Soundbites: Faculty in the News 2022
Our annual Soundbites segment in the Developments newsletter gives you a small sample of how our faculty have contributed to the public understanding of fascinating social topics as well as some of the year’s most pressing issues.
Sociologist Jennifer Carlson has been awarded a prestigious 2022 MacArthur Fellowship in recognition of her work examining gun politics, culture, and trauma in the United States. MacArthur Fellowships, often called "genius grants," include an $800,000 stipend. The announcement was picked up by around 400 media outlets. Photo Courtesy of John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
“Censoring media and then pushing out preferred stories through pro-regime media is a long-standing tactic in many authoritarian nations, including Russia. And we see that on a really high volume right now.”
~ Jennifer Earl, Sociology | “Russia is using ‘digital repression’ to suppress dissent” | Scientific American, 3/15/22
“Using the passive voice – for example, reporting that “Palestinians were killed in clashes” rather than “Israeli forces killed Palestinians” – is language that helps shield Israel from scrutiny.”
~Maha Nassar, Middle Eastern and North African Studies | “How media reports of ‘clashes’ mislead Americans about Israeli-Palestinian violence” | The Conversation, 5/16/22
"The fragrant volatile organic compounds from desert plants may in many ways contribute to improving sleep patterns, stabilizing emotional hormones, enhancing digestion, heightening mental clarity and reducing depression or anxiety."
~ Gary Nabhan, Southwest Center | “The smell of desert rain may be good for your health” | UANews, 6/22/22
"People who don't have access to abortion may then experience higher rates of poverty, financial distress, things like evictions, bankruptcies, productivity, ability to progress in the workplace or in school.”
~Elise Lopez, Consortium on Gender-Based Violence | “Who’s most affected by reversal of Roe? Ruling could disproportionately impact women of color in Arizona” |7/12/22
"It's taken a lot to get to this point to show that Black people and Black language aren't grotesque, exotic, or deficient. They have a language variety that is different and should be recognized just like any other language variety."
~ Sonja Lanehart, Linguistics |”A new dictionary will document the lexicon of African American English” | NPR, 7/27/22
“TikTok’s approach to misinformation needs major improvements. A search for prominent news topics in September 2022 turned up user-generated videos, 20% of which included misinformation, and videos containing misinformation were often in the first five results.”
~ Dam Hee Kim, Communication | "Experts grade Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube on readiness to handle midterm election misinformation" | The Conversation, 10/17/22
“Our early research suggests that African Americans and Asian Americans were targeted in particular…We're also finding that there were covenants that excluded Jewish individuals and covenants that excluded women from owning property.”
~Jason Jurjevich, Geography, Development & Environment | “Project targets Tucson’s stubborn legacy of housing discrimination” |The Arizona Daily Star, 10/23/22