Topic: Research
Professor Proctor’s ‘ecopocalypse’ research featured in USA Today column
Jim Proctor, professor and chair of environmental studies, is featured in a USA Today column on environmentalist Americans’ fear of ecological collapse and the problems with end-times fixations. Religion and public life columnist Tom Krattenmaker questions the effectiveness of this dystopia concept and other fear-based strategies designed to motivate people to behave in a certain manner.
Proctor and a research team have been talking with Oregonians and surveying the general population about their experiences with nature and pursuit of perfecting the co-existence between humans and the environment.
“‘You find that people working for a utopian future have tremendous fear about things turning out differently,’” Proctor explains in the column. ‘Utopias are often framed against a dystopian nightmare,’ he adds, producing a kind of all-or-nothing fixation on perfection and its perfect opposite.”
Proctor’s project was also the focus of a recent article in The Oregonian, detailing the survey and citing some of its initial results.
USA Today ‘The End’ as a weapon
The Oregonian Shaping dreams—and nightmares—about natural world
Alum earns Vichrow Award for anthropological research
Selena Jorgensen ‘08 has been awarded the Rudolph Virchow Award for best undergraduate paper, given annually by the Society for Medical Anthropology. The award recognizes works that are deemed to reflect, extend or advance critical perspectives in medical anthropology. Jorgensen, a sociology/anthropology major, is now studying at Harvard Medical School.
In her senior thesis, The Little Clinic that Could: Neoliberalism, Structural Violence, and Community Resistance in Portland, Oregon, Jorgensen details the socio-economic effects of a local health clinic struggling to serve the uninsured. She writes:
“Unable to obtain sustainable funding, the clinic is in danger of being absorbed into the very system its directors had previously resisted. It must adopt bureaucratic policies to qualify for federal funding, which concomitantly entails accepting notions about patient prioritization that prevent the most vulnerable community members from accessing health care. Following the transition of this community clinic into a public entity reveals how the guidelines under which federal clinics function are in opposition to the purpose for which they are created and funded. If these federally funded clinics are unable to provide quality care for the uninsured, then what are they structured to do? How do these federal clinics represent political agendas and long‐standing historical processes which continue to reproduce inequality and enforce normalized standards upon vulnerable patient populations?”
Autumn’s gecko research extends its global reach
Kellar Autumn, associate professor of biology:
With coverage this month in Scientific American and New Scientist, as well as several international newspapers, Autumn’s research has extended its global reach. On Saturday, October 25, Autumn will be featured on an episode of Weird Connections on The Science Channel.
Autumn’s research has already crisscrossed the globe, appearing on five continents in hundreds of newspapers, journals, books, television programs, and Internet articles. Recently, Autumn’s research has been used as a stepping stone in the invention of a strong and sticky adhesive similar to a gecko’s feet, discovered by researchers at U.C. Berkeley. Explore this interactive map of some major media placements from recent years to discover the international impact of Autumn’s work.
Lochner and Scalettar publish work on neuromodulators
Dr. Robert B. Pamplin, Jr., Professor of Science and Biochemistry Janis Lochner and Professor of Physics Bethe Scalettar:
Lochner and Scalettar coauthored a study on the postsynaptic colocalization of neuromodulatory proteins with five undergraduate students (Conor Jacobs ‘09, Mariya Chavarha ‘08, Kevin McAllister ‘08, Erika Spangler ‘07, Linnaea Schuttner ‘06) that was featured on the cover of the September issue of Developmental Neurobiology. Titled “Efficient Copackaging and Cotransport Yields Postsynaptic Colocalization of Neuromodulators Associated with Synaptic Plasticity,” their collaborative work shows how the proteins studied are known to enhance synaptic communication in the hippocampus. This research was supported by grants awarded by the National Institutes of Health and by the Rogers Summer Research Program.
Developmental Neurobiology publishes research primarily on development and plasticity in the nervous system, with an emphasis on experimental work.
Read more about Lochner and Scalettar’s collaborative research in The Chronicle.
Associate Dean Janet Bixby publishes book on her qualitative research
Janet Bixby, associate dean of the Graduate School of Education and Counseling:
“Educating Democratic Citizens in Troubled Times: Qualitative Studies of Current Efforts” (SUNY Press, 2008), a new book by Bixby, will be published in November. This book offers a groundbreaking examination of citizenship education programs that serve contemporary youth in schools and communities across the United States. These programs include social studies classes and curricula, school governance, and community-based education perspectives of educators and youth involved in these civic education efforts. The contributors offer rich analyses of how mainstream and alternative programs are envisioned and enacted, and the most important factors that shape them. A variety of theoretical lenses and qualitative methodologies are used, including ethnography, focus group interviews, and content analyses of textbooks.
Kirschner finds amplification aids learning
In this essay, Susan Kirschner, senior lecturer in humanities with a specialty in prose writing, describes the positive effects of an FM “sound-field system” on her classes.
The amplification system required both Kirschner and her students to speak into a microphone, which created a more constructive, cooperative learning atmosphere. Though Kirschner’s original reason for utilizing this system was to aide her early neurosensory hearing loss, she was pleasantly surprised when not only her hearing improved, but her students’ learning experience was also amplified. “A happy byproduct of success in that area is the discovery that people with and without hearing loss benefit from such amplification in discussion settings. An even happier one is that the ability to listen, focus and hear others better, and to become mindful of habits and practices that make good discussion possible, seemed to feel intrinsically rewarding to students,” writes Kirschner.
Kirschner points out that, although many schools throughout Oregon have installed these sound-field systems, no other study—aside from her own—has assessed the effects of student voice amplification.
Inside Higher Ed (Washington, D.C.) Amplified Learning
Professor Autumn to participate in Science Pub series
Kellar Autumn, professor of biology:
Autumn will present How Geckos Stick and Why We Care as part of Oregon Museum of Science and Industry Science Pub, a monthly event designed for a general adult audience to learn about advances in science and technology from leading researchers and scientists in an approachable, relaxed setting that includes food and drinks. Autumn’s research on geckos and their adhesion capabilities has grown into a new field of study at the interface between biology, physics, and materials science. He has authored over 40 scientific papers and his research is featured in textbooks, encyclopedias, and popular books including The Nanotech Pioneers: Where Are They Taking Us? Every major television network has covered his work, as have hundreds of newspaper, magazine, and Internet articles worldwide.
The event takes place on Tuesday, Sept. 30, at Portland’s Mission Theater & Pub, 1624 NW Glisan, at 7 p.m. (doors open at 5 p.m.). No reservations or tickets are needed; doors open at 5 p.m.
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