The Academic Minute for 2024.01.08-2024.01.12

The Academic Minute from 1.08 – 1.12

Monday
Daniel Gervais – Vanderbilt University
How Can Human Law Apply to A.I.
Daniel J. Gervais, PhD, is Milton R. Underwood Chair in Law at Vanderbilt University Law School, where he serves as Director of the Vanderbilt Intellectual Property Program and co- director of the LLM Program. Before he joined the Academy, Prof. Gervais was Legal Officer at World Trade Organization (WTO); Head of Section at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO); and Vice-President of Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. (CCC). He just published an article on the application of law to autonomous AI, including AI that could legally operate a cooperation, and asci-fi novel entitled Forever meant to discuss and teach the law and ethics of AI.

Tuesday
Melissa Wasserman – University of Texas School of Law
A Novel Approach to Decrease Drug Prices
Melissa Wasserman’s research focuses on the institutional design of innovation policy, with a particular emphasis on patent law and administrative law. Her articles have been published or are forthcoming in both student edited law reviews and peer review journals including Stanford Law Review, California Law Review, Northwestern University Law Review, Vanderbilt Law Review, Texas Law Review, Duke Law Journal, Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of Public Economics, and American Economics Journal:  Economic Policy. Professor Wasserman serves as one of forty Public Members of the Administrative Conference of the United States and served on the Board of Directors of the American Law and Economics Association.

Wednesday
Emily Hemendinger – University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
Zooming In On Appearance Dissatisfaction
Emily Hemendinger is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Assistant Professor with the Department of Psychiatry, and Clinical Director and Deep Brain Stimulation Coordinator with the OCD Program, at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. Emily completed her dual degree program with her Masters in Social Work and Masters in Public Health (MSW/MPH) from the University of Pittsburgh. She has over 10 years of clinical experience working with OCD, anxiety disorders, and eating disorders. Emily has a background in behavioral and community health sciences, health education, and health promotion. She has been published in The Scientific American, The Conversation, The Lancet Psychiatry, and several online media outlets. She has presented at national and local conferences on the topics of social media and mental health, eating disorders, disordered eating, OCD, and anxiety disorders. Emily is dedicated to helping our society rework their relationships with food and their bodies. Her research is focused on mental health conditions and quality of life, as well as the effects of social media and new technologies on self image.

Thursday
Jason C. Mueller – Kennesaw State University
Unveiling Silent Suffering: The Covert U.S. “War on Terror” in Somalia
Jason C. Mueller is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Kennesaw State University. Mueller received his Ph.D. in the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Irvine, in 2020. He is an interdisciplinary researcher and educator, drawing inspiration from the fields of global studies, political economy, peace studies, critical theory, and sociology. His work explores how large-scale structures of political, economic, and ideological oppression and exploitation touch down in concrete, local circumstances. He also studies how these structures of oppression are contested via collective action. Mueller’s published research can be found in a variety of interdisciplinary academic journals, including Review of African Political Economy, Critical Sociology, Race & Class, Distinktion: A Journal of Social Theory, and more.

Friday
Durant Frantzen – Texas A&M University-San Antonio
Using Risk Assessment to Assess Lethality of Domestic Violence Offenders
Durant Frantzen is a professor of criminology and criminal justice in the Department of Criminology and Political Science at Texas A&M-San Antonio. He studies issues related to domestic violence, offender treatment and recidivism.

Dr. Frantzen earned his BS and MS degrees in criminal justice from Texas State University and his Ph.D. from Sam Houston State University. He has published articles in numerous criminal justice journals and books on topics such as the death penalty and ethics in the criminal justice system. He has worked as a consultant for county-level treatment courts to develop rehabilitation programs that reduce recidivism and improve outcomes for offenders.