Faculty

Faculty member aims to help Native American art evolve

Anonymous — Fri, 11 Sep 2020 15:51:47 +0000

Faculty member aims to help Native American art evolve Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 09/11/2020 - 09:51

Marysia Lopez

New �� Boulder prof is challenging audiences’ expectations of Native American art

For University of Colorado Boulder art professor Anna Tsouhlarakis, creating art was never something she envisioned as a profession.

“I never thought ‘I want to be an artist.’... it was more a way of life,” explained Tsouhlarakis.

Growing up between New Mexico and Kansas with a Native American father who was a silversmith by profession, Tsouhlarakis often traveled with him to art markets. At these markets, she was exposed to an array of Native American art and got to know many of the artists.

Being constantly surrounded by art and the people who created it made Tsouhlarakis’s artistic interest develop naturally. As a child she would often find herself gathering her father’s work remnants to make sculptures.

Anna Tsouhlarakis, a new �� Boulder professor in art and art history seen here in her studio, aims to redefine Native American art. Above, Tsouhlarakis' installation, Clash of the Titans, was displayed in the American Indian Gallery in New York City in 2007.

In her early days of high school, Tsouhlarakis took an art class that opened her eyes to working with plaster and gauze strips. It was then that Tsouhlarakis realized that her artistic strengths lay in creating three-dimensional shapes. From there, her interest in making art blossomed.

The Native American art she saw growing up, though, often consisted of weaving, pottery or jewelry making. It was not until she attended Dartmouth College for her undergraduate degree that she became exposed to other ways of artmaking, such as installation or performance.

This tension between the kind of art she was expected to make as a Native American and the kind of art she wanted to create—a complicated dynamic that would become a prevailing theme throughout her career—is what led Tsouhlarakis to major in Native American studies and studio art as an undergraduate student.

In 2007, a performance piece by Tsouhlarakis was exhibited at the Heard Museum in Phoenix, a museum dedicated to advancing American Indian art. She was struck by comments from some viewers who did not consider her to be a Native American artist. Tsouhlarakis believes that these comments were made because she worked in a medium that they did not consider an option for Native American art.

Tsouhlarakis admits that this confusion has happened numerous times and has pushed her to explore the boundaries of Native American art and the audience’s preconceived notions in her own work. By refusing to work in traditional Native American media, Tsouhlarakis is making the conscious choice to help evolve Native American art while still retaining her culture.

An example of Tsouhlarakis’s ability to redefine Native American art can be seen in her installation Clash of the Titans (2007). For this work, Tsouhlarakis drew on her Greek heritage for inspiration. The installation displays piles made up of plaster casts of various body parts, meant to symbolize the violence inherent in Cretan mythology and allude to the fantastical stories she had grown up hearing about her Greek ancestors.

American Indian Gallery in New York City displayed Clash of the Titans in 2007. The installation shows Tsouhlarakis’s use of three-dimensional work while also expanding the narratives that Native American artists are a part of.

Starting fall 2020, Tsouhlarakis will be sharing her skills and experience with �� Boulder students taking the department of art and art history’s foundation classes: Intro to Studio Art I and II. She is excited to join the department’s faculty, which she says constantly impress her with their passion for both art and teaching.

Tsouhlarakis’s predecessor, Professor Emeritus C. Maxx Stevens, spent much of her time developing the foundation classes that Tsouhlarakis now oversees. Now, Tsouhlarakis feels it is her duty to continue to explore new ideas for the program.

“This is how you keep programs vibrant … knowing you will eventually pass it on to someone who has different ideas than you,” Tsouhlarakis explains. “After my time here, I’ll be excited to pass that baton on to somebody else.”

I never thought ‘I want to be an artist.’... it was more a way of life."

Chief among the changes Tsouhlarakis wants to make to the foundation classes is shifting its focus to predominantly female artists and writers of color. She is interested in having students reflect on what they have learned about art thus far and how or why they have come to know that. In other words, Tsouhlarakis wants students to question why white, male voices have dominated much of their readings until now.

Tsouhlarakis knows that while some may question why she is making female artists and artists of color part of the norm for these courses, she says the real question is, “why not?”

As if developing new and exciting lessons for her students were not enough, the unknowns of COVID-19 complicate Tsouhlarakis’s first semester teaching at �� Boulder. In the event that the class needs to go remote, Tsouhlarakis has worked hard to find ways around students’ limited access to materials and tools when not on campus.

For this, Tsouhlarakis thought a lot about the conceptual skills that come along with working in two and three dimensions. She asked herself how those experiences can be recreated in smaller ways, using objects such as cardboard or other easily found materials.

In this exploration, Tsouhlarakis found that while the materials and tools may change, the concepts she is teaching stay the same. Much like Tsouhlarakis has dedicated herself to challenging preconceived notions in her artwork, students taking her class can expect to be similarly challenged this fall—regardless of how the class will be taught.

New �� Boulder prof is challenging audiences’ expectations of Native American art.

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What will it take to close the gender gap in physics? Patricia Rankin is working to find out

Anonymous — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 15:53:50 +0000

What will it take to close the gender gap in physics? Patricia Rankin is working to find out Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 04/23/2020 - 09:53

Rankin is telling a different story today. She’s dedicating the rest of her career to showing that she does look like a physicist—and so do countless young women, and especially women of color, who are just getting started in the field.

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Claiming their voices

Anonymous — Fri, 06 Mar 2020 16:13:59 +0000

Claiming their voices Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 03/06/2020 - 09:13

Clay Bonnyman Evans

�� Boulder researchers create vocal-empowerment curriculum for young women

After more than a decade of research, fine-tuning and field testing around the world, from Boulder to Egypt, Tanzania and Guatemala, two theatre faculty at the University of Colorado Boulder will launch their SPEAK Vocal Empowerment Curriculum—a program meant to help women find their voice—with a workshop on March 9 in New York City, in conjunction with the 25th-anniversary celebration of the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women.

Above: Beth Osnes and Chelsea Hackett. At top of page: Students in Guatemala take a moment to celebrate. Photos courtesy of Beth Osnes.

The program “utilizes tools developed by theatre performers and voice and speech pathologists for vocal strengthening and expansion of expressive range” to support young women in claiming and using their voices, says Beth Osnes, associate professor of theatre, who created the curriculum with SPEAK co-founder Chelsea Hackett, a 2010 �� Boulder theatre performance graduate and PhD graduate of New York University.

“This is empowering young women to become change makers in society,” Osnes says. “You see articles in The New York Times about the moral clarity of young women like Greta (Thunberg) who are claiming their voices. They are thought leaders, a moral conscience and voice for our future.”

SPEAK’s roots go back to 2009, when Hackett and Osnes first traveled together to Guatemala. With support from the Longmont-based Philanthropiece Foundation, they began working with MAIA Impact, a school for young Maya women, and began a more formal relationship with the school in 2013.

They have been working closely with Jen Walentas Lewon, clinical assistant professor of speech, language and hearing sciences at �� Boulder, who “has advised this approach to vocal empowerment since its inception and has traveled to Guatemala to assist in the design and implementation of this research on the curriculum,” according to an article co-authored by Osnes, Hackett, Lewon and two others which was published in December in the journal Theatre, Dance and Performance Training.

“The curriculum uses a mixture of exercises, games, meditations and journal reflections,” Hackett says. “If you walk into a classroom, you might see young women doing the wave, going up and down on vocal quality like a siren and (other) vocal exercises from voice and speech pathology. You might see them singing songs about their voices that they have written.”

“As performers, we have certain skills, exercises and approaches to help people empower their voices. We’re not trying to create performers, but using the tools of performance to support young women with self-advocacy and civic participation” Osnes says.

In the penultimate week of the 12-week program in Guatemala, students perform for parents, teachers and community members, presenting an issue they see in their community, how it might be addressed in the future and at least one action they might take.

As performers, we have certain skills, exercises and approaches to help people empower their voices."

“It’s very fun,” Hackett says. “Sometimes it can look like games that don’t have meaning. But everything is intentionally structured. They use their voices to speak up and it can be incredibly uncomfortable. But they are getting comfortable with being uncomfortable.”

“It’s really about the idea of believing that what you have to say is worthwhile, and your voice belongs to you,” Osnes says.

Osnes and Hackett have continually fine-tuned the curriculum based on feedback from field work with funding from the �� Boulder Office of Outreach and Engagement. They used the curriculum with girls in Tanzania in Swahili and �� Boulder theatre PhD student Sarah Fahmy has presented it in Egypt in Arabic, adjusted by local facilitators to ensure it is culturally appropriate.

A girl participates in MAIA impact in Guatemala.

Over the course of their work with MAIA Impact, Osnes and Hackett developed a list of 10 characteristics of an empowered voice, including:

People can easily hear and understand my voice.
Shame is not an obstacle to using my voice.
I think my voice is mine and belongs to me.
I believe my voice is important for me and my community.
I use my voice with responsibility and courage.

Based on self-ratings, girls in Guatemala told the researchers that they felt the program improved their ability to be heard at school and in public, their confidence in speaking, their willingness to share thoughts and ideas and other measures. When asked how they would use their voices to lead and make change in the world after graduation, student responses included the following:

“I will use my voice to express myself and to take away fear.”
“I will demand rights for women. I will create change in my community and help the young women who have not had the opportunity to study.”
“I will use my empowered voice in my community to lead, to improve our natural environment, and to defend human rights.”

Osnes and Hackett will lead the two-day workshop in New York with Fahmy and Roselia Toj of MAIA Impact. In addition, the curriculum will be available as an open-source document for the month of March in celebration of International Women’s Day. It can be found at www.SPEAK.world.

“Part of the excitement around the launch is that we have done the work as academics and performers,” Osnes says. “With this research, we can say this is an evidence-based practice, that we are responsible academic and artistic practitioners who are ready to put this out in the world to unleash the contributions of young women.”

Find out more about their work at www.SPEAK.world or by following SPEAK on Instagram @vocal_empowerment or Facebook.

�� Boulder researchers create vocal-empowerment curriculum for young women.

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Jets vs. Sharks rumble into the 21st century

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Feb 2020 17:29:53 +0000

Jets vs. Sharks rumble into the 21st century Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 02/13/2020 - 10:29

Clay Bonnyman Evans

Puerto Rican native Ernesto R. Acevedo-Muñoz has his eyes set on the next era of West Side Story

Ernesto R. Acevedo-Muñoz, professor and chair of Cinema Studies and Moving Image Arts

Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim’s classic musical West Side Story has played a pivotal role in the life of Ernesto R. Acevedo-Muñoz, professor and chair of Cinema Studies and Moving Image Arts at the University of Colorado Boulder, ever since his father introduced it to his children.

“My brother and I played (the album) over and over, and by the time we finally saw the movie on a pan-and-scan Betamax videotape sometime in the early 1980s, we were both sold on it,” Acevedo-Muñoz writes in his 2013 book, West Side Story as Cinema: The Making and Impact of an American Masterpiece.

“First, I was intrigued by the words, ‘Puerto Rico … my heart’s devotion’ on the album, for I had rarely heard the name of my homeland mentioned in any movie. Later, I was overwhelmed and giddily proud to see ‘Puerto Ricans’ represented onscreen, however inaccurate or stylized the portrayal.”

Acevedo-Muñoz even says the Oscar-winning 1961 film version of “West Side Story”—a retelling of Shakespeare’s tragedy, Romeo and Juliet, set in 1950s New York and replacing Capulets and Montagues with Jets and Sharks—is the reason he went into film study.

Ernesto R. Acevedo-Muñoz book "West Side Story as Cinema"

“Years ahead of its time, unlike any other musical film, West Side Story continues to explore ethnic, sexual and social anxieties and to underscore dystopian polyrhythms within a fantastically utopian genre,” he writes.

These days, many of Acevedo-Muñoz’ introductory students have never seen the film, though many know it through the television show Glee, which featured the musical in 2011.

Which isn’t to say that West Side Story has become a relic. The show has been revived on Broadway several times, most recently in 2009. Perhaps more significant, says Acevedo-Muñoz, “it has been produced thousands and thousands of times by regional, high-school and amateur companies. West Side Story has never disappeared.”

This year, the beloved—and to some, controversial—classic is set for two major revivals, with a new and radically different stage version now in previews on Broadway and a Steven Spielberg-helmed remake of the film set for release in December.

“This is not quite the same as the little summer-stock theater company doing it out in Horseballs, Nebraska,” says Acevedo-Muñoz, who is widely considered one of the nation’s experts on the film and has recently been interviewed on public radio about the coming revival and remake.

That new versions arrive at this particular point in American history is no accident, he says.

“I think it’s a direct consequence of current political tensions having to do specifically with immigrants,” Acevedo-Muñoz says (though he’s quick to point out that technically, Puerto Ricans are not immigrants, since they had citizenship—but crucially, neither voting rights or representation—imposed upon them in 1917).

He also notes that just two years ago Hurricane Maria—ironically, the name of the female lead in West Side Story—devastated Puerto Rico, highlighting the second-class status of the island’s residents. The federal government was slow to respond to the disaster—two weeks after the storm hit, 89 percent of the island still had no power—and the Trump administration cut promised relief funds.

“On top of all that was the public humiliation of Donald Trump throwing rolls of paper towels” in a photo-op, Acevedo-Muñoz says, “as if that’s what was needed or useful.”

Though widely acknowledged as a Hollywood classic, West Side Story has long drawn fire from critics who say it presents negative stereotypes of Puerto Ricans, offers a retrograde view of relations between the sexes and committed “brown-face” by using white actors to portray Puerto Ricans.

Dutch director Ivo van Hove’s Broadway revival reportedly seeks to redress some of those issues, jettisoning Maria’s “I Feel Pretty” and using Puerto Rican actors to play Sharks, among other changes.

Spielberg’s version—set, like the original, in the 1950s—will feature Rita Moreno, who won an Oscar for best supporting actress in the original, both as an executive producer and playing Doc, the wise counselor to the Anglo Jets gang who is based on Friar Laurence in Romeo and Juliet.

“And they are making the effort to get the casting to be more accurate and reflective of reality, using real Latinx Puerto Rican actors to play the Sharks,” Acevedo-Muñoz notes.

He applauds efforts to find new ways to address troublesome aspects of the musical and film but notes that remakes and revivals often disappoint fans and critics alike.

“The 2009 Broadway revival directed by Arthur Laurents included some lyrics adapted and translated to Spanish by Lin Manuel Miranda (Hamilton) in an effort to make the play more inclusive for contemporary audiences,” he says. “But theatergoers responded negatively to this change, and eventually dialogue and lyrics were changed back to the original English.”

Years ahead of its time, unlike any other musical film, West Side Story continues to explore ethnic, sexual and social anxieties and to underscore dystopian polyrhythms within a fantastically utopian genre,"

Regarding the Spielberg remake, Acevedo-Muñoz says he is “cautiously optimistic, given what we know about the casting and location work, but the recent track record of musical and other remakes suggests it could be a risky enterprise.”

Then again, he has little patience for remakes in general, and wonders why Hollywood continues to greenlight them when nearly all bomb at the box office and are savaged by critics and fans alike.

“Who asked to see a remake of Dirty Dancing? Who asked to see a remake of Fame? Who asked to see a remake of West Side Story?” he asks. “Nobody.”

Acevedo-Muñoz praises West Side Story for its “revisionist approach, political commentary and social satire” and “visual and aural elements,” calling it “the musical film equivalent of the great American novel.” But he’s not blind to its faults.

“The plot is really silly. Tony and Maria know each other for all of 24 hours!” he says. He even likes to open lectures about the film with a classic joke by Robert Wuhl that puts the spotlight on just one of the story’s implausibilities: “Tony runs through the Puerto Rican neighborhood yelling ‘Maria!’ and only one girl comes to the window.” Ba-dum-tsss.

Even so, Acevedo-Muñoz has little patience with the contemporary propensity to judge art out of context.

“It appears that Maria doesn’t start existing until Tony notices her,” he says about “I Feel Pretty.” “That’s problematic. But it’s also perfectly in tune with the 1950s context of the play.”

In general, he’s no fan of hindsight sensitivity.

“Let’s not burn West Side Story because it doesn’t get a lot of things perfect; there’s no such thing as perfect,” he says. “No work of art deserving of attention is not controversial. … It’s dangerous to pretend we can protect anyone from anything because ultimately, this is what helps us erase racial, social and class conflicts that have permeated this country since its founding.”

With revivals on horizon, �� Boulder’s Acevedo-Muñoz reflects on West Side Story, saying ‘let’s not burn it because it doesn’t get a lot of things perfect.’

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Ditching the doomsaying for better climate discourse

Anonymous — Wed, 18 Dec 2019 16:10:38 +0000

Ditching the doomsaying for better climate discourse Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 12/18/2019 - 09:10

Clay Bonnyman Evans

Max Boykoff pitches strategies for more effective climate communication

Despite its apparent provenance as a right-wing meme, when it comes to climate change, Max Boykoff rather likes the snarky expression, “OK, doomer”—a play on “OK, Boomer,” the catchphrase adopted by the young to dismiss attitudes of their Baby Boomer forebears.

“Social sciences and humanities research shows that sticking to doomsday language doesn’t help people engage with the challenges of climate change,” he says.

Max Boycoff, associate professor of environmental studies.

Boykoff, an associate professor of environmental studies, says that numerous prominent works, such as Jonathan Franzen’s much-discussed New Yorker essay, “What If We Stopped Pretending,” which argued that it’s delusional to try to stop or mitigate climate change, do little more than cause people to “freak out, tune out, turn off, become paralyzed.”

Boykoff’s research into how to effectively communicate the serious consequences of anthropogenic climate change—and his review of others’ research in these areas—has convinced him that such heavy-handed, apocalyptic messaging is problematic and led to his new book, Creative (Climate) Communications: Productive Pathways for Science, Policy and Society.

“If there isn’t some semblance of hope or ways people can change the current state of affairs, people feel less motivated to try to address the problems,” says Boykoff, who is also director of the Center for Science and Technology Policy at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences.

Boykoff even routinely dons a T-shirt emblazoned with 10 pithy words by Edward Maibach, a widely recognized expert on climate communications at George Mason University: “It’s real; it’s us; experts agree; it’s bad; there’s hope.”

In his new book, Boykoff delves deep into social science research to devise the most effective ways to communicate about a problem so enormous that many people simply become numb when hearing about it.

“Communicating about climate change now doesn’t have to be the equivalent of throwing spaghetti against a wall to see what sticks,” he says. “We now have a solid decade of research that can point us to what works, as well as how, when and why it works, and under what circumstances.”

Among the key messages of the book: Communicators should use a “silver buckshot” approach, rather than thinking there is a silver bullet that will convince doubters or those who have simply turned away from the problem.

“We’ve learned that we can’t rely merely on science to turn the tide, or what scientists think. We can’t merely rely on a big disaster event either like ‘Superstorm Sandy,’” he says, referring to the devastating 2012 storm system that some portrayed as evidence of extreme events in a changing climate.

“Through research and observations, we’ve found that changing people’s minds doesn’t happen like that.”

“My book calls for us to be more creative and mindful and have open conversations,” he says. “This is a collective-action problem, and we need to be thinking ahead together.”

Based on extensive research, Boykoff assembled five “rules of the road” and five “guideposts” to help foster a creative and effective approach to climate-change communications.

Rules of the road (along with brief descriptions from Boykoff):

Be authentic—“Don’t fake it.”
Be aware—“Know your audience.”
Be accurate—“Know what you’re talking about.”
Be imaginative—“Step out of the well-worn paths of science.”
Be bold—“Commit yourself to experimenting.”

Max Boycoff's new book "Creative (Climate) Communications: Productive Pathways for Science, Policy and Society"

Guideposts:

Find common ground—“Rather than telling people how they are supposed to be thinking and acting.”
Emphasize here and now—“We need to overcome the perception that this is a distant threat that impacts other people and animals in distant places we never visit.”
Focus on the benefits of engagement—“Give people agency, focus on ways they can get involved and feel like, ‘OK, this is what I can do today.’”
Creatively empower people—Rather than lecture or speak in traditional academic modes, Boykoff points to alternative avenues of communication, such as comedy, art, video and dance.
Smarten up—“Listening, discussing and adapting, as opposed to just trying to win an argument.”

Boykoff isn’t naïve about the scale of the challenges. He understands why so many people simply can’t fathom what to do in the face of something so enormous and consequential.

“We haven’t scaled this accordingly to the kind of responses that are needed, and it feels overwhelming,” he says. “But I would flip that on its head and say, ‘Everything counts.’ There are many opportunities to change our ways of living, working, playing and having fun.”

He argues that only framing the issue as a matter of individual responsibility and encouraging generations to snipe at one another—“OK, Boomer,” for example, or criticizing younger people for failing to live up to their proclaimed ideals—are often distractions that do little to address the problem.

“Flight-shaming is one of the more unproductive ways to have a conversation,” Boykoff says, citing as an example the recent uptick in criticism of people who travel by air. “That just leaves people feeling bad. It’s blaming other people while not actually talking about the structures that give rise to the need or desire to take those trips.”

And at a time when extreme political polarization has transformed personal positions on climate change into often intractable tribalism, Boykoff says it’s important to take a careful, nuanced approach when communicating to skeptics.

“Rather than castigating people—when does that really work?—through findings from social science and humanities research, my book calls for us to be more creative and mindful and have open conversations,” he says. “This is a collective-action problem, and we need to be thinking ahead together.”

Max Boykoff pitches strategies for more effective climate communication

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�� Boulder prof and 100 women set sail for Antarctica

Anonymous — Mon, 25 Nov 2019 22:15:32 +0000

�� Boulder prof and 100 women set sail for Antarctica Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 11/25/2019 - 15:15

Sarah Kuta

With the motto ‘Mother Nature needs her daughters,’ group aims to support women working in STEMM in the hope of better sustaining Earth and its people

Cassandra Brooks has spent much of her life studying and working to preserve Antarctica.

Now, she’s sharing her love and knowledge of the southernmost continent with a group of 100 intrepid women seeking to become global leaders in environmental sustainability.

Brooks, a University of Colorado Boulder assistant professor of environmental studies, is serving as a faculty member on a three-week Antarctic expedition organized by Homeward Bound Project, a worldwide initiative that began in 2016 to “heighten the influence and impact of women in making decisions that shape our planet,” according to the organization.

“Their tagline is ‘Mother Nature needs her daughters,’ with the idea being that if we actually lift women who work in (science, technology, engineering, math and medicine), we will have a better chance of sustaining the Earth and humanity,” said Brooks.

So far, three cohorts of women have successfully participated in Homeward Bound Project’s 12-month leadership program and traveled to Antarctica. The participants, who applied to the program from all over the world, are at various stages in their careers in science, technology, engineering, math and medicine (STEMM).

All told, Homeward Bound Project wants 1,000 women to participate in the program and visit Antarctica by 2026.

Brooks is part of the fourth cohort, which has 100 participants and 12 faculty members (Homeward Bound Project says this trip is the largest women-only expedition to Antarctica). She’ll spend approximately three weeks with the group, which spent several days in Ushuaia, Argentina, before departing for Antarctica aboard a ship.

Cassandra Brooks, a University of Colorado Boulder assistant professor of environmental studies.

During their time at sea, the women are participating in workshops focused on leadership, visibility, strategy and science.

“How do the women become better leaders, become more visible?” said Brooks. “A lot of it will focus on women taking a deep dive and learning about who they are. It’s this idea of authenticity and knowing who you are and not trying to lead in the way that someone else might lead, but really knowing your own strengths.”

Weather permitting, the group is also exploring the continent and spend time learning about topics such as Antarctic science bases and penguin colonies.

Cassandra Brooks standing next to a penguin crop while serving as a faculty member on a three-week Antarctic expedition organized by Homeward Bound Project.

As a science faculty member on the trip, Brooks is charged with educating the women about the Antarctic environment and helping them prepare mini science presentations about themselves and their work. Other faculty members onboard the ship specialize in leadership, strategy, personal well-being and visibility in STEMM fields.

Brooks, who joined the �� Boulder environmental studies faculty in 2017, has worked on Antarctic science and conservation for the last 15 years in varying roles ranging from marine science to outreach to policy. Along with other scientists and advocates, Brooks and her husband, John Weller, a photographer and filmmaker, helped to protect 598,000 square miles of the Ross Sea off Antarctica, creating the world’s largest marine preserve in 2017.

The group of 100 intrepid women seeking to become global leaders in environmental sustainability while on a three-week Antarctic expedition organized by Homeward Bound Project.

“It’s been an essential part of my life for a long time, this profoundly beautiful place,” Brooks said of Antarctica.

With her interdisciplinary background, Brooks was drawn to �� Boulder by its multi-faceted environmental studies program after earning her doctorate from Stanford in 2017.

“The department is fantastic, they truly value interdisciplinary work and people who have blended backgrounds and can bring that diverse perspective to the world,” she said.

Interested in learning more about Antarctica?

The �� Museum of Natural History has an exhibit titled “Ross Sea: The Last Ocean” on view now. The exhibit portrays the effort to protect the Ross Sea and features John Weller’s photos. Learn more here.

The group of 100 intrepid women seeking to become global leaders in environmental sustainability while on a three-week Antarctic expedition organized by Homeward Bound Project.

With the motto ‘Mother Nature needs her daughters,’ group aims to support women working in STEMM in the hope of better sustaining Earth and its people.

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Instructors improve the accessibility of geology

Anonymous — Thu, 10 Oct 2019 16:38:23 +0000

Instructors improve the accessibility of geology Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 10/10/2019 - 10:38

Lucas Joel

�� Boulder geologists are addressing one of their field’s big struggles, accommodating people with physical limitations

Emily Fairfax fainted when she started her PhD in geology at the University of Colorado Boulder in 2015.

She was out in the field near Boulder, and it was a hot day. “We were standing and walking to another stop, standing and walking to another stop,” she said.

Megan Brown and Emily Fairfax stand in front of a Stegosaurus skeleton in �� Boulder’s Jerry Crail Johnson Earth Sciences & Map Library. Photo by Lucas Joel. At the top of the page, reserchers on Vesuvio Crater in Italy check instruments and a solar panel to take data for geological science. iStockphoto.

Then she zonked out.

It was Fairfax’s first brush with geology, and it was after she fainted that she had the realization, in conversation with her then-fellow graduate student, Megan Brown, that geology has a problem:

It can be adventurous, like a series of posters in a travel agency that advertise exotic getaways—Trek the depths of an active volcano, Hike the Himalayas—and it can also be inaccessible for those for whom going to such places is, for whatever reason, impossible. The thought that they must be able to take these journeys to study geology can stop a budding career in its tracks.

And, for that reason, the geosciences have the lowest enrollment among the physical sciences of students with physical disabilities, one researcher reported

“How does one change culture?” asked Fairfax, who is now an assistant professor at California State University Channel Islands—particularly when the outdoors form the bedrock of geology’s culture.

Her answer and Brown’s: By changing it where students first meet that culture, in the classroom with a teacher. According to Fairfax and Brown, who detailed their field’s accessibility problem in May in the Journal of Geoscience Education, instructors like teaching assistants and professors do not get the training they need to showcase geology as the kind of field that takes all kinds.

We all lose out when we have a prescribed norm for what a geologist looks like or does.”

Geology, though, is not just about daring fieldwork. Brown, now an assistant professor at Northern Illinois University, studies hydrogeology, and she spends much of her time creating models on a computer. Students interested in the geosciences, she thinks, need to understand that there are valuable contributions that a geologist can make without ever donning hiking books or holstering a rock hammer on their belt.

Students who can’t trek into a volcano are not anomalies; they are an asset waiting to study the volcano or mountain from a different vantage, according to Brown.

And instructors, she and Fairfax explained, need to introduce this view of geology before students learn to view it in a less inclusive way, which is why the duo advocate for designing curricula and teaching classes in a way that shines a light on all students and their diversity of abilities.

The two trained instructors using scenarios stemming from actual experiences, like when Fairfax taught a geology class where students needed to get outside and go to Boulder Creek, where they needed to wade into the water to take measurements.

One student, she found, had a fear: getting into the running water. It was Fairfax’s fainting moment, but in a different guise, and she didn’t have a plan. (Must be able to wade into rushing water, the travel poster read.)

The main thing, said Fairfax, is for instructors to ask themselves what in this class might be inaccessible and, if anything inaccessible arises, then, “TAs need to have a contingency plan.” For the creek scenario, an adjustment could be to create a new part of the assignment that involves collecting data from the shore, and that new part of the assignment must be an option for all students—not just those who can’t go in the creek.

After they trained accessibility to the instructors in �� Boulder’s Department of Geological Sciences, Fairfax and Brown surveyed students and found that the number of students approaching instructors about accessibility needs increased compared to previous years. This could be a sign that those students will be less tempted to drift away from the field.

“We all lose out when we have a prescribed norm for what a geologist looks like or does,” said Brown. After all, it took someone fainting—not someone summiting some high peak—for a field to reexamine itself, and to evolve.

�� Boulder geologists are addressing one of their field’s big struggles, accommodating people with physical limitations.

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�� Boulder research to focus on often-overlooked rural America

Anonymous — Fri, 04 Oct 2019 17:01:54 +0000

�� Boulder research to focus on often-overlooked rural America Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 10/04/2019 - 11:01

Kenna Bruner

Researchers' goal is to develop the first systematic understanding of the sociodemographic and economic characteristics and patterns of change in small rural places over time

With more Americans living in big cities, we’ve learned a great deal about the country’s urban places, thanks to a wealth of publicly available data. Much less is known about the country’s small places.

Contemporary rural America has been called a landscape of despair with what some call stunning divides between rural and urban places.

Two multi-university grants have been awarded from the National Institutes of Health to the �� Population Center (��PC) in the Institute of Behavioral Science (IBS). A $450,000, two-year project will focus on learning about and understanding the small towns, villages and cities in the U.S. with populations of fewer than 2,500 residents. A $1.7 million five-year project will fund an interdisciplinary network of researchers focusing on rural health and aging.

Lori Hunter

These two exploratory projects break new ground with national focus on rural communities and their residents.

Understanding the dynamics of small rural places

The team of researchers on this project includes lead investigator Lori Hunter, professor and chair of the sociology department and ��PC director; Myron Gutmann, professor and IBS director; Dylan Connor, assistant professor in the School of Geographical Sciences & Urban Planning at Arizona State University; Catherine Talbot, graduate student in sociology; Stefan Leyk, associate professor in geography; and Johannes Uhl, postdoctoral researcher in ��PC.

“We call this team effort the Tiny Town Project,” Hunter said. “What is exciting about this project is the focus on the tiny towns themselves. A lot of rural demography or studies of rural communities examine counties at the national scale, so you lose this focus on the small place itself. These tiny communities are the least well represented in research.”

Over the next two years, the team will compare small rural places with other, slightly larger rural communities with populations from 2,500 to 19,999 residents during the 1980-2010 period to better understand the place-based distinctions that must inform policy.

The last nationwide examination that focused on small rural places was published more than 30 years ago. More precise information and analysis on small-town America is crucial for policymakers. Filling knowledge gaps is a central part of this work’s significance.

The team will pull together existing data, such as the different kinds of census data and information from sources like the National Parks Service, health services, etc.

Hunter uses a Boulder County analogy to explain that a study at the county level doesn’t give a clear enough picture of individual towns. Within Boulder County are cities that range in size from Boulder, with 107,000 residents, to Ward, home to 155 people.

“There’s not a lot of information on these little places. If you don’t know what’s been happening in Ward and small towns like Ward, for example, how are you going to develop policies that are appropriate for them?”

“There’s not a lot of information on these little places,” she said. “If you don’t know what’s been happening in Ward and small towns like Ward, for example, how are you going to develop policies that are appropriate for them?”

Among the burdens on rural America are significantly poorer public health, higher incidents of teen pregnancy, lower education levels and higher prescription rates for narcotics. The team’s goal is to develop the first systematic understanding of the sociodemographic and economic characteristics and patterns of change in small rural places from 1980 to 2010.

“There are tiny places in the country that have lost population, but they’ve stayed around,” Hunter said. “There are some places that have actually grown. And then there are others that have simply disappeared. What is it about these places that puts them on particular trajectories? What is it that predicts relative levels of success? These are the questions that motivated this work—what is going on in these little places? We really don’t know.”

Understanding trends in small places is essential for developing place-appropriate policies because continuing urbanization has yielded urban-centric policy that downplays processes that are critically important to small towns.

The team will focus on three goals, including development of a place-based dataset, identification of pathways of change for small towns from 1980-2010, and then linking this understanding to health outcomes.

This project will lay the foundation for a larger scale project that would include conducting qualitative research by talking to people in small towns.

“These little places have tended historically to be bundled in with places that are not like them,” Hunter said. ‘We’re trying to make them more visible.”

Investigating rural health and aging trends

Led by Penn State, the project will build on a USDA-supported multistate research project involving a group of demographers studying rural people and places to create and support a network devoted to better understanding the problems of health and aging in rural America. In addition to Penn State, key institutional partners are �� Boulder, Syracuse University and the University of Mississippi.

Hunter is co-principal investigator on this project.

The newly established Interdisciplinary Network on Rural Population Health and Aging will identify gaps, stimulate new research and develop and disseminate training materials, and data and analytic resources to better understand rural health, aging trends and the factors affecting these trends.

Rural America the focus of two new projects funded by the National Institutes of Health and U.S. Department of Agriculture.

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Getting beyond quick fixes on big social problems

Anonymous — Mon, 19 Aug 2019 19:29:17 +0000

Getting beyond quick fixes on big social problems Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 08/19/2019 - 13:29

Clay Bonnyman Evans

Map the System competition encourages �� Boulder students to deeply understand social challenges before pitching solutions

Competitions in social innovation aimed at college students have become more and more common as universities seek ideas or products intended to address social challenges across the world.

But to Don Grant, professor of sociology and director of the Social Innovation Program at the University of Colorado Boulder, too often such contests skip a critically important step in addressing any social need: understanding.

Don Grant. At the top of the page, students are shown in competition. Photo courtesy of the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford.

“Most competitions place a strong emphasis on giving a catchy elevator pitch,” Grant says. “They also stress coming up with flashy solutions as opposed to really understanding the problems students are trying to address. Consequently, the solutions offered by the winners of these competitions often do not work or fail to have the larger impact they promise.”

That’s why Grant is launching �� Boulder’s first Map the System competition this fall. Part of the Global Challenge program, an initiative of the Skoll Centre at the University of Oxford, next spring's competition will judge how well students understand a social or environmental problem and develop solutions based on that understanding.

The winning individual or team will then go to a global Map the System competition at Oxford in the United Kingdom. Past winners have addressed a broad spectrum of topics, ranging from wildfires, deforestation and food waste to the opioid epidemic, refugee integration, and students’ mental health.

“Tackling global challenges starts with understanding a problem and its wider context, rather than jumping straight into a business plan or an idea for a quick fix,” according to Oxford’s Global Challenge website.

“Social change is complicated. Mapping is a way of understanding its complexities. Mapping out the system allows us to think about context and the many interacting factors that contribute to the development of the issues facing us—be they economic forces, political movements, or global trends. It gives us the tools to understand the whole picture and takes us out of our silos.”

Tackling global challenges starts with understanding a problem and its wider context, rather than jumping straight into a business plan or an idea for a quick fix."

Grant hopes the competition will encourage students to “fall in love with a problem before they solve it,” hone their research skills and interview people most affected by their chosen social challenge.

Map the System is partly a response to persistent requests from �� Boulder students who are eager to act in the world.

“They really want to make a difference,” Grant says. “Universities have done a good job of raising awareness about problems. The competition will give students an opportunity to build on that awareness and develop the knowledge base they need to solve problems.”

Map the System participants will have access to a handful of tools not available elsewhere. Grant hopes to seat a panel of experts recruited from the annual Conference on World Affairs to judge the entries and even serve as ongoing mentors.

And if students want to get a handle on how to succeed, they can go right to the source: Daniela Papi-Thornton, founder of Global Challenge at Oxford, is now a consultant living in Boulder and has agreed to conduct a series of workshops this fall on the competition that is open to all �� Boulder students.

“That’s part of the reason I got interested,” Grant says. “I thought, ‘Wow, we have this great resource, the actual creator, living in our city.’”

At a time when many politicians and pundits dismiss the findings of the social sciences and other fields of study, Map the System and the Global Challenge can shine a spotlight on the critical importance of these academic disciplines.

“Problem solving is the most in-demand skill in the American workplace,” Grant says. Map the System is an exciting opportunity for students to apply what they have learned in the classroom to real-world challenges.

More information on �� Boulder’s Map the System competition will soon be posted on the Social Innovation program website, Colorado.edu/programs/socialinnovation.

Information about Oxford’s global competition can be found at mapthesystem.sbs.ox.ac.uk.

For questions questions about the competitions email Professor Don Grant at dogr2184@colorado.edu.

(This article has been updated to remove references to worshops now complete.)

Map the System competition encourages �� Boulder students to deeply understand social challenges before pitching solutions.

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From line cook to violin maker, artist’s early roles prepped her for newest

Anonymous — Wed, 14 Aug 2019 20:14:25 +0000

From line cook to violin maker, artist’s early roles prepped her for newest Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 08/14/2019 - 14:14

Marysia Lopez

Meet Jeanne Quinn, the newly appointed chair of �� Boulder’s Department of Art & Art History

From working as a line cook to apprenticing with a violin maker, University of Colorado Boulder ceramics Professor Jeanne Quinn has never followed a straight path but is thrilled to draw upon her diverse experiences as the Department of Art & Art History’s newly appointed chair.

Today, Quinn is an accomplished ceramicist working with large scale installations whose work has been exhibited in major international museums. But as a young person, the artist felt compelled to explore many different forms of art including dance, music and cooking.

Jeanne Quinn

“In the long run, it all helped me—no doubt,” says Quinn.

While at Oberlin College for her undergraduate degree, Quinn studied art history and Baroque music. Unsure of how to combine these two passions but open to new opportunities, she went on to apprentice with a violin maker in Italy and then moved to Boston to make flutes.

It was while living in Boston that Quinn, who had no formal training as an artist, took a community ceramics class. Quinn quickly realized her passion for ceramics; it allowed her to combine her desire to create objects with her love of the visual arts.

A Thousand Tiny Deaths, 2009. Photo courtesy of Jeanne Quinn.

When Quinn’s teacher suggested she attend �� Boulder’s ceramics program, she was initially skeptical. Colorado was a mystery to Quinn then, but she soon realized that many spoke highly of the program at �� Boulder. With enough money saved up for one year and little idea of what lay ahead, Quinn applied to �� as a transfer BFA student and moved to Boulder.

Here, Quinn’s hobby quickly turned into a promising career as a working artist. She happily fell under the mentorship of Betty Woodman, a major contemporary ceramicist and �� Boulder professor. After three semesters of hard work in the ceramics program, Quinn was accepted into the University of Washington’s MFA program. Not long after graduating, she jumped at the chance to accept an instructor position at �� in 1997.

“It’s been amazing to get to build on that history and reputation we have in ceramics at ��,” says Quinn.

After serving as associate chair for several years, she feels prepared to take on her role as chair, though Quinn admits some aspects are less exciting than others.

“It’s not my natural habitat to sit in front of the computer and look at spreadsheets,” she says, laughing. But Quinn took on the role because she connects with other, arguably more important, parts of the job. It’s the creative, problem-solving aspect of the role—that will allow her to define the department’s values, listen to her colleagues’ ideas, and create a cohesive community—that compel her. Quinn is excited to help create change, and she already has ideas.

“I feel like our department is behind the times in terms of… digital design and fabrication,” says Quinn.

Quinn is referring to the processes that combine 3D modeling or computer design with manufacturing. She says that while the department has fantastic tools and facilities for this, they have no curriculum in place to support the students’ use of these tools. Quinn believes that the ability to effectively use these skills would be an advantage not just to fine art students, but to other students on campus.

When the department recently opened up its classes to non-majors, to encourage interest in fine art courses, Quinn was delighted to find engineering students in her Beginning Wheelthrowing class.

They were excited to create something without getting bogged down by the heavy theories that featured so prominently in their engineering courses. It was because of this that Quinn started to see a real connection between two majors often seen as being on opposite ends of the spectrum—fine art and engineering.

Quinn’s ability to bring seemingly unlikely things together and find their connection is perhaps her greatest strength. Just as the artist went from making single ceramic objects to creating large-scale installations in which pieces interact with each other, Quinn is also able to do this in her role as chair.

Reflecting on what got her to this point in her career, Quinn reminisces fondly about the many endeavors she’s dabbled in, including music, cooking and instrument making. She doesn’t see any of these ventures as detours, but rather as enriching experiences that helped inform her current role as artist and administrator.

Because of her varied experience, she feels prepared to take on this multifaceted role and says she is eager to build upon the Department of Art and Art History’s already rich history.

Meet Jeanne Quinn, the newly appointed chair of �� Boulder’s Department of Art & Art History.

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