biography of Theodore Seixas Solomons. Hoberman’s essays on American Jewish history can be found in Tablet Magazine.
TuesdayDonna Nelson – University of OklahomaThe U.S. Fentanyl Challenge
Dr. Donna Nelson is a Professor of Chemistry at University of Oklahoma. Her research has always engaged the chemistry community and served professional societies and organizations, collectively described as work ensuring America’s Scientific Readiness. In her activities, she focuses on science education and impacting science by considering its communities. Her impact on the image of science and scientists includes being science advisor to television shows, such as the award-winning AMC production Breaking Bad, and holding offices, such as 2016 President of the American Chemical Society, the largest scientific society in the world.
Wednesday
Cailyn Green – Empire State UniversityChanging to a Person-Centered Approach When Referring to Substance Use Clients
Cailyn Green, MS, Ph.D., Masters-CASAC is the Assistant Professor of Addiction Studies at SUNY Empire State University. Her research in the substance use field a supported by her past clinical experience. She earned her BA degree in psychology from Wester New England University, her MS degree in forensic mental health from Sage Graduate School and her Ph.D. in criminal justice with a specialization in addiction science from Walden University. Dr. Green is also a Credentialed Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Counselor in New York State. Dr. Greens area of expertise is supporting clinicians who work in the addiction field to best serve their clients. She spent her hands on clinical time working directly with the recently incarcerated population.
ThursdayBrian Grodsky – University of Maryland Baltimore CountyHow Populism Impedes Democracies and Galvanizes Authoritarianism
Brian Grodsky is a Professor of Comparative Politics at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. His research interests include democratization, human rights, disaster management, and U.S. foreign policy.
His four books include: The Costs of Justice (University of Notre Dame Press 2010); Social Movements and the New State: The Fate of Pro-Democracy Organizations When Democracy is Won (Stanford University Press 2012); The Democratization Disconnect (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016); and The Democracy Disadvantage: How Populism Impedes Democracy and Galvanizes Authoritarianism in the Face of Disaster (Rowman & Littlefield, 2024).
FridayDanielle Sukenik – University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus**The Impact of Digital Dating Patterns on Mental Health
Danielle Sukenik is a licensed marriage and family therapist with over 12 years of clinical experience based in Denver, Colorado at the Anschutz Medical Campus. Danielle specializes in working with healthcare providers in training and scientists to aid in addressing difficult life transitions, anxiety, trauma, and relationship challenges. She is passionate about supporting others in reaching their highest potential, finding their own solutions, and living a life aligned with what matters most through a variety of different therapy modalities and interventions.
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Digital dating apps have brought new terms to the fore, but what do they mean? Danielle Sukenik, instructor in psychiatry at the School of Medicine at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, explores these. Danielle Sukenik is a licensed marriage and family therapist with over 12 years of clinical experience based in Denver, Colorado […]
Populism can function differently when it’s not paired with democracies. Brian Grodsky, chair and professor in the department of political science at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, explains the benefits. Brian Grodsky is a Professor of Comparative Politics at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. His research interests include democratization, human rights, disaster management, […]
Changing the language of terms we use to refer to people suffering from addiction can be key, even if they self-identify with the terminology. Cailyn Green, assistant professor of addiction studies in the school of human services at Empire State University, explains why. Cailyn Green, MS, Ph.D., Masters-CASAC is the Assistant Professor of Addiction Studies […]
The opioid crisis has been reported, but maybe not to its full extent. Donna Nelson, professor of chemistry at the University of Oklahoma, examines into the numbers. Dr. Donna Nelson is a Professor of Chemistry at University of Oklahoma. Her research has always engaged the chemistry community and served professional societies and organizations, collectively described […]
We know the name John Muir, but others came before him. Michael Hoberman, professor of English studies at Fitchburg State University, explores a few of them. Michael Hoberman is a professor of American literature at Fitchburg State University. He is the author of several books on Jewish history in the US, including New Israel/New England: […]
What’s the harm in letting A.I. make decisions for us? Joe Arvai, Director of USC Wrigley Institute for Environment & Sustainability and professor of psychology at the University of Southern California Dornsife, explores one. Dr. Joe Árvai is the Dana and David Dornsife Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychology, and he is the […]
Parks are for everyone, right? Daniel Trudeau, professor of geography at Macalester College, says not everyone may feel welcome. Dan Trudeau is an urban geographer. He examines the roles of city planning and public policy in shaping urban development. His work explores the interactions between the built environment and social inequality and focuses on efforts […]
How do we lessen the risk of suicidal ideation among service members? April Smith, associate professor and the director of research on eating disorders and suicidality laboratory at Auburn University, asks questions to find answers. Dr. Smith is currently an Associate Professor of Psychology at Auburn University and the director of the Research on Eating […]
Can we learn about the natural world from works of fiction? Michael Werner, assistant professor in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Utah, reads up to find out. Michael Werner is an assistant professor in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Utah. He uses worms to study developmental biology. […]
How do we get white heterosexual men to confront feelings of homophobia and sexism? Rogerio Pinto, University Diversity & Social Transformation Professor at the University of Michigan, approaches this goal. Rogério M. Pinto is a University of Michigan Diversity & Social Transformation Professor, Berit Ingersoll-Dayton Collegiate Professor of Social Work, and Professor of Theater and Drama, […]
The Academic Minute from 7.29 – 8.02MondayMicki Olson – University at AlbanyUnderstanding the Heat Index
Micki Olson, senior research scientist in the college of emergency preparedness, homeland security and cybersecurity at the University at Albany, explores how to simplify this language to keep people safe.
Micki Olson is a risk communication expert who specializes in how to design alert and warning messages for risks ranging from natural hazards to public health emergencies.
TuesdayJon Rosales – St. Lawrence UniversityIndigenous Knowledge and Practice as Scientific Methodology
St. Lawrence University Professor of Environmental Studies Jon Rosales is a climate change scientist focused on the impacts of climate change on native peoples in the Arctic. His expertise and scholarly focus are on developing scientific field methods that measure traditional ecological knowledge of arctic climate change. Threaded through his work is a call to align human institutions within natural limits by challenging “monocultures of the mind,” or fossilized ways of thinking, that overwhelm the planet. Indigenous ways of living can offer one such version.
Wednesday
Douglas Wolf – Syracuse UniversityCOVID-19 Physical Distancing Restrictions Contributed to Increases in Drug Overdoses
Douglas Wolf is a demographer, policy analyst, program evaluator and gerontological researcher with many years of experience studying the economic, demographic and social aspects of aging, disability and long-term care.
ThursdayDouglas Dowland – Ohio Northern UniversityThree Simple Words That Shape A Nation
Douglas Dowland is associate professor of English at Ohio Northern University, where he teaches a wide array of literature and humanities courses. His book We, Us, and Them was recently published by the University of Virginia Press.
FridayWesley Chang – Drexel University**Optimizing Electric Vehicle Battery Performance in Cold Weather Climates
Wes Chang is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics, and an affiliated faculty member of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, at Drexel University. Prof. Chang completed his B.S. (2014) and M.S. (2016) in Chemical Engineering at Stanford, and his Ph.D. (2021) in Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science at Princeton. After completing his doctoral thesis, he continued working on lithium metal batteries as a Postdoc at Columbia University (2021 – 2022). He spent the following year (2022 – 2023) as the Beckman Postdoctoral Fellow at Caltech, where he worked on lithium-mediated electrochemical ammonia synthesis. He is the recipient of the Electrochemical Society F.M. Becket Fellowship and the Arnold O. Beckman Postdoctoral Fellowship. Outside of academia, he has previously worked in the battery industry and management consulting for energy and utilities, and regularly serves as a technical advisor to energy-focused startup companies and investment firms.
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Electric car batteries may need some tweaking to work at their best in winter climates. Wesley Chang, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and mechanics at Drexel University, explores solutions. Wes Chang is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics, and an affiliated faculty member of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and […]
Politicians use a lot of words when campaigning, but the most meaningful are very simple. Douglas Dowland, associate professor of English at Ohio Northern University, discusses these. Douglas Dowland is associate professor of English at Ohio Northern University, where he teaches a wide array of literature and humanities courses. His book We, Us, and Them […]
Social distancing was key in reducing COVID deaths, but it came with consequences. Douglas Wolf, professor of public administration and international affairs at Syracuse University, looks at why. Douglas Wolf is a demographer, policy analyst, program evaluator and gerontological researcher with many years of experience studying the economic, demographic and social aspects of aging, disability […]
Are scientists the only ones who can do science work? Jon Rosales, professor of environmental studies at St. Lawrence University, says no. St. Lawrence University Professor of Environmental Studies Jon Rosales is a climate change scientist focused on the impacts of climate change on native peoples in the Arctic. His expertise and scholarly focus are […]
Not everyone understands the heat index on a summer day, which can lead to medical issues. Micki Olson, senior research scientist in the college of emergency preparedness, homeland security and cybersecurity at the University at Albany, explores how to simplify this language to keep people safe. Micki Olson is a risk communication expert who specializes […]
This Week on The Academic Minute 2024.07.29
MondayMicki Olson, senior research scientist in the college of emergency preparedness, homeland security and cybersecurity at the University at Albany, explores how to simplify weather-related language to keep people safe.
TuesdayJon Rosales, professor of environmental studies at St. Lawrence University, says scientists aren’t the only ones who do scientific study.
WednesdayDouglas Wolf, professor of public administration and international affairs at Syracuse University, looks at how social distancing was key in reducing COVID deaths, but it came with consequences.
ThursdayDouglas Dowland, associate professor of English at Ohio Northern University, discusses how politicians use a lot of words when campaigning, but the most meaningful are very simple.
FridayWesley Chang, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and mechanics at Drexel University, explores why electric car batteries may need some tweaking to work at their best in winter climates.
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The Academic Minute from 7.22 – 7.26MondayLoren Henderson – University of Maryland Baltimore CountyCentering the Voices of Black Farmers
Henderson’s research interests include diversity issues, stratification and inequality, health disparities, race, class, gender, and sexuality. She is the current executive officer of the Association of Black Sociologists (2021-Present). Listen to Dr. Henderson talk about her research on the experience of Black farmers during COVID-19 on the Minority Land Owner Magazine podcast. Read about her work with Black mothers in Chicago in The Conversation. “Black mothers trapped in unsafe neighborhoods signal the stressful health toll of gun violence in the U.S.,” (2023), “I’m a Black sociologist, and a mom – by listening to other Black mothers, I’ve learned about their pandemic struggles and strengths” (2022).
TuesdaySarah Raskin – Trinity CollegeBrain Injuries Aren’t Just Happening in Sports
Sarah A. Raskin, Ph.D. is a Board Certified Clinical Neuropsychologist and the Charles A. Dana Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. She received her BA in Behavioral Biology from Johns Hopkins University and her PhD in Neuropsychology from the City University of New York Graduate Center. She is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association (Divisions 22 Rehabilitation and 40 Neuropsychology) and of the National Academy of Neuropsychology. She has published numerous articles investigating neuropsychological functions and cognitive rehabilitation for a variety of disorders, including brain injury. She co-authored the Memory for Intentions Test (MIST) published by Psychological Assessment Resources. She is co-author with Catherine Mateer of Neuropsychological Management of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury, published by Oxford University Press (2000) and is the editor of Neuroplasticity and Rehabilitation, published by Guilford Press (2011) and Prospective Memory in Clinical Populations, published by Taylor and Francis (2020).
Wednesday
Jared Bahir Browsh – University of Colorado, BoulderVulnerabilities Emerge Six Years After Sports Gambling Legalization
Dr. Jared Bahir Browsh is scholar and educator specializing in the political economics of sports and the media and the relationship between money, policy, and representation of identity in popular culture.
ThursdaySabrina Little – Christopher Newport UniversityCharacter and Athletic Performance
Sabrina Little is an assistant professor in the Department of Leadership and American Studies at Christopher Newport University. She earned her doctorate in Philosophy from Baylor University. Sabrina’s research is in character education, virtue theory, and moral psychology. Her recent book, The Examined Run (Oxford University Press 2024), explores how to use running as a laboratory for virtue formation.
FridayAngel Aguilar Valles – Carleton University**Can Non-Hallucinogenic Psychedelics Be Used to Treat Depression
Dr. Argel Aguilar Valles received his B.Sc. (Biology) and M.Sc. (Biochemistry) from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). Then, he obtained his Ph.D. in Neuroscience at McGill University in 2011. Following this, he completed two postdoctoral fellowships at the Scripps Research Institute (Florida Campus) in 2012 and at McGill University in 2018. He joined Carleton University in 2019 as an Assistant Professor. The Aguilar-Valles Lab is interested in the molecular mechanisms that underlie psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders. They use a combination of biochemistry, molecular biology, neuronal culture, and animal models to understand the molecular mechanisms of mental illness and their potential treatments.
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Psychedelics may be the way out of depression. Argel Aguilar Valles, assistant professor in the department of neuroscience at Carleton University, explores why. Dr. Argel Aguilar Valles received his B.Sc. (Biology) and M.Sc. (Biochemistry) from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). Then, he obtained his Ph.D. in Neuroscience at McGill University in 2011. Following […]
Athletes are known for their physical prowess, but their morals may also aid in performance. Sabrina Little, assistant professor in the department of leadership and American studies at Christopher Newport University, explains why. Sabrina Little is an assistant professor in the Department of Leadership and American Studies at Christopher Newport University. She earned her doctorate […]
Sports gambling has taken over the airwaves and playing surfaces of professional sports. Jared Bahir Browsh, assistant teaching professor in the department of ethnic studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder, says scandals are also emerging. Dr. Jared Bahir Browsh is scholar and educator specializing in the political economics of sports and the media and […]
It’s not just athletes who have to worry about brain injuries. Sarah Raskin, Charles A. Dana professor of psychology and neuroscience at Trinity College, details other areas of life that are sadly involved in these afflictions as well. Sarah A. Raskin, Ph.D. is a Board Certified Clinical Neuropsychologist and the Charles A. Dana Professor of […]
The COVID-19 pandemic was difficult to navigate for farmers of color. Loren Henderson, associate professor of public policy and incoming director of the school of public policy at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, centers their voices. Henderson’s research interests include diversity issues, stratification and inequality, health disparities, race, class, gender, and sexuality. She is […]
On Occidental College Week: Nature can give us the compounds to treat afflictions, but are we taking advantage? Raul Navarro, assistant professor of chemistry, looks at one avenue to do so. Raul Navarro was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA. He obtained his bachelor’s degree in chemistry at Yale University, then traveled back to California […]
On Occidental College Week: Foreign aid can change political behavior in the country receiving it. Syeda ShahBano Ijaz, assistant professor of global political economy, diplomacy & world affairs, details how. Syeda ShahBano Ijaz is a scholar of the political economy of development with a regional focus on South Asia. Her research, teaching, and public scholarship […]
On Occidental College Week: Hints to our climatic future could be hidden underground. Natasha Sekhon, assistant professor in the department of geology, digs in for a look. Dr. Natasha Sekhon has her training as a low-temperature geochemist and paleoclimatologist. She uses the geochemical signals preserved in speleothems (secondary cave deposits) and monitors modern cave systems […]
On Occidental College Week: We see our dogs as good pets, but how do they see us? Zachary Silver, assistant professor of psychology, looks for an answer. Assistant Professor of Psychology Zachary Silver has a B.A. in psychology and music from Illinois Wesleyan and a pair of master’s degrees and a Ph.D. in psychology from […]
On Occidental College Week: Which schools are taking on most of the burden of a school district’s debt? Claire Cahen, assistant professor of urban and environmental policy, determines it might not be spread evenly. Claire Cahen (she/ her/ hers) is an urbanist, researcher and educator living and working in Los Angeles. She researches and writes […]
This Week on The Academic Minute 2024.07.15
MondayClaire Cahen, assistant professor of urban and environmental policy, says which schools are taking on most of the burden of a school district’s debt might not be spread evenly.
TuesdayZachary Silver, assistant professor of psychology, looks into how our dogs see us.
WednesdayNatasha Sekhon, assistant professor in the department of geology, examines how hints to our climatic future could be hidden underground.
ThursdaySyeda ShahBano Ijaz, assistant professor of global political economy, diplomacy & world affairs, details how foreign aid can change political behavior in the country receiving it.
FridayRaul Navarro, assistant professor of chemistry, looks at how nature can give us the compounds to treat afflictions, but are we taking advantage?
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The Academic Minute from 7.08 – 7.12MondayStacy Peebles – Centre CollegeWhat Are Our Newest War Stories?
Stacey Peebles is H. W. Stodghill, Jr. and Adele H. Stodghill Associate Professor, Chair of English, and Chair of Film Studies at Centre College. She is the author of Welcome to the Suck: Narrating the American Soldier’s Experience in Iraq, Cormac McCarthy and Performance: Page, Stage, Screen, and the forthcoming The War Comes with You: Enduring War in Life, Fiction, and Fantasy. She is editor of the collections Violence in Literature and Approaches to Teaching the Works of Cormac McCarthy, and editor of the Cormac McCarthy Journal.
TuesdayRavi Radhakrishnan – Centre CollegeRent-Seeking Activities
Ravi Radhakrishnan joined Centre College in 2012 as an Assistant Professor of Economics. His area of specialization is growth theory with a focus on the role of rent-seeking activities like lobbying on long-run productivity growth. Another area of his work focuses on intellectual property rights and economic growth. His research in these areas has appeared in several peer-reviewed journals in economics. Dr. Radhakrishnan was named Centre Scholar during 2017-2019 for excellence in scholarship, teaching, and service to the college.
Wednesday
Megs Gendreau – Centre CollegeAre Athletes Really That Special?
Megs Gendreau’s main research focuses on how we understand human selves and human values in the face of radical climate change, but she enjoys sports and periodically gets to write about them!
ThursdayDaniel Scott – Centre CollegeNovel Point-of-Care Diagnostics
Daniel Scott joined the Centre College faculty as an assistant professor of chemistry in 2017. Prior to joining Centre, he was an assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry at DePauw University. Daniel completed his graduate work in bioanalytical chemistry in the chemistry department at the University of Kentucky and was a postdoctoral scholar in the College of Pharmacy at the University of Kentucky as part of the NIH funded Cancer Nanotechnology Training Center. His research interests include the development and optimization of simple and accurate point-of-care diagnostic devices working at the interface of nanotechnology, biochemistry, and engineering. Daniel’s work has been funded by the NIH, NSF, and the Society for Analytical Chemist of Pittsburgh.
FridayJeffrey Heath – Centre College**A Division III Sports Analytics Program
Jeffrey Heath is the David and Marlene Grissom Professor of Mathematics and Data Science at Centre College. His scholarly work focuses on sports analytics, and he leads the Centre Sports Analytics team, a collection of students who manage and analyze Centre athletic data to produce insights for the coaching staffs. He received the 2020 Distinguished Teaching Award from the Kentucky Section of the Mathematical Association of America.
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On Centre College Week: Data have made a big splash in sports recently. Jeffrey Heath, David and Marlene Grissom Professor of Mathematics and Data Science, details why. Jeffrey Heath is the David and Marlene Grissom Professor of Mathematics and Data Science at Centre College. His scholarly work focuses on sports analytics, and he leads the […]
On Centre College Week: Improving health care access can improve healthcare outcomes, but how do we do it? Daniel Scott, associate professor of chemistry, examines a path forward. Daniel Scott joined the Centre College faculty as an assistant professor of chemistry in 2017. Prior to joining Centre, he was an assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry […]
On Centre College Week: Why are we interested in the lives of athletes? Megs Gendreau, associate professor of philosophy and environmental studies, explains why. Megs Gendreau’s main research focuses on how we understand human selves and human values in the face of radical climate change, but she enjoys sports and periodically gets to write about […]
On Centre College Week: Why is more money going to lobbying in politics than before? Ravi Radhakrishnan, associate professor of economics and business, says it’s a pressing issue. Ravi Radhakrishnan joined Centre College in 2012 as an Assistant Professor of Economics. His area of specialization is growth theory with a focus on the role of […]
On Centre College Week: We’ve heard the war stories of the past, but what about today? Stacey Peebles, H. W. Stodghill, Jr. and Adele H. Stodghill Associate Professor and Chair of English, looks for some. Stacey Peebles is H. W. Stodghill, Jr. and Adele H. Stodghill Associate Professor, Chair of English, and Chair of Film […]
Harassment of workers doesn’t just happen at work, but also on the way in. Beth Livingston, Ralph L. Sheets Assistant Professor of Industrial Relations at the Tippie College of Business at the University of Iowa, explains more. Beth A. Livingston is the Ralph L. Sheets Associate Professor of Industrial Relations at the University of Iowa’s […]
Do you consider yourself a reader? Rachel Noorda, associate professor and director of book publishing at Portland State University, says many don’t when they should. Rachel Noorda is associate professor of English and director of book publishing at Portland State University. She and her colleague Kathi Inman Berens study crossmedia consumption and identity behaviors. Reading […]
How do we solve the patriarch problem when it comes to networking for business owners? Kylie King, director of institutional effectiveness and research faculty at SUNY Plattsburgh, says we must support those who might be blocked from having the social capital needed to move forward. Dr. Kylie King is the Director of Institutional Effectiveness at […]
Being stressed is common today. Lawson Wulsin, professor of psychiatry and family medicine at the University of Cincinnati, examines why and what to do about it Lawson Wulsin, MD, is professor of psychiatry and family medicine at the University of Cincinnati. His subspecialty is psychosomatic medicine, and he has focused his research and teaching on […]
The Academic Minute from 6.24 – 6.28MondayDan Jaffee – Portland State UniversityDependence on Bottled Water Worsens Social Inequality
Daniel Jaffee is an environmental and rural sociologist and Associate Professor of Sociology at Portland State University.
His research examines conflicts over water privatization and commodification; the social, environmental, and economic impacts of bottled and packaged water; and social movements around bottled water and water justice in both the global North and South.
His first book, Brewing Justice: Fair Trade Coffee, Sustainability, and Survival, received the C. Wright Mills Book Award.
He received his Ph.D. in 2006 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
TuesdayFrancis Galan – Texas A&M UniversityA Better Understanding of the Interactions Between and Kinship Among Early Texas Settler Groups
Francis Galán is an Associate Professor of History at Texas A&M University-San Antonio, where he teaches in the College of Arts and Sciences.
Professor Galán teaches classes on Latin America, Mexico, Texas, and Caribbean. His primary research uses Spanish archival records to examine military, political, economic, and social relations in Texas under Spain and Mexico.
His book, Los Adaes: The First Capital of Spanish Texas, was published in 2020 by Texas A&M University Press, College Station, through the Summerfield G. Roberts Texas History Series.
Wednesday
David Spence – University of Texas at AustinThe Misunderstood Politics of the Energy Transition
David Spence is a professor of energy law and regulation at the University of Texas at Austin. Professor Spence’s research and teaching focuses on government regulation of the energy industry. He is author of Climate of Contempt: Rescuing the Energy Transition from Voter Partisanship (Columbia Univ. Press, 2024), and co-author of the energy law textbook Energy, Economics and the Environment (Foundation Press, 6th Ed., 2023). Professor Spence earned his Ph.D in political science from Duke University, his J.D. from the University of North Carolina, and his B.A. from Gettysburg College.
ThursdayWendy Keyser – Fitchburg State UniversityPatterns and Gaps in Award-Winning LGBTQ Children’s Books
Wendy Keyser taught high school English for 21 years, primarily in Massachusetts public schools. She is a professor of English Studies in the 5-12 teaching licensure program at Fitchburg State University and teaches a Children’s Literature course for elementary licensure candidates.
FridaySara Harmouch – American University**Sudan’s Civil War: A New Haven for Al-Qaida
Sara Harmouch is the founder and CEO of H9 Defense and a doctoral candidate at American University’s School of Public Affairs. Growing up in Lebanon, she witnessed firsthand the impact of extremism. These personal experiences have given her deep insights into how militant groups think, act, and operate, insights that now guide her work at H9 Defense and her doctoral research on militant groups’ resolve and its impact on their decisions to conduct domestic or international attacks. Harmouch has also conducted extensive fieldwork across the Middle East and North Africa region. She consults for the U.S. government and the private sector and has recently briefed NATO on religious militant groups. Her research focuses on asymmetric warfare, militant groups, political violence, and threats to democracies.
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On this Student Spotlight: Al-Qaida may be exploiting a weakness in an African state in crisis. Sara Harmouch, doctoral candidate in justice, law and criminology at American University, explores how. Sara Harmouch is the founder and CEO of H9 Defense and a doctoral candidate at American University’s School of Public Affairs. Growing up in Lebanon, […]
LGBTQ children’s books are now on the shelves, but do they tell the full story? Wendy Keyser, professor of English at Fitchburg State University, says there is more to explore. Wendy Keyser taught high school English for 21 years, primarily in Massachusetts public schools. She is a professor of English Studies in the 5-12 teaching […]
Who is to blame for slowing the transition to a low carbon energy future? David Spence, Rex G. Baker Chair in Natural Resources Law at the University of Texas School of Law, and Professor of Business, Government & Society at the University of Texas at Austin’s McCombs School of Business, has some ideas. David Spence […]
There’s still a lot to learn and understand about early settlements in Texas. Francis Galan, associate professor of history at Texas A&M University-San Antonio, sheds some light on the complexities of Spanish settlements in the state. Francis Galán is an Associate Professor of History at Texas A&M University-San Antonio, where he teaches in the College […]
This Week on The Academic Minute 2024.06.17
MondayAnn Melissa Campbell, Clement T. and Sylvia H. Hanson Family Chair in Manufacturing productivity and professor of business analytics at the University of Iowa, looks into how to make parking more efficient for delivery drivers.
TuesdayChris Vagasky, research program manager at the University of Wisconsin, explores lightning safety.
WednesdayNiusha Jones, assistant professor of marketing at the College of Business and Economics at Boise State University, explores why the colors in your environment can play a role in how you feel.
ThursdayJane Kuehne, assistant professor of music education at Auburn University, has a theory on why everybody has different musical preferences.
FridayKyle Atkins, PhD student in ecology at Oklahoma State University, explores a new finding that can change our understanding of the end of the dinosaurs.
The post This Week on The Academic Minute (2024.06.24) appeared first on The Academic Minute.
The Academic Minute from 6.17 – 6.21MondayAnne Melissa Campbell – University of IowaMaking Delivery Driver Parking More Efficient
Ann Melissa Campbell’s research focuses on freight transportation, especially on problems related to new and emerging business models, as well as the logistics of disaster preparation and relief. She is a recipient of the NSF CAREER Award and serves as an Area Editor for Transportation Science. As department chair, she led the efforts of the Tippie College of Business’ Department of Business Analytics to win the 2021 INFORMS UPS George D. Smith Prize for excellence in analytics education. Since 2022, she has chaired the annual FutureBAProf workshop focused on improving diversity in business analytics academic positions.
TuesdayChris Vagasky – University of WisconsinLightning Safety
Chris Vagasky is the manager of the Wisconsin Environmental Mesonet, a growing network of weather and soil monitoring stations in the state of Wisconsin. He is an active member of the American Meteorological Society and National Weather Association. Chris also serves on the National Lightning Safety Council as a lightning data and safety specialist, working in the United States and around the world to increase awareness of lightning safety.
Wednesday
Niusha Jones – Boise State UniversityThe Power of Everyday Object Colors in Emotional Healing
Dr. Niusha Jones is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the College of Business and Economics at Boise State University. Niusha’s academic research focuses on consumer motivations and psychology of brand and product design, with a particular interest in the effects of design elements on shaping consumers feelings, thoughts, and behaviors. Her research has been published in leading outlets in marketing including the Journal of Marketing Research and the Journal of Advertising.
ThursdayJane Kuehne – University of AuburnWhy Do People Have Different Musical Preferences?
Dr. Jane M. Kuehne is Associate Professor of Music Education and Graduate Program Officer in the Department of Curriculum and Teaching in the College of Education at Auburn University (in Alabama). She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in music education and supervises graduate research. Her teaching focuses on music teaching methods, teaching development lab courses, psychology of music, urban and rural music education, music education technology, music education philosophy, and other areas.
FridayKyle Atkins – Oklahoma State University**What a New “Hell Chicken” Can Tell Us About Dinosaur Extinction
I am a PhD student interested in the ecology of terrestrial environments at the very end of the age of dinosaurs. When I’m not working on fossils or simulations via 3D modeling, I am working with live reptiles. I believe that hands-on experience with living animals is vital to understanding the lives of extinct creatures, so I try to keep one foot in each world.
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On this Student Spotlight: The extinction of the dinosaurs is still being studied. Kyle Atkins, PhD student in ecology at Oklahoma State University, explores a new finding that can change our understanding of the event. I am a PhD student interested in the ecology of terrestrial environments at the very end of the age of […]
Some love a song; others can’t stand it. But why? Jane Kuehne, assistant professor of music education at Auburn University, has this music theory. Dr. Jane M. Kuehne is Associate Professor of Music Education and Graduate Program Officer in the Department of Curriculum and Teaching in the College of Education at Auburn University (in Alabama). […]
The colors in your personal spaces could have a big impact on your mood. Niusha Jones, assistant professor of marketing at the College of Business and Economics at Boise State University, explores why. Dr. Niusha Jones is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the College of Business and Economics at Boise State University. Niusha’s academic […]
Some places get more than others, but lightning is always dangerous. Chris Vagasky, research program manager at the University of Wisconsin, explores this natural phenomenon. Chris Vagasky is the manager of the Wisconsin Environmental Mesonet, a growing network of weather and soil monitoring stations in the state of Wisconsin. He is an active member of […]
Delivery drivers don’t have it easy when it comes to parking, so how can we improve this?
Ann Melissa Campbell, Clement T. and Sylvia H. Hanson Family Chair in Manufacturing productivity and professor of business analytics at the University of Iowa, looks into it.
Ann Melissa Campbell’s research focuses on freight transportation, especially on problems related to new and emerging business models, as well as the logistics of disaster preparation and relief. She is a recipient of the NSF CAREER Award and serves as an Area Editor for Transportation Science. As department chair, she led the efforts of the Tippie College of Business’ Department of Business Analytics to win the 2021 INFORMS UPS George D. Smith Prize for excellence in analytics education. Since 2022, she has chaired the annual FutureBAProf workshop focused on improving diversity in business analytics academic positions.
Making Delivery Driver Parking More Efficienthttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/06-17-24-Iowa-Making-Delivery-Driver-Parking-More-Efficient.mp3Anyone who’s ever spent time in a big city has found themselves stuck in traffic, surrounded by delivery vehicles. How can we get the products we order delivered to us on-time with fewer delivery trucks on the road and the traffic they cause?
This is the question we considered in our latest study.
Delivery companies develop sophisticated algorithms to decide what customers should be visited by which drivers, and the order that delivery drivers should visit these customers. These algorithms, however, don’t consider parking.
It can be useful, for example, to recommend a driver park in a certain area and visit a prescribed set of customers on foot from that parking spot. Our algorithm does just this – it recommends parking spots for drivers, telling them where to park and which customers to visit on foot from that parking spot.
We found that this strategic consideration of parking becomes particularly important in areas where it takes a long time to park. This is the case in most urban environments, where the current average time to park is 9 minutes.
In these situations, the answer is for the driver to park fewer times and walk more. If the parking time is high enough, the solutions can suggest that driver deliver a set of packages from a parking spot and return to that parking spot to get more packages and walk again rather than drive.
We tested our idea using data from Chicago. We calculated delivery time could be cut by about 50 percent if companies designed routes that strategically consider parking, which means drivers can make twice as many deliveries during a day.
If drivers can make twice as many deliveries, we need only half the number of trucks on the road and traffic can be reduced so we can get to where we want to go more quickly.
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This Week on The Academic Minute 2024.06.17
MondayAnn Melissa Campbell, Clement T. and Sylvia H. Hanson Family Chair in Manufacturing productivity and professor of business analytics at the University of Iowa, looks into how to make parking more efficient for delivery drivers.
TuesdayChris Vagasky, research program manager at the University of Wisconsin, explores lightning safety.
WednesdayNiusha Jones, assistant professor of marketing at the College of Business and Economics at Boise State University, explores why the colors in your environment can play a role in how you feel.
ThursdayJane Kuehne, assistant professor of music education at Auburn University, has a theory on why everybody has different musical preferences.
FridayKyle Atkins, PhD student in ecology at Oklahoma State University, explores a new finding that can change our understanding of the end of the dinosaurs.
The post This Week on The Academic Minute (2024.06.17) appeared first on The Academic Minute.
The Academic Minute from 6.10 – 6.14MondayBruce Johnson – Centre CollegeBenefits of Public Goods Do Not Justify Stadium Subsidies
Bruce K. Johnson is the James Graham Brown Professor of Economics at Centre College, where he has taught since 1987. He became interested in sports economics when he developed a baseball salary model as a teaching example for his econometrics class. It led eventually to a chapter in a Brookings Institution volume on the economics of baseball in 1992.
To answer the question of whether sports public goods could justify large stadium subsidies, Johnson teamed up with Centre alumnus and environmental economist John Whitehead to adapt the Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) survey technique to sports public goods. Their analyses of a new basketball arena and a minor league baseball stadium in Lexington, Kentucky demonstrated the feasibility of CVM in sports. They teamed up with Peter Groothuis and Michael Mondello, respectively, for the Pittsburgh and Jacksonville studies.
TuesdayAmit Kumar – University of Texas at AustinConceal Less, Reveal More
Amit Kumar is currently an Asst. Professor of Marketing and Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to joining the McCombs faculty, he completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. He received his Ph.D. in Social Psychology from Cornell University and his A.B. in Psychology and Economics from Harvard University. Professor Kumar’s research focuses on the scientific study of happiness and has been featured in popular media outlets such as The Atlantic, Bloomberg, Business Insider, CNBC, CNN, Forbes, Fortune Magazine, Harvard Business Review, Hidden Brain, The Huffington Post, National Geographic, The New York Times, NPR, Oprah Daily, Scientific American, Time Magazine, U.S. News and World Report, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. His scholarly work has been published in Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, Current Directions in Psychological Science, Current Opinion in Psychology, Emotion, The Journal of Consumer Psychology, The Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, The Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, and Psychological Science.
Wednesday
Gerald LeTendre – Penn State UniversityWill We See Robots in Our Child’s Classroom?
Gerald LeTendre is the Harry Lawrence Batschelet II Chair of Educational Administration at The Pennsylvania State University. He was editor of The American Journal of Education, and served for eight years as head of the Education Policy Studies Department at Penn State. His current research focuses on how disruptive technologies affect teacher work roles and professionalization. This includes looking at attitudes towards robots in the classroom; how online education and disruptive technologies are shaping the professional status of teachers around the world; and how international and cultural differences can be effectively integrated into online teaching environments.
ThursdayEdiz Ozelkan – University of Colorado-BoulderMusic Artists Hurt by TikTok Licensing Snafu
I graduated from the University of Colorado Boulder in 2023 with my PhD in media research and practice. I am currently a lecturer in the media studies department. My dissertation asks if music streaming services helped or hurt economic opportunities for music professionals, using a political economic lens and quantitative methods to measure the impact of technology on opportunity in media. This project is being reworked into a book-length manuscript. I also have an M.A. in American Studies from Columbia University and a B.S. in sociology from SUNY Old Westbury. My research has ranged from cultural sociology; hip hop and music studies; political economy; media and labor economics; and pedagogy.
FridayTracy Hookway – Binghamton University**Cell Research Could Help Us Better Understand How Our Hearts Beat
The focus of our lab is to develop predictive engineered in vitro models of human cardiovascular tissues to interrogate the mechanisms that drive morphogenic developmental processes. To achieve this we use multi-scale, three-dimensional cultures of stem cells and their differentiated progeny to recapitulate tissue development, tissue homeostasis, and pathophysiological states. We focus on understanding the bi-directional interactions between cells and their local environment.
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When it comes to the heart, we have much research left to do. Tracy Hookway, assistant professor in the biomedical engineering department at Binghamton University, outlines some remaining questions. The focus of our lab is to develop predictive engineered in vitro models of human cardiovascular tissues to interrogate the mechanisms that drive morphogenic developmental processes. […]
Musical artists are being hurt by a new TikTok licensing snafu. Ediz Ozelkan, lecturer in the media studies department at the University of Colorado Boulder, takes a listen to find out more. I graduated from the University of Colorado Boulder in 2023 with my PhD in media research and practice. I am currently a lecturer […]
Is ChatGPT the professor of the future? Gerald LeTendre, Harry Lawrence Batshelet II Chair and professor of educational administration at Penn State University, examines the possibilities. Gerald LeTendre is the Harry Lawrence Batschelet II Chair of Educational Administration at The Pennsylvania State University. He was editor of The American Journal of Education, and served for […]
What secrets are you keeping? Amit Kumar, assistant professor of marketing and psychology at the University of Texas at Austin, says maybe it’s better to conceal less and reveal more. Amit Kumar is currently an Asst. Professor of Marketing and Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to joining the McCombs faculty, he […]
Taxpayers are told to ante up to keep sports teams in their cities, but is it worth it? Bruce Johnson, James Graham Brown professor of economics at Centre College, examines this question. Bruce K. Johnson is the James Graham Brown Professor of Economics at Centre College, where he has taught since 1987. He became interested […]
This Week on The Academic Minute 2024.06.10
MondayBruce Johnson, James Graham Brown professor of economics at Centre College, asks whether it’s worth it when taxpayers are told to ante up to keep sports teams in their cities.
TuesdayAmit Kumar, assistant professor of marketing and psychology at the University of Texas at Austin, says maybe it’s better to conceal less and reveal more.
WednesdayGerald LeTendre, Harry Lawrence Batshelet II Chair and professor of educational administration at Penn State University, examines whether ChatGPT is the professor of the future.
ThursdayEdiz Ozelkan, lecturer in the media studies department at the University of Colorado Boulder, takes a listen to the latest music licensing snafu on TikTok.
FridayTracy Hookway, assistant professor in the biomedical engineering department at Binghamton University, outlines some remaining questions when it comes to heart research.
The post This Week on The Academic Minute (2024.06.10) appeared first on The Academic Minute.
The Academic Minute from 6.03 – 6.07MondayKris Wobbe – Worcester Polytechnic InstituteMaximizing Learning through High-Impact Practices
Kris Wobbe is the Director of WPI’s Center for Project-Based Learning. Most recently she directed the Great Problems Seminar program, WPI’s first-year project’s program. Her teaching awards include the Moruzzi Prize for Innovation in Undergraduate Education, and she a co-recipient of the 2016 Bernard M. Gordon Prize for Innovation in Engineering and Technology Education awarded by the National Academy of Engineering. She received her BA in chemistry from St. Olaf College and her PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology from Harvard University. She is the co-editor of Project-Based Learning in the First Year: Beyond all Expectations (Stylus, 2019).
TuesdayKimberly LeChasseur – Worcester Polytechnic InstituteProject-Based Learning: More is Better
As a Research & Evaluation Associate with the Center for Project-Based Learning, Kimberly LeChasseur focuses on what we know about the value of project-based learning, both at WPI and at other colleges and universities where the Center is facilitating professional learning. She helps those invested in project-based learning at the college level to clarify, document, communicate, and use what they know about their work to improve the quality of project-based learning in action. Her PhD is in Educational Leadership & Policy Studies with training in sociology and anthropology.
Wednesday
Ryan Madan – Worcester Polytechnic InstituteThe Unexpected (and Expected) Benefits of Projects in the Humanities
When new acquaintances find out I teach writing, it’s not unusual for them to lament a broad decline in the nation’s writing skills. How does it make me feel, they ask, that students, say, don’t know the difference between adjectives and adverbs? Or, can I believe it that people hardly even know what apostrophes do, let alone where to put them? As someone who treasures good, careful prose, I’m sympathetic to these worries. But as an educator, I think it’s important to steer the conversation in a different direction. What makes us think that students’ knowledge of the parts of speech would “fix” their writing? What assumptions underlie our surety that ignorance of grammar or punctuation is what’s holding students back? That those are the things most important to reviving literate culture? I turn the conversation to these questions because it’s easy to forget that in literacy education, we have choices about what to prioritize. And those choices should rest on careful reflection about what we value (where we want students to end up) and careful interrogation of the assumptions we hold about how students get there.
ThursdaySarah Stanlick – Worcester Polytechnic InstituteFailing Forward with Project-Based Learning
Sarah Stanlick, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Integrative and Global Studies and the Director of the Great Problems Seminar at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. She was the founding director of Lehigh University’s Center for Community Engagement and faculty member in Sociology and Anthropology. She previously taught at Centenary College of New Jersey and was a researcher at Harvard’s Kennedy School, assisting the US Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power. She has published in journals such as The Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, The Social Studies, and the Journal of Global Citizenship and Equity Education. She co-chairs the Imagining America Assessing Practices of Public Scholarship (APPS) collective, which focuses on democratically-engaged assessment practices to empower and transform systems, communities, and individuals. She is a member of SSSP and serves on the Steering Committee for the Community-Based Global Learning Collaborative (The Collaborative). Her priority for teaching, research, and service is to encourage and model engaged, active citizenship and help create conditions for all community members to be able engage similarly. Her current interests include global citizenship, health and human rights, transformative learning, and the internet’s impact on empowerment and capacity to build community.
FridayLindsey Davis – Worcester Polytechnic Institute**Projects Narrow Self-Efficacy Gaps for Women
I am a broadly trained interdisciplinary scholar of 19th and 20th American history and critical feminist studies. Along with Dr. Rebecca Moody, I serve as the co-founder and co-director of the Gender, Sexuality & Women’s Studies (GSWS) program. My scholarly and pedagogical interests vary widely, ranging from reproductive justice to sexual harassment law to the intersection of feminist theory and STEM.
The post The Academic Minute for 2024.06.03-2024.06.07 appeared first on The Academic Minute.
Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s Benefits of Project-Based Learning Week: Narrowing self-efficacy gaps for women is crucial. Lindsey Davis, assistant professor of teaching in the humanities and arts department, looks into how projects can do so for female students. I am a broadly trained interdisciplinary scholar of 19th and 20th American history and critical feminist studies. Along […]
Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s Benefits of Project-Based Learning Week: Can a negative project experience still provide benefits to students? And if so, how? Sarah Stanlick, assistant professor in the department of integrative and global studies, answers these questions. Sarah Stanlick, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Integrative and Global Studies and the Director […]
Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s Benefits of Project-Based Learning Week: A capstone project in the arts and humanities fields could have benefits for many types of students. Ryan Madan, associate professor of teaching in the humanities and arts department, determines why. When new acquaintances find out I teach writing, it’s not unusual for them to lament a […]
Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s Benefits of Project-Based Learning Week: Can too much of a good thing be bad for you? Not when it comes to project-based learning. Kimberly LeChasseur, senior research and evaluation associate, examines why. As a Research & Evaluation Associate with the Center for Project-Based Learning, Kimberly LeChasseur focuses on what we know about […]
Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s Benefits of Project-Based Learning Week: Developing high-impact practices for students can be beneficial for institutions. Kris Wobbe, associate professor in the department of chemistry and biochemistry, explains why. Kris Wobbe is the Director of WPI’s Center for Project-Based Learning. Most recently she directed the Great Problems Seminar program, WPI’s first-year project’s program. […]
This Week on The Academic Minute 2024.06.03
MondayKris Wobbe, associate professor in the department of chemistry and biochemistry, explains why developing high-impact practices for students can be beneficial for institutions.
TuesdayKimberly LeChasseur, senior research and evaluation associate, examines whether too much project-based learning can be bad for you.
WednesdayRyan Madan, associate professor of teaching in the humanities and arts department, determines why a capstone project in the arts and humanities fields could have benefits for many types of students.
ThursdaySarah Stanlick, assistant professor in the department of integrative and global studies, answers whether a negative project experience still provide benefits to students.
FridayLindsey Davis, assistant professor of teaching in the humanities and arts department, looks into how projects can narrow self-efficacy gaps for female students.
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The Academic Minute from 5.27 – 5.31MondayErnesto Sagas – Colorado State UniversityThe Haitian Crisis and Foreign Intervention
Dr. Ernesto Sagás is Professor of Ethnic Studies at Colorado State University. He has a Ph.D. in political science from University of Florida with a concentration in Latin American studies. Dr. Sagás is the author of Race and Politics in the Dominican Republic, as well as articles on democracy and authoritarianism, immigration policy, and Latinos in Colorado.
TuesdaySophia Tintori – New York UniversityWhat Chornobyl’s Worms Teach Us About DNA Damage
Sophia Tintori is a postdoctoral associate in the Biology Department at New York University. She was trained in developmental biology, cell biology, and genetics at Brown University and the University of Chapel Hill in North Carolina. In her current research she uses microscopic nematodes collected from the wild to study the types of genetic variation that are normally found in a natural population, specifically as it impacts our ability to tolerate carcinogen exposure.
Wednesday
Gerard Dumancas – University of ScrantonInexpensive Method to Detect Honey Authenticity
Gerard G. Dumancas is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry and the Director of the NSF Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program, and a Community-Based Learning Faculty Fellow at the University of Scranton in Scranton, Pa. He received his BS in Chemistry from the University of the Philippines in 2005 and his Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry (Chemometrics) from Oklahoma State University in 2012. He completed his postdoctoral training at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation in the area of statistical genetics and bioinformatics. His research has been recognized by the American Oil Chemists’ Society, the Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening, the NSF Noyce Scholarship Program, the NSF S-STEM Program, and the LSU LIFT2. He was previously named as an NSF Program to Empower Partnerships with Industry Fellow as well as a Visiting Scientist of the Department of Energy’s Joint Bioenergy Institute and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
ThursdayDiego Luis – Tufts UniversityCatarina de San Juan
Diego Javier Luis is an assistant professor of Latin American history at Tufts University. He is the author of The First Asians in the Americas: A Transpacific History, published by Harvard University Press.
FridayNiusha Jones – Boise State UniversityCheers to Defeat: How Sports Losses Decide our Choice of Drinks
Dr. Niusha Jones is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the College of Business and Economics at Boise State University. Niusha’s academic research focuses on consumer motivations and psychology of brand and product design, with a particular interest in the effects of design elements on shaping consumers feelings, thoughts, and behaviors. Her research has been published in leading outlets in marketing including the Journal of Marketing Research and the Journal of Advertising.
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Can your sports team decide which drink you have tonight? Niusha Jones, assistant professor of marketing at the College of Business and Economics at Boise State University, answers this question. Dr. Niusha Jones is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the College of Business and Economics at Boise State University. Niusha’s academic research focuses on […]
The story of Asian peoples in the Americas goes back longer than expected. Diego Luis, assistant professor of Latin American history at Tufts University, examines this history through one individual. Diego Javier Luis is an assistant professor of Latin American history at Tufts University. He is the author of The First Asians in the Americas: […]
The honey imported into the U.S. might not be what we think it is. Gerard Dumancas, associate professor of chemistry at the University of Scranton, determines how to tell if it’s pure, or altered. Gerard G. Dumancas is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry and the Director of the NSF Robert Noyce Teacher […]
What can worms teach us about carcinogen exposure or chemotherapy? Sophia Tintori, postdoctoral associate in the biology department at New York University, heads to Chornobyl to find out. Sophia Tintori is a postdoctoral associate in the Biology Department at New York University. She was trained in developmental biology, cell biology, and genetics at Brown University […]
Haiti is in crisis and foreign security forces are coming to help stabilize the country, but will their help be welcomed? Ernesto Sagas, professor of ethnic studies at Colorado State University, looks at the complexities of the political situation. Dr. Ernesto Sagás is Professor of Ethnic Studies at Colorado State University. He has a Ph.D. […]
This Week on The Academic Minute 2024.05.27
MondayErnesto Sagas, professor of ethnic studies at Colorado State University, looks at the complexities of the political situation in Haiti amidst the current crisis.
TuesdaySophia Tintori, postdoctoral associate in the biology department at New York University, heads to Chornobyl to find out what worms can teach us about DNA damage.
WednesdayGerard Dumancas, associate professor of chemistry at the University of Scranton, determines how to tell if imported honey is pure, or altered.
ThursdayDiego Luis, assistant professor of Latin American history at Tufts University, examines the history of Asian peoples in the Americas through one individual.
FridayNiusha Jones, assistant professor of marketing at the College of Business and Economics at Boise State University, determines whether your favorite sports team influences what drink you have after the game.
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The Academic Minute from 5.20 – 5.24MondayMatthew Cronin – George Mason UniversityWhy Current Approaches to Workplace Mental Health Aren’t Working
Matthew A. Cronin is a professor of management at George Mason University. He received his PhD in organizational behavior from Carnegie Mellon University.
Special thanks to Jeanette Patrick and James Patrick Ambuske of R2 Studios, housed within the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University.
TuesdayScott Malia – College of the Holy CrossWhat Makes Bad Movies So Good?
Scott Malia is an Associate Professor of Theatre whose specialties include LGBTQ+ Theatre, Comedy, Television, Horror Films and Cult Films. His book, Giorgio Strehler Directs Carlo Goldoni was published by Lexington Books in 2013. Other articles and writings have appeared in Theatre Journal, The Conversation, and New England Theatre Journal. His plays, The Interview, A Few Adustments and Buffering were performed as part of the Boston Theatre Marathon, with two of them published by Smith & Krauss.
Wednesday
Jacob Sawyer – Alma CollegeExamining Myths About Grief and Bereavement
Jacob Sawyer is a counseling psychologist interested in factors related to mental health and well-being. His background and training as a clinician strongly inform his approach to his work as a faculty member. His career at Alma began in 2022.
ThursdayDaniel Lewis – California Institute of TechnologyRedwoods: Adaptive Giants
Daniel Lewis is a college professor, writer, and environmental historian in Southern California. He is also the Dibner Senior Curator for the History of Science and Technology at the Huntington Library, in San Marino, California. He won an Emmy in 2019 for his work on a documentary on women in aerospace, and is the author of four books.
FridayMorgan Polikoff – University of Southern CaliforniaWhy Aren’t Parents as Worried as Experts about COVID’s Effects on Kids?
Morgan Polikoff is a professor of education at USC Rossier School of Education and Co-Director of USC EdPolicy Hub.
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Why aren’t parents as worried as experts about COVID’S effect on children? Morgan Polikoff, professor of education at the University of Southern California, reads up to find out. Morgan Polikoff is a professor of education at USC Rossier School of Education and Co-Director of USC EdPolicy Hub. Why Aren’t Parents as Worried as Experts about […]
Some species will adapt to a warming world. Daniel Lewis, lecturer in the humanities and social sciences division at the California Institute of Technology, details one. Daniel Lewis is a college professor, writer, and environmental historian in Southern California. He is also the Dibner Senior Curator for the History of Science and Technology at the […]
Grief carries many myths. Jacob Sawyer, assistant professor of psychology at Alma College, determines what’s real and what’s not. Jacob Sawyer is a counseling psychologist interested in factors related to mental health and well-being. His background and training as a clinician strongly inform his approach to his work as a faculty member. His career at […]
All bad movies are bad, but what makes some also so-bad-they’re-good? Scott Malia, associate professor and chair in the department of theatre & dance at the College of the Holy Cross, watches and reports back. Scott Malia is an Associate Professor of Theatre whose specialties include LGBTQ+ Theatre, Comedy, Television, Horror Films and Cult Films. […]
Current approaches to workplace mental health aren’t working. Matthew Cronin, professor of management at George Mason University, explores how to change this. Matthew A. Cronin is a professor of management at George Mason University. He received his PhD in organizational behavior from Carnegie Mellon University. Why Current Approaches to Workplace Mental Health Aren’t Working Mental […]
On University of St. Thomas Week: Did you choose your major based on peer pressure? Shinwon Noh, assistant professor of entrepreneurship, says maybe so. Shinwon Noh, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Schulze School of Entrepreneurship at the University of St. Thomas Opus College of Business. Her research interests are cultural entrepreneurship, emergence of […]
On University of St. Thomas Week: Not everything needs a technological solution. Mahak Nagpal, assistant professor of ethics & business law and the Opus College of Business, says sometimes a human solution should come first. Dr. Mahak Nagpal is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Ethics and Business Law at the University of St. […]
On University of St. Thomas Week: Do humans need to work? Christopher Wong Michaelson, Opus distinguished professor of principled leadership, looks into this. Christopher Wong Michaelson is a philosopher with 25 years of experience advising business leaders pursuing meaning and providing work with a purpose and he is the coauthor of Is Your Work Worth […]
On University of St. Thomas Week: Entrepreneurs don’t just live in bustling cities and sip chai lattes. Danielle Ailts Campeau, associate dean of the Schulze School of Entrepreneurship and a clinical professor of entrepreneurship, considers rural areas for innovation. Danielle Campeau is the Associate Dean of the Schulze School of Entrepreneurship and a Clinical Professor […]
On University of St. Thomas Week: Don’t like what’s going on in the real world? Maybe try a virtual one instead. Seth Ketron, assistant professor of marketing, explores through a marketing lens. Dr. Seth Ketron’s research interests encompass information processing, sensory marketing, virtual/mixed reality, and retailing, and his industry experience has been in corporate and […]
The Academic Minute from 5.06 – 5.10MondayLauren Dula – Binghamton UniversityCheckout Charity Boom
Dr. Dula is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Public Administration and Policy at the College of Community and Public Affairs. Her research focuses on gender, equity, and diversity in the nonprofit and public sectors. She combines traditional public administration themes such as representative bureaucracy, and organizational and governance theories with social theories from psychology and sociology in the study of nonprofits and the public sector.
TuesdayPeter Gerhardstein – Binghamton UniversityAssessing Problematic Digital Media Consumption
Investigation of the perceptual and attention processes that influence the formation of our perceptions of the visual world and of visual memories, and exploration of the structure and content of visual representations comprise the primary foci of Gerhardstein’s research. He subscribes to the view that these areas’ processes are interrelated.
Current research in the lab includes investigations of both low-level perceptual development (investigating the development of contour integration, orientation sensitivity and other low-level vision abilities in infants and children) and higher-level issues relating to the ability to transfer training from screen media (video, television, interactive touch screens) to a ‘live,’ or 3-D person-to-person interaction, a situation in which young children have been found to underperform to a surprising degree.
Wednesday
Vipal Lugade – Binghamton UniversityUsing Smartphones to Assess Older Adults Fall Risk
Vipul Lugade joined the Decker College of Nursing and Health Sciences in September 2021. He is the director of the Motion Analysis Research Laboratory and an associate professor in the Division of Physical Therapy.
Vipul’s research includes the development of tools to remotely monitor activity, the investigation of body-worn sensors, evaluating concussions in adolescents and the risk of falls in older adults, and the use of large-scale datasets to optimize disease prognosis and recommend individualized intervention in a range of populations.
ThursdayAdam Session – Binghamton UniversityDeciphering Polypoid Genome Ancestry
Dr. Session is currently an assistant professor at the Binghamton University Harpur School of Arts and Sciences
His research focuses on genome evolution with a focus on polyploidy and transposable elements.
FridayLindsey Swierk – Binghamton UniversityLizard Adaptations Through the Lens of Organismal Ecology
Swierk studies the behavior and ecology of species in a changing world. Her work primarily focuses on reproductive ecology, sexual selection, and animal communication using reptiles and amphibians as study organisms, exploring both fundamental questions and their conservation implications. Swierk’s research integrates an emphasis on the human impacts on species’ ecology. She conducts research in the northeastern United States and in the Neotropics.
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On Binghamton University Week: How do reptiles of different sexes solve the same problem in different ways? Lindsey Swierk, assistant research professor of biological sciences at the Harpur College of Arts and Sciences, takes a closer look at anoles. Swierk studies the behavior and ecology of species in a changing world. Her work primarily focuses […]
On Binghamton University Week: Untangling the evolution of hybrid plants can be tricky. Adam Session, assistant professor of biological sciences, looks into some. Dr. Session is currently an assistant professor at the Binghamton University Harpur School of Arts and Sciences His research focuses on genome evolution with a focus on polyploidy and transposable elements. Deciphering […]
On Binghamton University Week: Preventing falls is crucial for older adults. Vipul Lugade, associate professor of physical therapy, looks at improving balance for seniors. Vipul Lugade joined the Decker College of Nursing and Health Sciences in September 2021. He is the director of the Motion Analysis Research Laboratory and an associate professor in the Division […]
On Binghamton University Week: How much digital media is too much? Peter Gerhardstein, professor of psychology, examines a new way to measure overuse. Investigation of the perceptual and attention processes that influence the formation of our perceptions of the visual world and of visual memories, and exploration of the structure and content of visual representations […]
On Binghamton University Week: Do you give to charitable causes at the register? Lauren Dula, assistant professor of public administration, explores this phenomenon. Dr. Dula is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Public Administration and Policy at the College of Community and Public Affairs. Her research focuses on gender, equity, and diversity in […]
Binghamton University Week on The Academic Minute 2024.05.06
MondayLauren Dula, assistant professor of public administration, explores the checkout charity boom.
TuesdayPeter Gerhardstein, professor of psychology, examines a new way to measure overuse of digital media.
WednesdayVipul Lugade, associate professor of physical therapy, looks at using smartphones to improve balance for seniors.
ThursdayAdam Session, assistant professor of biological sciences, looks into untangling the evolution of hybrid plants.
FridayLindsey Swierk, assistant research professor of biological sciences at the Harpur College of Arts and Sciences, takes a closer look at anoles.
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The Academic Minute from 4.29 – 5.03MondayShaomin Li – Old Dominion UniversityWhy TikTok Fails to Assure Us Its Safe
Shaomin Li is an Eminent Scholar and Professor of International Business at Old Dominion University, where he serves as the Chair of the Management Department. He studies China, international political economy, and business. His works have appeared in Harvard Business Review, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, the Economist, and the New York Times. His most recent books are “Bribery and Corruption in Weak Institutional Environments” and “The Rise of China, Inc.: How the Chinese Communist Party Transformed China into a Giant Corporation,” both published by Cambridge University Press.
TuesdayDaniel Douglas – Trinity CollegeWhat Do We Know About Micro-Credentials?
Daniel Douglas is a Lecturer in Sociology & Director of Social Science Research at Trinity College in Hartford, CT. He is also a Senior Researcher at the Education and Employment Research Center at Rutgers University. Douglas’ research focuses on student access and success in higher education, and the relationship between college education, workforce training, and employment. His recent published work examines mathematics in post-secondary education, and college and career pathways in STEM. His work has been featured in Inside Higher Education, The Washington Post, USA Today, and The Hechinger Report.
Wednesday
Gay Ivey – University of North Carolina-GreensboroTeens and Disturbing Books
Gay Ivey is the William E. Moran Distinguished Professor in Literacy at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro. She studies reading engagement among children and young adults and the consequences of meaningful literacy experiences on their academic lives and wellbeing. She is a recipient of the P. David Pearson Scholarly Influence Award, a past president of the Literacy Research Association, and an elected member of the Reading Hall of Fame.
ThursdayNeeraj Sood – University of Southern CaliforniaWhy A Simple Treatment Isn’t Reaching Children Who Need It
Neeraj is a professor at the USC Price School of Public Policy with joint appointments at the USC Keck School of Medicine and USC Marshall School of Business. He is a senior fellow at the USC Schaeffer Center whose research focuses on economic epidemiology, infectious diseases, pharmaceutical markets, health insurance, economics of innovation, and global health.
FridayShamma Alam – Dickinson CollegeThe Hidden Costs of Lockdowns: Implications for Healthcare Access
Shamma A. Alam is Associate Professor of Economics and Chairperson of the Department of International Studies at Dickinson College. He is an expert on economic shocks and understanding their impacts on individual and household decision-making. Alam is an economist by training, and his research focuses on different aspects of health economics, international development, and population issues. His articles have been published in highly respected academic journals like the Journal of Health Economics, the Journal of Development Economics, and the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.
In addition to his role at Dickinson, he also served as a Consultant at the World Bank several times, including in their Economic Policy, Poverty and Gender Group, Development Data Group, and East Asia and Pacific Region group. He also previously served as a consultant in the Agriculture Policy Team at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He also currently serves as a Research Fellow at the Global Labor Organization and a Research Associate at the CEQ Institute at Tulane University.
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Lockdowns had hidden costs for those needing healthcare access. Shamma Alam, associate professor of economics and chairperson of the department of international studies at Dickinson College, explores this. Shamma A. Alam is Associate Professor of Economics and Chairperson of the Department of International Studies at Dickinson College. He is an expert on economic shocks and […]
Why is a simple treatment not reaching children who need it? Neeraj Sood, professor in the Price School of Public Policy at the University of Southern California, explores this preventable problem. Neeraj is a professor at the USC Price School of Public Policy with joint appointments at the USC Keck School of Medicine and USC […]
Should we restrict what books children can read? Gay Ivey, William E. Moran distinguished professor in literacy at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, tells us why not. Gay Ivey is the William E. Moran Distinguished Professor in Literacy at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro. She studies reading engagement among children and young adults and the […]
What are micro credentials?
Daniel Douglas, lecturer in sociology at Trinity College, explores these.
Daniel Douglas is a Lecturer in Sociology & Director of Social Science Research at Trinity College in Hartford, CT. He is also a Senior Researcher at the Education and Employment Research Center at Rutgers University. Douglas’ research focuses on student access and success in higher education, and the relationship between college education, workforce training, and employment. His recent published work examines mathematics in post-secondary education, and college and career pathways in STEM. His work has been featured in Inside Higher Education, The Washington Post, USA Today, and The Hechinger Report.
What Do We Know About Micro-Credentials?https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/04-30-24-Trinity-What-do-we-know-about-Micro-credentials.mp3As private firms and governments struggle to fill jobs, and with the cost of college too high for many students, employers and policymakers have searched for alternative routes to good jobs without college degrees. Micro-credentials are one such alternative, but can they solve the problem?
Like degrees, micro-credentials certify peoples’ skills and knowledge. You can earn a micro-credential for a skill you already have by taking an assessment, or you can earn one after completing a short learning experience. They can certify broad skills like critical thinking, or specific skills like Microsoft Excel. They’re usually completed online, and result in digital badges that can be shared on online profiles and viewed by employers.
Micro-credentials are offered by colleges and universities, professional organizations, and private companies. But they are not regulated by federal or state law, nor by accreditation agencies. Federal regulation could affect some micro-credential programs if H.R.6585 – “Short-Term Pell” – becomes law. But a lack of regulation means a lack of data, so researchers know very little about people pursuing micro-credentials.
My colleagues and I surveyed students in non-credit programs at two community colleges. Like micro-credentials, these programs were workforce-oriented, short-duration, and often at least partially online. The students were older than traditional college students, and many already had college degrees. Most were seeking advancement in their current jobs, exploring new careers, and/or looking to escape low-wage work.
Back to the regulation problem, we don’t know whether micro-credentials lead to better jobs. A review of existing studies on non-degree credentials, including micro-credentials, found that outcomes like hiring and wages varied widely. Micro-credentials in high-demand fields like IT and construction appeared more valuable than those in office administration or education.
But lacking systematic evidence, micro-credentials should be viewed at this point as a supplement to degrees, not a replacement for them.
Read More:
What are Microcredentials? And are they worth having?
https://theconversation.com/what-are-microcredentials-and-are-they-worth-having-224601
Noncredit Students at Two Community Colleges: Who are they and what are their experiences?
https://smlr.rutgers.edu/sites/default/files/Documents/Centers/EERC/Noncredit%20Students%20at%20Two%20Community%20Colleges%20Final%20-%20EERC%20-%20August%202023.pdf
Review of Recent Research on Noncredit Outcomes. https://smlr.rutgers.edu/sites/default/files/Documents/Centers/EERC/Review%20of%20Noncredit%20Outcomes_EERC_1.4.24.pdf
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Why are users concerned about China and TikTok?
Shaomin Li, eminent scholar and professor of international business and chair of the department of management at Old Dominion University, takes a look.
Shaomin Li is an Eminent Scholar and Professor of International Business at Old Dominion University, where he serves as the Chair of the Management Department. He studies China, international political economy, and business. His works have appeared in Harvard Business Review, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, the Economist, and the New York Times. His most recent books are “Bribery and Corruption in Weak Institutional Environments” and “The Rise of China, Inc.: How the Chinese Communist Party Transformed China into a Giant Corporation,” both published by Cambridge University Press.
Why TikTok Fails to Assure Us It’s Safehttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/04-29-24-Old-Dominion-Why-TikTok-fails-to-assure-us-it-is-safe.mp3In the debate over TikTok’s future in the U.S., much attention has been given to whether ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, is under the influence of the Chinese government and whether data stored outside of China can protect American users.
However, this discussion overlooks the unique relationship between the Chinese state and private enterprises.
The goal of the Chinese Communist Party is to achieve communism globally. This necessitates dictatorial control within China before extending its influence. As a result, the party owns the state, the people, and the firms. The boundary between state and society does not exist.
People and businesses must support the party’s goals, such as assisting the party in intelligence collection. Disobeying the party has severe consequences. Recently, an official warned a resident who disobeyed the party’s order that not only he but also three generations of his descendants would be adversely affected.
The essence of the issue with TikTok lies not in the location of its data storage or the presence of party members on ByteDance’s board but in the reality that the party owns China.
As long as ByteDance owns TikTok, it will support the party’s goals, not just for business survival but also for the safety of its staff and their families.
Read More:Amazon.com: Shaomin Li: books, biography, latest update
Shaomin Li 李少民 (@ShaominLi1) / X (twitter.com)
Shaomin Li 李少民 – YouTube
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This Week on The Academic Minute 2024.04.29
MondayShaomin Li, eminent scholar and professor of international business and chair of the department of management at Old Dominion University, takes a look at why TikTok fails to assure us it’s safe.
TuesdayDaniel Douglas, lecturer in sociology at Trinity College, explores micro-credentials.
WednesdayGay Ivey, William E. Moran distinguished professor in literacy at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, talks about whether or not we should restrict certain books for teens.
ThursdayNeeraj Sood, professor in the Price School of Public Policy at the University of Southern California, explores why a simple medical treatment is not reaching children who need it.
FridayShamma Alam, associate professor of economics and chairperson of the department of international studies at Dickinson College, explores the hidden costs of COVID-19 lockdowns for some.
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The Academic Minute from 4.22 – 4.26MondayCailyn Green – SUNY EmpireBest Practices in Treating Substance Use and Eating Disorders
Cailyn Green, MS, Ph.D., Masters-CASAC is the Assistant Professor of Addiction Studies at SUNY Empire State University. Her research in the substance use field a supported by her past clinical experience.
She earned her BA degree in psychology from Wester New England University, her MS degree in forensic mental health from Sage Graduate School and her Ph.D. in criminal justice with a specialization in addiction science from Walden University. Dr. Green is also a Credentialed Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Counselor in New York State. Dr. Greens area of expertise is supporting clinicians who work in the addiction field to best serve their clients. She spent her hands on clinical time working directly with the recently incarcerated population.
TuesdayMandy O’Neill – George Mason UniversityDoes Your Workplace Have a Culture of Anxiety?
Olivia (Mandy) O’Neill is an associate professor of management at the George Mason University Costello College of Business. She received her PhD in organizational behavior from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Prior to teaching at Mason, she was on the faculty at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and the Terry College of Business, University of Georgia. O’Neill’s research focuses on the interrelationships among emotions, organizational culture, and gender.
Special thanks to Jeanette Patrick and James Patrick Ambuske of R2 Studios, housed within the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University.
Wednesday
Kishore Gawande – University of Texas at AustinProperty Rights Retreat is Dragging Down China’s Economy
Kishore Gawande is a professor and chair of the Department of Business, Government & Society in The University of Texas at Austin’s McCombs School of Business. An award-winning professor, he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on business, global political economy, and international business. Gawande’s research examines the effects of socioeconomic and political events on economies. He has examined economic relationships in emerging and developed economies on issues such as state capacity, institutions, protests, the effects of lobbying, and relationships between anti-poverty programs and violence reduction. Gawande has also studied global supply chains, trade policy, and economic crises, and some of his research has been funded by the World Bank and the National Science Foundation.
ThursdayPaula Rochon – University of TorontoNavigating Medication Awareness for a Healthier Tomorrow
Dr. Rochon is Founding Director of Women’s Age Lab, a geriatrician and senior scientist at Women’s College Hospital and ICES. She received her medical degree from McMaster University and Master of Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Rochon is a professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto (UofT) and is the inaugural RTOERO Chair in Geriatric Medicine at UofT. She is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and a Fellow of the Canadian Geriatrics Society.
FridayAbby Chandler – University of Massachusetts LowellA Tale of Two Colonists
Abby Chandler is Associate Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Her second book, “Seized with the Temper of the Times”: Identity and Rebellion in Pre-Revolutionary America, was published by Westholme in 2023. She has also published articles on eighteenth-century political movements in Early American Studies, Protest in the Long Eighteenth Century, and the North Carolina Historical Review.
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How two people react to a situation can bring about startling changes in their lives. Abby Chandler, associate professor of history at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, considers British colonists in the 1700s. Abby Chandler is Associate Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Her second book, “Seized with the Temper of the […]
How many medications did you take today? Paula Rochon, professor in the department of medicine and Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto, explains why it may be a few too many. Dr. Rochon is Founding Director of Women’s Age Lab, a geriatrician and senior scientist at Women’s College Hospital and […]
China is an economic powerhouse, but could that change. Kishore Gawande, Fred H. Moore Centennial professor of international management at the University of Texas at Austin, digs in to find out. Kishore Gawande is a professor and chair of the Department of Business, Government & Society in The University of Texas at Austin’s McCombs School […]
Is there a culture of anxiety at your workplace? Mandy O’Neill, associate professor of management at George Mason University, looks into how to change it. Olivia (Mandy) O’Neill is an associate professor of management at the George Mason University Costello College of Business. She received her PhD in organizational behavior from the Stanford Graduate School […]
How to treat multiple disorders in one individual can be a tricky equation for mental health professionals. Cailyn Green, assistant professor of addiction studies in the school of human services at SUNY Empire, discusses best practices. Cailyn Green, MS, Ph.D., Masters-CASAC is the Assistant Professor of Addiction Studies at SUNY Empire State University. Her research […]
On Scripps College Week: How do you combat confirmation bias and polarization? Sarah Marzen, assistant professor of physics, has a suggestion. Sarah Marzen started in nonequilibrium statistical mechanics but quickly went over to theoretical biophysics and has been researching that ever since. She started as an undergraduate in physics at Caltech, winning the Haren Lee […]
On Scripps College Week: Our approach to dealing with fraud needs an overhaul. Stacey Wood, Molly Mason Jones professor of psychology, puts together the evidence to show us why. Stacey Wood, Ph.D. is a clinical neuropsychologist and the Molly Mason Jones Professor of Psychology at Scripps College in Claremont, CA. She received a B.A. in […]
On Scripps College Week: Why do some chromosomes act selfishly? Patrick Ferree, professor in the W. M. Keck Science Department, finds out. Patrick Ferree, a developmental geneticist at the Claremont Colleges, is studying how certain chromosomes selfishly hijack reproductive development to gain a transmission advantage. Dr. Patrick Ferree is a professor in the W. M. […]
On Scripps College Week: Fiction can bring truth to the fore. Myriam Chancy, Guggenheim Fellow and Hartley Burr Chair in the Humanities, looks into the history of Caribbean women. Myriam J.A. Chancy, Ph.D. (Iowa) is a Guggenheim Fellow, and Hartley Burr Alexander Chair of the Humanities Chair at Scripps College. Chancy is the author of […]
On Scripps College Week: Photography can reveal many hidden things about the people who lived centuries ago. Ken Gonzales-Day, professor and Fletcher Jones Endowed Chair in Art, looks back at some. Ken Gonzales-Day is a Los Angeles based artist whose interdisciplinary practice considers the historical construction of race and the limits of representational systems ranging […]
We’re all tired of waiting. Annabelle Roberts, assistant professor of marketing at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin, says we’re most impatient right before we get what we want. Annabelle Roberts is an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Texas at Austin, McCombs School of Business. Prior […]
How can you become a good thinker? Eranda Jayawickreme, Harold W. Tribble professor of psychology at Wake Forest University, uses some brainpower to find out. Eranda Jayawickreme is the Harold W. Tribble Professor of Psychology and Senior Research Fellow at the Program for Leadership and Character at Wake Forest University. He is a personality psychologist […]
Which misinformation will cause the most harm is important to figure out. But how? Thi Tran, assistant professor of management information systems at Binghamton University, looks for a little help. Thi Tran is currently an assistant professor of management information systems at the Binghamton University School of Management. He holds a PhD in Information Technology, […]
Gender fluidity may be part of the current zeitgeist, but it’s not a wholly new topic. Megan Bryson, Lindsay Young associate professor of religious studies and chair of Asian studies at the University of Tennessee, examines one historical example. Dr. Megan Bryson’s research focuses on gender and ethnicity in East Asian Buddhism. She has published […]
On today’s Indiana University’s Total Solar Eclipse segment: Humans have long used stories to explain things we can’t understand, and an eclipse is no different. Moira Marsh, researcher and folklore librarian, uses mythology to tell the story of the darkened daytime sky. Moira Marsh is a folklorist and librarian at Indiana University Bloomington. She earned […]
On Indiana University’s Total Solar Eclipse Week: Astronomers are about to get a rare chance for some breakthrough discoveries. Catherine Pilachowski, Daniel Kirkwood Chair and distinguished professor of astronomy, explores how. Professor Pilachowski holds the Kirkwood Chair in Astronomy at Indiana University Bloomington, where she teaches and conducts research on the evolution of stars and […]
On Indiana University’s Total Solar Eclipse Week: How will the natural world react to the total solar eclipse? Daniel Beverly, postdoctoral researcher at the O’Neill School of Public Environmental Affairs, examines this. Daniel Beverly is a Postdoctoral Research fellow at the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University Bloomington. He received his […]
On Indiana University’s Total Solar Eclipse Week: Safety is always key when it comes to the sun. Hin Cheung, clinical assistant professor at the School of Optometry, explains how to view the eclipse without causing damage to your eyes. Dr. Hin Cheung joined the Indiana University School of Optometry in July 2021 as a clinical […]
On Indiana University’s Total Solar Eclipse Week: How will migrating birds treat the solar eclipse? Kimberly Rosvall, associate professor of biology, asks for help in finding out. Kimberly Rosvall is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biology at Indiana University Bloomington. She is also affiliated with IU’s internationally-recognized Program in Animal Behavior. Rosvall’s overarching […]
On Indiana University’s Total Solar Eclipse Week: Special events can bring an abundance of tourism dollars to an area. Philip Powell, clinical assistant professor of business economics and public policy at the Kelley School of Business, looks into the effects of eclipse tourism. Executive Director of the Indiana Business Research Center and Associate Clinical Professor […]
Nutrition labels could be coming to a wine store near you. Deidre Popovich, associate professor of marketing at Texas Tech University, says customers might not like what they see. Deidre Popovich is an associate professor of marketing in the Rawls College of Business at Texas Tech University. She earned a PhD in marketing from Emory […]
Why do we need to sleep? Keith Hengen, assistant professor in the department of biology at Washington University in St. Louis, delves into our brain to find the answer. Keith Hengen was born and raised in Concord, NH, and was first introduced to neuroscience at Bates College. From there, Keith went directly to grad school […]
Looking back in history can help us solve the problems of today. Ayse Zarakol, professor of international relations at the University of Cambridge, takes a look back. Dr. Ayşe Zarakol is a Professor of International Relations at the University Cambridge and a Fellow at Emmanuel College. She is the author of After Defeat: How the […]
Why is there such a large variety of attitudes to even well-evidenced science? Laurence Hurst, professor of evolutionary genetics at the University of Bath, explores the differences between those who trust in science and those who do not. Since 1997 Laurence Hurst has been the Professor of Evolutionary Genetics at The University of Bath. Prior […]
Shared attention can be key to bridging the gaps between us in society. Garriy Shteynberg, associate professor of psychology at the University of Tennessee Knoxville, explores. Garriy Shteynberg is an associate professor of psychology at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Garriy received his PhD in psychology from the University of Maryland, and a Master’s in […]
How do we stop our unhealthy behaviors? Kaitlin Woolley, associate professor of marketing at the SC Johnson College of business at Cornell University, looks short-term to help us out. Kaitlin Woolley is an Associate Professor of Marketing at the SC Johnson College of Business at Cornell University. She studies the psychological processes underlying consumer motivation […]
Video games can get a bad rap at times, but they can bring benefits to those who play them. James Dawes, DeWitt Wallace professor of English at Macalester College, examines how James Dawes teaches narrative across the disciplines. His areas of research expertise include human rights, artificial intelligence, and the ethics of storytelling in fields […]
LGBTQ+ workers want more than companies appearing to support causes at work. Dorian Rhea Debussy, lecturer of women’s, gender, and sexuality studies at The Ohio State University, discusses what else should be done. Dorian Rhea Debussy, Ph.D. (she/her) is the inaugural Director of External Affairs at Equitas Health, which is one of the largest LGBTQ+ […]
Global warming has contributed to a record number of weather and climate disasters. Shuang-Ye Wu, professor and chair of the Department of Geology and Environmental Geosciences at the University of Dayton, breaks down why. Wu is a climate scientist who uses climate models to project future climate change and its potential impacts on the hydrological […]
Sound baths have become all the rage to increase your health; but what does science say? Elisa Sobo, professor of anthropology at San Diego State University, listens in. Elisa (EJ) Sobo, PhD, is a professor of anthropology at San Diego State University. Past President of the Society for Medical Anthropology, Sobo has published thirteen books […]
Switching off after work has a lot of benefits, but it’s easier said than done. Jane Gifkins, Research fellow at Griffith University, examines the benefits. Jane Gifkins is a research fellow with the Centre for Work, Organisation and Wellbeing with the Griffith Business School at Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia. Jane completed her Ph.D investigating fatigue […]
Ancient philosophies can still ring true today. Sandra Woien, associate teaching professor in the school of historical, philosophical, and religious studies at Arizona State University, determines why. Sandra Woien is an Associate Teaching Professor in the School of Historical, Philosophical, and Religious Studies at Arizona State University. She currently teaches a variety of courses dealing […]
Artists and researchers could have a lot to collaborate on. Cynthia Standley, professor in the department of bioethics and medical humanism at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix, explores why these two groups coming together could have real benefits for society. Cynthia A. Standley, Ph.D. is a professor in the Department of […]
We’re still learning how to understand certain aspects of science and mechanics. Larry M. Silverberg, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at North Carolina State University, discusses one such area of study. Larry M. Silverberg, born November 5, 1957, is a dynamicist. He writes for The Conversation about basic concepts relating to physical reality that […]
This quiz show could help you in your career. Daniel Newton, assistant professor of management and entrepreneurship at the University of Iowa, says “What is Jeopardy?” Daniel Newton is an assistant professor of management and entrepreneurship in the Tippie College of Business at the University of Iowa. His research focuses on the causes and consequences […]
On Assumption University Week: Every day we face many choices; how do we make the best ones for long-term benefits? Karen Lionello-DeNolf, associate professor of psychology and director of the applied behavior analysis programs, delves into this type of decision making. Dr. Lionello-DeNolf is an Associate Professor of Psychology and Director of the Applied Behavior […]
On Assumption University Week: How do we give our children the best chance to be successful? Maria Kalpidou, associate professor of psychology, answers this question. Maria Kalpidou is a psychology professor at Assumption University in Massachusetts with 25 years of teaching experience in child development, a parent of three, and an advocate of equal opportunities […]
On Assumption University Week: COVID-19 hit educators hard, especially those who teach special education students. Samantha Goldman, associate professor of special education and chair of the education department, explains why. Samantha Goldman, PhD, BCBA, is an associate professor of special education and chair of the education department at Assumption University. Her scholarly work focuses on […]
On Assumption University Week: Deserts aren’t dead and there are still discoveries to be made in them. Karolina Fucikova, associate professor of biology, tells us of one. Karolina Fučíková is a biologist interested in the biodiversity, ecology and evolution of microscopic algae. She obtained her PhD at the University of Connecticut in 2011 and has […]
On Assumption University Week: Removing plastic pollution could be critical to our future. Erin Tuttle, assistant professor in the department of biological and physical sciences, explores how. Erin Tuttle is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological and Physical Sciences at Assumption University. Her primary area of research focuses on environmental processes involving anthropogenic […]
Living without a bank account is becoming harder and harder in today’s society. Jay Zagorsky, clinical associate professor of markets, public policy, and law at the Questrom School of Business at Boston University, tells us why. Jay Zagorsky is an economist who teaches at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business. This summer he taught his […]
The pandemic has had long-term negative effects on pre-school students. Steven Barnett, Board of Governors professor of education at Rutgers University, discusses. Board of Governors Professor of Education at Rutgers, Dr Steven Barnett is co-Director of the US National Institute for Early Education. His work focuses on public policies to support early learning and child […]
Students aren’t the only ones struggling with their mental health. Lee Ann Rawlins Williams, clinical assistant professor in the education, health, and behavior studies department at the University of North Dakota, takes a look at the people standing in front of them. Lee Ann Rawlins Williams, PhD, CRC, CFLE is a Clinical Assistant Professor in […]
Social media platforms face the Supreme Court in a big decision for public officials. Charles Russo, research professor of law at the University of Dayton, explains the importance of this case. Charles Russo is the Joseph Panzer Chair in Education in the UD School of Education and Health Sciences, Director of its Ph.D. Program, and […]
Any way we can lower carbon footprints is worth pursuing. Greeshma Gadikota, associate professor and Croll Sesquicentennial Fellow at Cornell University, looks into one. Dr. Greeshma Gadikota is an Associate Professor and Croll Sesquicentennial Fellow in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering with a field appointment in the Smith School of Chemical and Biomolecular […]
Humility could be key to the future of health care. Barret Michalec, associate professor in the Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation at Arizona State University, examines why. Barret Michalec is the director of the Center for Advancing Interprofessional Practice, Education and Research (CAIPER), and an associate professor in the Edson College of Nursing […]
How do we cut through the noise of social media posts during a disaster to find those who are desperate for help? Yingjie Hu, associate professor of geography at the University at Buffalo, says the answer might be artificial. Yingjie Hu is an associate professor of geography at the University at Buffalo. His research interests […]
Disasters seem to be becoming more and more common, so what can be done? Ilan Kelman, professor of disasters and health at University College London, examines some options. Ilan Kelman is Professor of Disasters and Health at University College London, England and a Professor II at the University of Agder, Kristiansand, Norway. His overall research […]
Stone walls are an important landmark in the Northeastern U.S. But what can they tell us? Robert Thorson, professor of earth sciences at the University of Connecticut, explores the history. Robert M. Thorson is Professor of Earth Sciences at the University of Connecticut, where he juggles teaching, writing, mentoring, committee work, and community engagement. He’s […]
The arts can bring forgotten voices to the forefront. Ken Jones, professor of theatre at Northern Kentucky University, shows how. Ken Jones has had original plays and musicals produced throughout the US, Canada, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. His play, DARKSIDE, was chosen as TIME Magazine’s Critic Choice and was also recognized as one of […]
Women still face discrimination in certain competitive games today. Andrei Cimpian, professor of psychology at New York University, looks into one. Dr. Andrei Cimpian is Professor of Psychology at New York University. His research investigates motivation and academic achievement, with a particular focus on how educational outcomes are shaped by gender and racial/ethnic stereotypes. Dr. […]
What does a platypus have to do with artificial intelligence? Daniel Ernst, assistant professor of English at Texas Woman’s University, explains. Daniel Ernst is an Assistant Professor of English at Texas Woman’s University in Denton, TX. He researches and teaches courses in rhetoric, writing, grammar, and generative AI, and holds a PhD in English from […]
How do we view our shadow self without worrying about what it shows us? Rebecca Krause-Galoni, assistant professor of marketing at the University of Iowa, says fiction can play a helpful role. Rebecca Krause-Galoni is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Tippie College of Business at the University of Iowa. Her research focuses mainly […]
Gender discrimination isn’t always black and white. Laura Doering, associate professor of strategic management and sociology at the University of Toronto, examines why some experiences may lead to ambiguity – and what to do about it. Laura Doering is an Associate Professor of Strategic Management and is cross-appointed in the Department of Sociology. As an […]
Some parenting styles aren’t for everyone. Annie Pezalla, visiting assistant professor at Macalester College, looks into one. Dr. Pezalla’s expertise is in adolescent risk and resilience, social identities, family relationships, and narratives in health. Gentle Parenting is Not-So-Gentle on Parents There’s a parenting approach right now receiving widescale popularity, and it’s called “gentle parenting.” Yet […]
The Super Bowl is the one time everyone watches the commercials. Niusha Jones, assistant professor of marketing at Boise State University, discusses the qualities behind the ones that become our favorites. Dr. Niusha Jones is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the College of Business and Economics at Boise State University. Niusha’s academic research focuses […]
Whether there’s an afterlife is one of the “big questions” for humanity. Alexander Englert, research associate at the Institute for Advanced Study, explores what one great logician thought. Alexander Englert is a philosopher and research associate at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton, New Jersey. He is interested in ethics, epistemology, and philosophy […]
Flawed research can be easily accessible nowadays and can cause a lot of damage. Jeremy Blackburn, associate professor of computer science at Binghamton University, explores the perils of today’s dissemination of knowledge. Dr. Blackburn is currently an associate professor at the Binghamton University Thomas J. Watson College of Engineering and Applied Science. His research is […]
Men face gender stereotypes while posting on social media. Andrew Edelblum, assistant professor of marketing at the University of Dayton, explains why. Dr. Andrew Edelblum is an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Dayton. His research examines how consumers and brands adapt to cultural, technological, and political change. Gender Stereotypes and Social Media […]
What is cultural othering? Julia Khrebtan Hörhager, associate professor of communication studies at Colorado State University, discusses the paradox of this way of thinking. Julia Khrebtan-Hörhager is an Associate Professor of Communication at Colorado State University and a Director of Education Abroad programs in Europe. She is a holder of three International Communication Association Top […]
No one likes waiting at a red light; enter the roundabout. Deogratias Eustace, professor and director of graduate studies at the University of Dayton, looks around to find out how traffic circles can make a big difference for drivers. Professor of transportation engineering in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Engineering Mechanics at […]
There are still groups of individuals who feel left out and under researched. Alexandra Brozowski, research associate at Michigan State University, delves into one such group. Alexandra is a 2019 graduate of Michigan State University’s Honors College with a Bachelor of Science focused on Psychology. She has had several diverse academic and clinical experiences in […]
College athletes face lots of pressures to compete. Robert Romano, assistant professor in the division of sports management at St. John’s University, details the importance of looking after their mental health. Professor Robert J. Romano is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Sport Management at St. John’s University. After attending Springfield College, Professor Romano […]
Do you stop and think about what you’re sharing on social media? Ian Anderson, Ph. D. candidate at the University of Southern California, looks into why people share mindlessly online. Ian Axel Anderson (Ian A. Anderson) is from Ann Arbor, Michigan. He currently holds a BA in Economics and Political Science from Swarthmore College (2013), an […]
Some locales known for their pristine weather may be in for rude awakenings in the future. Henry Knight Lozano, senior lecturer in American History at the University of Exeter, examines a couple such places. Dr Henry Knight Lozano is senior lecturer in American History and Director of Liberal Arts at the University of Exeter. His […]
On Northern Kentucky University Week: The opioid crisis is hitting mothers and infants too. Brittany Smith, assistant professor in psychological sciences, examines ways to help. Brittany Smith joined the Department of Psychological Science in 2022. She was previously at the University of Cincinnati for 11 years, where she completed her Ph.D. in neuroscience in 2016 […]
On Northern Kentucky University Week: Black holes continue to fascinate us. Dirk Grupe, associate professor and chair of the department of physics, geology and engineering technology, explains why. Dr. Dirk Grupe (“Group-ah”), Northern Kentucky University associate professor and chair of the Department of Physics, Geology and Engineering Technology. Prior to this position he has also […]
On Northern Kentucky University Week: There’s a glass ceiling in college athletics. Tan Boston, assistant professor at the Salmon P. Chase College of Law, discusses. Tan Boston is an assistant professor at Northern Kentucky University Salmon P. Chase College of Law, where she teaches Sports Law, Property and Sales & Secured Transactions. In addition to […]
On Northern Kentucky University Week: How do we build a better book? Tamara O’Callaghan, professor in the department of English, uses many different creative tools to find out. My current research focuses on medieval manuscript design and reading practices as well as on AR (augmented reality) and VR (virtual reality) texts and narratives. I am […]
On Northern Kentucky University Week: Kids with ADHD could be at risk as they grow older. Justin Yates, professor of psychological sciences, discusses medication and addiction issues. Dr. Yates first taught at Northern Kentucky University in 2012 and during the 2013-2014 academic year as an instructor before being hired as an Assistant Professor in 2014. […]
Despite our vast knowledge as a species, there are questions about our planet that are still puzzling researchers. Megan Holycross, assistant professor in the department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Cornell University, delves into one. Dr. Megan Holycross is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Cornell University. She […]
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder causes many issues for those afflicted. C. Michael White, distinguished professor and chair of pharmacy practice at the University of Connecticut, details one avenue of treatment. Dr. White’s ~500 peer reviewed publications about drug therapy and safety have resulted in 17,353 citations, H-index of 67, and i10 index of 258; placing him […]
What do you call the people you work with? Christian Kiewitz, professor of management at the University of Dayton, says there’s more to a name than you might think. Christian Kiewitz is a Professor of Management at the University of Dayton, Ohio. His research interests center around problematic behaviors in the workplace, such as micromanagement, […]
How long does it take to restore state spending on higher education? Jennifer Delaney, professor of higher education in the department of education policy, organization and leadership at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, examines the history. Jennifer A. Delaney is a Professor of Higher Education in the Department of Education Policy, Organization and Leadership at […]
The field of Black Studies has a lot more to teach us. Eric Jackson, professor of history and associate dean of the college of arts and sciences at Northern Kentucky University, considers the history. Dr. Eric Jackson, professor of history and associate dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, Northern Kentucky University. He earned […]
How do we help domestic violence survivors? Durant Frantzen, department chair and professor of criminology and criminal justice at Texas A&M San Antonio, has some suggestions. Durant Frantzen is a professor of criminology and criminal justice in the Department of Criminology and Political Science at Texas A&M-San Antonio. He studies issues related to domestic violence, […]
U.S. foreign policy and military actions are usually under the microscope, but not always. Jason C. Mueller, assistant professor of sociology at Kennesaw State University, looks into a more covert “war on terror.” Jason C. Mueller is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Kennesaw State University. Mueller received his Ph.D. in the Department of Sociology […]
Do you like the way you look when you’re on Zoom calls? Emily Hemendinger, assistant professor with the department of psychiatry at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, says if not, you’re not alone. Emily Hemendinger is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Assistant Professor with the Department of Psychiatry, and Clinical Director and Deep […]
Rising costs are everywhere. Melissa Wasserman, Charles Tilford McCormick professor of law and Associate Dean for Research at the University of Texas School of Law, looks into a novel way to reduce them for one sector. Melissa Wasserman’s research focuses on the institutional design of innovation policy, with a particular emphasis on patent law and […]
Can artificial intelligence run an LLC by itself? Daniel Gervais, Milton R. Underwood Chair and professor of law at Vanderbilt University, examines the laws of the land to find out. Daniel J. Gervais, PhD, is Milton R. Underwood Chair in Law at Vanderbilt University Law School, where he serves as Director of the Vanderbilt Intellectual […]
New breast cancer treatments are needed. Kideok Jin, associate professor at the department of pharmaceutical sciences at the Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, discusses one that could yield big benefits. Dr. Kideok Jin is an associate professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences in Albany, […]
Data can help us make decisions to move society forward, but we have to make sure we’re coming to the right conclusions. Christina Yu, assistant professor of operations research and information engineering at Cornell University, examines this. Christina Lee Yu is an assistant professor at Cornell University in the School of Operations Research and Information […]
Are you sweating right now? Ahyeon Koh, associate professor in the Thomas J. Watson College of Engineering and Applied Science at Binghamton University, collects perspiration to track our health. Dr. Koh is currently an associate professor at the Binghamton University Thomas J. Watson College of Engineering and Applied Science. Her research focuses on overcoming obstacles […]
Preventing bone loss is key for older adults. John Polk, associate professor and director of the program of human biology at the University at Albany, details the best way to avoid it. Canadian, moved to US for graduate study at Stony Brook University (focus on human anatomy and comparative primate biomechanics). Post-doc at Harvard in […]
What’s the best way to help neurodivergent people struggling with addiction? Cailyn Green, assistant professor of addiction studies at SUNY Empire, looks into this question. Cailyn Green, MS, Ph.D., CASAC is the Assistant Professor of Addiction Studies at SUNY Empire State University. She has been a part of the SUNY academic team since 2014. She […]
What is the Swedish theory of love? Lars Tragardh, professor of history at Uppsala University, explains. Ph.D in History from UC Berkeley; professor of history at Uppsala university, Sweden; public commentator on Swedish politics and society. The Swedish Theory of Love Americans are fond of thinking of themselves as rugged individualists. But compared to Swedes […]
Resiliency is a great skill to master. Robin Morrison, senior researcher at the University of Zurich and affiliate scientist at the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, determines how gorillas foster this. Robin Morrison is a Senior Researcher in the Department of Evolutionary Anthropology at the University of Zurich and an Affiliate Scientist at the Dian Fossey […]
On Cornell University Week: The lack of a sense of humor could mean bad things. David Shoemaker, professor and interim chair of the Sage School of Philosophy, explores why. David Shoemaker is a Professor and Interim Chair of the Sage School of Philosophy, Cornell University. His research focuses on humor and morality, agency and responsibility, […]
It gets hot in the kitchen for many reasons. Ellen Meiser, assistant professor of sociology at the University of Hawai’i at Hilo, explores how abusive behavior has become the norm in restaurants. Ellen is an Alaska-grown sociologist interested in qualitative research, social psychology, emotions, and the culinary industry. She is an assistant professor of sociology […]
Everyone needs bathrooms, so why do they cause so many issues? Bryant Simon, professor of history at Temple University, looks to the past for a clue. A graduate of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Bryant Simon is the Laura H. Carnell Professor of History at Temple University. He is the author of four […]
Is there any good news on the climate? Bob Brecha, professor of sustainability at the Hanley Sustainability Institute and Director of the Sustainability program at the University of Dayton, turns the key on one bright spot. Dr. Robert Brecha (Bob) received his PhD in Physics at the University of Texas at Austin. He has been […]
Earnings calls can tell us a lot about a firm. Yi Cao, assistant professor of accounting at George Mason University, wonders whether AI can help us learn even more. Yi Cao is an assistant professor of accounting at the George Mason University School of Business. His research interests include corporate voluntary disclosure, product market competition, […]
Dental radiographs are used to determine the age of migrant children, but they may not be the best option. Claire Braaten, associate professor of criminology at Texas A&M University-San Antonio, details why. Claire Nolasco Braaten is an associate professor of criminology at Texas A&M University-San Antonio. She obtained her Ph.D. in Criminal Justice from Sam […]
Lying may not be as widespread as long thought. Christian Miller, A. C. Reid professor of philosophy at Wake Forest University, discusses why a small group may be doing most of the work. Christian B. Miller is the A. C. Reid Professor of Philosophy at Wake Forest University. He was most recently the Director of […]
Toxic leadership can’t be allowed to fester at an organization. But how can we root out toxic leaders? Bryan Acton, assistant professor at the school of management at Binghamton University, looks for a way to do so. Dr. Bryan Acton is an Assistant Professor at the Binghamton University School of Management and a Fellow of […]
The climate on college campuses for students can be challenging. Royel Johnson, tenured professor in the Rossier School of Education at University of Southern California, asks students how they’re doing dealing with racism at their institutions. Dr. Royel M. Johnson is Associate Professor and Chair in the Rossier School of Education at the University of Southern California (USC). […]
Do you like your food spicy? Paul Terry, professor in the division of epidemiology at the University of Tennessee, explores how this type of cuisine can affect us. Paul Terry is a chronic disease epidemiologist who enjoys spicy foods. Spicy Food and Long-Term Health In September 2023, a 14-year-old boy died after consuming a spicy […]
Large marine life doesn’t just live in the world’s oceans. Stefan Lovgren, research scientist in the college of science at the University of Nevada Reno, looks into protecting the river giants. Stefan Lovgren is a research scientist in the College of Science at the University of Nevada Reno, as well as the communications director of […]
Our farmers are getting older. David Buys, state health specialist and associate professor at Mississippi State University, examines how we can help the industry find new farmers. David R. Buys, PhD, MSPH, CPH, FGSA is the State Health Specialist for Mississippi State University Extension and an Associate Professor in the Department of Food Science, Nutrition, […]
What tools do we use to heal from harmful messages that pervade in society for some? Charmeka Newton, clinical assistant professor in the college of education and human development at the University of North Dakota, develops a toolkit to do so. College of Education & Human Development at the University of North Dakota. Dr. Newton […]
On New York University Week: Immigrant parents also need postpartum care in the United States, but it can be hard to come by. Laura Wherry, associate professor of economics and public service, discusses why. Laura Wherry’s primary area of research focuses on the changing role of the Medicaid program and its impact on access to […]
On New York University Week: Reducing bias in children is possible, if the causes are explained. Rachel Leshin, Ph. D. candidate in the psychology department, describes how. Rachel is a sixth-year PhD candidate at New York University in the psychology department. Her research falls at the intersection of three areas: social psychology, developmental psychology, and […]
On New York University Week: The COVID-19 pandemic affected everyone, even infants. Natalie Brito, associate professor in the department of applied psychology, looks into the gut microbiome of those born during the pandemic. Dr. Natalie Brito is an Associate Professor in the Department of Applied Psychology at NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, and […]
On New York University Week: Social stressors can lead to many bad outcomes. Adolfo Cuevas, assistant professor in the department of social and behavioral sciences, discusses one. Adolfo G. Cuevas, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at NYU’s School of Global Public Health and core faculty at the Center […]
On New York University Week: Data can be very important, but it needs to be correct. Joseph Cimpian, professor of economics and education policy, discusses how bad data can have big consequences. Joseph Cimpian, Ph.D., is Professor of Economics and Education Policy at NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. His research focuses […]
Words matter, especially in the political sphere. Stephen Collins, professor of government and international affairs at Kennesaw State University, examines this through the lens of social media. Dr. Stephen D. Collins is Professor of Government and International Affairs at Kennesaw State University (Ph.D., Political Science, Johns Hopkins University, 2004). His past publications have examined diplomacy, […]
There is still a lot to study from COVID-19 lockdowns. Judith DeSena, professor of sociology at St. John’s University, discusses the response of two neighborhoods in Brooklyn to the crisis. Judith N. DeSena, Ph.D., is a Professor of Sociology at St. John’s University in Queens, NY. and a resident of Brooklyn, NY. Her work focuses […]
COVID rates on campuses didn’t always follow the socioeconomic script. Lewis Davis, Thomas Armstrong professor of economics at Union College, explores why. Lewis Davis is the Thomas Armstrong Professor of Economics and Chair of the Economics Department at Union College. He has over 30 peer-reviewed journal articles, with recent work addressing the religious, climatic, and […]
This Week on The Academic Minute 2023.09.11
MondayLewis Davis, Thomas Armstrong professor of economics at Union College, explores why COVID rates on campuses didn’t always follow the socioeconomic script.
TuesdayJudith DeSena, professor of sociology at St. John’s University, discusses the response of two neighborhoods in Brooklyn to the COVID-19 lockdowns.
WednesdayStephen Collins, professor of government and international affairs at Kennesaw State University, examines how Obama and Trump used Twitter while president.
ThursdayMark Satta, assistant professor of philosophy at Wayne State University, examines the First Amendment in the context of anti-drag laws.
FridayJodie Childers, visiting assistant professor in the department of English at Tulane University, examines why Iceland and NATO have a frosty relationship.
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The Academic Minute from 9.04 – 9.08MondayEmily Rosado-Solomon – Babson CollegeMental Health and Work
Emily Rosado-Solomon is an Assistant Professor of Management at Babson College. She received her PhD at Rutgers University School of Management and Labor Relations, and previously served on the faculty at California State University, Long Beach. Her research is broadly in the areas of organizational behavior and human resource management, with an emphasis on mental illness, diversity, and interpersonal connections at work.
TuesdayDarrell Kaufman – Northern Arizona UniversityIs It Really the Hottest in 100,000 years?
Dr. Darrell Kaufman is a Professor in the School of Earth and Sustainability at Northern Arizona University. He was a lead author on the 2021 climate report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. As a paleoclimate scientist, he studies the geological evidence of past climate changes in Alaska and globally.
Wednesday
Lars Tragardh – Uppsala UniversityThe Swedish Theory of Love
Ph.D in History from UC Berkeley; professor of history at Uppsala university, Sweden; public commentator on Swedish politics and society.
ThursdaySusan Farrell – College of CharlestonKurt Vonnegut’s Continuing Appeal to the Young
Susan Farrell is a professor of English at the College of Charleston and the 2009 Bill Moore Distinguished Teacher-Scholar Award Recipient. She specializes in contemporary American fiction and teaches a variety of courses on American literature, contemporary fiction, women’s studies, and academic writing. She has published numerous articles on contemporary American authors such as Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Alice McDermott, Louise Erdrich, Shirley Jackson, and others.
FridayJohn MacCormick – Dickinson CollegeFairness First in Artificial Intelligence
John MacCormick is the author of three books, including Nine Algorithms That Changed the Future: The Ingenious Ideas That Drive Today’s Computers and What Can Be Computed?: A Practical Guide to the Theory of Computation. Dr. MacCormick holds 19 US patents on novel computer technologies and is the author of numerous peer-reviewed articles; his Nine Algorithms book has been translated into eight languages.
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A.I. is not without bias. John MacCormick, professor of computer science at Dickinson College, discovers the thriving research field of fairness in A.I. John MacCormick is the author of three books, including Nine Algorithms That Changed the Future: The Ingenious Ideas That Drive Today’s Computers and What Can Be Computed?: A Practical Guide to the […]
Kurt Vonnegut’s appeal to young people continues. Susan Farrell, professor of English at the College of Charleston, determines why a member of the Greatest Generation still holds sway today. Susan Farrell is a professor of English at the College of Charleston and the 2009 Bill Moore Distinguished Teacher-Scholar Award Recipient. She specializes in contemporary American […]
What is the Swedish theory of love? Lars Tragardh, professor of history at Uppsala University, explains. Ph.D in History from UC Berkeley; professor of history at Uppsala university, Sweden; public commentator on Swedish politics and society. The Swedish Theory of Love Americans are fond of thinking of themselves as rugged individualists. But compared to Swedes […]
This summer has been a hot one…but was it as unprecedented as it seemed? Darrell Kaufman, Regents’ professor of earth and environmental sciences at Northern Arizona University, determines the answer using history. Dr. Darrell Kaufman is a Professor in the School of Earth and Sustainability at Northern Arizona University. He was a lead author on the […]
Your workplace has a large impact on your mental health. Emily Rosado-Solomon, assistant professor of management at Babson College, explores what makes employees feel good or bad. Emily Rosado-Solomon is an Assistant Professor of Management at Babson College. She received her PhD at Rutgers University School of Management and Labor Relations, and previously served on […]
This Week on The Academic Minute 2023.09.04
MondayEmily Rosado-Solomon, assistant professor of management at Babson College, explores what makes employees feel good or bad.
TuesdayDarrell Kaufman, Regents’ professor of earth and environmental sciences at Northern Arizona University, determines if this summer was as unprecedented as it felt.
WednesdayLars Tragardh, professor of history at Uppsala University, explains the Swedish theory of love.
ThursdaySusan Farrell, professor of English at the College of Charleston, determines why one member of the Greatest Generation still holds sway today.
FridayJohn MacCormick, professor of computer science at Dickinson College, discovers the thriving research field of fairness in A.I..
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The Academic Minute from 8.28 – 9.01MondayMegan Benka-Coker – Gettysburg CollegeEvaluating Real-World Global Health Interventions
Dr. Benka-Coker is an Assistant Professor in the Health Sciences Department at Gettysburg College. She is an environmental epidemiologist and global health researcher. Her research primarily focuses on household energy and cooking, evaluating cleaner-burning cookstove technologies and the potential to improve population-level health. She has worked with interdisciplinary teams in West and East Africa and Central America to try to understand the multi-faceted energy challenges facing communities.
TuesdayJennifer Bloomquist – Gettysburg CollegeLinguistic Minstrelsy in Children’s Animated Film
Jennifer Bloomquist is Associate Provost for Faculty Development & Dean of Social Sciences and Interdisciplinary Programs. Prior to her appointment to the Office of the Provost in June, 2017, Jen chaired the Africana Studies Program for 9 years starting in 2007, excluding a couple semesters while she was on sabbatical leave. A Washington, D.C. native, Jen attended Clarion University in Pennsylvania where in 1995 she earned her bachelor’s degree in English Literature. She received both her master’s and doctoral degrees in linguistics from the University at Buffalo in 1998 and 2003 respectively. Jen began teaching at Gettysburg College in January 2002, first in the English department, and then on the faculty of the Africana Studies Program as the college’s first Derrick K. Gondwe Fellow from 2003-2005. Additionally, she has served as the co-chair of the Linguistic Society of America’s Committee on Ethnic Diversity in Linguistics. Her work has been published in First Language, Journal of Pragmatics, Multilingua, the Southern Journal of Linguistics, American Speech, and the Journal of African American Studies. Jen’s research focuses on African American Englishes in the regional context; she is currently at work on a project with Oxford University Press, From Dumbo to Donkey: Linguistic Minstrelsy in Children’s Animated Films. (due out in 2023) that focuses on the representation of African American English and its role in the construction of ethnicity in children’s animated films.
Wednesday
Christopher Fee – Gettysburg CollegePaddling in the Wake of the Vikings
Christopher R. Fee, Ph.D., is Graeff Professor in the English Department at Gettysburg College and teaches numerous courses on various medieval subjects. His courses include popular seminars on the Vikings, which Fee has taught for many years both at Gettysburg and at the Danish Institute for Study Abroad in Copenhagen, where his Hamlet class twice has staged that play in Kronborg Slot, aka “Hamlet’s Castle.” Fee earned his PHD in 1997 from the University of Glasgow.
ThursdaySalma Monani – Gettysburg CollegeMediating Human-Nature Relations
Salma Monani is an Environmental Humanities scholar and teacher. She has extensively published on ecocinema studies, explorations of Indigenous ecomedia, film and environmental justice, and is co-editor of four ecocritical media anthologies. She is currently working on a monograph: Indigenous Ecocinema: Decolonizing Media Landscapes (contract with University of West Virginia). As part of her College’s Land Acknowledgment Committee, her scholarship also engages the practice of digital, public eco-humanities along with community research with Indigenous partners.
FridayJim Downs – Gettysburg CollegeNew Theories of Epidemiology
Jim Downs is the Gilder Lehrman-National Endowment for the Humanities Professor of Civil War Era Studies and History at Gettysburg College. He is the author of Maladies of Empire: How Colonialism, Slavery, and War Transformed Medicine (Harvard UP, 2021), which will be translated into Chinese, French, Japanese, Korean, and Russian. His other books include Sick from Freedom: African American Sickness and Suffering during the Civil War and Reconstruction (Oxford UP, 2012) and Stand By Me: The Forgotten History of Gay Liberation (Basic Books, 2016). He has published essays in The Atlantic, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Vice, Slate, The Lancet, LA Times, among others. He is also the editor of Civil War History. During the academic year 2022-23, he was the Sheila Biddle Ford Foundation Fellow at The Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University.
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On Gettysburg College Week: How did doctors begin to track infectious diseases? Jim Downs, professor of Civil War eat studies and history, delves into the history. Jim Downs is the Gilder Lehrman-National Endowment for the Humanities Professor of Civil War Era Studies and History at Gettysburg College. He is the author of Maladies of Empire: […]
On Gettysburg College Week: Streaming can be harmful to the environment. Salma Monani, chair and professor of environmental studies, explores how to start to change this. Salma Monani is an Environmental Humanities scholar and teacher. She has extensively published on ecocinema studies, explorations of Indigenous ecomedia, film and environmental justice, and is co-editor of four […]
On Gettysburg College Week: Retracing steps from the past can open up new understandings of today. Christopher Fee, chair and professor of English, heads to the open water. Christopher R. Fee, Ph.D., is Graeff Professor in the English Department at Gettysburg College and teaches numerous courses on various medieval subjects. His courses include popular seminars […]
On Gettysburg College Week: Animated movies play an important role in the lives of children. Jennifer Bloomquist, professor of linguistics and Africana studies, determines explains why the representation of the characters on the screen matters. Jennifer Bloomquist is Associate Provost for Faculty Development & Dean of Social Sciences and Interdisciplinary Programs. Prior to her appointment […]
On Gettysburg College Week: How people heat their homes can have consequences. Megan Benka-Coker, assistant professor of health sciences, examines one method with the potential to help cut down the risks in hard to reach areas. Dr. Benka-Coker is an Assistant Professor in the Health Sciences Department at Gettysburg College. She is an environmental epidemiologist […]
This Week on The Academic Minute 2023.08.28 Monday Megan Benka-Coker, assistant professor of health sciences, examines one home heating method with the potential to help cut down the risks in hard to reach areas. Tuesday Jennifer Bloomquist, professor of linguistics and Africana studies, determines explains why the representation of the characters on the […]
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The Academic Minute from 8.21 – 8.25 Monday Farzin Lotfi-Jam – Cornell University A Recursive History of Urban Simulation Farzin Lotfi-Jam is Assistant Professor in the department of Architecture at Cornell AAP where he leads the Realtime Urbanism Lab housed within the Center for Cities. His lab connects advances in computation, communication, and immersive media to […]
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On Cornell University’s Impacts of A.I. Week: How humans interact with artificial intelligence may take many forms. Jenny Sabin, Arthur L. and Isabel B. Wiesenberger Professor in Architecture & Inaugural Chair of Design Tech, details a piece of architecture that humans and A.I. can help influence. Jenny E. Sabin is an architectural designer whose work […]
On Cornell University’s Impacts of A.I. Week: Getting people to trust A.I. can be a tricky process. Qian Yang, assistant professor in information science, examines how doctors became comfortable with using the technology. Qian Yang is an assistant professor in Information Science at Cornell University and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) researcher. Her research expertise is in […]
On this Student Spotlight during Cornell University’s Impacts of A.I. Week : Online discussions have many pitfalls; what if A.I. could step in to help? Jonathan P. Chang, PhD candidate in computer science, explores this question. Jonathan P. Chang is a Ph.D. candidate in Computer Science at Cornell, advised by Cristian Danescu-Niculescu-Mizil. He earned his undergraduate […]
On Cornell University’s Impacts of A.I. Week: Technology that guides how we respond in conversations may have some negative effects. Malte Jung, associate professor of information science, outlines them. Malte Jung is an Associate Professor of Information Science at Cornell University and the Nancy H. ’62 and Philip M. ’62 Young Sesquicentennial Faculty Fellow. He […]
On Cornell University’s Impacts of A.I. Week: How do we answer the many questions about the intersection of A.I. and humanity? Farzin Lotfi-Jam, assistant professor of architecture and director of Realtime Urbanism lab, invites us to engage with these questions. Farzin Lotfi-Jam is Assistant Professor in the department of Architecture at Cornell AAP where he […]
This Week on The Academic Minute 2023.08.21 Monday Farzin Lotfi-Jam, assistant professor of architecture and director of Realtime Urbanism lab, invites us to answer the many questions about the intersection of A.I. and humanity. Tuesday Malte Jung, associate professor of information science, outlines how the technology that guides how we respond in conversations may […]
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The Academic Minute from 8.14 – 8.18 Monday Vsevolod Seva Katritch – University of Southern California Dornsife Computer Modeling and A.I. Transform Drug Discovery Dr. Katritch is an is a computational biologist and chemist at University of Southern California Dornsife, and a founding co-director of the Center for New Technologies in Drug Discovery and Development […]
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On USC Dornsife Week: How many people are food insecure in the United States? Kayla de la Haye, associate professor of population and public health sciences, examines the data. Kayla de la Haye is an Associate Professor of Population and Public Health Sciences at the University of Southern California. She works to promote good health […]
On USC Dornsife Week: How are memories formed? Donald Arnold, professor of biological sciences and biomedical engineering, takes us a step closer to finding out. Professor Arnold is the principal investigator at the Arnold Laboratory and professor of Molecular and Computational Biology and Biomedical Engineering at USC Dornsife. He received his Ph.D. Biomedical Engineering from […]
On USC Dornsife Week: Jargon can make things difficult to understand and talk about. Wandi Bruine de Bruin, provost professor of public policy, psychology and behavioral science, explores this. Wändi Bruine de Bruin is Provost Professor of Public Policy, Psychology, and Behavioral Science at the Sol Price School of Public Policy at the University of […]
On USC Dornsife Week: Predicting earthquakes would save many lives. Sylvain Barbot, associate professor of earth sciences, says one region that needs to prepare for another tremor. Dr. Sylvain Barbot studied earthquake physics and tectonic geodesy at the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics at the Scripps […]
On USC Dornsife Week: Can A.I. cut the cost of making new drugs? Vsevolod Seva Katrich, associate professor of quantitative and computational biology and chemistry, takes a closer look. Dr. Katritch is an is a computational biologist and chemist at University of Southern California Dornsife, and a founding co-director of the Center for New Technologies […]
USC Dornsife Week on The Academic Minute 2023.08.14 Monday Vsevolod Seva Katrich, associate professor of quantitative and computational biology and chemistry, takes a closer look at A.I. transforming drug discovery. Tuesday Sylvain Barbot, associate professor of earth sciences, says one region of Turkey needs to prepare for another earthquake. Wednesday Wandi Bruine […]
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The Academic Minute from 8.7 – 8.11 Florida International University Week Monday Daniel Bagner Telehealth Programs Benefit Young Children With Developmental Delay Dr. Daniel Bagner is a Professor of Psychology and Director of Clinical Training at Florida International University (FIU). A licensed and board-certified clinical child psychologist, Dr. Bagner studies interventions for at-risk infants and […]
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On Florida International University Week: Terrorists target more than buildings and people. Shlomi Dinar, professor in the department of politics and international relations, explores a natural resource often in the crosshairs. Shlomi Dinar is the dean in the Steven J. Green School of International & Public Affairs and a professor in the Department of Politics […]
On Florida International University Week: In certain places, two languages can blend together to form something new. Phillip Carter, associate professor of linguistics and English, explores how. Phillip M. Carter is a sociolinguist and scholar of language and culture, focusing primarily on language diversity, politics, and identity. He works interdisciplinarily, moving between quantitative and qualitative […]
On Florida International University Week: Teenagers dealing with COVID-19 lockdowns had a tough go. Today on The Academic Minute: Elisa Trucco, associate professor of psychology and director of clinical training, keeps an eye on past trauma for pre-pandemic experiences. Dr. Elisa Trucco is an Associate Professor of Psychology and the Associate Director of Clinical Training […]
On Florida International University Week: Can an algorithm save your life? Chen Min, The Endowed SunTrust Bank Professorship Holder & Associate Professor, Department of Information Systems and Business Analytics, explores how this might be the case. Dr. Min Chen’s research examines information technology innovations, healthcare analytics, and issues relevant to the economics, organization, and regulation […]
On Florida International University Week: Telehealth has brought a new option to families who need it. Daniel Bagner, professor of psychology and director of clinical training, explores the benefit for those whose children need an extra hand. Dr. Daniel Bagner is a Professor of Psychology and Director of Clinical Training at Florida International University (FIU). […]
This Week on The Academic Minute 2023.08.07 Monday Daniel Bagner, professor of psychology and director of clinical training, explores the benefits of telehealth for those whose children need an extra hand. Tuesday Min Chen, The Endowed SunTrust Bank Professorship Holder & Associate Professor, Department of Information Systems and Business Analytics, explores how an […]
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The Academic Minute from 7.31 – 8.04 Monday Einav Hart – George Mason University Why Should We Ask More Questions? Einav Hart is an assistant professor of management at the George Mason University School of Business. Her research interests include negotiation, trust, and ethics. Previously, Hart was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, […]
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Summer programs can be key for certain students to continue their learning. Laura Bronstein, professor of social work at Binghamton University, examines how community schools can help. Laura’s research revolves around interdisciplinary and interprofessional collaboration as well as community schools. Prior to entering academia, Laura worked as a practicing social worker in family preservation, in […]
What is the best way to wire a brain? Jim Hutchins, professor of health sciences at Weber State University, delves into the synapses to find out. Jim Hutchins was born in Texas and raised in Colorado. He has attended the University of Colorado, University of California at Berkeley, and Baylor College of Medicine. He completed […]
Nostalgia may not be telling us the truth of the past. Amber Reed, assistant professor of international studies at Spelman College, examines why this is. Amber R. Reed is an anthropologist and assistant professor of International Studies at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia. She is the author of Nostalgia after Apartheid: Disillusionment, Youth, and Democracy […]
Have you enjoyed a cold Coca-Cola yet this summer? Bart Elmore, professor of environmental history and core faculty member of the sustainability institute at The Ohio State University, explores the environmental toll of doing so. Bart Elmore is associate professor of history and a core faculty member of the Sustainability Institute at Ohio State University. […]
How you ask a sensitive question can be just as important as why. Einav Hart, assistant professor of management at the George Mason University School of Business, explains why. Einav Hart is an assistant professor of management at the George Mason University School of Business. Her research interests include negotiation, trust, and ethics. Previously, Hart […]
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This Week on The Academic Minute 2023.07.31 Monday Einav Hart, assistant professor of management at the George Mason University School of Business, explains why how you ask sensitive questions can be just as important as why. Tuesday Bart Elmore, professor of environmental history and core faculty member of the sustainability institute at The […]
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The Academic Minute from 7.24 – 7.28 Monday Robin Morrison – University of Zurich Overcoming Adversity Robin Morrison is a Senior Researcher in the Department of Evolutionary Anthropology at the University of Zurich and an Affiliate Scientist at the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund in Rwanda. She uses long-term data from wild gorillas to examine the […]
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How much does the stock market affect tipping in a cab ride? Cihan Uzmanoglu, Zurack professor of finance and economics at Binghamton University, examines this relationship. Dr. Uzmanoglu holds the distinguished position of Zurack Professor of Finance and Economics at Binghamton University. His research addresses questions related to credit markets, financial institutions, fixed-income securities, and […]
A large portion of the American population will soon by 65 or older; how do we best care for this group? Rachel Savage, assistant professor at the institute of health policy, management, and evaluation at the University of Toronto, looks into one way. Rachel Savage, PhD is a Scientist at Women’s Age Lab and Women’s […]
We can look to the past for visions of how to shape our future. Carolyn Eichner, professor of history and women’s & gender studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, determines how the Paris Communes can help us gain a more equitable future. Carolyn J. Eichner is Professor of History and Women’s & Gender Studies at […]
What can the Iraq war tell us about Ukraine from a U.S. perspective? Patrick James, Dana and David Dornsife Dean’s Professor of International Relations, University of Southern California, considers both entanglements. Among his honors and awards are the Louise Dyer Peace Fellowship from the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, Eccles Professor of the British Library, […]
Resiliency is a great skill to master. Robin Morrison, senior researcher at the University of Zurich and affiliate scientist at the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, determines how gorillas foster this. Robin Morrison is a Senior Researcher in the Department of Evolutionary Anthropology at the University of Zurich and an Affiliate Scientist at the Dian Fossey […]
This Week on The Academic Minute 2023.07.24 Monday Robin Morrison, senior researcher at the University of Zurich and affiliate scientist at the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, determines how gorillas foster resilience. Tuesday Patrick James, Dana and David Dornsife Dean’s Professor of International Relations, University of Southern California, considers the lessons the U.S. can […]
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The Academic Minute from 7.17 – 7.21 Monday Linda Charmaraman – Wellesley College When It Comes to Teens and Screens, Pets Can Have Surprising Benefits Linda Charmaraman, Ph.D., is a senior research scientist at the Wellesley Centers for Women at Wellesley College and director of the Youth, Media & Wellbeing Research Lab. Her research interests […]
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Everyone needs bathrooms, so why do they cause so many issues? Bryant Simon, professor of history at Temple University, looks to the past for a clue. A graduate of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Bryant Simon is the Laura H. Carnell Professor of History at Temple University. He is the author of four […]
Women in the workplace still fight an uphill battle to report sexual harassment. Samantha Dodson, postdoctoral research fellow at the University of British Columbia, explores why. Dr. Samantha Dodson is a postdoctoral fellow in the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia. Her research broadly focuses on how employees’ cognitions and emotions […]
COVID-19 brought many things to a halt, but not everything. Sam Kruger, assistant professor of finance at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin, discusses those who kept researching. Sam Kruger is an Assistant Professor of Finance at the University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business. His research […]
We need to rethink how we treat older women in healthcare. Paula Rochon, professor in the department of medicine at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto, examines. Dr. Paula Rochon, MD, MPH, FCRPC, is Founding Director of Women’s Age Lab, a geriatrician and senior scientist at Women’s College Hospital […]
Pets can have many benefits, including some that are unseen. Linda Charmaraman, senior research scientist at the Wellesley Centers for Women at Wellesley College, details one. Linda Charmaraman, Ph.D., is a senior research scientist at the Wellesley Centers for Women at Wellesley College and director of the Youth, Media & Wellbeing Research Lab. Her research […]
This Week on The Academic Minute 2023.07.17 Monday Linda Charmaraman, senior research scientist at the Wellesley Centers for Women at Wellesley College, details how pets can help teens with screen time. Tuesday Paula Rochon, professor in the department of medicine at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto, […]
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The Academic Minute from 7.10 – 7.14 Monday Mark Warschauer – University of California, Irvine Improving Children’s Learning Through Interactive TV Shows Dr. Warschauer is a professor of education and informatics and has worked with students at all levels since 1977. Outside of teaching, Dr. Warschauer is the director of the Digital Learning Lab where […]
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How do you rate your own performance relative to your peers? Eric Gaze, senior lecturer in mathematics at Bowdoin College, says you may be right or you may be wrong. Eric Gaze directs the Quantitative Reasoning (QR) program in the Baldwin Center for Learning and Teaching (BCLT) at Bowdoin College and is a Senior Lecturer […]
Online learning is becoming the norm after the pandemic. Timand Bates, visiting professor of education at Bard College, discusses how it can affect student learning. Timand is currently Program Manager of the Open Society University Network’s Online Courses. He is also a Visiting Professor for the Bard College Prison Initiative and for the Institute of […]
It gets hot in the kitchen for many reasons. Ellen Meiser, assistant professor of sociology at the University of Hawai’i at Hilo, explores how abusive behavior has become the norm in restaurants. Ellen is an Alaska-grown sociologist interested in qualitative research, social psychology, emotions, and the culinary industry. She is an assistant professor of sociology […]
Human trafficking is not just fought in the shadows. Dennis McCarty, lecturer at the University at Albany, says we all have a role to play. Dennis McCarty, Ph.D., is a lecturer at the University at Albany. He worked for several criminal justice agencies before retiring as an Assistant Director at what was initially known as […]
Kids loving talking to the TV, but what if it talked back to them? Mark Warschauer, professor of education and informatics at the University of California, Irvine, explores how to make characters interact with the kids watching them. Dr. Warschauer is a professor of education and informatics and has worked with students at all levels […]
This Week on The Academic Minute 2023.07.10 Monday Mark Warschauer, professor of education and informatics at the University of California, Irvine, explores how to make characters interact with the kids watching them on television. Tuesday Dennis McCarty, lecturer at the University at Albany, says we all have a role to play in our […]
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The Academic Minute from 7.3 – 7.7 Monday Gail Sahar – Wheaton College The Psychology of Blame Gail Sahar (pron.: suh-HARR) is the Jane Oxford Keiter Professor of Psychology at Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts, where she teaches courses on social psychology, political psychology, and statistics. Her research focuses on attitudes toward controversial social issues, such as […]
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Teen films are changing with the times, but change isn’t always easy. Michele Meek, assistant professor in communication studies at Bridgewater State University, reveals how films treat consent is changing. Dr. Michele Meek, an Assistant Professor in Communication Studies at Bridgewater State University, delves into representations of sexual consent in teen films in her book […]
Negotiations that suit both parties can lead to the best outcomes. Einav Hart, assistant professor of management at the George Mason University School of Business, considers negotiating styles. Einav Hart is an assistant professor of management at the George Mason University School of Business. Her research interests include negotiation, trust, and ethics. Previously, Hart was […]
ChatGPT is here, so how do students feel about it? Thomas Mennella, associate professor of biology at Western New England University, finds out the answer. An instructor and professor in higher education for over fifteen years, Tom was an early-adopter of the flipped classroom format and is intimately involved in active learning and innovating in […]
The digital world is quickly bringing to an end to a lot of physicals items and tokens, but at what cost? Michael Zalot, assistant professor of business and director of the MBA program in the department of Business, Management and Economics at Cedar Crest College, discusses one such token. Michael Zalot is an assistant professor […]
Politicians can do better when it comes to interacting with the public. Gail Sahar, Jane Oxfor Keiter professor of psychology at Wheaton College, examines how. Gail Sahar (pron.: suh-HARR) is the Jane Oxford Keiter Professor of Psychology at Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts, where she teaches courses on social psychology, political psychology, and statistics. Her […]
This Week on The Academic Minute 2023.07.03 Monday Gail Sahar, Jane Oxfor Keiter professor of psychology at Wheaton College, examines how politicians can do better when it comes to interacting with the public. Tuesday Michael Zalot, assistant professor of business and director of the MBA program in the department of Business, Management and […]
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The Academic Minute from 6.26 – 6.30 Monday Sophie Chao – University of Sydney Why Mourning Matters in the Anthropocene Sophie Chao is an anthropologist interested in the intersections of Indigeneity, ecology, capitalism, health, and justice in the Pacific. She is author of In the Shadow of the Palms: More-Than-Human Becomings in West Papua and […]
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Is there a better way to treat anxiety and depression for patients with cancer? C. Michael White, distinguished professor and chair of pharmacy practice at the University of Connecticut School of Pharmacy, considers the question. Michael White, Pharm.D., FCP, FCCP, FASHP has ~500 publications resulting in 16577 citations with an H-index of 67; placing him […]
The terms people use to stoke disbelief and doubt in science can be costly. Moti Mizrahi, associate professor of philosophy in the school of arts and communication at Florida Institute of Technology, details how. Moti Mizrahi is Associate Professor of philosophy in the School of Arts and Communication at the Florida Institute of Technology. He […]
Break the journalism code of ethics at your own risk. Dan Laufer, associate professor of marketing at Victoria University of Wellington, examines one instance where harm was done by crossing a line. Dr Daniel Laufer, PhD, MBA (The University of Texas at Austin, USA), is an Associate Professor of Marketing at Victoria University of Wellington […]
How you approach your goals can be key to attaining them. Joanne Dickson, professor of psychology and mental health at Edith Cowan University, determines the best way to look at where you want to go. Joanne M. Dickson is a Professor of Psychology and Mental Health in the School of Arts & Humanities, at Edith […]
How humans react to environmental change can take many forms. Sophie Chao, Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) Fellow and Lecturer in the Discipline of Anthropology at the University of Sydney, explores one. Sophie Chao is an anthropologist interested in the intersections of Indigeneity, ecology, capitalism, health, and justice in the Pacific. She is author […]
This Week on The Academic Minute 2023.06.26 Monday Sophie Chao, Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) Fellow and Lecturer in the Discipline of Anthropology at the University of Sydney, says humans react to environmental change in many forms. Tuesday Joanne Dickson, professor of psychology and mental health at Edith Cowan University, determines the best way […]
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The Academic Minute from 6.19 – 6.23 Monday John Cigliano – Cedar Crest College Microplastics John A. Cigliano, Ph.D., is a professor of biology and director of environmental conservation at Cedar Crest College in Allentown, Pennsylvania. He also serves as an Earthwatch Institute principal investigator and as adjunct research faculty at the Schoodic Institute at Acadia National Park in Maine. Cigliano, who […]
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The future practitioners of the criminal justice system do not see a rosy picture ahead. TaLisa J. Carter, assistant professor in the department of justice, law, and criminology at American University, explains why. TaLisa J. Carter, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Justice, Law & Criminology at American University, a non-resident fellow […]
How important is thinking creatively for students? Erica Kosal, director of the life sciences first year program and associate teaching professor of biological sciences at North Carolina State University, discusses this. Erica loves teaching biology and helping students find their niche in college and fit for a major. As a teaching faculty member at NC […]
Star employees aren’t the only ones who shape the future of a company. PK Toh, associate professor of management at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin, examines when the rest of the team is just as important. PK Toh is an associate professor of management at The University of […]
The history of World War II is still being unearthed many decades later. Ryayo Terao, associate professor in the department of entertainment technology at New York City College of Technology at the City University of New York, explores how simple things can have big stories to tell. Prof. Ryoya Terao has co-produced and/or directed documentaries […]
Microplastics have become a big problem. John A. Cigliano, professor of biology and director of environmental conservation at Cedar Crest College, explores how they move through the ecosystem. John A. Cigliano, Ph.D., is a professor of biology and director of environmental conservation at Cedar Crest College in Allentown, Pennsylvania. He also serves as an Earthwatch […]
How do you get kids to learn to listen? Use music. Gena Greher, professor of music and music education at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, shows us how. Dr. Gena R. Greher is Professor of Music & Music Education at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. She’s a 2014_15 Donahue Endowed Professor of the Arts. and […]
Sharing is caring. Nicole Hassoun, professor of philosophy at Binghamton University, examines this through the lens of fighting off the next contagious virus. Hassoun’s research interests include social and political philosophy, global health and ethics, including The Global Health Impact Index developed by faculty at Binghamton University, to rank pharmaceutical companies based on their drugs’ […]
Solving big challenges in our society demands working together as a team. Luisa Ruge-Jones, assistant professor of communication at the University of Dayton, explores the best way to do this. Luisa Ruge-Jones’ primary research interests focus on team science, group communication and organizational communication. Her research examines how organizational policies and infrastructure affect how teams […]
How do you know if you’re getting too much sun exposure? Stephen McNeill, senior lecturer of communication at Kennesaw State University, examines one technology that can help. Before embarking on a career in academics, McNeill worked as an on-air personality for multiple radio stations in the U.S. and the U.K. and appeared on television shows […]
How can researchers compare findings if not everyone is on the same page? Cailyn Green, assistant professor of addiction studies at SUNY Empire State College, examines the health effects of teen substance use. Cailyn Green, MS, Ph.D., CASAC is the Assistant Professor of Addiction Studies at the State University of New York, Empire State College. […]
This Week on The Academic Minute 2023.06.12 Monday Cailyn Green, assistant professor of addiction studies at SUNY Empire State College, examines the health effects of teen substance use. Tuesday Stephen McNeill, senior lecturer of communication at Kennesaw State University, examines one technology that can let you know if you’re getting too much sun exposure. […]
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The Academic Minute from 6.05 – 6.09 Monday Saurabh Chatterjee – University of California, Irvine How Blue-Green Algae Can Increase Severity of Liver Disease Dr. Chatterjee is a human physiologist with specialized training in immunology. After completing his PhD in inflammation biology, he pursued his postdoctoral work at NIH’s National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences […]
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On this Student Spotlight during University of California, Irvine Week: Reducing carbon from transportation is key to our future. Candelaria Bergero, Ph. D. student in Earth system science, examines how to cut emissions from one form of transport. Candelaria Bergero is a Ph.D. student in Earth System science at the University of California, Irvine. She […]
On University of California, Irvine Week: Knowing who gets vaccinated more often, can tell us whom to target in future vaccine efforts. Keri Hurley-Kim, associate clinical professor in the School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences, looks into the data. Dr. Hurley is a pharmacy educator and has worked with PharmD students and residents at all […]
On University of California, Irvine Week: We hear about the harm bacteria can do, but what about the good? Regina Ragan, professor of materials science and engineering, examines this question. Ragan is a recipient of the National Science Foundation Faculty Early CAREER Award and a Fulbright Fellow. She is co-Director of the Institute for Design […]
Racial disparities can exist even in machine learning. Jung In Park, assistant professor in the Sue & Bill Gates School of Nursing at the University of California, Irvine, finds a way to tackle biases and make a difference for vulnerable populations. Dr. Jung In Park is an assistant professor at UCI’s school of nursing since […]
On University of California, Irvine Week: Climate change has many effects that we may not be aware of.
Saurabh Chatterjee, professor of environmental and occupational health, delves into one.
Dr. Chatterjee is a human physiologist with specialized training in immunology. After completing his PhD in inflammation biology, he pursued his postdoctoral work at NIH’s National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Laboratory of Pharmacology and Toxicology. Later he continued his specialized research in chronic liver disease at Duke University’s division of gastroenterology under the K99 portion of his NIH Pathway to Independence Award. He has made significant contributions to the field of host-microbiome interactions with redox biology, neuroimmune pathology, and gut-brain interactions in pro-inflammatory disease processes, including Gulf War illness, chronic multi-symptom illnesses and brain manifestations of liver diseases, drug discovery, and gut-brain directed therapeutics. In addition to his UCI appointments, he is a research health scientist with Department of Veterans Affairs at the Long Beach VA Medical Center.
How Blue-Green Algae Can Increase Severity of Liver Diseasehttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/06-05-23-UCI-How-Blue-Green-Algae-Can-increase-severity-of-Liver-Disease.mp3Chronic liver disease such as nonalcoholic fatty liver has reached pandemic proportions
In parallel, It is no surprise that climate change is affecting all aspects of our lives. In coastal areas and inlands alike we are seeing damaging algal blooms become more common. These blooms not only affect the local ecosystem but are now discovered to have very damaging effects on our health.
Cyanobacteria, commonly known as ‘blue-green algae’, are photosynthetic organisms that grow excessively under climate change-related stressors like ocean warming and pollution. This growth phenomenon is known as harmful algal blooms. Exposure to environmental factors like these algal blooms can have adverse effects on the body.
Our gut microbiome is home to more than 100 trillion bacteria that all play a role in our metabolism, immunity, physiology, and nutrition. To further understand how these cyanobacteria affect our microbiome, my team and I used mouse models, often with mice that are humanized to analyze the effects of oral exposure from these harmful algal blooms on the gut bacteria environment.
We found an increase in opportunistic pathogens with a decrease in beneficial bacterial populations in the gut when exposed to cyanobacteria. This imbalance disrupts intestinal stability and is the likely drive to a greater risk of disease. Some of these diseases include irritable bowel syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease, celiac disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and inflammation of the liver that are all connected to severity of chronic liver disease.
With the results of this study, we are now able to understand and analyze how susceptible populations such as children, elderly, and those with a metabolic disease and can intervene to protect themselves when interacting with contaminated bodies of water.
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University of California, Irvine Week on The Academic Minute 2023.05.29
MondaySaurabh Chatterjee, professor of environmental and occupational health, delves into how climate change has many effects that we may not be aware of.
TuesdayJung In Park, assistant professor in the Sue & Bill Gates School of Nursing, says racial disparities can exist even in machine learning.
WednesdayRegina Ragan, professor of materials science and engineering, looks into using E. coli to detect water contamination.
ThursdayKeri Hurley-Kim, associate clinical professor in the school of pharmacy & pharmaceutical sciences, looks into who gets vaccinated more often, can tell us whom to target in future vaccine efforts.
FridayCandelaria Bergero, Ph. D. student in Earth system science, examines how to cut emissions from one form of transport.
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The Academic Minute from 5.22 – 5.26 Monday Andrew Belnap – University of Texas at Austin Are Tax Audits Bad for Business? Andrew Belnap is an Assistant Professor of Accounting in the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin. His research examines tax disclosure and tax enforcement issues, often in collaboration […]
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On University at Albany Week: How do we encourage all STEM students to complete their studies? Rabi Musah, professor of chemistry at the RNA Institute, looks into a solution. Dr. Rabi Musah is a Professor at the University at Albany in the Chemistry Department. She is also the Associate Vice Provost for the Center for […]
On University at Albany Week: How did ancient civilizations handle extensive droughts? Marilyn Masson, professor of anthropology, says finding out could be key for the future in a warming world. Dr. Marilyn Masson is a historical anthropologist and archaeologist whose current research projects focus on the archaeology of Colonial encounters in Yucatan, Mexico, and Albany, […]
On University at Albany Week: We still need to find a cure for many afflictions. Andrew Berglund, director of the RNA Institute and professor of biological sciences, details one of these. Dr. Berglund’s scientific career has revolved around understanding the role of RNA in biology. The focus of his research is on neuromuscular diseases with […]
On University at Albany Week: Mental health is an issue for everyone. Brett Harris, clinical associate professor in the department of health policy, management and behavior, explores one region to listen in to their struggles. Brett Harris, DrPH, is a Clinical Associate Professor at the University at Albany’s School of Public Health, a Senior Research […]
On University at Albany Week: Western wildfire smoke isn’t just a concern for the Western U.S. Bhupal Shrestha, senior research scientist, examines how the East Coast also feels the effects. Bhupal Shrestha, PhD, is a senior research support specialist at the New York State Mesonet at the University at Albany. He completed his MS and […]
University at Albany Week on The Academic Minute 2023.05.29
MondayBhupal Shrestha, senior research scientist, examines how the East Coast also feels the effects of western U.S. wildfire smoke.
TuesdayBrett Harris, clinical associate professor in the department of health policy, management and behavior, explores mental health in rural regions.
WednesdayAndrew Berglund, director of the RNA Institute and professor of biological sciences, details one affliction we still need to find a cure for.
ThursdayMarilyn Masson, professor of anthropology, says finding out how ancient civilizations dealt with drought conditions could be key for the future in a warming world.
FridayRabi Musah, professor of chemistry at the RNA Institute, looks into a solution to helping all students complete their studies in STEM.
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The Academic Minute from 5.22 – 5.26MondayAndrew Belnap – University of Texas at AustinAre Tax Audits Bad for Business?
Andrew Belnap is an Assistant Professor of Accounting in the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin. His research examines tax disclosure and tax enforcement issues, often in collaboration with key regulators, including the Internal Revenue Service and the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. His studies have been published in top accounting journals including the Journal of Accounting and Economics and the Review of Accounting Studies.
TuesdayElizabeth Dorssom – Lincoln University of MissouriWhy Do Legislatures Use Sunset Provisions?
Dr. Elizabeth Dorssom is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Lincoln University of Missouri. Dr. Dorssom’s research focuses on the impact of resources on politics and policy. Specifically, I am interested in understanding how resources such as information, institutionalization, and professionalism impact policy adoption and feedback.
Wednesday
David Cingranelli – Binghamton UniversityThe Need for Human Rights Report Cards
David Cingranelli is a Professor of Political Science. He has written widely on human rights, democracy, and governance. His 2007 book with Rodwan Abouharb, Human Rights and Structural Adjustment, (Cambridge University Press) demonstrated the negative human rights impacts of World Bank and IMF program lending in developing countries. He is a former President of the Human Rights Section of the American Political Science Association. Until 2012, he served as the co-director of the Cingranelli and Richards (CIRI) Human Rights Data Project, the largest and most widely used human rights data set in the world. Presently, he and Mikhail Filippov are working in collaboration with the United States Political Instability Task Force on a successor to the CIRI project, which will be called the “Rights” data project.
ThursdayTripti Bhattacharya – Syracuse UniversityClues from the Pliocene
My research focuses on understanding the sensitivity of regional rainfall to global climate change. I use a variety of methods, ranging from geochemical and biological proxies to climate models. My work focuses on a paleoclimatic perspective, whereby past instances of climate change can be used as ‘natural experiments’ to understand the response of the atmosphere-ocean system to external forcing.
FridayWilliam Herbert – Hunter College50 Years of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education
William A. Herbert is a Distinguished Lecturer and Executive Director of the National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions, Hunter College.
His scholarship examines higher education unionization, public sector labor law, policy and history, and workplace surveillance technologies. Prior to joining the Hunter College faculty, Mr. Herbert was Deputy Chair of the New York State Public Employment Relations Board. Before his tenure in state govenment, he practiced labor and employment law for over two decades in federal and state courts, administrative agencies, and in arbitration.
Mr. Herbert is a graduate of the University at Buffalo and the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University.
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How do we push higher education forward? William Herbert, distinguished lecturer and executive director of the national center for the study of collective bargaining in higher education and the professions at Hunter College, looks into this question. William A. Herbert is a Distinguished Lecturer and Executive Director of the National Center for the Study of […]
As the climate changes, what can history teach us about the future? Tripti Bhattacharya, Thonis family professor of earth and environmental sciences at Syracuse University, looks into the past to find out. My research focuses on understanding the sensitivity of regional rainfall to global climate change. I use a variety of methods, ranging from geochemical […]
Students get report cards; maybe countries should as well. David Cingranelli, professor of political science at Binghamton University, explains why. David Cingranelli is a Professor of Political Science. He has written widely on human rights, democracy, and governance. His 2007 book with Rodwan Abouharb, Human Rights and Structural Adjustment, (Cambridge University Press) demonstrated the negative […]
Why do legislatures use sunset provisions? Elizabeth Dorssom, assistant professor of political science at Lincoln University of Missouri, delves into this question. Dr. Elizabeth Dorssom is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Lincoln University of Missouri. Dr. Dorssom’s research focuses on the impact of resources on politics and policy. Specifically, I am interested in […]
Are tax audits bad for business? Andrew Belnap, assistant professor of accounting in the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin, considers this question. Andrew Belnap is an Assistant Professor of Accounting in the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin. His research examines tax disclosure and […]
Is that liquor you just bought fake? Neil Fitzgerald, professor of chemistry and associate dean of science at Marist College, explores why one spirit has caught the eye of bootleggers. Dr. Fitzgerald received his BSc from the University of Kent (UK) and MSc from Loughborough University (UK) before relocating to the US, where he was […]
Everyone has a brand they don’t like for one reason or another. Chun Zhang, assistant professor of marketing at the University of Dayton, explores why and what companies can do about it. Chun Zhang is an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Dayton. She holds a Ph.D. from Concordia University. Her research interests […]
Children need independent play. Peter Gray, research professor of psychology and neuroscience at Boston College, examines why. Peter Gray is a research professor of psychology and neuroscience at Boston College who has conducted and published research in behavioral biology, developmental psychology, anthropology, and education. He is author of an internationally acclaimed introductory psychology textbook (Psychology, […]
The fight against gender inequality goes on. Zaya Rustamova, associate professor of Spanish at Kennesaw State University, examines the role art can play. Dr. Rustámova is an Associate Professor of Spanish at Kennesaw State University. Her interdisciplinary research interests encompass Contemporary Spanish Peninsular Cultural Studies, with an emphasis on film and media studies. She specializes […]
How do we connect with different age groups when using online learning? Billi Bromer, professor in the college of education at Brenau University, looks into this question. Dr. Billi L. Bromer, is a Professor in the College of Education at Brenau University in Gainesville, Georgia. She teaches a range of undergraduate and graduate courses in […]
Failure is inevitable. Robert Kunzman, professor of curriculum studies and philosophy of education at Indiana University, explores how to learn from failure before moving past it. Robert Kunzman is Professor of Curriculum Studies and Philosophy of Education at Indiana University. His scholarship explores the purposes of education and how we can learn not only in […]
How our environment affects us can be complex. Elizabeth Blaber, assistant professor in the biomedical engineering department at Rensseelaer Polytechnic Institute, uses the harsh environment of space to provide answers. Elizabeth A. Blaber, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the Biomedical Engineering Department at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), a Visiting Scientist with the Blue Marble […]
Stopping sexual violence is imperative. Chris Linder, associate professor of higher education in the department of leadership and policy at the University of Utah, shares why the focus should shift from avoiding to preventing it. Chris Linder is the director of the McCluskey Center for Violence Prevention Research & Education at the University of Utah. […]
Helping students manage the stressors of higher education is more important than ever. Brad Garner, associate professor of education and digital learning scholar in residence at Indiana Wesleyan University, explores how faculty can lend a helping hand. Brad Garner serves as the Digital Learning Scholar in Residence at Indiana Wesleyan University. Before moving into higher […]
Exercising rights can be key to a healthy society. Miriam Wallace, professor of English and gender studies at New College of Florida, explores why. Miriam L. Wallace is Professor of English and Gender Studies at New College of Florida where she has taught English literature from 1660 forward since 1995. She is the author of […]
This Week on The Academic Minute 2023.05.08MondayMiriam Wallace, professor of English and gender studies at New College of Florida, explores why exercising rights can be key to a healthy society.
TuesdayBrad Garner, associate professor of education and digital learning scholar in residence at Indiana Wesleyan University, explores how faculty can lend a helping hand to students manage the stressors of higher education.
WednesdayChris Linder, associate professor of higher education in the department of leadership and policy at the University of Utah, shares why the focus should shift from avoiding sexual violence to preventing it.
ThursdayElizabeth Blaber, assistant professor in the biomedical engineering department at Rensseelaer Polytechnic Institute, uses the harsh environment of space to provide answers to how our environment can affect us.
FridayRobert Kunzman, professor of curriculum studies and philosophy of education at Indiana University, explores how to learn from failure before moving past it.
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The Academic Minute from 5.01 – 5.05MondayCarolyn Fornoff – Cornell UniversityGreening Mexican Cinema
Carolyn Fornoff is assistant professor of Latin American studies at Cornell University. Her work examines how Mexican and Central American cultural production responds to environmental crisis. She is the co-editor of two volumes in the environmental humanities: Timescales: Thinking Across Ecological Temporalities (University of Minnesota Press, 2020) and Pushing Past the Human in Latin American Cinema (SUNY Press, 2021). Her monograph, Subjunctive Aesthetics: Mexican Cultural Production in the Era of Climate Change, is forthcoming with Vanderbilt University Press.
TuesdayDavid Shoemaker – Cornell UniversityWhy Psychopaths Have Bad Senses of Humor
David Shoemaker is a Professor and Interim Chair of the Sage School of Philosophy, Cornell University. His research focuses on humor and morality, agency and responsibility, and personal identity and ethics. He has published two monographs, over 60 peer-reviewed articles, and eight edited volumes. He is an associate editor of the journal Ethics, and was the co-founder and longstanding co-editor of the ethics blog PEA Soup.
Wednesday
Debanjan Chowdhury – Cornell UniveristyStrange Metals and the Energy Crisis
Debanjan Chowdhury got his undergraduate education in Physics at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur and attended Harvard University for his graduate work in Theoretical Physics. After spending three years as a postdoctoral fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, supported by the Gordon & Betty Moore foundation, he started as an Assistant Professor at Cornell University in 2020. Chowdhury uses a variety of theoretical techniques to study and predict the quantum properties of trillions of interacting electrons in interesting materials, ranging from high-temperature superconductors to exotic magnets. His contributions have been recognized by a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation and by a Sloan research fellowship from the Alfred P. Sloan foundation.
ThursdayAlex Townsend – Cornell UniversityScientifically-Minded Artificial Intelligence
Alex Townsend is an Associate Professor at Cornell University in the Mathematics Department. His research is in Applied Mathematics and most recently focuses on developing machines to learn partial differential equations from data. Before Cornell, he was an Applied Math instructor at MIT (2014-2016) and a DPhil student at the University of Oxford (2010-2014). He was awarded a SIAM Computational Science and Engineering best paper prize in 2023, a Simons Fellowship in 2022, an NSF CAREER in 2021, a SIGEST paper award in 2019, the SIAG/LA Early Career Prize in applicable linear algebra in 2018, and the Leslie Fox Prize in 2015.
FridayMichele Belot – Cornell UniversityHow Do We Get People to Reconsider Their Choices and Behaviors
Michèle Belot is Professor of Economics at Cornell University. Her recent research focuses on behavioral change in areas such as job search, dietary habits and political opinions. She has designed and tested interventions using randomized controlled trials, aimed at encouraging behavioral change.
She is the current President of the European Association of Labour Economists. She has published in journals such as the Review of Economic Studies, the Review of Economics and Statistics, the Journal of Health Economics, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science and The Economic Journal.
She received her PhD in Economics from Tilburg University in 2003 and has held previous academic positions at the University of Essex, the University of Oxford. the University of Edinburgh and the European University Institute.
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On Cornell University Week: Getting people to reconsider their choices can be tricky. Michele Belot, professor of economics, discusses why. Michèle Belot is Professor of Economics at Cornell University. Her recent research focuses on behavioral change in areas such as job search, dietary habits and political opinions. She has designed and tested interventions using randomized […]
On Cornell University Week: A.I. is also coming to science labs. Alex Townsend, associate professor in the mathematics department, examines the benefits for scientific discovery. Alex Townsend is an Associate Professor at Cornell University in the Mathematics Department. His research is in Applied Mathematics and most recently focuses on developing machines to learn partial differential […]
On Cornell University Week: To solve any energy crisis we may encounter, waste not, want not. Debanjan Chowdhury, assistant professor of physics, determines how to stop energy waste in the future. Debanjan Chowdhury got his undergraduate education in Physics at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur and attended Harvard University for his graduate work […]
On Cornell University Week: The lack of a sense of humor could mean bad things. David Shoemaker, professor and interim chair of the Sage School of Philosophy, explores why. David Shoemaker is a Professor and Interim Chair of the Sage School of Philosophy, Cornell University. His research focuses on humor and morality, agency and responsibility, […]
On Cornell University Week: Can cinema go green? Carolyn Fornoff, assistant professor of Latin American Studies, examines how. Carolyn Fornoff is assistant professor of Latin American studies at Cornell University. Her work examines how Mexican and Central American cultural production responds to environmental crisis. She is the co-editor of two volumes in the environmental humanities: Timescales: […]
Cornell University Week on The Academic Minute 2023.05.01MondayCarolyn Fornoff, assistant professor of Latin American Studies, examines how cinema can go green.
TuesdayDavid Shoemaker, professor and interim chair of the Sage School of Philosophy, explores why psychopaths lack a sense of humor.
WednesdayDebanjan Chowdhury, assistant professor of physics, determines how to stop energy waste in the future.
ThursdayAlex Townsend, associate professor in the mathematics department, examines the benefits of artificial intelligence for scientific discovery.
FridayMichele Belot, professor of economics, discusses why getting people to reconsider their choices and behaviors.
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The Academic Minute from 4.24 – 4.28MondayCailyn Green – SUNY Empire State CollegeThe Impact of Employment on Treatment Completion Rates with DWI Offenders
Cailyn Green, MS, Ph.D., CASAC is the Assistant Professor of Addiction Studies at the State University of New York, Empire State College. She has been a part of the SUNY academic team since 2014.
She earned her BA degree in psychology from Wester New England University, her MS degree in forensic mental health from Sage Graduate School and her Ph.D. in criminal justice with a specialization in addiction science from Walden University. Dr. Green is also a Credentialed Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Counselor in New York State. Dr. Greens area of expertise is supporting clinicians who work in the addiction field to best serve their clients. She spent her hands on clinical time working directly with the recently incarcerated population.
TuesdayLingyao Yuan – Iowa State UniversityWorking with Digital Humans
LINGYAO (IVY) YUAN is an Assistant Professor of the Department of Information Systems and Business Analytics at the Debbie and Jerry Ivy College of Business at Iowa State University. Her research interest includes augmented intelligence and digital human, the impact of non-cognition behavior and decision-making, especially emotion, in computer-mediated communication, decision-making, and collaboration. She has conducted research in the fields of electronic commerce and social media. She has been published in the Harvard Business Review, Journal of Management Information Systems, Journal of the Association for Information Systems, Decision Sciences, as well as conferences including International Conference on Information Systems, Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, and INFOMRS Annual Meeting. She received her PhD degree from Indiana University in 2015.
Wednesday
Gregory Kaliss – York College of PennsylvaniaDiscovering the Real Wonder Woman
Dr. Gregory Kaliss is an Assistant Professor of History at York College of Pennsylvania and author of the forthcoming book Beyond the Black Power Salute: Athlete Activism in an Era of Change (gkaliss@ycp.edu). He lives in Lancaster, Pennsylvania with his wife, daughter, and two cats.
ThursdayLily Zhu – Washington State UniversityHow to Unlock Your Creativity
Dr. Lily Zhu is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Management, Information Systems, and Entrepreneurship at Washington State University’s Carson College of Business. She received her Ph.D. in Organization and Management from the Paul Merage School of Business, University of California, Irvine. Broadly speaking, Dr. Zhu’s research examines the implications of people’s emotional experiences and how they can manage their emotions in ways that improve performance and wellbeing. Her first stream of research examines the role of emotions and emotion management in entrepreneurship and creativity. Her second stream of research examines how emotions shape the way individual employees and corporate executives make decisions. Her research won the Best Paper Award and the Distinguished Paper Award from the Academy of Management annual meetings.
FridayJeffrey Wood – University of MissouriChanges in Forest Behavior after Crossing a Drought Threshold
I’m an Assistant Professor in the School of Natural Resources at the University of Missouri. My research is broadly aimed at improving scientific understanding and prediction of how ecosystems interact with weather and climate. A major area of recent interest is focused on how forest behavior is influenced by drought. I use a variety of techniques to measure the “breathing” and the “pulse” of trees and the whole forest. My research is highly collaborative and involves scientists from different fields of study.
In a recent study, I worked with collaborators from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, CalTech and UCLA on research where we discovered what we called the “ecosystem wilting point”, a threshold defining changes in whole-forest behavior under drought.
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How forests react to droughts might be key to planning for a warmer future. Jeffrey Wood, assistant professor of biometeorology at the school of natural resources at the University of Missouri, examines this issue. I’m an Assistant Professor in the School of Natural Resources at the University of Missouri. My research is broadly aimed at […]
You can choose to think more creatively. Lily Zhu, assistant professor in the department of management, information systems, and entrepreneurship at Washington State University, explores how. Dr. Lily Zhu is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Management, Information Systems, and Entrepreneurship at Washington State University’s Carson College of Business. She received her Ph.D. in […]
Who was the inspiration for Wonder Woman? Gregory Kaliss, assistant professor of history at York College of Pennsylvania, looks into one possible undiscovered influence. Dr. Gregory Kaliss is an Assistant Professor of History at York College of Pennsylvania and author of the forthcoming book Beyond the Black Power Salute: Athlete Activism in an Era of […]
Would you be comfortable interacting with a digital human? Lingyao Yuan, assistant professor in the department of information system and business analytics at Iowa State University, looks into this question. LINGYAO (IVY) YUAN is an Assistant Professor of the Department of Information Systems and Business Analytics at the Debbie and Jerry Ivy College of Business […]
How do we stop drivers from repeatedly driving drunk? Cailyn Green, assistant professor of addiction studies in the School of Human Services at SUNY Empire State College, discusses one way to cut down on recidivism. Cailyn Green, MS, Ph.D., CASAC is the Assistant Professor of Addiction Studies at the State University of New York, Empire […]
This Week on The Academic Minute 2023.04.24MondayCailyn Green, assistant professor of addiction studies in the School of Human Services at SUNY Empire State College, discusses one way to cut down on recidivism for those driving under the influence.
TuesdayLingyao Yuan, assistant professor in the department of information system and business analytics at Iowa State University, looks into working with digital humans.
WednesdayGregory Kaliss, assistant professor of history at York College of Pennsylvania, looks into one possible undiscovered influence for Wonder Woman.
ThursdayLily Zhu, assistant professor in the department of management, information systems, and entrepreneurship at Washington State University, explores how you can choose to think more creatively.
FridayJeffrey Wood, assistant professor of biometeorology at the school of natural resources at the University of Missouri, examines how forests react to droughts might be key to planning for a warmer future.
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The Academic Minute from 4.17 – 4.21MondayRobin Craig – University of Southern CaliforniaWithout Water, Native American Tribes Hit Hard by the Pandemic
Robin Craig is the Robert C. Packard Trustee Chair in Law at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law, where her research focuses on “all things water,” especially the impact of climate change on freshwater resources and the oceans, the Clean Water Act, and the intersection of water and energy law.
TuesdayThomas Petersen – University of Southern CaliforniaConcrete Built Half our World, But May be Harming It
Dr. Petersen started working as an Assistant Professor in the Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering in Fall 2022. Prior to arriving at the University of Southern California, he spent three years as a Senior Research Engineer at ExxonMobil, where he developed technologies to improve the integrity of wells during construction and operation. Specifically, he worked on composite fluid and solid systems that reduce pressure and stress developments in confined, high-temperature, and high-pressure environments. At USC, his research focuses on modeling the electrochemistry and dissolution-precipitation kinetics of reactive, solidifying systems; developing models and experiments to understand the growth in elasticity and internal stresses during cement hydration; and designing composite materials with new functionality for civil engineering applications.
Wednesday
Travis Williams – University of Southern CaliforniaMaking Medicine from Garbage in the Ocean
Travis Williams is a professor of chemistry at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences whose research focuses on using tools from inorganic, organic, and analytical chemistry to solve problems in synthesis, catalysis, and medicine. Williams’ research group is currently designing catalytic systems for synthetic fuels and fine chemicals to reclaiming value from waste polymers and materials.
ThursdayBistra Dilkina – University of Southern CaliforniaIn a Warmer World, Half of All Species are on the Move. Where are they Going?
Bistra Dilkina is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southern California. She is also the co-Director of the USC Center for AI in Society (CAIS), a joint effort between the USC Viterbi School of Engineering and the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work. Dilkina’s research focuses on advancing the state of the art in combinatorial optimization techniques for solving real-world large-scale problems, particularly ones that arise in sustainability areas such as biodiversity conservation planning and urban planning. Her work is at the intersection of discrete optimization and machine learning. One key area of research is designing machine-learning-driven combinatorial optimization algorithms, by leveraging the plethora of data generated by solving distributions of real world optimization problems.
FridayEssam Heggy – University of Southern CaliforniaCrisis on the Nile
Essam Heggy is a Research Scientist in the Department of Electrical Engineering & Electrophysics at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, and at the Rosetta mission project office at the NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Heggy obtained both MSc and PhD respectively in 1999 and 2002 on Terrestrial and Planetary Radar Studies with distinguished honors from the Sorbonne University in Paris, France. His research focuses on understanding water evolution in Earth’s arid environments as well as planetary surfaces using radar surface and subsurface characterization methods.
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On University of Southern California Week: The Nile River is an important waterway facing an uncertain future. Essam Heggy, research scientist in the department of electrical engineering and electrophysics, determines the issues facing the river and its communities. Essam Heggy is a Research Scientist in the Department of Electrical Engineering & Electrophysics at the USC […]
On University of Southern California Week: In a warmer world, half of all species are on the move. Where are they going? Bistra Dilkina, associate professor of computer science, examines this. Bistra Dilkina is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southern California. She is also the co-Director of the USC Center […]
On University of Southern California Week: What to do with the plastic in the ocean is a big question for our future. Travis Williams, professor of chemistry, looks at one possible solution. Travis Williams is a professor of chemistry at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences whose research focuses on using tools […]
On University of Southern California Week: Concrete has been an important part of our world, but at what cost? Thomas Petersen, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, delves in to find out. Dr. Petersen started working as an Assistant Professor in the Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering in Fall 2022. Prior […]
On University of Southern California Week: Lack of access to water can bring dire consequences. Robin Craig, Robert C. Packard Trustee Chair in Law and professor of environmental law, explores how this affects fighting COVID-19. Robin Craig is the Robert C. Packard Trustee Chair in Law at the University of Southern California Gould School of […]
University of Southern California Week on The Academic Minute 2023.04.17MondayRobin Craig, Robert C. Packard Trustee Chair in Law and professor of environmental law, explores how a lack of water affects fighting COVID-19 for Native American tribes.
TuesdayThomas Petersen, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, delves in to find out whether the concrete that built our world is also harming it.
WednesdayTravis Williams, professor of chemistry, looks at one possible solution to the Pacific Garbage Patch.
ThursdayBistra Dilkina, associate professor of computer science, examines where species on the move are going in a warming world.
FridayEssam Heggy, research scientist in the department of electrical engineering and electrophysics, determines the issues facing the Nile river and its communities.
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The Academic Minute from 4.10 – 4.14MondayKate Mulligan – University of TorontoLoneliness as a Health Issue
Dr. Kate Mulligan is an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto and the Senior Director of the Canadian Institute for Social Prescribing. Her work focuses on advancing community-scale leadership and intervention in health and health systems.
TuesdayJoanne Dickson – Edith Cowan UniversityMentally Flexibility is Key to Protecting Wellbeing in People with Chronic Pain
Joanne M. Dickson is a Professor of Psychology and Mental Health in the School of Arts & Humanities, at Edith Cowan University (ECU), Australia. Her main research focuses on mental health and wellbeing, particularly from a goal-motivational, prospective cognition and affect perspective.
Wednesday
Meghann Jarchow – University of South DakotaWorking in Our Place for Visionary Sustainability
Dr. Meghann Jarchow is chair and associate professor in the Department of Sustainability & Environment at the University of South Dakota. Dr. Jarchow’s research program generally addresses two distinct – but overlapping – questions: how can the rural landscapes in this region be more environmentally and socially sustainable, and how should sustainability education be structured and taught?
ThursdayWilliam C. Kirby – Harvard UniversityThe End of American Academic Leadership
William C. Kirby is T. M. Chang Professor of China Studies at Harvard University and Spangler Family Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. He is the author of Empires of Ideas: Creating the Modern University from Germany to America to China
(Harvard University Press, 2022). Follow him on Twitter @BillKirbyHBS.
FridayHarvey Chochinov – University of ManitobaWhy is Being a Patient Such a Difficult Pill to Swallow
Dr. Harvey Max Chochinov is a Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Manitoba and a Senior Scientist at CancerCare Manitoba Research Institute. His research in palliative care has resulted in more than 300 career publications, examining the patient experience of approaching death. His latest book is entitled Dignity in Care: The Human Side of Medicine, published by Oxford University Press. He is an Officer in the Order of Canada and an inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame.
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Being a patient can be difficult for many reasons. Harvey Chochinov, distinguished professor of psychiatry at the University of Manitoba, details how to make it easier. Dr. Harvey Max Chochinov is a Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Manitoba and a Senior Scientist at CancerCare Manitoba Research Institute. His research in palliative care […]
Just because you’re the best now, doesn’t mean you always will be. William C. Kirby, T. M. Chang professor of China Studies at Harvard University and Spangler Family Professor or Business Administration at Harvard Business School, details how American academic leadership may be threatened. William C. Kirby is T. M. Chang Professor of China Studies […]
Thinking locally can lead to a more sustainable future. Meghann Jarchow, chair and associate professor in the department of sustainability and environment at the University of South Dakota, discusses how. Dr. Meghann Jarchow is chair and associate professor in the Department of Sustainability & Environment at the University of South Dakota. Dr. Jarchow’s research program […]
Are you in pain? Joanne Dickson, professor of psychology and mental health at Edith Cowan University, explores how mental flexibility can help. Joanne M. Dickson is a Professor of Psychology and Mental Health in the School of Arts & Humanities, at Edith Cowan University (ECU), Australia. Her main research focuses on mental health and wellbeing, […]
Loneliness is a growing health problem, but how do medical professionals treat it? Kate Mulligan, assistant professor of social and behavioral health sciences at the University of Toronto, has some suggestions. Dr. Kate Mulligan is an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto and the Senior Director of the Canadian Institute for Social Prescribing. Her […]
This Week on The Academic Minute 2023.04.10MondayKate Mulligan, assistant professor of social and behavioral health sciences at the University of Toronto, says loneliness is a growing health problem, but how do medical professionals treat it?
TuesdayJoanne Dickson, professor of psychology and mental health at Edith Cowan University, explores how mental flexibility can help those with chronic pain.
WednesdayMeghann Jarchow, chair and associate professor in the department of sustainability and environment at the University of South Dakota, discusses how thinking locally can lead to a more sustainable future.
ThursdayWilliam C. Kirby, T. M. Chang professor of China Studies at Harvard University and Spangler Family Professor or Business Administration at Harvard Business School, details how American academic leadership may be threatened.
FridayHarvey Chochinov, distinguished professor of psychiatry at the University of Manitoba, details how to make being a patient easier.
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The Academic Minute from 4.03 – 4.07MondaySarah Abreveya Stein – University of California Los AngelesThe Intersectional Space of a Vichy French WWII Labor Camp in the Algerian Sahara
Sarah Abrevaya Stein is Professor of History, Sady and Ludwig Kahn Director of the Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies, and Viterbi Family Chair in Mediterranean Jewish Studies at UCLA. She is the author and editor of ten books, including, most recently, with Aomar Boum, Wartime North Africa: a Documentary History, 1934-1950 (Stanford University Press, with the cooperation of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2022) and Family Papers: A Sephardic Journey Through the Twentieth Century (FSG/Macmillan, 2019).
TuesdayDawn Brancati – Yale UniversityLocking Down ISIS
Senior Lecturer in the political science department at Yale University, who studies peacebuilding, especially in relation to democracy and democratic institutions
Wednesday
Joseph Larkin – University of FloridaWhat Do Babies’ Dirty Diapers Tell Us About COVID-19 Vaccination
Joseph Larkin III is an immunologist specializing in autoimmune diseases and novel treatments for these conditions. He is also interested in understanding how human milk affects infants’ immune systems.
ThursdayAndrew Neff – Emory UniversityDrug-Delivery Technology Opens New Doors for Psychiatric Treatments
Andrew Neff, Visiting Assistant Professor of Psychology at Oxford College of Emory University, researches mental health, education, and new technology developments in neuroscience. His Podcast and Audiobocalled Neighborhood Neuroscience is available on most major podcast platforms.
FridayKimia Ghobadi – Johns Hopkins UniversityOne Size Doesn’t Fit All: An A.I. Approach to Healthier Eating
Kimia Ghobadi is a John C. Malone Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Systems Engineering at Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering and an associate director of its Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
Her research focuses on using mathematical models, optimization techniques, and data analytics to solve problems in complex systems, particularly in healthcare and medical decision-making environments. She develops models and solution techniques in inverse optimization, mixed-integer programming, and online algorithms. Current projects include inverse optimization models for personalized diets and radiation therapy treatment plans, capacity management and resource allocation for healthcare systems, COVID-19 simulation and analytics, hospital scheduling and process efficiency, mobility in frail and elderly patients, and smart ICUs.
Before joining JHU in 2019, Ghobadi was a postdoctoral fellow at MIT Sloan School of Management and collaborated closely with the Massachusetts General Hospital on improving healthcare operations.
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A.I. has been getting mixed press lately, but can it help us become healthier? Kimia Ghobadi, John C. Malone assistant professor in the department of civil and systems engineering at Johns Hopkins University, considers algorithms and diets. Kimia Ghobadi is a John C. Malone Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Systems Engineering at […]
New psychiatric treatments could be on the way to the brain. Andrew Neff, visiting assistant professor of psychology at Oxford College of Emory University, discusses the benefits. Andrew Neff, Visiting Assistant Professor of Psychology at Oxford College of Emory University, researches mental health, education, and new technology developments in neuroscience. His Podcast and Audiobocalled Neighborhood […]
Mothers may be protecting their babies against COVID-19 by passing along antibodies. Joseph Larkin, associate professor of microbiology and cell science at the University of Florida, describes the process. Joseph Larkin III is an immunologist specializing in autoimmune diseases and novel treatments for these conditions. He is also interested in understanding how human milk affects […]
The COVID lockdowns may have had unintended benefits. Dawn Brancati, senior lecturer in the political science department at Yale University, looks into one. Senior Lecturer in the political science department at Yale University, who studies peacebuilding, especially in relation to democracy and democratic institutions. Locking Down ISIS At the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, non-state […]
There are still stories from World War II that need to be told. Sarah Abreveya Stein, professor of history at the University of California Los Angeles, listens to voices of the past. Sarah Abrevaya Stein is Professor of History, Sady and Ludwig Kahn Director of the Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies, and Viterbi […]
This Week on The Academic Minute 2023.04.03MondaySarah Abreveya Stein, professor of history at the University of California Los Angeles, listens to voices of the past for stories from World War II that need to be told.
TuesdayDawn Brancati, senior lecturer in the political science department at Yale University, looks into an unintended benefit of COVID-19 lockdowns.
WednesdayJoseph Larkin, associate professor of microbiology and cell science at the University of Florida, describes what a baby’s dirty diaper can tell us about COVID-19 vaccinations.
ThursdayAndrew Neff, visiting assistant professor of psychology at Oxford College of Emory University, discusses the benefits of a new drug-delivery technology for the brain.
FridayKimia Ghobadi, John C. Malone assistant professor in the department of civil and systems engineering at Johns Hopkins University, considers algorithms and diets.
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The Academic Minute from 3.27 – 3.31MondayMoussa N’Gom – Rensselaer Polytechnic InstituteOptics: The Future of Computation and Medicine
Moussa N’Gom is an assistant professor in the Department of Physics, Applied Physics, and Astronomy at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Following an early career in industry as a senior research scientist in ultrafast lasers, optical communications, and materials processing, N’Gom joined the Center for Ultrafast Optical Sciences at the University of Michigan. There, he explored light transmission through highly scattering media through light manipulation or wavefront shaping.
The newly emerging field of optical wavefront shaping involves the ability to manipulate light fields both spatially and temporally. It has largely been enabled by the availability of spatial light modulators, or SLMs. SLMs are used to create arbitrarily complex light fields that are now powerful elements of the optics toolbox. An SLM also provides the means to manipulate the fundamental constituents of classical light or single photons, which obey the laws of quantum physics.
TuesdayWolf Gruner – University of Southern California#LastSeen Project: Unknown Pictures, Untold Stories of the Holocaust
Wolf Gruner is the Shapell-Guerin Chair in Jewish Studies and Professor of History at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles since 2008, and Founding Director of the USC Dornsife Center for Advanced Genocide Research since 2014. He is an appointed member of the Academic Committee at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum since 2017. He received his PhD and habilitation from the Technical University Berlin. Gruner is the author of ten books, including Jewish Forced Labor under the Nazis. Economic Needs and Nazi Racial Aims with Cambridge University Press (2006) and Parias de la Patria“. El mito de la liberación de los indígenas en la República de Bolivia 1825-1890 (2015) and the prize winning The Holocaust in Bohemia and Moravia. Czech Initiatives, German Policies, Jewish Responses (2019). He also coedited four more books, including „Resisting Persecution. Jews and Their Petitions during the Holocaust” (2020), and “New Perspectives on Kristallnacht: After 80 Years, the Nazi Pogrom in Global Comparison” (2019). His new study Resisters. How Jews fought Persecution in Hitler’s Germany about forgotten stories of widespread individual Jewish resistance is forthcoming with Yale University Press in summer 2023.
Wednesday
Arianna Maffei – Stony Brook UniversityChildren’s Food Experiences Shapes Grown-Ups’ Taste Preferences
I am a neuroscientist and I study how experience and learning affect the brain. I obtained my Bachelor degree in Biology in 1997 and my PhD in Biophysics in 2002, both from the University of Pavia (pronunciation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFoMSPIA_3g) in Italy. In 2002, I moved to the United States to continue my training in neuroscience at Brandeis University, under the guidance of Dr. Gina Turrigiano. In 2008, I joined the faculty at Stony Brook University where I established my research group. The goal of my research is to determine how the experience with taste and food influence the development and function of brain circuits.
ThursdayMarilynn Desmond – Binghamton UniversityChristine de Pizan on Gender and Warfare in the Middle Ages
Marilynn Desmond holds a doctorate in Comparative Literature from the University of California at Berkeley. She has published extensively on the reception of Classical texts in medieval vernacular literatures, especially French and English.
FridayDavid Drake – University of Wisconsin-MadisonHuman and Coyote Co-Existence in Urban Areas
David Drake is a Professor and Extension Wildlife Specialist in the Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research and extension programs primarily focus on wildlife and wildlife damage management in human-dominated landscapes. David also teaches an undergraduate course on wildlife damage management. David received his Ph.D in Forestry from North Carolina State University, a M.S. degree in Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences from Texas A&M University, and a B.A degree in Biology from Macalester College.
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Have you heard the howl of a coyote nearby? David Drake, professor and extension wildlife specialist in the Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, explores human and coyote coexistence in urban areas. David Drake is a Professor and Extension Wildlife Specialist in the Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology at […]
Christine de Pizan on Gender and Warfare in the Middle AgesThe post Marilynn Desmond, Binghamton University – Christine de Pizan on Gender and Warfare in the Middle Ages appeared first on The Academic Minute.
Why do we like the food we like as adults? Arianna Maffei, professor of neurobiology and behavior at Stony Brook University, looks at the early years to find out. I am a neuroscientist and I study how experience and learning affect the brain. I obtained my Bachelor degree in Biology in 1997 and my PhD […]
Photos of the Holocaust are still being found. Wolf Gruner, Shapell-Guerin Chair in Jewish studies and professor of history at the University of Southern California, explores the history still to be told through images. Wolf Gruner is the Shapell-Guerin Chair in Jewish Studies and Professor of History at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles […]
Light can be a useful and non-invasive tool in medicine. Moussa N’Gom, assistant professor in the department of physics, applied physics, and astronomy at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, explains how. Moussa N’Gom is an assistant professor in the Department of Physics, Applied Physics, and Astronomy at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Following an early career in industry as […]
This Week on The Academic Minute 2023.03.27MondayMoussa N’Gom, assistant professor in the department of physics, applied physics, and astronomy at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, explains how optics is the future.
TuesdayWolf Gruner, Shapell-Guerin Chair in Jewish studies and professor of history at the University of South California, explores the history of the Holocaust can still to be told through images.
WednesdayArianna Maffei, professor of neurobiology and behavior at Stony Brook University, looks at the early years to find out how our tastes for what foods we enjoy develops.
ThursdayMarilynn Desmond, distinguished research professor at Binghamton University, details how writers who lived through war can help bring different perspectives to these conflicts.
FridayDavid Drake, professor and extension wildlife specialist in the Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, explores human and coyote coexistence in urban areas.
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The Academic Minute from 3.20 – 3.24MondayOladele Ogunseitan – University of California, IrvineDisentangling the Worldwide Web of E-Waste and Climate Change
Oladele (Dele) Ogunseitan holds the University of California Presidential Chair at Irvine where he served for more than a decade as Professor and Founding Chair of the Department of Population Health & Disease Prevention. He co-directs the World Institute for Sustainable Development of Materials (WISDOM). He served on the State of California’s Green Ribbon Science Panel, and the State’s Community Protection and Hazardous Waste Reduction Panel for the Department of Toxic Substances Control. Dele was a Global Environmental Assessment Fellow at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government; and a National Academies’ Jefferson Science Fellow in the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs. He earned the State Department’s meritorious honor award for exceptional teamwork and contributions to the successful achievement of U.S. goals at the third United Nations Environment Assembly. Dele is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; an elected fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology; and an elected fellow of Collegium Ramazzini.
TuesdayJerald Podair – Lawrence UniversityWhen History Rhymes
Jerald Podair is Professor of History and Robert S. French Professor of American Studies Emeritus at Lawrence University.
He is the author of The Strike That Changed New York: Blacks, Whites, and the Ocean Hill Brownsville Crisis (Yale University Press), which was a finalist for the Organization of American Historians’ Liberty Legacy Foundation Award and honorable mention for the Urban History Association’s Book Award in North American urban history.
He is also the author of City of Dreams: Dodger Stadium and the Birth of Modern Los Angeles (Princeton University Press), which received the 2018 Harold Seymour Medal from the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) for best book on the history of baseball and was a finalist for the 2018 PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing.
His other books include Bayard Rustin: American Dreamer; The Struggle for Equality (co-editor); American Conversations (co-author); and Republican Populist: Spiro Agnew and the Origins of Donald Trump’s America (co-author).
He is co-editor of The Routledge History of the 20th Century United States.
Wednesday
David Bakhurst – Queen’s University OntarioWhy Education Matters to Philosophy
David Bakhurst is Charlton Professor of Philosophy at Queen’s University, Ontario. His book, Consciousness and Revolution in Soviet Philosophy (Cambridge, 1991), represents the first critical history of Soviet philosophical culture. Since then, in addition to continuing his work on Russian thought, Bakhurst has written on epistemology, metaphysics, Wittgenstein, ethics and philosophy of education. Recent publications include The Formation of Reason (Wiley-Blackwell, 2011) and Education and Conversation (Bloomsbury, 2016), the latter co-edited with Paul Fairfield. Bakhurst has held visiting positions at All Souls College, Oxford, UCL Institute of Education, and the Australian National University, Canberra. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the Executive Editor of the Journal of Philosophy of Education.
ThursdayTed Hadzi-Antich – Austin Community CollegeAsking the Great Questions at Community Colleges
Ted Hadzi-Antich Jr. has been teaching “great books” to students at Austin Community College for 15 years, where he founded the Great Questions Seminars, in which community college students of all backgrounds engage in the thrill of discussion-based learning aimed at becoming more thoughtful about some of the persistent questions that confront us as human beings. Ted is the founder and Executive Director of The Great Questions Foundation (www.tgqf.org), which is a registered 501c3 aimed at extending that effort to community colleges across our nation.
FridayBritteny Howell – University of Alaska AnchorageWhat We Need to Age Healthy May Be The Hardest Thing to Obtain
Britteny M. Howell, PhD, CPG, CDP® is Assistant Professor of Health Sciences, Director of the Healthy Aging Research Laboratory, and affiliate faculty in the Department of Anthropology and at the National Resource Center for Alaska Native Elders at the University of Alaska Anchorage. Her first book, Anthropological Perspectives on Aging, was published in 2023 by University Press of Florida. She is also an active member of the Gerontological Society of America’s (GSA) Academy of Gerontology in Higher Education (AGHE).
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Your physical space is very important as you age. Britteny Howell, assistant professor of health sciences and director of the healthy aging research laboratory at the University of Alaska Anchorage, says your health could be on the line. Britteny M. Howell, PhD, CPG, CDP® is Assistant Professor of Health Sciences, Director of the Healthy Aging […]
Students come into higher education institutions with a lot of questions about their futures Ted Hadzi-Antich, associate professor of government at Austin Community College, explores one way to help them get answers. Ted Hadzi-Antich Jr. has been teaching “great books” to students at Austin Community College for 15 years, where he founded the Great Questions […]
The field of philosophy is changing. David Bakhurst, Charlton professor of philosophy at Queen’s University, Ontario, looks into one instance why. David Bakhurst is Charlton Professor of Philosophy at Queen’s University, Ontario. His book, Consciousness and Revolution in Soviet Philosophy (Cambridge, 1991), represents the first critical history of Soviet philosophical culture. Since then, in addition […]
Being a sore loser in a presidential race has historical precedent. Jerald Podair, professor of history at Lawrence University, explains. Jerald Podair is Professor of History and Robert S. French Professor of American Studies Emeritus at Lawrence University. He is the author of The Strike That Changed New York: Blacks, Whites, and the Ocean Hill […]
E-waste is a climate change issue. Oladele Ogunseitan, professor in the department of population health and disease prevention at the University of California, Irvine, looks into combating this. Oladele (Dele) Ogunseitan holds the University of California Presidential Chair at Irvine where he served for more than a decade as Professor and Founding Chair of the […]
This Week on The Academic Minute 2023.03.13MondayOladele Ogunseitan, professor in the department of population health and disease prevention at the University of California, Irvine, looks into combating e-waste as a climate change issue.
TuesdayJerald Podair, professor of history at Lawrence University, explains how being a sore loser in a presidential race has historical precedent.
WednesdayDavid Bakhurst, Charlton professor of philosophy at Queen’s University, Ontario, looks into one instance where the field of philosophy is changing.
ThursdayTed Hadzi-Antich, associate professor of government at Austin Community College, explores one way to help students get answers to the Great Questions.
FridayBritteny Howell, assistant professor of health sciences and director of the healthy aging research laboratory at the University of Alaska Anchorage, says your health could be on the line when it comes to your physical space as you age.
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The Academic Minute from 3.13 – 3.17MondayChristopher Jeansonne – Rensselaer Polytechnic InstituteGameful Learning
Christopher Jeansonne is a media educator, a media maker, and a scholar focusing on critical media pedagogy. His research involves practical and theoretical investigations of pedagogical methods that help students explore how identities are established within and articulated through media. His teaching and research often center on popular culture media, including film, television, comics, games, and transmedial genres such as superheroes, science fiction, and horror.
TuesdayBrett Fajen – Rensselaer Polytechnic InstituteVision
Brett Fajen conducts research on perception and action. His main interests are the visual control of locomotion and perceptual-motor learning and adaptation. His research on these topics contributes to the development of the ecological and dynamical systems approaches to perception and action.
Wednesday
Aparna Gupta – Rensselaer Polytechnic InstituteThe Future of Fintech
Aparna Gupta is a professor of quantitative finance and co-director of the NSF IUCRC Center for Research toward Advancing Financial Technologies (CRAFT) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Dr. Gupta also serves as the associate dean for academic affairs of the Lally School of Management at RPI.
Dr. Gupta was a visiting researcher at US SEC in Washington, D.C. for three years. Her research interest is in financial decision support, risk management, and applying mathematical modeling, machine learning, and financial engineering techniques for risk management in technology-enabled network services, as well as risk management in the interconnected financial institutions and financial markets. She has worked on several U.S. NSF and U.S. DoE funded research projects in financial innovations for risk management.
ThursdayMarcus Carter – Rensselaer Polytechnic InstituteIntertidal Objects: A Design Solution for Coastal Erosion
MARCUS CARTER is an assistant professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a partner at OBJECT TERRITORIES, a critical design practice located in New York and Hong Kong. Marcus’ interests lie in the machinations of the contemporary urban environment as well as architecture’s catalytic potential in this climate. He has broad experience designing projects in North America, Asia, and Europe including master plans, office & hotel towers, institutional buildings and residential projects. Marcus holds a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Kansas, studying in Rome during that time, and a Master of Architecture from the Yale School of Architecture. While at Yale, Marcus was editor of Perspecta, the Yale Architectural Journal. Marcus is a member of the American Institute of Architects and a registered architect in New York. In addition to Rensselaer, he has taught at the Parsons School of Design, New York Institute of Technology, and Washington University and has been a student mentor for the Architectural League of New York and the Architecture is Free Foundation.
FridayShayla Sawyer – Rensselaer Polytechnic InstituteImproving Biosensors for Ecological Monitoring
Shayla Sawyer is a professor in the Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering Department at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Her Nano-Bio Optoelectronics research program expands the fundamental understanding, engineering processes, and potential applications of hybrid inorganic/organic materials for optoelectronic devices and sensors. This includes the fabrication of nanomaterials from bacteria, fabrication in a solution process, and the development of optoelectronic sensors and complimentary systems. The optoelectronic devices are comprised of hybrid inorganic/organic materials what may include semiconductor metal oxide nanostructures, conductive polymers, conductive nanostructures, and bio-chemical solutions. Her overall research goal is aimed at effectively fabricating and characterizing novel materials and sensors with consideration of systems that require sensitivity and/or selectivity to bring quantitative measurements in typically qualitative worlds. NSF Lighting Enabled Systems and Applications Research Center, NSF Divison of Biological Infrastructure, National Security Technologies/Department of Energy, NSF Division on Research and Learning, and the NSF GK-12 Community Situated Research Center are a few recent funding resources for her work.
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On Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Week: Knowing how you learn best can be crucial for your education. Shayla Sawyer, professor of electrical, computer, and systems engineering, explains why. Shayla Sawyer is a professor in the Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering Department at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Her Nano-Bio Optoelectronics research program expands the fundamental understanding, engineering processes, […]
On Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Week: Coastlines are a battleground in the face of sea level rise. Marcus Carter, assistant professor in the school of architecture, explains why design matters. MARCUS CARTER is an assistant professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a partner at OBJECT TERRITORIES, a critical design practice located in New York and Hong […]
On Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Week: Technology can be used to tackle climate change. Aparna Gupta, professor of quantitative finance at Rensselaer Polytechnic institute, examines this. Aparna Gupta is a professor of quantitative finance and co-director of the NSF IUCRC Center for Research toward Advancing Financial Technologies (CRAFT) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Dr. Gupta also serves […]
On Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Week: There are always obstacles in our way. Brett Fajen, associate dean for academic affairs and professor, looks at how we navigate this by tracking our eye movements. Brett Fajen conducts research on perception and action. His main interests are the visual control of locomotion and perceptual-motor learning and adaptation. His […]
On Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Week: Can games be a useful component of learning in the classroom? Christopher Jeansonne, lecturer of communication and media, says yes. Christopher Jeansonne is a media educator, a media maker, and a scholar focusing on critical media pedagogy. His research involves practical and theoretical investigations of pedagogical methods that help students […]
RENSSELAER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE WEEK on The Academic Minute 2023.03.13MondayChristopher Jeansonne, lecturer of communication and media, says games be a useful component of learning in the classroom.
TuesdayBrett Fajen, associate dean for academic affairs and professor, looks at how we navigate spaces by tracking our eye movements.
WednesdayAparna Gupta, professor of quantitative finance at Rensselaer Polytechnic institute, examines the future of financial technology.
ThursdayMarcus Carter, assistant professor in the school of architecture, explains why design matters when fighting coastal erosion.
FridayShayla Sawyer, professor of electrical, computer, and systems engineering, explains knowing how you learn best can be crucial for your education.
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The Academic Minute from 3.06 – 3.10MondayLisa Jean Moore – Purchase CollegeSpider Goats
Lisa Jean Moore is a medical sociologist and SUNY Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies at Purchase College, State University of New York. Her scholarship is located at the intersections of sociology of health and medicine, science and technology studies, feminist studies, animal studies, and body studies. She’s written books about horseshoe crabs, honeybees, transgenic goats, and women’s health.
TuesdayMichel Bruneau – University at BuffaloThe Blessings of Disaster
Michel Bruneau is a SUNY Distinguished Professor at the University at Buffalo, a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineers and of the American Society of Civil Engineers, and Emeritus Director of a National Science Foundation’s national engineering research center focused on preventing disasters from extreme events. He has worked for more than three decades as part of multidisciplinary teams advancing the goal of disaster resilience and has received more than 20 prestigious awards for this innovative work, including a lifetime achievement award. Michel Bruneau is the author of “The Blessings of Disaster”, an entertaining non-fiction book that Publishers Weekly called ”an engrossing study of human complacency, myopia, and faulty risk perception on a grand scale.
Wednesday
Russell Briggs – SUNY College of Environmental Science and ForestrySoil: The Biogeochemical Membrane at the Intersection of Planet Earth’s Global SystemsRussell Briggs, Distinguished Teaching Professor, has been teaching Soil Science courses at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) since 1995. As Director of the Forest Soils Analytical Laboratory, Dr. Briggs oversees inorganic chemical analyses of plant tissue and soil samples. He also serves as the Director of the Division of Environmental Science at ESF, which provides oversight for the B.S. in Environmental Science, the B.S. in Environmental Health, and the Graduate Program in Environmental Science. Russ is a past Chair for the Forest, Range and Wildland Soils Division of the Soil Science Society of America. Prior to joining the faculty at ESF, he was Associate Research Professor at the University of Maine Cooperative Forestry Research Unit. His research interests include land management impacts on water quality and site productivity, Christmas tree nutrition, and carbon cycling in terrestrial systems.
ThursdayIan Reifowitz – SUNY Empire StateRepublic of Democracy?
Ian Reifowitz is a SUNY Distinguished Professor, and has taught history at SUNY-Empire State College since 2002.
Additionally, Ian is the author of three books: The Tribalization of Politics: How Rush Limbaugh’s Race-Baiting Rhetoric on the Obama Presidency Paved the Way for Trump, Obama’s America: A Transformative Vision of Our National Identity, and Imagining an Austrian Nation: Joseph Samuel Bloch and the Search for a Multiethnic Austrian Identity, 1846–1919.
His articles have also appeared in the Daily News, Newsday, the New Republic, In These Times, and the Post-Star among other outlets. He has published a number of academic articles, most recently in The Forum: A Journal of Applied Research in Contemporary Politics.
FridayLou Roper – SUNY New PaltzMaking ‘Slavery’ Normal in English America
Lou Roper is SUNY Distinguished Professor of History at the State University of New York—New Paltz (USA) and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the New York Academy of History. A recipient of a SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship, he is the author or editor of seven books including, most recently, Advancing Empire: English Interests and Overseas Expansion, 1613-1688 (Cambridge University Press, 2016) and The Torrid Zone: Caribbean Colonization and Cultural Interaction in the Long Seventeenth Century (University of South Carolina Press, 2018).
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On SUNY Distinguished Professor Week: The history of slavery should continue to be talked about. Lou Roper, SUNY distinguished professor of history at SUNY New Paltz, explains why. Lou Roper is SUNY Distinguished Professor of History at the State University of New York—New Paltz (USA) and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the […]
On SUNY Distinguished Professor Week: Is the United States a republic or a democracy, and why does it matter? Ian Reifowitz, SUNY distinguished professor of history at SUNY Empire State College, breaks this question down. Ian Reifowitz is a SUNY Distinguished Professor, and has taught history at SUNY-Empire State College since 2002. Additionally, Ian is […]
On SUNY Distinguished Professor Week: We take the ground for granted. Russell Briggs, distinguished teaching professor at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, examines the complexity of what is below our feet. Russell Briggs, Distinguished Teaching Professor, has been teaching Soil Science courses at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) since […]
On SUNY Distinguished Professor Week: Do positives come out of disasters? Michel Bruneau, SUNY distinguished professor in the department of civil, structural, and environmental engineering at the University at Buffalo, examines this question. Michel Bruneau is a SUNY Distinguished Professor at the University at Buffalo, a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineers and of […]
On SUNY Distinguished Professor Week: Goats and spiders can help make things lighter. Lisa Jean Moore, SUNY distinguished professor of sociology and gender studies at SUNY Purchase, looks for a more sustainable source of silk. Lisa Jean Moore is a medical sociologist and SUNY Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies at Purchase College, State […]
This Week on The Academic Minute 2023.03.06
MondayLisa Jean Moore, SUNY distinguished professor of sociology and gender studies at SUNY Purchase, looks for a more sustainable source of silk.
TuesdayMichel Bruneau, SUNY distinguished professor in the department of civil, structural, and environmental engineering at the University at Buffalo, examines if positives can come out of a disaster.
WednesdayRussell Briggs, distinguished teaching professor at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, examines the complexity of what is below our feet.
ThursdayIan Reifowitz, SUNY distinguished professor of history at SUNY Empire State College, breaks down whether the United States a republic or a democracy, and why it matters.
FridayLou Roper, SUNY distinguished professor of history at SUNY New Paltz, explains why the history of slavery should continue to be talked about in regards to English America.
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The Academic Minute from 2.27 – 3.03MondayToria Herd – Penn State UniversityThe Teen Mental Health Crisis Continues to Worsen
Dr. Toria Herd received her PhD in Developmental Psychology from Virginia Tech in 2021. She received her M.S. in Developmental Psychology at Virginia Tech and her B.A. in Psychology from the State University of New York College at Geneseo.
TuesdayRachel Hadas – Rutgers UniversityPolarization: Then and Now
Rachel Hadas is Board of Governor’s professor at Rutgers-University Newark, where she taught English for many years. Among her specialties were poetry and Classics in translation. She author of more than twenty books of poetry, essays, and translations.
Wednesday
Christopher Burnett – University of HoustonCollege and University Accreditation Sanction and Enrollment
Christopher Burnett is a Postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at the University of Houston. His research focuses on community colleges, student success, accountability, and accreditation.
ThursdayAngela Murolo – St. Francis CollegeRe-Entering Society: Elderly Support Post-Release and Successful Community-Based Aging
Angela S. Murolo, PhD is an Assistant Professor at St. Francis College in Brooklyn, NY. Her dissertation investigated older people’s experiences on parole and parole officer’s views on working with them. She has written several articles on correctional responses to geriatric inmates, the increasingly older prison population, geriatric parole, and correctional responses to COVID in Virginia (forthcoming, Crime and Justice Innovations, Adaptations and Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic, Southern Illinois University Press)..
FridayAnna Amirkhanyan – American UniversityAn International Experimental Study of Citizens Perceptions of Government Responses to COVID-19
Anna Amirkhanyan is a professor of public administration and policy at American University. Her research focuses on public and nonprofit management, organizational performance, public-private differences, and citizen participation. Her book, Citizen Participation in the Age of Contracting: When Service Delivery Trumps Democracy (Routledge, 2018) offers an account of how contracting of public services has come at the cost of transparency and participation. Her articles have appeared in peer-reviewed outlets that include the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory (J-PART), Public Administration Review, the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, the Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, and others.
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Lockdowns during COVID-19 have been handled differently by governments around the world. Anna Amirkhanyan, professor of public administration and policy at American University, explores the effect on different populations. Anna Amirkhanyan is a professor of public administration and policy at American University. Her research focuses on public and nonprofit management, organizational performance, public-private differences, and […]
Helping people re-enter society after a prison stay can be tricky. Angela Murolo, assistant professor of sociology and criminal justice at St. Francis College, says one group may be left behind. Angela S. Murolo, PhD is an Assistant Professor at St. Francis College in Brooklyn, NY. Her dissertation investigated older people’s experiences on parole and […]
Sanctions on an institution can cause students to look elsewhere for higher education. Christopher Burnett, postdoctoral fellow in the department of education leadership and policy studies at the University of Houston, determines how bad the damage can be. Christopher Burnett is a Postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at the […]
The ancient past can show us similarities to the polarized times of today. Rachel Hadas, board of governor’s professor of English at Rutgers University, examines what we can learn from thousands of years ago. Rachel Hadas is Board of Governor’s professor at Rutgers-University Newark, where she taught English for many years. Among her specialties were […]
Mental health challenges affect everyone. Toria Herd, postdoctoral research fellow at Penn State University, discusses the issues facing one group. Dr. Toria Herd received her PhD in Developmental Psychology from Virginia Tech in 2021. She received her M.S. in Developmental Psychology at Virginia Tech and her B.A. in Psychology from the State University of New […]
This Week on The Academic Minute 2023.02.27
MondayToria Herd, postdoctoral research fellow at Penn State University, discusses the mental health issues facing one group.
TuesdayRachel Hadas, board of governor’s professor of English at Rutgers University, examines what we can learn from thousands of years ago while looking at the polarization we see today.
WednesdayChristopher Burnett, postdoctoral fellow in the department of education leadership and policy studies at the University of Houston, determines how sanctions on an institution can cause students to look elsewhere for higher education.
ThursdayAngela Murolo, assistant professor of sociology and criminal justice at St. Francis College, says one group may be left behind when re-entering society from prison.
FridayAnna Amirkhanyan, professor of public administration and policy at American University, explores the effect of government reactions to COVID-19 on different populations.
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The Academic Minute from 2.20 – 2.24MondayPankhuri Malhotra – University of OklahomaFinding Brand Alliances Among Seemingly Unlikely Partners
Dr. Pankhuri is a computational social scientist with an interest in graph-based methods for improving and scaling marketing research. Her current research applies combined methods from marketing, network and data science for mining user perception of brands using publicly available social media datasets. She is also working with influencer datasets on Twitter and Instagram to understand social activism and build network-based recommender systems. Recently she has started working on exploring the role of DEI initiatives in the influencer economy space.
TuesdayBarbara Combs – Kennesaw State UniversityAnti-Black Racism Is Not Better Than it Used to Be. It Just Takes Different Forms.
Barbara Harris Combs, J.D., Ph.D. is Professor of Sociology and Chair of the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice at Kennesaw State University. Combs is a humanist and interdisciplinary scholar who received her Ph.D. in Sociology with a concentration in race and urban studies from Georgia State University in 2010. She also holds a Juris Doctorate degree from The Ohio State University and an MA in English from Xavier University (Ohio). She brings this interdisciplinary background to her study of society. Dr. Combs is the author of From Selma to Montgomery: The Long March to Freedom (Routledge, 2013). Her current book project, Bodies Out of Place Theorizing Anti Blackness is U.S. Society (University of Georgia Press) was released in 2022. A third book project, Black Places and Spaces of Political Empowerment, with co-authors Todd C. Shaw and Kirk Foster is under contract with Oxford University Press. She loves people and books, and she is committed to racial/social equity.
Wednesday
Nir Eisikovits – UMass BostonA.I. and Everyday Life
Nir Eisikovits is professor of philosophy and founding director of the Applied Ethics Center at UMass Boston. Professor Eisikovits’ research focuses on the moral and political dilemmas arising after war, the culture of war and the ethics of technology.
ThursdayBeth Livingston – University of IowaMove On From Leaning In
Beth A. Livingston is the Ralph L. Sheets Associate Professor of Industrial Relations at the University of Iowa’s Tippie College of Business and the faculty director of the Dore-Tippie Women’s Leadership program. Sher earned her MBA from the University of Kentucky and Ph.D. from the University of Florida. She studies human resources, gender and diversity, and the management of work and family in the interest of family well-being. Her research has been highlighted in the New York Times, NPR, and the Harvard Business Review, and she has been published in multiple top academic journals. Livingston has also done executive education, speaking engagements, and consulting for companies and non-profits such as Accenture, Deere & Co., Yves Saint Laurent Beauty, Allsteel, and Hollaback!
Tina Opie is an Associate Professor in the Management Division at Babson College. After a career as a banker and management consultant, she earned her Ph.D. from New York University’s Stern School of Business and also earned her MBA from the Darden School of Business. Her research focuses primarily on how organizations can create workplaces that successfully leverage individual difference and convey respect for individual contributions. She also studies whether discrimination against overweight people can be reduced by abandoning a focus on appearance and adopting a focus on health.
FridayKeith Diaz – Columbia UniversityHow to Counteract the Health Harms of Sitting
Keith Diaz is a certified exercise physiologist and an Associate Professor of Behavioral Medicine at Columbia University Medical Center. His research focuses on elucidating the role of prolonged sedentary behavior in the development of chronic disease, with a specific focus of developing feasible, sustainable, and cost-effective guidelines for reducing prolonged sitting.
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Get up and move – it’s good for you. Keith Diaz, Florence Irving associate professor of behavioral medicine at Columbia University Medical Center, explores the health harms of sitting. Keith Diaz is a certified exercise physiologist and an Associate Professor of Behavioral Medicine at Columbia University Medical Center. His research focuses on elucidating the role […]
Women are still face divides in the workplace. Beth Livingston, Ralph L. Sheets assistant professor of industrial relations at the Tippie college of business at the University of Iowa, develops a way to combat this. Beth A. Livingston is the Ralph L. Sheets Associate Professor of Industrial Relations at the University of Iowa’s Tippie College […]
A.I. is now a part of our daily lives. Nir Eisikovits, professor of philosophy and founding director of the Applied Ethics Center at the University of Massachusetts Boston, considers the impacts. Nir Eisikovits is professor of philosophy and founding director of the Applied Ethics Center at UMass Boston. Professor Eisikovits’ research focuses on the moral and […]
The definition of “place” can be a complex question when it comes to the history of racism in the United States. Barbara Combs, professor of sociology and chair of the department of sociology and criminal justice at Kennesaw State University, looks into this question. Barbara Harris Combs, J.D., Ph.D. is Professor of Sociology and Chair […]
What are those two doing together? Pankhuri Malhotra, assistant professor of marketing at the University of Oklahoma, applies this question to brands. Dr. Pankhuri is a computational social scientist with an interest in graph-based methods for improving and scaling marketing research. Her current research applies combined methods from marketing, network and data science for mining […]
This Week on The Academic Minute 2023.02.20
MondayPankhuri Malhotra, assistant professor of marketing at the University of Oklahoma, looks at how brand can find success by partnering with a disparate partner.
TuesdayBarbara Combs, professor of sociology and chair of the department of sociology and criminal justice at Kennesaw State University, looks into how the definition of “place” can be complex when it comes to the history of racism in the United States.
WednesdayNir Eisikovits, professor of philosophy and founding director of the Applied Ethics Center at the University of Massachusetts Boston, considers the impacts of A.I. on everyday life.
ThursdayBeth Livingston, Ralph L. Sheets assistant professor of industrial relations at the Tippie college of business at the University of Iowa, develops a way to combat the divides women still face in the workplace.
FridayKeith Diaz, Florence Irving associate professor of behavioral medicine at Columbia University Medical Center, explores the health harms of sitting.
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The Academic Minute from 2.13 – 2.17MondayHeather Welch – University of Santa CruzIlluminating Dark Fishing Vessels at Sea
Heather Welch is a project scientist at the University of California Santa Cruz, and is affiliated with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. She uses models to understand how the environment drives the movements of marine wildlife and resource users, and how these movements will change under climate change.
TuesdayParichehr Kazemi – University of OregonThe Protest Power of Social Media Images
Parichehr Kazemi is a 5th-year PhD Candidate in political science at the University of Oregon. Her research interests fall at the intersection of social movements and revolutions, with a particular focus on women’s rights issues and resistance in authoritarian contexts. Her dissertation encapsulates these interests, investigating the ways women resist patriarchal authoritarian structures across the Middle East using social media images and videos. Parichehr has presented her work at a number of professional conferences and her research is supported by the Ryoichi Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund (SYLFF) and the University of Oregon’s Center for the Study of Women in Society (CSWS) where she is a fellow for the 2022-23 academic year.
Wednesday
Mark Bartholomew – University at BuffaloWhat Neuroscience Can Tell Us About the Law of Creativity
Mark Bartholomew is Professor of Law at the University at Buffalo School of Law. He writes and teaches in the areas of intellectual property and law and technology, with emphases on copyright, trademarks, advertising regulation, and online privacy. His latest book, Intellectual Property and the Brain, examines how neuroscientific discoveries may reshape the legal definitions of creativity, aesthetic judgment, and consumer confusion.
ThursdayBrad Bushman – The Ohio State UniversityHow a Child Can Become a Shooter
For over 30 years Brad Bushman has studied aggression and violence. He was a member of President Obama’s committee on gun violence, has co-chaired two reports on youth violence that were sent to the U.S. Congress, and has testified before Congress about youth violence.
FridayCynthia Orozco – Eastern New Mexico University, RuidosoAlonso Perales, Mexican American Civil Rights Leader and Architect of Latino Destiny
Author of No Mexicans, Women or Dogs Allowed: the Rise of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement and Agent of Change: Adela Sloss-Vento, Mexican American Civil Rights Activist and Texas Feminist.
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We remember many heroes in the United States, but some still remain to be celebrated. Cynthia Orozco, professor of history and humanities at Eastern New Mexico University, Ruidoso, examines the life of one. Author of No Mexicans, Women or Dogs Allowed: the Rise of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement and Agent of Change: Adela […]
What influences kids to want to use a gun?
Brad Bushman, professor of communication and Rinehart chair of mass communication at The Ohio State University, delves into this question.
For over 30 years Brad Bushman has studied aggression and violence. He was a member of President Obama’s committee on gun violence, has co-chaired two reports on youth violence that were sent to the U.S. Congress, and has testified before Congress about youth violence.
How a Child Can Become a Shooterhttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/02-16-23-Ohio-State-How-a-child-can-become-a-shooter.mp3In January 2023, a first-grade boy from Virginia put his mom’s gun in his backpack and took it to school. He then took the gun out and intentionally shot his teacher, sending her to the hospital.
Although it is impossible to know exactly what caused this boy to shoot his teacher, this shocking incident raises questions about how such incidents could happen in the first place.
The first obvious reason is that fewer than half of all gun owners secure their weapons. “Secure” means, locked up and unloaded, with the ammunition also being locked in a separate location. This is what the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends.
Children are naturally curious, and adults often underestimate their ability to find guns hidden in the home.
The media might also play a role. I am especially concerned about media that depict and glorify guns, which is increasing. For example, our research shows that acts of gun violence in PG-13 movies have nearly tripled in the past 30 years.
Our research finds that kids who see media characters use guns are more likely to use real guns themselves. We showed pairs of kids 8 to 12 years old movie clips with or without guns in one study, or had them play a video game with or without guns in another study. Next, we had them play in a room with toys and games. We hid disabled 9mm handguns in a drawer in the room. Kids who saw media characters use guns were more likely to touch the guns, hold them longer, and pull the trigger more times, including while pointing the gun at themselves or a friend.
Exposure to gun violence in media and easy access to firearms around the home all serve to increase the risks of any child picking up a gun.
Read More:
[The Conversation] – How does a child become a shooter? Research suggests easy access to guns and exposure to screen violence increase the risk
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Just what is a ‘creative spark’ in the eyes of the law?
Mark Bartholomew, professor of law at the University of Buffalo School of Law, explains.
Mark Bartholomew is Professor of Law at the University at Buffalo School of Law. He writes and teaches in the areas of intellectual property and law and technology, with emphases on copyright, trademarks, advertising regulation, and online privacy. His latest book, Intellectual Property and the Brain, examines how neuroscientific discoveries may reshape the legal definitions of creativity, aesthetic judgment, and consumer confusion.
What Neuroscience Can Tell Us About the Law of Creativityhttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/02-15-23-Buffalo-What-Neuroscience-Can-Tell-Us-About-the-Law-of-Creativity.mp3There is a paradox at the heart of American copyright law. On the one hand, the law stresses that copyright protection should only be awarded to works of art and authorship possessing a “creative spark.” On the other hand, fretting that any assessment of creativity must be in the eye of the beholder, courts refuse to investigate a work’s creativity. Instead they deem virtually any work that is not a carbon copy of another to be sufficiently creative to earn a copyright. Examples include copyrights for song lyrics merely repeating the phrase “uh-oh,” standardized test answer sheets, and photographs only taken by accident. This laissez-faire approach to creativity in the law matters because the more items protected by copyright, the fewer items new artists, fearful of being sued, can use to build their own creations.
Over the last decade, neuroscientists have set up a number of ingenious experiments that trace the neural activity of artists as they engage in creative tasks like improvising music or generating a humorous caption for a cartoon. These experiments show that many popular myths about the creative process are simply not true. Creative breakthroughs are almost never an accident and they can be objectively measured against what came before.
This means that copyright law has been going about it wrong. Judges should be reluctant to award copyrights to unintentional creations. New songs and artworks should be compared against the prior art to see if a would-be copyright owner has truly made a contribution.
Not everything about art and law can be boiled down to brain science. Still, neuroscience can offer much to improve our flawed system for regulating creative conduct.
Read More:
[Amazon] – Intellectual Property and the Brain: How Neuroscience Will Reshape Legal Protection for Creations of the Mind
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On this Student Spotlight: Images are everywhere in today. Parichehr Kazemi, 5th-year PhD candidate in political science at the University of Oregon, explores how they can be for protest. Parichehr Kazemi is a 5th-year PhD Candidate in political science at the University of Oregon. Her research interests fall at the intersection of social movements and […]
It’s hard to police everything that happens on the oceans. Heather Welch, project scientist at the University of California Santa Cruz, looks to help illuminate some of the issues faced in this endeavor. Heather Welch is a project scientist at the University of California Santa Cruz, and is affiliated with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric […]
This Week on The Academic Minute 2023.02.13
MondayHeather Welch, project scientist at the University of California Santa Cruz, looks to help illuminate some of the issues faced in locating fishing vessel who are hiding their locations in the open ocean.
TuesdayParichehr Kazemi, 5th-year PhD candidate in political science at the University of Oregon, explores how images can be used for protest.
WednesdayMark Bartholomew, professor of law at the University of Buffalo School of Law, explains just what is considered a creative spark in the eyes of the law.
ThursdayBrad Bushman, professor of communication and Rinehart chair of mass communication at The Ohio State University, delves into what influences kids to want to use a gun.
FridayCynthia Orozco, professor of history and humanities at Eastern New Mexico University, Ruidoso, examines the life of Alonso Perales.
The post This Week on The Academic Minute (2023.02.13) appeared first on The Academic Minute.
The Academic Minute from 2.6 – 2.10MondayKristen McHenry – Boise State UniversityBurnout and Well-Being Among Healthcare Faculty
Dr. McHenry serves as a Respiratory Care educator with experience in both entry into practice programming and online degree advancement. She has been a clinician for over 17 years. She has served in various administrative roles within higher education in clinically-focused programs.
TuesdayVictor Peskin – Arizona State UniversityThe Politics of Prosecuting Putin
Victor Peskin’s teaching and scholarship lie at the intersection of international law, international relations, and comparative politics. Peskin is the author of International Justice in Rwanda and the Balkans: Virtual Trials and the Struggle for State Cooperation (Cambridge University Press). The book was selected as a Choice Magazine Outstanding Academic Title. He is also the co-author of Hiding in Plain Sight: The Pursuit of War Criminals from Nuremberg to The War on Terror (University of California Press).
Wednesday
Emily Huddart Kennedy – University of British ColumbiaWe Can’t Stop Climate Change by Hating Each Other
Emily Huddart Kennedy is Associate Professor and Associate Head in the Department of Sociology at UBC and the author of the recently released, Eco-Types: Five Ways of Caring about the Environment (Princeton University Press).
ThursdayChristina Frohock – University of Miami School of LawReading Lolita as a Sentencing Memorandum
Christina M. Frohock is on the faculty of the University of Miami School of Law, where she teaches Legal Communication and Research Skills. Her scholarship includes law review articles on habeas corpus, constitutional law, copyright law, military law, wire fraud, witness interviews, federal privilege strategies, and legal fiction. She is also the author of a book, Small-Town GTMO, that analyzes the legality of the Guantánamo naval station and describes her experiences on the base. Prior to joining Miami Law, she practiced civil litigation at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP in New York City and at White & Case LLP and Kenny Nachwalter, P.A. in Miami. She earned her B.A. with Honors in Philosophy from the University of North Carolina, her M.A. in Philosophy from the University of Michigan, and her J.D. magna cum laude from New York University School of Law.
FridayMelissa Huey – New York Institute of TechnologyThe Psychological Impact of Smartphones in the College Classroom
Melissa Huey, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of behavioral sciences at New York Institute of Technology.
Huey’s research interests are twofold. The first area focuses on parenting and the impact that it has on children’s mental health. Her second area focuses on the psychological impact that technology and the smartphone have on young adults.
Both in and out of the classroom, Huey has leveraged current events, such as the January 2021 U.S. Capitol insurrection, as teachable moments on the importance of critical thinking. Following the events at the Capitol, she joined a multidisciplinary panel of New York Tech faculty and staff to discuss causes for the nation’s polarization, the role of social media in spreading misinformation, and the conflict resolution skills needed to bridge the ideological divide.
She received her M.A. from City College of New York and her Ph.D. from Florida Atlantic University.
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Smartphones are everywhere, including the classroom. Melissa Huey, assistant professor of behavioral sciences at the New York Institute of Technology, examines how it affects students. Melissa Huey, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of behavioral sciences at New York Institute of Technology. Huey’s research interests are twofold. The first area focuses on parenting and the impact […]
Classic novels can carry many meanings. Christina Frohock, professor of legal writing and lecturer in law at the University of Miami School of Law, explores one. Christina M. Frohock is on the faculty of the University of Miami School of Law, where she teaches Legal Communication and Research Skills. Her scholarship includes law review articles […]
Coming together is crucial to fighting climate change. Emily Huddart Kennedy, associate professor and associate head in the department of sociology at the University of British Columbia, exposes how stereotypes keep us apart. Emily Huddart Kennedy is Associate Professor and Associate Head in the Department of Sociology at UBC and the author of the recently […]
What would make the U.S. government hesitant to prosecute Vladimir Putin? Victor Peskin, associate professor in the school of politics and global studies at Arizona State University, looks into this question. Victor Peskin’s teaching and scholarship lie at the intersection of international law, international relations, and comparative politics. Peskin is the author of International Justice […]
It’s been a long road for those in healthcare over the last few years. Kristen McHenry, assistant professor in the department of respiratory care at Boise State University, examines this for those with other obligations as well. Dr. McHenry serves as a Respiratory Care educator with experience in both entry into practice programming and online […]
This Week on The Academic Minute 2023.02.06
MondayKristen McHenry, assistant professor in the department of respiratory care at Boise State University, examines burnout for healthcare workers.
TuesdayVictor Peskin, associate professor in the school of politics and global studies at Arizona State University, looks into what would make the U.S. government hesitant to prosecute Vladimir Putin.
WednesdayEmily Huddart Kennedy, associate professor and associate head in the department of sociology at the University of British Columbia, exposes how stereotypes keep us apart on the climate change issue.
ThursdayChristina Frohock, professor of legal writing and lecturer in law at the University of Miami School of Law, explores looking at a classic novel from a law perspective.
FridayMelissa Huey, assistant professor of behavioral sciences at the New York Institute of Technology, examines how smartphones affect students in the classroom.
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The Academic Minute from 1.30 – 2.3MondayDarby Saxbe – University of Southern CaliforniaDad Brain? How Fatherhood Changes the Brain
Darby Saxbe is a professor in the psychology department at the University of Southern California, where she co-directs the USC Center for the Changing Family and studies families, stress, health, and neuroplasticity in her NEST (Neuroendocrinology of Social Ties) Lab.
TuesdayJoel Christensen – Brandeis UniversityWomen, Witchcraft, and Greek Myth
Joel Christensen (he/his) is Professor of Classical Studies at Brandeis University where he also serves as Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs in the School of Arts and Sciences. He has recently published The Many-Minded Man: the Odyssey, Psychology, and the Therapy of Epic with Cornell University Press.
Wednesday
Kathleen Lubey – St. John’s UniversityThe Ethics of Brain Computer Interfacing
Kathleen Lubey is a literary scholar and writer at work on piecing together the complex history of pornography. A professor at St. John’s University and specialist in eighteenth-century literature, her teaching and research spans British literature, the history of sexuality, and gender studies. What Pornography Knows: Sex and Social Protest since the Eighteenth Century, traces currents of feminism and social justice in British pornography from the 1740s to the present.
ThursdayMorgan Shipley – Michigan State UniversityThe Varieties of Spirituality
Morgan Shipley (Ph.D.) is the Inaugural Foglio Endowed Chair of Spirituality and Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies for the Department of Religious Studies at Michigan State University. Author of Psychedelic Mysticism: Transforming Consciousness, Religious Experiences, and Voluntary Peasants in Postwar America (Lexington Books, 2015) and co-editor of The Silence of Fallout: Nuclear Criticism in a Post-Cold War World (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013), Dr. Shipley’s research explores secular spirituality, new religious movements, and individuals who increasingly identify as spiritual but not religious.
FridayJeff Liebert – McGill UniversityGet Big or Get Out: How Farm Size Affects the Use of Sustainable Management Practices
Jeff Liebert is a Postdoctoral Researcher jointly appointed in the Department of Natural Resource Sciences at McGill University and the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability at the University of British Columbia. Jeff recently completed his PhD at Cornell University where his work on agroecology drew on methodologies and theories from both the biophysical and social sciences. Using an interdisciplinary, mixed-methods approach, Jeff’s graduate research explored the motivations and barriers to using agroecological farming practices among US farmers. Through this research, Jeff collaborated with farmers, extension educators, crop consultants, NGOs, government agencies, and other scientists from around the world. As a postdoctoral researcher, Jeff is focused on untangling the complex, spatially explicit ways that ecological, social, economic, and political dimensions of farm management interact to enable or hinder climate change mitigation and biodiversity conservation in agricultural landscapes across Canada.
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How does farm size affect sustainability practices? Jeff Liebert, postdoctoral researcher at McGill University, looks into this question. Jeff Liebert is a Postdoctoral Researcher jointly appointed in the Department of Natural Resource Sciences at McGill University and the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability at the University of British Columbia. Jeff recently completed his PhD […]
The Varieties of SpiritualityThe post Morgan Shipley, Michigan State University – The Varieties of Spirituality appeared first on The Academic Minute.
What Does Pornography Tell Us?The post Kathleen Lubey, St. John’s University – What Does Pornography Tell Us? appeared first on The Academic Minute.
Differences can lead to fear and persecution. Joel Christensen, professor of classical studies and senior associate dean for faculty affairs at Brandeis University, examines women’s stories from ancient Greece to the recent past. Joel Christensen (he/his) is Professor of Classical Studies at Brandeis University where he also serves as Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs […]
We’ve heard of dad bod, but how about dad brain? Darby Saxbe, professor in the psychology department at the University of Southern California, looks at how fatherhood can change the brain. Darby Saxbe is a professor in the psychology department at the University of Southern California, where she co-directs the USC Center for the Changing […]
This Week on The Academic Minute 2023.1.30
MondayDarby Saxbe, professor in the psychology department at the University of Southern California, looks at how fatherhood can change the brain.
TuesdayJoel Christensen, professor of classical studies and senior associate dean for faculty affairs at Brandeis University, examines women’s stories from ancient Greece to the recent past.
WednesdayKathleen Lubey, professor of English at St. John’s University, examines what pornography can tell us from a historical standpoint.
ThursdayMorgan Shipley, Foglio Endowed Chair of Spirituality and associate professor of religious studies at Michigan State University, surveys the varieties of spirituality.
FridayJeff Liebert, postdoctoral researcher at McGill University, looks into how farm size affects sustainability practices.
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The Academic Minute from 1.16 – 1.20MondayPeter Kaiser – University of California, IrvineTherapies that Restore the Body’s Own Tumor Suppressing Activity
Peter Kaiser, PhD, is the chair of the Department of Biological Chemistry at the UC Irvine School of Medicine and member of the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Kaiser’s research interests include cell cycle control, regulation of proteins by ubiquitylation, reactivation of p53 in cancer, and cancer drug target discovery.
TuesdaySylvia Sierra – Syracuse UniversityMedia References in Everday Conversation
Sylvia Sierra is a discourse analyst interested in language and social interaction. She takes an interactional sociolinguistic approach to exploring knowledge management and identity construction in everyday communication in both face-to-face and online contexts. Her research interests include identity, epistemics, intertextuality, globalization, popular culture/media, Mexican Spanish, social media, multimodal methods/embodied interaction, and discourse-level sociolinguistic variation.
Wednesday
Filip Viskupic – South Dakota State UniversityPolitics Drives Parental COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy Among Nurses
Dr. Filip Viskupič is an Assistant Professor of Political Science and a Research Associate at The SDSU Poll at South Dakota State University. Dr. Viskupič earned his Ph.D. from the University of Georgia in 2019. His research is interdisciplinary in scope and lies at the intersection of political science, psychology, and public health.
ThursdayKerry Whigham – Binghamton UniversityHow Can Genocide Be Prevented?
Kerry Whigham is Assistant Professor of Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention at Binghamton University and Co-Director of its Institute for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention. His first book, Resonant Violence: Affect, Memory, and Activism in Post-Genocide Societies, was published in 2022 by Rutgers University Press. He is also the Director of Research and Online Education at the Auschwitz Institute for the Prevention of Genocide and Mass Atrocities.
FridayIoakim Boutakidis – California State University, FullertonBoys and Men’s Struggles in School Reveal a Systemic Inequity
Ioakim Boutakidis is a professor of Child and Adolescent Studies at California State University Fullerton, where he has also served as Faculty Fellow of Student Success, Associate Dean of Student Success, and department chair. He is a current member of the National Taskforce on Boys in School, operating within the Society for the Psychological Study of Men and Masculinities (Division 51) of the APA.
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Should Spanish be a domestic language in higher education? Jeffrey Herlihy-Mera, professor of humanities at The University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez, discusses this question. Jeffrey Herlihy-Mera is a professor of Humanities at the Universidad de Puerto Rico-Mayagüez and 2022 Obama Fellow at the Obama Institute for Transnational American Studies in Mainz, Germany. His books include, Decolonizing […]
Removing batteries from wearable tech can open it up to more people. Rahim Esfandyar-Pour, assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science and biomedical engineering at the University of California, Irvine, explores how to do so. Rahim Esfandyar-Pour received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in 2010 and 2014. He is currently […]
Ethics can be an important part of emerging technology. Nancy Jecker, professor in the department of bioethics and humanities at the University of Washington School of Medicine, discusses one instance where it’s vital to be careful. My research explores bioethics, moral philosophy, and global ethics. It spans a range of topics, including robots and AI […]
Sometimes simple changes can have big results. Sam Seidel, k12 lab director of strategy and research at the d. school at Stanford University, discusses the benefits of creative hustling. sam seidel, co-author, Creative Hustle: Blaze Your Own Path and Make Work That Matters. His previous books include Hip Hop Genius and Hip Hop Genius 2.0. […]
Good leaders can be hard to find. Sandra Peart, dean and E. Claiborne distinguished professor in the Jepsen School of Leadership Studies at the University of Richmond, says it’s a society-wide problem. Sandra J. Peart is dean and E. Claiborne Robins Distinguished Professor in Leadership Studies at the University of Richmond’s Jepson School of Leadership […]
This Week on The Academic Minute 2023.1.23
MondaySandra Peart, dean and E. Claiborne distinguished professor in the Jepsen School of Leadership Studies at the University of Richmond, says good leadership is hard to find.
TuesdaySam Seidel, k12 lab director of strategy and research at the d. school at Stanford University, discusses the benefits of creative hustling.
WednesdayNancy Jecker, professor in the department of bioethics and humanities at the University of Washington School of Medicine, looks into the ethics of brain-computer interfacing.
ThursdayRahim Esfandyar-Pour, assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science and biomedical engineering at the University of California, Irvine, explores how creating a health monitoring wearable without a battery can help more people use them.
FridayJeffrey Herlihy-Mera, professor of humanities at The University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez, examines the Puertoricanization of the U.S.
The post This Week on The Academic Minute (2023.01.23) appeared first on The Academic Minute.
The Academic Minute from 1.16 – 1.20MondayPeter Kaiser – University of California, IrvineTherapies that Restore the Body’s Own Tumor Suppressing Activity
Peter Kaiser, PhD, is the chair of the Department of Biological Chemistry at the UC Irvine School of Medicine and member of the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Kaiser’s research interests include cell cycle control, regulation of proteins by ubiquitylation, reactivation of p53 in cancer, and cancer drug target discovery.
TuesdaySylvia Sierra – Syracuse UniversityMedia References in Everday Conversation
Sylvia Sierra is a discourse analyst interested in language and social interaction. She takes an interactional sociolinguistic approach to exploring knowledge management and identity construction in everyday communication in both face-to-face and online contexts. Her research interests include identity, epistemics, intertextuality, globalization, popular culture/media, Mexican Spanish, social media, multimodal methods/embodied interaction, and discourse-level sociolinguistic variation.
Wednesday
Filip Viskupic – South Dakota State UniversityPolitics Drives Parental COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy Among Nurses
Dr. Filip Viskupič is an Assistant Professor of Political Science and a Research Associate at The SDSU Poll at South Dakota State University. Dr. Viskupič earned his Ph.D. from the University of Georgia in 2019. His research is interdisciplinary in scope and lies at the intersection of political science, psychology, and public health.
ThursdayKerry Whigham – Binghamton UniversityHow Can Genocide Be Prevented?
Kerry Whigham is Assistant Professor of Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention at Binghamton University and Co-Director of its Institute for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention. His first book, Resonant Violence: Affect, Memory, and Activism in Post-Genocide Societies, was published in 2022 by Rutgers University Press. He is also the Director of Research and Online Education at the Auschwitz Institute for the Prevention of Genocide and Mass Atrocities.
FridayIoakim Boutakidis – California State University, FullertonBoys and Men’s Struggles in School Reveal a Systemic Inequity
Ioakim Boutakidis is a professor of Child and Adolescent Studies at California State University Fullerton, where he has also served as Faculty Fellow of Student Success, Associate Dean of Student Success, and department chair. He is a current member of the National Taskforce on Boys in School, operating within the Society for the Psychological Study of Men and Masculinities (Division 51) of the APA.
The post The Academic Minute for 2023.01.16-2023.01.20 appeared first on The Academic Minute.
The mental health of males demands closer focus. Ioakim Boutakidis, professor of child and adolescent studies at California State University, Fullerton, explores how it manifests in a school setting. Ioakim Boutakidis is a professor of Child and Adolescent Studies at California State University Fullerton, where he has also served as Faculty Fellow of Student Success, […]
Genocides don’t begin overnight, so how can we stop them before they get started? Kerry Whigham, assistant professor of genocide and mass atrocity prevention at Binghamton University, explains. Kerry Whigham is Assistant Professor of Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention at Binghamton University and Co-Director of its Institute for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention. His first […]
Politics can drive vaccine hesitancy, even for nurses and children. Filip Viskupic, assistant professor of political science at South Dakota University, examines why. Dr. Filip Viskupič is an Assistant Professor of Political Science and a Research Associate at The SDSU Poll at South Dakota State University. Dr. Viskupič earned his Ph.D. from the University of […]
Media references can be a great way to break the ice in a conversation. Sylvia Sierra, assistant professor of communication and rhetorical studies at Syracuse University, explores why. Sylvia Sierra is a discourse analyst interested in language and social interaction. She takes an interactional sociolinguistic approach to exploring knowledge management and identity construction in everyday […]
Your body may have its own way to fight tumors; we just need to trigger it. Peter Kaiser, professor and chair of biological chemistry at the University of California, Irvine, explores a new therapy to do so. Peter Kaiser, PhD, is the chair of the Department of Biological Chemistry at the UC Irvine School of […]
This Week on The Academic Minute 2023.1.16
MondayPeter Kaiser, professor and chair of biological chemistry at the University of California, Irvine, explores a new therapy to fight tumors.
TuesdaySylvia Sierra, assistant professor of communication and rhetorical studies at Syracuse University, explores why media references can be a great way to break the ice in a conversation.
WednesdayFilip Viskupic, assistant professor of political science at South Dakota University, examines why politics can drive vaccine hesitancy, even for nurses and children.
ThursdayKerry Whigham, assistant professor of genocide and mass atrocity prevention at Binghamton University, explains genocides don’t begin overnight, so how can we stop them before they get started?
FridayIoakim Boutakidis, professor of child and adolescent studies at California State University, Fullerton, explores why boys fall behind in a school setting.
The post This Week on The Academic Minute (2023.01.16) appeared first on The Academic Minute.
The Academic Minute from 1.9 – 1.13MondayBen Cotterill – Clemson UniversityChildren’s Eyewitness Testimony
Ben Cotterill, PhD, is a lecturer at Clemson University, where he teaches courses relating to forensic psychology. His research interests include personality development, the reliability and credibility of eyewitness testimony, and testing police procedures used with children. His doctoral thesis examined how children’s temperament relates to their eyewitness performance. This year he released a book, published by Palgrave Macmillan, called Are Children Reliable Witnesses?
TuesdayMneesha Gellman – Emerson CollegeHow Does Cultural Survival Happen? One Word at a Time
Dr. Mneesha Gellman is associate professor of political science in the Marlboro Institute for Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies at Emerson College. She is the author of Indigenous Language Politics in the Schoolroom: Cultural Survival in Mexico and the United States (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2023), and Democratization and Memories of Violence: Ethnic Minority Social Movements in Mexico, Turkey, and El Salvador (Routledge 2017). The founder and director of the Emerson Prison Initiative, she is the editor of Education Behind the Wall: Why and How We Teach in Prison (Brandeis University Press 2022). Dr. Gellman is vice president of the Human Rights section of the American Political Science Association, and she serves as an expert witness in asylum hearings in US immigration courts.
Wednesday
Karen Levy – Cornell UniversityHow Surveillance is Changing the Long-Haul Trucking Industry
Karen Levy is an associate professor of Information Science at Cornell University and associated faculty at Cornell Law School. Her new book, Data Driven: Truckers, Technology, and the New Workplace Surveillance, offers a behind-the-scenes look at how surveillance and automation are affecting the trucking way of life.
ThursdayAustin Sarat – Amherst CollegeAlabama and Lethal Injection Issues
Austin Sarat is William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science and Chair of Political Science at Amherst College. He is the author of Gruesome Spectacles: Botched Executions and America’s Death Penalty (Stanford, 2014),The Death Penalty on the Ballot (2019), and Lethal Injection and the False Promise of Humane Execution.
FridayTeresa Wright – California State University, Long BeachProtests in China: What’s New and What’s to be Expected
Teresa Wright is a professor of Political Science at California State University, Long Beach. Her research focuses on state-society relations, protest and dissent, and the relationship among capitalism, democracy and authoritarianism—particularly in China and Taiwan. Along with four solo-authored books and one solo-edited volume, her published work includes journal articles in Comparative Politics, Economy and Society, The Journal of International Affairs, Communist and Post-Communist Studies, The China Quarterly, China: An International Journal, Church and State, and Asian Survey; and numerous chapters in edited volumes. From 2012-2022 she has served on the Editorial Board of the China Quarterly.
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Protests have dominated the news lately. Teresa Wright, professor of political science at California State University, Long Beach, looks at the dynamics in China. Teresa Wright is a professor of Political Science at California State University, Long Beach. Her research focuses on state-society relations, protest and dissent, and the relationship among capitalism, democracy and authoritarianism—particularly […]
Today on The Academic Minute: Austin Sarat, William Nelson Cromwell professor of jurisprudence and political science at Amherst College, explains the stakes for states. Austin Sarat is William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science and Chair of Political Science at Amherst College. He is the author of Gruesome Spectacles: Botched Executions and America’s […]
The trucking industry is modernizing rapidly, but is it for the better? Karen Levy, associate professor in the department of information science at Cornell University, has more. Karen Levy is an associate professor of Information Science at Cornell University and associated faculty at Cornell Law School. Her new book, Data Driven: Truckers, Technology, and the […]
Saving languages from eradication is a tall task as time goes on. Mneesha Gellman, associate professor of political science in the Marlboro Institute for Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies at Emerson College, delves into the process to keep the words alive. Dr. Mneesha Gellman is associate professor of political science in the Marlboro Institute for […]
Can a child be a reliable eyewitness? Ben Cotterill, lecturer in forensic psychology at Clemson University, examines this question. Ben Cotterill, PhD, is a lecturer at Clemson University, where he teaches courses relating to forensic psychology. His research interests include personality development, the reliability and credibility of eyewitness testimony, and testing police procedures used with […]
This Week on The Academic Minute 2023.1.9
Monday, January 9thBen Cotterill, lecturer in forensic psychology at Clemson University, examines whether children can provide reliable eyewitness testimony.
Tuesday, January 10thMneesha Gellman, associate professor of political science in the Marlboro Institute for Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies at Emerson College, delves into the process to keep the words of an endangered language alive.
Wednesday, January 11thKaren Levy, associate professor in the department of information science at Cornell University, says surveillance is changing the trucking industry.
Thursday, January 12thAustin Sarat, William Nelson Cromwell professor of jurisprudence and political science at Amherst College, explains the stakes for states when it comes to lethal injection mishaps.
Friday, January 13thTeresa Wright, professor of political science at California State University, Long Beach, looks at the dynamics of protests in China.
The post This Week on The Academic Minute (2023.01.09) appeared first on The Academic Minute.
The Academic Minute from 1.2 – 1.6MondayMinnita Daniel-Cox – University of DaytonPaul Laurence Dunbar’s Artist Legacy
Dr. Minnita Daniel-Cox attended Bowling Green State University, where she received a Bachelor of Music in Music Performance, and the University of Michigan, where she earned both her Master of Music and her Doctorate of Musical Arts degrees.
In 2014 Dr. Daniel-Cox established the Dunbar Music Archive and has presented her research for the National Association of Teachers of Singing, the National Opera Association, College Music Society, Society for American Music, National Association for Music Education, International Society for Music Education , Song Collaborators Consortia, Ohio Music Education Association, and the International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives. She has performed Dunbar Archive repertoire recitals in venues across the United States including the University of Michigan, Bowling Green State University, University of Puget Sound, Ohio Northern University, Central Michigan University, Detroit Musicians Association, Taylor University, and Hanover University with a recital tour in Stara Zagora, Haskovo, and Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Dr. Daniel-Cox has received over 350k in funding for her Dunbar work, including two National Endowment for the Humanities grants and a Mellon Foundation grant for the Dunbar Project.
TuesdayNa Young Lee – University of DaytonCheckout Charity Solicitations Can Give Customers Anxiety
Na Young Lee is an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Dayton. She received her Ph.D. in marketing from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and earned her MBA from Vanderbilt University. Her research focuses on services marketing and frontline employee management.
Wednesday
Susan Broniarczyk – University of Texas at AustinSocial Sharing Can Lead to a False Sense of Knowledge
Susan M. Broniarczyk is associate dean for research, Susie and John L. Adams Endowed Chair in Business, and a professor in the Marketing Department at the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin. Her research examines consumer behavior and decision making with a focus on brand and product management, product recommendations and advice, and gift-giving.
ThursdayLallen Johnson – American UniversityRacial Inequality, Age, and COVID-19 Mortality
Lallen Johnson, associate professor in the School of Public Affairs at American University, explores how urban gentrification influences social control. He is specifically interested in the ways by which neighborhood upscaling amplifies the risk of police contact for socially marginalized and racially minoritized groups. He also studies health geography and the risk of mortality across urban space. Professor Johnson’s training, which spans the disciplines of criminology, urban studies, and geography informs his understanding of the spatial dimensions of social science outcomes. Some of his previous studies have been funded by the National Institute of Justice and disseminated across multiple outlets such as Race and Justice, Punishment and Society, the Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, and Health and Place.
FridayHuolin Xin – University of California, IrvineA Better Battery for Electric Cars
Huolin Xin graduated from the Physics Department of Cornell University in 2011 and joined University of California, Irvine in 2018. Prior to becoming a professor at UCI, he worked at Brookhaven National Laboratory as a scientific staff member and a principle investigator from 2013 to 2018. His primary field of expertise lies in developing novel 3-D, atomic-resolution, and in situ spectroscopic and imaging tools to probe the structural, chemical, and bonding changes of energy materials during chemical reactions or under external stimuli. His research spans the areas from tomographic and atomic-resolution chemical imaging of battery and fuel cell materials to in situ environmental study of heterogeneous catalysts, and to the development of deep learning enabled self-driving TEM. In 2008, 2010, 2011, and 2012, he received Distinguished Scholar Award, Castaing Award, and Presidential Scholar Award from professional EM societies. His work on battery materials has twice been selected as the Top-10 Scientific Achievements in 2014 and 2019 by Brookhaven National Lab. His research has resulted in more than 180 peer-reviewed publications and 1 patent, 33 of which are published in Science/Nature sister journals (corresponding author on 8 of the 33). To date, he has graduated four Master’s students and three Ph.D. students. Two of his group alumni have won the “Presidential Student Award” at the annual M&M conference based on their research in Xin group.
The post The Academic Minute for 2023.01.02-2023.01.06 appeared first on The Academic Minute.
Making batteries for electric vehicles can come with a human cost in poorer countries. Huolin Xin, professor of physics and astronomy at the University of California, Irvine, discusses one way to change this. Huolin Xin graduated from the Physics Department of Cornell University in 2011 and joined University of California, Irvine in 2018. Prior to […]
Certain groups bear more of the brunt from disaster and epidemics.
Lallen Johnson, associate professor in the school of public affairs at American University, explains.
Lallen Johnson, associate professor in the School of Public Affairs at American University, explores how urban gentrification influences social control. He is specifically interested in the ways by which neighborhood upscaling amplifies the risk of police contact for socially marginalized and racially minoritized groups. He also studies health geography and the risk of mortality across urban space. Professor Johnson’s training, which spans the disciplines of criminology, urban studies, and geography informs his understanding of the spatial dimensions of social science outcomes. Some of his previous studies have been funded by the National Institute of Justice and disseminated across multiple outlets such as Race and Justice, Punishment and Society, the Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, and Health and Place.
Racial Inequality, Age, and COVID-19 Mortalityhttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/01-05-23-American-Racial-inequality-age-and-COVID-19-mortality.mp3Although society has a habit of framing weather-related disasters and devastating epidemics as being uncontrollable events, the tolls of those events in the United States are not evenly distributed across population groups. For example, Hurricane Katrina, the Chicago Heat Wave of 1995, and the latest COVID-19 pandemic, all resulted in an elevated risk of death for elderly Black persons. This pattern proves the need to think about public health and disaster responses intersectionally.
During the pandemic, it quickly became clear that elderly persons were more likely to die, due to their higher rate of underlying medical conditions that exacerbate Covid-19. But elderly Black persons also must contend with the enduring legacy of racial inequality. Black communities endure much higher levels of poverty, compared to White neighborhoods. But it was elderly Blacks who suffered the worst effects of all.
In our latest study, Prof. Evelyn Patterson of Vanderbilt University and I analyzed 74 weeks of COVID-19 death counts for each ZIP code in Chicago. We found that aging correlated with increased risk of mortality across all communities. But the risk was 40 percent higher in Black neighborhoods when accounting for the elderly. Our research also found that poor places with high test positivity rates tended to have more COVID-related deaths. Fortunately, vaccinations work: ZIP codes with higher Covid vaccination rates had lower death counts, regardless of race. A 20-percentage point increase in vaccinated residents was associated with 38 percent fewer weekly deaths in the average ZIP code.
We cannot stop a hurricane from making landfall, cool down a summer scorcher, or wipe out a powerful new virus the day it arrives. But understanding the inequities in our demographics, our neighborhoods, and our health-care system is vital in saving lives next time that disaster strikes.
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Just because someone shares something online, it doesn’t mean they’re educated on it.
Susan Broniarczyk, associate dean for research and professor of marketing at the University of Texas at Austin, explores this conundrum in the social sharing economy.
Susan M. Broniarczyk is associate dean for research, Susie and John L. Adams Endowed Chair in Business, and a professor in the Marketing Department at the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin. Her research examines consumer behavior and decision making with a focus on brand and product management, product recommendations and advice, and gift-giving.
Social Sharing Can Lead To a False Sense of Knowledgehttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/01-04-23-UT-Austin-Social-Sharing-Can-Lead-to-a-False-Sense-of-Knowledge.mp3As we continue to consider the way that information is shared on social media, my colleagues and I wanted to know: does sharing articles online make people feel more knowledgeable, even when they’ve only glanced at the headline?
We conducted several studies, including one where we asked participants to review a series of articles and share them online as they chose to do so.
We found that people who shared articles came to believe they knew more about the topics they shared — even if they didn’t read the article — compared to readers who didn’t share, Sharing increases our subjective knowledge, even when we lack objective knowledge on a topic.
Along with the spread of misinformation, there are other dangers when we share without reading. Our research found people who feel more knowledgeable are more likely to make riskier decisions. They are also more likely to believe that they don’t need to read or learn additional information on that topic, making a lack of objective knowledge difficult to correct. Overconfidence on a topic can lead people to become entrenched in their beliefs and resistant to change.
So, how do we counter this false sense of expertise? One approach involves social media pilot programs that encourage people to read articles before sharing. Getting people to read articles or become aware of subjects where they lack information is important, especially in this digital world where content is easily sharable.
As consumers we have a responsibility, as well, to pay close attention to our own online habits. Just because we share doesn’t mean we know.
Read More:
[Medium] – I Share, Therefore I Know
[UT News] – Sharing on Social Media Makes Us Overconfident in Our Knowledge
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Getting asked to donate to charity in the checkout line may not produce good feelings.
Na Young Lee, assistant professor of marketing at the University of Dayton, examines why.
Na Young Lee is an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Dayton. She received her Ph.D. in marketing from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and earned her MBA from Vanderbilt University. Her research focuses on services marketing and frontline employee management.
Checkout Charity Solicitations Can Give Customers Anxietyhttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/01-03-23-Dayton-Checkout-Charity-Solicitations-Can-Give-Customers-Anxiety.mp3“Do you want to round up for charity?”
If hearing that question makes you feel anxious, you’re not alone.
Checkout charity brought in more than $600 million for causes in the US in 2020. Many donations are for just a few cents.
But shoppers associate mostly negative feelings with these solicitations.
In a series of studies, my colleagues Adam Hepworth, Alex Zablah, and I interviewed people about how they felt when they were asked to donate while ringing up their purchases at a variety of retailers.
About 40% of the words they used to express their feelings were associated with anxiety such as “pressured,” “annoyed” and “concerned about being judged.” Another 7% were also negative such as “guilty.”
Only 20% were positive such as “nice” or “compassionate.” The rest of the words shoppers used were neutral.
We also did online experiments, asking people to imagine they were making a purchase at a drive-through window or grocery store. Those who imagined being asked to donate experienced more anxiety than those who only had to focus on their purchase.
We found evidence that this anxiety can be relieved when customers agree to donate. But that’s only true when the solicitation comes from a cashier, as opposed to an automated self-service checkout machine.
Retailers and restaurants may expect customers to see them in a more positive light because of their engagement in charitable activity, and there’s been some evidence to that effect.
But our study indicates that for many shoppers the results could be the opposite. For that reason, retailers and restaurants may want to weigh the risks before initiating these campaigns.
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Who is your favorite poet’s favorite poet? On this Commissioner’s Choice Award segment to kick off 2023, Minnita Daniel-Cox, associate professor of music, looked into one such person during University of Dayton Week.
Dr. Minnita Daniel-Cox attended Bowling Green State University, where she received a Bachelor of Music in Music Performance, and the University of Michigan, where she earned both her Master of Music and her Doctorate of Musical Arts degrees.
In 2014 Dr. Daniel-Cox established the Dunbar Music Archive and has presented her research for the National Association of Teachers of Singing, the National Opera Association, College Music Society, Society for American Music, National Association for Music Education, International Society for Music Education , Song Collaborators Consortia, Ohio Music Education Association, and the International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives. She has performed Dunbar Archive repertoire recitals in venues across the United States including the University of Michigan, Bowling Green State University, University of Puget Sound, Ohio Northern University, Central Michigan University, Detroit Musicians Association, Taylor University, and Hanover University with a recital tour in Stara Zagora, Haskovo, and Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Dr. Daniel-Cox has received over 350k in funding for her Dunbar work, including two National Endowment for the Humanities grants and a Mellon Foundation grant for the Dunbar Project.
Dr. Daniel-Cox is an active member of the African American Art Song Alliance, National Association of Negro Musicians, National Association of Teachers of Singing, and is an alumna of the NATS Intern Program. She serves on the board of the NOA and is Co-Chair of the Inclusivity, Diversity, Equity, and Access (IDEA) Initiative for the National Opera Association.
Dr. Daniel-Cox regularly appears with the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, the Springfield Symphony Orchestra, the Miami Valley Symphony Orchestra, and the Bach Society of Dayton. Recently, she has performed the roles of Anna Gomez in Menotti’s The Consul and Sister Rose in Dead Man Walking with Dayton Opera. She is regularly featured in broadcasts with for WDPR Discover Classical.
She is currently Associate Professor of Voice and Coordinator of the Voice Area at the University of Dayton, where she teaches applied lessons and music courses, serves as Artistic Director of the yearly musical/opera productions, coordinates the Dayton Opera Apprentice Program, and coordinates the Vocal Performance Institute, a summer program for high school-aged singers.
Paul Laurence Dunbar’s Artist Legacyhttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/01-02-23-Dayton-Paul-Laurence-Dunbars-Artist-Legacy.mp3“I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.”
The popular phrase, and well-known title of Maya Angelou’s autobiography, are the words of Paul Laurence Dunbar and the final line of his 1899 poem, Sympathy.
Simply put, he is your favorite poet’s favorite poet.
This Dayton, Ohio native was the first Black poet to gain national prominence. He wrote 12 books of poetry in dialect as well as standard English. Dunbar also penned short stories, plays, libretti, song lyrics, essays, and novels during his 33 years.
Even today, there would be no “Hamilton” if we did not first have Dunbar. He gave us some of the first examples of contemporary musical theater in his collaborations with Will Marion Cook. He also collaborated with Afro-British composer Samuel Coleridge Taylor on the operetta “Dream Lovers”, specifically composed for Black singers. Not only a Metastasio, his tumultuous life has made him a Metastasian hero, and he is the subject matter of several operas including those by Adolphus Hailstork, Richard Thompson, Steven Allen, and Jeff Arwady.
The litany of composers who set his texts include Florence Price, William Grant Still, Robert Owens, Zenobia Powell Perry, William Bolcom and Carrie Jacobs Bond. The Dunbar Music Archive is a resource for information regarding musical settings of his texts, streaming audio, and a dialect glossary.
Dunbar’s legacy is important because he is a part of the first generations of free-born Black Americans. The Pan African values of his era influenced his world view and his contributions were seminal in establishing the Harlem Renaissance and were a part of the New Negro Movement. Dunbar used the tropes and stock characters of the plantation tradition to deliver critical social commentary and his work heavily influenced Langston Hughes and others.
150 years after his birth, Dunbar is so integral to US American culture, so ingrained in the fabric of our society, we don’t even always realize it’s him.
The post Commissioner’s Choice Award – Minnita Daniel-Cox, University of Dayton – Paul Laurence Dunbar’s Artist Legacy appeared first on The Academic Minute.
This Week on The Academic Minute 2023.1.2
Monday, January 2ndWho is your favorite poet’s favorite poet? On this Commissioner’s Choice Award segment to kick off 2023, Minnita Daniel-Cox, associate professor of music, looked into one such person during University of Dayton Week.
Tuesday, January 3rdNa Young Lee, assistant professor of marketing at the University of Dayton, examines why getting asked to donate to charities in the checkout line can breed bad feelings for shoppers.
Wednesday, January 4thSusan Broniarczyk, associate dean for research and professor of marketing at the University of Texas at Austin, explores why sharing something online doesn’t mean you’ve read the article.
Thursday, January 5thLallen Johnson, associate professor in the school of public affairs at American University, explains why certain groups bear more of the brunt from disaster and epidemics.
Friday, January 6thHuolin Xin, professor of physics and astronomy at the University of California, Irvine, discusses one way to change the human toll of making batteries for electric vehicles.
The post This Week on The Academic Minute (2023.01.02) appeared first on The Academic Minute.
The Academic Minute from 12.26 – 12.30Monday, December 26thKhurram Afridi – Cornell UniversityWireless Charging of Electric Vehicles
Khurram Afridi is an Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering in Cornell University’s College of Engineering. He received his BS from Caltech in 1989, and he did his Master’s and Ph.D. work at MIT. His research interests are in power electronics and energy systems incorporating power electronic controls. He has worked in industry and academia for more than 25 years.
Tuesday, December 27thWilliam E. Pelham – Florida International UniversityMedication Doesn’t Help Kids With ADHD Learn
Pelham has authored or co-authored nearly 500 professional publications dealing with ADHD and its assessment and treatment-psychosocial, pharmacological, and combined. His research has provided the foundation for the current standard in the treatment for ADHD. He has won numerous awards for his contributions from organizations such as Divisions 53 and 37 of the American Psychological Association (APA) and Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (CHADD). Pelham is a 1970 graduate of Dartmouth College and earned his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1976.
Wednesday, December 28th
Joe Laycock – Texas State UniversityWhy Exorcisms Won’t Go Away
Joseph P. Laycock is the author of several books on religious history including The Penguin Book of Exorcisms.
Thursday, December 29thRachael Woldoff – West Virginia UniversityDigital Nomads
Rachael A. Woldoff is an urban sociologist and Professor of Sociology. She received a PhD in sociology from The Ohio State University, specializing in crime and community. Her research and publications have focused on neighborhood crime and disorder, urban redevelopment, and racial/ethnic differences in neighborhood attainment, as well as the subjects of neighborhood racial change, gentrification, housing, and creative class cities. Her work has appeared in journals such as Social Forces , Urban Affairs Review, and Urban Studies. Her book, White Flight/Black Flight: The Dynamics of Racial Change in an American Neighborhood, was awarded the Best Book Award from the Urban Affairs Association. Dr. Woldoff received the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Researcher Award. She has coauthored three other books including High Stakes: Big Time Sports and Downtown Redevelopment (The Ohio State University Press 2004) and Priced Out: Stuyvesant Town and the Loss of Middle-Class Neighborhoods (New York University Press 2016). Dr. Woldoff was elected Chair of the American Sociological Association’s Community and Urban Sociology Section (CUSS). She is Deputy Editor of the ASA journal City and Community . She has also been elected to the Governing Board of the Urban Affairs Association (UAA). Her newest book, Digital Nomads: In Search of Freedom, Community, and Meaningful Work in the New Economy (Oxford University Press 2021), examines community, creative class cities, and the rise of remote work. Her newest research is on public housing residents and their experiences of forced relocation.
Friday, December 30thCara Giovanetti – New York UniversityDark Matter
Cara Giovanetti is a third-year graduate student in the NYU physics department, working towards a Ph.D. after receiving a bachelor’s degree in physics from Princeton University. Cara is interested in the intersection between particle physics and cosmology, and how we can use cosmology to learn more about dark matter.
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It’s Best Of Week on The Academic Minute. In our most listened to segment of 2022, Cara Giovanetti, Ph. D student in Physics at New York University, went in search of dark matter during New York University Week.
Cara Giovanetti is a third-year graduate student in the NYU physics department, working towards a Ph.D. after receiving a bachelor’s degree in physics from Princeton University. Cara is interested in the intersection between particle physics and cosmology, and how we can use cosmology to learn more about dark matter.
Dark Matterhttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/12-30-22-NYU-Dark-Matter.mp3The universe is full of evidence for a kind of particle we call “dark matter”. This particle can feel the effects of gravity, and enough dark matter can source gravity that other particles can feel too. But we’ve never seen or measured dark matter, because it doesn’t seem to have any other kinds of interactions that we can measure.
What do I mean by “interactions”? Ordinary matter, for example, can interact with light, by emitting it, like a light bulb or a star, or when light bounces off of ordinary matter, like how we see things because light bounces off an object and reaches our eyes. So we all make use of these particle interactions when we see, hear, touch, smell or taste things around us. But dark matter doesn’t seem to have any of these interactions, with any kind of particle. So how do you learn about something you can’t see or touch?
My collaborators and I have developed a new technique to do just this. We focus on a mathematical model of dark matter where dark matter and electrons can interact, but the interaction is just too weak for us to measure. Our technique involves carefully calculating how much electrons throughout the universe get heated up by interactions with dark matter, and how those electrons then pass that extra heat to other kinds of particles.
We found that dark matter with a small mass is so good at heating up electrons that if dark matter were actually that light, the universe would look a lot different from how it actually looks today. So, we concluded from this study that dark matter in this model can’t be too light. This result tells us a little more about what we’re looking for as we continue to try to measure dark matter.
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It’s Best Of Week on The Academic Minute. In our second most listened to segment of 2022, Rachael Woldoff, professor of sociology at West Virginia University, explored the world of digital nomads.
Rachael A. Woldoff is an urban sociologist and Professor of Sociology. She received a PhD in sociology from The Ohio State University, specializing in crime and community. Her research and publications have focused on neighborhood crime and disorder, urban redevelopment, and racial/ethnic differences in neighborhood attainment, as well as the subjects of neighborhood racial change, gentrification, housing, and creative class cities. Her work has appeared in journals such as Social Forces , Urban Affairs Review, and Urban Studies. Her book, White Flight/Black Flight: The Dynamics of Racial Change in an American Neighborhood, was awarded the Best Book Award from the Urban Affairs Association. Dr. Woldoff received the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Researcher Award. She has coauthored three other books including High Stakes: Big Time Sports and Downtown Redevelopment (The Ohio State University Press 2004) and Priced Out: Stuyvesant Town and the Loss of Middle-Class Neighborhoods (New York University Press 2016). Dr. Woldoff was elected Chair of the American Sociological Association’s Community and Urban Sociology Section (CUSS). She is Deputy Editor of the ASA journal City and Community . She has also been elected to the Governing Board of the Urban Affairs Association (UAA). Her newest book, Digital Nomads: In Search of Freedom, Community, and Meaningful Work in the New Economy (Oxford University Press 2021), examines community, creative class cities, and the rise of remote work. Her newest research is on public housing residents and their experiences of forced relocation.
Digital Nomadshttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/12-29-22-West-Virginia-Digital-Nomads.mp3For too long, our jobs have determined where we live. Conversely, where we live has geographically limited our work opportunities. However, work is changing. The Covid-19 pandemic has increased the number of off-site professional jobs. Our research on digital nomads – people who travel long-term while working online –shows that it is possible to live in one’s desired location without derailing, restarting, or even sacrificing one’s career. This marks a new way to look at life choices and career longevity.
As an urban sociologist, I have made a career of studying places by hanging out with people in their communities. My coauthor on this research, Robert Litchfield, is a management professor who studies motivation in creative work. Together, we visited an established digital nomad hub in Bali and spent time with people who have migrated all over the world while working remotely. We learned that the freedom to live wherever you want and even to change that location whenever you want can be a powerful motivating force drawing people to further engage with their work.
Even if we don’t want to travel the world, digital nomads have shown us the benefits of “working from anywhere” (WFA). The “great resignation” has revealed that preferences for remote and hybrid work are not limited to millennials and Gen Z employees, but extend to parents of young children, older workers, individuals living with disabilities, minoritized people, and those with responsibilities to care for family members. The pandemic exposed the wider world to the wisdom of digital nomads. We cannot unring the bell. As we reconsider our priorities after the trauma of the pandemic, it is becoming clear that flexibility to work from anywhere without compromising our jobs may be the key to increasing life satisfaction and may even transform our entire conception of career longevity as we age.
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It’s Best Of Week on The Academic Minute. In our third most listened to segment of 2022, Joe Laycock, associate professor of religious studies at Texas State University, explained why how exorcisms are not going away anytime soon.
Joseph P. Laycock is the author of several books on religious history including The Penguin Book of Exorcisms.
Why Exorcism Won’t Go Awayhttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/12-28-22-Texas-State-Why-Exorcism-Wont-Go-Away.mp3We associate exorcism with superstition and the dark ages. I teach a class on exorcism and my students often assume that accounts of demonic possession are actually describing mental illness that pre-modern people were too ignorant to understand. Like the priest in The Exorcist, they assume that exorcism will fade away as medical science triumphs over superstition. It’s a comforting thought, but almost certainly false.
Sometimes exorcism narratives do describe features that sound like symptoms of mental illness. But our ancestors were also smarter than most people think. A treatise attributed to the physician Hippocrates explains that seizures are not a curse sent by the gods and that unusual behavior often arises in the brain. Hippocrates lived in 400 BCE.
As for the predicted demise of exorcism, it is more common now that at any point in American history. Rather than explaining away the supernatural, technology has only allowed the practice of exorcism to thrive. The Archdiocese of Washington D.C. has a website explaining how to request an exorcism. Protestant deliverance ministers like Bob Larson can be hired to cast out demons over a Zoom call.
Historically, the factor that seems to correlate most closely with the fear of demons is not scientific knowledge but political and social instability. The wave of exorcisms in the sixteenth century coincided with the wars of religion that followed the Protestant Reformation. Churches, monarchies, and the entire social order were suddenly in flux and some people saw the activity of demons everywhere. In a world that no longer made sense, belief in the demonic provided a way of interpreting what was happening and the hope that problems could be overcome. Our own time is somewhat similar as we struggle to make sense of Covid, inflation, and conspiracy theories fueled by social media. Therefore, it seems exorcism will continue to be normalized for the foreseeable futu
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Medication Doesn’t Help Kids With ADHD LearnThe post Best-Of Week 2022: William E. Pelham, Florida International University – Medication Doesn’t Help Kids With ADHD Learn appeared first on The Academic Minute.
It’s Best Of Week on The Academic Minute. In our fifth most listened to segment of the year, Khurram Afridi, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Cornell University, examined how to charge electric cars more efficiently during Cornell University College of Engineering Week.
Khurram Afridi is an Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering in Cornell University’s College of Engineering. He received his BS from Caltech in 1989, and he did his Master’s and Ph.D. work at MIT. His research interests are in power electronics and energy systems incorporating power electronic controls. He has worked in industry and academia for more than 25 years.
Wireless Charging of Electric Vehicleshttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/12-26-22-Cornell-Wireless-Charging-of-Electric-Vehicles.mp3Imagine you’re driving your electric car down the highway. Your battery is running low. Sure, you could pull off at the next exit and spend time, and energy, searching for a recharging station. Or you could simply change lanes and drive over special charging strips embedded in the road.
That’s the vision that our lab is working to make a reality. In the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, we’re pioneering an innovative approach for the wireless charging of all kinds of electric vehicles while they remain in motion, from cars on highways to forklifts in warehouses, and other mobile machines.
This technology would not only provide convenience for drivers, it improves productivity, lowers costs and almost eliminates downtime for autonomous vehicles and robots in warehouses. It would also literally pave the way for more sustainable transit.
The origins of wireless electricity go back more than 100 years to the work of Nikola Tesla, the Serbian-American inventor who amazed audiences in the 1890s by using alternating electric fields to illuminate unplugged fluorescent lamps. Later scientists experimented with wireless power that would transfer energy via alternating magnetic fields, rather than electric fields, but they soon found the approach wasn’t practical, and interest in the technology fizzled.
Today, wireless power transfer has become not only feasible, but practical. It’s based on the same underlying physics used to send messages to spacecraft like Voyager, through radio waves. Except now we are sending much more energy across much shorter distances, to moving vehicles.
What really drives me at the fundamental level, is taking these two very different communities – high-frequency electronics and high-power electronics – who have never talked to one another, who don’t speak the same language, who essentially solve problems very differently, and merge them together to create an entirely new field and enable brand new applications.
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Best Of Week on The Academic Minute 2022.12.26
Monday, December 26thIn our fifth most listened to segment of the year, Khurram Afridi, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Cornell University, examined how to charge electric cars more efficiently during Cornell University College of Engineering Week.
Tuesday, December 27thIn our fourth most listened to segment of 2022, William E. Pelham, distinguished professor of psychology at Florida International University, discussed why medications may not always be the answer for certain disorders..
Wednesday, December 28thIn our third most listened to segment of 2022, Joe Laycock, associate professor of religious studies at Texas State University, explained why how exorcisms are not going away anytime soon.
Thursday, December 29thIn our second most listened to segment of 2022, Rachael Woldoff, professor of sociology at West Virginia University, explored the world of digital nomads.
Friday, December 30thIn our most listened to segment of 2022, Cara Giovanetti, Ph. D student in Physics at New York University, went in search of dark matter during New York University Week.
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The Academic Minute from 12.19 – 12.23Monday, December 19thLing Cao – University of New EnglandModels for Discovering Methods to Reduce Chronic Pain
Dr. Cao completed her training in Clinical Medicine at Beijing Medical University and subsequently completed PhD training at the State University of New York at Albany (SUNY Albany). After her post-doctoral training at the University of Rochester Medical Center and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, she joined the Department of Biomedical Sciences faculty at the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine in 2007..
Tuesday, December 20thMarilyn Gugliucci – University of New EnglandLearning by Living: 48-Hour Hospice Home Immersion Project
Dr. Marilyn R. Gugliucci is a Professor and the Director for Geriatrics Education & Research, as well as the Director of U-ExCEL (UNE~Exercise and Conditioning for Easier Living) Fitness/Wellness Program for older adults. She conducts research on older adult function, falls, and proprioception. Dr. Gugliucci is a Fellow of the National Association of Osteopathic Medical Educators (NAOME), the American Geriatrics Society (AGS), the Gerontological Society of America (GSA), the Academy for Gerontology in Higher Education (AGHE), and the Maine Gerontological Society (MGS).
Wednesday, December 21st
Michele Polacsek – University of New EnglandThe Impact of Digita Marketing on Children’s Unhealthy Eating Habits
Dr. Polacsek joined the University of New England faculty in 2009 where she is currently a professor of Public Health and Director of the Center for Excellence in Public Health. As principal investigator, she has maintained research funding through four grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and one grant-funded through the National Institute for Food and Agriculture. She has also served as co-investigator on other grants including several through the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. Polacsek’s research currently focuses on digital food and beverage marketing to children at school as well as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) policy advances through the promotion of fruit and vegetable purchases using behavioral economics in the supermarket setting.
Thursday, December 22ndSydney Springer – University of New EnglandWorking with Doctors on Deprescribing
Dr. Springer is a preceptor for Advance Pharmacy Practice Experience (APPE) students in Ambulatory Care. She works in family practice at Mid Coast Medical Group – Family Practice Parkview in Brunswick, ME. She works closely with providers, nurses, medical assistants and social workers to coordinate care for community dwelling patients – with a focus on geriatrics, polypharmacy, and deprescribing.
Friday, December 23rdThomas Klak – University of New EnglandReintroducing Chestnut Trees to Improve Biodiversity
My research and teaching efforts focus on ecological restoration. The broad questions that drive my work are: How can we help heal the Earth? How can we live more harmoniously with all the other species with which we share the Earth? There is arguably no better species in the eastern US than the American chestnut to answer these questions. The return of a healthy American chestnut to its native range throughout the eastern US forest will be one of the great environmental reversal stories: from keystone species, to functional extinction, and now to a hopeful near-future with a fungal blight-tolerant American chestnut thriving among us again.
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On University of New England Week: How do we stir up more biodiversity in nature?
Thomas Klak, professor in the school of marine and environmental programs, explores one possibility.
My research and teaching efforts focus on ecological restoration. The broad questions that drive my work are: How can we help heal the Earth? How can we live more harmoniously with all the other species with which we share the Earth? There is arguably no better species in the eastern US than the American chestnut to answer these questions. The return of a healthy American chestnut to its native range throughout the eastern US forest will be one of the great environmental reversal stories: from keystone species, to functional extinction, and now to a hopeful near-future with a fungal blight-tolerant American chestnut thriving among us again.
Reintroducing Chestnut Trees to Improve Biodiversityhttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/12-23-22-UNE-Reintroducing-Chestnut-Trees-to-Improve-Biodiversity.mp3We hear lots of bad news about biodiversity decline, including in our eastern US forests. We regularly learn about and even witness devastation from introduced pests and pathogens, such as Dutch elm disease, the emerald ash borer, the brown-tailed moth, and many others. American Chestnut trees were once among the most abundant and important forest trees in the U.S., but are now functionally extinct due to a fungal blight that wiped them out. The blight was accidently introduced in the late 1800s and killed more than 3 billion trees. The chestnut, that provided food for animals and people, tannin for hides, and rot-resistant lumber for just about everything, was seemingly gone.
For the past seven years my research has focused on reintroducing a fungal-blight tolerant American chestnut to our eastern US landscapes.
My team works with collaborators at the American Chestnut Foundation and SUNY’s Environmental Science and Forestry College, who have inserted a wheat gene into the chestnut that provides fungal blight tolerance. We all work under federal permits, with hopes for federal deregulation soon.
We continue to rigorously test our blight-tolerant chestnut, and to genetically diversity its population. Whereas in nature it takes 4 or more years for a chestnut tree to mature, my lab has developed techniques to advance the chestnut an entire generation within the same calendar year. A chestnut flower we pollinate in July becomes the pollen source for the next generation the following July.
In this way, we annually produce increasingly diverse chestnut seedlings with blight tolerance. We pollinate wild-type chestnut trees that have temporarily survived the blight, share blight-tolerant chestnut pollen and seeds with our collaborators, and outplant them in field trials.
As we await the deregulation decision, each year we produce hundreds of genetically-diverse American chestnut trees that have fungal-blight tolerance.
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On University of New England Week: Medications doesn’t come without risks and side effects.
Sydney Springer, assistant professor of pharmacy, explains why some would rather go on without them.
Dr. Springer is a preceptor for Advance Pharmacy Practice Experience (APPE) students in Ambulatory Care. She works in family practice at Mid Coast Medical Group – Family Practice Parkview in Brunswick, ME. She works closely with providers, nurses, medical assistants and social workers to coordinate care for community dwelling patients – with a focus on geriatrics, polypharmacy, and deprescribing.
Working with Doctors on Deprescribinghttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/12-22-22-UNE-Working-with-Doctors-for-Deprescribing.mp3In a small study a student and I conducted in 2021, we found that an overwhelming portion of participating older adult community dwelling Mainers were interested in deprescribing. Deprescribing is the supervised process of stopped or reducing medications, where the risk of a medication outweighs the benefit of continuing it. Deprescribing is aimed at reducing medications that place patients at risk. Those with a large number of medications, known as “polypharmacy” are more likely to be on inappropriate medications, have more drug interactions, and experience more emergency department visits and hospitalizations.
In our study, 84 percent of survey participants indicated that they would be interested in stopping one or more of their medications if their provider said it was possible. In this survey we also found that about a third of participants were interested in stopping a medication to see how they felt about it, about a third indicated they felt like they would be missing out on future benefits if they stopped their medications, and about a third would be reluctant to stop their medications that they had been taking for a long time. Almost everyone disagreed that if a provider stopped their medication, they would feel that their doctor was giving up on them. This study tells us that as providers—physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and even pharmacists in some states—we have the potential to educate our patients about appropriate medications. We can educate about the likely limited long-term benefits of some medications, and the harms of others. Our patients have a lot of faith in us as medical experts, and are ready to discuss deprescribing as a part of their healthcare experience.
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On University of New England Week: Marketing certain products to kids can have negative effects.
Michele Polacsek, professor of public health, outlines why.
Dr. Polacsek joined the University of New England faculty in 2009 where she is currently a professor of Public Health and Director of the Center for Excellence in Public Health. As principal investigator, she has maintained research funding through four grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and one grant-funded through the National Institute for Food and Agriculture. She has also served as co-investigator on other grants including several through the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. Polacsek’s research currently focuses on digital food and beverage marketing to children at school as well as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) policy advances through the promotion of fruit and vegetable purchases using behavioral economics in the supermarket setting.
The Impact of Digital Marketing on Children’s Unhealthy Eating Habitshttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/12-21-22-UNE-The-Impact-of-Digital-Marketing-on-Childrens-Unhealthy-Eating-Habits.mp3Digital marketing of unhealthy foods and beverages to children and adolescents on electronic devices such as computers, tablets, or phones, has been shown to undermine healthy eating. Expanded use of electronic devices and remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic likely contributed to increased rates of childhood obesity, greatly impacted student learning, and exacerbated pre-existing racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities. As schools continue using educational technology, policy interventions to limit digital food marketing in schools and on school-issued devices are needed. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) provides little guidance on how to address digital food marketing, and federal and state privacy protections for children is inadequate.
My colleagues and I recently conducted a study to highlight areas where state and local education authorities can intervene to reduce digital food marketing through their own policies. We highlight four areas for local or state policy intervention and provide model policy language for each area.
First, because increased exposure to food marketing increases unhealthy food intake in children, the study recommends filtering for inappropriate food and beverage content through the school network.
Second, because children have the fundamental right to access information free from economic exploitation, schools would benefit from adopting approved lists of digital instructional materials that exclude materials with unhealthy food marketing.
Third, because electronic device use during mealtimes fosters poor nutritional habits, restricting personal device use during the lunch period can support healthy eating behaviors.
And finally, because the use of social media increases exposure to powerful digital food marketing, schools should not require students or parents to use commercial social media for access to school-related information.
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On University of New England Week: Nothing can replace firsthand knowledge.
Marilyn Gugliucci, professor and director of geriatrics research, looks into one example.
Dr. Marilyn R. Gugliucci is a Professor and the Director for Geriatrics Research, as well as the Director of U-ExCEL (UNE~Exercise and Conditioning for Easier Living) Fitness/Wellness Program for older adults. She conducts research on older adult function, falls, and proprioception. Dr. Gugliucci is a Fellow of the National Association of Osteopathic Medical Educators (NAOME), the American Geriatrics Society (AGS), the Gerontological Society of America (GSA), the Academy for Gerontology in Higher Education (AGHE), and the Maine Gerontological Society (MGS).
Learning by Living: 48-Hour Hospice Home Immersion Projecthttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/12-20-22-UNE-Learning-by-Living-48-Hour-Hospice-Home-Immersion-Project.mp3The Learning by Living 48 Hour Hospice Home Immersion Project is unique among all medical schools. It was successfully piloted in December 2014 to provide an intense interprofessional experience to advance palliative and end of life care education and clinical experiences for medical students at the UNE College of Osteopathic Medicine.
In the Hospice Immersion Project, pairs of medical students are immersed each month for 48 hours in the non-profit Gosnell Memorial Hospice House in Maine. Students are active participants in patient care, family support, and post-mortem care in this 18-bed acute-care setting which is considered to be the ICU of hospice. Between five to ten deaths occur during these 48 hours and students write about their experiences, thoughts, and feelings in a journal before, during, and after the immersion. The journals represent the data as the immersion project is based on ethnographic and autobiographic research designs. Most students volunteer to conduct this immersion during their second year of medical school, althoughthird and fourth year students have also participated. This life-altering qualitative research guides osteopathic medical students to answer the questions: “What is it like for me to live in the Hospice House for 48 hours?” and “How does this contribute to my future as a physician?”
The few following representative quotes from journals reveals the impact of this project on medical students:
“…I want to foster this type of care as a physician. It is support beyond what I knew.”**
“I can’t even begin to describe everything I will take from this experience into my career as a physician. Some of it is simply inexplicable, but just a feeling that I know I will be a better physician because of all I saw and learned during my stay in the home.”
For the 168 medical students who participated in this Hospice Immersion project thus far, each reported absorbing the abundance of life that is present even in death.
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On University of New England Week: Chronic pain takes over your life.
Ling Cao, professor of immunology, examines the fight for relief.
Dr. Cao completed her training in Clinical Medicine at Beijing Medical University and subsequently completed PhD training at the State University of New York at Albany (SUNY Albany). After her post-doctoral training at the University of Rochester Medical Center and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, she joined the Department of Biomedical Sciences faculty at the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine in 2007.
Models for Discovering Methods to Reduce Chronic Painhttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/12-19-22-UNE-Models-for-Discovering-Methods-to-Reduce-Chronic-Pain.mp3My research focuses on chronic pain specifically exploring how the interactions between the immune system, body’s defense system, and the nervous system, affect the development of neuropathic pain, a type of pain that happens if the part of the nervous system that processes the sensation of pain, touch, temperature, vibration, and body position is damaged. My team uses various mouse models, including models for HIV-infection. We have examined the contributions of several molecules that are known to be critical in the immune system while fighting infections. These molecules are also found on glial cells that are located in the central nervous system and can play certain functions as cells in the immune system. For example, we have identified a molecule, CD40 found on microglia, one type of glial cells, that can contribute to the maintenance of neuropathic pain and the development of HIV-associated neuropathy. Depletion of CD40 can significantly improve animals’ pain-related behaviors. We realized that the knowledge obtained from animal models cannot represent all aspects of human pain. We started to work with patients with chronic pain by collaborating with local clinics and patient support groups, and began to utilize the growing health-related databases. This combination approach also taught us that chronic pain is most effectively managed using a multidisciplinary, personalized strategy. The long-term goal of our study is to identify novel drug targets as well as behavioral and policy changes that could improve the health of patients suffering from chronic pain.
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University of New England Week on The Academic Minute 2022.12.19
Monday, December 19thLing Cao, professor of immunology, examines the fight for relief after chronic pain has taken over your life.
Tuesday, December 20thMarilyn Gugliucci, professor and director of geriatrics research, looks into how nothing can replace firsthand knowledge for students.
Wednesday, December 21stMichele Polacsek, professor of public health, outlines why marketing certain products to kids can have negative effects.
Thursday, December 22ndSydney Springer, assistant professor of pharmacy, explains why some patients would rather go on without their medications.
Friday, December 23rdThomas Klak, professor in the school of marine and environmental programs, explores one possibility to bring back biodiversity to our forests.
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The shortage of teachers is a critical problem. Tuan Nguyen, assistant professor of education at Kansas State University, delves into this problem. Tuan D. Nguyen is an assistant professor of education at Kansas State University. His main research interests teacher labor markets, education policy, and school improvement. He applies rigorous quantitative methods to examine the […]
The oceans play a huge role in keeping our planet healthy.
Maurice Huguenin, doctoral candidate at the Climate Change Research Centre at the University of New South Wales, examines one example.
Maurice Huguenin is a doctoral candidate at the Climate Change Research Centre at the University of New South Wales. He holds a Master’s degree in Atmospheric and Climate Science and a Bachelor’s degree in Earth Sciences from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH Zurich). In between his Master’s and the start of his PhD, he worked at MeteoSwiss and investigated changes in the atmospheric circulation over Central Europe. In his doctoral research, he uses supercomputer models and observations to investigate the drivers of recent ocean warming from the local to the global and from the annual to the multidecadal scale.
Southern Ocean Takes on the Heat of Climate Changehttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/12-15-22-New-South-Wales-Southern-Ocean-Takes-on-the-Heat-of-Climate-Change.mp3Since the 1970s, the oceans have been working in overdrive to slow global warming, absorbing over 90% of the excess heat trapped in the atmosphere. But as we have found out, some oceans work harder than others.
We used a computational ocean circulation model to examine exactly how ocean warming has played out so far. And we found the Southern Ocean accounts for almost all the planet’s ocean heat uptake, thereby controlling the rate of climate change.
Its impacts are effectively irreversible on human time scales, because it takes millennia for heat trapped deep in the ocean to be released back into the atmosphere. This means changes happening now will be felt for generations. Those changes will only get worse, unless we stop carbon dioxide emissions and achieve net zero.
We first ran the ocean model with atmospheric conditions perpetually stuck in the 1960s, prior to any significant human-caused ocean warming. Then, we separately allowed each ocean basin to move forward in time and experience climate change, while all other basins were held back to experience the climate of the 1960s. This is how we could isolate that the Southern Ocean is the most important absorber of excess heat.
So why is it the Southern Ocean? It largely comes down to the geographic set-up. The Southern Ocean is surrounded by strong westerly winds, these winds facilitate the heat uptake, and they can exert this influence uninterrupted by land masses.
All future climate projections predict even more ocean warming, with enormous global impacts: including further disturbances to the Southern Ocean food web, rapid melting of Antarctic ice shelves, and sea level rise.
Read More:
[The Conversation] – The Southern Ocean absorbs more heat than any other ocean on Earth, and the impacts will be felt for generations
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Mischief isn’t always a bad thing,
Alex Moran, Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in Philosophy at the University of Oxford, explains why.
Dr Alex Moran is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in Philosophy at the University of Oxford, who will shortly be taking up a post as an IRC post-doctoral researcher at Trinity College Dublin. His primary research interests are metaphysics, the philosophy of mind, and meta-ethics. When not writing philosophy, he also produces essays, poetry, and both longer and shorter fiction.
In Praise of Mischiefhttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/12-14-22-Oxford-In-Praise-of-Mischief.mp3Tales of mischief are not only amusing, but they also elicit within us a certain kind of sympathy. But does this mean there is something virtuous, or even noble, about mischief and mischievous people?
In essence, mischief is a playful form of trouble-making. Unsurprisingly, then, one main virtue of mischievous people is their correspondingly light-hearted temperament.
Mischievous people tend also to have an excellent sense of humour, and this is a virtue that cannot be praised too highly. Consider, for instance, the Chinese monk Budhai, a quasi-historical figure in Buddhism. Knowing he would be cremated, when he was dying he stuffed his pockets with gunpowder and fireworks, so that his followers would burst into laughter as his corpse exploded on the funeral pyre. This is a great example of praiseworthy mischief, harming no one and serving only to make us laugh. It is also a good example of the light-heartedness of mischievous people extending beyond life and into death.
Mischief can also be put to various practical uses. Satire, for instance, is arguably just political mischief, as are many kinds of political protest. But the mischievous spirit can have a beneficial impact on the world even beyond the political sphere. Think for example of Socrates, father of philosophy in the Western world. Socrates took great delight in challenging and making fun of various Athenian authority figures, showing up generals, for example, for not knowing the true nature of war, or lawmakers for not knowing the true nature of justice. It seems clear that he was motivated by mischievousness, and the desire for some amusement.
Mischievous people make the world a lot more interesting. Many of the best and brightest stars in history were mischievous types. Far from being mere trouble-makers, mischievous people actually make the world a much better place for the rest of us to live.
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We’re still waiting to see signs of life among the cosmos.
Chris Impey, university distinguished professor in the department of astronomy at the University of Arizona, explores the skies for clues.
Chris Impey is a University Distinguished Professor of Astronomy at the University of Arizona. He has over 230 refereed publications on observational cosmology, galaxies, and quasars, and his research has been supported by $20 million in NASA and NSF grants. He has won eleven teaching awards and has taught three online classes with over 350,000 enrolled and 6 million minutes of video lectures watched. Chris Impey is a past Vice President of the American Astronomical Society, and he has won its career Education Prize. He’s also been NSF Distinguished Teaching Scholar, Carnegie Council’s Arizona Professor of the Year, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor. He has written 90 popular articles on cosmology, astrobiology and education, two textbooks, a novel called Shadow World, and nine popular science books: The Living Cosmos, How It Ends, Talking About Life, How It Began, Dreams of Other Worlds, Humble Before the Void, Beyond: The Future of Space Travel, Einstein’s Monsters: The Life and Times of Black Holes, and an upcoming book on exoplanets, Worlds Without End.
Super-Earths and the Search for Life Beyond Earthhttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/12-13-22-Arizona-Super-Earths-and-the-Search-for-Life-Beyond-Earth.mp3The search for life beyond Earth is in a new phase as astronomers study the nearest exoplanets that are habitable, so at a distance from their parent star where liquid water can exist. Recent attention focuses on super-Earths, exoplanets several times the size and mass of the Earth.
Super-Earths are likely to be super-habitable. Higher mass guarantees a geologically active planet, and plate tectonics are thought to have been critical in the development of life on Earth. It also means strong gravity, which can hold a thick atmosphere to protect life from cosmic rays and UV radiation.
I’m excited to report there are many of these worlds that are ripe for biology. A third of all exoplanets are super-Earths, 1700 in all, more than any other type of exoplanet, projecting to ten billion across the galaxy. We don’t know much about super-Earths because most are hundreds of light years away, and there’s no super-Earth in our own Solar System.
That’s about to change. The James Webb Space Telescope can use spectroscopy to sniff the atmospheres of super-Earths and see if they contain gases like oxygen and methane that indicate life here on Earth. A future generation of huge, ground-based telescopes that are under construction will do more of this work, and even allow images to be made of super-Earths.
We’re understandably attached to it, but Earth is not the best of all possible worlds. There have been violent variations in climate in the past, including an early hot phase and several times when the planet entered a deep freeze, nearly extinguishing all life. Astronomers will soon be looking for life on super-Earths and if the searches all fail we may be forced to conclude that the universe is a lonely place.
Read More:
[The Conversation] – Super-Earths are bigger, more common and more habitable than Earth itself – and astronomers are discovering more of the billions they think are out there
http://chrisimpey-astronomy.com/
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The COVID-19 pandemic has not affected everyone equally.
Scott Landes, associate professor of sociology at Syracuse University, focuses on one community.
Scott Landes is an associate professor of sociology and O’Hanley Faculty Scholar at Syracuse University. Informed by his interest in medical sociology, aging and the life course, and disability theory, the majority of his research focuses on health and mortality trends across the life course for those with intellectual and developmental disability, and for veterans. Together with Dr. Margaret Turk from Upstate Medical University, he had spent the past 2 years focused on COVID-19 outcomes among people with intellectual and developmental disability.
The COVID-19 Burden Has Been Greater Among People With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilityhttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/12-12-22-Syracuse-The-COVID-19-burden-has-been-greater-among-people-with-intellectual-and-developmental-disability.mp3Early in the pandemic we published a report warning that the COVID-19 burden may be greater among people with intellectual and developmental disability. Our concern was based on knowledge that people with these disabilities often experience barriers to receiving quality medical care, frequently live in congregate care settings in which it is difficult to achieve adequate social distancing, and had high rates of death from respiratory diseases such as pneumonia and pneumonitis pre-pandemic.
Our recent study of 2020 US death certificate data provides evidence that this was the case. During the first year of the pandemic, COVID-19 was the third leading cause of death among people without an intellectual or developmental disability reported on their death certificate. The story was quite different among people who had an intellectual or developmental disability reported on their death certificate. COVID-19 was the leading cause of death among those with intellectual disability, cerebral palsy, and Down syndrome. In addition, compared to people without an intellectual or developmental disability, the rate of death from COVID-19 as opposed to all other causes of death was 1.6 times higher for people with intellectual disability, 1.5 times higher for people with cerebral palsy, and 2.1 times higher for people with Down syndrome.
There is a well-documented history in the US history of marginalizing people with intellectual and developmental disability. Our hope is that we will not add to that history, but will take the necessary steps to ensure that people with intellectual and developmental disability are provided the opportunity to live and thrive, even in the midst of the ongoing pandemic.
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This Week on The Academic Minute 2022.12.12
Monday, December 12thScott Landes, associate professor of sociology at Syracuse University, explores how the COVID-19 pandemic has not affected everyone equally.
Tuesday, December 13thChris Impey, university distinguished professor in the department of astronomy at the University of Arizona, explores the skies for clues for other intelligent life among the cosmos.
Wednesday, December 14thAlex Moran, Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in Philosophy at the University of Oxford, explains why mischief isn’t always a bad thing.
Thursday, December 15thMaurice Huguenin, doctoral candidate at the Climate Change Research Centre at the University of New South Wales, examines one example why the oceans can play a large role in keeping our planet healthy.
Friday, December 16thTuan Nguyen, assistant professor of education at Kansas State University, delves into the teacher shortage.
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The Academic Minute from 12.05 – 12.09Monday, December 5thSaif Mehkari – University of RichmondWhy Does Money Exist?
Saif Mehkari is a macroeconomist specializing in Fiscal Policy and Business Cycles. He earned his Ph.D. and M.A. in Economics from The Ohio State University and his B.A. (with majors in Economics, Computer Science, and Mathematics) from the Ohio Wesleyan University. His current research focuses on understand the effects of fiscal policy on economic aggregates such as consumption, employment, educational expenditure, etc.
Tuesday, December 6thRebecca Price – University of PittsburghKetamine and Depression
Rebecca B. Price, PhD is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology at the University of Pittsburgh. She completed undergraduate studies in cognitive science at Stanford University and a PhD in Clinical Psychology at Rutgers University. She has been the recipient of an NIMH National Research Service Award (Predoctoral F31), Postdoctoral Research Scholarship (T32), Career Development Award (K23), and an NIMH Biobehavioral Research Award for Innovative New Scientists (NIMH BRAINS) R01. She received the Edwin B. Newman Graduate Research Award from the American Psychological Assocation/Psi Chi, the Smadar Levin Award from the Society for Research in Psychopathology, the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research from Rutgers University, the Donald F. Klein Early Career Investigator Award from the Anxiety & Depression Association of America, and was named a “Rising Star” by the Association for Psychological Science.
Wednesday, December 7th
Laura Starks – University of Texas at AustinThe Financial Impact of Poor Corporate Climate Performance
Laura T. Starks, Ph.D., is the George Kozmetsky Centennial Distinguished University Chair at the McCombs School of Business, University of Texas at Austin, where she teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on environmental, social and governance investing. Her current research focuses on ESG issues, including climate finance and board diversity, as well as molecular genetics and financial decisions.
Thursday, December 8thJase Bernhardt – Hofstra UniversityCommunicating Rip Tide Risk in English and Spanish
Jase Bernhardt has had a lifelong passion for studying weather and climate, dating to his childhood in Upstate New York. At Hofstra, Dr. Bernhardt spearheaded the installation of three campus weather stations, which provide real-time data and practical experience for his meteorology students.
His research also includes using virtual reality to improve storm warnings and preparation.
In 2022 Dr. Bernhardt launched a project to build bilingual communication warning tools about rip currents and became one of eight coastal research programs to receive $1.3 million from New York Sea Grant (NYSG).
Rip currents pose a hazard to visitors to beaches in Long Island and across the nation. Groups such as the National Weather Service and local municipalities provide warnings and education materials about rip currents to the public. According to Dr. Bernhardt, signage and education often do not take into account the region’s large Spanish-speaking population. “There is a dearth of safety materials in languages other than English,” he said, “and that can lead to fatalities.”
Dr. Bernhardt received a B.S. in atmospheric science from Cornell University, where he researched east coast winter storms. He attended graduate school at Penn State, working in the Department of Geography, with a focus on climatology. He expanded his research interests to include human impacts on climate, historical climatology, and the usage of GIS. While at Penn State, Jase served as a broadcast meteorologist on the Weather World television program, broadcast throughout the state of Pennsylvania.
Friday, December 9thRobert Nordon – University of New South WalesMaking Blood Stem Cells on a Microchip
I am an Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney. I have a medical/engineer background, graduating in Medicine in 1986 (MB BS, BMedSci, UNSW), and practicing medicine for 8 years before receiving a PhD in Biomedical Engineering at the University of New South Wales. I work closely with industry in the fields of cell and gene therapy translation, advanced manufacturing and medical technologies. Since 2016 I have been awarded over $5M in research grant funding in the fields of point-of-care diagnostics, cell and gene therapy manufacture and stem cell science.
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Stem cell research can be politically divisive.
Robert Nordon, associate professor in the graduate school of biomedical engineering at the University of New South Wales, says a new way of making them may calm debate.
I am an Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney. I have a medical/engineer background, graduating in Medicine in 1986 (MB BS, BMedSci, UNSW), and practicing medicine for 8 years before receiving a PhD in Biomedical Engineering at the University of New South Wales. I work closely with industry in the fields of cell and gene therapy translation, advanced manufacturing and medical technologies. Since 2016 I have been awarded over $5M in research grant funding in the fields of point-of-care diagnostics, cell and gene therapy manufacture and stem cell science.
Making Blood Stem Cells on a Microchiphttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/12-09-22-New-South-Wales-Making-Blood-Stem-Cells-on-a-Microchip.mp3Blood stem cells are precious, because they can be used to save lives by regenerating blood after high doses of chemotherapy to treat aggressive blood cancers. Patients need a closely matched donor which are in short supply for the therapy to be a success.
The discovery of induced pluripotent stem cells in 2006 led to a promising new approach. Pluripotent stem cells grown in the lab, are made from the patient’s own cells, so that there is no problem with tissue rejection, or the ethical issue surrounding the use of IVF embryos. They are called pluripotent, because they closely resemble embryonic stem cells that are the starting point for all other cells in our bodies. In theory induced pluripotent stem cells could provide an unlimited supply of cells for blood regeneration because they are immortalized and can grow in the lab indefinitely.
To grow blood stem cells from pluripotent stem cell lines, one must mimic the complex process of embryogenesis in the dish. This is why we designed a special type of microchip that uses microfluidics to mimic the embryonic heart and circulation in the lab. We harvested circulating cells and grew them in culture, showing that they develop into red and white blood cells. Our study showed that pulsatile circulatory flow enhances the formation of blood stem cell precursors from pluripotent stem cells. The next step in our research is the scale up production of blood stem cells and test their transplantation potential in immune-deficient mice that can accept human transplants.
Read More:
Scientists have mimicked an embryo’s heart to unlock the secrets of how blood cells are born (theconversation.com)
The blood stem cell research that could change medicine of the future | UNSW Newsroom
Mimicry of embryonic circulation enhances the hoxa hemogenic niche and human blood development – ScienceDirect
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Staying safe in the ocean is all about communicating the right message to swimmers.
Jase Bernhardt, associate professor in the department of geology, environment and sustainability at Hofstra University, explains how.
Jase Bernhardt has had a lifelong passion for studying weather and climate, dating to his childhood in Upstate New York. At Hofstra, Dr. Bernhardt spearheaded the installation of three campus weather stations, which provide real-time data and practical experience for his meteorology students.
His research also includes using virtual reality to improve storm warnings and preparation.
In 2022 Dr. Bernhardt launched a project to build bilingual communication warning tools about rip currents and became one of eight coastal research programs to receive $1.3 million from New York Sea Grant (NYSG).
Rip currents pose a hazard to visitors to beaches in Long Island and across the nation. Groups such as the National Weather Service and local municipalities provide warnings and education materials about rip currents to the public. According to Dr. Bernhardt, signage and education often do not take into account the region’s large Spanish-speaking population. “There is a dearth of safety materials in languages other than English,” he said, “and that can lead to fatalities.”
Dr. Bernhardt received a B.S. in atmospheric science from Cornell University, where he researched east coast winter storms. He attended graduate school at Penn State, working in the Department of Geography, with a focus on climatology. He expanded his research interests to include human impacts on climate, historical climatology, and the usage of GIS. While at Penn State, Jase served as a broadcast meteorologist on the Weather World television program, broadcast throughout the state of Pennsylvania.
Communicating Rip Current Risk in English and Spanishhttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/12-08-22-Hofstra-Communicating-Rip-Current-Risk-in-English-and-Spanish.mp3It might surprise you to learn that one of the leading causes of weather-related fatalities each year across the United States is rip currents. Rip currents are narrow but strong flows of ocean water typically originating at the shoreline and moving rapidly out to sea. They are more frequent during periods of rough surf and large waves, sometimes due to tropical storms well offshore.
While rip currents do not actually pull people underwater, they can sometimes become dangerous. Why? Because when swimmers are impacted by a rip current, they may panic, as they fear being swept out to sea. In doing so, they often try to fight the rip current by attempting to swim back to shore. The currents, however, can be much stronger than any human can swim. So going against one is often a challenge, and the fatigue from fighting the current can result in the need for a lifeguard rescue.
Rip current danger demonstrates the complexity of severe weather outreach. While the rip itself is not particularly dangerous, an inappropriate response to one can turn deadly. Thus, providing memorable lessons of what to do when caught in a rip current is of vital importance. Quite simply, if you are caught in a rip current, you should stay calm, wave for help, and if you feel comfortable doing so, swim parallel to shore—not towards it—to escape the rip.
To make those instructions more engaging, especially for younger swimmers who might be more likely to swim without lifeguards, my team has developed a virtual reality video game where participants are caught in a rip current and have to escape. Initial results indicate that this form of outreach is effective, and we are currently testing and translating the game into Spanish, to make it accessible to a broader population.
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Everything is at risk from the effects of climate change.
Laura Starks, professor of finance and distinguished university chair at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin, looks into one financial area of concern.
Laura T. Starks, Ph.D., is the George Kozmetsky Centennial Distinguished University Chair at the McCombs School of Business, University of Texas at Austin, where she teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on environmental, social and governance investing. Her current research focuses on ESG issues, including climate finance and board diversity, as well as molecular genetics and financial decisions.
The Financial Impact of Poor Corporate Climate Performancehttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/12-07-22-UT-Austin-The-Financial-Impact-of-Poor-Corporate-Climate-Performance.mp3Corporate environmental and climate risks have received more attention from investors and managers and are becoming an important factor in financial decision-making.
In my research, I evaluated whether and how climate and other environmental regulatory risks affect corporate bond credit ratings and prices.
The evidence suggests that uncertainty about future regulatory actions can motivate investors and other bond market participants to respond to firms’ environmental performance, and particularly, changes in firms’ exposures to climate risks. For example, poor environmental performance, including having a more significant carbon footprint, is associated in general with lower credit ratings and higher bond yield spreads, particularly for firms located in states with stricter environmental regulations.
Specifically, the December 2015 Paris Agreement appears to have increased the regulatory risk for firms that are in high emissions industries or have poor environmental performance in general, resulting in negative consequences. More importantly, these effects on bond ratings and yields are observed to be stronger in states that enforce regulation more strictly, suggesting that they are stronger because potential new regulations were expected to be enforced more strictly.
These results have important implications for how firms’ environmental profiles are related to market participants’ assessments of their corporate bonds’ risks and values. The results suggest that credit rating analysts and bond investors are concerned with issuers’ environmental profiles because of potential regulatory costs. Thus, if bond investors expect an issuer to be punished for poor environmental performance, they are more likely to price those costs into the firms’ bonds.
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Treating those with depression is a vital endeavor in today’s society.
Rebecca Price, associate professor in the departments of psychiatry and psychology at the University of Pittsburgh, gives a reason for hope.
Rebecca B. Price, PhD is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology at the University of Pittsburgh. She completed undergraduate studies in cognitive science at Stanford University and a PhD in Clinical Psychology at Rutgers University. She has been the recipient of an NIMH National Research Service Award (Predoctoral F31), Postdoctoral Research Scholarship (T32), Career Development Award (K23), and an NIMH Biobehavioral Research Award for Innovative New Scientists (NIMH BRAINS) R01. She received the Edwin B. Newman Graduate Research Award from the American Psychological Assocation/Psi Chi, the Smadar Levin Award from the Society for Research in Psychopathology, the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research from Rutgers University, the Donald F. Klein Early Career Investigator Award from the Anxiety & Depression Association of America, and was named a “Rising Star” by the Association for Psychological Science.
Dr. Price’s research program is broadly dedicated to pushing the field of cognitive neuroscience towards a more direct clinical impact. She hopes to specify neurocognitive mechanisms relevant to affective dysfunction, and then to target these mechanisms in patients using innovative methods optimized to promote symptom relief that is both efficient and enduring. Her research asks questions such as: Can we develop and test effective new treatments and synergistic bio-behavioral treatment combinations that are based on a growing understanding of how the brain works? Can we leverage technological advances to reach more patients with these treatments? Can we use individual differences in neurocognitive processes to match specific people to specific treatments? Dr. Price has investigated these questions primarily in the context of affective conditions such as anxiety, depression, compulsive behaviors, and suicidality. She has recently focused on developing novel synergistic treatment strategies coupling computer-based interventions with 1) intravenous ketamine or 2) non-invasive neuromodulation.
Ketamine and Depressionhttps://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/12-06-22-Pittsburgh-Ketamine-and-Depression.mp3Depression is a highly disabling condition that affects an estimated 280 million people globally.
Over two decades ago, researchers first discovered that low doses of intravenous ketamine had rapid-acting antidepressant effects. Ketamine is a widely used anesthetic medication that has been shown to be safe when administered under medical supervision.
This discovery opened up a brand new possibility—to begin relieving symptoms within a single day.
A key question is how to keep that relief going without relying solely on repeated infusions.
Our research is the first to demonstrate that the rapid effects of ketamine can be made more enduring with simple computer exercises that would be easy to provide to patients in a wide range of settings.
In our study of 154 adult patients with depression, patients that received a ketamine infusion, as opposed to a saline infusion, experienced substantial relief from depression on the first day.
Some patients in our trial then returned a day later to begin four days in a row of our novel digital exercises. In these short exercises, we showed them repeated pairings of self-related words and images – such as the letter “I” and photos of the patient – paired up repeatedly with positive cues—words like “good” and “lovable” as well as photos of strangers smiling.
We targeted this period within four days of the infusion because we expected ketamine would quickly help restore the brain’s healthy capacity to adjust and learn.
These patients who received ketamine followed by the digital exercises continued to report decreased depression severity all the way out to the last follow-up interview, one month after ketamine—meaning the exercises, at a minimum, tripled the duration of a single dose, when compared to others in our study who received ketamine without the computer exercises.
We hope we can extend this effect even longer and expand the findings to other patient groups with psychological distress.
Read More:
[American Journal of Psychiatry] – A Novel, Brief, Fully Automated Intervention to Extend the Antidepressant Effect of a Single Ketamine Infusion: A Randomized Clinical Trial
[The Conversation] – Ketamine paired with looking at smiling faces to build positive associations holds promise for helping people with treatment-resistant depression
Anxiety and Depression Association of America
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline
National Institute of Mental Health
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Why does money exist? Saif M. Mehkari, associate professor of economics at the University of Richmond, examines the ease of life that comes of having some green in your pocket. Saif Mehkari is a macroeconomist specializing in Fiscal Policy and Business Cycles. He earned his Ph.D. and M.A. in Economics from The Ohio State University […]
This Week on The Academic Minute 2022.12.05 Monday, December 5th Saif M. Mehkari, associate professor of economics at the University of Richmond, examines the ease of life that comes of having some green in your pocket. Tuesday, December 6th Rebecca Price, associate professor in the departments of psychiatry and psychology at the University […]
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The Academic Minute from 11.28 – 12.02 Monday, November 28th Jun Wu – University of California, Irvine Examining Effects of Environment on Preterm Birth Jun Wu, PhD, is a Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health at the UCI Program in Public Health. Dr. Wu’s interests focus on population-based research of environmental exposure assessment, environmental […]
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Your risk for Alzheimer’s goes beyond genetics. Jason Richardson, professor and associate dean for research in the Robert Stempel college of public health and social work at Florida International University, discusses another area of concern. Dr. Jason Richardson is Professor and Associate Dean for Research in the Robert Stempel College of Public Health and Social […]
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On this Student Spotlight: Space has a lot to teach us. Alan Salek, Ph. D candidate and researcher in Material Physics at RMIT University, discusses the benefits of a certain type of meteorite. I’m Alan Salek, a PhD Candidate at RMIT University in Melbourne. I started my research on carbon materials at the beginning of […]
The risk of wildfires will force big decisions for residents in the near future. Emily Schlickman, assistant professor of landscape architecture and environmental design at the University of California, Davis, has more. Emily Schlickman is an assistant professor of landscape architecture and environmental design at the University of California, Davis. Her research focuses on the […]
Non-profits can struggle with spending issues in myriad ways. Hala Altamimi, discusses one such instance. Hala Altamimi is Assistant Professor in the School of Public Affairs and Administration at the University of Kansas. Her research centers on public and nonprofit management and finance with specific interests in organizational behavior, decision-making, and result-oriented approaches to performance, […]
Nature or nurture? Today on The Academic Minute: Jun Wu, professor of environment and occupational health at the University of California, Irvine program in public health, says your environment can play a role in when nurturing begins. Jun Wu, PhD, is a Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health at the UCI Program in Public Health. […]
How can companies avoid offending shoppers who are psychologically invested in their products? Colleen Kirk, assistant professor of marketing at New York Institute of Technology, examines the territorial behavior shoppers display when a product or place feels special to them. Colleen P. Kirk’s research centers around consumer behavior, especially in the areas of psychological ownership, emotions, […]
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Dr. Phillip Sponenberg has become our resident zoology expert contributing previous pieces on domestic extinction, Choctaw hogs, and even adorable fainting goats. Today, this Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine professor of pathology will tell us all about geese and turkeys. Happy Thanksgiving! Dr. Phillip Sponenberg is a professor of pathology and genetics in the Department of […]
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Spotting pseudoscience can be key to staying correctly informed in today’s world. Today on The Academic Minute: Joel Frohlich, postdoctoral research scientist at the University of Tubingen, explains why. Dr. Joel Frohlich is a neuroscientist and postdoctoral researcher studying brain stimulation in the laboratory of Professor Alireza Gharabaghi at the University of Tübingen in Germany. […]
Does your device change how you interact with people online? Terri Kurtzberg, professor of management and global business at Rutgers Business School, delves into this question. Terri R. Kurtzberg, PhD, is a Professor of Management and Global Business at Rutgers Business School, Newark and New Brunswick. Her areas of expertise include negotiation strategies and persuasion […]
On this Student Spotlight: Location matters, especially so for tobacco retailers. Joshua Rhee, Ph. D student in Public Health at the University of California, Irvine, discusses why location matters so much to certain communities. Joshua Rhee is a PhD student in Public Health with a concentration in Disease Prevention at UCI. Rhee holds a master’s […]
This Week on The Academic Minute 2022.11.21 Monday, November 21st Joshua Rhee, Ph. D student in Public Health at the University of California, Irvine, discusses why location matters so much to certain communities when it comes to tobacco and cannabis retailers. Tuesday, November 22nd Terri Kurtzberg, professor of management and global business at […]
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The Academic Minute from 11.14 – 11.18 Monday, November 14th Madalina Vlasceanu – New York University Bias an A.I. Madalina Vlasceanu is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at New York University and director of the Collective Cognition Lab. Madalina obtained a PhD in Psychology and Neuroscience from Princeton University in 2021 and a BA in Psychology […]
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On New York University Week: Staffing is a critical factor for nursing homes. Jasmine Travers, assistant professor in the Rory Meyers College of Nursing, focuses on disadvantaged communities. Jasmine L. Travers, PhD, MHS, AGPCNP-BC, RN, is a researcher and adult-gerontological primary care nurse practitioner dedicated to improving health outcomes and reducing health disparities in vulnerable […]
On New York University Week: Testing “private speech” for stutterers takes a novel approach. Eric S. Jackson, assistant professor in the department of communicative sciences and disorders, discusses this. Dr. Eric S. Jackson is a clinician-scientist, Assistant Professor, and director of the stuttering and vvariability (savvy) lab at NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and […]
On New York University Week: Online shopping for groceries can change browsing behavior. Angela Trude, assistant professor in the department of nutrition and food studies, explains why. Dr. Angela Trude is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Nutrition and Food Studies at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. She […]
On this Student Spotlight during New York University Week: How do you learn about something you can’t observe? Cara Giovanetti, Ph. D student in Physics, looks into this question. Cara Giovanetti is a third-year graduate student in the NYU physics department, working towards a Ph.D. after receiving a bachelor’s degree in physics from Princeton University. […]
On New York University Week: Artificial intelligence unfortunately isn’t without bias. Madalina Vlasceanu, assistant professor of psychology, looks into why. Madalina Vlasceanu is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at New York University and director of the Collective Cognition Lab. Madalina obtained a PhD in Psychology and Neuroscience from Princeton University in 2021 and a BA […]
On Northern Kentucky University Week: Have you seen the A.I. generated art floating around the internet? Nicholas Caporusso, assistant professor of computer science, discusses this new form of artificial intelligence. Dr. Nicholas Caporusso is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Northern Kentucky University. He earned M.Sc. in Informatics (cum laude) from the University of […]
On Northern Kentucky University Week: Encouraging students with disabilities to feel included leads to a better society. Melissa Jones, professor of special education, determines how campuses can foster inclusion. Dr. Jones joined Northern Kentucky in 2001 after fourteen years in the field of special education. She founded the Supported Higher Education Project at Northern Kentucky […]
On Northern Kentucky University Week: Rural areas face novel problems for their basic needs. Zeel Maheshwari, assistant professor of electrical engineering, examines meeting these needs. Dr. Zeel Maheshwari received her Masters and PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Oklahoma State University in Dec 2013 and Dec 2017 respectively. She has been working as an […]
On Northern Kentucky University Week: Can we learn new things from old texts? Jonathan Cullick, professor of English, says one classic example in the classroom being taught in a new light. Northern Kentucky University’s Dr. Jonathan S. Cullick is a professor of English and former chair of the department (2009-2013). His teaching and research interests […]
On Northern Kentucky University Week: How well do you know your Constitutional Amendments? Michael Mannheimer, professor of law, looks into an interpretation of two in the U.S. Mike Mannheimer is the author of The Fourth Amendment: Original Understandings and Modern Policing (University of Michigan Press forthcoming 2023). He has been teaching at NKU-Chase College of […]
How do we best educate young adults about vaccines? Suellen Hopfer, assistant professor of health, society, and behavior at the University of California, Irvine program in public health, discusses social media’s role. Suellen Hopfer has a PhD in health communication and post-doctorate training in prevention methods and randomized trial designs. She has been teaching and […]
Digital security will only get more important in the future. Sumantra Sarkar, associate professor of management at Binghamton University, discusses how to keep your business safe. Sarkar is a behavioral information systems (IS) researcher focusing on IT security, health information technology, organizational processes, agile development, and IT governance. He employs both qualitative and quantitative methodologies […]
Being a nomad is possible in our digital world. Rachael Woldoff, professor of sociology at West Virginia University, delves into this statement. Rachael A. Woldoff is an urban sociologist and Professor of Sociology. She received a PhD in sociology from The Ohio State University, specializing in crime and community. Her research and publications have focused […]
Art can bring out many truths, even by using lies. Beauvais Lyons, chancellor’s professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, examines one such instance. Beauvais Lyons is a Chancellor’s Professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville where he has taught printmaking since 1985. Beauvais Lyons’ art involves various form of mock-documentation, fabricating and documenting imaginary […]
Have you ever seen a ghost? Frank McAndrew, Cornelia H. Dudley Professor of Psychology at Knox College, explores why some people do and some do not. Frank McAndrew is the Cornelia H. Dudley Professor of Psychology at Knox College, a blogger for Psychology Today Magazine, and an elected Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science […]
How much bad news can your brain handle at a time? Rebecca Rozelle-Stone, professor of philosophy and director of the honors program at the University of North Dakota, explores why the news cycle is so tiring. Rebecca Rozelle-Stone, Ph.D. is Director of the University Honors Program and Professor of Philosophy at the University of North […]
Sharing traumatic stories can increase awareness and charitable giving, but does it always help those afflicted? Oscar Fernandez, senior instructor in university studies at Portland State University, finds out. Dr. Óscar Fernández works at Portland State University. He is an immigrant scholar from Costa Rica. He specializes in inter-American studies, literary theory, and the intersection […]
Problems still exist for the U.S. and the world after a long conflict in Afghanistan. Andrew Mines, research fellow at George Washington University, delves into why. Andrew Mines is a Research Fellow at the Program on Extremism at George Washington University. He studies extremist psychology, behavior, groups, movements, and ideologies across the globe. Andrew is […]
The world needs more teachers. Henry Tran, Associate Professor in Education Leadership at the University of South Carolina, examines how to develop more. Henry Tran is an Associate Professor at the University of South Carolina’s Department of Educational Leadership and Policies who studies issues related to education human resources (HR). He has published extensively on […]
We’re still seeking new treatments for cancer patients. Tracy Brooks, associate professor and vice chair at the Binghamton University School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, explores one new approach. Dr. Brooks’ research has centered on oncology, anti-cancer therapeutics and development of new targets for drugs through a focus on DNA and the proteins that it […]
On University of Dayton Week: Popular films can have a positive impact on certain groups, but the real history needs to be told as well. Shannen Dee Williams, associate professor of history, explores this statement in one community. Shannen Dee Williams is a historian of the African American experience with research and teaching specializations in […]
On University of Dayton Week: Fingerprints have been used for identification for quite a while, but do they need an update? Partha Banerjee, professor of electro-optics, explains. Partha Banerjee is a professor of electro-optics and director of the Holography and Metamaterials Laboratory at the University of Dayton. A member of the International Order of Holoknights […]
On University of Dayton Week: Who influenced your heroes? Minnita Daniel-Cox, associate professor of music, looks into one such person. Dr. Minnita Daniel-Cox attended Bowling Green State University, where she received a Bachelor of Music in Music Performance, and the University of Michigan, where she earned both her Master of Music and her Doctorate of […]
On University of Dayton Week: Learning how to combat virus spread in the future will be key. Subramanian Ramakrishnan, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, looks at how to update our models. Subramanian (Subbu) Ramakrishnan (SOOB-rah-mahn-yan RAHMA-krish-nan) obtained his B.Tech. (Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala, India), M.Sc. (University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada), MSE (Johns Hopkins […]
On University of Dayton Week: Everyone wants to make sense of their life and time on Earth. Jack Bauer, professor of psychology, delves into one way to try to do so. Jack J. Bauer, PhD, is Professor of Psychology and past Raymond A. Roesch Endowed Chair in the Social Sciences at the University of Dayton. […]
How snow will respond to climate change is a pressing issue for some regions. Justin Hartnett, assistant professor of geography and environmental sustainability at SUNY Oneonta, explores how to predict the future. Justin Hartnett, an Assistant Professor of Geography and Environmental Sustainability at SUNY Oneonta, explores the differences in snowstorms to the lee of Lake […]
We’re still in a heated debate about gun control in the U.S. PJ Verrecchia, professor of criminology and criminal justice at York College of Pennsylvania, applies logic to the problem. PJ Verrecchia is a Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at York College of Pennsylvania. A former juvenile probation officer in Chester County, Pennsylvania, his […]
Want to feel good? Do good. Amit Kumar, assistant professor of marketing and psychology at the University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business, explores why helping others can also help you. Amit Kumar is currently an Asst. Professor of Marketing and Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business. […]
To solve a problem, get to the root of it. Randall McGuire, SUNY distinguished professor at Binghamton University’s Harpur College of Arts and Sciences, says an easy solution may not be the best one. We live in a material world that entails ceaseless and varied interactions between people, things and landscapes. People may take that […]
The country is polarized, but the majority of voters agree on at least one issue. Timothy Lindberg, assistant professor of political science at the University of Minnesota, Morris, delves into this issue. I am an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Minnesota, Morris, where I teach courses on political behavior and judicial […]
Seizures can be hard to diagnose. Jacob Pellinen, assistant professor of neurology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, determines why. Dr. Pellinen is an Assistant Professor of Neurology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. He is a board-certified neurologist with additional board certification in epilepsy. He completed training in neurology at […]
Do social media algorithms hurt or help society? Sabine von Mering, professor of German and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Brandeis University, discusses one reason they may need some tweaking. Sabine von Mering, Ph.D. is Professor of German and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Director of the Center for German and European Studies […]
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We’ve learned the power of groups after spending time alone during the pandemic. Bryan Bardine, professor of English at the University of Dayton, explores how one scene sticks together. Bryan Bardine, English professor at the University of Dayton, teaches courses on metal music and culture. He has co-edited three collections on metal: Heavy Metal Studies […]
What is ethical about nuclear weapons? Thomas Doyle, associate professor of political science at Texas State University, explores this question. Thomas Doyle is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Texas State University. His most recent book is titled Nuclear Ethics in the Twenty-First Century: Survival, Order, and Justice (Rowman & Littlefield, 2020). He has […]
Helping those in eldercare environments have good quality of life is important. Daniel George, associate professor in the department of humanities and public health sciences at the Penn State College of Medicine, explores one way to do so. Daniel R. George, Ph.D, M.Sc is Associate Professor in the Department of Humanities and Public Health Sciences […]
Even low level exposure to radon gas can have harmful impacts. David Richardson, professor of environmental and occupational health at the University of California, Irvine, explores how to ensure better protection moving forward. David B. Richardson, PhD, associate dean of research and professor of environmental and occupational health at the University of California, Irvine Program […]
Have you been cheerful lately? Timothy Hampton, Aldo Scaglione and Marie M. Burns Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature and French at the University of California Berkeley, examines this feeling. Writer, scholar, teacher, and translator Timothy Hampton teaches at the University of California at Berkeley. Primarily a student of the Romance languages and of the early […]
Certain people can change the game they play all by themselves. Aram Goudsouzian, professor of history at the University of Memphis, considers the life of one such player. Aram Goudsouzian is the Bizot Family Professor of History at the University of Memphis, where he teaches courses on modern American history, with a particular focus on […]
The meaning of Purgatory in the Catholic faith seems to be shifting over time. Magnus Course, senior lecturer in social anthropology at the University of Edinburgh, explores the old and the new. Magnus Course is senior lecturer in social anthropology at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. His books include Becoming Mapuche: Person and Ritual […]
Is physically risky heroism a guy thing? Frank McAndrew, Cornelia H. Dudley Professor of Psychology at Knox College, explores why men feel the need for physical bravery more often. Frank McAndrew is the Cornelia H. Dudley Professor of Psychology at Knox College, a blogger for Psychology Today Magazine, and an elected Fellow of the Association […]
Why does poverty hit certain areas harder than others? John Caskey, Joseph Wharton professor of economics at Swarthmore College, delves into one example for answers. John Caskey is the Joseph Wharton professor economics at Swarthmore College. He has a B.A. from Harvard University and a Ph.D. from Stanford University. He teaches courses in financial economics […]
How do we connect with others? Dave Smallen, research psychologist and community faculty in psychology at Metropolitan State University, examines a few ways. Dave Smallen is a research psychologist and community faculty at Metropolitan State University in St. Paul, MN. His work focuses on researching and communicating about how people cultivate connection and well-being in […]
Virtual reality can be a tough sell for businesses outside the tech bubble. Sebastian Hohenberg, full professor in the school of business & economics at the University of Munster, looks into what might change this. Dr. Sebastian Hohenberg is a marketing strategy researcher who strives to solve essential business problems related to organic growth and […]
Reproductive rights are important to everybody. Zachary Neal, associate professor of psychology and global urban studies at Michigan State University, determines one group who we don’t hear about in this debate. Zachary Neal is an associate professor of psychology and global urban studies at Michigan State University, and serves as the editor of Global Networks, […]
More glass ceilings can and will be broken in November. Alana Jeydel, professor of political science at Fresno City College, discusses how. Dr. Alana Jeydel (Ph.D., Political Science) teaches at Fresno City College. She has published two books and numerous refereed journal articles in the area of women and politics. Dr. William R. Wilkerson is […]
Why is international peacekeeping so hard? Dennis Jett, professor and founding faculty member at the School of International Affairs at Penn State University, explains why. Dennis Jett is a professor and founding faculty member at the School of International Affairs at Penn State. A former career diplomat, he served as ambassador to Mozambique and Peru, […]
Are you stressed because you’re procrastinating or procrastinating because you’re stressed? Alicia Walf, senior lecturer in cognitive science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, examines this question. Alicia Walf is a neuroscientist and senior lecturer at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute whose research interests are fueled by the broad question: Why are there individual differences in stress? This question […]
Do COVID death rates also fall along party lines? Dylan Roby, associate professor of health, society, and behavior at the University of California, Irvine, determines where you live, not your affiliation, may indicate higher death rates. A leading expert in health policy, Dylan H. Roby, PhD, associate professor of health, society, and behavior at the […]
Receiving an award for your work may hinder your ability to be creative again. Markus Baer, professor of organizational behavior at the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis, discusses why. Markus Baer, Ph.D. (baer@wustl.edu) is an award-winning scholar and teacher. Currently, he is Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Olin Business School, […]
Changing a person’s attitude on a subject can be tricky. Aviva Philipp-Muller, assistant professor of marketing at the Beedie School of Business at Simon Fraser University, explains how to do it. Aviva Philipp-Muller is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Beedie School of Business at Simon Fraser University. Dr. Philipp-Muller’s research investigates attitude strength, […]
What’s in a name? Angela Bradbery, Frank Karel Endowed Chair in Public Interest Communications at the University of Florida, says when it comes to politics, it can be quite a bit. Angela Bradbery is the Frank Karel Endowed Chair in Public Interest Communications at the University of Florida, where she teaches public interest communications. Before […]
The United States has been called a lot of things lately on social media and elsewhere. Matthew Wilson, associate professor and director of graduate studies at the University of South Carolina, examines one popular term and why it keeps popping up. Matthew Wilson is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of South […]
Debt amnesty is in the news, but is not a new topic. Eva von Dassow, associate professor of history and languages of the ancient near east at the University of Minnesota, has examples in history. Eva von Dassow teaches the history and languages of the ancient Near East at the University of Minnesota. Her research […]
Are your kids ready to go back to school? Suzanne McLeod, assistant Professor in the department of teaching, learning, and educational leadership at Binghamton University, looks at ways to soften the blow of the end of summer. Suzanne McLeod is the Coordinator of the Educational Leadership Program at Binghamton University. She retired as the Superintendent […]
If you’ve been feeling extra tired during the COVID-19 pandemic, you’re not alone. Elizabeth Tricomi, associate professor of psychology at Rutgers University – Newark, examines why this may be. Elizabeth Tricomi received her Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh in 2006. Her dissertation research focused on how the brain responds to positive and […]
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If you’ve been feeling extra tired during the COVID-19 pandemic, you’re not alone. Elizabeth Tricomi, associate professor of psychology at Rutgers University – Newark, examines why this may be. Elizabeth Tricomi received her Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh in 2006. Her dissertation research focused on how the brain responds to positive and […]
This Week on The Academic Minute 2022.09.05 Monday, September 5th Elizabeth Tricomi, associate professor of psychology at Rutgers University – Newark, examines why pandemic decision-making is so exhausting and difficult. Tuesday, September 6th Suzanne McLeod, assistant Professor in the department of teaching, learning, and educational leadership at Binghamton University, looks at ways to […]
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The Academic Minute from 08.29 – 09.02 Monday, August 29th Catherine Bondonno – Edith Cowan University Leafy Greens and Heart Disease Dr Catherine Bondonno is a research fellow in the Institute for Nutrition Research at Edith Cowan University. The overall aim of her research is to identify strategies that will form part of a […]
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On this Student Spotlight: Fermentation isn’t just for alcohol. Caitlin Clark, Instructor and Ph.D student in the department of food science and human nutrition at Colorado State University, discusses another dietary favorite that makes use of this process. Caitlin is a Ph.D student and chocolate researcher at Colorado State University. Her research in the Food […]
On this Student Spotlight: Fermentation isn’t just for alcohol. Caitlin Clark, Instructor and Ph.D student in the department of food science and human nutrition at Colorado State University, discusses another dietary favorite that makes use of this process. Caitlin is a Ph.D student and chocolate researcher at Colorado State University. Her research in the Food […]
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English professors don’t always have their nose in a book. Amy Lueck, associate professor of rhetoric and composition at Santa Clara University, explains. Amy J. Lueck is Associate Professor of English at Santa Clara University, where her research and teaching focus on histories of rhetorical instruction and practice, women’s rhetorics, feminist historiography, and digital public […]
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English professors don’t always have their nose in a book. Amy Lueck, associate professor of rhetoric and composition at Santa Clara University, explains. Amy J. Lueck is Associate Professor of English at Santa Clara University, where her research and teaching focus on histories of rhetorical instruction and practice, women’s rhetorics, feminist historiography, and digital public […]
Positive student outcomes can be achieved in many different ways. Ryan Romine, associate professor of bassoon at Shenandoah University, examines one. Bassoonist, educator, and administrator Ryan D. Romine is Assistant Dean for Recruitment at Shenandoah Conservatory (Winchester, VA, USA), where in the past three years he has overseen the recruitment of three of the largest […]
Hate waiting to make a left turn at a busy intersection? You’re not alone. Vikash Gayah, associate professor in the department of civil and environmental engineering at Penn State University, delves into how to fix these time wasters. Dr. Vikash V. Gayah is an associate professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at […]
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Hate waiting to make a left turn at a busy intersection? You’re not alone. Vikash Gayah, associate professor in the department of civil and environmental engineering at Penn State University, delves into how to fix these time wasters. Dr. Vikash V. Gayah is an associate professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at […]
Eat your leafy greens. Catherine Bondonno, research fellow at Edith Cowan University, discusses the link to staying healthy and eating green. Dr Catherine Bondonno is a research fellow in the Institute for Nutrition Research at Edith Cowan University. The overall aim of her research is to identify strategies that will form part of a dietary […]
Eat your leafy greens. Catherine Bondonno, research fellow at Edith Cowan University, discusses the link to staying healthy and eating green. Dr Catherine Bondonno is a research fellow in the Institute for Nutrition Research at Edith Cowan University. The overall aim of her research is to identify strategies that will form part of a dietary […]
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This Week on The Academic Minute 2022.08.29 Monday, August 29th Catherine Bondonno, research fellow at Edith Cowan University, discusses the link to staying healthy and eating green. Tuesday, August 30th Vikash Gayah, associate professor in the department of civil and environmental engineering at Penn State University, delves into whether or not to ban […]
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The Academic Minute from 08.22 – 08.26 Monday, August 22nd Dimitris Xygalatas – University of Connecticut The Transformative Effects of Collective Gatherings Dimitris Xygalatas is Associate Professor in the departments of Anthropology and Psychological Sciences and director of the Experimental Anthropology lab at the University of Connecticut. Most of his work focuses on the social and […]
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Do people exaggerate the presence of certain groups that are seen as threatening? Jacqueline Rifkin, assistant professor of marketing at Cornell University, draws a comparison to nonthreatening groups. Jacqueline Rifkin is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at Cornell University. Jacqueline earned her Ph.D. in Business Administration in the area of marketing at Duke University and […]
Do people exaggerate the presence of certain groups that are seen as threatening? Jacqueline Rifkin, assistant professor of marketing at Cornell University, draws a comparison to nonthreatening groups. Jacqueline Rifkin is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at Cornell University. Jacqueline earned her Ph.D. in Business Administration in the area of marketing at Duke University and […]
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Taking care of our waterways will be key in the future. Daniel Macfarlane, associate professor in the Institute of the environment and sustainability at Western Michigan University, determines why attempts to clean up one body have not gone as planned. Dr. Daniel Macfarlane is an Associate Professor in the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability […]
Taking care of our waterways will be key in the future. Daniel Macfarlane, associate professor in the Institute of the environment and sustainability at Western Michigan University, determines why attempts to clean up one body have not gone as planned. Dr. Daniel Macfarlane is an Associate Professor in the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability […]
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The word evil has been getting a lot of play in the media of late. Elise Springer, associate professor of philosophy at Wesleyan University, delves into why the word doesn’t always fit. Elise Springer studies moral communication and the evolution of moral ideas. Special topics of interest include the dynamics of critical interaction, the use […]
The abortion rights debate will go into the future, but it started long ago. Olivia Holmes, professor of medieval studies and English at Binghamton University, looks into the history. Olivia Holmes is Professor of Medieval Studies and English, and Director of the Center for Medieval & Renaissance Studies, at Binghamton University, as well as editor-in-chief […]
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The abortion rights debate will go into the future, but it started long ago. Olivia Holmes, professor of medieval studies and English at Binghamton University, looks into the history. Olivia Holmes is Professor of Medieval Studies and English, and Director of the Center for Medieval & Renaissance Studies, at Binghamton University, as well as editor-in-chief […]
The COVID-19 pandemic has made us realize the importance of being around other people. Dimitris Xygalatas, associate professor in the departments of Anthropology and Psychological Sciences at the University of Connecticut, explains why. Dimitris Xygalatas is Associate Professor in the departments of Anthropology and Psychological Sciences and director of the Experimental Anthropology lab at the University of […]
This Week on The Academic Minute 2022.08.22 Monday, August 22nd Dimitris Xygalatas, associate professor in the departments of Anthropology and Psychological Sciences at the University of Connecticut, explains why the COVID-19 pandemic has made us realize the importance of being around other people. Tuesday, August 23rd Olivia Holmes, professor of medieval studies and English […]
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The Academic Minute from 08.15 – 08.19 Monday, August 15th Ranjith Ramasamy – University of Miami The Impacts of COVID-19 and its Vaccines on Male Fertility Ranjith Ramasamy, M.D., is an associate professor and director of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine Reproductive Urology program. His extensive research in male fertility has […]
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Diet Studies for Patients with IBD and Crohn’s
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On University of Miami Miller School of Medicine Week: There are many afflictions we’re still looking to cure. Christine Dinh, associate professor of otolaryngology, otology, neurology and lateral skull base surgery, discusses one. Dr. Christine Thuyvan Dinh, MD – Miami, FL – Neurotology – Book Appointment (umiamihealth.org). Multicenter National Clinical Trial for Neurofibromatosis Type 2 […]
On University of Miami Miller School of Medicine Week: There are many afflictions we’re still looking to cure. Christine Dinh, associate professor of otolaryngology, otology, neurology and lateral skull base surgery, discusses one. Dr. Christine Thuyvan Dinh, MD – Miami, FL – Neurotology – Book Appointment (umiamihealth.org). Multicenter National Clinical Trial for Neurofibromatosis Type 2 […]
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Properly Diagnosing Lewy Body Dementia
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Heart Failure: No Longer A Death Sentence
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On University of Miami Miller School of Medicine Week: Do COVID-19 vaccines harm male fertility? Ranjith Ramasamy, associate professor and director of reproductive urology, looks into this question. Ranjith Ramasamy, M.D., is an associate professor and director of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine Reproductive Urology program. His extensive research in male fertility […]
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University of Miami Miller School of Medicine Week on The Academic Minute 2022.08.15 Monday, August 15th Ranjith Ramasamy, associate professor and director of reproductive urology, looks into whether COVID-19 vaccines harm male fertility. Tuesday, August 16th Luanda Grazette, professor of medicine, examines why More patients are surviving heart failure than ever before. […]
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The Academic Minute from 08.08 – 08.12 Monday, August 8th Karen Cerulo – Rutgers University Dreaming of Future Possibilities Karen A. Cerulo has authored several books and articles in the areas of culture and cognition, symbol systems and meaning, inequality, media and technology, social change, and identity construction. She served as the Chair of […]
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What can you do right now to help your mental health? Linda Begdache, assistant professor of health and wellness studies at Binghamton University, has some suggestions. Dr. Begdache is currently an assistant professor at the Binghamton University College of Nursing and Health Sciences. Her research focuses on assessing the impact of diet and lifestyle factors […]
What can you do right now to help your mental health? Linda Begdache, assistant professor of health and wellness studies at Binghamton University, has some suggestions. Dr. Begdache is currently an assistant professor at the Binghamton University College of Nursing and Health Sciences. Her research focuses on assessing the impact of diet and lifestyle factors […]
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Mental health has been on our minds, but how should we seek help? Alexander Williams, assistant teaching professor and program director of psychology at the University of Kansas, determines that seeing a therapist doesn’t always help and can also harm. Dr. Williams is the Program Director of Psychology, Director of the Psychological Clinic and licensed […]
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Mental health has been on our minds, but how should we seek help? Alexander Williams, assistant teaching professor and program director of psychology at the University of Kansas, determines that seeing a therapist doesn’t always help and can also harm. Dr. Williams is the Program Director of Psychology, Director of the Psychological Clinic and licensed […]
Medication may not always be the answer for certain disorders. William E. Pelham, distinguished professor of psychology at Florida International University, explains. William E. Pelham, Jr. is a Distinguished Professor of Psychology at Florida International University and Director of the Center for Children and Families. Pelham has authored or co-authored nearly 500 professional publications dealing […]
Red flag laws may become more common across the U.S. John Tures, professor of political science at LaGrange College, examines if they help lower gun deaths when in place. John A. Tures is a political science professor at LaGrange College in Georgia. Before that, he worked for a defense contractor in Washington, DC. He taught […]
Everyone has a dream. Karen Cerulo, full professor of sociology at Rutgers University, explains how striving can make things better for everyone. Karen A. Cerulo has authored several books and articles in the areas of culture and cognition, symbol systems and meaning, inequality, media and technology, social change, and identity construction. She served as the […]
This Week on The Academic Minute 2022.08.08 Monday, August 8th Karen Cerulo, full professor of sociology at Rutgers University, explains how striving to achieve our dreams can make things better for everyone. Tuesday, August 9th John Tures, professor of political science at LaGrange College, examines whether red flag laws help lower gun deaths […]
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The Academic Minute from 08.01 – 08.05 Monday, August 1st Lynn Addington – American University Pandemic Planning With Older Adults in Mind Lynn A. Addington, JD, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Justice, Law and Criminology at American University in Washington, D.C. Her research focuses on fatal and non-fatal violent victimization (with […]
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Procuring drugs outside conventional means could lead to disaster. C. Michael White, distinguished professor and chair at the University of Connecticut School of Pharmacy, explores why. His research interests are in drug, dietary supplement, and substances of abuse safety and effectiveness. His over 440 publications in biomedical journals have been cited over 14,000 times and […]
Suicide rates continue to be a growing concern. Adolfo Sequeira, associate researcher in psychiatry & human behavior at the University of California, Irvine, explores how to identify those in need of intervention. Pedro Adolfo Sequeira earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Quebec in molecular biology in 1998. He went on to earn his […]
Novels have always been a way to understand a time and place. Rachel Gevlin, assistant professor of English at Birmingham-Southern College, discusses this in the context of relationships. Rachel Gevlin is Assistant Professor of English at Birmingham-Southern College. She received her PhD from Duke University in 2020 and her B.A. from Bennington College in 2010. […]
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Dining outdoors became even more en vogue during the pandemic. Josh Draper, lecturer in the School of Architecture at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, discusses how to make it even safer going forward. Josh Draper is a professor and architect working at the intersection of material, geometry and fabrication. He joined The Center for Architecture, Science and […]
Everyone has had a hard time during the pandemic, but one group in particular has suffered more. Lynn Addington, professor of justice, law and criminology at American University, discusses how to make the next pandemic easier. Lynn A. Addington, JD, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Justice, Law and Criminology at American University […]
This Week on The Academic Minute 2022.08.01 Monday, August 1st Lynn Addington, professor of justice, law and criminology at American University, discusses how to make the next pandemic easier for one group. Tuesday, August 2nd Josh Draper, lecturer in the School of Architecture at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, discusses how to make dining out […]
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The Academic Minute from 07.25 – 07.29 Monday, July 25th Joe Laycock – Texas State University Why Exorcism Won’t Go Away Joseph P. Laycock is the author of several books on religious history including The Penguin Book of Exorcisms. Tuesday, July 26th Evan Larson – University of Wisconsin Platteville Bringing People into the Wilderness […]
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Sexual assault is a major problem on college campuses. Mary Koss, regents professor of public health at the University of Arizona, says alcohol is becoming even more prevalent in these attacks. Sexual assault scholar, APA award winner for empirical contributions to public policy (2000) and international advancement of psychology (2017). Did first national survey of […]
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Sexual assault is a major problem on college campuses. Mary Koss, regents professor of public health at the University of Arizona, says alcohol is becoming even more prevalent in these attacks. Sexual assault scholar, APA award winner for empirical contributions to public policy (2000) and international advancement of psychology (2017). Did first national survey of […]
Early life adversities can have a lifelong impact. Tallie Z. Baram, distinguished professor in the Departments of Anatomy & Neurobiology, Pediatrics, Neurology, and Physiology & Biophysics at the University of California, Irvine, determines why. Prof. Tallie Z. Baram is the Danette Shepard Professor of Neurological Sciences, with appointments in several departments at UCI. Baram is […]
Schools have had a tough time dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. Amity Noltemeyer, professor of school psychology at Miami University, examines the impacts. Dr. Amity Noltemeyer is a Professor of School Psychology and Associate Dean of the Graduate School at Miami University. She serves as one of six-co leads on the Ohio School Wellness Initiative […]
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Schools have had a tough time dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. Amity Noltemeyer, professor of school psychology at Miami University, examines the impacts. Dr. Amity Noltemeyer is a Professor of School Psychology and Associate Dean of the Graduate School at Miami University. She serves as one of six-co leads on the Ohio School Wellness Initiative […]
How we think of certain spaces may need to be reimagined. Evan Larson, professor of environmental sciences & society at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, looks at one example. Evan Larson (he/him/his) is a Professor of Environmental Sciences & Society at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, a primarily undergraduate institution in the beautiful rolling hills of the […]
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Most beliefs from the Dark Ages have fallen into history, but not all. Joe Laycock, associate professor of religious studies at Texas State University, determines why one is staying with us. Joseph P. Laycock is the author of several books on religious history including The Penguin Book of Exorcisms. Why Exorcism Won’t Go Away We […]
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This Week on The Academic Minute 2022.07.25 Monday, July 25th Joe Laycock, associate professor of religious studies at Texas State University, determines why exorcisms are staying with us. Tuesday, July 26th Evan Larson, professor of environmental sciences & society at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, looks at how we think of certain spaces may […]
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The Academic Minute from 07.18 – 07.22 Monday, July 18th Benjamin Weissman – Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Emoji: Language or Communication? Benjamin Weissman is a leading expert in the field of emoji. Weissman’s research focuses on meaning in conversation from a cognitive and linguistic perspective. With a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Illinois […]
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On Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Week: Renewable resources will continue to be of great importance in the near future. Daniel Walczyk, professor of mechanical engineering, discusses one. Daniel Walczyk is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Director of the Manufacturing Innovation Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, and a registered Professional Engineer in […]
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On Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Week: How do you know if you’re falling for a marketing gimmick? Shan Yu, professor of marketing, has some tips. Dr. Yu’s research interests primarily focus on using empirical models to examine how marketers utilize varied marketing strategies to help consumers make more informed decisions in numerous marketing domains such as […]
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On Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Week: Consent and privacy are leading societal issues. Susan Smith, lecturer of Cognitive Science in the School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, explores them in the context of sports. Susan Smith is a philosopher who works in bioethics, research ethics, and the philosophy of race. Her current research explores the […]
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On Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Week: Indoor lighting is a place we can make improvements. Robert Karlicek, Professor and Director of the Center for Lighting Enabled Systems & Applications, describes one example. Robert F. Karlicek, Jr. is a leading expert in the LED industry. Prior to joining RPI, he spent over 30 years in industrial research […]
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On Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Week: What’s your favorite emoji? Benjamin Weissman, lecturer of cognitive science, surveys this common form of communication. Benjamin Weissman is a leading expert in the field of emoji. Weissman’s research focuses on meaning in conversation from a cognitive and linguistic perspective. With a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Illinois […]
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Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Week on The Academic Minute 2022.07.18 Monday, July 18th Benjamin Weissman, lecturer of cognitive science, discusses whether emojis are a language unto themselves. Tuesday, July 19th Robert Karlicek, Professor and Director of the Center for Lighting Enabled Systems & Applications, examines light sculpting. Wednesday, July 20th Susan Smith, lecturer […]
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The Academic Minute from 07.11 – 07.15 Monday, July 11th Teddy Wilson – University at Albany The Co-Occurrence of Illegal Gun Carrying and Gun Violence Exposure Theodore “Teddy” Wilson is an assistant professor in the School of Criminal Justice in Rockefeller College at the University at Albany, SUNY. Teddy’s primary research interests include decision […]
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On Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy Week: Why do Americans give so much to charities overseas? Susan Appe, associate professor of public administration and policy, explores different kinds of donors. Susan Appe is Associate Professor of Public Administration and Policy at Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy at the University at Albany, […]
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On Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy Week: The COVID-19 pandemic could be changing attitudes on certain social safety nets. Ashley Fox, associate professor in the department of public administration and policy, explores one such instance in the health sector. Ashley Fox, PhD, MA is an interdisciplinary health policy researcher. Bridging policy studies, political […]
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On Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy Week: Waiting in line is no one’s idea of a good use of time. Stephen Holt, assistant professor of public management, examines why some groups wait more than others for routine appointments. Stephen B. Holt is an assistant professor of public management at the Rockefeller College of […]
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On Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy Week: Clean out the fridge, it’s trash night. Patricia Strach, professor of political science and public administration & policy, explains how this common behavior can be a form of political resistance. Patricia Strach is professor in the Departments of Political Science and Public Administration & Policy and […]
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On Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy Week: Gun violence is a sad fact of life in the United States. Teddy Wilson, assistant professor in the School of Criminal Justice, examines efforts to limit the number of guns on the street. Theodore “Teddy” Wilson is an assistant professor in the School of Criminal Justice […]
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Rockefeller College Of Public Affairs & Policy Week on The Academic Minute 2022.07.11 Monday, July 11th Teddy Wilson, assistant professor in the School of Criminal Justice, examines efforts to limit the number of guns on the street. Tuesday, July 12th Patricia Strach, professor of political science and public administration & policy, explains how […]
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The Academic Minute from 07.04 – 07.08 Monday, July 4th Jay Zagorsky – Boston University Fireworks I am a cross-disciplinary researcher who has spent over two decades of researching a wide variety of personal wealth topics. I try to explain why some people become rich, others are poor and some move between these two […]
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We all communicate differently, but how does this effect our work? Joseph Comprix, professor of accounting at Syracuse University, discusses this. Joseph Comprix is a Professor of Accounting at Syracuse University. He has a B.S. from The Ohio State University and a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Professor Comprix previously taught at […]
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Doling out punishment may be a concern of when, not how much. Laura Doering, assistant professor of strategic management at the University of Toronto, determines why this is. Laura Doering is an Assistant Professor of Strategic Management and an Assistant Professor of Sociology (by courtesy). As an economic sociologist, she examines how interactions and social […]
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Providing development projects in foreign countries does not always go as planned. Robert Krueger, professor of human geography at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, determines what changes should be made for future endeavors. Robert Krueger is a human geographer whose scholarship and teaching focus on epistemic and institutional in community sustainable development projects in the global north […]
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Researchers with inside knowledge of their subject can face interesting challenges. TaLisa Carter, assistant professor in the department of justice, law & criminology at American University, takes a look at how insider status can effect one’s research outcomes. TaLisa J. Carter, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Justice, Law & Criminology at […]
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Ready to shoot off some fireworks today? Jay Zagorsky, economist at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business, says more and more Americans are choosing to do so. I am a cross-disciplinary researcher who has spent over two decades of researching a wide variety of personal wealth topics. I try to explain why some people become […]
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This Week on The Academic Minute 2022.07.04 Monday, July 4th Jay Zagorsky, economist at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business, says more and more Americans are choosing to shoot off fireworks than ever before. Tuesday, July 5th TaLisa Carter, assistant professor in the department of justice, law & criminology at American University, takes […]
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The Academic Minute from 06.27 – 07.01 Monday, June 27th Trudi Jacobson – North-West University Students Reflect on Their Roles and Responsibilities as Wikipedia Editors Trudi Jacobson holds the rank of Distinguished Librarian Emerita at the University at Albany. Her career has focused on the intersections of pedagogy and information literacy. She is the co-author […]
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On Wiki Education Week: Getting information out there in the right way is critical in today’s society. Today on The Academic Minute: Diana Ceballos, assistant professor in the department of environmental health at Boston University, explores how to teach students to do so. Dr. Diana Ceballos is an Assistant Professor and Director of the Exposure […]
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On Wiki Education Week: What are the benefits of using Wikipedia in the classroom? Matthew Vetter, associate professor of English at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, asked around to find the answer. Dr. Matthew Vetter is an Associate Professor of English and affiliate faculty in the Composition and Applied Linguistics PhD Program at Indiana University of […]
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On Wiki Education Week: Everyone can work to combat misinformation. Naniette Coleman, PhD candidate in sociology at the University of California Berkeley, determines how Wikipedia can help. Naniette H. Coleman is a PhD candidate in Sociology at the University of California Berkeley and a multi-year UC-National Laboratory Graduate Fellow (Los Alamos). She is the only […]
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On Wiki Education Week: Not all groups have the same representation on Wikipedia. Zachary McDowell, assistant professor in the department of communication at the University of Illinois at Chicago, discusses one example. Zachary J. McDowell is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Illinois, Chicago. His research focuses on access and […]
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On Wiki Education Week: What responsibilities do authors have on a public forum? Trudi Jacobson, extraordinary professor at North-West University, explores this question. Trudi Jacobson holds the rank of Distinguished Librarian Emerita at the University at Albany. Her career has focused on the intersections of pedagogy and information literacy. She is the co-author or co-editor […]
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This Week on The Academic Minute 2022.06.27 Monday, June 27th Trudi Jacobson, extraordinary professor at North-West University, explores what responsibilities authors have on a public forum. Tuesday, June 28th Zachary McDowell, assistant professor in the department of communication at the University of Illinois at Chicago, discusses representation on Wikipedia. Wednesday, June 29th Naniette […]
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The Academic Minute from 06.20 – 06.24 Monday, June 20th Thomas Shohfi – Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Are Immigrant Workers Impacted by Turmoil In Their Home Countries? Shohfi is an assistant professor of accounting and finance at the Lally School of Management and Technology at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. His research published in top accounting and […]
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The right form of care for those suffering dementia is critical. Dena Davis, professor in bioethics at Lehigh University, looks into what Americans want for themselves when in that situation. Dena S. Davis is professor emerita at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, and is now a professor at Lehigh University, where she teaches primarily courses in […]
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How do we go beyond the diagnosis to help families cope? Today on The Academic Minute: Steven Walkley, professor of neuroscience, pathology and neurology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, looks into one way to assist. Dr. Walkley has focused his career on the study of rare genetic brain diseases. Most notably these have […]
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Social media’s drawbacks are well documented, but there are positives too. Linda Charmaraman, senior research scientist at the Wellesley Center for Women at Wellesley College, examines one. Linda Charmaraman, Ph.D., is a senior research scientist at the Wellesley Centers for Women at Wellesley College and director of the Youth, Media & Wellbeing Research Lab. Her […]
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What can composing music teach us about improving collaboration in government advisory groups? Marisa Zapata, associate professor of land-use planning at Portland State University, examines the similarities. Dr. Marisa Zapata is an Associate Professor of Land-Use Planning at Portland State University and Director of PSU’s Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative. As an educator, scholar, and […]
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What makes people more or less honest at work? Thomas Shohfi, assistant professor of accounting and finance at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, discusses this question focusing on immigrants to the U.S. Tom Shohfi is an assistant professor of accounting and finance at the Lally School of Management and Technology at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. His research published […]
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This Week on The Academic Minute 2022.06.20 Monday, June 20th Thomas Shohfi, assistant professor of accounting and finance at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, discusses how immigrants are affected by turmoil in their home countries. Tuesday, June 21st Marisa Zapata, associate professor of land-use planning at Portland State University, examines what composing music teach us about […]
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The Academic Minute from 06.13 – 06.17 Monday, June 13th C. Michael White – University of Connecticut What’s In Your Dietary Supplement His research interests are in drug, dietary supplement, and substances of abuse safety and effectiveness. His over 440 publications in biomedical journals have been cited over 14,000 times and covered by major […]
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Bad news is a constant in today’s ultra-connected world. Arash Javanbakht, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral neurosciences at Wayne State University, examines best practices to cope with this reality. Arash Javanbakht, M.D., is a psychiatrist and serves as the director of the Stress, Trauma, and Anxiety Research Clinic (STARC). His work is focused on […]
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We’re still discovering how to treat Parkinson’s disease fully. Christopher Bishop, professor of psychology at Binghamton University, looks to add more healthy years for those living with the disease. Dr. Bishop is currently a Professor of Psychology and Director of the Integrative Neuroscience Program at Binghamton University, State University of New York. His research, funded […]
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Flying might not be the only thing birds can teach us. Monica Daley, associate professor of ecology & evolutionary biology at the University of California, Irvine, discusses another. Monica earned her undergraduate degree in Biology at University of Utah. She was inspired to become a physiologist through her research on human running and breathing with […]
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How have you been sleeping? Yuka Sasaki, research professor in the department of cognitive, linguistic and psychological sciences at Brown University, examines how sleep and learning are connected. Yuka Sasaki, PhD is a research Professor in Cognitive, Linguistic & Psychological Sciences at Brown University. Her research aims to understand functions and sleep and the human […]
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What’s in your dietary supplement? C. Michael White, distinguished professor and chair of the school of pharmacy at the University of Connecticut, determines that it might be something you didn’t expect. His research interests are in drug, dietary supplement, and substances of abuse safety and effectiveness. His over 440 publications in biomedical journals have been […]
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This Week on The Academic Minute 2022.06.13 Monday, June 13th C. Michael White, distinguished professor and chair of the school of pharmacy at the University of Connecticut, determines what’s really in your dietary supplement. Tuesday, June 14th Yuka Sasaki, research professor in the department of cognitive, linguistic and psychological sciences at Brown University, […]
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The Academic Minute from 06.06 – 06.10 Monday, June 6th Vaishali Raval – Miami University Conversations About Race Vaishali V. Raval, PhD is professor of psychology and affiliate of global and intercultural studies at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Her research centers on three interrelated areas: i) cultural and contextual foundations of parenting with […]
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Designing better human and A.I. connections will be crucial in the future. Jinglu Jiang, assistant research professor in the school of management at Binghamton University, explores how well we’re working together. Jinglu Jiang is an assistant professor of Management Information Systems at Binghamton University, School of Management. Her research focuses on emerging technologies, human-AI interactions, […]
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Keeping your culture when oppressed can be tough. Joyce Bennett, assistant professor of anthropology at Connecticut College, looks to one group that has succeeded. Joyce Bennett is an anthropologist whose research and teaching focus on sociocultural and sociolinguistic issues in Central and North America, especially as they relate to social justice. She mostly focuses on […]
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The pandemic hasn’t just affected our health, it’s affected our rights, too. Stephen Bagwell, assistant professor of political science at the University of Missouri St. Louis, asks why. Stephen Bagwell is an assistant professor of political science at the University of Missouri—St. Louis. His research focuses on the causes and consequences of political violence-with a […]
Why did the asteroid that heralded the end of the dinosaurs have such a profound impact? Christopher Junium, associate professor of earth and environmental sciences at Syracuse University, explains. Dr. Christopher K. Junium is an Associate Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Syracuse University. His work focuses on using the chemistry of Earth’s geologic […]
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Are white parents talking to their kids about race? Vaishali Raval, professor of psychology at Miami University, explores this question. Vaishali V. Raval, PhD is professor of psychology and affiliate of global and intercultural studies at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Her research centers on three interrelated areas: i) cultural and contextual foundations of parenting […]
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This Week on The Academic Minute 2022.06.06 Monday, June 6th Vaishali Raval, professor of psychology at Miami University, explores if white families are having conversations about race with their children. Tuesday, June 7th Christopher Junium, associate professor of earth and environmental sciences at Syracuse University, explains why the asteroid that heralded the end […]
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The Academic Minute from 05.30 – 06.03 Monday, May 30th Birol Yesilada – Portland State University Securing the Smart Grid Birol A. Yeşilada is the Director of the Mark O. Hatfield School of Government and is a professor of Political Science and International Studies at Portland State University (PSU). He also holds the holder […]
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We’re still learning new things about tracking viruses. Davida Smyth, associate professor of molecular microbiology at Texas A&M University-San Antonio, explains. Davida S. Smyth, associate professor of molecular microbiology in the Department of Life Sciences at Texas A&M University-San Antonio, is breaking new ground in understanding how using municipal wastewater samples can better help us detect Covid variants […]
Violence against women leaves more than physical scars. Mia Bloom, professor of communication and Middle East Studies at Georgia State University, explains why they are doubly victimized. Mia Bloom is the International Security Fellow at the New America and a Professor at Georgia State University. Bloom conducts research in Europe, the Middle East and South […]
Treating Parkinson’s disease is never an easy prospect. Amal Alachkar, associate professor of teaching pharmaceutical sciences at the University of California, Irvine, breaks down the issues with one method of treatment. Dr. Amal Alachkar is a Syrian-American neuroscientist and pharmacologist whose research focuses on dissecting the genetic, molecular, and chemical mechanisms underlying cognitive and emotional […]
Have we discovered everything in the animal kingdom already? Graham Reynolds, associate professor of biology at the University of North Carolina Asheville, explores Hispaniola to find out. Dr. R. Graham Reynolds is an Associate Professor of Biology at the University of North Carolina Asheville. His research is focused on characterizing vertebrate biodiversity, particularly in the […]
The smart grid is an important part of our infrastructure. Birol Yesilada, professor of political science and international studies at Portland State University, discusses how to protect it from attack. Birol A. Yeşilada is the Director of the Mark O. Hatfield School of Government and is a professor of Political Science and International Studies at […]
On University at Albany Week: Artificial intelligence can serve many purposes. Daphney-Stavroula Zois, Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, details how to help farmers abroad. Daphney-Stavroula Zois is an assistant professor with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, University […]
On University at Albany Week: Racial disparities persist in many health outcomes. Erika Martin, associate professor in the department of public administration, focuses on one. Erika Martin is an associate professor in the Department of Public Administration and Policy at the University at Albany. As an applied health policy researcher, she uses mixed methods to […]
On University at Albany Week: Death by suicide for those with Borderline Personality Disorder is all too common. Tomoko Udo, associate professor of health policy, management and behavior, describes how to lower this risk. Tomoko Udo, Ph.D is an Associate Professor at Department of Health Policy, Management, and Behavior, School of Public Health, University at […]
On University at Albany Week: Predicting the weather remains tricky. Jerry Brotzge, research scientist, explores how to make it a bit easier for forecasters. Dr. Jerry Brotzge is a Research Scientist and Program Manager of the New York State Mesonet (NYSM; http://nysmesonet.org) at the University at Albany. Jerry completed his undergraduate work in meteorology at […]
On University at Albany Week: Infrastructure can be costly even at the best of times. Unal Tatar, assistant professor at the College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity, explores the economic cost of disruptions. Dr. Unal Tatar is an assistant professor at the College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security, and Cybersecurity at the University […]
On SUNY Oneonta Week: Microplastics are a modern environmental threat. Kiyoko Yokota, associate professor of biology, takes a closer look. Kiyoko Yokota is an Associate Professor of Biology at State University of New York College at Oneonta (SUNY Oneonta) and conducts research at SUNY Oneonta Biological Field Station (BFS) in Cooperstown, NY, on the shore […]
On SUNY Oneonta Week: Stress in childhood can alter the shape of your face. Kate McGrath, assistant professor of biological anthropology, discusses why. Kate McGrath studies indicators of stress preserved in the skulls and teeth of great apes. She has done fieldwork in Rwanda, Kenya, and Tanzania at fossil sites and in national parks. Dr. […]
On SUNY Oneonta Week: Parasites have a role to play in an ecosystem. Florian Reyda, professor of biology, examines what they can tell us about a body of water’s health. Dr. Florian Reyda is a professor of biology at the State University of New York College at Oneonta. He specifically is a parasitologist—someone who focuses […]
On SUNY Oneonta Week: How do we help restore declining fish populations? Dan Stich, associate professor of biology, says sacrifices are required. Dan Stich joined the Oneonta faculty in 2015 after earning a B.T. in fisheries and aquaculture at the State University of New York Cobleskill College of Agriculture and Technology, an M.S. in fish […]
On SUNY Oneonta Week: The struggles of adapting to climate change are affecting everyone. Casey Coomes, visiting instructor and prodig fellow, discusses one small animal that is in great peril. Casey Coomes is a recent graduate of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Tennessee Knoxville. Her research examines the effects […]
On Brown University Week: How do people form their opinions on today’s issues? Steven Sloman, professor of cognitive, linguistic, and psychological sciences, explores if the people around us are the key to changing minds. Steven Sloman has worked at Brown University since 1992 after receiving his PhD in Psychology from Stanford University. He is ex-Editor-in-Chief […]
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On Brown University Week: Detecting Alzheimer’s early on is key. Hwamee Oh, assistant professor in the department of psychiatry and human behavior and cognitive, linguistics and psychological sciences, determines one way to do so. Dr. Hwamee Oh is an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Human Behavior and Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences […]
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On Brown University Week: We all keep some motivations for behavior hidden. Oriel FeldmanHall, assistant professor of cognitive, linguistic and psychological sciences, explores how to peak behind the curtain. Oriel FeldmanHall is the Alfred Manning Assistant Professor of Cognitive, Linguistic and Psychological Sciences at Brown University. She received the Benefactor Scholarship for her Doctorate at […]
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On Brown University Week: The last thing a kid wants to do is wake up for school. Mary A. Carskadon, professor of psychiatry and human behavior, explores the science of kids, school and sleep. Mary A. Carskadon, PhD is an authority on adolescent sleep and circadian rhythms. Dr. Carskadon serves as director of the Chronobiology […]
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On Brown University Week: Animals aren’t the only ones who flock together. William Warren, chancellor’s professor of cognitive, linguistic and psychological sciences, explores why we do too. Bill Warren is Chancellor’s Professor of Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences at Brown University, and President of the International Society for Ecological Psychology. He pioneered the use of […]
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Brown University Week on The Academic Minute 2022.05.09 Monday, May 9th William Warren, chancellor’s professor of cognitive, linguistic and psychological sciences, explores why humans flock together too. Tuesday, May 10th Mary A. Carskadon, professor of psychiatry and human behavior, explores the science of kids, school and sleep. Wednesday, May 11th Oriel FeldmanHall, […]
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The Academic Minute from 05.02 – 05.06 Monday, May 2nd Wes Routon – Georgia Gwinnett College Dual Enrollment Pays Off Dr. Wes Routon is an applied microeconomist with broad research interests, though much of his work falls within education economics, particularly the economics of higher education. Routon has been teaching economics and business statistics […]
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How do we discuss topics such as life and religion? Linda Sauer Bredvik, lecturer in sociolinguistics at Heidelberg University, determines what to listen for in a discussion to make a better connection. Linda Sauer Bredvik is a sociolinguist who researches at the intersection of language and interreligious encounters. She is interested in how people talk […]
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If your partner is stressed, chances are you are too. Rosie Shrout, assistant professor of human development and family studies at Purdue University, examines how one partner affects the other. Dr. Rosie Shrout (she/her/hers) is an Assistant Professor of Human Development and Family Studies at Purdue University. She is a social-health psychologist studying how couples’ […]
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One language is finding a revival online during the pandemic. Bryan Kirschen, associate professor of Spanish and linguistics at Binghamton University, examines how this came to be. Dr. Kirschen is an associate professor of Spanish and Linguistics at Binghamton University. As a sociolinguist, his work primarily focuses on the Judeo-Spanish language. He co-directs Binghamton University’s […]
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The more information we have, the better we can treat a patient. Weian Zhao, professor of pharmaceutical sciences at the University of California, Irvine, examines how to transform the personalization of care. Dr. Weian Zhao is a tenured full Professor and entrepreneur at the Sue and Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center, Chao Family Comprehensive […]
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Getting a jumpstart on college courses can pay off for high school students Wes Routon, associate professor of economics and quantitative analysis at Georgia Gwinnett College, discusses the benefits. Dr. Wes Routon is an applied microeconomist with broad research interests, though much of his work falls within education economics, particularly the economics of higher education. […]
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This Week on The Academic Minute 2022.05.02 Monday, May 2nd Wes Routon, associate professor of economics and quantitative analysis at Georgia Gwinnett College, discusses the benefits of dual enrollment for students. Tuesday, May 3rd Weian Zhao, professor of pharmaceutical sciences at the University of California, Irvine, examines how to transform the personalization of […]
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The Academic Minute from 04.25 – 04.29 Monday, April 25th Anthony Dick – Florida International University Disaster News Can Trigger Post-Traumatic Stress in Kids Anthony Steven Dick is a Developmental Science and Cognitive Neuroscience Professor at Florida International University. He studies the neurobiology of language and executive function using diffusion-weighted and functional imaging. He […]
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Information on when to reopen after a pandemic can be tricky. Nasar U. Ahmed, associate professor of epidemiology at Florida International University, explores what the data says. Dr. Nasar U Ahmed, founding chair, Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics and an associate professor of epidemiology at the Robert Stempel College of Public Health & Social Work […]
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On Florida International University Week: Dogs might be proving their mettle in the fight against COVID-19. Kenneth G. Furton, professor of chemistry and biochemistry, sniffs around to find out why. Kenneth G. Furton is a leading scholar in forensic chemistry, specializing in scent detection. Dr. Furton joined Florida International University (FIU) in 1988 as an […]
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On Florida International University Week: Homelessness is an ever present problem. Asia Eaton, associate professor of psychology, discusses one method to lowering the rates. Asia Eaton is a feminist social psychologist and Associate Professor of Psychology at Florida International University, where she directs the Power, Women, and Relationships (PWR) Lab. Eaton’s research explores how gender […]
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On Florida International University Week: Why do men have worse survival rates from brain tumors? Diana Azzam, assistant professor in the department of environmental health sciences, explains why. Dr. Diana Azzam earned her PhD in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology from the University of Miami in 2012. Her research has focused on the identification, functional characterization […]
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On Florida International University Week: Disaster news can trigger post-traumatic stress in kids thousands of miles away. Anthony Dick, professor of psychology, discusses why. Anthony Steven Dick is a Developmental Science and Cognitive Neuroscience Professor at Florida International University. He studies the neurobiology of language and executive function using diffusion-weighted and functional imaging. He is […]
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Florida International University Week on The Academic Minute 2022.04.25 Monday, April 25th Anthony Dick, professor of psychology, discusses why disaster news can spark PTSD in children thousands of miles away. Tuesday, April 26th Diana Azzam, assistant professor in the department of health sciences, explains why men have worse survival rates than women for […]
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The Academic Minute from 04.18 – 04.22 Monday, April 18th Jeff Miller – SUNY New Paltz Lessons on Democracy from Ancient Athens Jeff Miller is a professor in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at the State University of New York at New Paltz where he teaches political theory. He publishes mostly […]
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Who is looking out for struggling species in the face of climate change? Laura Martin, assistant professor of environmental studies at Williams College, spotlights the world of restoration ecologists. Author of WILD BY DESIGN: The Rise of Ecological Restoration, Laura J. Martin is a prizewinning historian and ecologist who studies how people shape the habitats […]
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Not all feedback is created equal. JT Torres, assistant teaching professor of English and Interdisciplinary Studies at Quinnipiac University, explains what works best. JT Torres is director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at Quinnipiac University. With Jill Flanders Crosby, he co-authored the book Situated Narratives and Sacred Dance: Performing the Entangled Histories of […]
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Transportation can be taken for granted by those able to afford it. Nathan McNeil, research associate at the Transportation Research and Education Center at Portland State University, examines how to help those who cannot. Nathan McNeil is a Research Associate at Portland State University’s Transportation Research and Education Center. He conducts research on impacts of […]
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It’s easy to get a COVID vaccine in the U.S., but how about elsewhere? Deena Burris, associate professor of management at the University of North Carolina Asheville, examines the process who gets access. Dr. Deena Burris is a tenured Associate Professor at the University of North Carolina at Asheville. She received a Ph.D. in International […]
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Where should we look for lessons on sustaining democracy? Jeff Miller, professor in the department of political science and international relations at SUNY New Paltz, turns to the past to find out. Jeff Miller is a professor in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at the State University of New York at New […]
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This Week on The Academic Minute 2022.04.11 Monday, April 18th Jeff Miller, professor in the department of political science and international relations at SUNY New Paltz, explores where should we look for lessons on sustaining democracy. Tuesday, April 19th Deena Burris, associate professor of management at the University of North Carolina Asheville, looks […]
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The Academic Minute from 04.11 – 04.15 Monday, April 11th Khurram Afridi – Cornell University Wireless Charging of Electric Vehicles Khurram Afridi is an Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering in Cornell University’s College of Engineering. He received his BS from Caltech in 1989, and he did his Master’s and Ph.D. work at MIT. […]
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On Cornell University College of Engineering Week: Earth to space: is anybody out there? Elaine Petro, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, details whether we’re getting closer to finding out. Elaine Petro joined the Cornell University faculty as an Assistant Professor in the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at in 2020. She […]
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On Cornell University College of Engineering Week: How do we better understand cell communication? Karl Lewis, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, deciphers the signals. Dr. Karl Lewis is an assistant professor at the Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering at Cornell University. Dr. Lewis’s research interests center on understanding the interplay of mechanical cues and biological […]
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On Cornell University College of Engineering Week: Some of the best engineering successes can be hard to see. Uli Wiesner, professor of materials science and engineering, discusses one tiny step forward in treating cancer. Uli Wiesner is a professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Cornell University and co-director of the MSKCC-Cornell Center for Translation […]
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On Cornell University College of Engineering Week: The machinery in our bodies that creates bones or teeth can sometimes go awry. Lara Estroff, professor and chair of the department of materials science and engineering, determines what we can do to combat this. Lara Estroff is a professor and chair of the Department of Materials Science […]
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On Cornell University College of Engineering Week: How do we charge electric cars more efficiently? Khurram Afridi, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, looks into this pressing question. Khurram Afridi is an Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering in Cornell University’s College of Engineering. He received his BS from Caltech in 1989, and […]
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Cornell Engineering Week on The Academic Minute 2022.04.11 Monday, April 11th Khurram Afridi, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, looks into how to wirelessly charge electric vehicles. Tuesday, April 12th Lara Estroff, professor and chair of the department of materials science and engineering, determines what we can do to combat the machinery […]
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The Academic Minute from 04.04 – 04.08 Monday, April 4th Marshall Jones – Winthrop University Why Teaching is Harder Than You Think Dr. Marshall G. Jones is a scholar and teacher with nearly 30 years of experience in preparing teachers in K-12 schools, higher education, and other professional learning environments. His research focuses on […]
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Who should speak for a global company during troubled times? Daniel Laufer, associate professor of marketing at Victoria University, says the answer may differ depending on geography. Dr Daniel Laufer, PhD, MBA (The University of Texas at Austin, USA), is an Associate Professor of Marketing at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, and a […]
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Space is filled with tons of junk. Markus Wilde, associate professor of aerospace, physics and space sciences at the Florida Institute of Technology, explains how to mitigate this problem. Dr. Markus Wilde is an Associate Professor of Aerospace, Physics and Space Sciences at Florida Institute of Technology (Florida Tech) in Melbourne, Florida, where he also […]
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The health care field is continually changing course. Willow Henry, professor of health care practice at Franklin Pierce University, examines one instance of finding a new way of doing things. Willow Henry, P.T., D.P.T., as the Dr. Arthur M. Pappas Professor of Health Care Practice Endowed Chair at Franklin Pierce University in New Hampshire. Dr. […]
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Parasites can be deadly for humans and animals alike. Danae Schulz, assistant professor of biology at Harvey Mudd College, describes how to stop one nasty bug. Danae Schulz is an assistant professor of biology at Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California, where she teaches molecular biology and studies the African trypanosome, a protozoan parasite that […]
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The pandemic has made certain jobs even harder. Marshall Jones, professor and graduate program director in learning design and technology at Winthrop University, explores one occupation that was already difficult. Dr. Marshall G. Jones is a scholar and teacher with nearly 30 years of experience in preparing teachers in K-12 schools, higher education, and other […]
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This Week on The Academic Minute 2022.04.04 Monday, April 4th Marshall Jones, professor and graduate program director in learning design and technology at Winthrop University, explores how teaching is harder than you think. Tuesday, April 5th Danae Schulz, assistant professor of biology at Harvey Mudd College, describes how to stop one nasty parasite. […]
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The Academic Minute from 03.28 – 04.01 Monday, March 28th Todd Ferry – Portland State University Best Practices When Building Tiny Home Villages to Address Homelessness Todd Ferry is a Senior Research Associate and Faculty Fellow at the Center for Public Interest Design (CPID) within the Portland State University School of Architecture, and has […]
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On Portland State University Week: Should the police be among the first responders for certain 911 calls? Greg Townley, associate professor of community psychology, says other methods may be more beneficial in certain situations. Dr. Greg Townley is an Associate Professor of Community Psychology at Portland State University and co-founder of PSU’s Homelessness Research & […]
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On Portland State University Week: The changing atmosphere is putting stresses on ecosystems. Elise Granek, associate professor of environmental science & management, determines how to identify solutions to keep coastal environments viable. Dr. Elise Granek graduated with her MES from Yale University and went on to earn her PhD from Oregon State. Her general fields […]
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On Portland State University Week: Wildfire smoke is a pervasive part of our future. Elliott Gall, assistant professor of mechanical & materials engineering, examines how best to live with the effects. Dr. Elliott Gall is an assistant professor at Portland State University (PSU) in the department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering. He received his B.S.E. […]
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On Portland State University Week: Art can help disrupt stereotypes for students. Kacy McKinney, instructor of urban studies and planning, explores how. Dr. Kacy McKinney is a critical feminist geographer and a visual artist. She is an Instructor of Urban Studies and Planning at Portland State University. She is the chair of the Belonging, Justice, […]
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On Portland State University Week: Addressing homelessness is critical. Todd Ferry, senior research associate, explains why small steps can have huge impacts. Todd Ferry is a Senior Research Associate and Faculty Fellow at the Center for Public Interest Design (CPID) within the Portland State University School of Architecture, and has been with PSU since 2013. […]
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Portland State University Week on The Academic Minute 2022.03.28 Monday, March 28th Todd Ferry, senior research associate, explains why small steps can have huge impacts in addressing homelessness. Tuesday, March 29th Kacy McKinney, instructor of urban studies and planning, explores how to change the narrative around student homelessness through comic books. Wednesday, […]
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The Academic Minute from 03.21 – 03.25 Monday, March 21st Maurizio Valsania – University of Turin First Among Men: George Washington and the Myth of American Masculinity Maurizio Valsania is professor of American history at the University of Turin, Italy. An expert on the Early American Republic, he analyzes the founders within their social, […]
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There are different ways to teach students in higher ed, but which is best? Tim Abraham, assistant professor of physical education, exercise and wellness studies at Utica College, examines different approaches. Tim Abraham is an Assistant Professor of Physical Education, Exercise and Wellness Studies at Utica College. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Kinesiology from […]
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Are you tired of being on Zoom calls? Julie Boland, professor of psychology, linguistics, and cognitive science at the University of Michigan, explains why. Julie E Boland, PhD is a Professor in Psychology, Linguistics, and Cognitive Science at the University of Michigan. Her research seeks to understand the mental processes that support language comprehension and […]
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Banning slavery doesn’t end all of its vices. Lewis Eliot, assistant professor of history at the University of Oklahoma, explores the history of slavery in the British Empire and how it relates to today. Lewis Eliot is a historian of slavery and anti-slavery in the British Empire and Atlantic World. His research focuses on the […]
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Symbols of the past that reflect negative historical traits are found beyond the South. Christoph Strobel, professor of history at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, examines one close to home in the Northeast. Christoph Strobel has published numerous books, most recently Native Americans of New England. A State Flag and the Violent History of Colonization […]
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We hold the Founding Fathers in high esteem, but what does history say? Maurizio Valsania, professor of American history at the University of Turin, looks into the past to reveal one important figure. Maurizio Valsania is professor of American history at the University of Turin, Italy. An expert on the Early American Republic, he analyzes […]
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Drexel University Week on The Academic Minute 2022.03.21 Monday, March 21st Maurizio Valsania, professor of American history at the University of Turin, looks into the past to reveal new insights on one important American figure. Tuesday, March 22nd Christoph Strobel, professor of history at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, examines one state flag […]
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The Academic Minute from 03.14 – 03.18 Monday, March 14th Rogelio Minana – Drexel University Global Engagement in the Post-Pandemic Era Rogelio Miñana is Professor of Spanish and Global Studies and Vice Provost for Global Engagement at Drexel University in Philadelphia. In both his scholarship and teaching, he explores the interplay between the traditional […]
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On Drexel University Week: Climate change will lead to numerous challenges. Franco Montalto, professor in the department of civil, architectural, and environmental engineering, looks into finding ways to mitigate problems through educational practices. Dr. Montalto is a civil engineer interested in the development of ecologically, economically, and socially sensible solutions to urban environmental problems, with […]
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On Drexel University Week: Racism has many effects on those who suffer from its consequences. Sharrelle Barber, assistant professor of epidemiology, discusses a new approach to fighting it. Dr. Sharrelle Barber is a social epidemiologist and scholar-activist whose empirical research focuses on the intersection of “place, race, and health” and examines the role of structural […]
On Drexel University Week: There is often a better way to do things, if you know where to find it. Jordan Hyatt, associate professor of criminology and justice studies, discusses what we can learn from another country in prison reform. Dr. Jordan Hyatt is an Associate Professor of Criminology and Justice Studies in the College […]
On Drexel University Week: How can we harness the body’s immune system to help with healing? Kara Spiller, associate professor in the school of biomedical engineering, science and health systems, looks into this approach. Dr. Kara Spiller is an Associate Professor in Drexel University’s School of Biomedical Engineering, Science, and Health Systems. Her research interests […]
On Drexel University Week: COVID-19 has disrupted many spaces, including cultural activism. Rogelio Miñana, professor of Spanish and global studies, explores how we can foster partnerships in a post-pandemic world. Rogelio Miñana is Professor of Spanish and Global Studies and Vice Provost for Global Engagement at Drexel University in Philadelphia. In both his scholarship and […]
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Drexel University Week on The Academic Minute 2022.03.14 Monday, March 14th Rogelio Miñana, professor of Spanish and global studies, explores how we can foster partnerships in a post-pandemic world. Tuesday, March 15th Kara Spiller, associate professor in the school of biomedical engineering, science and health systems, looks into how we can harness the […]
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The Academic Minute from 03.07 – 03.11 Monday, March 7th Mark Gibney – University of North Carolina Asheville The Gap Between the Promise of Human Rights Mark Gibney is the Belk Distinguished Professor at the University of North Carolina-Asheville and an Affiliated Scholar at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute in Lund, Sweden. From 2014-2016 he […]
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On University of North Carolina Asheville Week: What can Bruce Springsteen teach is about economics? Leah Greden Mathews, professor and chair of economics, listens in to find out. As an applied environmental economist, Dr. Mathews’ research focuses on estimating the value of those things you can’t buy on grocery store shelves like water quality, scenic […]
On University of North Carolina Asheville Week: How do disrupt the education gaps that exist in public schools? Tiece Ruffin, professor of Africana Studies and Education, looks into a few ways to do so. Tiece Ruffin received her Ph.D. from Ohio University in Curriculum and Instruction with a specialization in Special Education and cognate in […]
On University of North Carolina Asheville Week: Programs for helping low-income residents get a home of their own is a crucial course of action. Patrick Bahls, professor of mathematics, looks at a failed program to see what we can learn for the future. Patrick Bahls was born and raised in Helena, Montana. He stayed in […]
On University of North Carolina Asheville Week: Formal land agreements with Indigenous communities can lead to some healing. Trey Adcock, associate professor of interdisciplinary studies, explores how they are viewed in these populations. Trey Adcock (ᏣᎳᎩᎯ ᎠᏰᎵ, enrolled Cherokee Nation), PhD, is an Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies and the Director of American Indian & […]
On University of North Carolina Asheville Week: Human rights protections are a good step, but are not always followed around the world. Mark Gibney, Belk distinguished professor of humanities, analyzes this gap. Mark Gibney is the Belk Distinguished Professor at the University of North Carolina-Asheville and an Affiliated Scholar at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute in […]
University of North Carolina Asheville Week on The Academic Minute 2022.03.07 Monday, March 7th Mark Gibney, Belk distinguished professor of humanities, analyzes the gap between human rights protections and reality. Tuesday, March 8th Trey Adcock, associate professor of interdisciplinary studies, explores how land acknowledgments are viewed in Indigenous populations. Wednesday, March 9th […]
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The Academic Minute from 02.28 – 03.04 Monday, February 28th Theresa Floyd – University of Montana Retaining Employees by Fostering Social Connections Theresa Floyd earned her Ph.D. from Gatton College of Business and Economics at the University of Kentucky in 2014. She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Syracuse University. Theresa’s research interests encompass […]
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On University of Montana Week: Access to the future of healthcare practices isn’t shared by all. Erica Woodahl, professor in the department of biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences, determines how to make sure everyone benefits. Erica L. Woodahl, Ph.D. is a Professor in the Department of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Director of the Skaggs Institute […]
On University of Montana Week: We have a lot to learn from nature. Jakki Mohr, regents professor of marketing, describes one way to do so. Dr. Jakki Mohr is the Regents Professor of Marketing and the Poe Family Distinguished Faculty Fellow at the University of Montana. Her research focuses on challenges companies face in both […]
On University of Montana Week: LGBTQI+ individuals still face many stigmas. Bryan Cochran, professor of clinical psychology, explores how to bolster their wellbeing to help achieve better health. Bryan Cochran, Ph.D., is a Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Montana in Missoula. He received his Master’s and Ph.D. degrees from the University of […]
On University of Montana Week: We still have a lot to learn about how to talk about race. Tobin Miller Shearer, professor of history and African-American Studies director, explores how one group is crossing racial lines to do just that. Tobin Miller Shearer is a History Professor and the director of the African-American Studies Program […]
On University of Montana Week: Retaining employees is now a pivotal part of any business. Theresa Floyd, associate professor of management, examines how to foster the right environment to keep good people. Theresa Floyd earned her Ph.D. from Gatton College of Business and Economics at the University of Kentucky in 2014. She earned her bachelor’s […]
University of Montana Week on The Academic Minute 2022.02.28 Monday, February 28th Theresa Floyd, associate professor of management, examines how to foster the right environment at your business to keep good people. Tuesday, March 1st Tobin Miller Shearer, professor of history and African-American Studies director, explores how one group is crossing racial lines […]
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The Academic Minute from 02.21 – 02.25 Monday, February 21st Emily Marshall – Franklin & Marshall College Parents Worry About School Health Risks During COVID-19 Emily A. Marshall is a sociologist and demographer who studies how social and cultural contexts affect understandings of childbearing. One branch of Dr. Marshall’s research examines how different methods […]
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On Franklin and Marshall College Week: COVID-19 has hit vulnerable populations the hardest. Stephanie McNulty, professor of government and Latin American and latinx studies, explores its effects on one such group. Dr. McNulty is Professor of Government and Latin American and Latinx Studies at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, PA. She has twenty years […]
On Franklin and Marshall College Week: Online classes can be a boon to those trying to learn a new language. Jessica Cox, associate professor of Spanish and linguistics, discusses the barriers some have to logging in virtually. Jessica Cox researches relationships between language and cognition in multilinguals, including older adult language learners, aptitude for learning […]
On Franklin and Marshall College Week: Messaging is key when discussing social programs. Wei-Teng Yen, assistant professor of government, explains why support can hinge on the words used to describe the program. Wei-Ting Yen is currently Assistant Professor of Government Department at Franklin and Marshall College. She holds her Ph.D. in Political Science from The […]
On Franklin and Marshall College Week: Everyone is stressed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Harriet Okatch, assistant professor in the department of biology, examines our stress levels. Harriet Okatch is an Assistant Professor of Public Health at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, PA. With a PhD in Analytical Chemistry and a Masters in Public Health, […]
On Franklin and Marshall College Week: Parents have an extra set of worries when sending kids off to school. Emily Marshall, assistant professor in the department of sociology, discusses which parents worry the most. Emily A. Marshall is a sociologist and demographer who studies how social and cultural contexts affect understandings of childbearing. One branch […]
This Week on The Academic Minute 2022.02.21 Monday, February 21st Emily Marshall, assistant professor in the department of sociology, discusses which parents worry the most about their kids health in schools. Tuesday, February 22nd Harriet Okatch, assistant professor in the department of biology, examines our stress levels during the COVID-19 pandemic. Wednesday, […]
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The Academic Minute from 02.14 – 02.18 Monday, February 14th Lisa Bitel – University of Southern California Dornsife St. Valentine I am a first-generation college student. My parents came from a very small midwestern town and never considered university. I attended Smith College, Harvard University, and University College, Dublin. I learned Latin and Old […]
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We’ve all heard a lot about death tolls in recent months. Staci Zavattaro, professor of public administration at the University of Central Florida, says people who work in this area are feeling the strain. Staci M. Zavattaro, Ph.D., is a professor of public administration at the University of Central Florida. She serves as editor-in-chief of […]
Is too much screen time bad for children? Katie Paulich, PhD student at the University of Colorado Boulder, looks into the research. I’m a third-year PhD student at the University of Colorado Boulder. I obtained my undergraduate degree at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Some of my research interests include mental health topics such as […]
Bullying isn’t just for children. Brandy Schwarz, associate professor in the department of physical therapy at the University of North Texas Health Science Center, discusses the effects of workplace bullying in higher education. Dr. Schwarz graduated from the University of Portland in 2004 with a BS in Biology. She completed a clinical Doctorate of Physical Therapy […]
Faculty have a large role to play in student success, but not just in the classroom. Kathryn Boucher, associate professor of psychology at the University of Indianapolis, explores how to make students feel included. Kathryn Boucher, PhD is an Associate Professor of Psychology and the Associate Director of the Strain Honors College at the University […]
The history of Valentine’s Day might not match up with our current incarnation. Lisa Bitel, professor of history and religion at the University of Southern California Dornsife, delves into the past to find St. Valentine’s origin story. I am a first-generation college student. My parents came from a very small midwestern town and never considered […]
This Week on The Academic Minute 2022.02.14 Monday, February 14th Lisa Bitel, professor of history and religion at the University of Southern California Dornsife, delves into the past to find St. Valentine’s origin story. Tuesday, February 15th Kathryn Boucher, associate professor of psychology at the University of Indianapolis, says faculty have a large […]
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The Academic Minute from 02.07 – 02.11 Monday, February 7th John Lefebvre – Wofford College Fostering Resilience Among College Students John Lefebvre is a professor of psychology at Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Trained as a clinical psychologist, his teaching and research focus on topics related to physical and mental health. Lefebvre teaches […]
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Improv is not just for comedy. Rich Pellegrin, assistant professor of music theory at the University of Florida, discusses this method in other mediums. Rich Pellegrin is Assistant Professor of Music Theory at the University of Florida and Affiliate Assistant Professor in the Center for Arts, Migration, and Entrepreneurship. His primary area of research specialization […]
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Do you have the time? Miriamne Krummel, professor of English and medieval studies at the University of Dayton, examines the history of who we count time. Miriamne Ara Krummel is a professor of English and medieval studies in the Department of English, University of Dayton. She holds a B.A. in English from University of Connecticut; […]
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Trans rights are becoming more mainstream in cities, but what about rural areas? G. Samantha Rosenthal, associate professor of history at Roanoke College, finds out. Gregory Samantha Rosenthal (she/they) is Associate Professor of History and Coordinator of the Public History Concentration at Roanoke College in Salem, Virginia. She is the author of two books, Living […]
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How do restaurants attract employees after the Great Resignation? Frederick Becker, associate professor in the hospitality management department at York College of Pennsylvania, determines what potential employees are looking for in a work environment. Frederick Becker is an associate professor and Chair of the Hospitality Management Department at York College. He holds degrees from Paul […]
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Leaving people to suffer alone has negative effects. John Lefebvre, professor of psychology at Wofford College, explores how bringing students together to talk, helps them heal. John Lefebvre is a professor of psychology at Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Trained as a clinical psychologist, his teaching and research focus on topics related to physical […]
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This Week on The Academic Minute 2022.02.07 Monday, February 7th John Lefebvre, professor of psychology at Wofford College, explores how bringing students together to talk, helps them heal. Tuesday, February 8th Frederick Becker, associate professor in the hospitality management department at York College of Pennsylvania, determines what potential restaurant employees are looking for […]
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The Academic Minute from 01.31 – 02.04 Monday, January 31st Billi Bromer – Brenau University The Importance of Social Presence in Online Instruction Dr. Billi L. Bromer, is an Associate Professor in the College of Education at Brenau University in Gainesville, Georgia. She teaches a range of undergraduate and graduate courses in Brenau’s online educator preparation […]
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Cyberbullying can cause a vicious cycle. Gary Giumetti, professor of psychology at Quinnipiac University, examines how to break this pattern. Gary Giumetti is a professor of psychology at Quinnipiac University. He teaches courses in industrial-organizational psychology, statistics, senior seminar/capstone, and research methods courses in the psychology department. His research interests include interpersonal mistreatment in the […]
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Global warming is causing many changes to weather patterns. Shaung-Ye Wu, professor in the department of geology and environmental geosciences at the University of Dayton, examines some of the changes in precipitation. Dr. Shuang-Ye Wu is a climatologist working in the Department of Geology and Environmental Geosciences at University of Dayton. Her research focuses on how […]
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Being a scientist doesn’t necessarily mean you’re an atheist.
Elaine Howard Ecklund, professor of sociology at Rice University, explains why.
Elaine Howard Ecklund is the Herbert S. Autrey Chair in Social Sciences, Professor of Sociology, and director of the Religion and Public Life Program at Rice University. As a sociologist of religion, science, and work, she is particularly interested in social change and how institutions change, especially when individuals leverage aspects of their religious, race, and gender identities to change institutions. Over the past several years Elaine’s research has explored how scientists in different nations understand religion, ethics, and gender; religion at work; and the overlap between racial and religious discrimination in workplaces. She is the author of seven books, over 100 research articles, and numerous op-eds.
Varieties of Atheism in Science https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/02-02-22-Rice-Varieties-of-Atheism-in-Science.mp3
My studies of scientists over the past 15 years have shown me that there are indeed varieties of atheism among scientists. One myth the public has about science is that science always leads to atheism. However, in their own terms, most atheist scientists are not atheists because of science.
If exposure to science were as influential on becoming an atheist as many scholars assert, we should certainly expect to see scientists talking mainly about their atheism as coming about because of scientific training. But that does not seem to be the case. Just over half of the scientists in our study indicated on the survey that they were never religious.
And when surveyed about the effect of science on their religious views, only a minority of scientists attribute their atheism to scientific knowledge and training. About one in three atheists in the US and UK say science made them become less religious. The vast majority say science had little to no impact on their religious views.
For the minority of scientists who did attribute their atheist identity to exposure to science, the transition to atheism ultimately resulted from embracing empiricism over belief. One scientist from the U.K., for example, told us how he tried to fit his religious views and his scientific views together, but could not quite make it work.**
For most, however, we found that other factors—such as negative experiences with religion or changing social networks—from social networks mainly with religious people to mainly with non-religious people—were the main reasons scientists who grew up with religion abandoned their beliefs and practices. Some scientists, for example, told us they became atheists as a result of bad experiences with other members of their faith community.
For most scientists in our study, we see that science is often integral to their atheist identity, but not necessarily the cause of it.
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Union membership has dropped in the U.S., but the pandemic is giving unions new life.
John Logan, professor of labor and employment studies in the College of Business at San Francisco State University, examines why employees are suddenly coming together.
John Logan is Professor and Director of Labor and Employment Studies in the College of Business at San Francisco State University. Between 2000-2009, he was an assistant and associate professor of comparative employment studies in the School of Management at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He has also served as Research Director at the University of California-Berkeley Labor Center and as a postdoc at the Institute for Labor and Employment at UCLA.
He has published widely on labor-management relations, employer opposition to unionization and labor law in the United States and globally. His publications have appeared in the British Journal of Industrial Relations, Industrial Relations Journal, Journal of Labor Research, New Labor Forum & many others. He has also conducted union research projects in over thirty countries in five continents.
Why Are Unions Suddenly Such a Hot Topic and Does It Matter? https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/02-01-22-SFSU-Why-Are-Unions-Suddenly-Such-a-Hot-Topic-and-Does-It-Matter.mp3
Last month the National Labor Relations Board ruled that Amazon cheated in a high-profile union election in Alabama in March & would be required to face a do-over election. However, the NLRB order was arguably less interesting–despite its potential significance at Amazon–than that it warranted lengthy articles in multiple major media outlets.
The following week a union victory at Starbucks in Buffalo, in Upstate New York, generated a comparable and impressive amount of media attention, thus confirming what the New York Times said last month, that organized labor is currently a hot news item. Never in the past 50 years have union organizing campaigns received the kind of public attention that would enable 100 baristas at three Buffalo coffee shops to elicit such widespread media attention, which might just stimulate a national debate over the need for stronger labor rights.
Somehow the union phenomenon has entered the media mainstream–despite its actual organizational weakness–and has become a matter of general interest. And then there’s the expanding variety of people who are talking union—tech workers, media workers, museum workers and many others.
It’s not entirely clear why all of this is happening – the pandemic, Amazon, social media, the never-ending expansion of contingent work –or what its legacy will be, but it appears that something is eroding the parochialism that has always, even in its heyday, defined organized labor. In the public imagination, the labor movement is no longer a “narrow, special interest.”
Maybe nothing will come of this, but we could be on the cusp of a new labor relations order and if unions can take advantage of it, Amazon’s depressing vision of a labor system based on algorithms and expendable workers with no independent voice may not be the wave of the future after all.
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Online instruction is a part of college life, but how can we make it better?
Billi Bromer, associate professor in the college of education at Brenau University, has three ideas to do so.
Dr. Billi L. Bromer, is an Associate Professor in the College of Education at Brenau University in Gainesville, Georgia. She teaches a range of undergraduate and graduate courses in Brenau’s online educator preparation program. She is an active member of the national Association of Teacher Educators (ATE) and currently serves as the Co-Chair of the Early Childhood Teacher Educator Special Interest Group within ATE. She has presented numerous papers at state, national and international educational conferences on a variety of topics related to educator preparation. She is especially interested in the importance of the social elements of online learning for students of all ages and has written on this topic for several publications.
The Importance of Social Presence in Online Instruction https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/01-31-22-Brenau-The-Importance-of-Social-Presence-in-Online-Instruction.mp3
Engagement is created in online instruction when social presence, cognitive presence, and teaching presence all exist together. Social presence in an online course is apparent when individuals engage in learning with others in an open atmosphere, including the instructor as an active participant. Social presence consists of ways for participants to perceive emotional connection to others through experiences such as sharing information about each other or using humor. It consists of a sense of concern for one another through offering tips and suggestions. Social presence is facilitated when respectful discourse occurs, even in disagreements.
Cognitive presence occurs when participants are provided continued opportunities to acquire new information and ways to apply new information to existing or previous ideas. Teaching presence is apparent when both students and the instructor engage in experiences that create new meanings. It is best attained when students are all active participants in learning with each other and with the instructor. Teaching presence exists when learning is a reciprocal and shared process.
When social presence, cognitive presence, and teaching presence are created in online instruction a community of inquiry can be created. A community of inquiry is evident when members of the community have a shared goal toward educational outcomes. Its success is dependent on the perception of group connectedness and a sense of belonging. The inclusion of meaningful and respectful conversations occur among all participants can encourage this.
Engagement can occur in three different but equally important ways. The students engage with each other, often accomplished within discussions or shared projects; the students engage with the instructor both collectively and individually; and both the students and the instructor engage with the course content. Online learning that is meaningful and relevant to both the students and the instructor and provided in a format that encourages social, cognitive, and teaching presence can deepen student learning and provide a successful online experience for all participants.
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This Week on The Academic Minute 2022.01.31
Monday, January 31st Billi Bromer, associate professor in the college of education at Brenau University, has three ideas to make online instruction better for students.
Tuesday, February 1st John Logan, professor of labor and employment studies in the College of Business at San Francisco State University, examines why employees are suddenly coming together now to unionize.
Wednesday, February 2nd Elaine Howard Ecklund, professor of sociology at Rice University, explains why being a scientist doesn’t necessarily means you’re an atheist.
Thursday, February 3rd Shaung-Ye Wu, professor in the department of geology and environmental geosciences at the University of Dayton, examines changes in precipitation as we move with climate change.
Friday, February 4th Gary Giumetti, professor of psychology at Quinnipiac University, examines how to break the pattern of being cyberbullied to being a cyberbully perpetrator.
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The Academic Minute from 01.24 – 01.28 Monday, January 24thPeter F. Cannavo – Hamilton CollegeClimate Migration: Facing the Inevitable
Peter F. Cannavò works and teaches in the areas of political theory; environmental theory and politics; climate politics; and geography and the politics of place. Cannavò is the author of The Working Landscape: Founding, Preservation, and the Politics of Place (2007). He contributed to the volumes Liberty and the Ecological Crisis, The Bloomsbury Companion to Hannah Arendt, The Handbook on U.S. Environmental Policy, The Oxford Handbook of Environmental Political Theory, The Encyclopedia of Political Theory, The Environmental Politics of Sacrifice, and Political Theory and Global Climate Change. He is co-editor (with Joseph H. Lane, Jr.) of Engaging Nature: Environmentalism, Concepts of Nature, and the Study of the Political Theory Canon (2014). He is currently writing To the Thousandth Generation: The Green Civic Republican Tradition in America, under contract with The MIT Press. Cannavò has published in various peer-reviewed journals, including Environmental Politics, Environmental Values, and Political Theory, and has also contributed opinion pieces to several media outlets, including The Hill, The Huffington Post and USA Today.
Tuesday, January 25thTimothy Waters – Indiana University BloomingtonRethinking Secession
Timothy Waters is a professor at Indiana University, where he writes on secession and war crimes. He is the author of Boxing Pandora: Rethinking Borders, States, and Secession in a Democratic World (Yale 2020) and editor of The Milosevic Trial: An Autopsy (Oxford 2013). He has been a Humboldt Fellow at the Max Planck Institute in Heidelberg and an American Council of Learned Societies Fellow. He was a Peace Corps volunteer in Hungary, and worked at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. JD, Harvard; MIA, Columbia; BA, UCLA.
Wednesday, January 26th
C. Michael White – University of ConnecticutMDMA Assisted Psychotherapy For PTSD Patients
Michael White, Pharm.D. is a Distinguished Professor and Chair at the UConn School of Pharmacy. His research interests are in drug, dietary supplement, and substances of abuse safety and effectiveness. His over 400 publications in biomedical journals have been cited over 14,000 times and covered by major media television, radio, newspaper, and internet sites. He has received national awards from the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, and the American College of Clinical Pharmacy.
Thursday, January 27thCynthia Maupin – Binghamton UniversityFriendliness and Trustworthiness Matters When Forming New Teams
Dr. Maupin is currently an Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior and Leadership for the Binghamton University School of Management, a Fellow of the Bernard M. & Ruth R. Bass Center for Leadership Studies, and a Fellow of the Center for Collective Dynamics of Complex Systems. Her research focuses on promoting effective leadership, leadership development, and teamwork processes for organizations.
Friday, January 28thCarrie Baker – Smith CollegeBarriers to Medication Abortion Among Massachusetts’ Public University Students
Carrie N. Baker is the Sylvia Dlugasch Bauman Chair of American Studies and a professor in the Program for the Study of Women and Gender at Smith College. Baker holds a BA in philosophy from Yale University, a JD from Emory University School of Law, and an MA and PhD from Emory University in Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies. Her scholarship and teaching centers on gender, race, law and policy in the United States, focusing in particular on sexual harassment, sex trafficking, and reproductive justice. She serves on the steering committee of the Five College Certificate in Reproductive Health, Rights and Justice, of which she is a co-founder and former co-director. She is a regular writer and contributing editor at Ms. magazine, where she serves as co-chair of the Ms. Committee of Scholars..
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Abortion may be legal in a state, but that doesn’t mean access is easy.
Carrie Baker, professor in the program for the study of women and gender at Smith College, outlines the hurdles.
Carrie N. Baker is the Sylvia Dlugasch Bauman Chair of American Studies and a professor in the Program for the Study of Women and Gender at Smith College. Baker holds a BA in philosophy from Yale University, a JD from Emory University School of Law, and an MA and PhD from Emory University in Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies. Her scholarship and teaching centers on gender, race, law and policy in the United States, focusing in particular on sexual harassment, sex trafficking, and reproductive justice. She serves on the steering committee of the Five College Certificate in Reproductive Health, Rights and Justice, of which she is a co-founder and former co-director. She is a regular writer and contributing editor at Ms. magazine, where she serves as co-chair of the Ms. Committee of Scholars.
Barriers to Medication Abortion Among Massachusetts’ Public University Students https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/01-28-22-Smith-Barriers-to-Medication-Abortion-Among-Massachusetts-Public-University-Students.mp3
Despite the fact that abortion is legal in Massachusetts, access is limited. Public university health centers in the state don’t provide medication abortion, so students have to find providers off-campus.
Using a cross-sectional study design, we estimated the number of students who need medication abortion and calculated the distance and public transit time from campuses to the nearest abortion-providing facilities. We contacted these facilities to determine costs, wait times, and weekend appointment availability.
Our research estimates that 600 to 1,380 Massachusetts public university students obtain medication abortion services each year. To reach off-campus providers, students have to travel between 2 and 42 miles, with a population-weighted average distance of 19 miles. Travel time on public transportation to reach the nearest abortion-providing facility takes between 18 and 400 hundred minutes, with a population-weighted average of 103 minutes.
Distance and travel time is a significant barrier to medication abortion access for many students. For example, 79 percent of students at the largest University of Massachusetts campus (in Amherst) do not own cars, yet the nearest abortion facility is 25 miles away and takes 2 hours and 18 minutes one way to reach by public transportation.
Cost, delay and scheduling are also barriers. Average cost of medication abortion is $680, average wait time for the first available appointment is 8 days, and 8 of the 13 nearest abortion-providing facilities to campuses are not open on weekends.
This research suggests that public university students in Massachusetts face logistical barriers to obtaining medication abortion. These barriers fall most heavily on female students and low-income students, who are disproportionately students of color. Offering medication abortion on campus would reduce these barriers and enhance gender, racial and economic equity on campus.
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What gets you selected for a team project may be a surprise.
Cynthia Maupin, assistant professor of organizational behavior and leadership at Binghamton University, explains which traits are most sought after.
Dr. Maupin is currently an Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior and Leadership for the Binghamton University School of Management, a Fellow of the Bernard M. & Ruth R. Bass Center for Leadership Studies, and a Fellow of the Center for Collective Dynamics of Complex Systems. Her research focuses on promoting effective leadership, leadership development, and teamwork processes for organizations.
Friendliness and Trustworthiness Matters When Forming New Teams https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/01-27-22-Binghamton-Friendliness-and-Trustworthiness-Matter-When-Forming-New-Teams.mp3
Did you know that people who are friendly and trustworthy are more likely to be selected for teams than those who are known for just their quality work and personal reputation?
In a recent study, we found that people who signal that they are both trustworthy and competent are the most sought after when it comes to forming new teams. However, signals of friendliness and trustworthiness are often more important factors for choosing future teammates than signals that someone performs quality work.
We assume that people are selected for important tasks and teams because of the knowledge, skills, and abilities they bring to the table. However, this research suggests that people may often get picked because team members feel comfortable with them. When choosing future teammates, people may be willing to sacrifice a bit in terms of performance in order to have a really positive team experience.
Our research focused on a cohort of MBA students who were first randomly assigned to teams, and then later asked to form their own teams. In those initial teams, students who used supportive voice signaled their friendship and trustworthiness—or their social capital—and students who used constructive voice signaled their quality work and personal reputation—or their human capital.
As might be expected, anyone who was very strong in terms of signaling both their human and social capital were extremely sought after as teammates. Those individuals are doing all of the right things to establish that they’re both trustworthy and a good worker.
However, our findings suggest that when people feel like they can trust you, even if you’re not necessarily the best worker, they’re going to be more likely to want to work with you.
These findings have major implications for the workplace. Having a positive reputation for good work goes a long way, but so does just being a good person. People want to team up with people who make them feel comfortable.
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C. Michael White on March 15, 2019. (Sean Flynn/UConn Photo)
Treating mental disorders may require some out of the box thinking.
C. Michael White, distinguished professor and chair of pharmacy practice at the University of Connecticut, discusses a form of treatment that is gaining steam with positive results.
Michael White, Pharm.D. is a Distinguished Professor and Chair at the UConn School of Pharmacy. His research interests are in drug, dietary supplement, and substances of abuse safety and effectiveness. His over 400 publications in biomedical journals have been cited over 14,000 times and covered by major media television, radio, newspaper, and internet sites. He has received national awards from the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, and the American College of Clinical Pharmacy.
MDMA Assisted Psychotherapy for PTSD Patients https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/01-26-22-Connecticut-MDMA-Assisted-Psychotherapy-For-PTSD-Patients.mp3
MDMA is an active ingredient in the street drugs Ecstasy or Molly. People in dance clubs or raves like the surreal feeling they get from MDMAs psychedelic effects, the improved mood from serotonin release, and the feeling of bonding to strangers from oxytocin release. Investigators hypothesized that these same effects would benefit people with post-traumatic stress disorder who struggle to share their traumatic events or work through them with psychotherapists. We recently published a meta-analysis statistically pooling all the trials assessing MDMA-assisted psychotherapy with psychotherapy alone.
Patients receiving MDMA-assisted psychotherapy reduced the severity of their PTSD symptoms by 22 points and were twice as likely to no longer meet the definition of PTSD by the end of the study than those with unenhanced psychotherapy. Furthermore, one year after having their last MDMA-assisted psychotherapy session, 86% of participants said they received substantial benefits from the combined MDMA-assisted psychotherapy, 71% had fewer nightmares, 69% had less anxiety, and 66% had improved sleep.
However, people cannot replicate these benefits by trying illicit MDMA on their own. First off, most Ecstasy or Molly tablets have other drugs of abuse in them like LSD or methamphetamine which enhances the risks. Second, it isn’t MDMA alone that works, it is MDMA allowing people to feel comfortable enough with the psychotherapists to reveal and work through their traumatic events with less panic or anxiety. Third, patients require careful monitoring and management from psychotherapists during the MDMA sessions to keep them safe. So, for the half of patients with PTSD not fully benefiting from psychotherapy alone, adding 2 or 3 MDMA-assisted psychotherapy sessions to the mix can make a big difference.
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With America once again polarized, secession is back in the headlines.
Timothy Waters, professor of law at Indiana University Bloomington, examines secession and whether it could be a good thing.
Timothy Waters is a professor at Indiana University, where he writes on secession and war crimes. He is the author of Boxing Pandora: Rethinking Borders, States, and Secession in a Democratic World (Yale 2020) and editor of The Milosevic Trial: An Autopsy (Oxford 2013). He has been a Humboldt Fellow at the Max Planck Institute in Heidelberg and an American Council of Learned Societies Fellow. He was a Peace Corps volunteer in Hungary, and worked at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. JD, Harvard; MIA, Columbia; BA, UCLA.
Rethinking Secession https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/01-25-22-Indiana-Rethinking-Secession.mp3
Scotland, Catalonia, Bosnia, Bougainville, Cameroon: Independence movements are often in the news. Even the U.S. – Texit, Calexit, Red states seceding or Blue states, depending.
Most Americans are leery of secession: That’s why we fought the Civil War! Of course, that was our second secession – the first was the Revolution. Whether a secession is just or sensible depends.
There are good reasons not to support secession for what America’s founders called “light or transient causes.” But opposition often rests on unexamined assumptions. Secessionists aren’t necessarily more nationalist, for example – often they’re escaping someone else’s nationalism. Secession can be violent, but it’s the state’s resistance that causes violence.
Secession challenges the will of the majority. But majorities only exist because states have the borders they do, which also create permanent minorities.
Sometimes secession is the best – or only – way to escape persecution, or resolve a difference in values. As the Declaration of Independence says, sometimes a people feel it necessary “to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another.”
The assumption we most need to reexamine is the idea that secession is failure. It isn’t – it’s change. Not changing when change is needed – that’s failure. Instead of worrying that ‘country X might break up,’ ask why country X should stay together. If a state needs violence to rule people who wish to rule themselves, then secession isn’t failure; it’s an answer.
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Many stand to lose their homes and towns in the face of impending climate change.
Peter F. Cannavo, professor and chair of government at Hamilton College, determines best practices going forward.
Peter F. Cannavò works and teaches in the areas of political theory; environmental theory and politics; climate politics; and geography and the politics of place. Cannavò is the author of The Working Landscape: Founding, Preservation, and the Politics of Place (2007). He contributed to the volumes Liberty and the Ecological Crisis, The Bloomsbury Companion to Hannah Arendt, The Handbook on U.S. Environmental Policy, The Oxford Handbook of Environmental Political Theory, The Encyclopedia of Political Theory, The Environmental Politics of Sacrifice, and Political Theory and Global Climate Change. He is co-editor (with Joseph H. Lane, Jr.) of Engaging Nature: Environmentalism, Concepts of Nature, and the Study of the Political Theory Canon (2014). He is currently writing To the Thousandth Generation: The Green Civic Republican Tradition in America, under contract with The MIT Press. Cannavò has published in various peer-reviewed journals, including Environmental Politics, Environmental Values, and Political Theory, and has also contributed opinion pieces to several media outlets, including The Hill, The Huffington Post and USA Today.
Climate Migration: Facing the Inevitable https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/01-24-22-Hamilton-Climate-Migration-–-Facing-the-Inevitable.mp3
As climate change makes more places uninhabitable, relocation, or climigration, becomes unavoidable. By 2100, some 13 million Americans may be displaced by sea level rise alone.
The U.S. is largely unprepared. There’s no coordinated government framework to manage migration. Government policy favors rebuilding in place after disasters, and buyouts focus on moving individuals rather moving whole communities and keeping them together. We see relocation as surrender or failure.
The new federal infrastructure package provides some resources for relocation, including funding to move highways and drinking water infrastructure threatened by climate change and to assist relocation of Indigenous communities. But this is just a start. The U.S. needs a massive, comprehensive climigration effort, structured along several key guidelines.
First, relocation should be planned ahead, over a number of years, rather than be an emergency reaction .
Second, the impacted community must take a lead role in collectively and democratically planning relocation and choosing a new home. A migrating community should try to stay intact.
Third, climate migrants must have safe, affordable relocation sites and not be crowded out by climate gentrification.
Finally, climigration requires coordinated resources and institutional support at the federal, state, and local levels.
Once unthinkable, climigration is now unavoidable. We must ensure that it proceeds as effectively, equitably, democratically, and humanely as possible.
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This Week on The Academic Minute 2022.01.24
Monday, January 24th Peter F. Cannavo, professor and chair of government at Hamilton College, discusses migration in the face of climate change.
Tuesday, January 25th Timothy Waters, professor of law at Indiana University Bloomington, examines secession with America currently polarized and whether it could be a good thing.
Wednesday, January 26th C. Michael White, distinguished professor and chair of pharmacy practice at the University of Connecticut, discusses a form of treatment for PTSD that is gaining steam with positive results.
Thursday, January 27th Cynthia Maupin, assistant professor of organizational behavior and leadership at Binghamton University, explains which traits are most sought after when forming new teams in the workplace.
Friday, January 28th Carrie Baker, professor in the program for the study of women and gender at Smith College, outlines the hurdles public university students face when attempting to obtain abortion access in Massachusetts.
The post This Week on The Academic Minute (2022.01.24) appeared first on The Academic Minute.
The Academic Minute from 01.17 – 01.21 Monday, January 17thKevin Ketels – Wayne State UniversityFour Reasons Americans Are Still Seeing Empty Shelves
Kevin Ketels is Assistant Professor of Teaching, Global Supply Chain Management at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. He is faculty lead for the program in Healthcare Supply Chain Management and study abroad in the Netherlands, Germany and Poland.
Tuesday, January 18thKarla Loya – University of HartfordPandemic Teaching and Learning Should Be Inclusive and Supportive
Karla I. Loya, Ph.D. (she/her/ella) is an Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership in Higher Education at the University of Hartford. She has a Ph.D. in higher education with a minor in women’s studies from Pennsylvania State University, and a M.S. in higher education administration from the University of Kansas. Her research investigates the processes, experiences, and decisions that lead to more inclusive higher education settings, interweaving three areas: (1) faculty and student experiences and how identity, social justice, and equity issues play a role in their success; (2) inclusive college teaching and learning; and (3) socially-just research methods and assessment. Loya supervises doctoral dissertations and teaches instructional development, professoriate, research methods, and dissertation preparation courses.
Wednesday, January 19th
Anna Amirkhanyan – American UniversityAre We Biased Against Government?
Anna Amirkhanyan is a professor of public administration and policy at American University. Her research focuses on public and nonprofit management, organizational performance, public-private differences, and citizen participation. Her book, Citizen Participation in the Age of Contracting: When Service Delivery Trumps Democracy (Routledge, 2018) offers an account of how contracting of public services has come at the cost of transparency and participation. Her articles have appeared in peer-reviewed outlets that include the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory (J-PART), Public Administration Review, the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, the Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, and others.
Thursday, January 20thKenneth Luck – SUNY SullivanConspiracy Theories
Kenneth Luck, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Media Arts at SUNY Sullivan. He holds degrees in Political Science, Education, and Human Development. In 2017, he produced and directed “Opioid Nation: The Making of an Epidemic,” which went viral online and was broadcast on WVIA-TV, a PBS affiliate station in Scranton, PA. He has worked in media for more than a decade as a photojournalist, public relations professional, and photographer. His research interests include media and science literacy, education, and qualitative and quantitative research methodologies. His current article, “When 5G Technology and Misinformation Collide,” is currently featured in the current issue of “2600” – a nationally distributed magazine that focuses on technology. He lives in Honesdale, PA.
Friday, January 21stFalk Huettmann – University of Alaska FairbanksClimate Change in the Hindu Kush-Himalaya
Falk Huettmann is a Professor for Wildlife Ecology working on all continents of the world with over 250 publications, including 7 books. He joined the faculty of University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) in 2003 as an Outstanding Young Scientists, and teaches Wildlife and Landscape Ecology, Ornithology, Data Management and Predictive Modeling. He was awarded a Killam Scholarship as a PostDoc with the Geography Department, University of Calgary, Canada for his work on Grizzly Bear habitat future scenarios in the Rocky Mountains. He also was employed as a research coordinator for old-growth forests and endangered Marbled Murrelets with the Center for Wildlife Ecology at the Simon Fraser University (SFU) in Vancouver, Canada. In 2014 Falk taught Geographic Information Systems (GIS) with the Semester at Sea (SAS) on the Atlantic fall research cruise, and later worked for three seasons in Antarctica. He got research contracts for places like Russia, Mongolia, Central America and Papua New Guinea. He was a Research Ambassador to the U.S. for the German Federal Student Exchange Service (DAAD), and spent a sabbatical with the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) in Hobbart, Tasmania, as well as with the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) in Kathmandu, Nepal.
Falk is a bee keeper and enjoys sled dogs living off-the-grid with his family.
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Climate change’s effects will be felt across the planet, but what we can we learn from different regions?
Falk Huettmann, professor of wildlife ecology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, explores one area to see.
Falk Huettmann is a Professor for Wildlife Ecology working on all continents of the world with over 250 publications, including 7 books. He joined the faculty of University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) in 2003 as an Outstanding Young Scientists, and teaches Wildlife and Landscape Ecology, Ornithology, Data Management and Predictive Modeling. He was awarded a Killam Scholarship as a PostDoc with the Geography Department, University of Calgary, Canada for his work on Grizzly Bear habitat future scenarios in the Rocky Mountains. He also was employed as a research coordinator for old-growth forests and endangered Marbled Murrelets with the Center for Wildlife Ecology at the Simon Fraser University (SFU) in Vancouver, Canada. In 2014 Falk taught Geographic Information Systems (GIS) with the Semester at Sea (SAS) on the Atlantic fall research cruise, and later worked for three seasons in Antarctica. He got research contracts for places like Russia, Mongolia, Central America and Papua New Guinea. He was a Research Ambassador to the U.S. for the German Federal Student Exchange Service (DAAD), and spent a sabbatical with the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) in Hobbart, Tasmania, as well as with the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) in Kathmandu, Nepal.
Falk is a bee keeper and enjoys sled dogs living off-the-grid with his family.
Climate Change in the Hindu Kush-Himalaya https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/01-21-22-Alaska-Fairbanks-Climate-Change-in-the-Hindu-Kush-Himalaya.mp3
The Hindu Kush-Himalayas (HKH) are a globally recognized landscape; it includes ten peaks above 8,000m, including Mt. Everest as the world’s highest mountain also affecting the global weather including the monsoon and jetstreams. The now-melting glaciers, snow and ice of this region run their waters downhill and create major wetlands, estuaries and ocean plumes. It feeds over 2 billion people – app. 1/3 of the planet’s humans – through farming and fisheries. The mountains of HKH are the world’s ‘water towers’.
More than 18 nations rely directly on the HKH for their well-being, and thus this region has global and vast strategic impacts – economically, socially and ecologically. HKH is an inherent part of the world’s polar region and the heat budget as the ‘Third Pole’, besides the Arctic and Antarctic.
Research done by the authors is in support of the complexity and deep subjects found in the HKH region and how those are tele-coupled affecting sustainability. In contrast stand mis-placed hydro dams, mining, new roads and railroads, as well as many other one-sided economic developments in places like Tibet and the Mongolian steppe affecting the ancient wilderness and its mountain biodiversity and endemism, diseases and old-growth forests. We also found that buddhism and shamanism are traditionally used for a better universe; spirituality and ancient taboos have a great conservation value indeed.
From the HKH one can easily learn to be humble, to respect and treat Mother Earth well. One easily will experience the holistic connections that the human culture has with the surrounding universe. Already recognizing these details will help for betterment, healing, and eventually global sustainability for future generations in the Anthropocene.
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Conspiracy theories are no longer just on the fringe of society.
Kenneth Luck, assistant professor of media arts at SUNY Sullivan, explains why.
Kenneth Luck, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Media Arts at SUNY Sullivan. He holds degrees in Political Science, Education, and Human Development. In 2017, he produced and directed “Opioid Nation: The Making of an Epidemic,” which went viral online and was broadcast on WVIA-TV, a PBS affiliate station in Scranton, PA. He has worked in media for more than a decade as a photojournalist, public relations professional, and photographer. His research interests include media and science literacy, education, and qualitative and quantitative research methodologies. His current article, “When 5G Technology and Misinformation Collide,” is currently featured in the current issue of “2600” – a nationally distributed magazine that focuses on technology. He lives in Honesdale, PA.
Conspiracy Theories https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/01-20-22-SUNY-Sullivan-Conspiracy-Theories.mp3
It may be fair to say that conspiracy theories and conspiratorial thinking have become part of the political, social, and even health science dialogue within the United States in recent years. Additionally, although it remains impossible to know exactly when conspiracy theories first entered public discourse, the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries appear to be a time when conspiracies theories have gained solid footing in the minds of many groups and individuals.
My research focuses in on attempting to quantify and identify when specific conspiracy theories have entered public dialogue, particularly in the area of print media. The findings of my research suggests that the emergence of conspiracy theories occur across the left-right political ideological spectrum within the United States and flourish in response to historic events, political trends, scientific knowledge, and – of course – popular culture.
Medical mistrust and skepticism toward government health agencies, for instance, which conspiracy theories tend to fuel, remains a challenge to global health and safety. Additionally, conspiracy theorists tend to endorse the idea of a “powerful other,” and medical interventions are often a top-down, group-level activity. Moreover, conspiracy theories may also present challenges for creating public buy-in for implementing current and future health interventions, such as in the case of vaccinations.
What some researchers have long assumed was a fringe topic of investigation has now blossomed into a fertile ground for study.
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Trust in government is said to be at an all-time low.
Anna Amirkhanyan, professor of public administration and policy at American University, digs down to find out if national trends are just spin.
Anna Amirkhanyan is a professor of public administration and policy at American University. Her research focuses on public and nonprofit management, organizational performance, public-private differences, and citizen participation. Her book, Citizen Participation in the Age of Contracting: When Service Delivery Trumps Democracy (Routledge, 2018) offers an account of how contracting of public services has come at the cost of transparency and participation. Her articles have appeared in peer-reviewed outlets that include the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory (J-PART), Public Administration Review, the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, the Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, and others.
Are We Biased Against Government? https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/01-19-22-American-Are-We-Biased-Against-Government.mp3
The right to be critical of one’s government is inherent in a democracy. But when not based on evidence, negative views of government institutions can be harmful for the government, the people, and the society. They can discourage individuals from paying taxes, complying with life-saving regulations, and seeking careers in public schools, hospitals, and law enforcement agencies.
To test how strong Americans’ bias against government is today, my colleagues Ken Meier, Miyeon Song, Jourdan Davis, and I compared how citizens evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of government agencies compared to nonprofit and for-profit organizations, when they are presented with simple and unambiguous facts about these entities. We also explored if government is seen as less credible as a source of information, compared to nonprofit and for-profit sources.
Our randomized survey experiment asked approximately 1,600 participants to read and comment on a story about one of the most essential of all public services: nursing home care. The findings took us by surprise. Not only were government-run nursing services perceived just as favorably by our respondents as services in the private sector, but the information that our subjects received from government and nonprofit sources was perceived as more credible than from the private sources.
These findings are particularly vital during the COVID-19 pandemic when trust in government messaging has been subject to political spin often with life-and-death repercussions.
Our study shows that clear and credible information from government and nonprofit sources can break through the blizzard of disinformation and help citizens to make informed choices.
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Fostering an inclusive environment is key during a time of crisis.
Karla Loya, assistant professor of educational leadership in higher education at the University of Hartford, explores how to make sure no one gets left behind.
Karla I. Loya, Ph.D. (she/her/ella) is an Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership in Higher Education at the University of Hartford. She has a Ph.D. in higher education with a minor in women’s studies from Pennsylvania State University, and a M.S. in higher education administration from the University of Kansas. Her research investigates the processes, experiences, and decisions that lead to more inclusive higher education settings, interweaving three areas: (1) faculty and student experiences and how identity, social justice, and equity issues play a role in their success; (2) inclusive college teaching and learning; and (3) socially-just research methods and assessment. Loya supervises doctoral dissertations and teaches instructional development, professoriate, research methods, and dissertation preparation courses.
Pandemic Teaching and Learning Should Be Inclusive and Supportive https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/01-18-22-Hartford-Pandemic-Teaching-and-Learning-Should-Be-Inclusive-and-Supportive.mp3
Best practices in college teaching delineate the importance of communicating clear expectations, selecting relevant content, engaging students in active learning, creating multiple assessments, and fostering a respectful learning environment.
After the teaching and learning process was disrupted by the Coronavirus pandemic, many instructors had to pivot and learn new modalities of instruction. For many, most efforts were dedicated to learning new technologies and catching up with time delays. This meant that some best practices were left out of the new teaching and learning environments. More problematic, the pandemic created new needs and situations that demanded a different way of teaching. For instance, since the pandemic started, many students and instructors have reported academic, social, and personal struggles.
My research highlights the importance of fostering inclusive college classrooms to ensure that all students are participants in the shared teaching and learning, in any modality. How do we then create and maintain inclusive, participatory classrooms when issues of equity, mental health, and uncertainty about the present and the future weigh heavily on students’ and instructors’ minds?
To teaching in more flexible and supportive ways than ever before, we can foster a sense of belonging and community by creating spaces in our virtual or physical classrooms for students to engage with one another and with us. We also need to creatively think of ways to bring flexibility to assignments and assessment types, formats, and deadlines.
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Why are consumers still finding empty shelves?
Kevin Ketels, assistant professor of teaching in global supply chain management at Wayne State University, delves into the reasons behind the shortages.
Kevin Ketels is Assistant Professor of Teaching, Global Supply Chain Management at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. He is faculty lead for the program in Healthcare Supply Chain Management and study abroad in the Netherlands, Germany and Poland.
Four Reasons Americans Are Still Seeing Empty Shelves https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/01-17-22-Wayne-State-Four-Reasons-Americans-Are-Still-Seeing-Empty-Shelves.mp3
Walk into any store these days and you’re likely to see empty shelves, or less variety. Everything from sneakers to pickup trucks, books, boats and bicycles.
I believe there are four reasons for the continuing crunch.
First, consumer demand is up
When the pandemic first hit in March 2020, companies prepared for a recession. Retailers and automakers canceled orders from suppliers.
The unemployment rate reached 14.8% and consumer spending plunged.
But something strange happened. Consumer spending rebounded, thanks to trillions of dollars in aid from Congress.
2nd, we have fewer workers
Low levels of vaccinated workers in important manufacturing hubs such as Vietnam, Malaysia, and Mexico have caused production delays or reduced capacity.
Third, there is a shortage of shipping containers
Large steel shipping containers are pivotal to global supply chains. But they have been piling up in the U.S. and don’t have a way to get back to Asia. The reasons involve a lack of workers and complicated customs procedures. And, the price of containers is up fourfold over the past year.
4th, ports in the US and around the world are clogged
Right now, more than 60 container ships are anchored off the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, unable to unload their stuff. Ports are also clogged in New York, New Jersey and other locations globally. Normally, there is no wait.
The short-term outlook doesn’t look great
Before COVID-19, global supply chains worked pretty efficiently to move products around the world.
There are a couple ways we’ll see relief – a shift of consumer spending from goods to services and increased global vaccination rates. I don’t expect either to happen until well into 2022.
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This Week on The Academic Minute 2022.01.17
Monday, January 17th Kevin Ketels, assistant professor of teaching in global supply chain management at Wayne State University, delves into the reasons behind the empty shelves we’re all seeing in stores.
Tuesday, January 18th Karla Loya, assistant professor of educational leadership in higher education at the University of Hartford, explores how to make sure student gets left behind during the pandemic.
Wednesday, January 19th Anna Amirkhanyan, professor of public administration and policy at American University, digs down to find out if we are biased against our government.
Thursday, January 20th Kenneth Luck, assistant professor of media arts at SUNY Sullivan, explains why conspiracy theories are not just on the fringes of society anymore.
Friday, January 21st Falk Huettmann, professor of wildlife ecology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, explores one area of the world to see what we can learn about climate change.
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The Academic Minute from 01.10 – 01.14 Monday, January 10thSal Agnihothri – Binghamton UniversityHarnessing the Power of Healthcare Apps Through Provider Integration
Sal Agnihothri is a professor of Supply Chain and Business Analytics in the School of Management, Binghamton University. He holds B.Sc. in Mathematics and M.Sc. in Statistics from Karnatak University, Dharwad, India, and M.S. in Operations Research and Ph.D. in Operations Management from the University of Rochester. His current research focuses on improving the efficiency and effectiveness of chronic healthcare delivery. He uses mathematical modeling and data science to understand the important features of chronic care delivery. Key research questions he addressed are how mobile health technology could be used to reduce costs and improve patient health and what policy changes are needed to accelerate the use of mobile health technology. His other research interests include managing field service operations, and process flexibility and cross-training decisions in services. He has published in leading Operations Management journals including Operations Research, Production and Operations management, and Health Care Management Science.
Tuesday, January 11thFrederick Engram – University of Texas at ArlingtonTeaching the Truth Should Not Be Controversial
Dr. Frederick V. Engram Jr, is an Assistant Professor of Instruction with a joint appointment in the Department of Criminology/Criminal Justice and the Center for African American Studies at the University of Texas Arlington. Dr. Engram also holds an affiliate faculty role in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies within the College of Education. Dr. Engram uses critical race theory to help make sense of the African American experience with racism within both the higher education and criminal justice systems. Dr. Engram has published his work within media outlets such as Blavity, Diverse Issues in Higher Education, and Forbes. He is also a TEDx and nationally requested keynote speaker.
Wednesday, January 12th
Diya Abdo – Guilford CollegeResettlement Campuses are the Future of Higher Education
Diya Abdo is a Professor of English at Guilford College. A second-generation Palestinian refugee born and raised in Jordan, Dr. Abdo’s teaching, research, and scholarship focus on Arab women writers and Arab and Islamic feminisms. She has also published poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. Her book AMERICAN REFUGE: True Stories of the Refugee Experience is forthcoming from Steerforth Press in 2022. In 2015, Dr. Abdo founded the Every Campus A Refuge (ECAR) initiative which advocates for housing refugee families on college and university campus grounds and supporting them in their resettlement. The flagship chapter at Guilford College, now one of several ECAR campuses, has hosted 66 refugees so far. The College will begin hosting 20 Afghan evacuees in January, 2022. Dr. Abdo is the recipient of the J.M. Kaplan Fund’s Innovation Prize (2021), Campus Compact’s Thomas Ehrlich Civically Engaged Faculty Award (2019), Gulf South Summit’s Outstanding Service-Learning Collaboration in Higher Education Award (2017), and The Washington Center’s Civic Engagement in Higher Education Award (2017). In 2018, she was named a finalist in the Arab Hope Makers Award. She has been making presentations about ECAR far and wide, including at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. She lives in Greensboro, NC with her partner and two daughters. To learn more, visit www.everycampusarefuge.net or see Dr. Abdo’s TEDtalk here.
Thursday, January 13thOlivier Civelli – University of California, IrvinePreventing Morphine Addiction and Potentially Curbing the Opioid Epidemic
Olivier Civelli is a molecular biologist, a researcher in the field of neuropharmacology and an educator. He is the Eric L. and Lila D. Nelson Professor of Neuropharmacology at University of California, Irvine. He is also a Professor in the Department of Developmental and Cell Biology at University of California, Irvine. He is most known for his work in advancing understanding of neurotransmission and his impact on drug discovery. Civelli’s research is focused on understanding brain function and the identification and study of novel molecules involved in brain activity. He was the first to decipher the structure of a dopamine receptor, the D2 receptor, central to neurobiology. Civelli then invented the strategy that uses orphan receptors to discover new neurotransmitters referred to as reverse pharmacology. Utilizing this strategy, he was the first to identify a novel neuropeptide, orphanin FQ (Nociceptin) in 1995, which he showed to regulate anxiety. He has written over 450 papers and holds 30 patents.
Friday, January 14thJoanne Dickson – Edith Cowan UniversityGoal-Setting Resolutions
Joanne M. Dickson is an Associate Professor in the Division of Psychology, School of Arts & Humanities, at Edith Cowan University (ECU), Australia. Her main research focuses on mental health and wellbeing, particularly from a goal-motivational, prospective cognition and affect perspective.
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Having vague goals makes them even harder to reach.
Joanne Dickson, associate professor of psychology at Edith Cowan University, determines how to stay on track.
Joanne M. Dickson is an Associate Professor in the Division of Psychology, School of Arts & Humanities, at Edith Cowan University (ECU), Australia. Her main research focuses on mental health and wellbeing, particularly from a goal-motivational, prospective cognition and affect perspective.
Goal-Setting and Resolutions https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/01-14-21-Edith-Cowan-Goal-Setting-and-Resolutions.mp3
Have you stuck to your New Year resolution this year? If not, join the club. Despite our best intentions most of us have given up by now. Recent research conducted with colleagues investigated whether personal goal processes promote mental wellbeing and sticking to one’s most important New Year resolution.
182 adults took part in an online survey.
We found:
- Two thirds of participants abandoned their New Year resolution within the first month.
- Just over half pursued the same (or similar) resolution as in the previous year.
- More than half the resolutions focused on either diet or exercise.
- Most of the listed resolutions were described in vague terms such as, ‘to get fit’.
- And, personal goal flexibility predicted increased wellbeing over time (but not stickability).
We may give up our resolutions because we are too vague when we set them. Setting specific resolutions including features such as time and place, provide mental cues to assist resolution pursuit. For example, “to go for a 30-minute beach walk with my friend every Monday and Wednesday morning” vs “to get fit.” Also, linking one’s new year resolution to more meaningful values, is likely to assist.
For example, the resolution to lose five kilos will more likely endure in the face of setbacks, if it’s linked to higher personal values, such as beliefs about one’s health or appearance. Importantly, we found the ability to flexibly adapt one’s resolutions in response to changing situations is associated with promoting one’s wellbeing.
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The opioid epidemic has been overshadowed by the pandemic, but is still ongoing.
Oliver Civelli, professor of neuropharmacology at the University of California, Irvine, determines a possible solution to helping curb it.
Olivier Civelli is a molecular biologist, a researcher in the field of neuropharmacology and an educator. He is the Eric L. and Lila D. Nelson Professor of Neuropharmacology at University of California, Irvine. He is also a Professor in the Department of Developmental and Cell Biology at University of California, Irvine. He is most known for his work in advancing understanding of neurotransmission and his impact on drug discovery. Civelli’s research is focused on understanding brain function and the identification and study of novel molecules involved in brain activity. He was the first to decipher the structure of a dopamine receptor, the D2 receptor, central to neurobiology. Civelli then invented the strategy that uses orphan receptors to discover new neurotransmitters referred to as reverse pharmacology. Utilizing this strategy, he was the first to identify a novel neuropeptide, orphanin FQ (Nociceptin) in 1995, which he showed to regulate anxiety. He has written over 450 papers and holds 30 patents.
Preventing Morphine Addiction and Potentially Curbing the Opioid Epidemic https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/01-13-22-UCI-Preventing-Morphine-Addiction-And-Potentially-Curbing-The-Opioid-Epidemic.mp3
Over the past two decades, dramatic increases in opioid overdose mortality have occurred in the United States. This public health crisis is commonly referred to as the opioid epidemic
The opioid epidemic was triggered by an over prescription of opioid painkillers for the treatment of chronic pain which requires repeated opioid prescriptions which in turn can lead to tolerance, physical dependence, and addiction.
In our recent study, we learned that extract of the plant Corydalis yanhusuo prevents morphine tolerance and dependence while also reversing opiate addiction. Corydalis has been used as a painkiller in traditional Chinese medicine for centuries. It is considered safe
We propose a way to curb the opioid epidemic. We found that when Corydalis is co-administered with morphine, it inhibits morphine tolerance, dependence and addiction.
If Corydalis is used with morphine at the start or during pain management, there will be less need of morphine and thus less risk of addiction.
This is important for both us researchers and society. Our study is done in animals and need to be replicated in humans
If Corydalis does prevent morphine tolerance, it can help curb the opioid epidemic immediately. Since it is readily available for purchase, either online or in certain health stores.
We will continue our research in hopes of finding results to help prevent opioid addiction-related deaths.
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What can be done to help refugees in this country?
Diya Abdo, professor of English at Guilford College, delves into this question.
Diya Abdo is a Professor of English at Guilford College. A second-generation Palestinian refugee born and raised in Jordan, Dr. Abdo’s teaching, research, and scholarship focus on Arab women writers and Arab and Islamic feminisms. She has also published poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. Her book AMERICAN REFUGE: True Stories of the Refugee Experience is forthcoming from Steerforth Press in 2022. In 2015, Dr. Abdo founded the Every Campus A Refuge (ECAR) initiative which advocates for housing refugee families on college and university campus grounds and supporting them in their resettlement. The flagship chapter at Guilford College, now one of several ECAR campuses, has hosted 66 refugees so far. The College will begin hosting 20 Afghan evacuees in January, 2022. Dr. Abdo is the recipient of the J.M. Kaplan Fund’s Innovation Prize (2021), Campus Compact’s Thomas Ehrlich Civically Engaged Faculty Award (2019), Gulf South Summit’s Outstanding Service-Learning Collaboration in Higher Education Award (2017), and The Washington Center’s Civic Engagement in Higher Education Award (2017). In 2018, she was named a finalist in the Arab Hope Makers Award. She has been making presentations about ECAR far and wide, including at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. She lives in Greensboro, NC with her partner and two daughters. To learn more, visit www.everycampusarefuge.net or see Dr. Abdo’s TEDtalk here.
Forthcoming Book — American Refuge: True Stories of the Refugee Experience
Resettlement Campuses are the Future of Higher Education https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/01-12-22-Guilford-Resettlement-Campuses-are-the-Future-of-Higher-Education.mp3
Higher education is transforming the landscape of refugee resettlement in this country. Recent years have seen America’s refugee resettlement capacity decimated: dozens of agency offices have closed or laid off staff, and lower refugee admissions have damaged community-based infrastructures. America needs to rebuild quickly to support increased refugee admissions and the thousands of Afghan evacuees already here. Refugees also face many barriers as they navigate complex health and social services without adequate finances or social support, and all while coping with trauma. They lack the credit background, social security numbers, and financial means necessary to secure safe and affordable housing upon arrival. Founded in 2015, Every Campus A Refuge revolutionizes refugee resettlement and enhances the educational, research, and service missions of colleges and universities. This higher education initiative partners colleges and universities with local resettlement agencies to provide newcomers with free temporary housing on campus as well as community support. Campuses are small cities with everything needed — housing, cafeterias, clinics, career services, and plenty of human resources — to facilitate refugee access to services beyond the usual resettlement process. Students, faculty, staff, and community members are vetted and trained as culturally-responsive volunteers to provide case management support. The result is a softer landing and more dignified beginning for newcomers. The flagship campus has hosted 66 refugees thus far; other campuses have joined the effort. Research conducted shows a powerful impact: refugees reported a greater sense of financial stability and belonging while student volunteers reported increased knowledge and understanding of refugee and immigrant issues. Guided by best practices and community-identified priorities, campus-based refugee support could significantly increase America’s resettlement capacity and engage its students in meaningful credit-bearing opportunities. If only 10% of America’s universities participated, thousands of refugees would receive integration support grounded in dignity and agency. Will your campus be the next refuge?
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Teachers aren’t always allowed to teach what they believe.
Frederick Engram, assistant professor of instruction at the University of Texas at Arlington, explains why.
Dr. Frederick V. Engram Jr, is an Assistant Professor of Instruction with a joint appointment in the Department of Criminology/Criminal Justice and the Center for African American Studies at the University of Texas Arlington. Dr. Engram also holds an affiliate faculty role in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies within the College of Education. Dr. Engram uses critical race theory to help make sense of the African American experience with racism within both the higher education and criminal justice systems. Dr. Engram has published his work within media outlets such as Blavity, Diverse Issues in Higher Education, and Forbes. He is also a TEDx and nationally requested keynote speaker.
Teaching The Truth Should Not Be Controversial https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/01-11-22-UT-Arlington-Teaching-the-Truth-Should-Not-Be-Controversial.mp3
Teaching the truth should not be controversial! As educators we find ourselves at the crossroads of a real racial reckoning. Where we have the moral obligation to decide to tell the truth or to continue to protect the oppressive voice. All across the country laws are being placed on the books aimed at silencing the most horrific parts of American history. Why? Because the truth of our past does not fit the narrative of their today.
62 years ago, then six-year-old Ruby Bridges had to be escorted to and from school by U.S. Deputy Marshals. Six years of age means that young Ruby was merely a first grader. Meanwhile today, all across the country in school board and legislative hearings we hear white parents demanding the elimination of stories like Ruby’s from textbooks. We see the smearing of critical race theory and the lumping in of all things related to American history as a means to eliminate them all. Critical race theory is not taught in schools.The only way for us to move beyond the horror of the past is to recognize its very real existence and how it is still affecting us today. No amount of racial neutral or colorblind rhetoric will ever bring us together.
Pretending that the enslavement of thousands of Africans in this country did not create the racial divide that still breeds tension today is ill conceived. We need the work of Nikole Hannah Jones and the 1619 project just like we need the work of Derrick Bell, and James Baldwin. The truth about Black history is that it is also American history and white and other non-Black students deserve the same opportunity to learn about it even if it is uncomfortable. It is in our discomfort that we are allowed to grow.
Read More:
https://www.ted.com/talks/dr_frederick_engram_jr_black_joy_as_an_act_of_resistance
https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/tvc/vol41/iss1/4/
https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/tvc/vol42/iss1/9/
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1086482220938033
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Should you share the health data your device collects?
Sal Agnihothri, professor of supply chain and business analytics at Binghamton University, considers the risks.
Sal Agnihothri is a professor of Supply Chain and Business Analytics in the School of Management, Binghamton University. He holds B.Sc. in Mathematics and M.Sc. in Statistics from Karnatak University, Dharwad, India, and M.S. in Operations Research and Ph.D. in Operations Management from the University of Rochester. His current research focuses on improving the efficiency and effectiveness of chronic healthcare delivery. He uses mathematical modeling and data science to understand the important features of chronic care delivery. Key research questions he addressed are how mobile health technology could be used to reduce costs and improve patient health and what policy changes are needed to accelerate the use of mobile health technology. His other research interests include managing field service operations, and process flexibility and cross-training decisions in services. He has published in leading Operations Management journals including Operations Research, Production and Operations management, and Health Care Management Science.
Harnessing the Power of Healthcare Apps Through Provider Integration https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/01-10-22-Binghamton-Harnessing-the-Power-of-Healthcare-Apps-Through-Provider-Integration.mp3
Health-tracking devices and apps are becoming part of everyday life. But their full potential has barely been tapped. While they allow a user to collect and record personal health data, they don’t typically share that info with a healthcare provider – and as my colleagues and I found, that can make all the difference.
We teamed with a practicing endocrinologist to develop an app that allowed patients to monitor blood pressure and pulse readings in between office visits. The physician reviewed readings and recommended interventions or new medications if needed. The app also allowed patients and staff to directly talk with one another, enabling regular communication and joint-decision making.
The results? We found that patients using the app reduced their systolic blood pressure more than patients not using the app. While the results are promising, it’s important to note that the app alone doesn’t do anything. What makes it effective is the fact that it opened up continuous communication between patients and doctors, and encouraged patients to take an active role in managing their health.
Our hope is that these apps could free up more time for physicians, as support staff could probably handle most of the monitoring of the app. We also hope that these apps could provide a cheaper, effective alternative for those with chronic conditions who may not be able to easily get to frequent in-person appointments or afford the bills that come with it.
The surface is just being scratched in this subject, which could ultimately have major impacts on the U.S. healthcare system.
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This Week on The Academic Minute 2022.01.10
Monday, January 10th Sal Agnihothri, professor of supply chain and business analytics at Binghamton University, considers how to harness the power of health apps.
Tuesday, January 11th Frederick Engram, assistant professor of instruction at the University of Texas at Arlington, explains why teaching the truth should not be controversial.
Wednesday, January 12th Diya Abdo, professor of English at Guilford College, delves into what higher education can do to help refugees.
Thursday, January 13th Oliver Civelli, professor of neuropharmacology at the University of California, Irvine, determines a possible solution to curbing the opioid epidemic.
Friday, January 14th Joanne Dickson, associate professor of psychology at Edith Cowan University, determines how to stay on track with your goals and resolutions.
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The Academic Minute from 01.03 – 01.07 Monday, January 3rdGuangqing Chi – Penn State UniversityInfrastructure in Rural Alaska
Guangqing Chi is a Professor of Rural Sociology and Demography and Director of the Computational and Spatial Analysis Core at The Pennsylvania State University. His research seeks to understand the interactions between human populations and the built and natural environments and to identify important social, environmental, infrastructural, and institutional assets to help vulnerable populations adapt and become resilient to environmental changes. His research has been supported by more than $50 million grants, including the $3 million multi-institutional transdisciplinary POLARIS project funded by the National Science Foundation, to investigate environmental migration and food security in response to climate change. He has published over 120 publications including more than 70 peer-reviewed journal articles, contributing to foundational advances in environmental demography and population-infrastructure nexus. His work is often collaborative and transdisciplinary, aiming to create significant impacts through the integration of research, education, community engagement and outreach, and sometimes international collaboration.
Tuesday, January 4thMelissa Wells – Empire State CollegeThe Prevalence of UDL Techniques in Virtual Formats
Melissa Wells is an Assistant Professor at SUNY Empire State College in the Educational Studies Department. She is an online professor and Subject Matter Expert in special education coursework at Liberty University. Prior to her work in Higher Education, Melissa was a special educator in the New York City Department of Education. She currently resides in New York City with her husband and three young children.
Wednesday, January 5th
Deborah Bennett – Berklee College of MusicGender-Neutral Language
Deborah J. Bennett is a Professor of Language and Literature at Berklee College of Music. Her poems and translations have appeared in Salamander, Connotations Press Online, La GuaGua and elsewhere. Her prose has appeared on Edify, Only a Game and Cognoscenti among others. With Simone Pilon, she has co-authored and presented research on gender inclusive terminology in Romance languages Ideating Pedagogy in Troubled Times and at the Pacific Asian Modern Language Association Annual Conference.
Thursday, January 6thAlanah Mitchell – Drake UniversityPlanning for the Best of Both Worlds in the Hybrid Workplace
Alanah Mitchell is the Aliber Distinguished Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Information Management and Business Analytics in the College of Business and Public Administration at Drake University. Dr. Mitchell’s research focuses on the design, implementation, and use of information and communications technologies (ICT) for collaboration, specifically in global virtual teams. She has published over 50 peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and conference proceedings. Dr. Mitchell regularly teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses in the areas of information systems and technology. Her research and teaching experience extends to executive education as well as speaking and other consulting projects.
Friday, January 7thArran Caza – University at North Carolina GreensboroThe Best Way To Educate Future Business Leaders
Arran Caza is an Associate Professor of Management in the Bryan School of Business and Economics at UNC Greensboro (UNCG). He also is a faculty affiliate of the UNCG Gerontology Program. His research examines leaders, with an emphasis on leadership development and effects of age on leadership dynamics. He earned his PhD in management and psychology from the University of Michigan, his MA in psychology from the University of Michigan, and his BSc in economics from the University of Ottawa. He has researched and taught on three continents, and had the opportunity to work with a variety of organizations, including Great-West Life Assurance, New Flyer, Manitoba Hydro, CH2M Hill, the RCMP, the Justice Institute of British Columbia, Bank Mandiri, and Support EXP. Before becoming an academic, he worked in program evaluation, health promotion, and law enforcement.
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How do we best educate future business leaders?
Arran Caza, associate professor of management at the University of North Carolina Greensboro, outlines why the answer might be different than you think.
Arran Caza is an Associate Professor of Management in the Bryan School of Business and Economics at UNC Greensboro (UNCG). He also is a faculty affiliate of the UNCG Gerontology Program. His research examines leaders, with an emphasis on leadership development and effects of age on leadership dynamics. He earned his PhD in management and psychology from the University of Michigan, his MA in psychology from the University of Michigan, and his BSc in economics from the University of Ottawa. He has researched and taught on three continents, and had the opportunity to work with a variety of organizations, including Great-West Life Assurance, New Flyer, Manitoba Hydro, CH2M Hill, the RCMP, the Justice Institute of British Columbia, Bank Mandiri, and Support EXP. Before becoming an academic, he worked in program evaluation, health promotion, and law enforcement.
The Best Way to Educate Future Business Leaders https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/01-07-22-UNC-Greensboro-The-Best-Way-to-Educate-Future-Business-Leaders.mp3
Did you know the world’s 1,200 largest corporations generate five trillion dollars in negative ecological costs annually — 50% worse than five years ago? Inequality is growing within and between countries. And in one global survey, only 17% of employees felt engaged in their work. We can do better.
And traditional business education isn’t helping. Management students engage in less critical thinking than other university students, and they tend to become more selfish, more profit-oriented, and less ethical during their studies. As a result, ethics training, alternative management and critical studies courses are mandatory in many schools. Unfortunately, telling a person they should change their beliefs often doesn’t work. In fact, a person told they need to do better is just as likely to resist as they are to try to change.
So, my colleagues and I have been looking for a better option. The most promising involved simultaneously teaching three different management approaches to the same group of students.
- Financial Bottom Line: Businesses should make all decisions to maximize profit
- Triple Bottom Line: Financial, social, and ecological well-being should be equally important
- Social & Ecological Thought: Businesses should make enough money to survive but not maximize profit
My students’ views changed a lot from the start of the semester in which they learned about all three approaches. Some, sadly, became even more profit oriented. But the most common changes were away from maximizing profit and toward business playing a role in improving social and ecological well-being. While the students in other business courses likely became more selfish, the ones exposed to multiple perspectives came to believe that business could play a positive role in the world.**
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Hybrid workplaces could be the way of the future.
Alanah Mitchell, associate professor of information management and business analytics at Drake University, examines how to make them successful.
Alanah Mitchell is the Aliber Distinguished Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Information Management and Business Analytics in the College of Business and Public Administration at Drake University. Dr. Mitchell’s research focuses on the design, implementation, and use of information and communications technologies (ICT) for collaboration, specifically in global virtual teams. She has published over 50 peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and conference proceedings. Dr. Mitchell regularly teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses in the areas of information systems and technology. Her research and teaching experience extends to executive education as well as speaking and other consulting projects.
Planning for the Best of Both Worlds in the Hybrid Workplace https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/01-06-22-Drake-Planning-for-the-Best-of-Both-Worlds-in-the-Hybrid-Workplace.mp3
The COVID-19 pandemic impacted organizations around the world, sending many employees out of the office to work from home. This transition from in-office work and collaboration to work-from-home and remote or virtual collaboration happened swiftly without much time for planning and preparation.
As we look towards the post-pandemic future of the workplace, many employees are looking forward to returning to the office full-time while many others are interested in continuing to take advantage of the benefits of remote work, to some extent, resulting in the organizational adoption of hybrid work policies allowing for a combination of in-office and remote work.
Fortunately, there have been decades of research studies exploring how to make virtual or remote work collaborations successful. Together with my colleague, we have identified several key insights for the planning of a successful hybrid workplace.
First, organizational leaders need to establish and support flexible work processes by providing employees with the resources and support they need to be effective both in and out of the office. Establishing clear communication channels and processes is a critical piece of this plan.
Second, leaders need to intentionally emphasize and monitor team culture and development. Leaders need to pay careful attention that subgroups don’t emerge based on employees in the office versus those out of the office. Leaders also need to ask for regular feedback and recognize and celebrate hybrid successes.
Finally, leaders need to plan for regular synchronous activity. Time spent together allows for the development of trust and confidence that is necessary for asynchronous work. However, synchronous meeting time should be thoughtfully planned so that it is recognized as valuable time spent together.
Overall, while preparation and planning for hybrid work does not guarantee success, intentional efforts can make the transition to a hybrid workplace more seamless.
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How do languages of the past stack up to today’s new social norms?
Deborah Bennett, professor of liberal arts at the Berklee College of Music, explores limits of teaching languages with only male or female pronouns.
Deborah J. Bennett is a Professor of Language and Literature at Berklee College of Music. Her poems and translations have appeared in Salamander, Connotations Press Online, La GuaGua and elsewhere. Her prose has appeared on Edify, Only a Game and Cognoscenti among others. With Simone Pilon, she has co-authored and presented research on gender inclusive terminology in Romance languages Ideating Pedagogy in Troubled Times and at the Pacific Asian Modern Language Association Annual Conference
Gender-Neutral Language https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/02-09-21-Berklee-Gender-Neutral-Language.mp3
As educators in the United States seeking to create a more inclusive environment, Romance language instructors are caught in a bind. Languages like Spanish and French are rooted in a binary vision of the world. People, objects, adjectives, and articles are either male or female. In English, the discussion around gender neutral language focuses on pronouns; in Romance languages it is more complicated.
The evolution of the discussion of gender-neutral language in French and Spanish starts with the efforts of feminists who have sought to create gender inclusive terms to make women more visible in language and not rely on the masculine form as the universal marker for all people.
Efforts to create gender neutral forms have come out of the LGBTQ community and the younger generation. Early adapters of non-binary language in Spanish used symbols such as the @ sign or an x in place of the masculine -o and feminine -a endings, a famous example being Latinx. However, the question of pronunciation in spoken language creates a challenge and recent efforts have focused on the -e ending, which is already gender-neutral.
The academies that regulate Spanish and French have rejected these “unnecessary” changes and insist that the masculine is, oxymoronically, gender neutral.
As researchers and language instructors, we have been forced to make a choice between the standards issued by the Academy and the need to acknowledge the existence of women and gender queer individuals in the classroom. We discovered that these norms are being developed in places such as Québec and Argentina, thus making it clear that change is being driven by stakeholders of the language and culture. This conversation is only just beginning, and as the use of gender-inclusive and gender-neutral language takes root in the Spanish- and French-speaking worlds, we expect to see even more evolution of these living languages.
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We have many ways to present information for students in today’s world.
Melissa Wells, assistant professor in the department of education studies at SUNY Empire State College, discusses why different students may need different learning techniques.
Melissa Wells is an Assistant Professor at SUNY Empire State College in the Educational Studies Department. She is an online professor and Subject Matter Expert in special education coursework at Liberty University. Prior to her work in Higher Education, Melissa was a special educator in the New York City Department of Education. She currently resides in New York City with her husband and three young children.
The Prevalence of UDL Techniques in Virtual Formats https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/01-04-22-Empire-State-Prevalence-of-UDL-Techniques-in-Virtual-Formats.mp3
College students are more diverse in race, ethnicity, and ability than ever before. It is imperative that higher education is aware of the needs of incoming students and has a plan and a guiding framework to ensure that all students are provided the supports they need to achieve the high standards of the learning institution. Universal Design for Learning or UDL, is a scientifically validated framework aimed at increasing the learning experience for individuals, by offering flexibility in the way information is presented, in the way students and educators are engaged, and in the modes in which students and educators can respond or demonstrate learning. Thus, there is an increased urgency for implementation and the scaling up of UDL in higher education. To best support diverse learners, this research asks the questions: what is the student-reported prevalence of UDL techniques in Higher Education in various learning modes (independent study, online course, virtual study group); and which mode of learning demonstrates the highest UDL techniques compliance? Student perceptions of UDL techniques in their various modes of studies were gathered and analyzed for the highest UDL usage and compliance to inform future practices in higher education.
Based on a survey sent to undergraduate students, compliance for UDL techniques is most prevalent in Virtual Study groups, however, this mode is the least frequently utilized mode of study. Online courses lead the pack in providing clear guidelines and/or evaluation rubrics for all major course assignments (how assignments are structured, submitted, and graded. While independent studies are best at providing a course syllabus that identifies all course requirements, course expectations, and due dates. Qualitative data, collected through open-ended questions, suggest that flexibility in scheduling, relationships with the professor, and clear and specific assignment expectations and feedback create the most successful environments for higher education learners.
Read More:
Implementing UDL Changes in Your Classes The post Melissa Wells, Empire State College – The Prevalence of UDL Techniques in Virtual Formats appeared first on The Academic Minute.
Fixing infrastructure in rural areas can be difficult.
Guangping Chi, professor of rural sociology and demography at Penn State University, explores why.
Guangqing Chi is a Professor of Rural Sociology and Demography and Director of the Computational and Spatial Analysis Core at The Pennsylvania State University. His research seeks to understand the interactions between human populations and the built and natural environments and to identify important social, environmental, infrastructural, and institutional assets to help vulnerable populations adapt and become resilient to environmental changes. His research has been supported by more than $50 million grants, including the $3 million multi-institutional transdisciplinary POLARIS project funded by the National Science Foundation, to investigate environmental migration and food security in response to climate change. He has published over 120 publications including more than 70 peer-reviewed journal articles, contributing to foundational advances in environmental demography and population-infrastructure nexus. His work is often collaborative and transdisciplinary, aiming to create significant impacts through the integration of research, education, community engagement and outreach, and sometimes international collaboration.
Infrastructure in Rural Alaska https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/01-03-22-Penn-State-Infrastructure-in-Rural-Alaska.mp3
Bridges have become increasingly critical for remote communities in Alaska where road networks are limited or non-existent. Rural residents frequently need to cross rivers or lakes to hunt and gather traditional foods and access schools, healthcare facilities, and other essential services typically available in nearby regional hubs. Travel by boat is common during warmer months, while frozen water bodies serve as transportation corridors during the winter. Climate change is causing rivers and lakes to freeze later, thaw earlier, and form thinner ice. Unpredictable ice limits when and where people can travel and increases the risk of snowmobile fatalities.
Bridges can provide safer transportation options. But building and maintaining bridges in remote areas of Alaska comes with both social science and engineering challenges. From a social science perspective, significant cooperation and capital are required to secure financial resources for bridge construction. From an engineering perspective, bridges are particularly sensitive to seasonal freezing effects, which can quickly change their mechanical properties and structural integrity.
To enhance community resilience to climate change, new infrastructure is needed in Alaska. But infrastructure construction, especially in rural Alaska, comes with a hefty price tag. The cost of delivering steel and concrete to a remote location, the sourcing of available local materials, and the cost of bringing in outside specialized labor can significantly increase the cost of a bridge in rural Alaska.
The recently passed Infrastructure Act will allocate Alaska $225 million to address 140 structurally deficient bridges. Given the high cost to build and maintain bridges in rural Alaska, this funding is a good start, but is hardly sufficient.
Our team is working to propose solutions to guide successful bridge development for Alaskan remote communities. This work will lay the foundation for a community-driven process and emphasize the need to further support infrastructure suited for changing climates.
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This Week on The Academic Minute 2022.01.03
Monday, January 3rd Guangping Chi, professor of rural sociology and demography at Penn State University, explores why repairing infrastructure in rural areas can be a challenging feat.
Tuesday, January 4th Melissa Wells, assistant professor in the department of education studies at SUNY Empire State College, discusses how we have many ways to present information for students in today’s world.
Wednesday, January 5th Deborah Bennett, professor of liberal arts at the Berklee College of Music, explores limits of teaching languages with only male or female pronouns.
Thursday, January 6th Alanah Mitchell, associate professor of information management and business analytics at Drake University, examines how to make hybrid workplaces successful.
Friday, January 7th Arran Caza, associate professor of management at the University of North Carolina Greensboro, outlines how to best educate future business leaders.
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The Academic Minute from 12.27 – 12.31 Monday, December 27thCarolyn Henne – Florida State UniversityArt and Science Collaboration with Oysters
Carolyn Henne earned her BA in Fine Arts and Economics from the College of William and Mary in 1983. She worked as an Agricultural Economist until she left to study and work at Lacoste School of the Arts in France. Thereafter, she earned her MFA in Sculpture and Extended Media from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1990. She worked as a custom prop fabricator for film and television, taught adjunct for VCU arts in Richmond, Peru and Scotland while showing her work actively. She moved into academic administration in 2003 serving as Administrative Director then as Assistant Dean for VCUarts until 2010.
Tuesday, December 28thShima Baradaran Baughman – University of UtahThe Police Myth
Shima Baradaran Baughman is a national expert on bail, prosecutors, drugs, and race and violent crime. Baughman has worked with economists and political scientists to write articles involving advanced empirical modeling and randomized controlled trials, including the largest global field experiment in the world. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, on National Public Radio, the Economist, the Washington Post, Forbes and other media outlets and she has been invited to present her work at Stanford, Cornell, Michigan, Texas, NYU, UCLA and many other law schools and to groups of federal and state judges and attorneys across the country.
Wednesday, December 29th
Art Markman – University of Texas at AustinCoherence, Belief Change, and Convincing Other People
Art Markman is the Annabel Irion Worsham Centennial Professor of Psychology and Marketing and Vice Provost of Continuing and Professional Education and New Education Ventures at the University of Texas at Austin. He has written over 150 papers on topics including reasoning, decision making, and motivation. He brings insights from cognitive science to a broader audience through his blogs at Psychology Today and Fast Company and his radio show/podcast Two Guys on Your Head. Art is the author of several books including Smart Thinking, Smart Change, Brain Briefs, and Bring Your Brain to Work.
Thursday, December 30thRiana Anderson – University of MichiganStressors and the Black Community
Riana Elyse Anderson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Behavior and Health Education at the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health. She earned her PhD in Clinical and Community Psychology at the University of Virginia and completed a Clinical and Community Psychology Doctoral Internship at Yale University’s School of Medicine. She also completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Applied Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania supported by the Ford and Robert Wood Johnson Foundations.
Friday, December 31stBeth Feingold – University at AlbanyFood Waste
Beth J Feingold, PhD is an interdisciplinary environmental health scientist. Bridging geography, epidemiology and global health, her research addresses the dynamic relationship among the food system, environmental sustainability and population health.
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This is Best of Week on The Academic Minute: For the Most Popular Segment Award: Beth Feingold, associate professor in the school of public health at the University at Albany, explains why how a lot of food waste happens before it gets to the store.
Beth J Feingold, PhD is an interdisciplinary environmental health scientist. Bridging geography, epidemiology and global health, her research addresses the dynamic relationship among the food system, environmental sustainability and population health.
Dr. Feingold earned her PhD in Public Health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, her Master of Environmental Science from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, her Master of Public Health from Yale School of Public Health and her Bachelor of Arts in Geology from Vassar College. She was the Glenadore and Howard L Pim Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Johns Hopkins University and a Postdoctoral Associate at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment and Global Health Institute. She joined the University at Albany as an Assistant Professor in 2014.
Food Waste https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/12-31-21-Albany-Food-Waste.wav
When you think about food waste, you might imagine leftovers rotting in your fridge or apple cores tossed in the trash… But over half of the 62.5 million pounds of food lost and wasted annually in the U.S. occurs before it even gets to your doorstep. And most of that “food waste” is actually “wasted food” – that is, items that were lost or wasted along the way for reasons having little to do with how good it looked or tasted. This wasted food means wasted resources like money and labor, but also water, land, energy and nutrients. It means accelerated climate change, and ultimately comes at a cost to public health.
Around the country, advocates and policy makers are coupling efforts to address hunger, food security, and environmental sustainability by implementing food recovery programs that redistribute good food that might otherwise be wasted to hunger relief organizations like food banks and food pantries. However, little research has sought to quantify the environmental, nutritional and health impacts of these efforts. This is what my team, including key community partners, has set out to answer in New York’s Capital Region. Focusing on fresh fruits and vegetables, which have high nutritional value and account for 40 percent of all wasted food, we’re asking questions like, “Do interventions like donation-based tax incentives effectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions?”…do they increase the nutrition – and nutrition-related health impacts among food pantry clients?” and more recently – “how is the COVID-19 pandemic challenging both food recovery and redistribution efforts and food access?”
While we recognize that systemic changes are needed to address the entrenched issues of waste and hunger, my team and I hope that our efforts to fill this important data gap will ultimately help lead to lasting solutions and contribute to a more equitable, sustainable U.S. food system
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This is Best of Week on The Academic Minute: For the Best Health Segment Choice Award: Riana Anderson, assistant professor in the school of public health at the University of Michigan, explores the stressors faced by black communities during the pandemic.
Riana Elyse Anderson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Behavior and Health Education at the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health. She earned her PhD in Clinical and Community Psychology at the University of Virginia and completed a Clinical and Community Psychology Doctoral Internship at Yale University’s School of Medicine. She also completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Applied Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania supported by the Ford and Robert Wood Johnson Foundations.
She uses mixed methods in clinical interventions to study racial discrimination and socialization in Black families to reduce racial stress and trauma and improve psychological well-being and family functioning. She is particularly interested in how these factors predict familial functioning and subsequent child psychosocial well-being and health-related behaviors when enrolled in family-based interventions. Dr. Anderson is the developer and director of the EMBRace (Engaging, Managing, and Bonding through Race) intervention and loves to translate her work for a variety of audiences, particularly those whom she serves in the community, via blogs, video, and literary articles. Finally, Dr. Anderson was born in, raised for, and returned to Detroit and is becoming increasingly addicted to cake pops.
Stressors and the Black Community https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/12-30-21-Michigan-Stressors-and-the-Black-Community.wav
As Black communities confront the novel coronavirus, they are faced with stressors that impact them on a structural, interpersonal, and individual level. Medical racism—or the dismissal, denial, and degradation of those seeking health care—exacerbates transmission, treatment, and mortality issues, and directly impacts their physical health. This racism continues to chip away at the psychological wellness and wherewithal of Black people, just as other forms of racism do. The cumulative effect of one’s personal health, worries about one’s and others’ health, and greater community loss and grief exacerbates the distress experienced by Black people.
This global pandemic may also bring about heightened challenges with reduced in-person or online contact between Black youth and their extended support network, including teachers, mentors, and family members. Given that the utilization of, access to, and provision of quality mental health care services is lower in Black communities, this extended network is critical for Black children’s emotional wellness. Additionally, the false narratives of Black citizens engaging in risk-laden health behaviors places undue stress and burden on youth seeking to understand facts about the virus.
Families who are already talking to their children about other race-related issues now have to couch the disparate outcomes of this virus into “The Talk”, adding yet more stress to what children already contend with. Finally, limited resources, like internet accessibility, devices, and physical space may preclude Black youth from staying as connected to their routines and loved ones, bringing more strain and distress to an already challenging journey.
We must certainly pay attention to the physical health of the Black community during these dual pandemics, but we must also consider the interconnected mental health issues and how to provide resources to schools, families, faith spaces, and the broader community. Remember, Black Lives Matter, but the quality of Black life matters as well.
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This is Best of Week on The Academic Minute: For the Best Psychology Segment Award: Art Markman, professor of psychology and marketing at the University of Texas at Austin, discusses changing minds.
Art Markman is the Annabel Irion Worsham Centennial Professor of Psychology and Marketing and Vice Provost of Continuing and Professional Education and New Education Ventures at the University of Texas at Austin. He has written over 150 papers on topics including reasoning, decision making, and motivation. He brings insights from cognitive science to a broader audience through his blogs at Psychology Today and Fast Company and his radio show/podcast Two Guys on Your Head. Art is the author of several books including Smart Thinking, Smart Change, Brain Briefs, and Bring Your Brain to Work.
Coherence, Belief Change, and Convincing Other People https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/12-29-21-Texas-Coherence-Belief-Change-and-Convincing-Other-People.wav
The world changes rapidly, and yet people’s beliefs often don’t keep up. You might be puzzled, for example, why people’s attitudes about key world issues like the COVID-19 pandemic stay fixed even as new variants of the virus and other evidence become available.
Many psychological theories suggest people maintain their beliefs based on coherence. The attitudes people express reflect consistency across different experiences and knowledge sources. To this end, people give a lot of weight to information that is consistent with their current beliefs and they discount information that conflicts with those beliefs.
The desire to maintain consistency helps explain why people tend to be skeptical of things that contradict their beliefs, but are less critical of information that comports with their prevailing attitudes. It also explains why people don’t pay much attention to the negatives of options they want to select, even though they may recognize later that they should have considered them more carefully.
Because of this tendency toward coherence, it can feel fruitless to argue with people about their beliefs. Providing them with reasons why they should change their mind is rarely satisfying in the moment. Instead, people appear to dig their heels in.
There is value in having discussions with people you disagree with. Avoid pushing too hard—instead tell a story that weaves together the information that supports your attitudes. The more information you provide supporting an alternative viewpoint, the more weight you give to another coherent view of the world. As the weight of contradictory evidence grows, people may experience a sudden shift in which they now belief as fervently in the position they rejected as they recently believed in the view they now reject. It may not be satisfying for that belief change to happen out of sight, but it can be effective.
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This is Best of Week on The Academic Minute: For the Best Social Justice Segment Award: Shima Baradaran Baughman, professor of law at the SJ Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah, explores the police myth.
Shima Baradaran Baughman is a national expert on bail, prosecutors, drugs, and race and violent crime. Baughman has worked with economists and political scientists to write articles involving advanced empirical modeling and randomized controlled trials, including the largest global field experiment in the world. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, on National Public Radio, the Economist, the Washington Post, Forbes and other media outlets and she has been invited to present her work at Stanford, Cornell, Michigan, Texas, NYU, UCLA and many other law schools and to groups of federal and state judges and attorneys across the country. Her articles have been published in many top journals including University of Pennsylvania Law Review, USC Law Review, Georgetown Law Journal, Texas Law Review, George Washington Law Review, Minnesota Law Review, Notre Dame Law Review, Boston University Law Review and the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies. Her book, The Bail Book: A Comprehensive Look at Bail in America’s Criminal Justice System with Cambridge University Press has contributed greatly to the field of criminal law. Her textbook, Criminal Law: Case Studies and Controversies (5th Ed Aspen), coauthored with Paul Robinson and Michael Cahill uses a unique approach to teaching criminal law. She is coauthor on the most popular criminal law student study aid, Examples & Explanations in Criminal Law (7th edition) (with Richard G. Singer & John Q. LaFond).
The Police Myth https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/12-28-21-Utah-The-Police-Myth.wav
The movement for black lives has forced a societal reckoning about the relationship between police and disaffected communities, and has given traction to removing police funding nationwide. The literature has focused on critiquing the mistrust of police among communities of color due to abuse and marginalization with remedies include police training to encourage treating people with dignity. Policing literature fails to fully address a core cause of police mistrust for people of color and the poor. To address these symptoms of policing failure requires a consideration of the purpose and function of police. Indeed, the core problem is a misunderstanding of policing that I call, “the police myth.”
The police myth is the two-fold belief that a primary function of police is crime control and that police solve crimes with regularity. Reliance on the police myth may provide societal comfort, but has made it difficult to address basic policing failure. Without understanding what police actually do and their relationship with crime, it is impossible to reimagine policing. The police crime myth in large part contributes to the distrust between police and communities of color, creating a cycle where people refuse to report to police and police fail to solve crimes. American policing costs $115 billion per year. It is worth evaluating this number in terms of the public service received, as solving serious crimes only constitutes a tiny fraction of police function. My research demonstrates that police only solve serious felony crimes about 20% of the time. While the police defunding movement is gaining support, critics exclaim that they are highly impractical and that reducing the role of police would increase crime. But if police are neither allocating a large portion of their time to addressing crime, nor solving most major crimes, would defunding police actually increase crime? If this is the moment to consider police reform, a meaningful dismantling of the police myth could be part of the solution.
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This is Best of Week on The Academic Minute: For the Commissioner’s Choice Award: Carolyn Henne, professor in the department of art at Florida State University, discusses one instance of the benefits of mixing art and science.
Carolyn Henne earned her BA in Fine Arts and Economics from the College of William and Mary in 1983. She worked as an Agricultural Economist until she left to study and work at Lacoste School of the Arts in France. Thereafter, she earned her MFA in Sculpture and Extended Media from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1990. She worked as a custom prop fabricator for film and television, taught adjunct for VCU arts in Richmond, Peru and Scotland while showing her work actively. She moved into academic administration in 2003 serving as Administrative Director then as Assistant Dean for VCUarts until 2010.
She currently lives in Tallahassee, Florida and works at FSU where she was Chair and Associate Dean in the College of Fine Arts until 2017. She is now the Graduate Program Director. She is also the co-Director of a collaborative project, Comma. Carolyn has had solo shows on a sandbar in Beaufort (NC) and in galleries in Nashville, Staunton (VA), Richmond (VA), Doha (Qatar) and the Bronx (NY). Her work has been shown at Art Works (FL), the Kuntoffice Gallery (Germany), and NIH’s National Library of Medicine. Her work has been reviewed in Sculpture, Art Papers, and Gulf Times (Doha, Qatar).
Art and Science Collaboration with Oysters https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/12-27-21-Florida-State-Art-and-Science-Collaboration-with-Oysters.wav
Sea Stars, my sculptural installation on a sandbar in Beaufort, NC, is a colorful and biodegradable set of sculptures that will transform into living oyster reefs and be viewable during low tide. The work is driven by the belief in the power of exchange between disciplines and the ability for artists’ works to serve as vehicles for inspiration, change and action.
This new direction in artistic research and production stems from my participation as the FSU representative at Bridging Chasms, a symposium involving eight scholars from across the ACC. Each participant presented on elements and crucial details of their discipline. Dr. Niels Lindquist, a marine ecologist at UNC’s Institute of Marine Sciences (IMS), was also a participant. He and his Commercial Fisherman partner, David Cessna, at the Sandbar Oyster Company have developed a uniquely successful substrate for attracting wild native oyster larvae. It had not occurred to Lindquist before Bridging Chasms that his materials research could be employed to make sculpture.
This fortunate encounter sparked our collaboration and affords me unique ways of making art capable of generating change and helping to heal the planet. I am using the opportunity to pivot to eco-conscious materials and proactively address environmental issues relative to food scarcity, climate change, water quality, and reduction of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere all the while providing habitat to a wide range of marine life and helping to preserve shorelines.
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Best Of Week on The Academic Minute 2021.12.27
Monday, December 27th For the Commissioner’s Choice Award: Carolyn Henne, professor in the department of art at Florida State University, discusses one instance of the benefits of mixing art and science.
Tuesday, December 28th For the Best Social Justice Segment Award: Shima Baradaran Baughman, professor of law at the SJ Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah, explores the police myth.
Wednesday, December 29th For the Best Psychology Segment Award: Art Markman, professor of psychology and marketing at the University of Texas at Austin, discusses changing minds.
Thursday, December 30th For the Best Health Segment Choice Award: Riana Anderson, assistant professor in the school of public health at the University of Michigan, explores the stressors faced by black communities during the pandemic.
Friday, December 31st For the Most Popular Segment Award: Beth Feingold, associate professor in the school of public health at the University at Albany, explains why how a lot of food waste happens before it gets to the store.
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The Academic Minute from 12.20 – 12.24 Monday, December 20thSusan McKelvey – Virginia Commonwealth UniversityGiving Students with Disabilities a Chance to Fulfill their Career Goals
Susan McKelvey is a research assistant professor at Virginia Commonwealth University where she serves as the Director of Research and Evaluation for the Transition Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (RRTC). Her research at the RRTC focuses on: pre-employment training for young students with disabilities; students with disabilities who are making the transition from school to post-secondary education or from school to work; and training for university personnel who work with students with disabilities. She holds a Ph.D. in Education, with a concentration in Research and Evaluation from VCU.
Tuesday, December 21stNeel Shah – Harvard Medical CollegePrenatal Care Visits
Dr. Neel Shah is the chief medical officer of Maven Clinic, the largest virtual clinic for women’s and family health, an OB-GYN at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and an assistant professor of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive biology at Harvard Medical School.
He is a globally recognized expert in designing solutions that improve health care, and is listed among the “40 smartest people in health care” by the Becker’s Hospital Review. Dr. Shah founded Costs of Care, an NGO that curates insights from clinicians and patients to help delivery systems provide better care. In 2017, he co-founded the March for Moms Association, a coalition of more than 20 leading organizations, to increase public and private investment in the wellbeing of mothers. Dr. Shah serves on the advisory board of the National Institutes of Health, Office of Women’s Health Research.
Wednesday, December 22nd
Nolan Fahrenkopf – University at AlbanyThe Security of Arms Transfers During the War on Terror
Nolan Fahrenkopf is a research fellow at the Center for Policy Research (CPR), at the University at Albany. He has extensive policy and research experience with international security, weapons proliferation and military power, and strategic trade controls. Through his work, Dr Fahrenkopf has led seminars and conducted consultations with governments in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Sri Lanka, Serbia, Georgia, Indonesia, and others on topics related to nonproliferation and international security. Dr. Fahrenkopf holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy at the University at Albany.
Thursday, December 23rdMark West – University of North Carolina CharlotteHow Theodore Roosevelt’s Reading Contributed to His Support for Immigrants
Mark I. West is a Professor of English at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where he has taught since 1984.
Friday, December 24thLisa Bitel – University of Southern California DornsifeThe Real St. Nick
Lisa Bitel is a professor of history and religion whose studies focus on the social, cultural and religious histories of medieval Europe. Her publications have focused on gender and religion in medieval Europe and religious visions in contemporary California.
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Who was the real St. Nick?
Lisa Bitel, professor of history and religion at the University of Southern California Dornsife, explores the saint’s history.
Lisa Bitel is a professor of history and religion whose studies focus on the social, cultural and religious histories of medieval Europe. Her publications have focused on gender and religion in medieval Europe and religious visions in contemporary California.
The Real St. Nick https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/12-25-19-USC-Dornsife-The-Real-St.-Nick.mp3
This is the time of year people share tales of Old St. Nick, but few know his real story and that he actually came from the Mediterranean coast.
Historical documents show that the man who became St. Nicholas was born around 260 C.E. in Myra, a town on the southwest coast of modern Turkey, then under control of the Roman Empire. Since Christianity was still illegal in the empire, Nicholas spent time in prison for his beliefs.
After Christianity became legal in 311, Nicholas became a Bishop and gained fame for defending victims of oppression, saving people from unjust execution, and even reviving the dead. Legends claim he continued to work miracles after his death on December 6, especially for children and for sailors in distress at sea.
Devout followers frequented his tomb, collecting holy water or oil that dripped from the tomb to keep in hopes of cures and miracles.
In the 11th century, some Italian sailors from Bari heard about the saints’ remains and the powers associated with them. They invaded Nicholas’s tomb and stole the saint’s bones for their own protection. The town of Bari built a church for the saint’s relics, which quickly became one of Europe’s most popular pilgrimage destinations.
But what if it was all an 11th century scam to promote religious tourism?
In the 1950s, scientists examined the bones in the basilica, looking for evidence of authenticity, and were able to date the bones to the fourth century. However, Turkish archaeologists claim the raiders stole the wrong body and that a sarcophagus in Nicholas’s original church in Turkey still hold the saints’ remains.
No matter where his bones lie, though, sailors spread stories of St. Nick’s miracles around the seas, inspiring the Santa Claus legend that continues to bring joy to people worldwide.
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Reading can lead us to change how we think and act.
Mark West, professor of English at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, explains how one important American applied what he learned from this pastime.
Mark I. West is a Professor of English at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where he has taught since 1984.
How Theodore Roosevelt’s Reading Contributed to His Support for Immigrants https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/12-23-21-UNC-Charlotte-How-Theodore-Roosevelts-Reading-Contributed-to-His-Support-for-Immigrants.mp3
In my research on the role that reading played in Theodore Roosevelt’s life and career, I found that Roosevelt did not approach read as a passive pastime. Roosevelt regularly applied what he learned from his reading to his work in politics. An example of this is how reading shaped his thinking on immigration.
Roosevelt often contacted the authors of the books he read. Such was the case when he read Jacob Riis’s 1890 book, How the Other Half Lives, an expose of the living conditions in New York City’s tenements. After finishing Riis’s book, Roosevelt went to Riis’s office and left the following note: “I have read your book, and I have come to help.” This marked the beginning of a long relationship between Roosevelt and Riis during which they worked to improve the living conditions in immigrant neighborhoods.
Another book that shaped Roosevelt’s views on immigrants was Jane Addams’s 1910 memoir, Twenty Years at Hull House, in which Addams recounted her efforts to help immigrants adapt to life in America. After reading Addams’ book, Roosevelt reached out to her and solicited her support for his 1912 campaign as the Progressive Party candidate for the presidency. Pleased with Roosevelt’s pro-immigrant positions, she not only campaigned for him; she seconded his nomination during the Progressive Party’s convention.
Mary Antin’s 1912 memoir, The Promised Land, also had an impact on Roosevelt. He was moved by Antin’s story about being a Jewish immigrant left Russia as a teenager and ultimately set roots in Boston. Roosevelt contacted Antin, and the two became political allies in the movement to support more open immigration policies.
Through reading these books, Roosevelt developed a sense of empathy for America’s recent immigrants, and this resulted in him taking pro-immigrant stands.
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Transferring weapons can have deleterious effects.
Nolan Fahrenkopf, research fellow at the Center for Policy Research at the University at Albany, determines how some may get into the wrong hands.
Nolan Fahrenkopf is a research fellow at the Center for Policy Research (CPR), at the University at Albany. He has extensive policy and research experience with international security, weapons proliferation and military power, and strategic trade controls. Through his work, Dr Fahrenkopf has led seminars and conducted consultations with governments in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Sri Lanka, Serbia, Georgia, Indonesia, and others on topics related to nonproliferation and international security. Dr. Fahrenkopf holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy at the University at Albany.
The Security of Arms Transfers During the War on Terror https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/12-22-21-Albany-The-Security-of-Arms-Transfers-During-the-War-on-Terror.mp3
America was confronted with scenes of chaos across Afghanistan following the recent Taliban victory. A recurring theme of this chaos has been Taliban forces seizing U.S. supplied equipment from the collapsing Afghan government. A much more important take away has gone little noticed: that U.S. arms transfers to allied governments have been bleeding weapons and equipment to groups such as ISIS, the Taliban, and others throughout the two-decade long War on Terror.
Research by NGOs and academics on ISIS and Taliban arsenals during the height of each conflict found that they both enjoyed access to significant quantities of U.S. supplied weapons. Through corrupt allied officials, theft, or spoils of conquest, American adversaries were able to acquire large arsenals of U.S. weapons and equipment. Oftentimes these weapons were subsequently used against U.S. or allied forces.
U.S. government audits have also detailed massive amounts of weapons and equipment, often into the billions of dollars’ worth, that had gone missing due to lax implementation of safeguards. U.S. supplied small arms- such as personal rifles- and light weapons- such as machine guns and missile systems, as well as equipment like night-vision systems have been found in the arsenals of America’s adversaries across the Middle East and Central Asia.
Researchers and policymakers already know the best practices required to keep arms transfers safe.
One of the primary safeguards is end-use monitoring, which seeks to monitor the chain of custody of weapons before and after they are transferred. End-use monitoring ensures arms and equipment are distributed to authorized end-users and used and secured properly. These safeguards require time, money, and personnel to implement effectively, and often fall victim to political pressure for fast results or competing strategic priorities. If the proper procedures had been followed, they could have at least partially reduced the number of U.S.-supplied weapons in the hands of U.S. enemies.
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Quantity doesn’t always mean quality when it comes to prenatal care.
Neel Shah, assistant professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive biology at Harvard Medical School, explains how many visits are needed.
Dr. Neel Shah is the chief medical officer of Maven Clinic, the largest virtual clinic for women’s and family health, an OB-GYN at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and an assistant professor of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive biology at Harvard Medical School.
He is a globally recognized expert in designing solutions that improve health care, and is listed among the “40 smartest people in health care” by the Becker’s Hospital Review. Dr. Shah founded Costs of Care, an NGO that curates insights from clinicians and patients to help delivery systems provide better care. In 2017, he co-founded the March for Moms Association, a coalition of more than 20 leading organizations, to increase public and private investment in the wellbeing of mothers. Dr. Shah serves on the advisory board of the National Institutes of Health, Office of Women’s Health Research.
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Prenatal Care Visits https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/12-21-21-Harvard-Medical-School-Prenatal-Care-Visits.mp3
It should go without saying that prenatal care, or healthcare for pregnant people, is important. But our understanding of what makes for quality prenatal care has historically been limited to a single metric: how many times a person visits their doctor. Typically, the number of recommended visits is around 12 to 14 over the 9 months of pregnancy, a highly regimented model that has not meaningfully changed since it was introduced in the 1930s.
In a new study that I co-authored with my colleagues Rebecca Gourevitch, Tanya Natwick, Christine Chaisson, and Amber Weiseth, we sought to identify another measure: what actually happens when you make all those visits to your doctor.
We did this by first identifying 8 common procedures that are universally recommended by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and other guideline-issuing agencies. Those include getting tested for sexually transmitted infections; receiving the TDAP vaccine; and taking a glucose tolerance test, which is necessary to see if you have gestational diabetes.
What we found is this: Patients with at least four prenatal visits received, on average, 6 of the 8 guideline-based services. But for patients who made additional visits, guideline-based care did not increase. In other words, going to the doctor more did not lead to patients receiving more clinically backed care.
We also found notable variations depending on a patient’s background. For instance, rates of TDAP vaccination were lower in counties with high proportions of minority residents, lower
education, and lower income.
In the wake of the pandemic, there has been increased attention on the prenatal care model — certainly more than at any point in my career. As we consider how best to adapt this model to the 21st century, it will be important to consider what ‘quality’ really means. It is clear from our study that facetime alone cannot be the sole measure of quality care for pregnant people.
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How do we help students with disabilities fulfill their career goals?
Susan McKelvey, research assistant professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, looks into this question.
Susan McKelvey is a research assistant professor at Virginia Commonwealth University where she serves as the Director of Research and Evaluation for the Transition Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (RRTC). Her research at the RRTC focuses on: pre-employment training for young students with disabilities; students with disabilities who are making the transition from school to post-secondary education or from school to work; and training for university personnel who work with students with disabilities. She holds a Ph.D. in Education, with a concentration in Research and Evaluation from VCU.
Giving Students with Disabilities a Chance to Fulfill their Career Goals https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/12-20-21-VCU-Giving-Students-with-Disabilities-a-Chance-to-Fulfill-their-Career-Goals.mp3
For students with significant disabilities, career exploration and workplace readiness are often overlooked. The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act of 2014 established new initiatives for Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) agencies such as Pre-Employment Transition Services, also known as Pre-ETS. Pre-ETS helps to prepare youth with disabilities by providing information to help them make informed post-secondary career decisions. The goal is to help them achieve a greater rate of competitive employment.
State VR agencies, schools, and community providers collaborate to provide Pre-ETS. Yet, VR agencies struggle to find the most effective ways to deliver Pre-ETS to youth with disabilities. To address this need, our research engaged families, educators, and VR counselors in Virginia and Kentucky in discussions on the delivery and impact of Pre-ETS.
These groups have similar views about the delivery of services to those early in their career planning process. In both states, educators and VR counselors would like more resources, such as ongoing training for providing Pre-ETS to younger students, as well as training on specific disabilities. Families recommended making activities engaging by increasing job exploration and work experiences.
Benefits of Pre-ETS include increasing students’ skills, knowledge and understanding of employment. However, schools, VR counselors, and families must improve communication during the Pre-ETS process.
The groups also told us that COVID affected their ability to provide Pre-ETS. While transportation and access to local businesses are often lacking, the pandemic exacerbated this problem.
If students with significant disabilities have increased access to businesses and embedded strategies for early career awareness in their curriculum, they would have a greater chance at fulfilling their career aspirations.
Read More:
https://transition.vcurrtc.org/
https://vcurrtc.org/
https://centerontransition.org/
https://acl.gov/about-acl/about-national-institute-disability-independent-living-and-rehabilitation-research
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This Week on The Academic Minute 2021.12.20
Monday, December 20th Susan McKelvey, research assistant professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, looks into how we help students with disabilities fulfill their career goals.
Tuesday, December 21st Neel Shah, assistant professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive biology at Harvard Medical School, explains how many prenatal care visits are needed.
Wednesday, December 22nd Nolan Fahrenkopf, research fellow at the Center for Policy Research at the University at Albany, determines how some weapons transferred from the U.S. military to other allies, may get into the wrong hands.
Thursday, December 23rd Mark West, professor of English at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, explains how one important American applied what he learned from his reading practice.
Friday, December 24th Lisa Bitel, professor of history and religion at the University of Southern California Dornsife, explores who was the real St. Nick.
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The Academic Minute from 12.13 – 12.17 Monday, December 13thArnold Glass – Rutgers UniversityPercent of Students Benefiting from Homework Assignments
BA, Psychology, University of Buffalo, 1971; PhD, Psychology, Stanford University, 1975; faculty position, Rutgers University, 1975 – present. Currently, Professor of Psychology. Fulbright Scholar. Author: Cognition: A Neuroscience Approach published by Cambridge University Press.
Tuesday, December 14thPascale Joassart-Marcelli – San Diego State UniversityHow Food Transform Neighborhoods
Pascale Joassart-Marcelli is Professor of Geography and Director of the interdisciplinary Food Studies and Urban Studies programs at San Diego State University where she has been teaching courses such as Geography of Cities, Geography of Food, Food Justice, Feeding the World, and Food, Place, and Culture. Her research focuses on the relationship between place, ethnicity, and food, including the role of food in creating just and sustainable cities for all. She has published over 50 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, is the author of The $16 Taco: Contested Geographies of Food, Ethnicity, and Gentrification (2021) and Food Geographies: Social, Political, and Ecological Connections (forthcoming), and the co-editor of Food and Place: A Critical Exploration (2018). Her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation and other private and public funding agencies.
Wednesday, December 15th
Trudi Jacobson – University at AlbanyRenewable Assignments, Wikipedia, and Metaliteracy
Trudi Jacobson holds the rank of Distinguished Librarian at the University at Albany. Her career has focused on the intersections of pedagogy and information literacy. She is the co-author or co-editor of 14 books, with another forthcoming in early 2022, Metaliteracy in a Connected World: Developing Learners as Producers, co-authored with Dr. Thomas Mackey. The author of numerous journal articles and book chapters, she also co-chaired the national task force that developed the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education, and is the editor of the information literacy module of SAGE Publications’ SAGE Skills Student Success online learning resource.
Thursday, December 16thPaul Hanstedt – Washington and Lee UniversityWicked Students for a Wicked World
Paul Hanstedt has been thinking and writing about general education for the last two decades, beginning with his work in the classroom and extending to a Fulbright in Hong Kong. His book General Education Essentials (2012) has just been accepted for a second edition and he’s worked with dozens of campuses across the U.S. and in Asia. He is also the author of Creating Wicked Students, and the recipient of several teaching awards including, most recently, the CASE-Carnegie 2014 Virginia Professor of the Year.
Friday, December 17thMindy Brummett – University of North Texas Health Science CenterSocial Media: The Benefits, Risk, and Accuracy of Information
Dr. Mindy Brummett teaches at The University of North Texas Health Science Center. Course responsibilities include Applied Anatomy and Kinesiology, Exercise Physiology, Evidence Based Practice, and Therapeutic Interventions. Dr. Brummett graduated from The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in 2009 with her Doctorate in Physical Therapy. She obtained her Orthopedic Clinical Specialist certificate in 2013 from The American Physical Therapy Association. Currently, Dr. Brummett is pursuing her Doctor of Science in Rehabilitation Science from Texas Tech University. Research interests are accuracy of information used in social media and concussion management.
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Social media is an important tool for healthcare workers.
Mindy Brummett, assistant professor of physical therapy at the University of North Texas Health Science Center, explores how to use it wisely.
Dr. Mindy Brummett teaches at The University of North Texas Health Science Center. Course responsibilities include Applied Anatomy and Kinesiology, Exercise Physiology, Evidence Based Practice, and Therapeutic Interventions. Dr. Brummett graduated from The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in 2009 with her Doctorate in Physical Therapy. She obtained her Orthopedic Clinical Specialist certificate in 2013 from The American Physical Therapy Association. Currently, Dr. Brummett is pursuing her Doctor of Science in Rehabilitation Science from Texas Tech University. Research interests are accuracy of information used in social media and concussion management.
Social Media: The Benefits, Risks, and Accuracy of Information https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/12-17-21-UNTHSC-Social-Media-The-Benefits-Risks-and-Accuracy-of-Information.mp3
With the surging inclusion of social media platforms into modern society, physical therapy educators must remain diligent incorporating education of the risks, benefits, and use of social media into the current curriculum. This past spring, I worked on a narrative review with physical therapy students. We searched the literature looking at the benefits and risks of social media and the accuracy of information portrayed on social media platforms.
In general, the literature agrees that there are clear benefits to the use of social media in terms of marketing, business transparency, and creating an avenue for improved clinician and patient communication. The risks associated with excessive social media use are structural changes in the areas of the brain related to cognitive control and emotion regulation and sleep disturbances. All of which impact decision making capabilities of the individual. The narrative review found the overall trend for accuracy of health information on social media is low and insufficient. Research agrees that accurate information is not engaged at higher rates than inaccurate information, which should be a concern for healthcare practitioners as the spread of health information on social media continues.
Solutions to combat the spread of misinformation ultimately start with the healthcare worker. It is the responsibility of these workers to create social media posts with evidence-based information. Additionally, it should be considered best practice with social media to include both citations and links to all sources.
The information from the review suggests that social media can be a valuable tool, but excessive social media use can cause detrimental physiological effects which in turn can negatively impact patient care. Education over the risks, benefits, and accuracy of the information should be implemented into graduate school curriculums to mitigate any adverse effects of using these platforms for decisions that impact patients.
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Living with uncertainty has become the norm.
Paul Hanstedt, professor of education studies at Washington and Lee University, describes a new way to think about solving problems.
Paul Hanstedt has been thinking and writing about general education for the last two decades, beginning with his work in the classroom and extending to a Fulbright in Hong Kong. His book General Education Essentials (2012) has just been accepted for a second edition and he’s worked with dozens of campuses across the U.S. and in Asia. He is also the author of Creating Wicked Students, and the recipient of several teaching awards including, most recently, the CASE-Carnegie 2014 Virginia Professor of the Year.
Wicked Students for a Wicked World https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/12-16-21-Washington-and-Lee-Wicked-Students-for-a-Wicked-World.mp3
A man walks into a bar and asks for a glass of water. The bartender looks at him, reaches under the counter, and pulls out a gun. He points it at the man. The man says, “Thank you,” and walks out.
What’s going on? Why point a gun at a man who’s asked for a glass of water? Why would the man then say “Thank you”? It’s bizarre.
But then, we live in a bizarre world. The riddle of the man at the bar is an example of what engineers call “Wicked Problems.” In contrast to “tame “ problems—the sorts of questions where the answer are clear and fixed—with Wicked Problems the dynamics are in flux, data are incomplete, the logic is indirect.
Our world consists largely of wicked problems. Almost from the start, COVID has had us scrambling for new answers, responding to new variants, trying to reconcile various social, economic, and political factors. The solution, to the extent that there is one, is complicated, varying from region to region, changing over time.
Our education system, on the other hand, seems largely geared toward tame problems. Very often students need only memorize and reiterate stated answers in order to get the best grades.
What can we do to bring more uncertainty into the learning experience? One way is by building the world’s unpredictability into the higher ed core curricula: experiences like internships, study abroad, and work in the community are now common place, even required. Consequently, more students have the opportunity to expand their understanding of “learning” to include the need to try and fail and try again in response to unfamiliar problems. They come to know, in other words, that in a rapidly changing world, perhaps the most important skill is the ability—and the courage—to respond to the unknown.
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Wikipedia shouldn’t be used in higher ed classes, right?
Trudi Jacobson, distinguished librarian at the University at Albany, discusses one way it can be beneficial to students.
Trudi Jacobson holds the rank of Distinguished Librarian at the University at Albany. Her career has focused on the intersections of pedagogy and information literacy. She is the co-author or co-editor of 14 books, with another forthcoming in early 2022, Metaliteracy in a Connected World: Developing Learners as Producers, co-authored with Dr. Thomas Mackey. The author of numerous journal articles and book chapters, she also co-chaired the national task force that developed the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education, and is the editor of the information literacy module of SAGE Publications’ SAGE Skills Student Success online learning resource.
Renewable Assignments, Wikipedia, and Metaliteracy https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/12-15-21-Albany-Renewable-Assignments-Wikipedia-and-Metaliteracy.mp3
Most college assignments are non-renewable, meant for an instructor’s eyes alone. Renewable assignments, however, create products that are developed for the benefit of others. Examples include informational websites, textbook content, and Wikipedia articles.
College students are often surprised when asked to contribute to Wikipedia—they have been told it is not to be trusted. But editing a Wikipedia article provides an excellent mechanism for them to share their expanding knowledge while they become aware of the responsibilities integral to working in an open online resource relied upon by a worldwide audience. And a diverse student base helps to address existing gender and racial inequities in Wikipedia editors and content.
Students are often hesitant to work in a public and collaborative space. It is very different from their typical assignment, so providing scaffolding is vital to help them feel more comfortable. Metaliteracy does this by having students engage with the roles that they assume in a connected world, roles such as information author and producer, translator of academic writing for a general audience, and researcher to find high-quality information. Metaliterate learning domains involve the affective, allowing students to recognize the emotions they are experiencing as new Wikipedia editors, and metacognition, motivating them to reflect on their learning. As students proceed to become responsible and ethical editors of information in Wikipedia, they are not simply completing a renewable assignment, but also becoming better informed metaliterate learners and digital citizens.
Read More:
Wiki Education Program for College Students
Overcoming Imposter Syndrome by Editing Wikipedia (Corrin Baker)
Al Abri, M., & N. Dabbagh. (2019). Testing the intervention of OER renewable assignments in a college course. Open Praxis 11(2):195-209.
Metaliteracy.org
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Wonderful ethnic food can be a blessing and a curse for a developing neighborhood.
Pascale Joassart-Marcelli, professor of geography at San Diego State University, looks into why.
Pascale Joassart-Marcelli is Professor of Geography and Director of the interdisciplinary Food Studies and Urban Studies programs at San Diego State University where she has been teaching courses such as Geography of Cities, Geography of Food, Food Justice, Feeding the World, and Food, Place, and Culture. Her research focuses on the relationship between place, ethnicity, and food, including the role of food in creating just and sustainable cities for all. She has published over 50 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, is the author of The $16 Taco: Contested Geographies of Food, Ethnicity, and Gentrification (2021) and Food Geographies: Social, Political, and Ecological Connections (forthcoming), and the co-editor of Food and Place: A Critical Exploration (2018). Her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation and other private and public funding agencies.
How Food Transforms Neighborhoods https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/12-14-21-San-Diego-State-How-Food-Transforms-Neighborhoods.mp3
Everybody loves food. And foodies – the affluent and mostly white people who love and know good food – are always looking for unique and exotic foods that taste good but also give them opportunities to display their cosmopolitan values.
Through their gastronomic adventures, foodies increasingly venture into low-income neighborhoods, which they praise for their vibrant ethnic food scene. Ironically, residents of these places –mostly immigrants and people of color— have long struggled with limited access to food. They have fought food insecurity by running ethnic food businesses, growing, and sharing food.
Today, these self-reliant food practices, born out of necessity and resilience, appeal to newcomers charmed by their simplicity and authenticity. Foodies flock to these neighborhoods.
This influx of outsiders is assumed to have positive impacts: more jobs, more revenue, more investment, greater food access, and perhaps even a colorblind society. My research questions these assumptions.
One key finding is that food is paving the way for gentrification. Developers, bankers, real estate agents, restaurants groups, and city officials are capitalizing on the popularity of ethnic food, appropriating it to brand places, promote consumption, and increase real estate values. The new trendy restaurants, rooftop gardens, and street food festivals they bring do little to uplift ethnic entrepreneurs and long-time residents. Unable to afford rising rents and food prices, erased from emerging narratives of authenticity, reduced to symbols of multiculturalism, they are economically, culturally, and emotionally displaced from their own neighborhoods.
Read More:
The $16 Taco (https://uwapress.uw.edu/book/9780295749280/the-16-taco/)
Food Geographies (https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781538126646/Food-Geographies-Social-Political-and-Ecological-Connections)
Food and Place (https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781442266513/Food-and-Place-A-Critical-Exploration)
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Homework has never been popular with most students.
Arnold Glass, professor of psychology at Rutgers University, examines whether students benefit from it.
BA, Psychology, University of Buffalo, 1971; PhD, Psychology, Stanford University, 1975; faculty position, Rutgers University, 1975 – present. Currently, Professor of Psychology. Fulbright Scholar. Author: Cognition: A Neuroscience Approach published by Cambridge University Press.
Percent of Students Benefiting from Homework Assignments https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/12-13-21-Rutgers-Percent-of-Students-Benefiting-from-Homework-Assignments.mp3
The effect of doing homework on exam performance was assessed for 2433 students in 12 different college lecture courses over an eleven-year period. The percent of students who did not benefit from correctly answering homework questions increased from 14% in 2008 to 55% in 2017.
A distinctive pattern of performance was found for the students who did not benefit from homework. These students performed better on homework questions than on quizzes and exams given in class. Their homework scores were higher but their exam scores were lower than other students in the class. Students who did not benefit from homework did about a letter grade worse on exams.
Students who did not benefit from homework even did well on homework questions about material that had not yet been presented in class. The students reported copying the answers from another source, often after a google search. The student self-reports were consistent with a half-century of research showing that a student must generate their own answer to create a long-term memory of the answer and with recent research showing that people do not remember information that they find using google and other smart phone applications.
The long-term effect of googling is entirely insidious. Students have no idea that in achieving higher homework scores they are sacrificing equally good scores on exams.
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This Week on The Academic Minute 2021.12.13
Monday, December 13th Arnold Glass, professor of psychology at Rutgers University, examines whether students benefit from homework assignments.
Tuesday, December 14th Pascale Joassart-Marcelli, professor of geography at San Diego State University, looks into why tasty ethnic food can be a blessing and curse for a developing neighborhood.
Wednesday, December 15th Trudi Jacobson, distinguished librarian at the University at Albany, discusses one way Wikipedia can be beneficial to students if used in a certain way.
Thursday, December 16th Paul Hanstedt, professor of education studies at Washington and Lee University, describes a new way to think about solving problems.
Friday, December 17th Mindy Brummett, assistant professor of physical therapy at the University of North Texas Health Science Center, explores how to use social media wisely as a health care worker.
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The Academic Minute from 12.06 – 12.10 Monday, December 6thAmanda McKinney – Doane UniversityPandemics, Ancient and Modern: Causes, Effects, Differences and Parallels
Amanda E. McKinney, MD, CPE, FACLM, FACOG: Dr. McKinney is the Executive Director of Doane University’s Institute for Human and Planetary Health (IHPH). She obtained her medical degree from the University of Nebraska Medical Center. She completed her residency and fellowship training at the University of California-Irvine. She holds the titles of Associate Dean of Health Sciences and Executive Director for Doane University’s Institute for Human and Planetary Health. Dr. McKinney has extensively practiced medicine in clinical settings; she holds Board Certifications in Obstetrics and Gynecology, Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery and Lifestyle Medicine and possesses training in herbal and cannabis medicine.
Tuesday, December 7thEric Bellone – Suffolk UniversityThe Insular Cases and U.S. Territories: The Constitution Should Follow the Flag
Eric Bellone is an Assistant Professor of Government and Applied Legal Studies at Suffolk University in Boston, Massachusetts. He received a B.S. in Economics and a B.A. in History (Magna Cum Laude) from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, a J.D. from the University of New Hampshire Law School (the Franklin Pierce Law Center), an M.A. in Criminal Justice from University of Massachusetts at Lowell and is currently a doctoral candidate in Northeastern University’s Law and Public Policy program. His main area of research is the intersection of public policy and constitutional law.
Wednesday, December 8th
Joshua Rothman – University of AlabamaAmerica’s Forgotten Domestic Slave Trade
Joshua D. Rothman is professor of history and chair of the Department of History at the University of Alabama. He is the author of three books about the history of American slavery: Notorious in the Neighborhood: Sex and Families across the Color Line in Virginia, 1787-1861 (2003), Flush Times and Fever Dreams: A Story of Capitalism and Slavery in the Age of Jackson (2012), and, most recently, The Ledger and the Chain: How Domestic Slave Traders Shaped America (2021).
Thursday, December 9thOrlaith Heymann – University of CincinnatiUnderstanding Abortion Clinic Selection
Orlaith Heymann, MA, is a PhD candidate in Sociology at the University of Cincinnati and a contributing member of the Ohio Policy Evaluation Network (OPEN). Orlaith’s research examines how people navigate institutional policies and cultures, particularly in medicine, education, and work settings. Her research has been particularly focused on contentious social fields, such as sex education and abortion and has won awards from the National Science Foundation, PEO International, the Taft Research Center, Kunz Center for Social Research, and two competitive Research Fellowships.
Friday, December 10thMariusz Kozak – Columbia UniversityMusic as a Structure of our Movements and Emotions
Mariusz Kozak is an Associate Professor of Music at Columbia University, and the author of Enacting Musical Time: The Bodily Experience of New Music. His research focuses on the relationship between music, cognition, and the body.
The post The Academic Minute for 2021.12.06-2021.12.10 appeared first on The Academic Minute.
Music could be one way to heal after the pandemic.
Mariusz Kozak, associate professor of music at Columbia University, discusses why it brings us together.
Mariusz Kozak is an Associate Professor of Music at Columbia University, and the author of Enacting Musical Time: The Bodily Experience of New Music. His research focuses on the relationship between music, cognition, and the body.
Music as a Structure of our Movements and Emotions https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/12-10-21-Columbia-Music-As-A-Structure-Of-Our-Movements-And-Emotions.mp3
Music is often said to communicate emotions. According to this view, performers broadcast their messages—the music—to the audience. Listeners decode the messages on the basis of their own listening habits, and that’s how they interpret the emotions the performers hope to communicate.
But my work has shown that music does more than that: it creates opportunities for people to be together. It gives structure to activities that we engage in with other humans by providing something like a template for how to move as a group. This movement, in turn, can generate powerful emotional responses which may strengthen our social bonds, increase our willingness to cooperate, and improve our well-being.
I call this a structural theory of music. Certain patterns of movement that social groups find valuable enough to store for later retrieval are encoded in different media, including not just sound, but also movement, touch, and visual phenomena. These are patterns that help maintain group cohesion, and are practiced and relived in everything from formal ceremonies to play and dance.
At no time in recent history has this maintenance of cohesion been more important than during the Covid-19 pandemic. While locked in our homes, we were deprived of the ability to physically move with other people, to attune to them with our bodies. Even streaming live concerts proved to be nothing more than a band-aid, and the return to in-person concerts has been met with outpourings of joy and excitement.
Going forward, this cultural recovery is going to be extremely important because music, as the structure of our movements and emotions, teaches us how to act in relation to one another. It teases, guides, even urges us to move together, in time, as one.
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Choosing an abortion clinic is getting harder, and it is also a painful process.
Orlaith Heymann, PhD candidate in Sociology at the University of Cincinnati, examines how this decision is made.
Orlaith Heymann, MA, is a PhD candidate in Sociology at the University of Cincinnati and a contributing member of the Ohio Policy Evaluation Network (OPEN). Orlaith’s research examines how people navigate institutional policies and cultures, particularly in medicine, education, and work settings. Her research has been particularly focused on contentious social fields, such as sex education and abortion and has won awards from the National Science Foundation, PEO International, the Taft Research Center, Kunz Center for Social Research, and two competitive Research Fellowships.
Understanding Abortion Clinic Selection https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/12-09-21-Cincinnati-Understanding-Abortion-Clinic-Selection.mp3
Over the last decade, legislators have restricted access to abortion care in many states. In Ohio, where I live and work, many abortion clinics have been forced to close, making abortion even less accessible. Our study seeks to understand the reasons why people select a particular abortion clinic, given their constrained circumstances.
We interviewed 41 Ohio residents about their experiences seeking abortion care and found that people engage in careful deliberations when selecting a clinic, even when they have very few clinic options available. People base their clinic selection on four factors:
- Previous positive or negative experiences with clinics,
- Online reviews,
- A clinic’s reputation and name recognition, and
- A clinic’s location
These factors helped people to evaluate clinic ‘safeness’ and better navigate the risks they associate with abortion care, like uncertainty about comfort, safety, privacy, and legality.
For example, clinic location was important not just because of the time and cost of travel, but also because people evaluated the desirability of a clinic’s neighborhood. Perceived neighborhood desirability shaped where people were willing to travel, showing how race and class impact clinic selection.
We focused on those seeking abortion care, but our study is applicable in other healthcare contexts. As hospital systems consolidate, rural hospitals close, and the cost of health care rises – navigating where to seek care can be a complicated process. We can provide better access to care when we understand how people choose care facilities in an increasingly uncertain landscape of narrowing health care options
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We are still working to understand slavery in American history.
Joshua Rothman, professor of history at the University of Alabama, discusses one often overlooked part of this history.
Joshua D. Rothman is professor of history and chair of the Department of History at the University of Alabama. He is the author of three books about the history of American slavery: Notorious in the Neighborhood: Sex and Families across the Color Line in Virginia, 1787-1861 (2003), Flush Times and Fever Dreams: A Story of Capitalism and Slavery in the Age of Jackson (2012), and, most recently, The Ledger and the Chain: How Domestic Slave Traders Shaped America (2021).
America’s Forgotten Domestic Slave Trade https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/12-08-21-Alabama-Americas-Forgotten-Domestic-Slave-Trade.mp3
When Americans think of the slave trade, they typically associate it with the transatlantic trade that brought enslaved people to the western hemisphere from Africa rather than with the buying and selling of slaves within the boundaries of the United States. But over twice as many people were trafficked inside the United States as were imported to mainland North America from overseas. Between the early colonial period and the time slavery ended in 1865, more than one million enslaved people were forcibly moved across state lines in this country. Hundreds of thousands more were bought and sold within individual states.
The domestic slave trade was ubiquitous in the slave states in the nineteenth century, spurred by the ravenous demands of the cotton economy, by slaveholders who put themselves in debt, and by the greed of slave traders, merchants, and bankers throughout the country and even in Europe.
That Americans today do not grasp the scale of the domestic trade is ultimately the product of a successful propaganda campaign. Beginning before the Civil War and extending long past its conclusion, white southerners said they abhorred the slave trade and slave traders, or they simply denied how prevalent the slave trade actually was. All of it was part of an effort to make slavery seem benign, and by the twentieth century even many white northerners preferred to think of the antebellum South as a place of moonlight and magnolias rather than of chains and auction blocks.
But until we come to terms with how fundamentally slavery was grounded in the sales of nearly two million people, and how that shaped the lives of the enslaved and the economy of the entire country, we will never really understand the significance of the institution for the American past, or for its present.
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Citizens of U.S. territories do not have all the benefits that their mainland counterparts do.
Eric Bellone, assistant professor of government and applied legal studies at Suffolk University, examines the reasons.
Eric Bellone is an Assistant Professor of Government and Applied Legal Studies at Suffolk University in Boston, Massachusetts. He received a B.S. in Economics and a B.A. in History (Magna Cum Laude) from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, a J.D. from the University of New Hampshire Law School (the Franklin Pierce Law Center), an M.A. in Criminal Justice from University of Massachusetts at Lowell and is currently a doctoral candidate in Northeastern University’s Law and Public Policy program. His main area of research is the intersection of public policy and constitutional law.
The Insular Cases and U.S. Territories: The Constitution Should Follow the Flag https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/12-07-21-Suffolk-The-Insular-Cases-and-U.S.-Territories-The-Constitution-Should-Follow-the-Flag.mp3
The Insular cases are a series of Supreme Court cases from over 100 years ago that define the status of U.S. territories. These cases are grounded in uniformed, ignorant, and downright racist tropes that bind these territories to this day.
These Supreme Court cases present assumptions that Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands are “inhabited by alien races,” governing them “according to Anglo-Saxon principles may for a time be impossible” and they were “foreign in a domestic sense.” The Court created a distinction between territories, “Incorporated” territories become states and “Unincorporated territories do not. Unincorporated territories are not entitled to all constitutional protections. It is not surprising that the court that gave us Plessy v. Ferguson penned these cases. What is surprising is that they determine the status of U.S. territories today.
The United States is trying to come to terms with its past. The removal of Civil War statues, rethinking Columbus Day, and the Black Lives Matter movement. These cases must be added to that list. The Insular cases should be reviewed not only on the basis fundamental fairness, but by the reasoning expressed in cases that these territories have not established democratic institutions and principles. Over the past 100 years, they have established institutions and principles grounded in American traditions. They have elections, serve in the U.S. military, and want to play a greater role in building the nation. Further, it is time for a change. In 1957, the Court stated the Incorporated/Unincorporated distinction assumed that the U.S. would “govern temporarily territories with wholly dissimilar traditions and institutions.” Those perceived distinction are clearly no longer the case.
It is time for the Constitution to follow the flag and recognize that people in U.S. territories have the same rights as those in the 50 states.
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The COVID-19 pandemic isn’t the first one we’ve faced, so what can we learn from the past?
Amanda McKinney, assistant professor of health sciences at Doane University, looks back to find out.
Amanda E. McKinney, MD, CPE, FACLM, FACOG: Dr. McKinney is the Executive Director of Doane University’s Institute for Human and Planetary Health (IHPH). She obtained her medical degree from the University of Nebraska Medical Center. She completed her residency and fellowship training at the University of California-Irvine. She holds the titles of Associate Dean of Health Sciences and Executive Director for Doane University’s Institute for Human and Planetary Health. Dr. McKinney has extensively practiced medicine in clinical settings; she holds Board Certifications in Obstetrics and Gynecology, Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery and Lifestyle Medicine and possesses training in herbal and cannabis medicine.
She has previously served as the Physician’s Governing Board Chair, Chair of the Peer Review Committee and Director of Lifestyle Medicine while a physician at Beatrice Community Hospital in Beatrice, Nebraska. She has served on the Board of Directors of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine and currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Center for Rural Affairs. Dr. McKinney has given over twenty-five invited presentations, at times as a keynote or plenary speaker, in the United States and overseas. She has published articles in, among other publications, The Lancet Planetary Health, The American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine and the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. She was also featured, along with Samuel L. Jackson, James Cameron and others, in the 2016 documentary film Eating You Alive. In 2021, she appeared in a second documentary film, PlantWise.
Pandemics, Ancient and Modern: Causes, Effects, Differences and Parallels https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/12-06-21-Doane-Pandemics-Ancient-and-Modern-Causes-Effects-Differences-and-Parallels.mp3
Combining analysis of the writings of ancient Saints with that of data from 21st Century orbiting satellites, we built on Dr. Kyle Harper’s groundbreaking implication of a filovirus to identify the deadly Marburg (MARV) evolutionary lineage as the probable disease agent of the 3rd Century Plague of Cyprian. Even through veils of time and erroneous Greco-Roman medical concepts, ancient evidence matches the pathology and epidemiology of MARV strikingly. Roman institutions–Baths, the medical system and complex funerary rites– would have amplified MARV’s biological infectiousness value (R0) on an industrial scale. The epidemiological overlay of modern medical “red flags” and urban Roman practices is shockingly precise. A 3rd Century outbreak of a MARV lineage virus would not have resembled the rapidly contained 2021 MARV outbreak in Guinea. Similarly, deployment of highly-effective vaccines during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic would have been beyond the comprehension of Romans.
Yet, we saw inescapable parallels between ancient and modern epochs. The Plague of Cyprian contributed to Rome’s multifaceted Third Century Crisis; Covid-19 has further destabilized the 21st Century world. The Roman medical system was inadequate against both a deadly and unfamiliar plague and the annual burden of familiar/less deadly infectious diseases. Modern medicine has, contrastingly, performed heroically against the novel coronavirus. Yet, medical science has failed to address our analogous underlying burden of chronic disease (…the ““comorbidities”) with which Covid has, so tragically, interacted. Many of our modern practices, regarding lifestyle and dietary choices, are thus implicated in the current pandemic in ways that are ominously familiar. We ignore such lessons, in the face of the ongoing threat of deadly and destabilizing pathogens, at our peril.
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This Week on The Academic Minute 2021.12.06
Monday, December 6th Amanda McKinney, assistant professor of health sciences at Doane University, looks back on past pandemics to see what we can learn for today.
Tuesday, December 7th Eric Bellone, assistant professor of government and applied legal studies at Suffolk University, examines the reasons citizens of U.S. territories are not treated the same as mainland ones.
Wednesday, December 8th Joshua Rothman, professor of history at the University of Alabama, discusses one often overlooked part of America’s history.
Thursday, December 9th Orlaith Heymann, PhD candidate in Sociology at the University of Cincinnati, examines what goes into the selection of an abortion clinic.
Friday, December 10th Mariusz Kozak, associate professor of music at Columbia University, discusses why music brings us together.
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The Academic Minute from 11.29 – 12.03 Monday, November 29thDavid Bray – Florida International UniversityMexico’s Community Forests
David Barton Bray is a professor in the Earth and Environment Department at Florida International University (FIU) in Miami. He carries out research on community forest management in Mexico and Central America. He has taught at Tulane University in New Orleans, worked in international development for the Inter-American Foundation in Arlington VA, and since 1997 has been at FIU. He has received research funding from the Fulbright Program, the Ford Foundation, the Hewlett Foundation, the Tinker Foundation, and the US Agency for International Development. He has also consulted for the MacArthur Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. He is the lead editor of the book The Community Forests of Mexico (University of Texas Press, 2005) and is widely published in academic journals, as well as the New York Times and the Miami Herald. He has been invited to give presentations on research by himself and colleagues for high-level Chinese forestry officials in Beijing, the World Bank in Washington, D.C., and Mexico City, the Secretary of the Environment and Natural Resources of Mexico, and at Yale University, among other venues. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of Ecologic, a Cambridge, MA NGO. In November, 2020 he published In November 2020, he published Mexico’s Community Forest Enterprises: Success on the Commons and the Seeds of a Good Anthropocene.
Tuesday, November 30thRobert DiNapoli – Binghamton UniversityEaster Island Myths
Robert DiNapoli is an archaeologist who uses computational modeling and geospatial methods to study the interaction between human populations and the environment. His primary research focuses on the island societies of Polynesia, in particular questions surrounding ancient migrations, demographic patterns, emergence of social complexity, and sustainable resource use.
Wednesday, December 1st
Mark Canada – Indiana University KokomoPoe In His Right Mind
Mark Canada, Ph.D., is Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Professor of English at Indiana University Kokomo. A longtime champion of student success, he was a leading participant in the national Re-Imagining the First Year project, sponsored by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. At IU Kokomo, he leads the KEY, an experiential-learning initiative that provides all students with opportunities to learn through internships, retreats, research, community projects, and educational trips to businesses, museums, and natural and historic settings in Chicago, Louisville, Detroit, New York, Yellowstone National Park, Disney World, Silicon Valley, and other destinations. A professor of American literature, he spent many years in the classroom at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, where he was a recipient of the University of North Carolina Board of Governors Award for Excellence in Teaching. His six books include Edgar Allan Poe: Master of Horror (forthcoming from Audible), Thomas Wolfe Remembered (University of Alabama Press, 2018), Introduction to Information Literacy for Students (Wiley, 2017), and Literature and Journalism in Antebellum America (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011). His articles on student success, truth in the media, Henry David Thoreau, Rebecca Harding Davis, Theodore Dreiser, Edgar Allan Poe, and other subjects have appeared in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Change, The Academic Minute, The Conversation, Southern Cultures, American Literary ReaMark Canada, Indiana University Kokomo – Poe In His Right Mindlism, Edgar Allan Poe in Context, and other outlets.
Thursday, December 2ndJacqueline Rifkin – University of Missouri Kansas CityHow Nonconsumption Can Turn Ordinary Items Into Treasures
Jacqueline Rifkin is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at UMKC’s Henry W. Bloch School of Management. Jacqueline earned her Ph.D. in Business Administration in the area of marketing at Duke University and her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. Jacqueline is interested in consumer psychology and consumer well-being. Her research explores how marketing and consumption affect well-being on both an individual and societal level. She is currently exploring how consumers manage their resources–their time, money, and experiences–and the impact this has on decision-making and well-being. Her research has been published in Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing, and Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, and has been featured in popular press outlets including Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, NPR, Der Spiegel, and Swedish Public Radio
Friday, December 3rdHeather Houser – University of Texas at AustinInfowhelm
I’m an associate professor of English at The University of Texas at Austin and hold affiliations with American Studies, Center for Women’s and Gender Studies, and Rapoport Center for Human Rights & Justice. My first book is Ecosickness in Contemporary U.S. Fiction: Environment and Affect(Columbia UP, 2014), which won the 2015 Association for the Study of the Arts of the Present (ASAP) Book Prize and was shortlisted for the 2014 British Society for Literature and Science (BSLS) Book Prize. My new book, Infowhelm: Environmental Art and Literature in an Age of Data,appeared with Columbia UP in May 2020. In 2019-20, I am chair of the Organizing Committee of Planet Texas 2050, UT’s first Bridging Barriers grand research challenge. I’m also the Associate Graduate Advisor for English in 2020-21 and an associate editor at Contemporary Literature.
My research has been supported by external fellowships from the Tanner Humanities Center at the University of Utah (2018-19), American Academy of Arts & Sciences (2013-14), Mellon Foundation (2010-11), Whiting Foundation (2009-10), and US Department of Education Jacob K. Javits Program (2004-08).
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Listening to the news can be overwhelming at times.
Heather Houser, associate professor of English at the University of Texas at Austin, explores how art can help bring renewal to our senses.
I’m an associate professor of English at The University of Texas at Austin and hold affiliations with American Studies, Center for Women’s and Gender Studies, and Rapoport Center for Human Rights & Justice. My first book is Ecosickness in Contemporary U.S. Fiction: Environment and Affect(Columbia UP, 2014), which won the 2015 Association for the Study of the Arts of the Present (ASAP) Book Prize and was shortlisted for the 2014 British Society for Literature and Science (BSLS) Book Prize. My new book, Infowhelm: Environmental Art and Literature in an Age of Data,appeared with Columbia UP in May 2020. In 2019-20, I am chair of the Organizing Committee of Planet Texas 2050, UT’s first Bridging Barriers grand research challenge. I’m also the Associate Graduate Advisor for English in 2020-21 and an associate editor at Contemporary Literature.
My research has been supported by external fellowships from the Tanner Humanities Center at the University of Utah (2018-19), American Academy of Arts & Sciences (2013-14), Mellon Foundation (2010-11), Whiting Foundation (2009-10), and US Department of Education Jacob K. Javits Program (2004-08).
Recent essays appear in: New York Review of Books Daily,LitHub, New Literary History, ASAP/Journal, English Language Notes,Modern Fiction Studies. I’m no longer keeping this up to date as of June 2020; see heatherhouser.com for full, current list of pubs.
Recent op-eds in Austin American-Statesman, Waco Tribune-Herald, Corpus-Christi Caller-Times(April 2020); Abilene Reporter News;Austin American-Statesman;San Antonio Express-News(Oct 2020); Life & Letters(June 2018); Dallas Morning-News,Houston Chronicle(March 2017). I’m no longer keeping this up to date as of June 2020; see heatherhouser.com for full, current list of pubs.
Infowhelm https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/09-30-20-Texas-Infowhelm.mp3
Scanning social media or news feeds, you’ve probably experienced “infowhelm.” This isn’t simply information overload. It includes a cocktail of emotions brought on by a deluge of data that’s often contested by those in power and whose stakes are enormous.
I first took note of infowhelm in the context of environmental crises like climate change. Daily life as a media consumer is now suffused with statistics on everything from carbon dioxide emissions to the health effects of air pollution on people of color. Currently, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, abundant, contested, and urgent data are more prevalent than ever.
What does art have to do with this experience of infowhelm? Studying environmental literature and visual art from the twenty-first century, I’ve discovered that artists don’t just document the experience of data abundance; they turn it into a resource for bringing the arts and sciences together to produce knowledge. When addressing issues like climate crisis, it’s customary to turn to the natural sciences and to seek out technological solutions. The art of the infowhelm instead incorporates scientific information in order to propose that complex crises require “entangled epistemologies”: these are ways of knowing that mingle scientific data and explanations with those rooted in the body and emotion and in states of ambiguity, speculation, and uncertainty.
Integrating such varied ways of knowing, the arts go beyond communicating stories about crises. They instead overhaul perception, feeling, and thought, the crucial foundations for social and environmental renewal.
The post Heather Houser, University of Texas at Austin – Infowhelm appeared first on The Academic Minute.
What makes trivial things seem special to someone?
Jacqueline Rifkin, assistant professor of marketing at the University of Missouri Kansas City, looks into this question.
Jacqueline Rifkin is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at UMKC’s Henry W. Bloch School of Management. Jacqueline earned her Ph.D. in Business Administration in the area of marketing at Duke University and her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. Jacqueline is interested in consumer psychology and consumer well-being. Her research explores how marketing and consumption affect well-being on both an individual and societal level. She is currently exploring how consumers manage their resources–their time, money, and experiences–and the impact this has on decision-making and well-being. Her research has been published in Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing, and Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, and has been featured in popular press outlets including Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, NPR, Der Spiegel, and Swedish Public Radio.
How Nonconsumption Can Turn Ordinary Items into Perceived Treasures https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/12-02-21-UMKC-How-Nonconsumption-Can-Turn-Ordinary-Items-into-Perceived-Treasures.mp3
A brief glance in one’s closet or pantry reveals that people own numerous products that they never use. Not only is this wasteful, it can create clutter. Clutter is both common and harmful, creating significant stress and strain in people’s lives. So, why do people continually fail to use their possessions, and what does this have to do with clutter?
In six experiments, my coauthor Jonah Berger and I uncovered one important reason why people can accumulate so many ordinary possessions without ever using them: nonconsumption, or the act of not using something.
We found that when people decide not to use something at one point in time – for whatever reason – if you believe that you were waiting to use it, the possession will start to feel more special. And as it feels more special, they want to protect it and are less likely to want to use it in the future. Specifically, you’ll want to use it LESS in ordinary occasions, and MORE in extraordinary occasions. But as you search for the right occasion day after day, it becomes more tempting to hold out for an even BETTER future occasion. The less you use it, though, the more special it feels, and the cycle continues. The more this happens, the more stuff you have lying around, and the more clutter piles on.
This cycle of less and less usage, and more and more perceived specialness – which we call a “specialness spirals”- offers one explanation for how possessions accumulate into clutter: by encouraging people to repeatedly avoid using their possessions, holding out for a future special occasion that may never arise.
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Are highly creative people more prone to madness?
Mark Canada, professor of English at Indiana University Kokomo, explores the brain to find out.
Mark Canada, Ph.D., is Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Professor of English at Indiana University Kokomo. A longtime champion of student success, he was a leading participant in the national Re-Imagining the First Year project, sponsored by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. At IU Kokomo, he leads the KEY, an experiential-learning initiative that provides all students with opportunities to learn through internships, retreats, research, community projects, and educational trips to businesses, museums, and natural and historic settings in Chicago, Louisville, Detroit, New York, Yellowstone National Park, Disney World, Silicon Valley, and other destinations. A professor of American literature, he spent many years in the classroom at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, where he was a recipient of the University of North Carolina Board of Governors Award for Excellence in Teaching. His six books include Edgar Allan Poe: Master of Horror (forthcoming from Audible), Thomas Wolfe Remembered (University of Alabama Press, 2018), Introduction to Information Literacy for Students (Wiley, 2017), and Literature and Journalism in Antebellum America (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011). His articles on student success, truth in the media, Henry David Thoreau, Rebecca Harding Davis, Theodore Dreiser, Edgar Allan Poe, and other subjects have appeared in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Change, The Academic Minute, The Conversation, Southern Cultures, American Literary ReaMark Canada, Indiana University Kokomo – Poe In His Right Mindlism, Edgar Allan Poe in Context, and other outlets.
Mobile communications cover the entire island cityscapes, and mountainous areas are no exception. For travelers wishing to stay in touch, local operators offer the tarjeta prepago contactless SIM card. It requires replenishment as needed, the service package is standard: calls, SMS, Internet. The largest operators are Vodafone, Orange, Yoigo, Movistar, Lebara is famous for its cheap tariffs. The prevailing information on the Internet about poor Wi-Fi in Tenerife is about to become obsolete. While quite recently the coverage deficit was obvious, today the situation is changing rapidly, although the connection speed still leaves much to be desired. Wi-Fi is available in most hotels and restaurants; in 2016, several public transport stops became hotspots. For occasional access to the Network, you can use the services of Internet cafes, there are many of them on the island.
Poe In His Right Mind https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/12-22-20-Indiana-U-Kokomo-Poe-In-His-Right-Mind.mp3
Artists have long been considered, well, different. Writers, painters, and musicians tend to awe, even unnerve us. Some of these creative types have embraced this image of the eccentric outsider. After all, as Emily Dickinson put it, “Much Madness is divinest Sense.”
Is there something different about artists? Modern science allows us to go beyond our impressions and identify possible factors that distinguish highly creative people. In my research on that most outre of artists, Edgar Allan Poe, I have used the modern model of the divided brain to explain his method and effect on readers.
Poe showed a remarkable predilection for functions and inclinations associated with the right sides of our brains. “The Pit and the Pendulum,” “The Masque of the Red Death,” and other works teem with striking, often surreal images, as well as appeals to negative emotions (particularly horror and grief). Some portray characters sabotaging themselves, much as Poe did in his own life when he picked fights and blew opportunities.
In light of these parallels, I believe that Poe’s right brain played a crucial role in his life and literature. Poe, who wrote of the “poetical portion” of his brain and claimed to have drawn literary material from his dreams, discovered a way to reach our right brains by mining and employing his own.
Perhaps artists are not mad after all. Maybe they are the ones in their right minds.
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What happened on Easter Island?
Robert DiNapoli, post-doctoral research associate in the environmental studies program at Binghamton University, says reality may be different than long thought.
Лучше всего то, что большинство этих наборов поставляется с инструкциями, в которых подробно описано, как использовать входящие в комплект продукты. В конце концов необычные подарки парню своими руками, они разработаны так, чтобы быть простыми, и их совместное использование – идеальный способ узнать об уходе за кожей, построив распорядок, который подойдет вам. Если вы хотите решить конкретную проблемную область, обратите внимание на набор, предназначенный для решения этой проблемы. В противном случае позвольте им служить первой контрольной точкой на вашем пути к новому вам. Так что в этот праздничный сезон подарите себе подарок, который будет дарить: новый рутинный уход за кожей. Поверьте, ваше лицо скажет вам спасибо.
Robert DiNapoli is an archaeologist who uses computational modeling and geospatial methods to study the interaction between human populations and the environment. His primary research focuses on the island societies of Polynesia, in particular questions surrounding ancient migrations, demographic patterns, emergence of social complexity, and sustainable resource use.
Easter Island Myths https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/11-30-21-Binghamton-Easter-Island-Myths.mp3
You probably know this story, or a version of it: On Easter Island, the people cut down every tree, perhaps to make fields for agriculture or to erect giant statues to honor their clans. This foolish decision led to a catastrophic collapse, with only a few thousand remaining to witness the first European boats landing on their remote shores in 1722.
But did the demographic collapse at the core of the Easter Island myth really happen? Traditional populations tend to be extremely conservative and avoid change unless there’s a good reason for it. After all, making the wrong decisions can have dire consequences.
Easter Island is often seen as a place where people made irrational decisions that led to their own demise. That turns out not to be the case — and not just on the statue front.
Using radiocarbon dating, we have determined that the island actually experienced steady population growth from its initial settlement until European contact in 1722. After that date, two models show a possible population plateau, while another two models show possible decline.
In short, there is no evidence that the islanders used the now-vanished palm trees for food, a key point of many collapse myths. Current research shows that deforestation was prolonged and didn’t result in catastrophic erosion; the trees were ultimately replaced by gardens mulched with stone that increased agricultural productivity. During times of drought, the people may have relied on freshwater coastal seeps.
Construction of the moai statues, considered by some to be a contributing factor of collapse, actually continued even after European arrival.
In short, the island never had more than a few thousand people prior to European contact, and their numbers were increasing rather than dwindling, research shows.
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Who does the best job of managing forests sustainably?
David Bray, professor in the department of earth and environment at Florida International University, says it might not be who you expect.
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David Barton Bray is a professor in the Earth and Environment Department at Florida International University (FIU) in Miami. He carries out research on community forest management in Mexico and Central America. He has taught at Tulane University in New Orleans, worked in international development for the Inter-American Foundation in Arlington VA, and since 1997 has been at FIU. He has received research funding from the Fulbright Program, the Ford Foundation, the Hewlett Foundation, the Tinker Foundation, and the US Agency for International Development. He has also consulted for the MacArthur Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. He is the lead editor of the book The Community Forests of Mexico (University of Texas Press, 2005) and is widely published in academic journals, as well as the New York Times and the Miami Herald. He has been invited to give presentations on research by himself and colleagues for high-level Chinese forestry officials in Beijing, the World Bank in Washington, D.C., and Mexico City, the Secretary of the Environment and Natural Resources of Mexico, and at Yale University, among other venues. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of Ecologic, a Cambridge, MA NGO. In November, 2020 he published In November 2020, he published Mexico’s Community Forest Enterprises: Success on the Commons and the Seeds of a Good Anthropocene.
Mexico’s Community Forests https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/11-29-21-FIU-Mexicos-Community-Forests.mp3
In a June 2021 report, U.N. climate change and biodiversity experts urged nations to establish strict protected areas and govern forests through what they called “locally adjusted sustainable management practices” as strategies to confront both the encroaching devastations of climate change and biodiversity loss.
In my research I find Mexican community forests are the world’s best model of local sustainable management, and still too little known, even by major scientific organizations.
Mexico’s forests, among the most biodiverse in the world, provide winter refuge for monarch butterflies and habitat for jaguars and over 700 species of birds. In Mexico, communities own around 60% of the nation’s forests. Over the decades, government reformers provided support and communities seized the opportunity with entrepreneurial vigor. Cutting down trees may seem a counterintuitive way to slow climate change and species loss, but in Mexico some 1,600 communities sustainably log over 17 million acres of forest.
Community forests in tropical Quintana Roo have lower deforestation rates than parks, and preserve habitat for wintering migratory birds. In the Sierra Norte of Oaxaca, 23 communities have a total area of over 500,000 acres, 78% of it forested for sustainable production and conservation. Over a 20-year period the thickly forested biodiverse landscape of Sierra Norte also produced 3 million metric tons of timber and carbon. By storing carbon in long-lasting products like furniture and construction, sustainably managed forests capture more carbon that strictly conserved forests.
Mexico’s community forests are a market-oriented strategy to stop deforestation and conserve biodiversity, successful despite some impacts from organized crime. If the results achieved in Mexico were more widely known, they could help convince other governments that promoting community forestry can deliver political stability, poverty reduction and a more livable climate.
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This Week on The Academic Minute 2021.11.29
Monday, November 29th David Bray, professor in the department of earth and environment at Florida International University, says it might not be who you expect.
In terms of the number of casinos, Florida may well compete with such gambling giants as https://casinopinups.com/. The natural features of the state allow for the operation of a huge number of floating gambling houses. Florida has such cruise establishments as Big M Casino, numerous clubs belonging to the Carnival and Celebrity Cruises chains.
Tuesday, November 30th Robert DiNapoli, post-doctoral research associate in the environmental studies program at Binghamton University, explores the long standing myths of Easter Island.
Wednesday, December 1st Mark Canada, professor of English at Indiana University Kokomo, explores if highly creative people are more prone to madness.
Thursday, December 2nd Jacqueline Rifkin, assistant professor of marketing at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, looks into what makes trivial possessions special for some.
Friday, December 3rd Heather Houser, associate professor of English at the University of Texas at Austin, explores how art can help bring renewal to our senses.
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The Academic Minute from 11.22 – 11.26 Monday, November 22ndKerry Whigham – Binghamton UniversityReparations
Kerry Whigham is Assistant Professor of Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention at Binghamton University’s Institute for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention (I-GMAP). He received a Ph.D. in Performance Studies from New York University. He has published articles in Genocide Studies and Prevention, The Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies, Public Administration Review, Tourist Studies, Material Culture, and Museum and Society, and has written chapters for several edited volumes. His first book, Resonant Violence: Affect, Memory, and Activism in Post-Genocide Socities, will be published in 2021 by Rutgers University Press. He is the Communications Officer and a member of the executive board for the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS). He is also the curator of Artivism, an art exhibition on the connection between art, activism, and atrocity prevention that began in Venice during the 2019 Art Biennale and is now traveling to museums around the world.
Tuesday, November 23rdMark Stelzner – Connecticut CollegeThe Intensity of Slavery and the Birth of Modern Capitalism
For the last few years, Mark Stelzner has been working on better understanding income inequality in the United States. He has conducted research on the evolution of labor laws during the Gilded Age and over the last forty years, the relationship between labor laws and inequality, the income shares of top earners in the late 1860s, the connection between support for workers and technological change, the evolution of antitrust administration since the 1960s, the link between inequality and politics, the connection between monopsony power and wage discrimination between like workers of different race, ethnicities, and gender groups, and the degree to which Americans have overpaid for private medical care. His work has been featured in the Economist, the Nation, the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, the Center for American Progress, History, and other venues.
Wednesday, November 24th
Blake Alexander Simmons – Boston UniversitySocial and Environmental Risks of China’s Overseas Development
Dr. Blake Alexander Simmons is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Boston University’s Global Development Policy Center. He is an interdisciplinary conservation scientist with an interest in how economic, political, and psychological factors influence environmental outcomes in social-ecological systems. His current research is investigating the impacts of China’s Belt and Road Initiative on biodiversity and Indigenous peoples.
Thursday, November 25thChris Impey – University of ArizonaThe Dark Ages of the Universe
Chris Impey is a University Distinguished Professor of Astronomy at the University of Arizona. He has 210 refereed publications on observational cosmology, galaxies, and quasars, and his research has been supported by $20 million in NASA and NSF grants. He has won eleven teaching awards and has taught three online classes with over 350,000 enrolled and 5 million minutes of video lectures watched. Chris Impey is a past Vice President of the American Astronomical Society, and he has won its career Education Prize. He’s also been NSF Distinguished Teaching Scholar, Carnegie Council’s Arizona Professor of the Year, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor. He has written 80 popular articles on cosmology, astrobiology and education, two textbooks, a novel called Shadow World, and nine popular science books: The Living Cosmos, How It Ends, Talking About Life, How It Began, Dreams of Other Worlds, Humble Before the Void, Beyond: The Future of Space Travel, Einstein’s Monsters: The Life and Times of Black Holes, and an upcoming book on exoplanets, Worlds Without End.
Friday, November 26thBen McCall – University of DaytonModernity is Incompatible with Planetary Limits
Ben McCall, a professor of sustainability and executive director at the Hanley Sustainability Institute at the University of Dayton, is a founding member of the Planetary Limits Academic Network to promote the understanding of planetary limits, envision scenarios for humanity to thrive within planetary limits, better educate college students about these challenges, and advise government officials and communities in developing effective responses. Other founding members include Tom Murphy, professor of physics at the University of California at San Diego; David Murphy, associate professor and department chair of environmental studies at St. Lawrence University; Melody LeHew, a professor of interior design and fashion studies at Kansas State University; and Tom Love, professor emeritus of anthropology at Linfield University.
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Our current rate of energy use cannot go on forever.
Ben McCall, professor of sustainability at the University of Dayton, looks for solutions.
Ben McCall, a professor of sustainability and executive director at the Hanley Sustainability Institute at the University of Dayton, is a founding member of the Planetary Limits Academic Network to promote the understanding of planetary limits, envision scenarios for humanity to thrive within planetary limits, better educate college students about these challenges, and advise government officials and communities in developing effective responses. Other founding members include Tom Murphy, professor of physics at the University of California at San Diego; David Murphy, associate professor and department chair of environmental studies at St. Lawrence University; Melody LeHew, a professor of interior design and fashion studies at Kansas State University; and Tom Love, professor emeritus of anthropology at Linfield University.
At the University of Dayton, McCall works to improve the sustainability of campus operations, advance sustainability education, promote sustainability research and scholarship, and engage the broader Dayton community in sustainability and resilience planning.
Prior to joining UD, McCall converted his homestead to net-zero energy, using solar photovoltaics, wind turbines, and a European-style masonry heater fueled by sustainably harvested firewood, and spearheaded climate action planning at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Modernity is Incompatible with Planetary Limits https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/11-26-21-Dayton-Modernity-is-Incompatible-with-Planetary-Limits.mp3
To individual humans, the earth seems inconceivably large, and chock-full of resources. However, earth’s resources are finite, and human demand is beginning to strain the supply.
We call these “Planetary limits” to the scale of the human endeavor, which define the boundaries on our planet’s ability to provide resources.
I am part of a research team who founded the planetary limits academic network.
We recently published an analysis of the impact of limits on human systems, finding that at humanity’s current rate of energy growth, the earth’s surface would reach the boiling point of water in 400 years — a clear example of exceeding those planetary limits.
While we often think of climate change and resource depletion as technological problems, these are merely symptoms of a larger predicament — our ever-increasing use of energy and other resources driven by our expectations for growth, and the expectations of our economic system.
But even the founders of economics recognized that earth’s resources are finite and that growth is but a transient phase.
Think of it this way, early flying machines invariably crashed despite an exhilarating brief flight because they were simply not built according to the principles of sustainable flight.
Likewise, our economic system is not built on principles for sustainable operation.
We all are a product of our times where new, shiny, better and more, more more seem normal, but that’s only a reflection of the abnormal period of the last century or so, as we spend down our earthly inheritance.
Only by budgeting to live within planetary limits can human society enjoy a long and fulfilling future.
We really cannot expect a jetson’s-like future of flying cars. But through intentional planning, we can hope to do better than a future that looks more like the Flintstones.
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A new telescope could tell us a lot more about the origins of our universe.
Chris Impey, university distinguished professor in the department of astronomy at the University of Arizona, looks into the lens for more.
Chris Impey is a University Distinguished Professor of Astronomy at the University of Arizona. He has 210 refereed publications on observational cosmology, galaxies, and quasars, and his research has been supported by $20 million in NASA and NSF grants. He has won eleven teaching awards and has taught three online classes with over 350,000 enrolled and 5 million minutes of video lectures watched. Chris Impey is a past Vice President of the American Astronomical Society, and he has won its career Education Prize. He’s also been NSF Distinguished Teaching Scholar, Carnegie Council’s Arizona Professor of the Year, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor. He has written 80 popular articles on cosmology, astrobiology and education, two textbooks, a novel called Shadow World, and nine popular science books: The Living Cosmos, How It Ends, Talking About Life, How It Began, Dreams of Other Worlds, Humble Before the Void, Beyond: The Future of Space Travel, Einstein’s Monsters: The Life and Times of Black Holes, and an upcoming book on exoplanets, Worlds Without End.
The Dark Ages of the Universe https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/11-25-21-Arizona-The-Dark-Ages-of-the-Universe.mp3
We might soon be able to learn more about the Dark Ages of the Universe. Astronomers have accumulated a lot of evidence that our universe began with an event 14 billion years ago called the big bang. From this initial ultra-hot, ultra-dense origin, the universe has expanded to reach the vast and cold state we see today.
The early universe was a glowing fireball, a high-energy particle “soup” with no structure. As it faded to black, the universe entered a long Dark Ages. But it was not perfectly smooth, and tiny ripples in density were the seeds for the subsequent formation of stars and galaxies. Astronomers call this First Light. We don’t know how long the Dark Ages lasted, but it was probably several hundred million years.
Enter the James Webb Space Telescope. This successor to the Hubble Space Telescope is due for launch in December and it was perfectly designed to nail down the end of the Dark Ages. James Webb is many years behind schedule, billions of dollars over budget, and an extremely complicated piece of hardware, so astronomers await its launch with nervous anticipation. It will collect seven times more light than the Hubble Space Telescope, and its detectors are optimized to detect infrared light, the wavelength range of distant galaxy light after it has been stretched by the expansion of space.
Pinning down the end of the Dark Ages will let astronomers answer several important questions in cosmology. Which formed first, stars or galaxies? Was there an early generation of black holes, and did galaxies nucleate around them? And what was the role of dark matter, a ubiquitous but still enigmatic ingredient of the universe, in the timing of the end of the Dark Ages?
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China is developing rapidly, even outside its borders.
Blake Alexander Simmons, postdoctoral research fellow at Boston University, determines how China’s foreign projects could have huge impacts.
Dr. Blake Alexander Simmons is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Boston University’s Global Development Policy Center. He is an interdisciplinary conservation scientist with an interest in how economic, political, and psychological factors influence environmental outcomes in social-ecological systems. His current research is investigating the impacts of China’s Belt and Road Initiative on biodiversity and Indigenous peoples.
Social and Environmental Risks of China’s Overseas Development https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/11-24-21-Boston-Social-and-Environmental-Risks-of-Chinas-Overseas-Development.mp3
Over the last 10 years, China has become one of the world’s largest sources of international development finance, providing nearly half a trillion dollars to countries around the world seeking funding for their infrastructure needs. Whether it’s roads, power plants, or ports, this massive investment effort has the potential to bring major benefits to borrowing countries and the global economy.
However, concerns remain over the potential impacts of such rapid development activities on vulnerable ecosystems and communities. Development can be a catalyst for environmental degradation, and these activities are often approved without the consent of Indigenous communities whose livelihoods and natural resources may be jeopardized by development.
Recently, our team mapped the locations of nearly 600 of these development projects financed by Chinese policy banks since 2008, and we found that 63% carry considerable risks to protected areas, potential critical habitats for conservation, and/or Indigenous lands. These projects are so expansive that they may impact up to one-fourth of the world’s threatened amphibians, birds, mammals, and reptiles.
But China isn’t the only funding source for countries’ development needs. The World Bank has been the traditional leader in overseas development finance. When we compared the World Bank’s portfolio of development projects to China’s, we found that China’s projects tend to carry greater risks to these sensitive areas, particularly for projects in the energy sector.
Unlike the World Bank, China has yet to adopt social and environmental safeguards into their policies for overseas lending that could increase the sustainability and inclusivity of the projects they fund. Chinese and international experts are now progressing recommendations that could help China avoid and mitigate these risks, creating a more sustainable and inclusive outlook for future development.
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A short-term mindset can have ample benefits, but at what cost?
Mark Stelzner, assistant professor of economics at Connecticut College, examines.
For the last few years, Mark Stelzner has been working on better understanding income inequality in the United States. He has conducted research on the evolution of labor laws during the Gilded Age and over the last forty years, the relationship between labor laws and inequality, the income shares of top earners in the late 1860s, the connection between support for workers and technological change, the evolution of antitrust administration since the 1960s, the link between inequality and politics, the connection between monopsony power and wage discrimination between like workers of different race, ethnicities, and gender groups, and the degree to which Americans have overpaid for private medical care. His work has been featured in the Economist, the Nation, the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, the Center for American Progress, History, and other venues.
The Intensity of Slavery and the Birth of Modern Capitalism https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/11-23-21-Connecticut-College-The-Intensity-of-Slavery-and-the-Birth-of-Modern-Capitalism.mp3
Between 1801 and 1862, the average amount of cotton picked per day by enslaved workers increased from 28 to 114 pounds. This represents an increase in productivity per enslaved worker of 2.3 percent per year, on par with the increase in output per worker in industrializing England. The only difference in the antebellum South is that there were no changes in machine technology used in cotton-picking.
From analysis of plantation records and agricultural and population census records, my co-author and I seek to identify the source of increase field-hand productivity. We find significant evidence that most slaveowners had a short-term mindset, focusing on the number of bags of cotton they could raise per worker. When slaveowners hired overseers to supervise their enslaved workers, they created a number of incentives for the overseer to maintain a strict regime of discipline to push workers to produce the largest amount possible. As news of others extracting more output passed from farm to farm, expectations of output per enslaved worker increased.
Additionally, when looking at data on cotton output over more than 5,000 plantations in 1860, we find that the existence of a hired overseer leads to an increase in output per enslaved worker of around 30 percent even after controlling for the number of improved acres, livestock, size of the plantation, the quality of soil, and other factors. Finally, in the decade before the Civil War, we find the degree to which planters hired outside overseers increased dramatically, faster than increases in the enslaved population.
Consequently, pushing workers to labor more intensely through increased supervision and application of torture was an important factor in understanding the increase in productivity of enslaved workers in antebellum America. This means that the birth of modern capitalism coexisted and actually intensified slavery, and that more generally, the two can be in complete harmony economically.
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Dealing with the past can be crucial to moving forward.
Kerry Whigham, assistant professor of genocide and mass atrocity at Binghamton University, has one example.
Kerry Whigham is Assistant Professor of Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention at Binghamton University’s Institute for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention (I-GMAP). He received a Ph.D. in Performance Studies from New York University. He has published articles in Genocide Studies and Prevention, The Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies, Public Administration Review, Tourist Studies, Material Culture, and Museum and Society, and has written chapters for several edited volumes. His first book, Resonant Violence: Affect, Memory, and Activism in Post-Genocide Socities, will be published in 2021 by Rutgers University Press. He is the Communications Officer and a member of the executive board for the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS). He is also the curator of Artivism, an art exhibition on the connection between art, activism, and atrocity prevention that began in Venice during the 2019 Art Biennale and is now traveling to museums around the world.
In addition to his academic work, he is the Director of Research and Online Education at the Auschwitz Institute for the Prevention of Genocide and Mass Atrocities, an international non-governmental organization that works with over 80 countries around the world on creating public policy for the protection of vulnerable groups and the prevention of mass atrocities.
Formerly, he has been a Postdoctoral Research and Teaching Fellow at Binghamton University’s I-GMAP, a Postdoctoral Researcher at Columbia University’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights, a member of the faculty consortium for Stockton University’s graduate certificate program in genocide prevention, a visiting scholar at Rutgers University’s Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights, and the managing editor of emisférica, a biannual, trilingual, peer-reviewed journal on performance and politics in the Americas, published by the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics. He has taught courses at New York University, Kean University, and Stockton University. His work has been presented at academic conferences and universities in five continents.
Kerry’s research focuses on the way post-atrocity societies remember and engage with the past, along with how that violent past impacts the present and future. In particular, his research engages the creation and curation of public memory sites, as well as grassroots, civil society activism, both as a means for shaping public memory and transforming post-conflict societies. As part of this work, Kerry has conducted field research across Latin America, Europe, and the United States.
Reparations https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/11-22-21-Binghamton-Reparations.mp3
In the United States, reparations initiatives relating to the country’s history of slavery and its enduring impacts are gaining traction. In April 2021, the US House of Representatives voted to advance House Resolution 40, a bill to establish a commission to explore reparations for Black Americans. In July 2020, the city council of Asheville, North Carolina, voted in favor of providing reparations funding to its Black residents. A growing number of American universities are also reckoning with their own past involvement in the enslavement of people by initiating reparations programs.
Reparations in response to past atrocities are not a new idea. For years, they have been used as a tool for dealing with past human rights abuses all over the world, from Cambodia to Chile, Argentina to South Africa. With a few exceptions, most of these cases have occurred in the so-called Global South. Recently, however, countries in the Global North have begun to use these tools to an increasing degree.
But in many cases, these initiatives are ignoring the lessons learned and failing to apply many of the best practices from past initiatives, to damaging effect.
The most important thing to remember about reparations is that they are always about more than the money. Reparations serve an economic, political, and social function, and if those crafting a reparative strategy do not attend to all these components, their policy is unlikely to achieve what it intends. Furthermore, an international consensus has developed that reparations should only be one pillar, however essential, of a much more complex process of dealing with the past. If reparations occur without following these lessons learned and without being complemented by other initiatives, like truth commissions and large-scale institutional reform, they will fail to live up to the aspirations that many have for them.
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This Week on The Academic Minute 2021.11.22
Monday, November 22nd Kerry Whigham, assistant professor of genocide and mass atrocity at Binghamton University, examines how dealing with the past can be crucial to moving forward.
Tuesday, November 23rd Mark Stelzner, assistant professor of economics at Connecticut College, details the intensity of slavery and the birth of modern capitalism.
Wednesday, November 24th Blake Alexander Simmons, postdoctoral research fellow at Boston University, determines how China’s foreign projects could have huge impacts.
Thursday, November 25th Chris Impey, university distinguished professor in the department of astronomy at the University of Arizona, looks into how a telescope can tell us more about the beginning of the universe.
Friday, November 26th Ben McCall, professor of sustainability at the University of Dayton, determines our current rate of energy usage cannot go on forever.
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The Academic Minute from 11.15 – 11.19 Monday, November 15thKarla Vermeulen – SUNY New PaltzThe Post 9/11 Generation’s Safety Perceptions
Karla Vermeulen is an Associate Professor of Psychology and the Deputy Director of the Institute for Disaster Mental Health at the State University of New York at New Paltz. She is the author of three books, most recently Generation Disaster: Coming of Age Post-9/11 from Oxford University Press.
Tuesday, November 16thArt Markman – University of Texas at AustinCoherence, Belief Change, and Convincing Other People
Art Markman is the Annabel Irion Worsham Centennial Professor of Psychology and Marketing and Vice Provost of Continuing and Professional Education and New Education Ventures at the University of Texas at Austin. He has written over 150 papers on topics including reasoning, decision making, and motivation. He brings insights from cognitive science to a broader audience through his blogs at Psychology Today and Fast Company and his radio show/podcast Two Guys on Your Head. Art is the author of several books including Smart Thinking, Smart Change, Brain Briefs, and Bring Your Brain to Work.
Wednesday, November 17th
Alexis Redding – Harvard UniversityFrom College to Career: A Mentorship Model for Student Success
Dr. Alexis Redding is the Faculty Co-Chair of Higher Education & a lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is an expert in the college experience and teaches graduate courses in college student development, student affairs, and ethnography. In addition to her research and teaching, she has mentored students in both the United States and Europe for more than two decades.
Thursday, November 18thFarah Shamout – NYU Abu DhabiArtificial Intelligence for the Detection of Deterioration Among COVID-19 Patients
Farah Shamout is an Assistant Professor Emerging Scholar in Computer Engineering at NYU Abu Dhabi, where she leads the Clinical Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Her research expertise is in data science and machine learning for healthcare, data analytics for large-scale multi-modal data, and model interpretability. Her projects focus on real-world clinical problems to inform decision-making, including patient prognosis and diagnosis using electronic health records and medical imaging. Prior to joining NYU Abu Dhabi, Farah completed her doctoral studies (DPhil) in Engineering Science at the University of Oxford on the Rhodes Scholarship.
Friday, November 19thMichael C. White – University of ConnecticutInflammation Can Change Your Drugs Impact on Your Body
Michael White, Pharm.D. is a Distinguished Professor and Chair at the UConn School of Pharmacy. His research interests are in drug, dietary supplement, and substances of abuse safety and effectiveness. His over 400 publications in biomedical journals have been cited over 14,000 times and covered by major media television, radio, newspaper, and internet sites. He has received national awards from the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, and the American College of Clinical Pharmacy.
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C. Michael White on March 15, 2019. (Sean Flynn/UConn Photo)
Inflammation can change how your body works with certain drugs.
Michael C. White, distinguished professor and chair of pharmacy practice at the University of Connecticut, explains.
Michael White, Pharm.D. is a Distinguished Professor and Chair at the UConn School of Pharmacy. His research interests are in drug, dietary supplement, and substances of abuse safety and effectiveness. His over 400 publications in biomedical journals have been cited over 14,000 times and covered by major media television, radio, newspaper, and internet sites. He has received national awards from the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, and the American College of Clinical Pharmacy.
Inflammation Can Change Your Drugs Impact on Your Body https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/11-19-21-Connecticut-Inflammation-Can-Change-How-Your-Drugs-Impact-Your-Body.mp3
In our research, our group assessed the impact that inflammation from a new infection or underlying disease such as rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, or inflammatory bowel disease can have on how readily your body can break down medications; a process called drug metabolism. The drugs we assessed are broken down by special liver enzymes called the cytochrome P450 system. We found that when a new infection or other inflammatory disorder starts, that people are less able to break down drugs metabolized by this system. This is because the liver has a hard time multitasking and the need to respond to the infection or inflammatory disorder makes it less able to make these enzymes. Conversely, once the infection passes or people start to take drugs that can block those chronic inflammatory disorders, the liver ramps up its ability to break down drugs back to the normal level. While many drugs are affected by inflammation, the impact on most people will be modest or not noticeable. However, in some people, serious issues can arise. People with asthma, organ transplant, schizophrenia, and epilepsy are at greater risk of having side effects when a new infection or inflammatory flare up occurs, and the dose may need to be adjusted. Similarly, when a biological drug is used to suppress chronic inflammation, a drug the patient was on for a long time might not work as well and the dose may be adjusted. So if you notice changes in how well your medications are working for you when you get an infection of inflammatory flare up, the issue may not be in your head, it might be… in your liver.
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Can artificial intelligence help us in the fight against COVID-19?
Farah Shamout, assistant professor emerging scholar in computer engineering at NYU Abu Dhabi, finds out.
Farah Shamout is an Assistant Professor Emerging Scholar in Computer Engineering at NYU Abu Dhabi, where she leads the Clinical Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Her research expertise is in data science and machine learning for healthcare, data analytics for large-scale multi-modal data, and model interpretability. Her projects focus on real-world clinical problems to inform decision-making, including patient prognosis and diagnosis using electronic health records and medical imaging. Prior to joining NYU Abu Dhabi, Farah completed her doctoral studies (DPhil) in Engineering Science at the University of Oxford on the Rhodes Scholarship.
Artificial Intelligence for the Detection of Deterioration Among COVID-19 Patients https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/11-18-21-NYU-Abu-Dhabi-Artificial-Intelligence-For-The-Detection-of-Deterioration-Among-COVID-19-Patients.mp3
The spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 has led to a surge in patients presenting to the emergency department with respiratory illness. This overload, on an already strained healthcare system, emphasizes the need for automated triage that can support decision-making by predicting the risk of patient deterioration. Traditionally, early warning score systems have mainly relied on processing physiological variables, and do not leverage the vast amounts of imaging data that contain relevant information regarding the degree of illness. In our work, we developed an explainable artificial intelligence system that predicts the risk of deterioration by fusing information in chest X-ray images and routine non-imaging data. To ensure that the artificial intelligence system is clinically meaningful, computer scientists and machine learning engineers collaborated closely with radiologists and front-line physicians to define and design the tasks of the artificial intelligence system, as well as extract and curate the data from the hospital’s complex medical records. Based on that, we defined the risk for intubation, admission to the intensive care unit, or mortality within 24-96 hours as the system’s predicted outputs, at the time of patient assessment. Upon evaluation, the imaging deep learning system performed on par with two human radiologists with 3 and 17 years of experience. The best performance of the artificial intelligence system was also achieved by combining imaging and non-imaging information, illustrating the benefits of multi-modal learning in healthcare. Overall, this research highlights the potential of artificial intelligence in supporting decision-making especially in pandemic hot spots with limited resources.
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Mentors are key for the post-collegiate transition.
Alexis Redding, lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, suggests the types of mentors to seek out.
Dr. Alexis Redding is the Faculty Co-Chair of Higher Education & a lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is an expert in the college experience and teaches graduate courses in college student development, student affairs, and ethnography. In addition to her research and teaching, she has mentored students in both the United States and Europe for more than two decades.
From College to Career: A Mentorship Model for Student Success https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/11-17-21-Harvard-From-College-to-Career-A-Mentorship-Model-for-Student-Success.mp3
During the college years, as students begin to explore options for their future, new post college pathways often emerge. After the experience of broadening their horizons, narrowing these options and making decisions about the future can be especially challenging. In fact, having an expanded network of professional opportunities can actually intensify the anxiety some students experience during the decision-making process.
Ensuring that students have the right kinds of mentors in place — not simply a range of people playing this role — can help them make a successful transition to the next chapter.
In research on the college experience across generations, conducted with Dr. Nancy Hill at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, we identified three types of mentoring relationships that can better position students to navigate the career search process. These mentors take three forms: mirrors, windows, and guiding lights.
First, mirrors facilitate the self-reflection that is necessary to help students see themselves and their interests more clearly, allowing them to match those interests to career paths. This role is often filled by the people who know students best.
Second, windows are mentors who show students what is possible. They help them to see the range of options in a given field and to examine the reality of what that work might look like through personal narratives or by providing professional experiences.
Third, guiding lights are mentors within the field who provide authentic first-hand knowledge and authoritative insight into how to both prepare and succeed. These mentors help to illuminate the path and translate emerging goals into an action plan.
This model of mentorship accounts for the evolution of students’ decision-making processes and scaffolds their changing needs over time.
Read More:
[Harvard University Press] – The End of Adolescence
[Twitter] – @Prof_Redding
[Twitter] – @ProfNancyHill
[Twitter] – @HGSE and @Harvard
[Twitter] – @Harvard_Press and @HarvardUPLondon
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Differing beliefs are at the forefront of our mind.
Art Markman, professor of psychology and marketing at the University of Texas at Austin, discusses changing minds.
Art Markman is the Annabel Irion Worsham Centennial Professor of Psychology and Marketing and Vice Provost of Continuing and Professional Education and New Education Ventures at the University of Texas at Austin. He has written over 150 papers on topics including reasoning, decision making, and motivation. He brings insights from cognitive science to a broader audience through his blogs at Psychology Today and Fast Company and his radio show/podcast Two Guys on Your Head. Art is the author of several books including Smart Thinking, Smart Change, Brain Briefs, and Bring Your Brain to Work.
Coherence, Belief Change, and Convincing Other People https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/11-16-21-Texas-Coherence-Belief-Change-and-Convincing-Other-People.mp3
The world changes rapidly, and yet people’s beliefs often don’t keep up. You might be puzzled, for example, why people’s attitudes about key world issues like the COVID-19 pandemic stay fixed even as new variants of the virus and other evidence become available.
Many psychological theories suggest people maintain their beliefs based on coherence. The attitudes people express reflect consistency across different experiences and knowledge sources. To this end, people give a lot of weight to information that is consistent with their current beliefs and they discount information that conflicts with those beliefs.
The desire to maintain consistency helps explain why people tend to be skeptical of things that contradict their beliefs, but are less critical of information that comports with their prevailing attitudes. It also explains why people don’t pay much attention to the negatives of options they want to select, even though they may recognize later that they should have considered them more carefully.
Because of this tendency toward coherence, it can feel fruitless to argue with people about their beliefs. Providing them with reasons why they should change their mind is rarely satisfying in the moment. Instead, people appear to dig their heels in.
There is value in having discussions with people you disagree with. Avoid pushing too hard—instead tell a story that weaves together the information that supports your attitudes. The more information you provide supporting an alternative viewpoint, the more weight you give to another coherent view of the world. As the weight of contradictory evidence grows, people may experience a sudden shift in which they now belief as fervently in the position they rejected as they recently believed in the view they now reject. It may not be satisfying for that belief change to happen out of sight, but it can be effective.
Read More:
Smart Thinking
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The effects of 9/11 are still being felt today.
Karla Vermeulen, assistant professor of psychology at SUNY New Paltz, determines how the tragedy changed perceptions for generations.
Karla Vermeulen is an Associate Professor of Psychology and the Deputy Director of the Institute for Disaster Mental Health at the State University of New York at New Paltz. She is the author of three books, most recently Generation Disaster: Coming of Age Post-9/11 from Oxford University Press.
The Post 9/11 Generation’s Safety Perceptions https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/11-15-21-SUNY-New-Paltz-The-Post-9-11-Generations-Safety-Perceptions.mp3
In the wake of the 20th anniversary of the attacks of September 11, 2001, it’s worth noting that many current emerging adults (ages 18 to 29) have no direct memories of that day. However, the attacks and all of the subsequent societal changes shaped the broader environment they grew up in, and for many, those societal conditions have generated concerns about themselves and their communities experiencing additional disasters.
I conducted a thousand-person national survey of emerging adults which was statistically representative in terms of gender and racial/ethnic breakdown, and I included a large proportion of people who had not attended college as that group is often left out of research.
Among my findings, 30% of the participants said they were very or extremely concerned that they’ll be affected by a natural disaster, and 36% said they were very or extremely concerned that they’ll be affected by a human-caused disaster like a terrorist attack or mass shooting. 46% said they were very or extremely concerned that they’ll be affected by climate change.
Overall only about one in five respondents were not at all concerned about these different threats impacting them or their community, suggesting that this is a population with a high level of stress about future disasters.
Additionally, 81% agreed that disasters and accidents can happen to anyone, and the same percentage agreed that people should help each other out in times of need. However, only 26% agreed that the world is generally safe, and just 23% agreed the world is generally fair.
Taken together, these findings suggest a generation of emerging adults who are deeply concerned about threats like school shootings and climate change, with low expectations for safety or fairness. While disheartening, these are perhaps rational reactions to the unsettled post-9/11 world they grew up in.
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This Week on The Academic Minute 2021.11.15
Monday, November 15th Karla Vermeulen, assistant professor of psychology at SUNY New Paltz, determines how the tragedy of 9/11 changed perceptions for generations.
Tuesday, November 16th Art Markman, professor of psychology and marketing at the University of Texas at Austin, discusses changing minds in a polarized world.
Wednesday, November 17th Alexis Redding, lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, suggests the types of mentors to seek out during your higher education journey.
Thursday, November 18th Farah Shamout, assistant professor emerging scholar in computer engineering at NYU Abu Dhabi, finds out if A.I. can help in the fight against COVID-19.
Friday, November 19th Michael C. White, distinguished professor and chair of pharmacy practice at the University of Connecticut, explains how inflammation can change the way your drugs impact on your body.
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The Academic Minute from 11.08 – 11.12 Monday, November 8thAllison Weidhaas – Rider UniversityRed Zone: Sexual Assaults on College Campuses
Allison Weidhaas, PhD, is an associate professor and program director for the Communication master’s programs at Rider University. Weidhaas studies gender and communication, including female business owners and gender-based violence. She has authored academic articles, book chapters, and a book on female business owners and is currently working on a book about women’s sensemaking after drug-facilitated sexual assault. To learn more, you can visit www.icameforward.com.
Tuesday, November 9thDonald Tomaskovic-Devey – UMass AmherstCan We Become an Equal Opportunity Society?
Tomaskovic-Devey studies workplace inequalities in multiple forms. His research utilizes large scale data on workplace employment diversity and discrimination charge processing from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. He has also worked as an expert witness in employment discrimination complaints, has testified before the U.S. Equal Employment Commission and the United States Commission on Civil Rights, and advised the Biden/Harris transition team on employment discrimination enforcement.
Wednesday, November 10th
Mahtab Jafari – University of California IrvineStudent Stress and Mental Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Over the past 25 years, as an educator and scientist, Dr. Mahtab Jafari’s goal has been to inspire her students, family, friends and my community to live healthy lives. Jafari truly believes that scientific work should not stop in the lab and only appear in scientific publications. As a scientist and a professor in the largest public university system in the world, University of California, Jafari feels responsible to share the facts and to separate them from the hype.
Thursday, November 11thJason Warner – United States Military AcademyAfrica: The New Epicenter of Global Terrorism
Dr. Jason Warner is an Assistant Professor at the U.S. Military Academy (West Point) where he also serves as the lead of Africa research in the Combating Terrorism Center (CTC). He is also a Term Member at the Council on Foreign Relations, and serves as an Adjunct Professor at American University’s School of Public Affairs. He is a specialist in African terrorism and security affairs, and African international relations and foreign policy. His current research focuses on the emergence and spread of the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda on the African continent; the tactics of violence that these groups use; and how non-African international states engage the continent, especially in security affairs. He holds a Ph.D. in African Studies from Harvard University.
Friday, November 12thAnthony Scardillo – Mount Saint Mary CollegePreparing Today’s College Students for the Real World
Professor Anthony Scardillo is an award-winning advertising, marketing and business professional with over 30 years’ experience in international, national, regional, state and local advertising, marketing and sales. He completed his Doctor of Management degree from the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH in 2017 and has been teaching at Mount Saint Mary College since that fall. His research focuses on improving the workplace environment by creating fun and engaging cultures for employees. You will often hear him lament “Are We Having Fun Yet!?”
Scardillo, is a member of the American Marketing Association and the Academy of Management. He has also served as President of the Albany Ad Club, Inc., a 400-member association of advertising and marketing professionals in the Capital Region. He is married and has two grown daughters. In his spare time, Scardillo likes to tinker with his 1966 Volkswagen Beetle.
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Higher education costs more than ever, but are students leaving institutions prepared for the workforce?
Anthony Scardillo, assistant professor of marketing at Mount Saint Mary College, checks in to find out.
Professor Anthony Scardillo is an award-winning advertising, marketing and business professional with over 30 years’ experience in international, national, regional, state and local advertising, marketing and sales. He completed his Doctor of Management degree from the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH in 2017 and has been teaching at Mount Saint Mary College since that fall. His research focuses on improving the workplace environment by creating fun and engaging cultures for employees. You will often hear him lament “Are We Having Fun Yet!?”
Scardillo, is a member of the American Marketing Association and the Academy of Management. He has also served as President of the Albany Ad Club, Inc., a 400-member association of advertising and marketing professionals in the Capital Region. He is married and has two grown daughters. In his spare time, Scardillo likes to tinker with his 1966 Volkswagen Beetle.
Preparing Today’s College Students for the Real World https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/11-12-21-Mt.-Saint-Mary-Preparing-Todays-College-Students-for-the-Real-World.mp3
Studies show that since 1990, the cost of a college education has increased nearly 400%. Yet, over 90% of all business executives lament that today’s graduates lack the necessary skills to enter the workforce.
So what’s going on? It’s costing more, yet the students aren’t prepared.
We spoke to College Graduates and their Employers and discovered several key areas that need attention. Among them:
Communication Skills
95% of the Participants agreed that students lacked the ability to communicate – either in writing or verbally.
Organizational Skills
83% of the Participants agreed that students lacked Problem Solving and Critical-Thinking Skills.
We also discovered that over 50% of the Participants believed that completing an internship was a great preparation for the Real World.
While some point fingers at the “Helicopter Parents” and Others fault the schools, we believe that all three parties play a role in crafting a long-term solution.
- The parents must allow their children to do things themselves.
- Colleges need to be teaching the soft-skills necessary for the workplace
- And lastly the college students themselves must be thinking about their next steps.
It is not enough to attend classes and wait to receive your degree. It is up to them to take control of their future long before they walk across the stage in their cap-and-gown.
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There is a new hub of global terrorism.
Jason Warner, assistant professor in the department of social sciences at the U.S. Military Academy, surveys this theater.
Dr. Jason Warner is an Assistant Professor at the U.S. Military Academy (West Point) where he also serves as the lead of Africa research in the Combating Terrorism Center (CTC). He is also a Term Member at the Council on Foreign Relations, and serves as an Adjunct Professor at American University’s School of Public Affairs. He is a specialist in African terrorism and security affairs, and African international relations and foreign policy. His current research focuses on the emergence and spread of the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda on the African continent; the tactics of violence that these groups use; and how non-African international states engage the continent, especially in security affairs. He holds a Ph.D. in African Studies from Harvard University.
Africa: The New Epicenter of Global Terrorism https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/11-11-21-US-Military-Academy-Africa-The-New-Epicenter-of-Global-Terror.mp3
As disaster unfolded in Afghanistan on the twenty-year anniversary of 9/11 earlier this year, another story has been quietly brewing over the last decade: Africa, not the Middle East or South Asia, is the new epicenter for global jihadist terror.
The ascendance of Africa as the theater most beset by jihadist reached a new apex during the summer. At its meeting in June, the Global Coalition to Defeat the Islamic State declared Africa its new priority region and called for global action to combat the group. In July, a UN report noted the “striking development” that Africa has taken center stage as the global region “most affected by terrorism” with the “largest numbers of casualties inflicted by groups designated by the UN.” Indeed, in the last decade alone, jihadist violence on the continent has increased 17-fold. 2020 saw 4,958 violent attacks perpetrated by African jihadist actors. These groups were responsible for 13,000 deaths in the same year.
One of the primary causes for the rise in violence is the implantation of the Islamic State in Africa. Beginning in 2014, African insurgent groups began pledging allegiance to the Islamic State Central — based in Iraq or Syria — to become its official African provinces. To date the Islamic State has six official provinces — two with multiple “wings” — that transverse the continent: in Libya, Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria, Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, Somalia, and newly, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of Congo. While these provinces have sometimes received funding, fighters, and direction from IS Central, they have most typically undertaken violence to pursue local goals. Civilians have experienced unspeakable violence at the hands of such groups; states across the continent are increasingly unstable.
Violence undertaken by jihadist actors in Africa is currently at unprecedented new levels, with no signs of calming down. The global community must ensure that the wave of terrorism sweeping the continent does not go ignored.
Read More:
[Hearst Publishers] – The Islamic State in Africa
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The pandemic has taken a toll on mental health.
Mahtab Jafari, professor in the school of pharmacy & pharmaceutical sciences at the University of California, Irvine, explores the effects.
Over the past 25 years, as an educator and scientist, Dr. Mahtab Jafari’s goal has been to inspire her students, family, friends and my community to live healthy lives. Jafari truly believes that scientific work should not stop in the lab and only appear in scientific publications. As a scientist and a professor in the largest public university system in the world, University of California, Jafari feels responsible to share the facts and to separate them from the hype.
Student Stress and Mental Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/11-10-21-UC-Irvine-Student-Stress-and-Mental-Health-During-COVID-19-Pandemic.mp3
The pandemic’s toll on mental health has especially impacted students, particularly those who have financial and practical barriers to receive mental health treatment, such as low-income students.
A team of researchers at UCI conducted a survey study on about 600 students from UCI and UCLA. What we learned from this work can help us to only be more prepared should another epidemic or pandemic take place but to also help our students now.
We learned that the pandemic has negatively impacted the mental health of 87 percent of our students.
We learned that students want to be involved in decision making processes that would directly impact their lives. They want university administrators to include them in conversations and dialogues so that they can be active agents in the development of ideas and solutions.
We cannot agree more! The most efficient way to learn about our students’ needs is to get them involved in making decisions that impact them by communicating with them and not to them.
Our students also stressed the intersection of mental health, financial support, and academics and the various ways in which these needs overlap to create and exacerbate hardships.
Following the survey and study results, we found that academic institutions should look to develop technology, programs, and services to address the poor mental health pandemic.
Read More:
[PubMed Gov] – COVID-19, stress and mental health: What students expect from academic institutions during a pandemic
The post Mahtab Jafari, University of California Irvine – Student Stress and Mental Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic appeared first on The Academic Minute.
Can we become an equal opportunity society?
Donald Tomaskovic-Devey, professor of sociology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, has more.
Tomaskovic-Devey studies workplace inequalities in multiple forms. His research utilizes large scale data on workplace employment diversity and discrimination charge processing from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. He has also worked as an expert witness in employment discrimination complaints, has testified before the U.S. Equal Employment Commission and the United States Commission on Civil Rights, and advised the Biden/Harris transition team on employment discrimination enforcement.
Can We Become an Equal Opportunity Society? https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/11-09-21-UMass-Amherst-Can-We-Become-an-Equal-Opportunity-Society.mp3
Almost sixty years ago the U.S. Congress passed the Civil Rights Act, which outlawed discrimination in employment.
Social scientists who study law in practice have long known that the simple passage of a law does not produce social change. In the case of the Civil Rights Act, there was massive resistance. Progress was far from assured.
So what happened? In the 60s and 70s, some African Americans got access to better jobs, although progress largely stalled in the 80s when Civil Rights movement pressure waned and political backlashes strengthened. The same was true for gender based progress in employment, although progress started later, and waned in the 90s and 2000s. This is not to say the Civil Rights Act failed, but that in practice change in law requires societal pressure and organizational change to be effective.
In our research we find that while employment discrimination remains widespread today, formal legal complaints are rare and that discrimination charges rarely impact employer behaviors. More commonly employers respond to discrimination complaints as legal threats; work to isolate, retaliate and often fire employees who complain.
How do we achieve the goals of equal opportunity at the heart of the Civil Rights Act? Our research provides strong clues. What is required is political and social pressure that encourages employers to prioritize respectful workplaces and to treat discrimination complaints as opportunities to improve their managerial practices.
If firms embrace these opportunities to improve and respond to calls for greater dignity in employment and racial justice, perhaps we will once again see progress in workplace equity.
Read More:
[The Conversation] – Donald Tomaskovic-Devey
[UMass Amherst] – Who Files Discrimination Charges?
[UMass Amherst] – Center for Employment Equity
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Transitions can be hard on college campuses.
Allison Weidhaas, associate professor and Director of Master in Communication Programs at Rider University, explains why the fall can be particularly hard for some.
Allison Weidhaas, PhD, is an associate professor and program director for the Communication master’s programs at Rider University. Weidhaas studies gender and communication, including female business owners and gender-based violence. She has authored academic articles, book chapters, and a book on female business owners and is currently working on a book about women’s sensemaking after drug-facilitated sexual assault. To learn more, you can visit www.icameforward.com.
Red Zone: Sexual Assaults on College Campuses https://academicminute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/11-08-21-Rider-Red-Zone-Sexual-Assaults-on-College-Campuses.mp3
More than 50 percent of campus sexual assaults will occur between August and Thanksgiving, which is called the red zone, according to PAVE. The beginning of the academic year or the start of a new semester is a period of transition as students develop their peer network and reengage with campus life, and sadly also a heightened time for sexual assaults.
Many college campuses this fall will introduce bystander programs encouraging people to intervene if they see trouble and to watch out for their friends. These interventions can be direct, such as stepping in to stop someone from leading a friend away from a party, or indirect, by getting help from an authority figure.
According to RAINN, the Rape, Assault, Incest National Network, 18-24-year-old women are four times as likely to be the victims of sexual violence, and a mere 20 percent will report it. While a larger percentage of sexual violence is directed at women, RAINN indicates one in 33 men will experience an assault. These statistics are disturbing and worse yet, it’s hard to account for the many people who choose never to report. My research with female victims of sexual assault reveals women experience long-lasting effects and healing is neither a linear process or the same for everyone. Some find solace in therapy, through movement, including workouts and yoga, and advocacy work, which enables them to communicate about what occurred and regain power in the process, but the journey of who to disclose to and when is different for everyone. One of the most powerful things you can do for a survivor is just listen without judgement.
My research underscores the importance of communication as a means of advocacy and healing.
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This Week on The Academic Minute 2021.11.08
Monday, November 8th Allison Weidhaas, associate professor and Director of Master in Communication Programs at Rider University, explains why autumn can be particularly hard for some college students.
Tuesday, November 9th Donald Tomaskovic-Devey, professor of sociology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, wonders if we can become an equal opportunity society.
Wednesday, November 10th Mahtab Jafari, professor in the school of pharmacy & pharmaceutical sciences at the University of California, Irvine, explores the effects the pandemic has taken on mental health.
Thursday, November 11th Jason Warner, assistant professor in the department of social sciences at the U.S. Military Academy, surveys Africa as the new epicenter of global terrorism.
Friday, November 12th Anthony Scardillo, assistant professor of marketing at Mount Saint Mary College, checks if students are leaving higher ed institutions prepared for the workforce.
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The Academic Minute from 11.01 – 11.05 Monday, November 1stRichard Aronson – Florida Institute of TechnologyUnderstanding the Impact of Climate Change on Sea Life
His research explores the response of marine communities to environmental changes in deep time. His primary focus is on coral reefs and subtidal communities in Antarctica and on the plants and animals living at the latitudinal extremes of the tropics and the poles that have very narrow ranges of environmental tolerance.
Professor Aronson has published more than 140 papers and more than 60 abstracts, as well as 10 technical reports on marine ecology and paleontology.
Tuesday, November 2ndFilippo Menczer – Indiana UniversityThe Vulnerability of Online Engagement
Filippo Menczer is a Luddy distinguished professor of informatics and computer science and the director of the Observatory on Social Media at Indiana University. He holds a Laurea in Physics from the Sapienza University of Rome and a Ph.D. in Computer Science and Cognitive Science from the University of California, San Diego. Dr. Menczer is an ACM Fellow and a board member of the IU Network Science Institute. His research interests span Web and data science, computational social science, science of science, and modeling of complex information networks. In the last ten years, his lab has led efforts to study online misinformation spread and to develop tools to detect and counter social media manipulation.
Wednesday, November 3rd
William Deverell – University of Southern CaliforniaLiving Better, Living Smarter, with Western Wildfire
William Deverell is Professor of History at the University of Southern California and Director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West. He writes broadly on the environmental, political, and cultural history of the 19th and 20th century American West and hosts the new “Western Edition” podcast.
Thursday, November 4thCarolyn Henne – Florida State UniversityArt and Science Collaboration with Oysters
Carolyn Henne earned her BA in Fine Arts and Economics from the College of William and Mary in 1983. She worked as an Agricultural Economist until she left to study and work at Lacoste School of the Arts in France. Thereafter, she earned her MFA in Sculpture and Extended Media from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1990. She worked as a custom prop fabricator for film and television, taught adjunct for VCUarts in Richmond, Peru and Scotland while showing her work actively. She moved into academic administration in 2003 serving as Administrative Director then as Assistant Dean for VCUarts until 2010.
Friday, November 5thCarl Sheperis – Texas A&M UniversityClosing the Digital Divide
Dr. Sheperis began his career in higher education as a professor at Mississippi State University and he has extensive experience in pediatric and family mental health. Prior to coming to A&M-San Antonio, he served as interim President and CEO for the National Board for Certified Counselors & Affiliates.
He served as president of the Association for Assessment and Research in Counseling (AARC) and as Associate Editor for the Journal of Counseling and Development. He has worked with the American Counseling Association (ACA) as the chair of the Research & Knowledge Committee and has served as the Editor of the Journal of Counseling Research and Practice.
In addition to counseling, Sheperis has served on advisory boards to the Health Resources Services Administration and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and medicine. He is an author of several textbooks including: Research in Counseling, Quantitative, Qualitative, and Mixed Methods; Foundations of Clinical Mental Health Counseling; Diagnosing and Treating Children and Adolescents; Assessment for Counselors and Helping Professionals; and Online Counselor Education: A Student Guide.
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