The Academic Minute for 2018.04.09-04.13

Academic Minute from 4.09 – 4.13

Monday, April 9th
Elise Carlson-Rainer – American Public University
Role of Bureaucrats in Foreign Policy and LGBTI Rights
Dr. Carlson-Rainer serves as doctoral faculty in international relations at American Public University System, and is a former American diplomat who worked under three secretaries of state and two presidential administrations in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor on the Middle East team.

Tuesday, April 10th
William Barrington – University of California Los Angeles
Genetics and Dietary Recommendations
William Barrington is a geneticist who investigates the relationship between nutrition and health. His graduate research was performed in David Threadgill’s laboratories at NC State and Texas A&M Universities. He is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at UCLA.

Wednesday, April 11th
Joshua Krissansen-Totton – University of Washington
Searching for Life in Space Using Methane

Graduate Student

Department of Earth and Space Sciences

Astrobiology Program

​Virtual Planetary Laboratory

University of Washington

Thursday, April 12th
Matthew Johnson – University of Alberta
Self-Esteem, Depression and Your Partner
My research program is centered on understanding intimate relationship development from the transition to adulthood into midlife, with a focus on identifying the behaviors and beliefs that contribute to relational and individual health. The unifying theme, and most substantive scholarly contributions, of my research program involve challenging, testing, and refining widely accepted theoretical frameworks with cutting edge quantitative methods. I am primarily involved with two research projects.

Shortly after starting at the U of A, I was invited to join the research team for the Edmonton Transitions Study (ETS), which surveyed over 900 (at baseline) Edmontonians seven times from age 18 to age 43. The original aim of this project was to understand the transition from school to work, but as the participants aged, the focus shifted to other transitions over the life course, such as forming a committed intimate union and having children. This study received an Insight Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada (SSHRC) to develop a series of manuscripts using these 25 year longitudinal data. I am a co-investigator on this project with Drs. Harvey Krahn and Nancy Galambos. I have developed manuscripts with these data examining how the development of mental health over the crucial transition to adulthood developmental stage (ages 18 to 25) is associated with couple relations decades later in midlife (Johnson, Galambos, & Krahn, 2014; 2015) and the interrelation between self-esteem and symptoms of depression over time (Johnson, Galambos, & Krahn, in press).

Friday, April 13th
Colleen Kirk – New York Institute of Technology
Shopper Psychological Ownership and Territoriality
Colleen P. Kirk’s research centers around consumer behavior, especially in the areas of psychological ownership, emotions, and decision-making. Specific areas of interest include: exploring how and when consumers’ feelings of ownership lead to territorial responses; understanding how consumers come to feel a sense of ownership of intangible digital technologies and its implications for marketers; narcissism in consumer behavior; and nonconscious processing and investor behavior. Focusing her research on experimental design, Dr. Kirk is also interested in survey methodologies and structural equation modeling. Her work is published in top journals such as Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Advertising Research, Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice, Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, Journal of Brand Management, Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, and Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services. An award-winning researcher and reviewer, she presents at leading national and international conferences, and is a regular reviewer for top journals.