Summer 2017

Music helped Swedish subculture become nationalist political movement

Anonymous — Tue, 02 May 2017 16:04:16 +0000

Music helped Swedish subculture become nationalist political movement Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 05/02/2017 - 10:04

André Gianfrancesco

Scholar went to Sweden in 2010 to study folk music but soon realized that he was studying a genre of music that was being appropriated into a fringe political movement

The nationalist Sweden Democrats have rapidly become the third-largest political party in Sweden, and their nationalist messages mirror those in conservative political movements in much of Europe. The phenomenon has shocked the political establishment of Sweden, and the general increase of far-right populism has significant implications for the globalizing planet.

Assistant Professor Benjamin Teitelbaum of the University of ��ֱ�� Boulder spent seven years researching the rise of the Sweden Democrats and the increased nationalism of the region. Teitelbaum is not a political scientist or geopolitical analyst. He is an ethnomusicologist.

Teitelbaum, who is rostered in the ��ֱ�� Boulder College of Music and also teaches in the International Affairs Program, went to Sweden in 2010 to study Swedish folk music. Soon, he realized that he was studying a genre of music that was being appropriated into a fringe political movement. “It was surprising to realize that I was following something that was becoming so politicized,” Teitelbaum said.

Benjamin Teitelbaum teaching a class at ��ֱ�� Boulder. Photo courtesy of Benjamin Teitelbaum.

The ethnographic frame of his research gave him deep perspective into the lives of his subjects. Ethnography is the study of cultures, specifically where researchers immerse themselves in their subjects. Teitelbaum spent nearly three years observing, talking to, and in some cases living with people involved in far-right nationalist activism.

Teitelbaum recently published a book on the subject, titled Lions of the North: Sounds of the New Nordic Radical Nationalism, which is a culmination of his experience and his research. In the book, he explores the role music played in the rise of the Sweden Democrats and other, more radical nationalist forces in the region.

“It seemed at first that this was going to be a marginal group, a little flash in the pan, some passing moment in politics.”

The Sweden Democrats held zero seats in the Riksdag, the Swedish legislature, in 2006, receiving 2.9 percent of overall votes. In 2010 they had 20 seats and 5.7 percent of the overall votes. By 2014, the party had 49 of the Riksdag’s 349 seats and received 12.9 percent of votes, making them the third-largest party in the country. Teitelbaum is not alone when he says, “They are poised to be the biggest party in the country in 2018.”

What makes the far right in Sweden striking is that its rise surprised the political establishment, Teitelbaum said. Tolerance and openness have long been hallmarks of politics in Sweden. Even when opposition to immigration was motivated by concern about economics or infrastructure, it was still largely taboo, he added.

Of the nationalists, he observed: “When they had no prospects, no optimism, they could turn to music and gain some success, achieve a new type of victory in the symbolic world rather than the real world.” The music reached enough people so that symbolic success became real-world success.

People often associate the far right with white-power skinhead music, but Teitelbaum views that association as dated. “The music was a way of rebranding themselves,” Teitelbaum said of the nationalists. “The one thing they didn’t want to be was skinheads.”

There are several differences between the angry skinhead music of the ‘80s and ‘90s and the new nationalist anthems of a silent minority.

Music genre is one. There is less punk and metal. But Teitelbaum said that is the least-important difference. The more important change was in content.

Teitelbaum describes it this way: “There is less chauvinism, that is, less direct attacks on minority groups. Less outward calls for violence. There is less self-aggrandizing rhetoric, less celebration. If you look at the lyrics of a lot of these songs, they’re no longer turned inward; a lot of the lyrics to the old songs were directed at other skinheads. Now the new rhetoric of the music is changing focus. It’s turned outward, to reach new people, to speak to new concerns and to broader concerns.”

Instead of targeting a group of people and labeling them as the enemy, or targeting other skinheads to celebrate supremacy, the music of the movement speaks to new people, to spread outward. “It’s meant to use values that are shared by society at large,” said Teitelbaum, “and twist them around.”

“Chauvinism is out, subculture is out, and instead it’s about using mainstream values, it’s about reaching out to new people. It’s the very opposite (of what it had been previously), it’s anti-skinheadism. It’s everything that the past wasn’t.”

For example, Sweden Democrats argue that diversity is inherently good. In Teitelbaum’s research, he found many people he studied worked to frame themselves as champions of diversity. They want to have a heterogeneous world, but only by keeping the different parts homogeneous. By keeping cultures distinct, the argument is, cultures have the space to celebrate what makes them great.

This ideology is in many ways like basic racial separatism, but it is now called “ethnopluralism” and has been taken up by the new right across Europe.

Teitelbaum focuses on two artists who are at the forefront of nationalist Swedish music: Saga and Ultima Thule. Saga is a female soft-rock singer-songwriter whose 2007 album On My Own features tracks titled “One Nation Arise” and “Ode to a Dying People,” both of which are a call to action against what she views as the impending end of white people.

Ultima Thule is called Viking Rock, a moderate alternative to white-power music, observers say. Their music celebrates the shared history of Sweden and its people. Much of the Sweden Democrats’ leadership credits Ultima Thule with having inspired their political activism.

The far-right movement in Sweden would not exist without the music, Teitelbaum said, adding that the rise of the Sweden Democrats is unique in its ties to music. Far-right movements in neighboring countries Norway and Denmark do not have the same musical influence in their politics.

According to Teitelbaum, the Sweden Democrats aim to forge a tidy, respectable anti-immigrant movement that is not dominated by angry white men. Changing the rhetoric of the music is enough to reach new people, but getting rid of the marriage between music and politics is the next step.

Since Teitelbaum conducted his research, the landscape of the far right has changed. The Sweden Democrats are no long considered a counter-cultural opposition force, but are now in a position of governance. “One of the greatest dangers to the far right in Europe has been governance,” said Teitelbaum. “They are much stronger and grow much faster as opposition forces.”

Now that the Sweden Democrats are in a position of power, the music is no longer as important. “It will play less and less of a role when it comes to articulating an agenda.” said Teitelbaum, “They don’t need it like they used to. They have party platforms. They have speeches. They have bills to propose. They can give interviews to major media.” All of these channels of communication were less available to them previously.

The Sweden Democrats find themselves at a crossroads.

The new far right around the world is finding itself in a similar position. Conservative, nationalist, and populist movements in the United States, Austria, Hungary and Sweden are no longer on the outside looking in. “The seeds of destruction are almost sown into the far right’s success,” according to Teitelbaum. The success of the far right is built on its criticism of the liberal establishment, but the calculation changes when the outsiders become the establishment.

“I think all the scholars of the western far right need to be part music-ethnographers, in that it is such an important part of the history, such an important part of this movement,” said Teitelbaum. That history began with Swedish nationalists being marginalized because of their presumed neo-Nazi past, and the movement grew because, like many subcultures throughout history, they found a voice in music.

Benjamin Teitelbaum spent seven years researching the rise of the Sweden Democrats and the increased nationalism of the region. Teitelbaum is not a political scientist or geopolitical analyst. He is an ethnomusicologist.

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Primate extinction looms, but hope remains, scientist says

Anonymous — Mon, 01 May 2017 19:19:29 +0000

Primate extinction looms, but hope remains, scientist says Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 05/01/2017 - 13:19

André Gianfrancesco

The first question in conservation is whether to focus on conserving species or habitat. Anthropologist Joanna Lambert has proposed conservation tactics that focus on particular primate species

The extinction of our closest biological relatives may be closer than we think, but through organized conservation efforts that focus on the human condition, there is still hope for non-human primates, says Joanna Lambert, professor of anthropology at the University of ��ֱ�� Boulder.

Lambert was co-author on a recently published study that brought to light the likely extinction of most of world’s primate species. The study investigated what was causing 75 percent of worldwide primate populations to decline, and 60 percent of species to be threatened with extinction.

Joanna Lambert with her field crew, Kibale National Park, Uganda. Photo courtesy of Joanna Lambert.

The study, which was published in the high-profile journal Science Advances, looked at the 504 known species of primates across the globe, the causes of population decline, and how they varied by region. It also described conservation strategies based on the collaborative research and findings of the 30 other scientists.

Researchers suggested a broad range of strategies, each one playing an important role in addressing both human and ecological needs. These conservation efforts include but are not limited to expanding protected areas, lowering global-market demands for resources from primate habitat countries, reforesting lost habitat, engaging in more sustainable land-use and recruiting local and global citizen support.

The study’s authors say looming extinction “is a result of escalating anthropogenic pressures on primates and their habitats.” It lists the various factors responsible, citing the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Primate Specialist Group, of which Lambert is a consulting member. The group found that the major threats to primate populations include habitat loss due to agriculture, logging, livestock ranching and hunting.

An expanding agricultural frontier is the primary cause of primate habitat loss and population decline in every region. It affects 76 percent of primate species globally.

The threat of human activity on primate species varies by region. In the Neotropics—tropical areas of Central and South America—deforestation for livestock ranching is the second major driver of primate-population decline. In mainland Africa, Madagascar and Asia the second major threat is hunting and trapping, affecting upwards of 90 percent of primate species.

Logging is the third major threat in all regions, affecting 60 percent of species globally.

Photo gallery: Primates under threat

The study looked at the IUCN Red List—billed as the world’s most comprehensive inventory of the conservation status of species—and compared it to peer-reviewed sources and U.N. databases to evaluate the level of impact humans impose to primate survival. Conservation both locally and globally is the focus of the Science Advances article; it makes an argument for the importance of primate species not only to the natural environments to which they belong, but also as social and cultural agents.

For instance, in the Lindu highlands and Buton island of Sulawesi in Indonesia, humans live with monkey species such as macaques because of their role in local folklore and agriculture. The macaques eat the fruit of the cashew, but let nuts fall to the ground to be harvested by farmers. This is an instance of mutualism and coexistence between humans, primates (and other animals), and plants that Lambert wants to highlight.

So while the results of the study reveal shocking statistics regarding primate populations, this crisis is more than monkey business. Professor Lambert’s research goes beyond counting silverback gorillas in mainland Africa; it looks at the nuanced interactions between plant, animal and human species sharing the same habitat.

“My role in writing the article was with regards to ecology, more specifically the interactions between primates and plants and the critically important role of primates as seed-dispersers and agents of forest regeneration throughout the tropics,” Lambert said.

Primates serve as key operators to maintain their environments as pollinators and seed-dispersers. For example, the lemurs of Madagascar rely on Malagasy tree species for food. The trees rely on the lemurs to distribute their seeds, but with declining lemur populations these trees are less likely to regenerate and mature.

Diminished seed viability and plant species diversity due to declining primate populations are also being documented in mainland Africa, Central and South America, and Asia.

“Ultimately, good conservation biology and the application of conservation methods rests on basic science and basic research” said Lambert. Her research has had policy implications in the past. Lambert has developed mechanisms of conservation that she has proposed to the Wildlife Authority in Uganda, where she has worked for 26 years.

The first question in conservation is whether to focus on conserving species or habitat. Lambert has proposed conservation tactics that focus on particular primate species. “If we conserve a subset of primates, we also conserve all of their seed-dispersal services and all of the plants that require the seed-dispersal services of those primates. It’s what we call an umbrella tactic in conservation.”

Currently, countries in the Neotropics, mainland Africa and Asia are all reducing the amount of protected areas to support the growing pressure for industrial natural-resource extraction.

Even with a reduction in conservation areas, any protected habitat is still important. For example, colobine primate populations in the mountains of Tanzania were stable within the protected areas, but faced severe population declines outside of that protected area.

The study proposes that the key to primate species conservation lies in improving the human condition.

“The first thing to recognize is that environmental degradation is differentially impacting human populations, such that it is influencing individuals who are already disadvantaged more than those individuals that are in a higher socio-economic status” said Lambert.

Professor Lambert is optimistic about the future of non-human primates. “That is absolutely the most important emotional variable in the pursuit of conservation,” Lambert said. “If we lose hope, if we lose optimism, that’s when everything grinds to a halt.”

There is reason to be optimistic. “We are conserving more habitat all the time,” said Lambert. “There are a number of examples of a changing ethic in the way people think about our planet, and there are also a number of examples of conservation success, and we have to hold on to those.”

The first question in conservation is whether to focus on conserving species or habitat. Anthropologist Joanna Lambert has proposed conservation tactics that focus on particular primate species.

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This is not your junior-high geography

Anonymous — Thu, 27 Apr 2017 21:38:17 +0000

This is not your junior-high geography Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 04/27/2017 - 15:38

Clint Talbott

Encompassing South American wildfires, Arctic sea-ice retreat, post-Soviet politics, climate change in Tibet and GIS, ��ֱ�� Boulder geographers keep their fingers on the pulse of a changing world

Humans cause 84 percent of U.S. wildfires and have extended the fire season, a study led by University of ��ֱ�� Boulder researcher Jennifer Balch has found. A separate study led by ��ֱ�� Boulder researcher Tania Schoennagel found that U.S. wildfire policy can’t adequately protect people, homes and ecosystems from the longer, hotter fire seasons caused by climate change.

Both studies made national headlines this year after being published in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. But readers might be excused for not knowing Balch and Schoennagel’s discipline.

Both are in the ��ֱ�� Boulder Geography Department.

The Department of Geography has created an interactive map showing where in the world faculty and student research is taking place. Click here or on the image to explore.

Though casual observers might think otherwise, students enrolled in a university geography course are not quizzed on the 50 states or systematically prepped to win blue wedges in Trivial Pursuit.

Geography involves knowing where places are, but that’s a starting point, not the substance, of the discipline, geographers note. The study of geography encompasses a wide range of contemporary global problems, including but extending well beyond wildfire.

Emily Yeh, professor and chair of geography, puts it this way:

“We study the drastic loss of sea ice in the Arctic due to climate change, the geopolitics of American aid in Afghanistan, bark beetle outbreaks in the ��ֱ�� Rocky Mountains, the relationship between climate change and Mexico-U.S. migration, community mapping and human rights for indigenous peoples, and how to develop better ways to measure social vulnerability to natural hazards, among many other pressing issues.”

Geography is one of the most popular college majors in the United Kingdom. For various historical reasons, the same name recognition has not characterized geography as a discipline in the United States over the past few decades.

“This is changing again, however, with the new prevalence of GIS, geotagged data, and various forms of remote sensing in our everyday lives and, as a result, the rapid rise in employment demand for geospatial analysis,” Yeh observes.

The U.S. Department of Labor projects 35-percent job growth during the next decade for geographers, and Google expects the mapping business to grow by 30 percent annually.

“Our faculty members are at the cutting edge of the new geospatial sciences, using spatial analysis methods in data-intensive research and developing new tools and statistical techniques to more accurately represent and understand social and biophysical space,” Yeh says.

Emily Yeh

But mapping for the “big data” 21^st century is only part of what geographers do.

Geographers also study the environmental impacts of fracking, ethno-nationalism in the former Soviet Union, fire regimes in tropical forests and rapid urbanization in China.

“Geography literally means ‘earth writing,’ and it encompasses a holistic approach to the relationships between humans and the earth, society and space,” Yeh adds.

Subdisciplines within geography tackle problems also studied by fields ranging from computer science to cultural anthropology, geology to political science.

“What makes us unique, though, is an integrative lens that pays attention to space and scale,” Yeh says. “Rather than just pointing to where certain places, regions and landscapes are located, we study how they got to be as they are, and how they are related to the world.”

In other words, she adds, geography offers a critical perspective on today’s big questions: “Climate change, migration, inequality, housing, poverty, disease, water, war, energy, and social justice all demand geographical analysis.”

Faculty members in the Geography Department focus their research in four areas:

Physical geography
Human geography
Environment-society relations and
Geographic information science

Tom Veblen

For example, in physical geography, Tom Veblen, a college professor of distinction and professor of geography, directs the Biogeography Lab, which includes Schoennagel and which studies forest dynamics, partly by analyzing tree rings.

Veblen’s research examines how humans are directly and indirectly altering wildfire activity and other disturbances such as insect outbreaks in the forests of the western United States and in southern South America. Recently, Veblen presented his work in the 110th Distinguished Research Lecture.

Other faculty members in physical geography are well known. One is Waleed Abdalati, director of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences. Abdalati, who earned his Ph.D. in geography from ��ֱ�� Boulder, previously served as NASA’s chief scientist.

Another is fellow geography alumnus Mark Serreze, who directs the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), which monitors, researches and publicizes the annual Arctic sea-ice minimum. Serreze is one of ��ֱ�� Boulder’s most highly cited researchers.

John O'Loughlin

In human geography, John O’Loughlin is a college professor of distinction and professor of geography and a prominent expert on the political geography of the post-Soviet Union, including Russian and Ukrainian geopolitics, Eurasian quasi-states and ethno-territorial nationalism.

He has also studied the diffusion of democracy, electoral geography, the geography of conflict, and the political geography of Nazi Germany. O’Loughlin is regularly quoted in the mass media about political geography. He also completed a solo bicycling trip across the United States at the age of 65 in 2013, completing the journey in 42 days.

Talking points

A 2014 internal academic-prioritization report ranked ��ֱ�� Boulder’s department as the top geography department in North America in scholarly achievement.

The department was ranked second in the nation for its doctoral education by the National Research Council.

Gilbert F. White, the late distinguished professor of geography, was one of only four ��ֱ�� Boulder faculty to win the National Medal of Science. White is known as the “father of floodplain management.”

In environment-society relations, chair Yeh is a widely quoted and cited expert on Tibet whose research includes conflicts over access to natural resources, how nationalism affects protection of nature, the social and environmental effects of fencing and privatization of grasslands, the vulnerability of Tibetan herders to climate change, and how and why Tibetans become environmentalists.

She is the author of Taming Tibet: Landscape Transformation and the Gift of Chinese Development, which explores the intersection of political economy and cultural politics of development as a project of state territorialization. It won the 2015 E. Gene Smith Prize for best book on Inner Asia from the Association of Asian Studies. It was also named a “best book of 2014” by Foreign Affairs for the Asia/Pacific region.

Barbara Buttenfield

In geographic-information science, Barbara (Babs) Buttenfield focuses on measuring distance and surface area on terrain surfaces for natural-hazards models. This work becomes significant when modeling flooding, seismic and landslide risks and other environmental hazards that have fundamental impacts on society, safety and natural resources, she stated.

Buttenfield develops algorithms to correct measurements on hilly or rugged terrain, where compromised distance measures might corrupt estimations of hazards such as debris flow and water accumulation. In the rural United States and in developing regions of the world, where fine-resolution terrain data are not available, establishing guidelines for model reliability is needed to protect communities worldwide against hazards.

For more information on geography at ��ֱ�� Boulder, click here.

Encompassing South American wildfires, Arctic sea-ice retreat, post-Soviet politics, climate change in Tibet and GIS, ��ֱ�� Boulder geographers keep their fingers on the pulse of a changing world.

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As student-loan debt soars, endowments can help

Anonymous — Thu, 27 Apr 2017 19:54:56 +0000

As student-loan debt soars, endowments can help Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 04/27/2017 - 13:54

Steven R. Leigh and Kimberly Bowman

Just about three years ago, we considered the problem of student-loan debt and discussed how endowments in higher education could help solve the problem, especially for ��ֱ�� Boulder. Today, we revisit that issue.

Steven R. Leigh and Kimberly Bowman

Unfortunately, the student-loan debt problem continues to worsen. Student-loan debt now stands at about $1.3 trillion, up from the $1.08 trillion reported in 2014. Comparisons to housing and credit-card debt continue to reveal the terrible scale of the problem. Sadly, recent press stories have highlighted numerous egregious abuses of commercial student loans. Many economists consider this to be the next national financial "bubble.”

We are pleased to report recent successes in the College of Arts and Sciences with respect to visionary endowment gifts. Just in the last few years, significant endowment gifts for scholarships, endowed chairs and endowed professorships have enriched our college and accelerated increases in our academic quality.

The benefits conferred by a strong endowment are impressive. For example, scholarship endowments directly alleviate student-loan debt, and these endowments have greatly aided ��ֱ�� Boulder students. In the last three years, 28 new endowed scholarship funds have been set up for College of Arts and Sciences students. For instance, the late Evelyn (BA A&S ’48) and Jack Katz endowed a scholarship in 2013. Through estate distributions, their gift to an endowed scholarship in their name totals almost $1 million. This will generate scholarship support to students interested in travel and the arts for generations to come. Alumna Mary Ann Casey has also generously donated to our Global Grants endowment, and her gift has been matched by multiple donors to provide scholarship support to students who study abroad through our International Affairs Program.

These generous gifts are transforming our departments and the college, supporting our students while accelerating and expanding our research capacities. Our students will have unparalleled opportunities to learn from the very best faculty in the world. Our faculty will lead their disciplines.

Universities also use endowed professorships to pay direct salary and research costs. When coupled with scholarships, endowments help transform students’ lives and advance our internationally acclaimed research, while becoming critical elements of universities' cost-containment strategies.

Named chairs backed by endowments hugely boost a university's reputation by granting the ability to attract and reward star faculty who deliver outstanding research and educational opportunities and experiences. Thanks to a generous bequest, we hired Professor Miles Kimball from the University of Michigan to fill the Eugene D. Eaton Jr. Endowed Chair in our Economics Department.

Margaret (BA A&S ’58) and David Grohne (BS Engineering ’58), together with David Pyle (parent) have made significant current and endowment gifts to support our Center for Western Civilization, Thought, and Policy and the visiting scholar in Conservative Thought and Policy program. This support enables the college to attract faculty and fellows to complement our excellent faculty and provide diverse educational opportunities for students and the community.

The generosity of Distinguished Professor and Amgen co-founder Marvin Caruthers—one of four ��ֱ�� Boulder faculty members to win the prestigious National Medal of Science—allowed us to recruit biochemistry professor Karolin Luger (a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, recently designated as an elected fellow in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences). Luger holds the Jennie Smoly Caruthers Endowed Chair of Chemistry and Biochemistry. An estate gift to the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry from the late Don Segur (BA A&S ’51) establishes an endowed chair, and has been complemented by another anonymous estate gift to the department. Together, these gifts will help us compete for the world's best chemists.

These generous gifts are transforming our departments and the college, supporting our students while accelerating and expanding our research capacities. Our students will have unparalleled opportunities to learn from the very best faculty in the world. Our faculty will lead their disciplines.

Virtually every aspect of what we do is richly deserving of an endowment, from research on quantum physics in our Physics Department, to research on race and culture in ethnic studies, to studies of Shakespeare and theatre across our arts and humanities units. This includes our many centers and institutes dedicated to more specific areas of academic inquiry. We must continue to transform our college to lead the world in research, while providing our students financial freedom from debt and increasing their educational opportunities. Our priority is to continue working with our generous donors to help us succeed in delivering top-quality academics here in Boulder.

Steven R. Leigh is dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of ��ֱ�� Boulder. Kimberly Bowman is assistant dean for advancement.

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Sociology prof probes bureaucratic causes of environmental justice failures

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Apr 2017 23:44:42 +0000

Sociology prof probes bureaucratic causes of environmental justice failures Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 04/25/2017 - 17:44

Jeff Thomas

With environmental justice programs showing minimal success in bringing equality to low-income communities, Jill Harrison is actively exploring bureaucratic causes. This year, the associate professor in sociology at the University of ��ֱ�� Boulder will have the time to comprehensively encapsulate her research concerning how regulatory culture may be facilitating this failure, thanks to a fellowship from American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), which funds advanced research in the humanities.

“I’m just exceptionally grateful for the opportunity that the university and the ACLS are giving me to develop this research,” said Harrison, who was recently awarded a one-year fellowship to pursue her studies.

The ACLS provides half the funding to grant Harrison a year’s salary to pursue the research without having to attend to her teaching duties as an associate professor in the ��ֱ�� Department of Sociology, and ��ֱ�� provides the other half of funding.

Jill Harrison

Harrison is hoping to publish a book on the research — titled “Regulatory Culture and the Failure of Government Programs for Environmental Justice” in the fellowship award — which she has been developing for years. MIT Press published her first book in 2011, “Pesticide Drift and the Pursuit of Environmental Justice,” an award-winning investigation of how rural communities are poisoned by chemical farming practices and fight for stronger pesticide regulations.

Harrison has also published recent academic articles pertaining directly to her current research, including: “Bureaucrats’ Tacit Understandings and Social Movement Policy Implementation,” published in 2016 in Social Problems; and “Coopted Environmental Justice? Activists roles in shaping EJ policy,” published in 2015 by Environmental Sociology.

In those articles, she explored how environmental justice practices had deviated from EJ movement priorities in select grant programs and organizations, but this year Harrison hopes to take a more comprehensive look at how environmental justice programs are marginalized by bureaucratic priorities.

“Other scholars have provided information about why EJ efforts have been so slow to succeed, and it’s important to note that I’m building on this information,” Harrison said. Much of the research has focused on factors such as limited funding and overworked staff, as well as analytical limitations such as the inability to assess the cumulative effects of multiple chemical exposures.

“What I’m adding to this discussion is what I’ve learned in my conversations with government employees,” said Harrison, whose primary research methodologies are in-depth confidential interviews and group observation of government agency staff. Often the employees assigned to track and promote environmental justice priorities feel their input is marginalized by other employees whose priorities are aligned more with long-standing agency concerns and practices, such as reducing aggregate levels of pollution and protecting wilderness areas and wildlife.

What I’m adding to this discussion is what I’ve learned in my conversations with government employees."

“They can also face resistance from their colleagues who may actually protest the priorities of EJ reform, and some feel bullied from making proposals,” Harrison said. “Many feel everyday resistance to focusing on their EJ programs.”

Overall EPA funding, of course, is threatened by the Trump Administration’s proposed budget, though Harrison indicated that much of her field research is already complete. Many EJ advocates believe that the EPA suggested cuts will be aimed directly at environmental justice measures, which have been weakly funded since President Clinton’s 1994 executive order on EJ.

Harrison said she already has a publisher interested in her work, which she hopes will become something of a “cross-over success” for both academic and general audiences, much as “Pesticide Drift” became. More so, she hopes the research will illuminate problems with enhancing environmental justice programs and help create a culture for success.

“I’ll be spending most the year reviewing my interviews to analyze the roots of this resistance and how that dovetails with broader ideologies of racial and economic injustice,” Harrison said.

“With all the environmental agencies in the United States, it feels very abstract, and I’m figuring out how to make my recommendations very concrete,” Harrison said.

But “what’s being addressed is how to reduce in the inequalities so that your race, or your income, doesn’t determine your life chances.”

<p>With environmental justice programs showing minimal success in bringing equality to low-income communities, Jill Harrison is actively exploring bureaucratic causes, and she has won a fellowship from American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), which will support her work.</p>

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Spelling-bee champ muses on luck and rockets

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Apr 2017 23:09:48 +0000

Spelling-bee champ muses on luck and rockets Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 04/25/2017 - 17:09

Clay Bonnyman Evans

College of Arts and Sciences sponsors local spelling bee winner’s travel to national competition

Ben Lenger is surprisingly nonchalant about winning the 2017 Barnes & Noble Regional Spelling Bee on Feb. 25 in Broomfield, which netted him an all-expense-paid trip to the national finals in Washington, D.C., in May and other prizes.

But perhaps that’s no surprise. The seventh grader at Sunset Middle School in Longmont is an old hand at spelling bees, and has learned that anything can happen.

“In third grade, I made it to the third round at the Niwot (Elementary School) bee, and I said to myself, ‘Hey, I like this,’” says the 12-year-old Niwot resident.

He’s studied hard for every competition since, with mixed results. He’s bombed out and won at the school level, lost in the first round of the regional competition, and this year, beat out the 2016 champion, Cameron Keith.

“It’s luck,” he says. “I didn’t prepare any harder this year than last year, when I was out in the first round of the regionals.”

He means, quite literally, the luck of the draw. Sometimes you get a word that hangs you up, as last year’s champ did this time around. Other times, you don’t.

It doesn’t hurt, of course, to be extremely well read, and to have a PhD in organic chemistry for a father and a former English teacher for a mother, which is, Ben muses, another kind of luck.

Ben Lenger onstage during this year's regional spelling bee. He attributes his victory to good luck. Photo courtesy of Audrey Lenger.

“I love etymology, and that’s something I’ve worked on with the kids, especially with Greek and Latin roots,” says his mother, Audrey Lenger. “Not because of spelling bees, but with an eye toward general literacy and enjoyment of the English language.”

Ben agrees that having such knowledge is helpful when parsing out words.

“Obviously, knowing the roots helps a lot,” he says. “But I know most of the words just because I read a lot and I’ve seen them.”

In fact, reading his father’s college-level biology textbooks helped send him to the national competition—that’s where he first encountered “lysis,” which he successfully spelled to claim this year’s trophy.

Some of what Ben reads isn’t surprising. He loves the Harry Potter and Percy Jackson novels, as well as “The Lord of the Rings.” He enjoys reading about history. But he also makes a habit of regularly poring over the DK Encyclopedia of Science, which he received for his sixth birthday, and scouring the internet for articles about “cars, rockets, and various jet engines.”

“I want to work in the aerospace industry and rocketry,” he says.

Participating in a spelling bee in the nation’s capital is a great honor, of course, but he’s most excited about visiting the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution. And he’s not just biding his time at home: He loves building and launching Estes model rockets, which have been thrilling enthusiasts young and old since 1958.

“I’ve got this one I haven’t built yet, but it looks totally awesome. It’s a multi-re-entry vehicle, so there are three stages that fall off,” Ben says. “I’ll have to launch it on a non-windy day, or the stages will be all over the place.”

He also plays viola in his school orchestra and enjoys bicycling and skiing.

Students have participated in local and regional spelling bees to reach the Scripps National Spelling Bee since 1925. In 2017, an estimated 11 million children participated.

The ��ֱ�� Boulder College of Arts and Sciences has provided funding for the families of Boulder County winner to travel to the finals for three years. Ben will travel with his parents, Steve and Audrey, and younger brother Jon to this year’s competition, which starts May 28. The finals are scheduled for June 2.

“We are very grateful for the financial assistance from ��ֱ��,” Audrey Lenger says.

Ben Lenger is surprisingly nonchalant about winning the 2017 Barnes & Noble Regional Spelling Bee. But perhaps that’s no surprise. The seventh grader at Sunset Middle School in Longmont is an old hand at spelling bees, and has learned that anything can happen.

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Russian Jewish immigrants, from rescue to rejection

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Apr 2017 22:29:05 +0000

Russian Jewish immigrants, from rescue to rejection Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 04/25/2017 - 16:29

Clay Bonnyman Evans

Russian Jewish American artists, scholars examine the immigrant experience at a time of increasing threat.

Eighteen months ago, co-editor-in-chief David Shneer of the journal Eastern European Jewish Affairs and Anna Katsnelson decided to dedicate a special issue of the journal to the contributions of Russian-Jewish American culture makers. By the time it was published in March, the world had changed in ways they never expected.

Following the election of Donald Trump in November, incidents of anti-Semitism in the United States, from bomb threats directed at Jewish community centers to vandalism of Jewish cemeteries, have spiked.

And now, some five months later, allegations of Russian interference with the November election and connections between Russia and members of the Trump campaign and White House continue to pile up, and the FBI has launched an investigation.

“I never saw this event as having anything to do with contemporary politics when Anna Katsnelson and I conceived it,” Shneer said in opening remarks to the day-long Festival of Contemporary Russian Jewish American Culture, held March 5 in New York City to coincide with publication of the special issue.

Shneer is professor of history, religious studies and Jewish studies at the University of ��ֱ�� Boulder, where he holds the Louis P. Singer Endowed Chair in Jewish History. He and Anna Shternshis, associate professor of Yiddish studies and director of the Anne Tanenbaum Centre for Jewish Studies at the University of Toronto, took the reins as co-editors of the journal three years ago.

David Shneer. At top of page, two men appear in an image from the book From Selfie to Groupie, a book of photographs and essays exploring the variety and intricacy of Jewish-American identity, which includes contributions from Shneer.

The journal was started in the late 1960s under the name of Soviet Jewish Affairs and was dedicated to exploring the lives and experiences of Jews living behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War.

When Shneer and Shternshis took over, they decided to broaden the scope of the journal to explore the experiences of Jews from eastern Europe and Russia who had made home in other places around the globe. They published special issues on such topics as global Yiddish culture, which included essays written about eastern European Jews living in Paris, Amsterdam, Montreal and Bialystok as well as the process of migration of Jews from eastern Europe.

The special edition on Russian Jewish American culture makers—poets, writers, filmmakers, artists, photographers—initiated, designed, and edited by Katsnelson, was unusual, Shneer says.

“The topic seemingly has nothing to do with Soviet Jewry or eastern Europe, except for the fact that this collection of (culture makers) traces its roots back to the Soviet Union,” he says.

In addition to the scholarly articles that always appear in journals, the editors also solicited original creative work, including fiction, photography and poetry. Rather than focus on high-profile Russian Jewish American immigrant artists and writers, such as best-selling novelist Gary Shteyngart, whose parents emigrated from the Soviet Union, they chose to focus on lesser-visible artists, with a special emphasis on women.

“After a year when the female presidential candidate in the United States won the popular vote by close to 3 million votes, more than any losing candidate before her, but lost the election to a candidate who is anti-women, anti-immigrant, and anti-diversity, more than ever the United States and the world are in need of women writers, women photographers, women professors, and women artists,” Katsnelson wrote in her introduction to the issue.

The issue contains six scholarly articles, including one by Katsnelson, a review essay by Shneer examining the question of American identity through the work of Russian Jewish American photographers, as well as an original short story by Ukrainian Jewish American writer Sana Krasikov, paintings, drawings by and an interview with Russian-born artist Yevgeny Yelchin (uncle of the late Star Trek actor Anton Yelchin), book reviews and more.

A picture emerges of Americans for whom the immigrant experience was in some ways unique, Shneer says. At times during the Cold War, Soviet Jews were welcomed to America as politically desirable refugees from communism, which allowed them to immigrate to the United States relatively unimpeded. (Leaving the Soviet Union was another matter, as many Soviet Jews were “refused” exit visas from the Soviet government.)

“Coming from the Cold War enemy,” Shneer says, “the United States, and American Jewry, were rescuing them.”

Given the stark difference between the experiences of Soviet Jewry in the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s and those of today’s refugees coming from war-torn parts of the world, it was perhaps inevitable that speaker after speaker would turn to that topic during the March festival.

And we are now at a moment in history where we are asking what it means to be an American, the same conversation that was happening in the 1920s."

“Giving refuge to people who need it is what I think the United States should be doing today,” Shneer says. “Today we see waves of people who are actual refugees, who can’t live safely in their country, but we are not welcoming them as refugees. By highlighting the role immigrants are playing in contemporary American culture, the special edition of the journal ended up being an implied critique of the current administration’s policies.”

The pendulum has swung back and forth across American history when it comes to the treatment of immigrants. In the early 20^th century, industry was desperate for labor and encouraged the arrival of newcomers. By 1924, Shneer says, a backlash had developed.

“And we are now at a moment in history where we are asking what it means to be an American, the same conversation that was happening in the 1920s,” he says. “Trump tapped into an unease in the American population, which is why the U.S. electorate elected him. But what is the source of that unease? Is it economic dislocation, is it racial prejudice, is it the fear that the United States is being overrun by ‘dark’ immigrants?”

Shneer argues that having a president who does not speak out forcefully against prejudice leads directly to a “new sense of permissiveness” among those who not only spout anti-Semitic and racist ideas, but have sometimes translated those ideas into action.

Speakers at the March festival addressed those and other troubling questions that have arisen in the past year. To the extent that they, personally, have not experienced threats or intimidation, participants credited their privilege as white Americans.

In his other role as a leader in the Jewish studies scholarly community, who are frequently called upon to speak at Jewish institutions for their scholarly expertise, Shneer poses the question: “How should Jewish institutions and communities respond to this wave of threats? Do we respond to individual acts or policies or to the source of these acts and policies?”

Among Shneer’s own responses have been a call to all Americans to help shore up the institutions of democracy, and assembling a list of 70 senior faculty in Jewish studies around the nation who pledged to speak only at Jewish institutions that have denounced Stephen Bannon, former editor of Breitbart News and now a permanent member of Trump’s National Security Council.

Shneer believes Italy’s experience with fascism may be a better comparison to Trump’s instincts than German National Socialism.

“The origins of fascism are in Italy, not in Germany, and there were plenty of Italian Jews who supported Benito Mussolini and fascism,” he says. “It emphasized defending the Italian nation from the threat of communism, prioritizing the primacy of security over liberty, and operating the state by administrative fiat instead of the rule of law. Today, all Americans, and especially American Jews, need to decide whether they will publicly stand on the side of liberal democracy or on the side of ethnic nationalism.”

Russian Jewish American artists, scholars examine the immigrant experience at a time of increasing threat.

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From Russia, with knowledge

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Apr 2017 22:16:04 +0000

From Russia, with knowledge Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 04/25/2017 - 16:16

Clay Bonnyman Evans

��ֱ�� Boulder political scientist Sarah Sokhey, who has watched evolution of Putin’s Russia up close, isn’t surprised by reports of election meddling and doesn’t see Russia as predestined to become less democratic

Allegations that President Donald Trump’s administration has been entangled with Vladimir Putin’s Russia even before his election continue to surface almost every day.

A small sampling of stories that have made headlines: the resignation of former national security adviser Michael Flynn after it was revealed he had contacts with the Russian ambassador before taking office; revelations that Attorney General Jeff Sessions misled Congress about his own meetings with the ambassador; and news that former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort was paid millions of dollars by a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine.

On March 20, FBI Director James Comey confirmed that the agency is investigating claims of Russian meddling in the election and whether there was any coordination with the Trump team.

What’s a baffled American to make of it all?

Enter Sarah Sokhey, assistant professor of political science at the University of ��ֱ�� Boulder and an associate fellow at the International Center for the Study of Institutions and Development at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow. Sokhey has visited Russia 13 times since 2002, giving her a front-seat to the evolution of Putin, who has been president or prime minister for more than 16 years.

Sarah Sokhey

Though many Americans and Europeans view Putin as a dangerous autocrat, she notes that he polls well among his own citizens.

“Putin is genuinely popular in Russia, in part because media is not competitive and opposition parties are not doing well, but that’s not a made-up statistic,” says Sokhey, whose book, “The Political Economy of Pension Policy Reversal in Post-Communist Countries” will be published by Cambridge University Press in September.

She says recent protests against corruption could threaten Putin’s popularity, “but it remains to be seen if the people will really turn on him. People forget that you can have an authoritarian leader who is genuinely popular.”

Putin became acting president on Jan. 1, 2000, when Russia boasted a competitive, if sometimes chaotic, democratic system, raucous political competition and free media.

Three months later, he was elected in what was widely seen as a free and fair election.

But throughout his rule, Putin has showed an increasingly authoritarian streak, clamping down on political opposition and media. On March 23, former Russian politician Denis Voronenkov was assassinated in Kiev, Ukraine, becoming the latest in a long line of Putin critics to have been killed in recent years.

Sokhey has watched with fascination the unfolding of the controversy about connections between the Trump administration and Putin’s Russia, including allegations that Russia actively tried to influence the outcome of the U.S. presidential election in favor of Trump via cyber-hacking, leaking emails and using trolls and bots to promulgate memes damaging to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

“It’s plausible that the Russian government was involved” in attempts to influence the election, Sokhey says. “It has a history of similar involvement with government in other countries of the region.”

Anne Applebaum, author of four books about the Soviet Gulag and life behind the Iron Curtain and a London-based columnist for the Washington Post, argues that many of Trump’s affinities for and connections to Russia were well-established long before he took office.

“Trump doesn’t have to be a Manchurian candidate who has been hypnotized or recruited by foreign intelligence,” Applebaum wrote. “It’s enough that he has direct and indirect links to a profoundly corrupt and violent foreign dictator, whose policies he admires, whose advisers he shares and whose slogans he uses.”

From her front-row seat, Sokhey can understand why Trump and his key advisor Steve Bannon might see a kindred spirit in Putin. The Russian leader has promoted a narrative that there is a clash of civilizations between the Islamic world and Russia, which has battled Islamic insurgents from Chechnya, while Trump has made no secret of his belief that Muslims pose a clear and present danger to the United States.

“Russia has been threatened by Islamic terrorism for years. After 9/11, there was some sentiment of, ‘See, now you know what we are dealing with,’” Sokhey says. “It’s us vs. them, these two worlds, and you have to take a strong stance. There is clearly some affinity between (Trump and Putin) on that.”

Most people forget that in the 1990s, there was a very competitive system with lots of parties and a much freer media,” Sokhey says. “So it’s not inevitable that Russia goes down a non-democratic path, although things don’t necessarily look great for democracy right now.”

And despite relentlessly anti-American Russian media, most Russians reserve their animus for the U.S. government rather than individual Americans, she says.

“I speak Russian with an American accent and when I open my mouth it’s not hard to figure out where I’m from,” Sokhey says. “But I don’t feel like I’m treated any differently. Their opinions of the U.S. government are worse, but Russians don’t appear to broaden that to Americans in general.”

Sokhey doubts the increasingly anti-American sentiment is the result of U.S.-led sanctions imposed on Russia following the 2014 takeover of Crimea by pro-Russian nationalists and Russian armed forces. The sanctions have had an impact, but have not significantly altered how Russians live.

“It wasn’t causing widespread shortages. Certain luxury foods are harder to get, brie and other fancy cheeses, and the agriculture sector had to start raising more chicken,” she says. “The fall in oil prices has been a much bigger strain.”

Mass protests against Putin’s regime in 2010 and 2012 didn’t translate into to sustained opposition, and despite large anti-corruption protests in late March, Sokhey believes it’s “more likely than not” that he will be re-elected to another six-year term in 2018. (Current law bars him from seeking a third consecutive term, though he got around that in 2008 by serving four years as prime minister.)

But she doesn’t believe Russia is necessarily doomed to an authoritarian future.

“Most people forget that in the 1990s, there was a very competitive system with lots of parties and a much freer media,” Sokhey says. “So it’s not inevitable that Russia goes down a non-democratic path, although things don’t necessarily look great for democracy right now.”

And she notes that conflict between the United States and Russia is nothing new, no matter what government is in place.

“The U.S. and Russian governments have often been on opposite sides, even in the post-Communist era,” she says, citing disagreements over wars in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. “It’s really not that unusual, but the U.S. and Russian governments have also found points of cooperation at times.”

��ֱ�� Boulder political scientist Sarah Sokhey, who has watched evolution of Putin’s Russia up close, isn’t surprised by reports of election meddling and doesn’t see Russia as predestined to become less democratic.

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Striving to help women feel they belong in physics

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Apr 2017 19:57:57 +0000

Striving to help women feel they belong in physics Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 04/25/2017 - 13:57

Courtney Packard

'We recognize that learning is a social act, and we are creating social structures where we want people to build a sense of belonging in this enterprise'

By creating a sense of belonging for women in physics, the University of ��ֱ�� Boulder is helping female students succeed, experts in the field say.

“Flipping” classrooms, endorsing hard work over innate ability and creating positive social connections in and outside the classroom are all contributing to students’ success, they add.

With increasing concern about the gender gap in STEM education (science, technology, engineering and math), researchers are examining sociocultural factors that could help explain this disparity.

In 2012, only 39 percent of bachelor degrees in the physical sciences were awarded to women, compared to more than 50 percent of women earning bachelor degrees in biological sciences.

��ֱ�� Boulder researchers in physics and psychology lay out the case for how to attain parity in a recently published journal article titled, “Fitting in or opting out: a review of key social-psychological factors influencing a belonging for women in physics.” The researchers noted that women who left STEM majors reported “feeling like outsiders in the traditionally male-centered culture in STEM.”

Tiffany Ito

Tiffany Ito, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at ��ֱ�� and one of the article’s authors, says a low sense of belonging could be contributing to fewer women in physics.

“You look around the class, and you don’t see people who look like you. That sends the implicit message that you’re not the type of person who belongs here, which contributes to a low sense of belonging,” Ito says.

The more valued and accepted students feel within their academic discipline, the more motivated and engaged they are in the classroom, resulting in higher levels of performance.

However, stereotypes in the predominantly male-dominated field of physics could prompt female students to feel less able to succeed.

“There’s the belief that some of the physical sciences and engineering and computer science are fields where you need to have more innate brilliance in order to pursue them,” Ito says.

Noah Finkelstein, a professor of physics at ��ֱ�� who specializes in physics education research and one of Ito’s co-authors, adds, “Those things only get realized in social circumstances, and if we recognize that our job is to help people develop and reach their potentials, that we endorse hard work over brilliance, we will be much more inclusive in this enterprise.”

“The concern is that when students are in really challenging introductory classes, they think they are the only ones who are struggling like that and that therefore it means they are not cut out to do this, and this might be exacerbated for people who are underrepresented,” Ito says.

“Women might particularly think, ‘Everybody else is doing fine. I’m the only one who can’t master this material. It must be because I’m not cut out for this.’”

Noah Finkelstein, shown here teaching an introductory course, says students in introductory courses can believe they are struggling more than their classmates to master new material, and this effect can be more pronounced when most other students don't look like them. He contends that female students benefit from role models in the field. At the top of the page, Physics Professor Margaret Murnane is one of three female physicists at ��ֱ�� Boulder to win a MacArthur "Genius Grant."

However, research shows that normalizing these struggles can aid students’ success, particularly women’s success.

“We’re focusing on an intervention to normalize struggles for students and to point out that it gets better,” Ito explains. “What we try to convey is that, in fact, most people are probably having those struggles to some degree and that if you persist, you will probably find a way to manage that and master the material.”

Finkelstein says that the perception of gender bias in this field is “reflective of a level of injustice and systemic bias in our educational system and our society at large.”

��ֱ�� Boulder is finding ways to increase students’ success in this particularly rigorous field.

Finkelstein says, “The idea is to make our classrooms student-centered and interactive. It is a known and proven thing that these kinds of student-centered inquiry do better than our traditional forms of lecture. That’s been shown quite dramatically.”

“We have a really active and highly regarded STEM-education community here,” Ito adds. “We have the Center for STEM Learning, which is an interdisciplinary unit that focuses on STEM education. Many people within the physics department are very focused and experienced in STEM education issues. This has been a very receptive and collaborative community.”

“Why not have the systems themselves adapt and meet the students halfway?” Finkelstein suggests. “We can adapt the structure of our classrooms so that it more naturally fits the students.”

“When we do create supportive environments for these students, they do amazing and remarkably impactful things.”

Involving students in their academic and social environment outside the classroom can also contribute to students’ sense of belonging at the university.

“We recognize that learning is a social act, and we are creating social structures where we want people to build a sense of belonging in this enterprise,” Finkelstein says.

“��ֱ�� wants to be inclusive and support diversity in its student body,” Ito explains. “These kinds of initiatives convey to students that this is a place you can come if you have interest in these areas and do well.”

��ֱ�� Prime is one such program that is working to ensure that students are successful in the classroom.

Students are less likely to have taken physics in high school than they are biology. So when they come, it’s not a surprise that if they’re looking at majors or they’re looking at classes to take in college, biology is more familiar and maybe it seems more interesting and they build a greater sense of confidence in their ability to do it.”

The initiative pairs undergraduate students with mentors from grad programs, allowing new students to engage in research in the early stages of their academic career and showcase their work.

Women in Physics, a community of undergraduate students, graduate students and faculty at ��ֱ��, recently held a three-day regional conference where students attended workshops and panels on topics such as “Careers in Physics,” “Life in Graduate School” and “Creating Inclusive Communities in Physics.”

With programs such as these, Finkelstein says, “We are on the leading edge of a national movement.”

He adds, “The more inclusive excellence is a topic of discussion on our campus, the better off we all are for it.”

However, women are not underrepresented in all STEM majors. Mathematics, the life sciences such as biology and the social sciences produce a greater number of women graduates.

“Students reach college with different exposure to different areas of science,” Ito explains. “Students are less likely to have taken physics in high school than they are biology. So when they come, it’s not a surprise that if they’re looking at majors or they’re looking at classes to take in college, biology is more familiar and maybe it seems more interesting and they build a greater sense of confidence in their ability to do it.”

Ito explains, “They’re more likely to take those classes and maybe more likely to entertain the possibility of being a biology major.”

Creating a sense of belonging for women in physics conveys benefits beyond the classroom.

“The more women you have going into the profession, the more diversity you are getting in the workforce, and that can be more innovative,” Ito says.

“The leading national argument for more women in physics is workforce needs,” Finkelstein says. “I’m going to flip that. Let’s have more women in the workforce not to meet the needs of Lockheed Martin, but to define what Lockheed Martin becomes. They are the people who define what the workforce of tomorrow is.”

��ֱ�� Boulder faculty have won nine MacArthur “Genius” Grants, four of them awarded to women. Three of the four ��ֱ�� Boulder female Genius Grant winners were physicists.

“Women are our geniuses on campus, so let’s support that,” Finkelstein says. “More people should have access to take physics and understand that this is apart of their broad liberal education, and should she want to, any woman, in our school system at any level should be allowed access to, supported, and promoted in doing physics.”

He adds, “Diversity is a form of strength in our system. The great American experiment has been one of diversity and inclusion. And that is something we have to celebrate.”

By creating a sense of belonging for women in physics, the University of ��ֱ�� Boulder is helping female students succeed, experts in the field say.

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Educators to get their RAP on

Anonymous — Mon, 24 Apr 2017 23:17:02 +0000

Educators to get their RAP on Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 04/24/2017 - 17:17

Jeff Thomas

Residential Academic Program will cater to students who want not only to learn how to learn but also to learn how to teach

When Plato and his pals first gathered at what became known as the Academy, very little had been established in terms of a formal doctrine, but the would-be philosophers apparently shared an interest in learning how to learn and got there by problem-solving together.

That’s essentially the idea behind Residential Academic Programs, or RAPs, programs hosted at residence halls and designed to get first-year students involved with other students and faculty with similar academic interests. For the first time next fall, the University of ��ֱ�� Boulder will host a RAP for students interested in not only learning how to learn, but learning how to teach, as well, as Sewall Hall will host the first RAP for would-be educators.

“We want to encourage that spirit of learning and growth, because the university is not a place to grow and learn on your own,” said math Professor Eric Stade, the director of Sewall RAP. While Stade’s specialty is in number theory and special functions, he has an avid interest in both math pedagogy and also in the role RAPs play in the lives of students.

Eric Stade

“Partly because I’m a teacher myself, I’m very keen on the idea of encouraging kids and giving them a picture of the profession and the discipline,” said Stade, who teaches a course in mathematics for elementary-school teachers as part of his duties as a math professor.

“I’ve worked with a lot of future teachers, elementary, high school and (higher education) teachers. I like the idea of highlighting the importance and benefits of teaching professions.”

Sewall RAP began in 1970, as the first RAP on campus. Traditionally, its emphases have been on history, culture, and the social sciences. These themes will continue to constitute major elements of Sewall’s academic identity, but will be now be integrated with the new focus on teaching and learning.

Sewell Hall, a residential academic program, is revamping its offerings to help students who want to learn how to teach.

Building on the success of Sewall RAP, the campus soon began expanding the RAP initiative: Farrand Hall got its humanities RAP in 1980, followed by Baker RAP, with emphases on natural and environmental science, in 1994. As of Fall 2017, the initiative will comprise 11 RAPs campus-wide, including programs in engineering, global studies, communications, business, the arts and so on.

Curiously, Stade was the director of Libby RAP, originally a performing and visual arts RAP, for a time. “It occurred to me that there is a lot of creativity in the mathematics that I do,” he said. With this, he undertook to expand Libby RAP’s focus, reimagining it as the “visual and performing arts and creativity” RAP.

To join a RAP, students must reside in the hall where it is housed. So RAP administrators work closely with Housing and Residence Life personnel to place freshmen in halls that fit their academic interests.

Appropriate placement is “a great benefit to the programs and students,” Stade said. “We’re optimistic going forward that students are going to be aligned more closely with their academic residence.”

Upon living in a RAP, freshmen will find core curriculum and elective courses taught in small and friendly classrooms in their own hall, as well as many other less-formal chances to interact with fellow students and faculty.

Traditionally, students anticipating a teaching career would complete an arts & sciences major, and then take additional coursework to earn their teaching credentials. However, this fall the School of Education will offer a major in elementary education, and the possibilities that this presents for Sewall RAP has Stade rather enthusiastic about the opportunities for collaboration.

“We’re very excited about this new theme in education,” he said. “Because it’s a broad theme, it allows students with a wide diversity of interests to participate.

“One thing I really hope to do is get students involved in volunteering at BVSD (Boulder Valley School District). I find those students are rewarded as much as the teachers they are helping.”

In the end, that’s the whole idea of a RAP, getting more involved.

“Going it alone in a large research institution can be quite intimidating for first-year students,” he said. “RAPs try to promote growth in a more organic and holistic way.”

And that’s a RAP.

For the first time next fall, ��ֱ�� Boulder will host a Residential Academic Program for students interested in not only learning how to learn, but learning how to teach, as well, as Sewall Hall will host the first RAP for would-be educators.

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Summer 2017

Music helped Swedish subculture become nationalist political movement

Scholar went to Sweden in 2010 to study folk music but soon realized that he was studying a genre of music that was being appropriated into a fringe political movement

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Primate extinction looms, but hope remains, scientist says

The first question in conservation is whether to focus on conserving species or habitat. Anthropologist Joanna Lambert has proposed conservation tactics that focus on particular primate species

Photo gallery: Primates under threat

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This is not your junior-high geography

Encompassing South American wildfires, Arctic sea-ice retreat, post-Soviet politics, climate change in Tibet and GIS, ����ֱ�� Boulder geographers keep their fingers on the pulse of a changing world

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As student-loan debt soars, endowments can help

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Sociology prof probes bureaucratic causes of environmental justice failures

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Spelling-bee champ muses on luck and rockets

College of Arts and Sciences sponsors local spelling bee winner’s travel to national competition

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Russian Jewish immigrants, from rescue to rejection

Russian Jewish American artists, scholars examine the immigrant experience at a time of increasing threat.

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From Russia, with knowledge

����ֱ�� Boulder political scientist Sarah Sokhey, who has watched evolution of Putin’s Russia up close, isn’t surprised by reports of election meddling and doesn’t see Russia as predestined to become less democratic

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Striving to help women feel they belong in physics

'We recognize that learning is a social act, and we are creating social structures where we want people to build a sense of belonging in this enterprise'

Off

Educators to get their RAP on

Residential Academic Program will cater to students who want not only to learn how to learn but also to learn how to teach

Off

Encompassing South American wildfires, Arctic sea-ice retreat, post-Soviet politics, climate change in Tibet and GIS, ��ֱ�� Boulder geographers keep their fingers on the pulse of a changing world

��ֱ�� Boulder political scientist Sarah Sokhey, who has watched evolution of Putin’s Russia up close, isn’t surprised by reports of election meddling and doesn’t see Russia as predestined to become less democratic