A Newsletter for UMW Faculty and Staff
Professor of Communication Sushma Subramanian
Professor of Communication and Digital Studies Sushma Subramanian contributed to “My Pandemic Valentine,” which aired on With Good Reason radio. Two days after Sushma Subramanian got engaged, she moved to Virginia to teach, leaving her fiance behind. She tells us about the app that got them talking — and touching– across the distance. Listen to the show.
Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Affairs Jared McDonald
Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Affairs Jared McDonald appeared in a segment titled “Do Voters Punish Lying Politicians?” for Democracy Nerds. “It’s not just the party label. There needs to be some sort of affective attachment,” McDonald said. “Trump is the leader of your party. This is a real politician, and so you’ve got skin in the game. If it’s some generic hypothetical Republican and you’re a Republican, you may not really feel that strong of an attachment.” Watch the segment.
Professor Emerita of Political Science and International Affairs Elizabeth Larus
Elizabeth Freund Larus, Professor Emerita of Political Science and International Affairs, commented to WION news that China is using every tool in its kit to survey the US, including balloons. The U.S. needs to retrieve the remains of the balloons it shoots down, and show the world the goods. Access her commentary.
Other recent media mentions for Larus include:
Larus, a former Fulbright Scholar to Poland, commented to WION news that Biden’s trip to Poland is intended to signal resolve and unity but also to counter resistance to House Republicans who don’t want to continue to spend massive amounts of money on the war in Ukraine. WION news, Feb 10, 2023. Access her comments.
Professor of History and American Studies Krystyn Moon
Professor of History and American Studies Krystyn Moon received a media mention in the article “Racist F.C. Past Unveiled In Land Covenants” published in the Falls Church News-Press. The publication set out to examine property deeds (stored in databases not in the city or nearby Arlington but at the Fairfax County Courthouse), the article states, but the work was already underway by a group of academics coordinated by Moon, along with Marymount University sociology professor Janine DeWitt and housing attorney Kristin Neun. Read more.
Associate Professor Sushma Subramanian
Associate Professor of Journalism Sushma Subramanian published a story, “How breast milk banks could avert the next formula crisis,” in National Geographic. The piece examined how Brazil has become the world’s leader in breast milk banking, inspiring similar programs in other countries. Read more.
Professor of Communication and Chair of the Department of Communication and Digital Studies Anand Rao
Professor of Communication and Chair of the Department of Communication and Digital Studies Anand Rao contributed to a Wall Street Journal article on ChatGPT titled “Professors Turn to ChatGPT to Teach Students a Lesson; The powerful paper-writing chatbot presents an educational challenge: Ban it or build on it?” published on Jan. 25, 2023. Rao discussed the impact the generative AI tools, like ChatGPT, will have on knowledge production. Read more.
The article also was published in Elite News. “It really seems to change the nature of knowledge production itself,” Rao said. Read more.
Rao also contributed to a webinar titled “Generative AI and ChatGPT: The Short and Long-Term Impacts on Education” on Wednesday, Jan. 18. His presentation focused on higher education and included discussion of how ChatGPT could be used by students to cheat, but also opportunities for use of ChatGPT in the classroom to support the student writing process. He also outlined broader concerns about generative AI, including algorithmic bias and AI’s use of other artist’s creative work. Discover information about the webinar, including a soon-to-be-released recording.
Associate Professor of Digital Studies Zach Whalen
Associate Professor Zach Whalen in the Department of Communication and Digital Studies contributed to a piece titled “The Last of Us: The Musical Transposition in the Series is a Revolution.” Whalen suggested that for both the game world and its characters to be as believable as the cinematic, they need distinct theme music attributed to locations and different characters within the game, the so-called sound theme or leitmotif, capable of recalling the narrated character through the chanting of short and impalpable notes. Read more in Wired and on Blog Flavio Perrone.
Professor of Economics Robert Rycroft has co-authored Income Inequality in America: A Reference Handbook, published by ABC-CLIO. Inequality is the economic issue of our time. The United States is an extraordinarily affluent society compared to most others in the world today and to all others throughout human history, and that is news worth celebrating. But the dark underbelly of this news is that not everyone has shared in the prosperity, and inequality has only become more pronounced in recent decades. That is news worth lamenting and ought to command our full attention.
Rosalyn Cooperman, professor and chair of Political Science and International Affairs, is co-editor (along with Malliga Och and Shauna Shames) of Sell-Outs or Warriors for Change? A Comparative Look at Conservative Women in Politics in Democracies, published by Routledge Press.
Professor of Political Science and International Affairs Surupa Gupta
Professor of Political Science and International Affairs Surupa Gupta is a scheduled speaker for “India’s Approach to Globalization in the 2020s” at Stanford University’s Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center. “Join two of the most insightful scholars of Indian political economy as we explore the feasibility and the implications of India’s policy approach to globalization.” Read more.