The Academic Minute from 02.08 – 02.12
Monday, February 8th
David Primo – University of Rochester
Campaign Finance Reform
PhD, Stanford, 2002. American politics, campaign finance, corporate political strategy, corporate social responsibility, fiscal policy, and political bargaining. Primo’s most recent project on campaign finance is the focus of his fourth book, Campaign Finance and American Democracy: What the Public Really Thinks and Why It Matters, co-authored with Jeff Milyo (University of Chicago Press, forthcoming June 2020). His first book, The Plane Truth: Airline Crashes, the Media, and Transportation Policy (Brookings Institution Press, 2003) , co- authored with Roger Cobb, examines governmental responses to plane crashes. His second book, Rules and Restraint: Government Spending and the Design of Institutions (University of Chicago Press, 2007), focuses on the design and enforcement of budget rules and received the 2008 Alan Rosenthal Prize awarded by the Legislative Studies Section of the American Political Science Association.
Tuesday, February 9th
Deborah Bennett – Berklee College of Music
Gender Neutral Language
Deborah J. Bennett is a Professor of Language and Literature at Berklee College of Music. Her poems and translations have appeared in Salamander, Connotations Press Online, La GuaGua and elsewhere. Her prose has appeared on Edify, Only a Game and Cognoscenti among others. With Simone Pilon, she has co-authored and presented research on gender inclusive terminology in Romance languages Ideating Pedagogy in Troubled Times and at the Pacific Asian Modern Language Association Annual Conference.
Wednesday, February 10th
Kyle Fruh – Duke Kunshan University
Fair-Weather Fan
Kyle Fruh is an assistant professor of philosophy at Duke Kunshan University. Dr. Fruh’s current research focuses on the nature of promises and promissory obligation, moral heroism, and the ethical implications of climate change. His writing in the philosophy of sport on fair-weather fans was done in partnership with Luke Maring at the University of Northern Arizona, Marcus Hedahl at the U.S. Naval Academy, and Nate Olson from California State University, Bakersfield. Dr. Fruh has a B.A. in philosophy and Spanish from Amherst College, an M.A. in philosophy from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and a Ph.D. in philosophy from Georgetown University. Duke Kunshan University is a Sino-U.S. joint venture established in 2014 by Duke University and Wuhan University, China.
Thursday, February 11th
Jacqueline Evans – Florida International University
CogTracer
Dr. Evans conducts research on investigative interviewing in its many forms, to include interviewing cooperative witnesses, interrogating uncooperative suspects, and gathering intelligence from sources. In addition, her research addresses the ability (or lack thereof) to detect deception in a variety of contexts. Some of the variables/constructs Dr. Evans is currently interested in include: language proficiency, presence of a translator, depletion of self-regulatory resources, and interviewee intoxication. Dr. Evans works on these projects with both graduate and undergraduate students. She hopes that findings coming from the lab will help to inform professionals in various legal and national security contexts regarding the most effective methods to use when engaging in an investigative interview and assessing interviewee credibility.
Friday, February 12th
Lisa Bitel – University of Southern California Dornsife
St. Valentine
I am a first-generation college student. My parents came from a very small midwestern town and never considered university.
I attended Smith College, Harvard University, and University College, Dublin. I learned Latin and Old Irish, and conceived a perverse obsession with the pre-ancient history of northern Europe, particularly the so-called “Celts”.
I have since published books, articles, chapters, reviews, databases, mutlimedia websites, and a few blog postings on European history, Celtic Studies, gender studies, Religion, and rock bands.
