In the News
-
April 8, 2021
“We make it clear that this is a core value of the institution. If this isn’t something that’s important to (job candidates), then Michigan is probably not the place that you want to be,” said Robert Sellers, vice provost for equity, chief diversity officer and professor of education and psychology, on the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion at U-M.
The Chronicle of Higher Education -
April 7, 2021
Given the U.S. Capitol’s heightened security after Jan. 6, violent extremists are more likely to target local government buildings, says Yuri Zhukov, associate professor of political science: “Once that happens in one city, people are going to try and replicate it somewhere else. That’s kind of the nightmare scenario here.” Robert Mickey, associate professor of political science, says there are few cases of “highly socially and politically polarized countries that depolarize without something horrific happening. We don’t have a playbook.”
Washington Monthly -
April 7, 2021
“I do feel frustrated that India did not roll out the vaccination drive more aggressively while the curve was in its valley. It is much easier to roll out vaccination when the infection is not so high. Now the health care capacity is stretched between vaccination and COVID care,” said Bhramar Mukherjee, professor of biostatistics and epidemiology.
BBC -
April 7, 2021
“I think we’re at a watershed moment. We used money to respond to an economic crisis and it wasn’t perfect, but we got money out quickly,” said Luke Shaefer, director of Poverty Solutions and professor of public policy and social work, in a story about cities experimenting with unconditional cash transfers to help some residents quickly — an idea that could become the basis for an alternative to traditional welfare and other safety net programs.
The Christian Science Monitor -
April 6, 2021
Matthew Lassiter, professor of history, and urban and regional planning, says easy political labels don’t always apply to suburban voters, who increasingly vote Democrat. “I personally believe that their main political identities are not as Democrats, but are parent, taxpayer, homeowner. The way they think about politics broadly is the thing that we don’t talk about a lot, like zoning, like school boundaries, that those things matter more at the local level than who they vote for every four years in a presidential election.”
National Public Radio -
April 6, 2021
The election of Vice President Kamala Harris “allowed us to demonstrate that a woman of color could now lead — albeit behind a white man — the ‘most powerful’ democratic country in the world,” wrote Matthew Alemu, doctoral student in public policy and sociology. “What should have been a ‘normal’ transfer of power appeared more like a joyous announcement that the vice president’s office had just won the world’s first ‘nonmale, multiracial’ Powerball lottery.”
Blavity -
April 6, 2021
Looking back at the past, “allows us to get a broader sense of perspective,” says Ethan Kross, professor of psychology, and management and organizations. “We’re constantly trying to make meaning out of our experiences, and our mind is flexibly constructed to help us do so. I wouldn’t want to give up this ability to go back in time to make sense of what I’m experiencing and then create a story that propels me forward.”
The New York Times -
April 5, 2021
The work of Ivo Dinov, professor of computational medicine and bioinformatics, and nursing, was featured in a story about “spacekime theory,” which he co-developed to help us better understand the development of diseases, financial and environmental events, and even the human brain. The theory helps us better utilize big data, develop artificial intelligence and solve inconsistencies in physics.
Big Think -
April 5, 2021
Kristin Fontichiaro, clinical associate professor of information, says remote learning has blurred the line between school and home life, and the implications of that transition are starting to be recognized, especially for minority groups: “I think this has opened up a whole new avenue for public education to really think at scale not only about its strengths that it will bring to the table when folks come back to school, but also repairs that need to be made.”
WDET Radio -
April 5, 2021
About 38 percent of Detroiters say they are very likely to get the COVID-19 vaccine — up from 14 percent last fall, according to a survey by Lydia Wileden, doctoral student in public policy and social science, and Jeffrey Morenoff, professor of sociology and public policy and research professor at the Population Studies Center and Survey Research Center. “It’s encouraging to see Detroiters’ increased intentions to get the vaccine, but clearly more work remains to expand access and counteract fear and misinformation,” Wileden said.
The Detroit News
