SBS Newsletter – October 2010
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Lowest Paid Moms Hit Hardest by Wage Penalty, Says Study
Upcoming Events Alumni News Gov. Deval Patrick has nominated Richard J. Carey '76 (journalism) of Easthampton, MA to become a Superior Court judge, pending confirmation by the Governor’s Council. Carey has been a district court judge for the past 11 years. Read more...
Melanie DeSilva '94 (social thought and political economy/communication) is taking over management of marketing and recruitment for University Without Walls, UMass's non-traditional adult degree completion program. Calling UWW one of the oldest, most prestigious adult bachelor's degree completion programs in the nation, DeSilva said she will be building on that reputation in developing "powerful and effective" marketing and recruitment strategies for UWW. Read more... Christine G. [Solt] Savage '92 (political science), chair of the Healthcare Group at Choate, Hall & Stewart LLP in Boston, has been named by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly as a "Top Woman of Law" for 2010 She was selected for outstanding leadership, vision, passion, and advocacy in the healthcare industry. Read more... Blasen Landscape Architecture of San Anselmo, CA, owned by Eric Blasen MLA '89 and his wife Silvina, received this year's American Society of Landscape Architects Residential Honor Award. The winning project, entitled “Urban Play Garden,” is located in the Buena Vista Park neighborhood of San Francisco. The project also earned a 2010 Merit Award from the American Society of Landscape Architects, Northern California Chapter. Read more... Brendan O'Meara '04 (journalism) has signed a book contract with SUNY Press for Six Weeks in Saratoga: How a Three-Year-Old Filly Won the Woodward Stakes and Became Horse of the Year. Also, the Good Men Project Magazine published O'Meara's essay, "The Last Championship," which will be the basis for a father-son baseball memoir. O'Meara's dad never missed a Little League game and he's now star of a seniors only baseball team. Visit O'Meara's website, which includes a blog. S.P. Sullivan '10 (journalism) is an online producer at MassLive.com, doing some exciting things, including liveblogging/livestreaming and “reverse publishing” (stories appearing online before being printed). He recently shared his experiences in Mary Carey's Intro to Journalism class. On October 21 Julie Robenhymer '04 (journalism), who works at hockeybuzz.com, was a guest speaker in Prof. Steve Fox's Sports Journalism class. Niko Chauls '98 (journalism) came back to campus to visit some classes. Chauls, managing editor for MSN and Bing video, lives in Seattle and works for Microsoft. In Norman Sims's class, he asked if students could translate a bit of corporate jargon. One brave student gave it a try and did a good job. Chauls awarded the student with a brand new Xbox 360. The others also got a prize: a No. 2 pencil. Chauls's message: In the world of high speed journalism today, there is no second place! Carol B. Rosenberg '81 (journalism) has been covering Guantanamo for the Miami Herald for several years. Tweeting from outside the courtroom (no electronic devices allowed inside) during the trial, she wrote to Prof. BJ Roche (journalism), "My theory of twitter from Guantanamo is this: Since they set the place up to be 'off the grid'—legally, PR-wise, etc.—and communications are really lousy…tweeting is a way to get a level of detail out from the war court (following journalistic disciplines) for people in the Pentagon, NGO and legal communities, plus others, who really want to follow developments as they happen. And lawyers in particular tell me they do follow them, like little one-line old wire service vintage bulletins, update, advisories." The Boston Celtics have released former Minuteman basketball player Tony Gaffney '10 (sociology). Read more... Please send us your news! Also, view upcoming alumni events, sponsored by the Alumni Assocation, on their Events Listing. And check out MaroonCentral, the Alumni Association's online community. This is a FREE social networking service that encourages communication and professional networking among alumni and students through class notes, profiles, a searchable directory, and more. Department/Faculty News An essay by Prof. Karen List (journalism) about her daughter's oncology nurse, Bonnie Strudas, has been selected in a national competition for inclusion in a book to be published by CURE Media Group. Karen adapted the essay from her nomination of Bonnie for the 2010 Mass General "one hundred," an effort that honors the most dedicated people associated with Massachusetts General Hospital. Ted Kennedy, Jr. spoke at the June 2 awards dinner, where a special video highlighted three of the winners, including Bonnie. List's words provided the voice-over. Jane Anderson (anthropology) is the first in the cluster hire for international heritage studies, affiliated with the Center for Heritage and Society. She will be moderating a panel as part of the Institute for Intellectual Property and Social Justice's "Intellectual Property Empowerment Summit" at Howard University School of Law in November. Read more... Elizabeth Chilton (anthropology) spoke in Pelham about what actually happened at the first Thanksgiving feast. The talk is one of three in the Pelham Library’s second Native American Lecture Series scheduled for three Thursdays before Thanksgiving. Nancy Cohen (journalism) facilitated a discussion with Connecticut gubernatorial candidates Dan Malloy, Tom Foley and Tom Marsh in mid-October at Yale University. The candidates discussed their approaches to various environmental issues the state is facing. The U.S. State Department has recruited Prof. Steve Fox (journalism) to teach multimedia journalism in Sri Lanka in December. Also, in late October he was in D.C. at the Online News Association's annual conference, hoping to push conversations about partnerships between news organizations and academia. Read more about these partnerships and other musings on journalism on Fox's blog. David Mednicoff (legal studies and public policy), associate director and honors director for the Social Thought and Political Economy Program, has been selected as a 2010-11 Dubai Initiative Research Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. Read more... BJ Roche (journalism) is responsible for the UMass Journalism Launchpad blog which includes resources, news and commentary about internships, careers and the media business for UMass journalism majors. Take a look... The Labor Center has joined the Sociology Department and moved to Thompson Hall, right in the center of campus. The Center is still running all of its programs, teaching the same courses and offering master's degrees through both the full-time residential and the limited residential programs. For more about the Labor Center, click here. Coming up this spring the Center for Heritage and Society is sponsoring an international, interdisciplinary conference. The goal is to bring together a wide range of academics, public officials, planners, educators, heritage professionals, and community leaders to examine the practical value of the past by means of a rigorous humanities and social science reexamination through five distinct thematic lenses: Identity, Culture, Ecology, Economics, and Civil Society. The conference will feature presented papers and posters, workshops, 3 distinguished plenary speakers, and optional field trips to heritage sites in Western Massachusetts. Additional information on the conference, including instructions for submitting an abstract, can be found at the conference website. SBS in the News Boston.com, 10/28/10. B.J. Roche (journalism) offers realistic advice to parents of students who are choosing a college. She says consulting rankings or the many books about choosing schools should be secondary to focusing on what the student wants to accomplish and what level of debt the family can handle. She also notes that parents should factor in continued financial support for students after graduation because good-paying jobs are scarce even for educated people. Boston.com, 10/1/10. Roche blogs about working women in their 40s and 50s who also are caregivers for elderly parents. She cites (and links to) an essay by Jackie Brousseau-Pereira MPA '00, director of external affairs for the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. Foodanddrinkeurope.com, 10/27/10. Speaking at a World Development Movement meeting in London, Robert Pollin (economics), co-director of the Political Economy Research Institute, noted that regulating food speculation in the City of London is the lynchpin to preventing volatility over food prices. St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 10/15/10. Pollin comments in a story about the lack of jobs in the so-called green energy sector. The story focuses on Crowder College, a small school in Missouri that educates students about alternative energy, and why it is attracting very few students. Pollin says the job market for green energy is very poor in part because federal stimulus funding for energy projects has not been spent. St. Petersburg Times, 10/12/10. Pollin's work is cited in a news story about a Florida congressional candidate who is proposing to make his region a center for green energy jobs and innovation. Huffington Post, 10/12/10. A columnist notes that Pollin has suggested forcing banks with large reserves to begin lending or face financial penalties. The Real News Network, 10/12/10. Pollin answers questions about recent comments he made about why so-called “deficit hawks” are wrong about what’s happening in the U.S. economy. The Nation, 9/30/10. A recent proposal by Pollin calls for the federal government to create strong incentives for both lending by banks to small business and for businesses to seek loans. He says currently the private credit markets are locked up, especially for small businesses. Pollin’s proposal uses federal loan guarantees to boost bank lending and a tax on excess reserves held by banks. New York Times (blog), 10/25/10. Nancy Folbre (economics) writes in the Economix blog about recent research by Michelle Budig (sociology) and graduate student Melissa Hodges. Their results show that women with the lowest earnings experience the largest motherhood penalty: loss of wages when they have children. Folbre says many of the high-income women running for office in this election cycle appear to be unaware of this trend. Sandiego.com, 10/19/10. A blogger doing research notes that the book, Valuing Children by Folbre, helped her understand why parents invest so much money, time and effort in their children. The Real News Network, 10/25/10. A study conducted by Jeffrey Thompson (Political Economy Research Institute) finds that when age and education are factored in, state and local workers actually earn less, on average, than their private-sector counterparts. The wage penalty for state and local government workers in New England is close to 3%, he says. MetroWest Daily News, 10/17/10. An editorial says Massachusetts officials should concentrate on policies that actually create jobs during the current economic downturn. It cites and links to a report by Thompson that says spending on education and infrastructure is more effective than giving tax breaks to business. WAMC [Northeast Public Radio], 10/22/2010. Roundtable host Joe Donahue spoke with Dean Robert Feldman about his book, The Liar in Your Life: The Way to Truthful Relationships. Mercury News [San Jose, Calif.], 10/12/10. Dean Robert Feldman is interviewed about his research on lying. His recent book, The Liar in Your Life, continues to receive lots of media attention around the world. Newsweek, 10/17/10. Ray La Raja (political science) says self-financed, millionaires such as Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman may not have to worry about money, but they also don’t have some of the key skills needed to be successful politicians. He says raising money is often a key test of whether a candidate is viable because it builds a network of supporters. Daily Hampshire Gazette, 10/16/10. An analysis of the the political campaigns in the 1st and 2nd Massachusetts Congressional Districts includes comments from political scientists Brian Schaffner and Jerome Mileur, professor emeritus. Truthout.org, 10/13/10. Gerald Epstein (economics), co-director of the Political Economy Research Institute, writes a column about why professional economists failed to see the global financial crisis before it unfolded. He says economists were using the wrong models and in some cases were compromised by having personal interests in the system that collapsed. Boston Globe, 10/13/10. The Maynard family of Chelmsford, MA, including daughter Elizabeth '11 (social thought and political economy), travelled to the White House for a ceremony where President Barack Obama touted the value of a tax credit that allows families such as the Maynards to send their children to college. Newsweek, 10/13/10. Ralph Whitehead Jr. (journalism), who studies press and politics, comments about Republican Sean Bielat's chances to unseat U.S. Rep. Barney Frank in Massachusetts' Fourth Congressional District. Because the congressman has a high public profile and can raise large sums of money for his defense, Whitehead says the likelihood of ousting Frank is low. Marketplace [NPR], 10/11/10. Jane D’Arista (Political Economy Research Institute) is interviewed about the price of currency and how it is affecting international trade. She says countries that undervalue their currency gain an advantage in exporting while currencies that are overvalued make goods more expensive at home and push wages and employment down. Springfield Republican, 10/1/10. Michael Arad, designer of the World Trade Center Memorial, spoke Sept. 30 in a program, co-sponsored by the Architecture and Design Program, the Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning and the Dartmouth Club of the Pioneer Valley. The Hill [Wash., D.C.], 9/30/10. Michelle Budig (sociology) writes about how parenthood exacerbates the gender pay gap that was highlighted in a recent report from the Government Accounting Office. That report showed that women managers, compared with men in management positions, are far less likely to be married, to be parents and to have smaller families. She also notes that recent research she has done shows that for women, having children imposes a motherhood penalty that increases with each child they have. (More on that in this issue) A Word from SBS Gifts from alumni and friends are vital to the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. Your investment allows us to create remarkable opportunities for today’s—and tomorrow's—students. If you are already a donor, please accept our sincere thanks. If not, please consider a gift to SBS for your department, student financial aid, a purpose that speaks to your personal experiences and priorities, or an unrestricted designation. To make a gift online, click here. Or, send a check to the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Draper Hall, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 40 Campus Center Way, Amherst, MA 01003-9244. Questions? Contact James Mallet, 413.577.1700. We welcome feedback related to this newsletter, the college in general, specific concerns, or topics of interest. Please address all correspondence, including story ideas, to Sabine Cray, director of communications and marketing. If you wish to add your name to the mailing list, or if you wish to unsubscribe, please contact us. If you have had a change of address, email or other personal information, you can update it online. The College of Social and Behavioral Sciences respects your privacy. Your contact information will not be shared with anyone unrelated to the University of Massachusetts Amherst. |
