The Academic Minute for 2020.04.27-2020.05.01

The Academic Minute from 04.27 – 05.01

Monday, April 27th
Jennifer Barkin – Mercer University
Measuring How New Mothers Are Functioning
Dr. Jennifer Barkin is an associate professor of community medicine and obstetrics and gynecology at Mercer University School of Medicine. A psychiatric epidemiologist by training, her research is focused on Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders (PMADs) and on the assessment of postpartum maternal functioning. As part of her doctoral research, she developed the Barkin Index of Maternal Functioning (BIMF), a 20-item self-report measure of functional status in the postpartum period. The instrument has been translated into more than 20 languages and is being used in industry-sponsored trials, and clinical, academic and community-based settings.

Tuesday, April 28th
Nader Moniri – Mercer University
Combating Parkinson’s Disease
Dr. Nader Moniri is an associate dean for research and professor of pharmaceutical sciences at Mercer University’s College of Pharmacy. His training has focused on molecular pharmacology and signal transduction of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCR), as well as the design and development of novel agents which modulate GPCR function. Current research interests include signal transduction, alternative signaling and design of functionally selective modulators of the prototypical GPCR, the ß2-adrenergic receptor. Specifically, this work seeks to characterize mechanisms of ß2-receptor mediated generation of intracellular reactive oxygen species, formation of which his laboratory has recently shown to be indispensable for receptor function. Dr. Moniri’s laboratory is also interested in characterization of neuro-endocrine GPCRs, which are involved in glucagon/insulin homeostasis, food intake and satiety, as well as development of novel anti-diabetic agents which target these GPCRs.

Wednesday, April 29th
Melanie Pavich – Mercer University
Gentrification and African-American History
Dr. Melanie Pavich is an associate professor of history and interdisciplinary studies and college writing coordinator at Mercer University’s College of Professional Advancement. Her research is focused on race and gender in the South during the 19th and early 20th centuries and includes the study of African American education and teachers. She has developed research and service-learning based courses for undergraduate students centered on the study of African American communities and schools in coastal Georgia. Student research includes oral interviews and producing digital stories based on these interviews and contributes to the preservation of African American history and life in coastal Georgia by becoming part of two permanent archives on St. Simons Island and at Mercer.

Thursday, April 30th
Sarah Gardner – Mercer University
Reading During the Civil War
Dr. Sarah Gardner is Distinguished University Professor of History in Mercer University’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. She has published widely on 19th-century cultural and intellectual history and on the American literary marketplace more broadly. She is the author of Blood and Irony: Southern White Women’s Narratives of the Civil War, 1861-1937 and Reviewing the South: The Literary Marketplace and the Making of the Southern Renaissance. She is currently finishing a book manuscript on reading during the American Civil War.

Friday, May 1st
Adam Kiefer – Mercer University
Mercury Vapor
Dr. Adam Kiefer is Distinguished University Professor of Chemistry in Mercer’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. He has played a lead role in Mercer On Mission initiatives in Mozambique, Ecuador, Peru and Guyana that have developed and implemented methods for reducing mercury poisoning among artisanal gold miners (ASGM). ASGM mostly occurs in the developing world and is the largest source of anthropogenic atmospheric emissions to the environment, and can have devastating consequences for those impacted by the contamination. Dr. Kiefer’s laboratory at Mercer is one of very few in the world dedicated to developing solutions to this global health crisis.