Faculty, Students, and Alumni in the News - December 2023

December’s news topics included Moms for Liberty, spirituality, and the war in Ukraine, among others. Links are provided, but some may require subscriptions to access content. Please contact Vige Barrie if you cannot open a link or do not have a subscription.

• “33 Must-See Exhibitions to Visit This Winter” – Artnews, Dec. 1
  “René Treviño: Stab of Guilt,” the Wellin Museum’s spring exhibition opening on Feb. 17, was included in this listing.
• “Rhona Bitner: Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art” – Artforum, Dec. 1
  In this review of the Wellin Museum’s fall exhibition “Rhona Bitner: Resound,” the writer observed, “Pervading the exhibition is the artist’s intuition of the essentially—but tragically—theatrical nature of photography, which makes a spectacle of the spectacle being over.”
• “John Nichols, Author of ‘The Milagro Beanfield War,’ Dies at 83” – The New York Times, Dec. 2
  The late John Nichols ’62 was celebrated in this paper as well as The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, ArtDaily, and NPR, among other outlets.
• “Class attendance in US universities ‘at record low’” – Times Higher Education, Dec. 6
  Professor of Sociology Emeritus Daniel Chambliss said that a trend compounding student attitudes is the growing emphasis in U.S. higher education on job-oriented teaching.
• “Moms for Liberty's vision for America's future is narrow and dark. Why not help kids?” – USA TODAY Network, Dec. 7
  Hadley Noonan ’25 wrote this op-ed that appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country. Her essay was based on summer research she conducted as part of a Levitt Center grant investigating book banning.
• “Higher Ed, Indoctrination and Miseducation” – The Wall Street Journal, Dec. 7
  President David Wippman co-authored a response to an op-ed in which the writer “blamed ‘corrupt,’ ‘radical’ universities for all of America’s ills.” The co-authors replied that his “indoctrination claim is unsullied by facts” and they presented evidence proving their point.
• “Confederate Memorial at Arlington will be removed despite GOP opposition” – The Washington Post, Dec. 16
  Visiting Professor of History Ty Seidule observed that, “While Republican lawmakers described the marker as an ode to reconciliation, it was installed in what was then a racially segregated cemetery and molded in celebration of an emerging racial police state in the South.” The article appeared in many other outlets including The Boston Globe and Stars & Stripes.
• “The campus war of words over antisemitism and the BDS movement” – The Hill, Dec. 17
  President David Wippman, co-author of this op-ed, wrote, “Finding ways to foster a safe and inclusive learning environment without sacrificing their commitment to free and open inquiry may be the single most important — and most difficult — task facing higher education leaders today.”
• “After this year, we’re all majoring in Taylor Swift” – The Washington Post, Dec. 26
  Recent graduate Madison Lazenby ’23 attended an academic conference focused on singer Taylor Swift. “Pop culture is a reflection of society — what we believe, what we fear, what we desire — and is therefore a topic worth covering extensively.”
• “Will Ukraine War End in 2024? Experts Weigh In” – Newsweek, Dec. 28
  Associate Professor of Government David Rivera commented, “If Vladimir Putin is drawing lessons from the decades-long Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, then we should expect the war to continue unabated at least through 2024."
• “Yoga versus democracy? What survey data says about spiritual Americans' political behavior” – Yahoo News and The Conversation, Dec. 29
  Associate Professor of Sociology Jaime Kucinskas co-authored this essay that also appeared in dozens of newspapers around the world. She and her co-author wrote, “Our research recognizes progressive spiritual practitioners as a growing but largely unrecognized, underestimated, and misunderstood political force.”
• “Before ‘AI’ Was Coined in 1955 - Coaching Cross Country Running” – Forbes, Dec. 29
  John Werner ’92 wrote about the uses of AI in today’s cross-country running before describing his and others’ experiences training on hockey coach Gene Long’s teams.
• “From the newsroom to academia, executive aims to raise African diaspora voices” – Haitian Times, Dec. 29
  Edvige Jean-Francois ’90 spoke about her new position as the inaugural executive director of Georgia State University’s Center for Studies on Africa and Its Diaspora. “Too many people still do not know the story of Black people, Haitian people and people of color,” Jean-François said. “As an executive director, it is crucial for me to continue to elevate Africa and people of African descent from the African diaspora.”
• “Ty Seidule on Why We're Still Arguing About the Civil War” – POTUS Politics, Sirius XM, Dec. 29
  Visiting Professor of History Ty Seidule discussed the cause of the Civil War and presidential candidate Nikki Haley’s failure to identify slavery as the reason for the war.