Tags: Human Nature

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COVID-19 Well-Being Guide

The University of Georgia’s Clinical Psychology Program has made available a mental health guide to provide information and recommendations to members of the UGA and Athens community who are struggling with significant life changes accompanying the COVID-19 pandemic: The spread of the coronavirus throughout the United States and broader world poses a number of significant stressors, each with effects on our mental health and well-being…

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Kudos, April 2020

New books, service, SEC and Honors Week highlights dominate the recent accolades for Franklin College faculty, postdocs and graduate students. A sample: The Poetry Society of America published  “Someone’s Getting the Best, the Best, the Best of You . . .”  a poem by Ed Pavlić, professor of English and creative writing on poem from and short essay about his new book. The poem is about Prince, on the…

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Morrison named Meigs Teaching Professor

Richard Morrison, associate professor in the department of chemistry, is one of five University of Georgia faculty members named Josiah Meigs Distinguished Professors for 2020, the university’s highest recognition for instruction at the undergraduate and graduate levels: As director of Organic Chemistry Instruction in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences department of chemistry, Richard Morrison oversees all aspects of…

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Palmer earns ACLS Fellowship

University of Georgia faculty member Jennifer Palmer has been named a 2020 recipient of an American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship. The ACLS Fellowship program honors scholarship in the humanities and humanistic social sciences with the potential to make significant contributions to knowledge in their fields. The awards range from $40,000 to $75,000 and support six to 12 months of full-time research and writing. Palmer, associate…

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Dodd alumni at CDC illustrate the artful reach of science

Dan Higgins (BFA ’93) and Alissa Eckert (BFA ’04) created the COVID-19 image that people around the world are using to understand the pandemic: [I]n addition to being University of Georgia Franklin College of Arts and Sciences Lamar Dodd School of Art alumni, Dan and Alissa are medical illustrators with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta. Alissa remembers receiving a phone call on a Tuesday in January. A…

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Landon Clark named 2020 Goldwater Scholar

A third-year CURO Honors Scholar who is triple majoring in biochemistry and molecular biology, genetics and biology, Landon Clark is among 396 undergraduates across the nation to be recognized as Barry Goldwater Scholars, earning the highest undergraduate award of its type for the fields of the natural sciences, mathematics and engineering: Clark’s long-term plans include pursuing an MD/PhD in…

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Andrews, Shannon honored with Russell Teaching Awards

Tessa Andrews and Jerry Shannon are among three University of Georgia faculty members named recipients of the Richard B. Russell Awards for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, the university’s highest early career teaching honor: “By recognizing early career faculty for exemplary instruction, the University of Georgia communicates the high value it places on creating outstanding learning experiences and outcomes for students,” said S.…

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Lillian Eby receives SEC Faculty Achievement Award

Lillian Eby, a professor of psychology and director of the University of Georgia Owens Institute for Behavioral Research, has been named UGA’s 2020 recipient of the Southeastern Conference Faculty Achievement Award: Eby, a professor in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, is recognized both nationally and internationally for her impact on the field of industrial-organizational psychology, with particular emphases…

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Social scientists worldwide collaborate on COVID-19

More than 100 international social scientists are working together to collect immediate and longitudinal information on the key social science factors that might predict the spread of COVID-19. The project, known as PsyCorona, will pair social and data scientists to connect data across multiple layers—individual survey reports from 10,000-plus participants from more than nine countries, satellite data documenting social distancing, and…

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Kudos, March 2020

Selection for fellowships, nimble expertise in the confines of social distancing and new books highlight our congratulations to Franklin faculty this month. Well done! The Institute of Bioinformatics Collective Behavior Symposium on March 20 successfully transitioned to a virtual experience for participants on very short notice. The original plan was to host 150 people, but 407 “showed up," said Jonathan Arnold,…

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Noted and Quoted, March 2020

New books, along with perspective and insights on COVID-19, brought the work of Franklin faculty into a variety of media during March. A sample of the coverage and noted expertise: ‘Unworthy Republic’ Takes an Unflinching Look at Indian Removal in the 1830s - new book by Richard B. Russell Professor in American History Claudio Saunt reviewed in the New York Times The Stories That Skewed American Popular Memory of the Civil War,…

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Shelter Projects: Micro-Fellowships in the Arts and Humanities

In these uncertain times, The Willson Center is taking the lead in supporting graduate students and community-based artists and practitioners. Shelter Projects, a micro-fellowship program to support in the creation of shareable reflections on the current pandemic through the arts and humanities: The Shelter Projects program is a partnership of the Graduate School, the UGA Arts Council, the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences,…

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New book shines a light on one of sixteenth-century Europe’s most influential spiritual authors

Best known for his works on the mystical practice of meditative recollection, Franciscan friar Francisco de Osuna published his candid manual for lay life, Norte de los estados (North Star) in 1531 before leaving Spain to reside in Antwerp. Professor of Spanish Dana Bultman has published the first modern edition in Spanish restores Osuna’s reformist voice and expansive vision to the animated conversations on marriage and…

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Insights on transitioning to online instruction

As UGA transitions to online instruction on March 30 for the remainder of the spring semester, Center for Teaching and Learning director Megan Mittelstadt and Stephen Balfour, director of the Office of Online Learning, share some importance advice to keep in mind during the coming weeks: Empathy. Both faculty and students will have competing demands on their time and emotional resources in the coming weeks. They may…

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Feeding wildlife can disrupt the social lives of animal communities

New research from UGA Anthropology has found that the practice of feeding wildlife could be more detrimental to animals than previously thought. In a paper published recently in Nature Scientific Reports, researchers found that feeding wildlife can disrupt the social lives of animal communities, which they discovered by observing and documenting the behavior of moor macaque monkeys along a wooded roadway on the island of Sulawesi in eastern…

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Westpheling named Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar

Janet Westpheling, professor of genetics in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences department of genetics, has been selected for the Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar Program. Since 1956, the program has been offering undergraduates the opportunity to spend time with some of America’s most distinguished scholars. Westpheling teaches undergraduate and graduate classes in genetics and trains undergraduates, graduate students and…

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State of the Art Symposium on Collective Behavior March 20

From the coordinated blinking of fireflies to the synchronized movement of flocks of birds or schools of fish and even the exploration pattern of roots in the soil, collective behavior characters all domains of biology – animals, plants, fungi, bacteria and viruses. The University of Georgia Institute of Bioinformatics presents the State of the Art Symposium on Collective Behavior Friday, March 20, 2020 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Masters Hall…

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New psychology research: changing self-concept can lower well-being

American culture values the freedom to change and reinvent one’s self. A new study, however, reveals that Americans who do change tend to report a lower sense of well-being. University of Georgia psychologists compared individual self-concepts between Americans and Japanese counterparts and uncovered this essential contradiction about the heroic myth of American individualism: “In Western and particularly American culture there is a notion…

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Women’s History Month honors voting rights

The Institute for Women’s Studies leads UGA recognition of the 2020 national Women’s History Month under the theme “Valiant Women of the Vote,” hosting numerous programs in March that honor the centennial of the 19th Amendment: This year’s Women’s History Month keynote address will be presented by Lisa Tetrault, associate professor of history in the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Carnegie Mellon…

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UGA among Peace Corps’ 2020 top-producing schools

The Peace Corps ranks University of Georgia at No. 5 among large schools on the agency’s list of top volunteer-producing colleges and universities in 2020. There are 64 Bulldogs currently volunteering in countries around the world: UGA made a big leap to No. 5 from last year’s spot at No. 13. “UGA’s commitment to the Peace Corps is ongoing,” said Yana Cornish, director of global education. “The recent growth of participation in the UGA…

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Kudos, February 2020

National awards from AAAS, the National Council on Public History, Bulldog 100 and electric buses headline our kudos round-up for February. Congratulations all:  Henry 'Fritz' Schaefer III, Graham Perdue Professor of Chemistry and Director of Center for Computational Quantum Chemistry was named the 2019 recipient of the Southern Chemist Award.The award is intended to honor outstanding researchers who have brought recognition to…

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Noted and quoted, February 2020

Critical views, insights, commentary, and explanation from Franklin College faculty over the month of February. A sample: Column: If you drink milk, thank Big Government, Stephen Mihm, associate professor of history writing in his regular column at Bloomberg February: The cruelest month, Georgia Athletic Association Distinguished Professor Marshall Shepherd in the Eau Claire (WI) Leader-Telegram Clay — incredibly…

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Class redesign increases student success in math

A significant redesign of two foundational UGA mathematics courses has led to remarkable gains in student success, including an increase from 65% to 85% of students who pass precalculus: While the DFW (grade of D, grade of F or Withdrawal) rate for students taking precalculus averages 27% nationally, according to the Mathematical Association of America, the DFW rate at UGA has dropped from 35% six years ago to approximately 15% last fall.…

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New book delves into the science, history and meaning of menopause

‘The Slow Moon Climbs' by Susan Mattern, Distinguished Research Professor of History, ponders the evolutionary benefit that renders women’s lives so valuable post-reproduction: She opens her book with an extraordinary example: that of Hoelun, the mother of the notorious Genghis Khan. Hoelun accomplished far more than simply giving birth to the notorious emperor of the Mongol Empire. Khan has more than 35 million direct male-line…

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Alumni Association reveals 2020 Bulldog 100 list

The University of Georgia Alumni Association recognized the fastest-growing companies owned or operated by UGA alumni during the 11th annual Bulldog 100 Celebration on Feb. 8: The 2020 fastest-growing business, LeaseQuery LLC, is led by CEO George Azih and Chief Revenue Officer Chris Ramsey. Azih earned his bachelor’s degree in business administration in 2003 and Ramsey earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology in 2005.…
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