A selection of recent mentions of 乐播传媒 and 乐播传媒 people in the news media.
Tyler Harper, environmental studies faculty
Elites against extinction: The dark history of a cultural paranoia 鈥� Los Angeles Review of Books
Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Tyler Harper is an expert in how writers, scientists, social theorists, and others have historically engaged with so-called x-risks: 鈥渢hreats that could bring about human extinction or permanent civilizational collapse.鈥�
That expertise shines through in his review of X-Risk: How Humanity Discovered Its Own Extinction by Oxford University historian Thomas Moynihan.
During the Cold War, discussions around existential risks typically focused on nuclear holocaust; more recently, such discussions focus on threats posed by artificial intelligence and climate change.
Any focus on x-risk, whether by great thinkers or by so-called space barons like Elon Musk, is highly problematic, Harper writes, because human extinction historically has been 鈥渁 hobby horse of the eugenics movement.鈥�
Thus, he argues, 鈥渨e cannot claim to take existential risk seriously 鈥� and meaningfully confront the grave threats to the future of human and nonhuman life on this planet 鈥� if we do not also confront the fact that our ideas about human extinction, including how human extinction might be prevented, have a dark history.鈥�
- Read the story: 鈥�,鈥� Los Angeles Review of Books, Sept. 30, 2021
Dempsey Challenge
Dempsey Challenge raises record funds 鈥� Lewiston Sun Journal, Sept. 25, 2021
Sun Journal reporter Vanessa Paolella 鈥�21 chronicled the in-person return of the Dempsey Challenge fundraiser following last year鈥檚 virtual edition, noting that 鈥渢eams from 乐播传媒 raised just under $30,000, earning the College Cup,鈥� a competition among Maine colleges.
The walk/run/ride challenge raised more than $1.3 million for the Dempsey Center, a quality of life care center for individuals and families impacted by cancer, founded by actor Patrick Dempsey, who received an honorary degree from 乐播传媒 in 2017.
- Read the story: 鈥�,鈥� Sun Journal, Sept. 25, 2021
Nora Demleitner 鈥�89
Nora Demleitner 鈥�89 appointed president of St. John鈥檚 College, Annapolis 鈥� St. John鈥檚 College News
In September, St. John鈥檚 College announced the appointment of Nora Demleitner 鈥�89 as president of the college鈥檚 Annapolis campus.
Demleitner is the Roy L. Steinheimer Jr. Professor of Law at Washington and Lee University School of Law. She will be the first female president in St. John鈥檚 College鈥檚 325-year history.
- Read the Story: 鈥�,鈥� St. John鈥檚 College News, Sept. 23, 2021
Tina Gibson-Davis 鈥�92 and Jordan Conwell 鈥�12
Wealth Inequality and Child Development: Implications for Policy and Practice 鈥� The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences
Call it an academic mini-reunion: Tina Gibson-Davis 鈥�92 and Jordan Conwell 鈥�12 each made significant contributions to a recent volume of a journal in the social sciences.
Gibson-Davis, joined by scholar Heather Hill of the University of Washington, served as co-editor of the August 2021 volume of The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences. The issue in the U.S.
Gibson-Davis and Hill also , in which they note that the study of wealth inequality and child outcomes has so far received scant attention from scholars, even as patterns of American structural inequality and institutional racism, 鈥渦nder which black and Hispanic families have faced persistent discrimination in lending, credit, and housing markets,鈥� are well understood.
of the University of Wisconsin鈥揗adison, finds, among other things, that 鈥淏lack and Hispanic children often have significantly worse math and reading scores than same-wealth whites by age 5, and these disparities often increase through age 14, particularly for Black-White comparisons.鈥�
Until the other day, Gibson-Davis and Conwell weren鈥檛 aware of their 乐播传媒 connection 鈥� that fact was pointed out by 乐播传媒 Professor of Sociology Emily Kane, always on the lookout for alumni in academe and elsewhere.
Gibson-Davis is a professor of public policy and sociology at Duke鈥檚 Sanford School of Public Policy. Conwell is an assistant professor of sociology and educational policy studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Marshall Hatch Jr. 鈥�10
The documentary All These Sons centers young Black men in Chicago who are at risk of becoming victims or perpetrators of gun violence 鈥� Chicago Tribune
Columnist Nina Metz of the Chicago Tribune writes about the new film documentary All These Sons, which focuses on the 鈥渆motional lives of a handful of young men in Chicago鈥� who are supported by the MAAFA Redemption Project, co-founded by the Rev. Marshall Hatch Jr. 鈥�10 and the Inner City Muslim Action Network.
The film focuses on the never-ending need for funding for organizations like Hatch鈥檚 as well as on the implications of non-Black filmmakers having the power to tell a story about young Black Americans.
- Read the story: 鈥�,鈥� Chicago Tribune, June 17, 2021
Sarah Sherman-Stokes 鈥�05
Terriers running the Boston Marathon with a mission 鈥� BU Today
BU Today profiled members of the Boston University community who ran the Boston Marathon to support a cause, including Sarah Sherman-Stokes, a clinical associate professor of law at the BU School of Law and associate director of the school鈥檚 Immigrants鈥� Rights & Human Trafficking Program.
She raised money for the Political Asylum/Immigration Representation Project, which provides pro bono legal services to asylum seekers and unjustly detained immigrants in Massachusetts.
She told BU Today that work at 乐播传媒 with immigrants motivated her to enter immigration law. She also studied abroad, in Central America, hearing 鈥渟tories from folks whose parents or grandparents or siblings had made the journey north to the U.S.鈥�
- Read the Story: 鈥�,鈥� BU Today, Oct. 8, 2021
Myron Beasley, American studies faculty
Collard greens: From down South to down East 鈥� Portland Press Herald
Portland Press Herald food and books editor Peggy Grodinsky interviewed several Mainers, including Associate Professor of American Studies Myron Beasley, for a story about collard greens, a Southern favorite but, for Northerners like Grodinsky, somewhat mystifying.
Beasley鈥檚 research includes exploring the intersection of cultural politics, material culture, and social change; he鈥檚 also an expert in how food intertwines with culture and history.
Though not a facile cooker of collards, Grodinsky recalls, when she lived in New York City, enjoying 鈥渞ice and beans with a tangle of bright green collard ribbons (shockingly good) at a hole-in-the-wall Brazilian restaurant.鈥�
Beasley, who did academic research in Brazil 鈥渉elped me identify those, surmising they were a classic Brazilian preparation of collards saut茅ed with oil, garlic and a bit of water, then mixed with a 鈥渄ressing鈥� of onions, lemons, jalape帽os and cilantro.鈥�
- Read the story: 鈥�,鈥� Portland Press Herald, Oct. 10, 2021
Emily Kane, sociology faculty
California to make retailers to offer gender-neutral kids鈥� sections 鈥� Bloomberg Equality
Media outlets including Bloomberg Equality reported on a new California law that requires big retailers to create gender-neutral departments for some toys and child care items.
鈥淓ven before California took this step, companies had been tweaking how they merchandise products for kids,鈥� according to reporter Augusta Saraiva. 鈥淚n 2015, Target stopped displaying gender-based signs on its children鈥檚 departments.鈥�
Quoting Professor of Sociology Emily Kane, Saraiva said that it will take a while for gender-neutral clothes and toys to become mainstream. But 鈥渆specially among relatively affluent urban consumers, there is movement in that direction, and it will continue.鈥�
- Read the story: 鈥�,鈥� Bloomberg Equality, Oct. 11, 2021
Jennifer Ruma Bova 鈥�91
Designing for home decor with Jenny Bova 鈥� Pattern Observer
Jenny Ruma Bova 鈥�91 is an interior-design expert for both commercial and residential spaces with a special focus on surface design.
In a Q&A with the trade publication Pattern Observer, she talked about trends in interior design:
鈥淭rends in home decor tend to move much more slowly than fashion,鈥� she said. 鈥淨uick-to-market, lower-end products tend to be more trendy 鈥� think HomeGoods and At Home, both good resources for specific jobs.鈥�
If a client wants to embrace current trends, she encourages pieces that are 鈥渋nexpensive or easy to change: paint colors, wallpaper, pillows, and accessories.鈥�
Current trends include back to nature, 鈥渧ery evident in all things botanical and of the outdoors. People stuck at home for the last 18 months are bringing their love of the garden inside with textiles. Suddenly the spaces where we spend our time have become very important.鈥�
- Read the story: 鈥�,鈥� Pattern Observer, Oct. 12, 2021
Dale Chapman, music faculty
Jazz venues have been hit particularly hard by the pandemic. They are hoping the worst is over 鈥� The Washington Post
Associate Professor of Music Dale Chapman, author of The Jazz Bubble: Neoclassical Jazz in Neoliberal Culture, is quoted in a Washington Post story about a decades-long trend of jazz club closures that鈥檚 been exacerbated by the pandemic.
Chapman explains that gentrification and rising rents are fueling the trend in larger cities. 鈥淢any of the most prominent clubs, even the ones that are well established and very famous, have tremendously high overheads,鈥� he said.
- Read the story: 鈥�,鈥� The Washington Post, Oct. 15, 2021
Andrea Emshoff Nelson 鈥�00
Swimmer enjoys open and cold-water challenges 鈥� Sun Gazette
The Sun Gazette of Virginia reported on Andrea Emshoff Nelson 鈥�00 completing the 20 Bridges Manhattan Swim around the New York City borough on Aug. 24.
The 28.5-mile event 鈥渋s one of the big open-water swims that I wanted to do, and I felt great the whole time,鈥� Nelson told reporter 鈥嬧�婦ave Facinoli. Nelson, who was a competitive diver at 乐播传媒, lives in Arlington, Va., where she is a member of the Wave One Open Water swimming group.
The swim is considered one leg of the triple crown of open-water swims that Nelson hopes to complete. The others are the 21-mile English Channel swim and the 20-mile swim from Catalina Island to the California mainland.
- Read the story: 鈥�,鈥� Sun Gazette, Oct. 12, 2021
Elizabeth Strout 鈥�77
Elizabeth Strout gets meta in her new novel about marriage 鈥� The New York Times
Media outlets are lavishing praise on the new novel from Elizabeth Strout 鈥�77, Oh William! The novel鈥檚 narrator is Lucy Barton, whom readers met in My Name is Lucy Barton (2016) and Anything is Possible. This time, we see her as she鈥檚 mourning the death of her second husband, and revisiting her relationship with her first husband, William Gerhardt.
The New York Times notes that 鈥淪trout works in the realm of everyday speech, conjuring repetitions, gaps and awkwardness with plain language and forthright diction, yet at the same time unleashing a tidal urgency that seems to come out of nowhere even as it operates in plain sight.鈥�
The effect, notes The Guardian, is a 鈥渃onfiding intimacy鈥� in the prose, 鈥渁s if the reader were catching up with an old friend in a particularly confessional mood. At the same time it invites the reader to speculate on what isn鈥檛 being told and what the speaker doesn鈥檛 even realise she is telling you.鈥�
Read the stories:
- 鈥�,鈥� The New York Times, Oct. 18, 2021
- 鈥�,鈥� The Guardian, Oct. 20, 2021
Carter Casner 鈥�07
Fright Court 鈥� Judge John Hodgman
Carter Casner 鈥�07 and his wife, Jessie Givens Casner, appeared on the comedic court-show podcast Judge John Hodgman to settle a spooky dispute.
Jessie brings the 鈥渟uit鈥� against Carter, challenging his longstanding belief (and oft-told, she adds) that his childhood home in Providence, R.I., was haunted. The hosts chortle when hearing that the historic 1843 home was once a Unitarian chapel: 鈥淣ot the spookiest of denominations.鈥�
In the podcast, Casner notes that while he believes his house was haunted, he doesn鈥檛 believe in ghosts or the afterlife.
Presenting such an apparent contradiction is classic Carter, says Jessie, who tells the amused hosts that her husband was a philosophy major and studied rhetoric at 乐播传媒. 鈥淗e lives to argue every point in the world. That鈥檚 his fun. It鈥檚 part of why he likes telling this story: 鈥業 don鈥檛 believe in ghosts, but I grew up in a haunted house, so let鈥檚 debate.鈥欌��
- Listen to the story: 鈥�,鈥� Judge John Hodgman, Oct. 20, 2021
Corey Harris 鈥�91
Bluesman Corey Harris mixes traditional American & West African blues with protest on 鈥業nsurrection Blues鈥� 鈥� Glide Magazine
Insurrection Blues is the 20th album by roots artist Corey Harris and his first in three years.
For the album, 鈥淗arris went back to the roots of American blues as well as unearthing traditional West African tunes,鈥� writes Jim Hynes for Glide Magazine.
鈥淗arris weaves gospel, Delta blues, and the roots of these forms in an acoustic tour de force worthy of the MacArthur Fellowship and honorary music doctorate from his alma mater, 乐播传媒 College in Maine.鈥�
- Read the story: 鈥�,鈥� Glide Magazine, Nov. 2, 2021
Sulo Dissanayake 鈥�08&苍产蝉辫;
Power of Play 鈥� The Founder
Sulo Dissanayake 鈥�08 was interviewed on The Founder with Tashiya Segel, a series produced by Daily Mirror of Sri Lanka that profiles entrepreneurs and their businesses.
Dissanayake is , a venture that uses puppetry, performance, and storytelling in service of educational programming.
“Performance is an ancient, timeless art,” Dissanayake said. “There is nothing like a physical performance. You can’t replace that.”
The power of puppetry is seen in how it provides an avenue for “discussing tough, taboo topics that no one wants to talk about 鈥� including sexual violence. Puppets make it easier,” she said.
“When you see a puppet, you are fascinated, when you are fascinated you laugh, when you laugh your barriers drops, and you can actually listen to what the puppet is saying rather than judging the message or where it is coming from.”
- View the video: 鈥�,鈥� The Founder, Oct. 16, 2021
Elizabeth Tito 鈥�87
鈥楲ess is more鈥� for Santa Rosa breast cancer surgeon 鈥� The Press Democrat
The Press Democrat of Santa Rosa, Calif., profiled Elizabeth Tito 鈥�87, the medical director and surgeon at the Breast Center at Santa Rosa Hospital. Tito works with breast cancer patients, and has a 鈥渇ierce commitment鈥� to her them.
Tito stays informed on the latest research on breast cancer, and her individualized, patient-centered approach focuses on reducing intrusive treatment and maximizing at-home care.
鈥淭he field is catching up to me, finally,鈥� Tito told Press Democrat reporter Nashelly Chavez.
Several of Tito鈥檚 patients also spoke with Chavez, emphasizing how Tito鈥檚 approach to care and her clear and simple explanations make them feel involved and informed.
- Read the story: 鈥�,鈥� The Press Democrat, Oct. 29, 2021
Cassidy Meyer 鈥�25, Claire Barlass 鈥�25, Maggie Amann 鈥�25
Not your typical 5K; participants run in wedding dresses to raise money for Good Shepherd 鈥� WGME News
Three first-year students were interviewed by television station WGME for a story about an unusual fundraiser.
Dubbed the 鈥淩unning of the Brides,鈥� the 5k race/walk asked participants to don wedding dresses. Sponsored by a wedding venue in nearby New Gloucester, the event raised nearly $500 for the Good Shepherd Food Bank.
Cassidy Meyer of Carbondale, Colo., Claire Barlass of Duluth, Minn., and Maggie Amann of Scarborough, Maine, found the event on Facebook.
鈥淚 thought of course Maggie found a 5k in wedding dresses and then I was super excited to come and run in a wedding dress,” Barlass said.
- Read the story: 鈥�,鈥� WGME News, Oct. 31, 2021
乐播传媒 Museum of Art
The Hartley show at 乐播传媒 is a must-see, but don鈥檛 delay 鈥� Portland Press Herald
The 乐播传媒 College Museum of Art鈥檚 soon-closing exhibit, Marsden Hartley: Adventurer in the Arts was featured in the Portland Press Herald, and is an 鈥溾�嬧�媋stounding exhibition,鈥� according to the museum鈥檚 director, Dan Mills.
Marsden Hartley is recognized as a 鈥渢itan of modernist art,鈥� wrote Press Herald reporter Bob Keyes. The exhibition features over 35 paintings from 36 years of Hartley鈥檚 career, including his 1915 painting 鈥淪chiff,鈥� in its U.S. debut showing.
- Read the story: 鈥�,鈥� Portland Press Herald, Nov. 8, 2021
Jesse Robbins 鈥�06
Dam removal will aid fish recovery, economy 鈥� Kennebec Journal
In a letter to the editor of the Kennebec Journal of Augusta, Maine, Jesse Robbins 鈥�06 supports the removal of the four dams on the Kennebec River between Waterville and Skowhegan.
He referenced that he and Elmer Campbell Professor of Economics Lynne Lewis conducted when he was a student.
鈥淸The removal] is the only way forward for endangered Maine Atlantic salmon. Removal will also help energize economies of towns located on the river in this stretch,鈥� Robbins said.
- Read the story: 鈥溾�� Kennebec Journal, Nov. 3, 2021
