Tags: Society

Racial disparities and COVID, personality traits of 'difficult' people, the war in Ukraine, and faster cheaper COVID tests headline Franklin faculty expertise in the media during the month of April. A sample of the recent news featuring our colleagues: How war in the world’s breadbasket “changes everything” – Scott Reynolds Nelson, Georgia Athletic Association Professor in the department of history, interviewed by  Ad Age, …

“The thing about synthetic chemistry that I really love,” said Robert Gilliard, who earned his doctorate from the University of Georgia in 2014, “is being able to make molecules that the world has never seen before. When you develop new fundamental chemistry, you inevitably discover significant properties you never could have predicted.” Gilliard, who is currently assistant professor at the University of Virginia, first became known for his…

The University of Georgia Franklin College of Arts and Sciences department of mathematics has received the 2022 Regents’ Teaching Excellence Award for Department or Program from the University System of Georgia. The award showcases an outstanding department or program—selected from among all 26 institutions within the university system—that promotes, supports and recognizes excellence in teaching and service to students. The University…

Earth Day 2022 – Make it Count The cycle of producing, consuming and eliminating waste in a closed system (a.k.a. Earth) is the primary challenge of our time. Sustainable stewardship of the products and processes common to everyday life is increasingly coming the fore as we reach limits on waste management practices and recycling capacity, and witness the changing conditions these limits precipitate. Scientists, governments and private industry…

The Excellence-in-Teaching Award was established by the Graduate School to recognize those students who have demonstrated superior teaching skills and have contributed to teaching beyond their own classroom responsibilities, making a significant contribution to the instructional mission of the university. Three of the five 2022 Graduate Student Excellence-in-Teaching awards went to Franklin College students: Elise Robinson is a Ph.D.…

Molly Stanley, the academic advisor in the Hugh Hodgson School of Music, and Katherine Field, Coordinator of the Franklin College Office of Transfer Academic Services (OTAS), are among the four University of Georgia academic advisors to received 2021 Outstanding Undergraduate Academic Advising Awards. Stanley and Field, along with Whitney Jones and Paul Welch were nominated by their supervisors and selected by a committee of three…

University of Georgia Honors student Elise Karinshak is among 417 undergraduates across the nation to be recognized as 2022 Barry Goldwater Scholars, earning the highest undergraduate award of its type for the fields of mathematics, engineering and the natural sciences. Karinshak, from Lawrenceville, is a third-year Foundation Fellow majoring in data science in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences and marketing in the Terry College of…

Claudio Saunt, Regents’ Professor and Russell Professor of American History in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, has been awarded a 2022 Fellowship by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Saunt is one of 180 artists, writers, scholars, and scientists honored across 51 fields. Guggenheim Fellowships are intended for individuals who have already demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or…

Five University of Georgia faculty members have been named Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professors, the university’s highest recognition for excellence in instruction. “Meigs Professors are an elite group of faculty members at an institution that places a great value on outstanding instruction,” said S. Jack Hu, the university’s senior vice president for academic affairs and provost. “I congratulate the recipients of this significant honor…

With a new PBS biographical documentary (premiering tonight), a new book on his philanthropic efforts, and an upcoming Apple TV series based on his life, Benjamin Franklin is again – and still – in the spotlight.  Recognizing his skills, perseverance, wisdom and work ethic, we remember many of the reasons we revere him as an American founder as well as the namesake of one of the finest College of Arts and Science anywhere: Why has the…

A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine says that assessing the success of the nation’s largest ecological restoration investment effort will require continued improvements in data collection and synthesis and coordination across the Gulf of Mexico region. The April 2010 Deepwater Horizon platform explosion and oil spill seriously damaged Gulf of Mexico ecosystems from Texas to Florida…

We'll begin with some great news from the Southeastern Conference and our own department of geography and atmospheric sciences program: Marshall Shepherd, the Georgia Athletic Association Distinguished Professor of Geography and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Georgia, has been named the 2022 SEC Professor of the Year Department of English doctoral student Chanara Andrews-Bickers has been selected as a 2022 National…

Electric vehicles, phosphorescent waters, the war in Ukraine, and how exercise changes your brain are just a few of the stories that featured comment and expertise from Franklin College faculty over the month of March. Read all about it: We teach our son to be empathetic. Are we just setting him up for heartbreak? Keith Campbell, professor of psychology, quoted in The Washington Post Honoring a pioneer in broadcast meteorology, June…

Three UGA faculty members – two from the Franklin College – have been named recipients of the Russell Awards for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, which recognize outstanding instruction by faculty members early in their academic careers. “This year’s Russell Award recipients demonstrate how innovative, evidence-based instruction enhances student learning,” said S. Jack Hu, the university’s senior vice president for academic affairs and…

University of Georgia doctoral student Chanara Andrews-Bickers has been selected as a 2022 National Humanities Without Walls (HWW) Career Diversity Workshop Fellow.  Conversations about career diversity – developing career opportunities outside of academia – are happening across all higher education and never more so now that the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted so much about the future of work life in nearly every sector. In the humanities…

Rumya S. Putcha, assistant professor with a joint appointment in the Institute for Women's Studies and the Hugh Hodgson School of Music, has been awarded the 2022 Paula J. Giddings Best Article Award from Meridians Journal for, The Mythical Courtesan: Womanhood and Dance in Transnational India.”  The award honors an author whose work embodies the groundbreaking…

Originally published in 2019, our profile of Newton County Juvenile Court Chief Juvenile Judge Candice Branche (A.B. psychology, ’90, M.A. counseling, ’92) celebrates a successful alumna and promotes the urge to lead in service among the many attributes that we connect to impactful careers and people. Judge Branche's journey began with psychology, which ushered her into an early professional career in mental health that informs her…

The National Humanities Alliance (NHA) released the first season of its inaugural podcast What Are You Going To Do With That? – exploring the decisions that lead someone to study the humanities as an undergraduate and their pathway to a fulfilling career – on March 14. The first season features seven episodes and is hosted by Scott Muir, project director for NHA’s Study the Humanities initiative, features a diverse group of people with…

For more than decade now, Lamar Dodd School of Art professor Joe Norman has taken art students into the world of public art commissions with the creation and restoration of murals and wall signs across the state. The service projects evolved into Color the World Bright and more than two dozen murals, signs, and historic advertisements be found in communities across Georgia. The team currently includes a dozen UGA…

The story of UGA alumna Cori Bargmann, part of the Georgia Groundbreakers series that celebrates innovative and visionary faculty, students, alumni and leaders throughout the history of the University of Georgia – presents her profound, enduring impact on our state, our nation and the world. The story provides another important chapter of Women's history written across the history of the Franklin College and UGA: In the summer of 1979,…

Studying abroad in college can be a glamorous, once-in-a-lifetime learning opportunity. But is it also a distraction that slows students from completing degrees and moving on with careers? According to a new study from the University System of Georgia, not at all. The study compiled semester-by-semester records from 221,981 students across 35 U.S. institutions. Of those students, more than 30,000 had studied abroad. The analysis found…

Georgia Magazine builds out a nice roundup of Parkinson’s research at UGA with implications ranging from the journey beloved former coach Mark Richt to the legacy of the late U.S. senator Johnny Isakson. Fundamental to the research and the breakthroughs that will follow is the Brain and Behavioral Sciences Program in the department of psychology: As chair of the Behavioral and Brain Sciences Doctoral Program in the Psychology Department, […

Two Franklin College employees are competing in Dancing with the Athens Stars to benefit one of Athens' most venerable social service organizations. Fuad Elhage, a Lecturer of Spanish and French Languages, and Stephanie Lynn, a Senior IT Manager on the Franklin College Web Services team, will compete as Team 10 in the benefit for Project Safe. Tickets are on sale for the 2022 event, which will be held March 19, 2022 at 7:30 pm in the…

In recognition of the 2022 national Women’s History Month theme “Women Providing Healing, Promoting Hope,” the Institute for Women’s Studies will be hosting numerous virtual programs in March. This year’s virtual keynote address will be presented by Stephanie Y. Evans, professor of Black women’s studies; former director of the Institute for Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; and affiliate faculty in the Department of Africana Studies…

Students lead our roundup of Franklin College awards, accolades, and achievements announced during February – though not to be outdone by our outstanding alumni!  Congratulations all: Shannon Rodriguez, Ph.D candidate in linguistics, studies a dialect of English spoken by Latinos born in Georgia, a particular blend of Southern drawl. She recently presented her dissertation on the topic “Latino English in Georgia: a sociophonetic…