Notable & Quotable

Notable & Quotable

• Sociology assistant professor Daniel Herda’s latest article, with Dr. Bill McCarthy of UC-Davis, is “No Experience Required: Violent Crime and Anticipated, Vicarious, and Experienced Racial Discrimination.” The article is in press at Social Science Research.

• Research from sociology assistant professor Daniel Herda was recently published in the Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs. His research examines the discrimination experiences of young Muslim Americans in Southeastern Michigan and how these can alter their self-perceptions and opinions about the United States.

• Lauri Kurdziel, assistant professor of psychology, was recently quoted in the Boston Globe on the topic of naps and bedtime sleep for preschoolers. Kurdziel conducted research with two others entitled “Sleep-dependent enhancement of emotional memory in early childhood” which was published in Scientific Reports.

• Three Merrimack professors were recently quoted in WalletHub on a variety of topics. Associate professor of marketing Joseph R. Stasio recently commented on how to choose the best credit cards on the market.  Assistant professor of human development Laura Hsu recently answered questions about states with the best and worst school systems. Assistant professor of finance Fan Chen was featured in the “Ask the Experts” section about low interest credit cards. 

• Sociology assistant professor Daniel Herda, with coauthors John Hagan (Northwestern) and Bill McCarthy (UC Davis), have published a study in the journal The DuBois Review. The research looked into the connections between legal cynicism, the electoral regime of Mayor Richard M. Daley and citizen calls for police assistance and police reports of drug crime.

• William Wians, professor of philosophy, delivered the opening keynote address at the 2018 Fonte Aretusa conference in Siracusa, Sicily, on June 6. His topic was ‘Violence and the Origins of Beauty’. Prof. Wians discussed three figures closely associated with the Greek city of Syracusa on Sicily: Aeschylus, whose play “Prometheus Bound” was produced in the city’s outdoor theater around 405 BC; the poem of Empedocles, who was born in nearby Acragas; and the philosopher Plato, who spent 13 years in Siracusa in a failed attempt to produce a philosopher king out of the local ruler Dionysius the Second.

• The School of Education and Social Policy’s associate professor of practice Patricia Howson was part of a panel this summer hosted by the United Way of Mass. Bay. Howson stressed the importance of preschool programs and the salaries of their teachers. Read her remarks in The Eagle-Tribune.  

• Sociology assistant professor Daniel Herda, with coauthors John Hagan (Northwestern), Bill McCarthy (UC Davis), and Andrea Cann Chandrasekher (UC Davis) have published their article “Dual-Process Theory of Racial Isolation, Legal Cynicism, and Reported Crime” in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

• Dan Vlahos, assistant professor of visual and performing arts, was recognized as Designer of the Week by Print Magazine on April 10, 2018. Vlahos shares some of his work in the local community, his favorite and most challenging projects, and his plans for the future. “Three things that inspire me are graphic design history, my students and contemporary design outside of graphic design (especially architecture),” he said. 

• Juliana Cohen, assistant professor of health sciences, was featured in a cnn.com article “How school lunches measure up in countries around the world” published April 9, 2018. “When kids eat healthier foods, this can have a really important impact on their cognitive functioning, which can then translate potentially to better academic performance,” she said. Cohen’s 2015 study, published in the Journal of the Academy of the Nutrition and Dietetics, was also featured. Her study found shorter lunch periods to be linked with less healthy eating among children.