The Academic Minute from 09.21 – 09.25
Monday, September 21st
Thomas Paradis – Butler University
Local-Global Tension and the Palio of Siena
Tom is Professor of Geography and Urban Planning at Butler University in Indianapolis, IN. He has taught study-abroad programs and conducted research in Siena, Italy since 2013. His recent books include LIVING THE PALIO: A STORY OF COMMUNITY AND PUBLIC LIFE IN SIENA, ITALY. His second, follow-up book about Siena was recently released, UNBRIDLED SPIRIT: THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE 2018 EXTRAORDINARY PALIO IN SIENA, ITALY (March 2020). Both books are available through numerous global online retailers. Tom is currently working on a new book that interprets geography and community in the Hunger Games series, which will focus particularly on culture and music in the story’s Appalachian setting of District 12.
Tuesday, September 22nd
Kristin Jacobson – Stockton College
American Adrenaline Narrative
Kristin J. Jacobson is a professor of American Literature, American Studies, and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Stockton University in New Jersey. She completed her Ph.D. at Penn State, her M.A. at the University of Colorado-Boulder, and her B.A. at Carthage College in Kenosha, WI. Her book Neodomestic American Fiction (2010, Ohio State University Press) examines contemporary domestic novels. Her current book The American Adrenaline Narrative (2020, University of Georgia Press) identifies a new genre of travel and environmental literature. The project defines and then examine the genre’s significant tropes from an ecofeminist perspective. She was a Fulbright-Greece scholar at Aristotle University in Thessaloniki and a Fulbright Specialist at the International University of Kyrgyzstan in Bishkek. Jacobson currently serves as the Dual Degree Advisor for the Literature (B.A.) and American studies (M.A.) programs at Stockton University.
Wednesday, September 23rd
Lane Demas – Central Michigan University
Golf and Racial Segregation in Atlanta
Professor Demas specializes in the history of race and popular culture in America, specifically sport and African American history. He is the author of Game of Privilege: An African American History of Golf (University of North Carolina Press, 2017) and Integrating the Gridiron: Black Civil Rights and American College Football (Rutgers University Press, 2010). Game of Privilege received both the USGA’s Herbert Warren Wind Award (best golf book of 2017) and the North American Society for Sport History Book Award (best sport history book of 2017). Professor Demas makes periodic media appearances and his work has earned awards from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Fulbright Program.
Thursday, September 24th
Jessica West – Duke University
Stress Spillover in Marriage Due to Hearing Loss
I am a fifth year PhD candidate in Sociology and I specialize in medical sociology and demography. Broadly speaking, I study medicine and health from a social and behavioral perspective. My dissertation focuses on stress proliferation and disability from a life course perspective. I also study health disparities by race/ethnicity and immigration status.
Friday, September 25th
Johann Neem – Western Washington University
Higher Education Meta-Vocabularies
Johann Neem is a professor of history at Western Washington University. His written works include Democracy’s Schools: The Rise of Public Education in America, and pieces published in the Washington Post, USA Today, the Chronicle of Higher Education, the Seattle Times, and Inside Higher Education. Neem has also been interviewed on education for the New York Times, the Boston Globe, and in a feature for PBS Newshour.
