Several faculty members appeared prominently in national media outlets as the spring semester drew to a close, sharing their expertise on a wide range of topics.
- “There’s a wave of riots in a lot of northern cities including Washington, D.C., [after his death] and the Fair Housing Act is seen as a possible way of preventing more, said Philip Klinkner, the James S. Sherman Professor of Government. In What Happened to Martin Luther King Jr.’s Last Campaigns, appearing an April issue of TIME, he was quoted about what happened in the aftermath of King’s assassination. “[The act] only passes because of these incredibly violent riots after the death of this apostle of nonviolence, so there’s a lot of irony laden in that.”
- In The Chronicle of Higher Education’s It Matters a Lot Who Teaches Introductory Courses. Here’s Why, Daniel Chambliss, the Eugene M. Tobin Distinguished Professor of Sociology, was quoted extensively. “To a student who has never encountered a discipline before, the professor teaching the introductory course is the discipline,” Chambliss said in the April 15 article. “If the physics professor is cool, then physics is cool. If the professor is dull, the student will think the same of the discipline. If the professor is so dull that the student never takes another physics course, well, that impression could hold for the rest of her life.”
- Maurice Isserman, the Publius Virgilius Rogers Professor of American History, was interviewed for an Associated Press article that appeared in newspapers and news sites across the country titled Times a changin'? Why America is ripe for protest in 2018. “For many activists on the left, ‘there's a great deal of fear that we may be living in the last days of this experiment in democratic self-rule, that Donald Trump's election may mark a fatal turning point,’” said Isserman in the April 22 article. “The '60s were a hopeful and expansive time for many young activists, despite the polarization and anger that grew over time, but today's young protesters can't afford such idealism.”
- How Images Change Our Race Bias, an essay originally published in The Conversation and by the Associated Press and later by hundreds of news outlets across the country, was written by Visiting Associate Professor of Religious Studies S. Brent Plate. He described how images can change what we believe about ourselves and other people in this April 23 article. “The creation of a less racist social system does not have a simple guidebook, and it would be naive to suggest that if we all started looking at better images, the world would be a better place. But then again, in its own small way, it might,” wrote Plate.
- Assistant Professor of Sociology Jaime Kucinskas shared her published research on where and when people have sacred, transcendent, and meaningful experiences in their daily lives in a segment titled Sacred Experiences on the nationally syndicated podcast Academic Minute. The recording was also featured on Inside Higher Ed on May 3.