WFU in the news: July 18-24

FEATURED NEWS

Physics and poetry in radical collaboration
By Amy Catanzano | Physics APS
When physicists and poets work together, they can challenge existing paradigms. Neither physics nor poetry are totalizing efforts leading to absolute truth. It is the evolution of our questions, and not just our provisional answers, that advances scientific, artistic and societal progress, writes English professor and Poet-in-Residence Amy Catanzano. – 7/22/2022

NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL

Why an insult can feel like a verbal ‘slap in the face’
Healthline
“People persistently scan their environment for threats to safety or belonging,” said counseling professor Allison Forti. “Verbal threats or even minor insults can activate the human stress response alerting the mind and body to prepare for survival. When survival is tied to a sense of belonging or psychological safety, it may not take much to create a physiological response.” – 7/21/2022

5 cool places in America where you can still buy a home for less than $200,000
By Brienne Walsh | MarketWatch
Named one of the “South’s best cities on the rise” by Southern Living in 2021, Winston-Salem has made serious efforts to attract entrepreneurs, artists and inventors. The Innovation Quarter is an area of the city that houses 90 companies, 1,000 residents, five academic institutions (including Wake Forest University), myriad community-based art projects and green walkways dotted with restaurants, cafes and galleries. – 7/22/2022

Behind the crisis in Sri Lanka – how political and economic mismanagement combined to plunge nation into turmoil
By Neil DeVotta | The Conversation
The Conversation asked politics and international affairs professor Neil DeVotta, who grew up in Sri Lanka and specializes in South Asian politics, to explain what brought about the crisis and where the nation of 22 million goes from here. “What happened in Sri Lanka was really quite revolutionary. For the first time in the country’s history, you had a president resign – and in the most humiliating manner.” – 7/18/2022

9th Wonder and Brenda Marie Osbey Join Wake Forest University Faculty
By Arrman Kyaw | Diverse: Issues In Higher Education
Grammy award-winning producer Patrick “9th Wonder” Douthit and renowned poet Brenda Marie Osbey will become Wake Forest University African American Studies Program faculty for the 2022-2023 academic year. Douthit will be Professor of the Practice in Residence in African American Studies for fall 2022, where he will teach undergrad seminar, “Where It All Began: A History of Hip Hop.” Osbey will be Distinguished Professor of the Practice in Residence in African American Studies for spring 2023. – 7/19/2022

WFU professor: ‘There is precedent for legislature to adjust AG’s duties and responsibilities’
By Julie Carr | Tennessee Star
Politics professor and state constitution expert John Dinan comments on the AG selection in the state of Tennessee and suggests possible remedies. “State constitutions have a lot of freedom to deviate from the national constitution. The national constitution sets up a certain way that judges are selected.”– 7/18/2022

The future of marriage equality
By Carliss Chatman | VoiceAmerica Talk Radio Network
Dobbs has brought all rights based on Roe, including marriage equality, into question. In this episode, law professor Marie-Amélie George discusses her forthcoming book, Becoming Equal: American Law and the Rise of the Gay Family, LGBTQ+ rights found in Lawrence v. Texas and Obergerfell, and the impact that the Dobbs decision could have on marriage equality. – 7/20/2022

Opinion | There’s a reason we can’t have nice things
By Bryce Covert | The New York Times
Sociology professor Hana Brown’s research is referenced in this opinion piece. She has found that state lawmakers are more likely to push through restrictive welfare policies when racial tension is high, in order to appease white voters. – 7/21/2022

REGIONAL & TRADE

Demand for online education is growing. Are providers ready?
McKinsey & Company
Wake Forest University has garnered attention for its revitalized approach to career services. The institution emphasizes career exploration and customized exposure to careers early in the student journey by using profiles on Handshake (a job search and matching platform) to connect students with organizations and companies based on their interests and qualifications. – 7/20/2022

What every daughter needs from her father
By Nina Spears, Aaron Martin | Baby Chick
In an article for the think tank Institute for Family Studies, Wake Forest’s father-daughter expert Linda Nielson wrote, “a girl who has a secure, supportive, communicative relationship with her father is less likely to get pregnant as a teenager and less likely to become sexually active in her early teens.” – 7/22/2022

LOCAL

Jane Aiken will step away as the dean of the WFU School of Law to work with advocacy group
By John Hinton | Winston-Salem Journal
Jane Aiken, the dean of the Wake Forest University School of Law, will step away from her position to work on issues of the criminalization of the exercise of reproductive rights as consulting counsel with National Advocates for Pregnant Women. Following her research leave, Aiken plans to return to the faculty as a University Professor. – 7/21/2022

Weaver fire site environmental probe approved by state
By John Deem | Winston-Salem Journal
A contractor will spend an expected four months collecting and analyzing hundreds of samples for potentially hazardous materials left behind after the Winston Weaver fertilizer plant. “This is pretty much standard procedure for something like this,” said former Environmental Protection Agency Deputy Administrator Stan Meiburg, who now leads Wake Fores’s graduate program in sustainability. – 7/21/2022

Second annual Freedom School Jubilee inspires love of reading for Winston-Salem students
By Amy Diaz | WFDD-FM (Winston-Salem, NC)
At the annual Jubilee, the students from each individual Freedom School get to come together and see each other. Dani Parker Moore, the executive director of the Freedom School at Wake Forest, said this event mimics Harambee which is a Swahili word that means “Let’s pull together.” “It’s what we do every morning at Freedom School, which is an energizing way just to uplift and get kids excited about reading, about the love of reading,” said Moore. – 7/19/2022

Check out @WakeForest’s Twitter post featuring video highlights of this year’s 2022 Freedom School.