News & Events

Notable & Quotable

• Fathers Stephen Curry and Richard Piatt spoke to the Eagle-Tribune about the burning of Cathedral of Notre Dame at the start of Holy Week. “She symbolized Paris, a symbol of grace, and hope, and comfort that both humbled and lifted up all those who approached her facade,” said Piatt. Curry said the cathedral “embodies centuries of devout Catholics’ faith, prayers, miracles, religious history, and spiritual inspiration.”

• Michael DeCesare, professor of sociology, spoke to the Arizona Republic about a plan to seat a student on the governing board of Maricopa Community College District. DeCesare, chair of the AAUP Committee on College and University Governance, which has raised concerns about board politics, said, “The board has taken some promising first steps, but (the committee) will continue to monitor the situation to ensure the faculty’s governance rights are fully restored at Maricopa.”

• Joe Kelley, professor of religious and theological studies and director of the Center for Jewish-Christian-Muslim Relations, will be traveling to Bogotá, Colombia in April with Sr. Jeanne Gribaudo and 3 Austin Scholars to attend the International Conference on Education: St. Augustine, Teacher for the 21st Century. Kelley will present a paper about Catholic higher education and the Austin Scholars Program, Merrimack’s oldest existing living-learning community.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.