In the Media and Around the Community Amanda Seligman (History) delivered Northwestern University’s Levy Lecture in May, speaking on the topic of Chicago’s block clubs. What is the difference between police reform and defunding the police? Paru Shah (Political Science) explained these terms for WUWM Radio. Sugar maple trees are an important part of indigenous culture, Margaret Noodin (English and American Indian Studies) explained on WUWM Radio. Tami WIlliams (English and Film Studies) is the co-organizer of a segment within “Women and the Silent Screen - Entr’Acte,” a four-part program on “Women Film Pioneers in Chinese Women Directors, Early Soviet Documentary, Digital Humanities Breakthroughs, and notably, on Transatlantic French-US Cinema.” Williams also co-organized the Kennington Bioscope online film series: “Solax: The House Built by Alice Guy-Blaché” with help from graduate student Allison Farrell, who was one of the program presenters. In addition, Williams spoke about 1920s avant-garde film pioneer Germaine Dulac for the France Culture podcast. Wisconsin Public Radio interviewed Jennifer Haas
(Archaeological Research Laboratory) about her team finding ancient human remains at the site of a proposed golf course in Sheboygan County. Political movements against the teaching of Critical Race Theory are fueled by misinformation, Gladys MitchellWalthour (African and African Diaspora Studies) said in a piece published by KSU: The Sentinel Newspaper. She spoke about the same subject in the Portugueselanguage paper Folha de S. Paulo. In a Yahoo! Life article, Cary Costello (Sociology) explained how the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted many closeted people to come out. Rachel Bloom-Pojar (English) delivered a keynote address with Maria Barker (Planned Parenthood of 14 • IN FOCUS • July, 2021
Wisconsin) at the virtual 2021 conference for the Association of Teachers of Technical Writing. Their talk was entitled, “The Power of Language in Building Confianza with Communities.” Jeffrey Sommers (African and African Diaspora Studies and Global Studies) was interviewed on the podcast Letters Off Paper in an episode titled, “Author and Political Economist Jeffrey Sommers on The Decline of the U.S. Job Market and the Lingering Ghost of Reagan.” Sarah Farhan (‘20, MS Biological Sciences) took a summer job with the Milwaukee Muslim Women’s Coalition to help reach Muslims in the community who have not yet received a COVID-19 vaccine. Her efforts were documented in the Wisconsin Muslim Journal. Wisconsin Watch quoted research by Marc Levine (emeritus History) showing that Black people in Wisconsin are financially worse off today than they were 40-50 years ago. The article was reprinted in the U.S. News and World Report.
When three Wisconsin lawmakers used analogies to the Holocaust to decry COVID-19 rules and possible gun restrictions, Joel Berkowitz (Jewish Studies) and faculty and staff from the Sam and Helen Stahl Center for Jewish Studies condemned their language. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported the story. Earlier in June, Berkowitz tweeted that he loved the story of the White House Science advisor being sworn in on a copy of Pirkei Avot, or the “Ethics of Fathers,” and found his tweet quoted in an article on Forward. com.
Richard Grusin (English) gave a keynote lecture, “Pandemic Mediations,” at the European Network for Cinema and Media Studies (NECS) 2021 virtual conference on June 8, and his lecture was published in English and Italian at Fata Morgana.
