John Hibbing, Foundation Regent University Professor of political science, wrote a Sept. 11 opinion piece for CNN.com on why the United States has such a sharp political divide and what can be done to bridge the gap.
“Our best hope is that people will be willing to compromise, even with those they believe to be fundamentally wrong,” he wrote. “The good news is that the insider-outsider issues at the core of our political divisions all have middle grounds and thus are ripe for compromise, but this does not mean it will be easy.”
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A 2004 study by Husker sociologists was cited in a Sept. 8 article in 360 magazine on New York City’s Marsha’s House shelter for young LGBTQ+ adults. The study found that 41% of homeless and runaway LGBTQ+ adolescents interviewed had major depression, compared to 28% of homeless heterosexual adolescents interviewed.
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The documentary “The Art of Dissent” by James Le Sueur, history, screened as part of the virtual Newburyport Documentary Film Festival in mid-September. Le Sueur participated in a virtual Q&A session Sept. 24. The Boston Globe highlighted the film in a Sept. 9 article on the festival.
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New research by Brian Couch, biological sciences, and national colleagues has suggested that faculty who use innovative teaching practices communicate primarily with each other, limiting the spread of those practices to other faculty who could benefit from them. Stories on the research appeared in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Phys.org, Science Codex and several other media outlets.
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Shab Mohammadi, postdoctoral research associate in the School of Biological Sciences, was interviewed for a Sept. 16 New York Times article about a new study on Australia’s Dendrocnide, or stinging, trees. Three widely divergent groups of organisms — spiders, cone snails and Dendrocnide — produce a toxin that’s very similar, she said. It’s a stunning example, she added, of different branches of the tree of life converging on the same solution. Smithsonian.com published a similar story with Mohammadi featured.
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Longtime friends of Priscilla Grew, professor emeritus of Earth and atmospheric sciences and director emeritus of the University of Nebraska State Museum, have honored her contributions to geology by naming a mineral for her: priscillagrewite-(Y), a garnet discovered in Jordan. Phys.org ran a Sept. 16 article on the honor.
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The University of Nebraska, Homestead National Monument of America and Nicodemus National Historic Site are collaborating on a study of Black homesteaders on the Great Plains. Over the last three years, the effort — partially funded by the National Park Service — has produced ethnographies of six African-American homesteader communities. National Parks magazine featured the collaboration in its fall 2020 issue. Richard Edwards, emeritus professor of economics and emeritus director of the Center for Great Plains Studies, was interviewed for the story.
