External Posts

The latest New York Times op-ed by Neil Gross, the Charles A. Dana Professor of Sociology, looks at a new word used by Democratic presidential candidates: structural. "Some of what the candidates are up to by using the term 'structural' is merely rhetorical, signaling the boldness of their ideas," he wrote. "Yet 'structural' is also a nod to an extensive body of social scientific theory and research."

Raffael Scheck, the Katz Distinguished Teaching Professor of History, has coedited a new book, German-occupied Europe in the Second World War, just out from Routledge. The book "provides a framework to guide occupation research with a broad comparative angle focusing on human interactions. Overcoming national compartmentalization, it examines Nazi occupations with attention to relations between occupiers and local populations and differences among occupation regimes," according to the publisher.  Scheck wrote the book's fourth chapter, titled "Genocide as Organizing Principle in Raphael Lemkin’s Analysis of Nazi-Occupied Europe."

WalletHub reached out to Patrice Franko, the Grossman Professor of Economics and Global Studies, for her expert opinion on international credit cards. In the short Q&A format, Franko answered the question What’s the biggest credit card mistake that international travelers make? with "Walking the beach with a wallet full of cards. Take one -- and for me the Amex because of traveller support."

"Notes from the Underground" is the name of the essay by Lyn Mikel Brown, professor of education, that appeared in DownEast magazine's Maine Homes May-June issue. The essay tells the story of Brown's father, who recorded daily events on the floor beams of his home in Alexander, Maine. "Each year, my father recorded the first frost, the first snowstorm...He registered his children’s marriages and the birth of each grandchild," Brown wrote. "He logged the December day he canoed down lake, the day my mother won $400 in the lottery, the day I was accepted to graduate school."

Véronique Plesch, professor of art, was invited to deliver a plenary lecture titled Grafitis y comunidades emocionales (siglos XVI-XVIII) at the 11th conference on the History of Written Culture “Scripta in itinere. Discourse, Practice, and Use of Writing in Public Spaces (16th-21st Centuries),” at the University of Alcalá, Alcalá de Henares, Spain, June 18-20.

Plesch was also invited to join the host committee of a special event Aug. 7 at the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, Maine, that will explore the conservation of Nevelson Chapel and celebrating the chapel’s Trinity columns on view at the Farnsworth. The Chapel of the Good Shepherd at Saint Peter’s Church in Manhattan is sculptor Louise Nevelson’s only remaining intact sculptural environment and is currently undergoing restoration. For more information about the campaign to renew Nevelson Chapel, visit nevelsonchapel.org.

In a July 10 NPR story titled "The Famous Big 5 Personality Test Might Not Reveal The True You," Assistant Professor of Psychology Christopher Soto is quoted repeatedly on the origins of the test as well as a recent study testing its effectiveness in developing countries. Researchers are finding "that in many of these developing countries, people tended to agree more than disagree with the Big Five statements," NPR reported. Soto, who is a consultant on a Kenya project as part of the larger study, said, "The most surprising thing to me was if someone was interviewed twice by the same interviewer then their responses across the two tests were pretty consistent," he says. "But if they were interviewed by two different interviewers then their responses were often completely unrelated to each other." The story also ran on local NPR stations across the country from South Carolina to Iowa to Oregon to Hawaii.

Lindsay Mayka, assistant professor of government, co-wrote an article titled "Brazil’s Supreme Court pushed back against an attempt to cancel participatory councils" that appeared July 8 on Vox's Mischiefs of Faction political science blog. The article discusses Brazil's participatory councils and a recent Supreme Court injunction that blocked President Jair Bolsonaro's decree to dismantle them. "The participatory councils deepen democracy by including groups that typically have less influence through elections or lobbying, such as the poor," the authors wrote.

Elizabeth D. Leonard, the John J. and Cornelia V. Gibson Professor of History, has won the Thomas D. Clark Medallion Award for her most recent book, Slaves, Slaveholders, and a Kentucky Community’s Struggle toward Freedom, published by the University Press of Kentucky (UPK).  “Much of what we know about Kentucky history and culture rests on works published by UPK, and Professor Leonard’s book adds greatly to this tradition,” said Stan Macdonald, board president of the Thomas D. Clark Foundation, a nonprofit supporting the University Press of Kentucky. “After reviewing several top UPK books published in 2019, a committee of the foundation chose Dr. Leonard’s book because of its high standards for research and writing exemplified by the award’s namesake, the late, distinguished historian Thomas D. Clark.” The Clark Foundation gives this annual award to a University Press of Kentucky publication that accentuates Kentucky's history and culture.  “I am grateful to be recognized once again for the quality of my scholarship and to have the opportunity to contribute in a meaningful way to my field,” Leonard said. “The book was a particularly challenging one to write, given the disparity in the types of sources available for the different groups of people involved—simply put: lots of sources for Whites, scant sources for Blacks.  “But the story means so much to me, having lived in ‘Holt World’ as a historian for such a long time and having come to know these historical individuals almost as distant friends. I particularly value the recognition the award represents of my efforts to bring the stories of Sandy Holt and the other brave Black men, who fought for freedom in the 118th U.S. Colored Infantry Regiment, to light, and to show that it is possible, with persistence, to do so.”  Leonard will give a lecture about her book Sept. 17 at the Filson Historical Society in Louisville, Ky.  To read more about Leonard’s book, visit Colby Magazine.   

Jim Fleming, the Charles A. Dana Professor of Science, Technology, and Society, will be the keynote speaker July 10 in Montreal at the 100th anniversary meeting of the International Association of Meteorology and Atmospheric Science. His topic is "One Hundred Years of Research Challenges and Accomplishments." According to the organizers, "the meeting will look back at the remarkable advances that have taken place in the atmospheric sciences over the last century, consider current outstanding questions, and look forward to possible future developments."

Sandy Maisel, the Goldfarb Family Distinguished Professor of American Government, was quoted in a June 26 article on Vox titled "Why Democrats think 2020 is the year they can defeat Susan Collins" in which he expressed skepticism about Collins's moderate image. "Despite the fact she would like to be, she is not John McCain, Maisel said, referring to the 'maverick' reputation the senator sometimes had before his death last year. She doesn’t have the moral rectitude. She’s not going to stand up on these issues and say this is who I am. She frets so much about how she’s going to vote and is the last person to commit,” he told Vox.  The Vox article has been cited elsewhere, including in a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee press release and in an AlterNet article titled "Behind the scenes of Democrats’ full-throttle effort to unseat Maine’s Susan Collins."