This month’s selection of media coverage highlighting the insight, expertise and achievements of �ֲ���ý professors has a little bit of everything, from the presidential election to personal economics, news about a top literary award, and even, a major fish tale.

For a creative writing professor who is also a novelist, there’s nothing like being in the running for a major book award to spread the word about your novel in a wide variety of publications. That’s what happened to Lecturer in English Jessica Anthony ’96 this week when her novel The Most was longlisted for the National Book Award.

Meanwhile, economics professor Paul Shea weighed in on American personal savings rates for Marketplace and the newest issue of The Atlantic includes a deep dive by Tyler Austin Harper, assistant professor of environmental studies, into the secret world of extreme fishing. Wetsuit required. Read below to learn more and get links to coverage of other faculty members in the news.

Jessica Anthony ’96

National Book Foundation announces the longlist for the 2024 National Book Award for Fiction — People

The fourth novel by Lecturer in English Jessica Anthony ’96, The Most, made the National Book Foundation’s longlist of 10 books for its 2024 Fiction prize. The news was featured in numerous outlets, including , and , along with .

Here’s what the had to say about Anthony’s book:

“This year’s Fiction Longlist features two titles that interrogate the role of gender in marriage, in sex, and in artmaking. On an unusually warm Sunday in November, housewife, mother, and former tennis champion Kathleen Beckett puts on her old, red bathing suit, enters her apartment complex’s semi-abandoned pool, and refuses to come out. Set over the course of eight hours, Jessica Anthony’s The Most paints an intimate portrait of marriage in the late 1950s — and the secrets, expectations, and lost loves that tells the story of one seemingly unremarkable couple and a larger cultural moment.”

The finalists will be announced Oct. 1.

For more on Anthony’s much-lauded novel, and her insights into her craft, see earlier coverage from �ֲ���ý News.

Paul Shea

Americans are spending a lot and not saving much. Economists aren’t too worried. Yet — Marketplace

Marketplace tapped into Dowling Family Professor of Economics Paul Shea’s expertise for a story about news from the Bureau of Economic Analysis . The savings rate in July was only 2.9 percent, while at the same time consumer spending increased.

“The spending part is a sign of a strong economy,” Marketplace‘s story read. “But the data shows we’re continuing to buy stuff while not putting money away. You can see the problem here.”

Paraphrasing Shea’s reassurances, Marketplace reporter Caleigh Wells wrote “it’s not that saving rates are frighteningly low, it’s just that they’re coming down from when they were��really high early in the pandemic, when people had money to spend and nothing to spend it on. Now things are different.”

Then she quoted Shea directly: “The average household is, in a way, normalizing. They’re starting to move towards more normal levels of debt.”

Francesco Duina

Who cares about inequality, and what should we do if we want less of it? —Researching Sociology

Writing for the blog Researching Sociology, Dana Professor of Sociology Francesco Duina and colleague Cary Wu . 

Historically in America, across party lines, the richer one was, the less worried they were about income inequality. “In 1987, for instance, poorer Democrats and Republicans [both] perceived income differentials to be too big,” the scholars write.

But now, party affiliation plays a huge role in how people view income inequality. Across all income levels, “those who identify as Democrats care a great deal about income inequality while those who identify themselves as Republicans…care a lot less.” But “concern [about income inequality] among poorer Republicans has actually dropped over time.”

For the blog post, the scholars drew from their recent article, , “Political Polarization and the Dynamics Between Actual Income and Perceived Income Inequality in the United States, 1987 to 2021.”

John Baughman

Maine political scholars see no precedent for divisive, unpredictable presidential race — Portland Press Herald

Published prior to President Joe Biden dropping out of the presidential race, , associate professor of politics, and other Maine politics scholars about the fraught race.

Baughman spoke to comparisons to the 1968 election, when incumbent Lyndon Johnson declined to seek a second term. While comparisons to the 1968 election are valid, today’s political climate is driven more by negative partisanship than in the past, Baughman said.

“I don’t want to overplay how fraught politics are today in light of what was happening then with Vietnam and civil rights, but I think there is one thing different now that is important to consider, and that’s the role of negative partisanship in driving behavior of voters.”

Tyler Austin Harper

Inside the dangerous, secretive world of extreme fishing — The Atlantic

Tyler Austin Harper, an assistant professor of environmental studies who is a contributing writer at The Atlantic, writes about his penchant for . Eighty nights a year no less.

This despite some expert guidance he got when first getting into the sport of “wetsuiting” a few years ago: “The advice I received from another fisherman was simply: �ٴDz�’t.”

Wetsuiting is a form of saltwater fishing that involves wearing a wetsuit and wading or swimming out to offshore rocks — almost exclusively at night, often during storms — to access deeper water or faster currents than can be reached in traditional waders.

For Harper, the quarry is striped bass, a popular gamefish that migrates every spring, mostly from the Chesapeake and Delaware bays, to as far north as Maine, and back down again in the fall.

White Dudes for Harris’ was a missed opportunity — The Atlantic

Harper, who also has an interest in politics, wrote in another piece, in July, that , a group of voters supporting the Kamala Harris presidential campaign. Democrats have “peddled condescending, divisive, and often bizarre rhetoric in the name of ‘anti-racism.’”

“So imagine my shock when I found myself, slowly but surely, charmed by the White Dudes for Harris call.” 

Still, he writes, the “White Dudes” name “risks solidifying the public’s impression that the Democratic Party is for overeducated elites with laptop jobs and performative progressive politics. That is a shortsighted move “when the GOP is on its way to achieving a multiracial working-class coalition, cobbled together with increasing shares of Black and Hispanic voters driven by male defections from the Democratic coalition.”

Harper’s other recent writing for The Atlantic includes:

• ““
• ““
• ““

Paul Schofield

‘These people are looking back at us’ — Seattle Met

Paul Schofield, an associate professor of philosophy whose research focuses on moral and political philosophy, writes frequently on the issue of homelessness. Last month Schofield was quoted in a Seattle Met story about a retired history professor, J.M. Simpson, in Washington state. 

The writer of the article had learned about Simpson’s work via in April, lauding the photographer and sharing some of his photographs. The thread has over 24,000 likes and three million views. In the story, the writer quotes extensively from Schofield’s response to Simpson’s work:

“It’s easy to imagine them having friends and having dreams and having things that they care about just as a result of sitting there with the photo for a few minutes,” noted Schofield, whose writing on homelessness had caught Simpson’s attention.

“It’s got to be something about him that brings this out,” Schofield concluded.

It’s one of the oldest football truisms, and it’s being heard this week as the Patriots and Eagles prepare for the Super Bowl: You’ve got to “establish the run” to win.

Associate Professor of Economics Paul Shea. (Mike Bradley/�ֲ���ý College)

But it might be a false-ism, according to �ֲ���ý economist Paul Shea and his former student Jared Quenzel ’13.

“I had often heard football commentators talk about how important it is to run the ball, even when it does not appear to have any success,” says Shea, an associate professor of economics. “So we decided to take the question to the data.”

The result is their paper, “” published in the Journal of Sports Economics in 2014.

Jared Quenzel ’13.

Constructing a dataset of 429 NFL games between 1994 and 2012 that were tied at halftime, Shea and Quenzel looked at the myriad variables that led to the tie — such as rushing yards and attempts, passing attempts and yards, turnovers, sacks, red-zone efficiency, and third-down efficiency.

Of all those variables in play during the first half, did any predict the eventual winner? Yes, but not the ones you might think. Trying to “establish the run for its own sake,” the researchers found, “does not maximize a team’s chances of winning the game.”

Here’s what Shea and Quenzel found:

• ����������There is “no evidence that running the football provides a team with a latent advantage that pays off late in a close game.”
• ����������If teams choose to run the football, “they should thus do so on the basis of the expected yards gained and the risk involved. ‘Establishing the run’ for its own sake does not maximize a team’s chances of winning the game.”
• ����������There is some, albeit weak, evidence that allowing sacks reduces a team’s chances of winning.
• ����������An optimal strategy is to try to attain as large a halftime lead as possible. At first glance, “this may seem obvious,” yet teams sometimes insist on pounding the running game; they are guilty of “overthinking the game.”
• ����������As expected, there’s a high level of confidence that the favored team, in terms of point spread, is more likely to win a tied game.
• ����������Surprisingly, “the team receiving the first possession of the second half” — a favorite Patriots strategy, when they have the choice — does not have a statistically significant effect on a team’s chances of winning.”

As for Sunday’s game, Shea is rooting for the Eagles. He says he’s no fan of the Patriots’ history of bending the rules.

In most senses, a bubble is a pocket of gas, encapsulated by liquid.

But for Associate Professor of Economics Paul Shea, bubbles are less tangible — and more dangerous.

“A bubble refers to an asset when its price is higher than what it is worth to someone who actually uses it,” Shea says.

Associate Professor of Economics Paul Shea

The dot com bubble. The housing bubble. in the 17th-century Netherlands. For a time, investing in those industries could make you rich.

But “like other bubbles,” Shea says, “these bubbles must eventually burst, and prices must fall.” Cue plummeting stock prices, closing companies, a collapsed tulip market, the Great Recession.

In 2013, Shea and two co-authors another unfortunate bubble: In 2009 and 2010, “people were accidentally buying worthless shares of bankrupt General Motors stock, because they thought they were shares of the new, reorganized firm.”

�ֲ���ý has announced faculty promotions, including tenure awards and full professorships, effective for the 2016-17 academic year.

“These promotions recognize the achievements of faculty members who personify what it means to be an outstanding teacher and scholar at �ֲ���ý College,” said Matthew Auer, vice president for academic affairs and dean of the faculty.

“These faculty members teach with passion and purpose, they cross academic and scholarly boundaries with skill, and they are fully engaged members of our liberal arts community and leaders in the academy.”

Recommended by the faculty’s Committee on Personnel and approved by the �ֲ���ý College Board of Trustees, the promotions have been awarded to faculty members in the fields of dance, economics, English, environmental studies, politics, psychology, and religious studies.

Promotions to associate professor with tenure

+Eden Osucha

Eden Osucha has been promoted to associate professor of English at �ֲ���ý. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

+Rachel Boggia

Rachel Boggia has been promoted to associate professor of dance at �ֲ���ý. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

+Senem Aslan

Senem Aslan has been promoted to associate professor of politics at �ֲ���ý. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

+Clarisa Pérez-Armendáríz

Clarisa Pérez-Armendáríz has been promoted to associate professor of politics at �ֲ���ý. (Mike Bradley/�ֲ���ý College)

+Paul Shea

Paul Shea has been promoted to associate professor of economics at �ֲ���ý. (Mike Bradley/�ֲ���ý College)

+Nate Tefft

Nathan Tefft has been promoted to associate professor of economics at �ֲ���ý. (Josh Kuckens/�ֲ���ý College)

Promotions to full professor

+Cynthia Baker

Cynthia Baker has been promoted to professor of religious studies at �ֲ���ý. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

+Holly Ewing

Holly Ewing (center) has been promoted to professor of environmental studies at �ֲ���ý. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

+Sylvia Federico

Sylvia Federico has been promoted to professor of English at �ֲ���ý. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

+Nancy Koven

Nancy Koven (center) has been promoted to professor of psychology at �ֲ���ý. (Josh Kuckens/�ֲ���ý College)

Ali Akhtar, assistant professor of religious studies and of classical and medieval Studies. Photograph by Michael Bradley/�ֲ���ý College.

Six new tenure-track members of the faculty began teaching at �ֲ���ý College in autumn 2012, representing the fields of dance, economics, German, neuroscience and psychology, religious studies, and classical and medieval studies.

All beginning their �ֲ���ý careers as assistant professors, they are:

Ali Humayun Akhtar, religious studies and and classical and medieval studies;

Rachel Boggia, dance;

Jason Castro, psychology and neuroscience;

Raluca Cernahoschi and Jakub Kazecki, who were hired in a joint appointment to the German faculty;

and Paul Shea, economics.

(�ֲ���ý has also engaged biologist Larissa Williams, who starts at �ֲ���ý during winter 2013, and historian Lydia Barnett, who begins teaching at �ֲ���ý in autumn 2013.)

Ali Humayun Akhtar

Read a profile of Akhtar.

Assistant Professor of Dance Rachel Boggia. Photograph by Michael Bradley/�ֲ���ý College.

Appointed assistant professor of religious studies and of classical and medieval studies at �ֲ���ý, Akhtar studies the complex interactions among political, religious and intellectual establishments in Europe and the Islamic world in medieval and early modern times.

Akhtar is a native of New Jersey. Prior to �ֲ���ý, he taught at Bard College and at New York University, where he received his doctorate in both history and Middle Eastern studies. He completed his bachelor’s degree at Cornell in 2004.

Rachel Boggia

Read a profile of Boggia.

Appointed assistant professor of dance at �ֲ���ý in 2012 after two years at the college as a visiting faculty member, Boggia employs sophisticated technology in her art and teaching.

Boggia served as acting director of the �ֲ���ý dance program in 2010-11 after teaching at Wesleyan University and at Connecticut and Dickinson colleges. She earned her MFA in dance from The Ohio State University in 2003 and a bachelor of science degree in neurobiology at Cornell in 2000.

Jason Castro, assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College.

Jason Castro

Read a profile of Castro.

Analyzing neural electrical patterns and chemical imaging that reveals cellular activity, Castro, assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience, investigates the relationships between the properties of neurons and sensory capabilities, such as the ability to distinguish between odors.

Castro came to �ֲ���ý from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, where he had been a postdoctoral fellow since 2008, the year he received his doctorate in neuroscience at Pittsburgh. In addition to a 2002 liberal arts diploma from the European College of Liberal Arts, Berlin, Germany, Castro earned bachelor’s degrees in biology and English literature at the University of Rochester.

Raluca Cernahoschi

Read a profile of Cernahoschi.

Assistant Professor of German Raluca Cernahoschi. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College.

Cernahoschi, who has been a visiting professor at �ֲ���ý the past two years, is a native of Romania. But her Romanian education never introduced her to one of her primary academic interests: the literature produced by that nation’s German minority.

Instead, it wasn’t until her graduate studies at the University of British Columbia that she discovered this literature. “I happened to be taught by one of the only North American experts on this literature,” Cernahoschi explains — Peter Stenberg, now professor emeritus of German at UBC.

She taught previously at Central Connecticut State University, McMaster University and UBC. She earned a bachelor’s degree in German studies and English at Mount Holyoke College.

Jakub Kazecki

Read a profile of Kazecki.

Kazecki has done considerable research on the connection between war and humor, as evidenced by his book Laughter in the Trenches: Humour and Front Experience in German First World War Narratives, released in July 2012 (Cambridge Scholars Publishing).

Assistant Professor of German Jakub Kazecki. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College.

A native of Poland, Kazecki taught at Central Connecticut State University for four years prior to �ֲ���ý, and previously taught at McMaster University in Ontario and the University of British Columbia, where he received a doctorate in Germanic studies.

He earned master’s degrees at Adam-Mickiewicz-University in Poznan, Poland, and at Dalhousie University, Halifax, N.S.

Paul Shea

Read a profile of Shea.

People’s expectations influence the economy, which makes the accurate prediction of expectations important to economists. That’s an aspect of the field that interests Shea, a macroeconomist and econometrician who develops mathematical models for such predictions.

Working with algorithms that simulate various factors affecting economic behavior, he aims to model expectations such that the agents — the theoretical people in his models — “are just about as smart as the people who actually make decisions in the economy.”

Paul Shea, assistant professor of economics. Photograph by Michael Bradley/�ֲ���ý College. Photograph by Michael Bradley/�ֲ���ý College.