The Academic Minute for 2016.2.8-2.12

Academic Minute from 2.8 – 2.12

Monday, February 8
Tierney Lorenz – Indiana University
Sex and the Immune System
Tierney Lorenz is a visiting research scientist at the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction at Indiana University, where she studies the relationship between sexual behavior and symptoms of mood disorders.

As a researcher on the Women, Immunity and Sexual Health, or WISH, Study, Lorenz also studies how the presence or absence of sexual activity may influence immune response in healthy human females across the menstrual cycle, and if men and women differ in immune response to partnered sexual activity. Recently, she published a pair of studies in the journals Fertility and Sterility and Physiology and Behavior reporting sexual activity triggers physiological changes in the body that increase the types of immunity that promote fertility.

Tuesday, February 9
John Turri – University of Waterloo
Moral Obligations
I’m a philosopher and cognitive scientist at the University of Waterloo. My current research focuses on social cognition and communication, using tools from philosophy and experimental psychology. Before taking up my position at Waterloo, I held a tenure-track position at the University of Western Ontario (specifically, Huron University College). My favorite parts of the job are working with brilliant and inspiring people and the thrill of discovering new things.

Wednesday, February 10
Pierre McDonagh – University of Bath
Electric Cars
Pierre’s research primarily focuses on the (im)possibility of sustainability within the prevailing order and oppositional counter culture. He has published widely on the interactions among Markets, Marketing and Society; dark marketing; critical marketing; and transformative consumer research. A current research project considers the experiences of lead users of electric vehicles.

Pierre’s research has been published widely and includes articles in the Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Business Research, European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Management and others. Pierre Guest Edited the first double Special Issue of the Journal of Macromarketing (with Andrea Prothero, University College Dublin) on ‘Sustainability as Megatrend’ (Sept 2014 and March 2015). Currently he is Guest Editing a Journal of Marketing Management Special Issue on ‘Sustainable Consumption, Activism, Innovation and Brands’ (with Diane Martin, Aalto University).

Pierre is Associate Editor for the Journal of Macromarketing, serves on the Advisory Committee for Transformative Consumer Research for the American Association for Consumer Research, and sits on the editorial boards of the Journal of Marketing Management and Consumption Markets & Culture.

Thursday, February 11
Garth Heutel –  Georgia State University
Solar Geoengineering
Garth Heutel is an Assistant Professor of Economics in the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University and a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He studies energy and environmental policy, behavioral economics, public economics, and the economics of nonprofit organizations.  His research has been published in the Journal of Public Economics, The Economic Journal, American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Review of Economic Dynamics, and elsewhere.  He earned his PhD at the University of Texas at Austin, and he was previously a faculty member at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and a postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard University.

Friday, February 12
Michelle Watts – American Public University
Indigenous People of Costa Rica
Michelle Watts has a degree in International Studies from American University in Washington, D.C., and a Master’s degree in Latin American Studies from the University of Arizona.  She is currently enrolled in the University of Southern Mississippi’s International Development Doctoral program.  Ms. Watts’ professional experience includes working at the Inter-American Foundation, teaching United States Government and History for Central Texas College, as well as Latin American Studies and International Development courses for Florida State University in the traditional classroom.

Her on-line experience includes Comparative Government for City Colleges of Chicago, American National Government for National Park Community College, and numerous classes for the American Public University System. Ms. Watts has worked with refugees in Washington D.C.; studied in Argentina, Costa Rica and Ecuador; journeyed to Nicaragua with Habitat for Humanity; worked on the US-Mexican border; lived and later conducted research in Panama, and traveled extensively in Latin America. Ms. Watts wrote two encyclopedia entries for Anti-Immigration in the United States: A Historical Encyclopedia. Her co-authored articles include “Seguridad del Canal de Panama: Una Decada Despues de la Salida de Estados Unidos” (Security of the Panama Canal: One Decade after US Departure), published in the Air and Space Power Journal, Spanish ed., “The US and Panama: The Evolution of an Asymmetric Relationship,” published in the Delaware Review of Latin American Studies and “Drugs, Thugs, and the Diablos Rojos: Perils and Progress in Panama” in the Latin American Policy journal.  “Game of Norms: Panama, the International Community, and Indigenous Rights” is forthcoming in the Latin American Policy Journal, May 2014.