The Academic Minute for 2017.8.14-8.18

Academic Minute from 8.14 – 8.18

Monday, August 14th
Donald Schaffner – Rutgers University
Hand Washing
Dr. Donald W. Schaffner is Extension Specialist in Food Science and Distinguished Professor at Rutgers University. His research interests include quantitative microbial risk assessment, predictive food microbiology, handwashing and cross-contamination.

Dr. Schaffner has authored more than 150 peer-reviewed publications, and numerous book chapters and abstracts.  He has been the recipient of more than $8 million in grants and contracts, largely in the form of competitive national grants.

Dr. Schaffner has educated thousands of Food Industry professionals through numerous short courses and workshops in the United States and dozens of countries around the world. Dr. Schaffner was awarded the International Association for Food Protection (IAFP) Elmer Marth Educator Award in 2009 for outstanding service to the public and IAFP in the area food safety and food protection education.

Tuesday, August 15th
Brock Bastian – University of Melbourne
Is The Search For Happiness Causing Depression?
Brock is an Associate Professor in the School of Psychological Sciences at the University of Melbourne. He is trained as a social psychologist and his research broadly focuses on the topics of well-being and morality. In his research on well-being, he has addressed questions such as why promoting happiness may have a downside, the cultural factors leading to depression, and why valuing our negative and painful experiences in life is a critical pathway to achieving happiness. Brock’s research on morality broadly focuses on how, when, and why we extend moral consideration to others, including non-human others, such as animals and the environment. In this research, Brock has examined the psychology of meat-eating, the dehumanization of others, and how developing an environmental ethic may promote more positive human interaction.

Wednesday, August 16th
Jessica Oster – Vanderbilt University
Caves Hold Clues to Climate Change
I am an Assistant Professor in the Earth and Environmental Sciences Department at Vanderbilt University. I am interested in climate, water, and caves.

Thursday, August 17th
Laura Van Berkel – University of Cologne
Men and Masculinity are Seen as American
Laura Van Berkel is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Cologne in Cologne, Germany. She earned her doctorate from the University of Kansas in 2016. Her research examines gender in conceptions of national identity and the ideological consequences of fundamental cognitive processes, including support for hierarchy and the status quo.

Friday, August 18th
Teresa Gonzales – Knox College
Play and Public Space
A native of Mexican-Chicago, Teresa Irene Gonzales is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Knox College and a regular contributor to everydaysociologyblog.com.  During the 2017-2018 academic year, she is a Woodrow Wilson Early Career Fellow and a Research Associate at the Five College Women’s Studies Research Center at Mt. Holyoke College. Her research focuses on the intersection of organizational ecology, urban studies, and community development within the United States. She believes in community-engaged pedagogy and scholarship, and strives towards a practice of reciprocity in research. Her current project, which draws on 27 months of ethnographic data, examines how organizational ties to national intermediary organizations influences the distribution of resources to low-income urban neighborhoods within Chicago. Her project highlights the complex, and oftentimes contradictory, political and economic development goals that community organizations encounter when they partner with external intermediary organizations and funders. Her future projects analyze the impact of women of color on community organizing, the importance of adult play in creating black and brown counterpublics, and the barriers to inclusion within rural redevelopment initiatives.