WFU in the news: Sept. 4-10, 2023

FEATURED NEWS

How video games like ‘Starfield’ are creating a new generation of classical music fans
By J. Aaron Hardwick | The Conversation
The interactive music of “Starfield” launches the listener into the vastness of space while remaining curious, innocent and restrained. If you close your eyes, you can imagine it being performed in the concert hall. That’s exactly what happened prior to the game’s release, when the London Symphony Orchestra performed the “Starfield Suite” before a sold-out audience at the Alexandra Palace Theatre, one of the world’s most prestigious concert halls. As a conductor, musician and educator, I’m excited about games like “Starfield” because they’re drawing people to symphonic music like never before, writes music professor and Symphony Orchestra Director Aaron Hardwick. – 9/05/2023

This article was shared in news outlets worldwide, including the Houston Chronicle, MSN and Daily News Egypt.

NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL

Dr. Corey D. B. Walker Appointed Dean of the School of Divinity at Wake Forest University
Dr. Corey D. B. Walker has become dean of the Wake Forest University School of Divinity, effective immediately. Walker, a scholar of religion, Wake Forest Professor of the Humanities, and ordained American Baptist clergyperson, has been the school’s interim dean since January. His scholarly focus is on African American religion, philosophy, history, and culture. – 9/08/2023.

The US committed to meet the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, but like other countries, it’s struggling to make progress
By Scott Schang, John C. Dernbach | The Conversation
Law professor Scott Schang writes: It is easy to feel out of control and helpless in the face of the many problems Americans are now experiencing – unaffordable health care, poverty and climate change, to name a few. These problems are made harder by the ways in which people, including elected representatives, often talk past each other. The right place to “take the reins” is where you are, and with the problems or tasks in front of you – at work and at home. Figure out more sustainable ways to use water and energy, for example. Seize opportunities such as saving money, and reduce risks by, for example, cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Every individual can contribute to a better future. – 9/06/2023

This article was shared in outlets nationwide.

What will determine AI’s impact on college teaching? 5 signs to watch.
By Beth McMurtrie | The Chronicle of Higher Education
Professors have long struggled to design assessments to produce evidence that students are learning, with or without ChatGPT on the scene. As Betsy Barre, executive director of the Center for the Advancement of Teaching at Wake Forest University, put it earlier this year, “We can’t see inside your brain.” – 9/08/2023

Opinion | Dalit politics: Identity or rights?
By Mitra Pariyar, Mitra Pariyar | The Kathmandu Post
Anthropology professor Steven Folmar in the US is one of the few Western scholars who has persistently researched Nepali Dalits and published significantly, and who is genuinely keen to see their status changed. Folmar rightly observed that Dalit identity is extremely complex and that not every Dalit would aspire to it. – 9/04/2023

Muddied tropical rivers reveal magnitude of global gold mining boom: Study
By Glenn Scherer | Mongabay
“It’s awe-inspiring to see how pervasive [river mining] is everywhere,” conservation biologist Miles Silman told Mongabay in a phone interview. Before doing the research, “I had no idea that we were mining every river in the tropics and increasing the sediment loads, with effects on both the freshwater biodiversity — which in the tropics is comparable to biodiversity on the land — and the humans living in those areas.” Silman is director of Wake Forest’s Center for Energy, Environment, and Sustainability. – 9/05/2023

Why the US may not be the partner of choice for a rising Africa
By Tom O’Connor | Newsweek
Signs of this transformation have been apparent for some time, most recently at the BRICS summit hosted earlier this month by South Africa alongside fellow members of the informal economic coalition Brazil, Russia, India and China. Politics and international affairs professor Lina Benabdallah identified what she saw among African nations as a perceived “window of opportunity to apply pressure and seek concrete alternatives to the current financial and political institutions which do not value the agency of countries in the Global South.” – 9/06/2023

Why do we work 9 to 5? The history of the eight-hour workday
By Jeanne Sahadi | CNN
U.S. work culture revolves around employees putting in eight hours a day, five days a week. In the mid-1800s, working 70-plus hours a week was common, according to economics professor Robert Whaples, who created a detailed timeline on the evolution of hours worked in the U.S. for the Economic History Association. “These abnormally long hours were the subject of much denunciation and a major issue in a strike that began in September 1919. The strike failed … but four years later US Steel reduced its workday from twelve to eight hours.” – 9/09/2023

The forever dad: Shattering the myth of the self-centered dad
By Terry Gaspard | The Good Men Project
What kids need is a loving, predictable father figure – whether married to their mother or divorced. According to education professor Linda Nielsen, author of “Myths and Lies About Dads: How They Hurt Us All,” the root of the problem is the stereotypes we have about men. During a recent interview with me she explained, “If we believe the negative stereotypes about fathers, we’re not going to change the policies, laws, and restrictions we are putting on each other.” – 9/09/2023

Chile’s 9/11: U.S. role in 1973 military coup still unclear despite new revelations
By Peter Siavelis | The Dallas Morning News
In this opinion piece, politics and international affairs professor Peter Siavelis writes: The coup was particularly tragic because historically Chile was an island of democratic peace in a region too often punctuated by violence and right-wing military coups. Siavelis is a long-time analyst of Chilean politics and recently co-authored “Chile’s Constitutional Chaos,” in the Journal of Democracy and “Chile’s Constitutional Moment in Current History.” – 9/11/2023

The U.S. set the stage for a coup in Chile. It had unintended consequences at home
By James Doubek | NPR
Fifty years ago in Chile, the U.S. worked to end the presidency of an elected Marxist and, in turn, helped usher in an authoritarian right-wing dictatorship. Politics and international studies professor Peter Siavelis helps explain what led the U.S. to have a hand in the coup in Chile, how it occurred and what happened afterward. “I do think that there’s something there about the uniqueness of this country and its democratic experiments that it’s had over the last 50 years. And that provides a lot of lessons for other countries in the world,” he said. – 9/10/2023

REGIONAL & TRADE

A dirty business: Energy workforce trends
By Shannon Cuthrell | EE Power
New research from the Wake Forest economics department gauges the impact of the renewable energy transition on the United States workforce. The researchers analyzed data of 130 million workers making 300 million job transitions, using job titles, industries, and company names. Associate economics professor Mark Curtis and an author of the paper, stated workers without a college degree and older workers are much more likely to remain in carbon-intensive jobs. Local labor markets also might not be equipped to absorb workers displaced by the growing clean energy economy. – 9/07/2023

2023 CNMS Annual User Meeting earns praise for exciting program
OAK Ridge National Laboratory
At the Annual User Meeting of the Department of Energy’s Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, or CNMS, numerous invited talks provided attendees with a comprehensive overview of leading-edge research and developments across multiple disciplines in nanoscale materials sciences. Physics professor Oana Jurchescu offered a fresh perspective on scientifically diverse topics in nanoscience to inspire innovative thinking. She is the recipient of a rare and coveted National Science Foundation Special Creativity grant extension to take on high-risk, high-reward opportunities in electronic materials. – 9/08/2023

LOCAL

Wake Forest names Corey Walker as the dean of the WFU School of Divinity
By John Hinton | Winston-Salem Journal
Corey Walker has been named the dean of the Wake Forest University School of Divinity after serving as its interim dean since January. WFU President Susan Wente described Walker as “a remarkable leader whose impressive record of scholarship and administrative leadership inform his compelling vision for graduate theological education.” – 9/08/2023

Beth Hopkins named USTA Champion of Equality
By Ron Cioffi Usta | Greensboro News & Record
Beth Norbrey Hopkins is a Wake Forest pioneer who leaves a legacy of service at the University and in the Winston-Salem community. As a gifted Wake Forest School of Law professor who was named director of outreach in 2012, Beth transformed the law school’s Pro Bono Project and Public Interest Law Organization into nationally recognized programs. Under her leadership, underserved members of the community were provided legal assistance through a network of talented students, colleagues and local attorneys. From her days as a student when Wake Forest struggled with integration until she retired after 30 years of employment with the University. – 9/08/2023

The Winston-Salem Journal also published an article.