The Academic Minute for 2022.10.10-2022.10.14

The Academic Minute from 10.10 – 10.14

Monday, October 10th
Timothy Lindberg – University of Minnesota Morris
How Same-Sex Marriage Became Bipartisan
I am an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Minnesota, Morris, where I teach courses on political behavior and judicial politics. I have published articles about the political history of U.S. territories and have an ongoing project on the political views of people who live in rural places. My research is driven by questions about how and why political beliefs and values change and are translated into policy shifts in U.S. politics.

Tuesday, October 11th
Randall McGuire – Binghamton University
Walls Will Not Solve Social Issues
We live in a material world that entails ceaseless and varied interactions between people, things and landscapes. People may take that world for granted; yet it shapes our behavior, thought and being even as our desires and actions transform it.  Randall McGuire is an anthropologist who uses the craft of archaeology to explore the impact of the material world on the most diverse realms of human life.  His research seeks to understand how objects and landscapes have joined with human actions, emotions and relations to make and remake society and culture from ancient times to the present.  This exploration has taken him to Pre-Hispanic Trincheras Tradition ruins in the Sonoran Desert, to the 1914 Ludlow Massacre on the plains of Colorado, to a 20th century Yaqui battlefield in Sonora, México, and to the modern border wall that separates Ambos Nogales.  He practices his craft in a praxis that seeks to know the world, critique the world and ultimately change the world.

Wednesday, October 12th
Amit Kumar – University of Texas at Austin
Doing Good Feels Surprisingly Good
Amit Kumar is currently an Asst. Professor of Marketing and Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business. Prior to joining the McCombs faculty, he completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. He received his Ph.D. in Social Psychology from Cornell University and his A.B. in Psychology and Economics from Harvard University. Professor Kumar’s research focuses on the scientific study of happiness and has been featured in popular media outlets such as The Atlantic, Bloomberg, Business Insider, CNBC, CNN, Forbes, Harvard Business Review, The Huffington Post, National Geographic, The New York Times, NPR, Oprah Daily, Scientific American, Time Magazine, U.S. News and World Report, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. His scholarly work has been published in Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, Current Opinion in Psychology, Emotion, The Journal of Consumer Psychology, The Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, The Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, and Psychological Science.

Thursday, October 13th
PJ Verrecchia – York College of Pennsylvania
Gun Control
PJ Verrecchia is a Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at York College of Pennsylvania. A former juvenile probation officer in Chester County, Pennsylvania, his research interests include terrorism, gun control, juvenile justice, gender issues in criminal justice, and pedagogy.

Friday, October 14th
Justin Hartnett – SUNY Oneonta
Predicting Snowfall
Justin Hartnett, an Assistant Professor of Geography and Environmental Sustainability at SUNY Oneonta, explores the differences in snowstorms to the lee of Lake Ontario.  His research focuses on snowstorms in the Great Lakes and Northeast United States and how different snowstorms contribute to seasonal snowfall totals.  He’s currently researching how variations in different snowstorms will impact future snowfall totals throughout the region.  He teaches courses in physical geography, climatology, environmental science, and geospatial analysis.