News & Events

Dr. Kevin McGravey, associate professor in the Department of political science and public policy, has published an article in the Ethics, Policy & Environment journal titled Between Neutrality and Action: State Speech and Climate Change.

Mary Kantor, adjunct lecturer in religious and theological studies, was quoted in a July 3, 2017, Catholic News Service story about three women who were consecrated June 24 into the Catholic Church’s order of virgins in a ceremony at the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Detroit. The vocation of consecrated virginity, which requires women to live a life of perfect chastity, dates back to the beginnings of the Catholic Church but had all but disappeared by the 11th century. “The rite of consecration of virgins in the world dropped off over the centuries as monastic community life for women developed,” said Kantor, who studied the vocation extensively for her doctoral dissertation at Harvard Divinity School. “During my (dissertation) research, I spoke with someone in the bishop and/or vocation offices of each diocese in the country. Some had no knowledge of the rite.”

Assistant professor of graphic design,Dan Vlahos, MFA, was elected for membership to the prestigiousSociety of Printersin Boston, Massachusetts. Established in 1905, the Society is dedicated to the study and advancement of the art of printing.

Michael DeCesare,professor and chair of sociology, was quoted in a Feb. 7, 2018, Boston Globe story about the ongoing search for the next president of Harvard University. DeCesare, who chairs a committee on university governance at the American Association of University Professors, said the school ought to pick an academic, to send a message to faculty that their work is important. “For Harvard to kind of reaffirm the importance of an academically oriented president would go a long way,” he said.

Mary McHugh, director of the Stevens Service Learning Center and an adjunct lecturer of political science, was quoted in a May 4, 2017, Salem (Mass.) News story about Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker’s reelection prospects in 2018. “It’s hard to beat an incumbent, especially a popular one,” McHugh said. “And Massachusetts voters seem to like the checks and balances of having a Republican governor and Democratic Legislature.”

Melissa Zimdars, assistant professor of communication, was quoted in a May 16, 2017, post by technology blogger Richard Hartley about new measures taken by Facebook to root out “fake news.” Zimdars, who has gained national attention for creating a list of untrustworthy news sites, said it seemed Facebook was largely responding to bad press. “My initial read on it is it’s ultimately kind of a PR move. It’s cheap to do. It’s easy. It doesn’t actually require them to do anything,” she said.

Debra Michals, assistant professor and director of women’s and gender studies, was interviewed for a March 9, 2018, segment on WBUR radio about a new study that claims bones found on Nikumaroro Island in 1940 very likely belong to famed aviator Amelia Earhart, who disappeared over the Pacific in 1937 while attempting to circumnavigate the globe. Because the new study, by researcher Richard Jantz, relied on reinterpreting an original analysis of the bones more than four decades ago rather than the bones themselves, which long ago disappeared, Michals said his study is not likely to close the book on the case. “The mystique around the disappearance of Amelia Earhart will lead a lot of people to that conclusion — that without the real bones, how do we know?” she said.

Sociology professor Michael DeCesare has published “Accrediting Commissions’ Standards on Faculty Governance” in the winter 2021 issue of Academe magazine.

Sociology Associate Professor Daniel Herda presented his research titled “Examining the Contexts of Intergroup Contact” at the annual meeting of the World Association of Public Opinion Research (WAPOR) virtual conference.

Assistant professor of women’s and gender studies, Debra Michals, was quoted in an article in The Nation, based on her research on feminist federal credit unions. The author was looking at what these credit unions from the 1970s might teach lenders in the pandemic.