Tags: Society

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Communication Studies senior dedicated to literacy

Maggie George grew up on the Harry Potter books and “The Little Princess.” Now, through her work with First Book UGA, she’s helping to raise the literacy rate in Athens-Clarke County: “I believe that every kid should have access to books. “It’s heartbreaking when you read about the summer slide that happens when kids don’t have access to books over the summer,” she said. “They come back to school, and they’re just so far behind other kids…

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Georgia Debate Union finishes 2019 as top varsity debate team in the nation

For the first time in the program's history the Georgia Debate Union finished the 2018-19 season as the top varsity college debate team in both the American Debate Association and the National Debate Tournament's end-of-the-season rankings. Each ranking is derived from points that two-person teams accumulate for each tournament over the course of the season, which runs from mid-September to the end of March.  UGA's top…

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Focus on the Faculty: Yohannes Abate

A prolific researcher at the frontier of new developments in quantum optics and 2-D materials, associate professor of physics Yohannes Abate is also a dedicated teacher who inspires students with his fascination for discovery: How does your research or scholarship inspire your teaching, and vice versa? I deliberately aim to integrate my research activities into meaningful theoretical and practical exercises that introduce…

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Anthropology comic series, workbook connect fun to critical thinking

The Center for Applied Isotope Studies provides crucial research and analytical expertise in radiocarbon dating on campus and around the world. The commitment of its faculty, staff and students also stretches into helping young people think about science by bringing anthropology to life: [Former CAIS research scientist Alice Hunt] wanted a way to hook undergraduate students while teaching them the skills professors are…

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Noted and Quoted, April 2019

Mirror-like optical illusion in the deep Pacific Ocean and the world's first ever gene-edited lizards lead the many media mentions of research and scholarship by Franklin faculty during April. A sample: Why our youth should be celebrated not mocked – a climate case study, writes Georgia Athletic Association Distinguished Professor Marshall Forbes in his regular column at Forbes   Church in the Maelstrom: A…

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Kudos, April 2019

Honors week, new grants and a Guggenheim Fellowship headline the accolades for Franklin faculty announced during the month of April: The 2019 CURO symposium’s first day also included a keynote address by Jennifer McDowell, professor and chair of the Behavioral and Brain Sciences Program in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, on the topic of “Minding Your Brain.” McDowell spoke to a packed house about the…

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Notre-Dame de Paris: monument to culture, reason, spirituality and restoration

The fire that engulfed the spire and roof of the Gothic cathedral Notre-Dame de Paris on April 8 convulsed a sense of alarm, sadness and loss worldwide. One of the most widely recognized symbols of the city of Paris and the French nation, the edifice engenders a particular sense of wonder – and ownership – across the globe, a cultural reverence that crosses into the spiritual and back again in a way few buildings or places are capable.…

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Social work, sociology faculty awarded $4m to study human trafficking

Researchers at UGA formed an international consortium, the Africa Programming and Research Initiative to End Slavery (APRIES) that received a $4 million award from the U.S. Department of State to reduce the prevalence of human trafficking in targeted communities of West Africa. The project is overseen by the State Department’s Office to Combat and Monitor Trafficking in Persons and is part of its Program to End Modern Slavery: Human…

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Samantha Joye named Regents’ Professor

Samantha Joye, an internationally recognized University of Georgia marine scientist who studies the complex interplay between microbes and large-scale ecological processes in the oceans, has been named Regents’ Professor, effective July 1: Joye is Athletic Association Professor of Arts and Sciences in the department of marine sciences, part of the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. Regents’ Professorships are bestowed by the Board of Regents…

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A leading voice for diversity: Kecia Thomas

Franklin College senior associate dean Kecia Thomas leads diversity efforts and initiatives throughout the university, supports faculty and graduate students success and helps recruit many of the most talented professors in the nation to UGA: To add to Thomas’s long list of responsibilities, diversity within the university is her primary area of study. Thomas often works with organizations within UGA and other institutions in which she conducts…

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OVPI Awards recognize outstanding advisors

The UGA Office of Instruction celebrated the crucial role of advising with the 2019 Outstanding Undergraduate Academic Advising Awards to four University of Georgia academic advisors: Mike Merva, Ali Gerlach, Umesh Patel and Antonina Ignatiuc were nominated by their supervisors and a committee of three student representatives from SGA, along with the previous advising award winners. The Office of Instruction and the Office of…

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History professor awarded Guggenheim Fellowship

Scott Nelson, Georgia Athletic Association Professor in Humanities in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, has been awarded a prestigious John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship: Nelson, who specializes in 19th-century American social history in the department of history, has authored or co-authored five books, most recently “A Nation of Deadbeats: An Uncommon History of America’s Financial Disasters.” “The…

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MFA 2019 Exhibition

The Lamar Dodd School of Art will present the 2019 MFA Exhibition at two venues in Athens: the Georgia Museum of Art on the campus of the University of Georgia and the Deupree Building, located in downtown Athens at 458 E. Clayton Street: Together, these exhibitions feature the works of 20 MFA students working in a variety media across a diverse array of themes and theoretical frameworks including ecology, migration, surveillance, the inhuman,…

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Moving Statues: A Conversation of the Global South

The Willson Center for Humanities and Arts presents an extraordinary panel discussion and a presentation by photographer and video artist Christo Doherty on Wednesday, April 10 at 6 p.m. in the Georgia Museum of Art: Doherty [associate professor and deputy head of the Wits School of Arts of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg] will present on his recent research and photographs concerned with the removal of statues and…

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Georgia Debate Union caps most successful year in its history

After winning the American Debate Association tournament earlier in March, Georgia Debate Union members Nathan Rice and Johnnie Stupek recently finished second at the 2019 National Debate Tournament (NDT), held at the University of Minnesota.   Rice and Stupek are the second team in the history of the Georgia Debate Union to make it to the final round of the National Debate Tournament and the first since 1997. In their run to the…

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Simons receives SEC Faculty Achievement Award

Distinguished Research Professor Ronald L. Simons has been named the University of Georgia’s recipient of the 2019 Southeastern Conference Faculty Achievement Award: The SEC award recognizes professors with outstanding records in teaching and scholarship and is administered by provosts at each of the 14 universities in the conference. Simons, who is a faculty member in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences’ department of …

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Noted and Quoted, March 2019

Faculty, alumni and 'statistical significance' lead our media mentions for the month of March: Goldman’s “flexible” dress code takes a cue from Silicon Valley – associate professor of history Stephen Mihm at – Yahoo! Finance   UGA experts discuss future of CRISPR gene research after international controversy – R&B quotes Michael Terns, distinguished research professor in the department of biochemistry and…

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'Statistical significance' reaches its limits

Scientists are re-assessing one of their own most fundamental measurements: the use of statistical significance in research findings (as well as funding). An editorial co-authored by UGA statistics professor Nicole Lazar and published this week in a special issue of The American Statistician urges scientists to stop using the term: The issue, Statistical Inference in the 21st Century: A World Beyond P<0.05, calls for an…

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Franklin faculty members receive 2019 Russell Awards

Three faculty members in the Franklin College, all former Lilly Teaching Fellows, have been named recipients of the Richard B. Russell Awards for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, the university’s highest early career teaching honor: Vera Lee-Schoenfeld, associate professor of linguistics: Lee-Schoenfeld uses an inductive approach to her introductory and advanced syntax courses that guides students to collaboratively explore and analyze…

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New book examines racial politics of the movie industry

Maryann Erigha, assistant professor of sociology, is author of the new book, The Hollywood Jim Crow: The Racial Politics of the Movie Industry, published recently by NYU Press. her research and teaching interests include race and ethnicity, film and media, digital sociology, and African American society. A lifelong fan of cinema whose favorites range from the Bourne franchise to Jordan Peele's Get Out, Erigha talked with us about the new…

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Advancing a new approach to packaging

Rethinking the recycling challenge is the focus of a new grant to UGA researchers from the Walmart Foundation: An $800,000 grant from the Walmart Foundation to the University of Georgia New Materials Institute will help researchers understand how multilayer plastic packaging biodegrades and also help manufacturers in their attempts to design and select more sustainable materials. The research funded by the grant will seek to yield…

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Georgia Debate Union wins national championship

The Georgia Debate Union won the American Debate Association national championship tournament this past weekend in Athens. Nearly 100 teams from around the country attended the American Debate Association's end of the year championship tournament, hosted at the University of Georgia.   Seniors Advait Ramanan and Swapnil Agrawal won the American Debate Association's varsity division national championship and finished the tournament…

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Franklin Residential College: the UGA life

Service learning, academic focus, social engagement - the Franklin Residential College offers UGA students the enrichment of living in a unique community of scholars in the heart of campus. A new video invites incoming freshman to learn more and become a part of this extraordinary, student-governed residence college.

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Lady Bulldogs excel across multiple sports

It's Spring Break for most students but women athletes on campus, with many Franklin majors among them, are leading their NCAA teams and distinguishing the university at the highest levels: Georgia senior shortstop [and mathematics major] Alyssa DiCarlo broke the Georgia women's softball all-time home runs record (58) in Sunday's 6-0 win over Western Illinois. The Georgia GymDogs secured a first-place finish at Elevate…

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Better trees for a growing state

Leading-edge plant science research brings greater insight into how trees react to stress and how that can affect Georgia's economy: In addition to contributing to a wide range of construction trades, this also includes paper and bioenergy industries and supports ecological benefits that range from environment stabilization to wildlife habitats. Because this region extends through Georgia and has a significant impact on the state’s economy…
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