External Posts

Steven Simon, professor in the practice of international relations, coauthored the paper "19 Years Later: How to Wind Down the War on Terror" that appeared on the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace website. "The policy departures recommended in this paper are intended to thread the needle by reducing the scope and intensity of U.S. CT operations and increasing congressional oversight while retaining an effective capacity for self-defense," Simon and his coauthor, Richard Sokolsky, wrote.

Maine colleges, including Colby, are releasing details for reopening their campuses, recounted in this June 15 Portland Press Herald article. "Colby College in Waterville will likely start in-person classes earlier than normal and look to complete the semester by Thanksgiving, though the planning process is ongoing and more detailed plans are expected next month, the college said in a statement," the article reports.

A new paper, "Culturalized Religion: A Synthetic Review and Agenda for Research," by Associate Professor of Sociology Damon W. Mayrl and Avi Astor from Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona's Sociology Department was recently published in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. "Scholars have taken a growing interest in what we call 'culturalized religion'—that is, forms of religious identification, discourse, and expression that are primarily cultural in character, insofar as they are divorced from belief in religious dogma or participation in religious ritual," writes Mayrl and Astor in their paper's abstract. "This article aims to clarify our current thinking about these phenomena so as to facilitate future theoretical and empirical work. ... In so doing, we develop an inclusive and dynamic approach to studying culturalized religion that clears the ground for further research into its diverse modalities and manifestations, as well as their points of intersection and interaction."

Research on the end-Permian extinction by Robert Gastaldo, the Whipple-Coddington Professor of Geology, was the subject of a Daily Californian article on June 11. The article highlighted Gastaldo's recently published work that identifies a new timeline for the end-Permian extinction. “We now know after 18 years of research … that whatever happened to the plants, and maybe to the animals, … did not happen at the same time of the greatest mass extinction in Earth’s history that occurred in the oceans,” Gastaldo said. “Whatever happened on land happened 300,000 years, or maybe a little more, before the catastrophe in the ocean,” Gastaldo to the paper. 

Professor of Education Adam Howard has coauthored an entry on "elite universities" for the SAGE Encyclopedia of Higher Education. Howard collaborated with his colleague Jane Kenway (Monash University, Australia) on the entry.

Cacophonic Choir, a work co-created by Hannen (Hannah) Wolfe, assistant professor of computer science, was featured in an ACM SIGGRAPH blog post. The project "amplifies the voices of sexual survivors' stories ... and uses machine learning through carefully spaced agents to demonstrate the effect of the mass media on survivors’ stories," the blog reports. Click here to read the Q&A with the creators and learn about their "inspiration, algorithms, and audio."

An op-ed in the June 13 Portland Press Herald co-written by Catherine Besteman, the Francis F. Bartlett and Ruth K. Bartlett Professor of Anthropology, points out concrete steps Maine can take to correct inequalities for people of color living in the state. Places to start, suggested by the authors, include:

• • Maine should take more steps to protect the sovereignty of tribes in the state.
  • Maine should not incarcerate children.
  • Budgets for police departments should fall and funds should be redirected to support the construction of affordable housing, free health clinics, addiction recovery support, substantive job skills training and adult education.
  • Because the CARES Act discriminates against many categories of legal immigrants, Maine should step up to ensure immigrant Mainers receive equal supports and protections.

Professor of Government Dan Shea was tapped to comment on the Maine Public piece titled "Political Scientists Say Maine Candidates Could Face Consequences For Skipping Debates." As the debate season heats up, candidates need to carefully weigh their options when deciding whether or not to participate. “Generally speaking, political scientists will tell you, especially at this point, no one is really paying attention, but this year and in most other things it is different. They are paying attention to what candidates are doing and they have some big expectations,” Shea told Maine Public. 

Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Stacy-ann Robinson has been appointed to the Editorial Board of Regional Environmental Change. The journal publishes research on the interactions between human and natural systems at the regional level. It is currently ranked 33rd of 116 environmental studies journals and has an impact factor of 3.149. She will serve a three-year term.

“Understanding the landscape that our students are going to be moving into, we knew that we needed to turbo-charge our efforts to ensure post-graduate success and really launch this initiative to make that happen,” Andy McGadney, vice president and dean of student advancement, said of Colby's Pay it Northward initiative to the Concord Monitor for their story "In uncertain economy, colleges help students find jobs."  The article also asked if New Hampshire schools should initiate a similar program. “Every institution has a powerful network within their own right. They have alumni that have graduated and gone on and done great things. How can they create a real meaningful call to action to support their graduating seniors right now?” McGadney said.