Chapman Forward Magazine, Vol. 3

CHAPMAN FORWARD 6 An Amazon project gets put on pause.

Cover

16 Scholars share lessons of the 1918 flu.

RISE OF THE RESISTANCE

Volume 3, Issue 1 A Research Publication of Chapman University

CU researchers work to ensure the survival of antibiotic options.

CHAPMAN FORWARD Daniele Struppa, Ph.D. President Thomas Piechota, Ph.D. Vice President for Research Jamie S. Ceman Vice President of Strategic Marketing and Communication Pamela Ezell, Ph.D. Assistant Vice President of Communications Jeff Brouwer Assistant Vice President of Creative Services EDITOR Dennis Arp arp@chapman.edu SENIOR WRITER Dawn Bonker bonker@chapman.edu PHOTOGRAPHY Justin Swindle DESIGN Ivy Montoya Viado CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Stace Dumoski Assistant Director of Content Strategy Sarah Lee Project Management Stacy Padilla EDITORIAL OFFICE One University Drive, Orange, CA 92866-9911 Main: ( 714) 997- 6607

Chapman Forward is published annually by Chapman University. © 2020 Chapman University. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited.

FEATURES 4 Biologist Gregory Goldsmith adapts his rainforest research to carry on the project from his extra bedroom.

6 A global health and life history project shifts from data collection to population protection as COVID-19 spreads.

12 A national mental health project is one of Chapman‘s Rapid Response projects, investigating the wide-ranging effects of the pandemic.

16 Chapman scholars of the 1918 flu outbreak see parallels with the current health crisis, but they caution against presuming that nothing will ever be the same.

24 Research at a CU machine learning lab aids thousands with autism spectrum disorder, including the daughter of project lead Erik Linstead ’01.

30 Powered by a Chapman fund for emerging research, food scientist Rosalee Hellberg uses molecular tools to peel back the layers of deceptive labeling.

33 How does American musical theatre translate when produced abroad? Dance professor Wilson Mendieta leaps in to find out.

34 A new book by film studies scholar Nam Lee explores the themes of Bong Joon Ho’s work and puts his Oscar success in the context of history.

DEPARTMENTS 2 The Year in Research 3 By the Numbers 4 Notes From the Field 22

5 Questions

38

Research News

42

Bookshelf

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On the Cover: Pharmacy researcher Rakesh Tiwari, Ph.D., is among the Chapman scientists developing antibiotic alternatives to combat the global health problem of bacterial resistance. (Photo by Justin Swindle)

RESPONDING IN EXTRAORDINARY WAYS Welcome to the third issue of Chapman Forward magazine, devoted to advancing new discovery, scholarship and creative activity by the students and faculty of Chapman University. We’re excited to share some of the powerful stories that reflect the transformative impact we’re seeing every day and that are all part of implementing Chapman’s 2018-2023 strategic plan.

This year has been extraordinary, with the COVID-19 pandemic having a profound effect on the life of our university. Chapman faculty, staff and students have responded in amazing ways, displaying expertise that addresses the health, social and economic aspects of the pandemic. This included COVID-19 studies looking at national mental health issues, impacts in South America, lessons learned from the 1918 flu pandemic, treatment protocols and how the pandemic can be used as a teaching moment with our students. We also highlighted these studies as part of the “Ask the Experts” Virtual Town Halls series providing information about COVID-19 to the Chapman community and beyond. The series has proved extremely popular, with the first 10 events attracting more than 3,000 attendees.

Message from the VP

As Chapman faculty and students have rallied to meet this challenging moment, the university has benefited from many remarkable contributions. In September, we received a $5 million gift from the Swenson Family Foundation to name the Swenson Family Hall of Engineering, due to open in fall 2021. This generous commitment to Chapman’s future will open new doors to research for students in our Dale E. and Sarah Ann Fowler School of Engineering. Chapman's elevation to R2 status as a research institution in 2019 helped inspire the Swenson Family's gift.

Chapman has also shown an incredible commitment to aligning the growth of our research and creative activity with student success. Approximately 70% of Chapman seniors responded that they had opportunities to work on research or creative activity projects as part of courses or outside of class. More than 50% had an opportunity to present their research findings or creative work at conferences, exhibits or performances.

Over the next two years, Chapman will focus on the theme “Excellence through Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity” during our accreditation efforts with the Western Association of Schools & Colleges – Senior College and University Commission. This process will highlight the transformational impact of research and creative activities on the student experience at Chapman over the past two decades.

The stories presented in this issue of Chapman Forward highlight just a few of the exciting areas where Chapman faculty and students are making a difference. Many of these efforts are funded internally and by outside sponsors, supporting diverse areas of research and creative activity such as groundbreaking work in computational and data sciences to address autism, developing resistance to antibiotics, mental health issues during COVID-19 and musical theatre in a global market.

Many have called this year extraordinary, and we certainly feel that the work of Chapman faculty and students reflects this description. As we look forward to 2021, we encourage you to contact us if you are interested in research partnerships or other forms of engagement (employment, philanthropy, learning opportunities).

Thomas Piechota, Ph.D. Vice President for Research piechota@chapman.edu 714 - 628 - 2897

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THE YEAR IN

RESEARCH Research and innovation continue to soar at Chapman University, thanks in good measure to another year of record funding and investment.

The work of faculty researchers contributes to innovations throughout the disciplines, from machine learning in support of students with autism spectrum disorder to global health insights made possible by a partnership with South American indigenous tribes.

Here’s a look at some of Chapman’s latest successes.

Initiatives Focus on Equity for People With Disabilities The university has earned important new support for its interdisciplinary work to promote public policies that improve the quality of life for children and adults with disabilities.

That extraordinary support comes from two Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grants totaling more than half a million dollars.

Chapman’s Thompson Policy Institute will use the first grant of $420,000 to support the California Teacher Residency Lab. Chapman is partnered with the University of Kansas, the University of Florida and the California State University Chancellor’s Office on this project. In addition, TPI developed the Active Education Webinar Series during COVID-19. This series, made possible with the support of the foundation, enabled TPI to support pre-service teachers in fulfilling teaching credential clinical hours when schools closed last spring. TPI is continuing the successful series this fall with four additional webinars and a professional learning community.

TPI has also started developing a proposal to operate an education center named California Educator Preparation Innovation Center (Cal EPIC) with the support of a $250,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Audri Gomez, associate director of the Thompson Policy Institute, presents at the annual DisAbility Summit. Photo by Jeanine Hill

Record High in External Funding

$19.6

MILLION

Research expenditures reached a new high of $19.6 million, a 39 percent increase from last year. The steady growth represents grants from a wide range of agencies and industries, supporting research with applications in medicine, technology, the arts and justice.

Highlights include: • A U.S. Department of Agriculture grant to study irradiation as an alternative to methyl bromide fumigation and DPA treatment of Granny Smith apples.

• Four Office of Naval Research grants in support of materials research and experimentation related to superconducting.

• Two Kaiser Permanente Research awards to examine the safety and effectiveness of treatments for moderate hypertension in pregnancy.

Patent Applications Rise Shoe inserts to correct childhood toe walking, materials that could be used in future room-temperature superconductors, and biosensors to detect pathogenic bacteria are some of the innovations on which Chapman has filed patents this year.

“With the growth of research activity, Chapman has also seen new innovations and entrepreneurial efforts that are represented by the filing of patents. These projects reflect the caliber of our researchers and their dedication to making significant contributions that have the potential to benefit society in many arenas,” said Tom Piechota, Ph.D., Chapman’s vice president for research.

Other technologies for which patents were filed include School of Pharmacy developments, including one with potential applications for the treatment of ciliopathy disorders such as polycystic kidney disease.

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RESEARCH BY THE

NUMBERS 37% increase 150% increase

2

5

$7.9 M

$5.62 M

$19.6 M

$14.1 M

39% increase

Research expenditures (FY18 - FY19)

Other Numbers of Note

2.4 : 1

Return on investment of projects in the Faculty Opportunity Fund Program ($446,851 of internal funds have been provided to faculty; $1,077,220 awarded from outside sponsors).

3,800 Attendance for “Ask the Experts” Virtual Town Halls.

Federal research expenditures (FY18 - FY19)

Patents filed (FY19 - FY20)

$5M

Amount of the gift by the Swenson Family Foundation to name the Swenson Family Hall of Engineering, opening fall 2021 in Keck Center for Science and Engineering.

“Like Jim Swenson’s legacy, this gift will inspire the next generation of researchers and innovators,” says Daniele Struppa, president of Chapman University.

345

Doctorate degrees (DPT, JD, Ph.D., Pharm.D.) conferred in 20192020.

70%

Percentage of students who work with professors on a research or creative-activity project.

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THE FIELD

NOTES FROM

SPARE- BEDROOM SUMMER TRIPS TO THE TROPICS ARE OUT, SO A BIOLOGIST MOVES HIS PROJECT INDOORS. DESPITE THE PROGRESS, HE LONGS FOR THE FOREST.

BY GREGORY GOLDSMITH, PH.D.

As the world confronts COVID-19, discovery looks very different. I have traded my rubber boots for flip-flops, but I am still spending my days studying the rainforest; now I am doing so with the help of a NASA instrument mounted on the International Space Station.

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I

have been lost in a tropical rainforest twice. I mean really lost. The first time, I was collecting data on the side of a mountain in Panama. I knew that if I walked downhill, I would eventually hit a road. I did. The second time was entirely more terrifying. I was with my field assistant, who had been prowling Costa Rica’s rainforests for twice as long as I had been alive. He had seen and experienced everything, including surviving a bite from a pit viper. Now, it was both foggy and raining. Dense.

We came across the same tree three times; a monstrous fig with flowing buttressed roots.

I could see in his eyes that he was realizing we were lost, and his fear became my fear. I am actually not sure how long we were lost. Just walking, rubber boots filling with the water running down my legs. Then, as suddenly as we were lost, he declared that we were found.

He had recognized a particularly rare tree species by its bark when we first arrived, and he was standing next to that tree again. That corner of Costa Rica has more tree species to recognize than does all of North America, but he had always possessed a knack for recognizing tree bark. The bark looked … unremarkable.

Every summer for the past 15 years, I have packed the same black rubber duffel bag and left to carry out my research. Panama, Costa Rica, Mexico, Peru, Brazil, Singapore. I study tropical ecology, sustaining an obsession with finding out what is around the next corner, with the idea of discovery. With the idea that so much of our planet remains undescribed.

Now I find myself a bit nostalgic for being lost in the forest. Or, at least, nostalgic for being in the forest.

This summer, I am carrying out my research from my spare bedroom. As the world confronts COVID-19, discovery looks very different. I have traded my rubber boots for flip-flops, but I am still spending my days studying the rainforest; now I am doing so with the help of a NASA instrument mounted on the International Space Station.

The instrument, known as ECOSTRESS, flies over the top of my research sites in the Amazon every few days and takes an image using something called a thermal infrared radiometer. The data in this image allows us to precisely calculate the temperature of

the plants I study, and how much water they are using, at a resolution less than that of a football field – all from something moving at 15,500 mph about 220 miles above Earth.

With funding from NASA and working in collaboration with colleagues from Northern Arizona University, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the University of Oxford, we are studying how our world’s tropical forests will be affected by global climate change. Tropical forests play a critical role in regulating our planet’s interconnected systems. They store our carbon, recycle our water and regulate our weather. There is much that we do not know about global climate change. There is discovery to be had.

Discovery feels more important than ever as I sit quarantined in my home. Pandemics like COVID-19 will only become more prevalent as climate change progresses. Humans will be forced to move with rising temperatures and seas, pushing them into more frequent contact with species that carry new and deadly diseases. Understanding, mitigating and adapting to our circumstances will require the knowledge that we gain from science carried out from our spare bedrooms.

We need this science. But I cannot wait to get lost in the rainforest again.

Gregory Goldsmith is an assistant professor of biology in Schmid College of Science and Technology and the director of the Grand Challenges Initiative at Chapman University.

Goldsmith was awarded the 2020-2022 Wang-Fradkin Assistant Professorship, the university’s highest recognition for research. He is an early career fellow of the Ecological Society of America and an Explorer of the National Geographic Society.

Instead of getting an up-close look at tropical ecology this summer, biologist Gregory Goldsmith has been studying images such as the one at right, provided by an instrument known as ECOSTRESS, mounted on the International Space Station.

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LESSONS OF THE AMAZON BY DENNIS ARP

Leaders of a globally significant project suspend their research to safeguard their indigenous partners during COVID-19. For Chapman Professor Hillard Kaplan, the step reflects a deep commitment to the Tsimane as well as the science.

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Indigenous Tsimane villagers live a hunter-farmer-forager lifestyle in the Bolivian Amazon, much as they have for generations.

A Chapman-led research project is gathering health and life-history information that provides a window to what life was like for most people on Earth before the Industrial Revolution.

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T

o protect the health of 16,000 indigenous villagers living deep in the Amazon rainforest of Bolivia, Hilly Kaplan is working his magic from 5,000 miles away.

He’s on the phone in his Orange County home, trying to get a vital piece of equipment moved from the city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra to the remote town of San Borja – gateway to the rainforest villages. It’s Kaplan’s latest logistical challenge as he manages a globally significant research project during a worldwide pandemic.

For more than 18 years, Hillard Kaplan, Ph.D., a professor of health economics and anthropology at Chapman University, has led a research team of dozens as they gather groundbreaking health and history data. The project hinges on the symbiotic relationship the team has nurtured with the Tsimane – among the last people on Earth to still live a hunter-farmer-forager lifestyle.

Insights about humankind’s preindustrial past are in these Bolivian villages. Where muddy rivers flow and rutted roads impede, team members work year-round and Kaplan visits regularly, as does another leader of the project, Michael Gurven, Ph.D., a professor of anthropology at UC Santa Barbara.

To keep the complicated research project on track, Kaplan, has to maintain a delicate balance. He tends to the needs of the indigenous villagers, whom he cares about like family, while also meeting the demands of a project yielding highly prized data about aging, diet, lifestyle and health.

Never has Kaplan’s balancing act been more demanding.

PUTTING A PROJECT ON PAUSE TO SAFEGUARD PARTNERS In this time of the global COVID-19 health crisis, he and his team have shifted from health data collection to population protection. Team members scramble to keep the Tsimane and their neighbors, the Moseten, out of the crosshairs of the novel coronavirus. Which is why Kaplan needs to move that important piece of equipment – a biosafety cabinet for processing COVID-19 rapid tests. He had to get the cabinet specially built, then adapt it to fit in the back seat of a Bolivian taxi cab for transport.

“These are minor problems compared to some of the other ones we’ve had to solve,” Kaplan says. “We’re constantly battling to get our people to the research site, because when it rains, the roads can be nothing but mud up to your waist.”

One time Kaplan’s truck slid into a ditch and he spent the night trying to sleep where the mosquitoes were so thick that they covered the windshield. He woke up at

Photo by Michael Gurven

The research is incredibly valuable, and the future of the Tsimane is at stake.

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4 a.m., walked a couple of miles and found a farmer, who helped pull the truck from the mud.

Why endure such headaches and hardships? That’s an easy one. The research is incredibly valuable, and the future of the Tsimane is at stake.

Plus, Gurven is convinced, Kaplan just flat-out enjoys making the near-impossible happen.

“Hilly is great at taking things step by step, analyzing the angles,” Gurven says. “He has an amazing capacity to navigate it all – the meetings, the red tape, the obstacles. In some perverse way, I think he actually likes it.”

Lancet. Since then it has been translated into Spanish, Portuguese and French so the plan might serve as a blueprint elsewhere.

many have been willing to brave the additional risk of the marketplace to provide extra benefits for their family.

By midsummer, COVID-19 reporting showed that one in every 2,300 infected indigenous Americans had died, compared to one in 3,600 white Americans. Among the most vulnerable are tribal elders, who are critical sources of cultural knowledge and traditions. Protecting these elders is an important part of the Tsimane Project plan.

“Markets in Latin America have proved to be centers of transmission,” Kaplan says.

Early steps in the multiphase plan focused on educating the Tsimane, who live in 95 communal

TSIMANE’S LIFESTYLE HOLDS CLUES TO HEALTHY AGING

TSIMANE HEALTH AND LIFE HISTORY PROJECT

Since the Tsimane (pronounced Chi-ma-NAY) Health and Life History Project first launched in 2002, Kaplan and his colleagues have learned truckloads about how diet, exercise and lifestyle can impact overall health. They’ve found that 80-yearold Tsimane villagers have roughly the same vascular health as Americans in their mid-50s.

• The Research: With leadership from Chapman Professor Hillard Kaplan, dozens of anthropologists, cardiologists, cognitive health experts and other scientists gather data on the Tsimane, Amazon villagers who are among the last people on Earth still living a hunter-farmer-forager lifestyle.

The Tsimane also have few cases of diabetes and hypertension, plus a near absence of stroke and heart attack. The link is clear: Villagers spend as much as seven hours a day being physically active. Their diet consists largely of non-processed carbohydrates that are high in fiber, while wild game and fish provide the bulk of their protein.

There is virtually no smoking.

• The Findings: Rigorous exercise and a diet free of processed foods help the Tsimane maintain excellent vascular health, with almost no cases of diabetes, hypertension, stroke or heart attack. The project’s insights on healthy aging have attracted global interest. Researchers are now looking for similar links between lifestyle and cognitive health.

If the industrialized world emulated the Tsimane in diet and activity, it would save millions of lives and billions of dollars in health-care costs, Kaplan says.

“We are our own worst enemies,” he adds.

The project’s findings on vascular health have been documented in high-profile, peer-reviewed journals and have also garnered widespread massmedia attention. Those insights and many others are why the project has attracted grants totaling $8.5 million from the National Institutes of Health to also study brain atrophy, cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s among the Tsimane.

“The link between arterial health and Alzheimer’s is still unclear,” Kaplan says. “This is the first study of a population that looks at the rate of tissue loss in the brain among an indigenous community.”

Project team members are eager to gather more of the data. But first they are acquiring real-time lessons in trying to safeguard a highly vulnerable population.

CRAFTING A COMPREHENSIVE PROTECTION PLAN In the early days of the pandemic this spring, Kaplan and the project team of physicians, anthropologists and Tsimane leaders swiftly began putting together a detailed protection plan. Kaplan and Gurven recognized that their ideas might also be applied to safeguard indigenous populations elsewhere in the world. In the U.S., Navajo communities were already seeing spikes in coronavirus cases.

In May, the Tsimane Project’s report on its protection plan was published in the journal The

• The Pivot: The COVID-19 pandemic caused project leaders to suspend their regular research to work with the Tsimane on a plan to protect the villagers from infection. The report on the plan was published in The Lancet and may serve as a blueprint for safeguarding other indigenous populations.

• The Relationship: Prioritizing the interests of the Tsimane models ethical research practice, wins their confidence and allows the project to thrive.

villages. Flyers, town-hall-style gatherings and radio alerts encouraged social distancing and other prevention steps. A platform of rapid testing was developed, and crude gates were installed and staffed at village entry points.

“Self-isolating, building quarantine huts and moving them away from village elders – these are our best hope,” Kaplan explains.

Still, with increasing numbers of the Tsimane traveling to markets in San Borja, Kaplan and village elders knew their plan might be leaky.

“We weren’t so naïve as to think it would be foolproof,” Gurven says.

MARKETS BECOME CENTERS OF TRANSMISSION In recent years, more of the Tsimane have turned to selling fish, plantains, rice and other goods that they catch, grow or gather. During the pandemic,

In July, Kaplan said, “We’re very nervous now.

Trying to do something with COVID is like trying to get a tiger by the tail.”

By September, that tiger had pounced. In some villages, the infection rate was as high as 70%. In the communities closest to San Borja, “COVID spread like wildfire,” Kaplan says.

The team’s plan entered a new phase. Kaplan and his colleagues marshalled resources, and seven doctors started visiting the villagers, stepping up rapid testing and treatment. Nine Tsimane team members who were being trained as anthropologists started doing contact tracing and checking on those known to be sick.

“What’s particularly impressive is how few people have gotten really sick,” Kaplan says.

The Chapman professor is reluctant to dive too deeply into the numbers, with the COVID-19 crisis still evolving and his team still compiling data. But through the first two weeks of September, a broad picture was emerging. The Tsimane’s communal lifestyle was facilitating transmission, but their miniscule rate of chronic disease was translating to a very high rate of recovery.

“Our nightmare about penetration of the virus is smacking us in the face, although the worst nightmare about severe illness and death isn’t happening,” Kaplan said in early September. “We’re not through it yet. There will be a story to tell, it’s just premature.”

PROJECT GROWS FROM HUMBLE BEGINNINGS The team’s coronavirus pivot is just the latest twist to the Tsimane Project. The story of Kaplan’s interest in the health and safety of the Tsimane goes back to its earliest days.

The study subjects and the Amazon setting landed on his radar in 1999 thanks to preliminary research done by Gurven when he was a grad student at the University of New Mexico, where Kaplan was then a professor. Gurven had backpacked across South America and was so fascinated with Amazonian culture that he want back to explore Tsimane villages.

He and Kaplan talked about starting a research project, but they had no idea how it would blossom.

“We thought it would be a year-long project – maybe a couple,” Gurven recalls. “Long-term ongoing research is hard under the best of circumstances – it’s just draining. If you’d told me two decades later we’d be doing CT scans in the Bolivian Amazon, I’d have said, ‘What?’”

Still, they knew the project had promise.

“Given how much focus there is on the chronic diseases of aging – and not just the physical but the emotional, the cognitive, the psychological – we knew this was a huge opportunity,” Gurven says. “What we have found so valuable about the

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LINGUIST SPEAKS THE LANGUAGE OF HELPING

BY DAWN BONKER Pilar Valenzuela’s field work in Peru is usually about documenting indigenous languages among people she has worked with since her graduate school days. But now, in the era of COVID-19, she’s working just as hard to save their lives.

“How can you do this sophisticated research when people are dying?”

Valenzuela says.

Through the documentation of indigenous languages, the Chapman University professor has long worked to help scholars better understand Peruvian tribes’ ancestral identities, tap into valuable knowledge imbued in their words for important plants and animals, and help the world learn something about a slice of humanity that is often overlooked.

While the linguist continues as she can with the language documentation afforded by a National Science Foundation grant, she has turned additional energy into fundraising and advocacy on behalf of the indigenous people, or Amerindians.

This summer, Peru became the world’s leading hot spot for COVID-19 infections and experienced the highest death rates from the disease in Latin America. Such a fatality rate threatens the stability of these already small communities, Valenzuela says.

“I’m very concerned because right now these communities are losing many elders,” she says.

ELDERS ARE CRITICAL TO STORYTELLING TRADITIONS The loss of seniors is significant because they are often the source of nuanced language instruction conveyed in oral teaching and storytelling traditions.

Moreover, health care is slow to reach the tribes and not particularly prioritized by the government, she says. In fact, children in a village she visits often suffer from pertussis, or whooping cough, a disease easily preventable by vaccine. So Valenzuela and a cohort of other scholars are doing what they can to help.

They started a GoFundMe campaign to support a local nonprofit aiding the tribes, and they used their academic connections with government ministries to flood officials with letters appealing for more resources to be sent to Amerindian communities.

In addition, Valenzuela extended a hand to help keep research activities alive. She helped tribal leaders apply for several small grants to support cultural studies and projects.

Tsimane Project is learning about what life was like prior to the Industrial Revolution, when people were living off the land.”

Professor Pilar Valenzuela, center, documents indigenous languages in Peru.

“I‘m very concerned because right now these communities are losing many elders,“ she says.

Valenzuela’s own work in the region is extensive. Her dissertation “Transitivity in Shipibo-Konibo Grammar” received the Mary R. Haas Book Award granted by the Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas.

In 2009, she was awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant for her work on Shiwilu, as well as Shawi, a sister language from the Kawapanan linguistic family. In 2018, Valenzuela received another NSF grant to collaborate with the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru to document a related language, Amawaka, spoken by just several hundred people and at risk of being completely displaced by Spanish.

Additionally, to foster a better understanding of native naming traditions, the government of Peru enlisted her to research the names and make recommendations to help bring into official use what many Amerindians call their “true names.” The result is the book “Tesoro de nombres ShipiboKonibo,” which roughly translates to “Treasure of Names of the ShipiboKonibo.”

Valenzuela continues to analyze grammar, diction data and video recordings gathered for a dictionary. But COVID-19 travel restrictions will delay additional field work.

“It’s slowing down the project,” she says. “But we’re not so much concerned about the research right now. We’re concerned about the people.”

BROKEN BONES, SNAKE BITES AND GRATITUDE

A key reason the project thrives is the deep relationship the team has built with the Tsimane. From the start, Kaplan and Gurven took steps to involve village leaders in all decisions. Project members knew the team’s presence would have impact, but they were determined that it would affect the Tsimane only in ways the villagers wanted.

Though the Tsimane have excellent vascular health, their active lives and rainforest environment lead to many injuries and illnesses. Three Bolivian doctors employed by the project began going from village to village, providing primary health care as they also collected data. A mobile lab processes routine tests. Broken bones, snake bites and hernias are common; with more complicated and emergency cases, the project pays for transfer to a Bolivian hospital.

“We had no idea we were going to play such a large role in the health care of the Tsimane,” Kaplan says. “But very early on, we realized there was a complete lack of care. The hospital basically refused to treat the Tsimane for tuberculosis because they thought they wouldn’t complete the treatment and because the Tsimane had no money.”

“Over the past 18 years, there is almost no family in the Tsimane population that hasn’t had a life saved or seen a big difference in their well-being,” Kaplan says. “They have come to believe in our commitment to them, and that relationship of trust has benefited our science.”

So Kaplan started working with village leaders and Bolivian officials. One of the project’s health-care research participants, Long Beach Medical Center and the MemorialCare Health System in Southern California, provided provided expert advice to Bolivian doctors visiting the villages..

“We started saving people’s lives,” Kaplan says.

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The project has now gathered data on 8,000 people, providing robust information that Kaplan and colleagues have shared in about 100 scientific articles. The current team consists of 12 to 14 anthropologists and eight to 10 cardiologists, as well as cognitive health experts, infectious disease specialists and other scientists. In addition to Chapman, UC Santa Barbara and Long Beach Medical Center, other participating institutions include Arizona State

University, USC, the Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse, France, and Mount Sinai Health System in New York City.

At the hub of it all is Kaplan, whose project duties often begin at 5 a.m., whether he’s needed to find an oncologist to treat a villager diagnosed with bone cancer or to help thousands of villagers cope with the countless complications of a pandemic.

“I kind of feel like I’m an orchestra leader who doesn’t play any instruments,” he says.

For Kaplan, the project challenges are nothing compared with the rewards.

“It’s not something to which I expected to dedicate 20 years of my life, but then I didn’t expect to have a deep connection to so many lives and health-care problems,” Kaplan says. “It has become a fundamental part of our whole relationship with the Tsimane – that care is determined by the level of need and not by their contribution to the project. These are investments we’ve made – commitments we’ve made – and the reward is that the science we’re doing is unlike any other project ever done with a tribal population.”

Even without the scientific benefits, “the help we’ve given would justify my time,” Kaplan adds.

In a reflective moment, he recalls a four-day period when the project facilitated 20 cataract surgeries for Tsimane villagers. Their faces beamed with the gratitude of having their vision restored.

Chapman Professor Hillard Kaplan, above right, and other leaders of the Tsimane Project have worked with the indigenous villagers to create and implement a plan for dealing with the COVID-19 outbreak.

“Moments like that,” Kaplan says, “certainly make you feel good.”

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If you’re feeling frazzled by the COVID-19 pandemic, you are far from alone. A Chapman University study has found that 61% of respondents are experiencing high levels of stress, with 45% reporting that they “feel down, depressed or hopeless.”

For many Americans, the response is to eat more junk food (41%), exercise less (35%) and seek out the distractions of TV, gardening and hobbies (69%), the study finds. Fifty-four percent say they are very concerned about catching COVID-19, while only 17% contend that concerns about the virus are “overblown.”

These are just some of the results from the Spring 2020 Chapman University National COVID-19 and Mental Health Survey, led by principal investigator David Frederick, Ph.D., an associate professor of health psychology in Chapman’s Crean College of Health and Behavioral Sciences. Joining in the research project as co-authors are 11 members of the Chapman University Center for Excellence in Biopsychosocial Approaches to Health.

“We’ve been hearing lots of reports that people are depressed or anxious over what’s happening, and as research scientists we want to know the data behind that,“ says David Frederick, an associate professor of health psychology at Chapman.

THE STRESS OF A HEALTH CRISIS A national mental health project highlights the wide-ranging effects of the COVID-19 crisis.

BY DENNIS ARP

The study, which compiles and evaluates results from an online survey, was funded by a grant from the Kay Family Foundation. As principal investigator, Frederick leverages considerable experience conducting large-scale national surveys, many of which link current events to human behavior.

The project features a nationally prominent team with a diverse array of research interests. Included are Georgiana Bostean, an associate professor of environmental health and policy who explores population health disparities, and Amy Moors, an assistant professor of psychology and a research fellow at the Kinsey Institute.

“We’ve been hearing lots of reports that people are depressed or anxious over what’s happening, and as research scientists we want to know the data behind that,” Frederick says of the study, which examined the experiences of 4,149 people living in the U.S. “What are people experiencing, and how prevalent are the harms?”

Beyond mental and physical health, the study looks at the impact of the virus on romantic relationships as well as whether ethnic minorities are experiencing prejudice and discrimination because of perceived connections to the spread of COVID-19.

RACIAL FINDINGS STAND OUT The findings that relate to ethnicity are particularly significant, Frederick says. Thirty-eight percent of Chinese Americans and 32% of Asian Americans

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report experiencing at least one racist incident they perceive as connected to the pandemic. One-fourth of the Chinese Americans surveyed say they have experienced three or more racist incidents.

What’s more, 18% of Black respondents say they’ve been physically threatened. An equal percentage have been told “Go back to your country” or that they don’t belong in the U.S. “This surprised us, but maybe it shouldn’t have,” Frederick says. “They’re one of the hardest-hit groups in terms of mortality and contracting coronavirus, so perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that they’re also being discriminated against or perceiving prejudice.”

On the relationship front, 64% of participants say they are spending more time with their partner, with about an equal percentage reporting more arguments (25%) versus fewer arguments (23%) than normal.

For 45% of respondents, the pandemic sparks feelings of being “trapped at home.” Thirty-six percent say they have received comfort and understanding from someone, while 31% say they find comfort in their religion or spiritual beliefs. Forty-eight percent have “looked for something good in what is happening.”

“How people cope in times of stress is very important,” says Brooke Jenkins, Ph.D., a health psychologist at Chapman and one of the study’s authors. “When stress is more outside of our control, techniques like distraction and reappraisal are beneficial. For example, if you feel that you have to stay home, and that is outside of your control, then engaging in distracting activities like TV, gardening and exercise can be quite helpful.”

Looking for benefits is also important, Jenkins adds.

“When stress seems more controllable, it’s great to engage in active coping,” she says. “For example, if you feel that you can actively reduce your risk of exposure to COVID-19, then getting advice from others and taking action to improve your situation will likely be helpful.”

EFFECTIVE METHODS OF COPING “In our study, people who ‘took action to make their situation better’ and who ‘looked for something good in what is happening’ reported the best mental health,” Frederick says.

By contrast, people who gave up trying to deal with the pandemic, used drugs or alcohol, or “said things to let my unpleasant feelings escape” tended to have poorer mental health, Frederick notes.

“There is no single strategy that will be optimal for coping with all of the stresses,” says Tara Gruenewald, Ph.D., a project co-investigator who studies mental health. “A good rule of thumb is to gravitate toward those forms of healthy stress management you normally engage in, whether that is exercise, a good book, a favorite hobby, meditation or connecting with others. Of course, being safe and avoiding infection means we have to alter the way we engage in these activities, but the important thing is to make time to do them.”

Caption

“A good rule of thumb is to gravitate toward those forms of healthy stress management you normally engage in, whether that is exercise, a good book, a favorite hobby, meditation or connecting with others,” advises Tara Gruenewald, Ph.D., a Chapman psychology professor and co-author of the COVID-19 mental health survey.

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RAPID RESPONSE

A CLOSER LOOK AT DISPARITIES IN CARE DURING COVID-19

Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program to analyze how the presence of stores selling tobacco products influenced tobacco use in low-income communities.

“The COVID-19 Rapid Response Research Awards represent the diversity and excellence of Chapman faculty and students that address an important community and scientific need. The generous support of the Kay Family Foundation allows us to make an immediate impact on the most important

BY DAWN BONKER Disparities in access to health care and higher rates of COVID-19 complications among minority groups have captured headlines and attention during the pandemic. Chapman University researchers are looking deeper into the problems, focusing their investigation on Los Angeles and New York.

“Ethnocultural

minority

populations

have

historically experienced higher rates of pandemicrelated morbidity and mortality,” says Jason A. Douglas, Ph.D., assistant professor of public health in Chapman’s Crean College of Health and

“COVID-19 Rapid Response Research Awards represent the diversity and excellence of Chapman faculty and students.“ Tom Piechota, vice president of research and creative activity

Behavioral Sciences. “Furthermore, ethnocultural minority

populations

are

disproportionately

burdened with underlying medical conditions, for example, hypertension, obesity and diabetes, that are associated with increased COVID-19 severity.”

The research project is one of seven supported by COVID-19 Rapid Response Research Awards that Chapman University made available to faculty. The grants are made possible by a gift from the Kay Family Foundation.

The awards enabled scientists to examine a variety of topics, ranging from mutations in the SARSCoV-2 genome to the impact of pandemic-related stress on college students’ mental and physical health and learning outcomes. For many, the pivot to COVID-19 projects builds on related research.

For example, Douglas received funding from the

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issue facing society at this time,” said Tom Piechota, Ph.D., vice president of Chapman’s Office of Research and Creative Activity and a professor of environmental science and policy.

True to the rapid mission, the researchers are moving swiftly, and some are already circulating preliminary data. Biologists Hagop Atamian, Ph.D., and Dony Ang, Ph.D. have shared early data from their study, Real-time analysis of SARS-CoV-2 genomes associated with COVID-19 cases in the United States.

Student-reported effects of stress are being captured by researchers who have sent two sets of questionnaires to some 400 participants in an eight-month-long study.

“To better understand the consequences of the pandemic and its associated public health measures on student health and learning, it is important to measure these constructs during this time,” says Brooke Jenkins, Ph.D., co-investigator with Julia Boehm, Ph.D., on the project, called Psychosocial Resources in Chapman University Student Health and Learning during COVID.

RAPID RESPONSE

Professor Jason Douglas and Chapman University students are studying how minority groups in the two largest U.S. cities are faring during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In all, seven rapid-response projects were funded for a total of $93,433.

• Identifying Risk and Promoting Resilience in the Midst of the COVID-19 Pandemic (David Frederick, Laura Glynn, David Pincus, Tara Gruenewald, Julia Boehm, Georgiana Bostean, Jo Smith, Brooke Jenkins, Vincent Berardi, Amy Moors, Jennifer Robinette, Jason Douglas – Crean College of Health and Behavioral Sciences, Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, Schmid College of Science and Technology).

• The Response of Higher Education Institutions to the Outbreak of COVID-19 (Gregory Goldsmith, Chapman Undergraduates – Schmid College of Science and Technology).

• Pro-Sociality as a Resilience Factor for Mitigating the Detrimental Mental, Physical and Social Well-Being Consequences of the COVID-19 Pandemic (Tara Gruenewald, Anthony Ong, Danielle Zahn, Natalie Standridge, Erin Bonham, Clarissa Tadros, Brianna Dinn – Chapman’s Crean College of Health and Behavioral Sciences; Cornell University).

• Understanding Relations between Emotional Biases, Decision-Making and Behavior in the COVID-19 Pandemic in a National Sample (Uri Maoz, Ralph Adolphs, Gideon Yaffe – Chapman’s Brain Institute and Crean College of Health and Behavioral Sciences; California Institute of Technology, Yale Law School).

• Viral Pandemic Health Disparities: An Examination of Social and Environmental Determinants of COVID-19 Incidence and Mortality in New York and Los Angeles (Jason Douglas, Lawrence Brown, Angel Miles Nash, Emmanuel John, Georgiana Bostean – (Crean College of Health and Behavioral Sciences, School of Pharmacy, Attallah College of Educational Studies, Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, Schmid College of Science and Technology).

• Real-time Analysis of SARS-CoV-2 Genomes Associated With COVID-19 Cases in USA (Hagop Atamian and Dony Ang – Schmid College of Science and Technology).

• Psychosocial Resources in Chapman University Student Health and Learning During COVID-19 (Daniel Tomaszewski, Brooke Jenkins , Julia Boehm – School of Pharmacy, Crean College of Health and Behavioral Sciences).

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Scholars of the 1918 influenza outbreak see parallels with the current health crisis, but they caution against the presumption that nothing will ever be the same.

By Dawn Bonker

T H E

F O R G O T T E N

PANDEMIC

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“WE FORGET A LOT. …

At top, influenza patients and their medical teams pack an infirmary at Camp Funston in Fort Riley, Kansas. The 1918 flu spread rapidly among U.S. Army troops and ultimately across the nation, where health officials, the Red Cross and other entities launched a battle of little success against the virus, which killed an estimated 675,000 Americans.

R

emember the inspiring stories of the great flu pandemic of 1918?

Civic leaders ignored health advisories and proceeded with parades

Communities rallied around the cause of public health. Self-sacrifice

during and after the war – initially to boost Liberty Bonds and later

was the order of the day. Across the United States, the citizenry gladly

to celebrate the return of their beloved doughboys. The first round of

wore masks and observed quarantine measures.

Check those thoughts, says historian Jennifer D. Keene, dean of Chapman University’s Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences.

“I hear people now talking about how they had a sense of collective purpose and the common good back then, and I think, ‘What America are they

particularly in Philadelphia, where more than 12,000 people died of the flu within weeks of the celebration.

“They took some measures, but they were haphazard,” Keene says.

I historian. She has studied the 1918 influenza through the lens of its impact

COMPARING THE NOVEL CORONAVIRUS TO THE HIV/AIDS EPIDEMIC

on the war abroad as well as the home front.

For a more striking parallel, look to recent times, says Kirsten Moore-

Many observers are eager to draw parallels between the two pandemics,

Sheeley ’11, who studied at Chapman with Keene and Professor Alexander

while others seek inspiration in how they imagine people of the bygone

Bay, Ph.D., a medical historian. Consider the HIV/AIDs epidemic of the

era rallied together. Keene shakes her head and smiles over such chatter.

1980s, says Moore-Sheeley, now a postdoctoral fellow in the history of

talking about?’” says Keene, Ph.D., an internationally recognized World War

“They did not do the right things. It’s not a success story,” she says, pointing to the 675,000 American deaths out of an overall population of 105 million.

medicine program at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. She made the comparison during an invited lecture at UCLA Luskin Center for History and Policy.

THE 1918 FLU CIRCULATED FOR ALMOST FOUR DECADES

“It’s a novel pandemic disease. There’s the stigmatization now with Asian

The two pandemics differ in many ways, scholars say. Unlike the novel

federal government response that was a bit slow to act, that didn’t readily

coronavirus, the 1918 flu wasn’t entirely new. It was a variation of a virus that circulated in 1889 but mutated and then spread rapidly in the mass housing of WWI troops, says Jeff Goad, Pharm.D., professor and chair of the Department of Pharmacy Practice at Chapman University School of Pharmacy.

“It likely infected 500 million people, or about one-third of the world population. It actually circulated until 1957, when a new flu strain replaced it,” Goad says.

In 1918, there was no federal health authority or agency to provide direction, so the national response was literally and figuratively all over the map, Keene says. Viruses were not understood, but face coverings and quarantine were known to be effective at slowing the spread. Still, many people rejected the measures, sometimes on a monumental scale.

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parades helped spread the disease. The second sparked new outbreaks,

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Americans and Asians during this pandemic,” she says. “It’s very similar to the stigmatization of homosexuals during HIV/AIDS. You also have a take action the way you would expect.”

But why did the great flu, a pandemic that killed 50 million people worldwide and propelled the development of public health policy and modern vaccines, largely fall out of popular historical memory? Much of the public’s energy went into honoring and remembering the battlefront victims of WWI, but that’s not the only reason it faded from mind so quickly, Keene says.

“People have the remarkable ability to take terrible, terrible events and try to forget them,” she says. “We forget a lot. Most people forgot the so-called Spanish flu. We’re a society that privileges optimism and page-turning.”

Hence, she is unconvinced when observers of the COVID-19 pandemic suggest that it will forever change society.

WE’RE A SOCIETY THAT PRIVILEGES OPTIMISM AND PAGE-TURNING.” Jeff Goad’s expertise is communicating to the vaccine-hesitant.

“It’s a little too soon to say. I’m very skeptical of claims that nothing will ever be the same,” she says.

As a social historian, though, she is intrigued by several threads she sees woven into the pandemic conversation. For example, she’s watching how some critics of coronavirus restrictions frame death rates from the virus as unfortunate but not so different from a bad flu season, while others see it as an untamed global health crisis.

Similarly, she says there’s nothing new about the tendency of the young to shrug off risk.

“THERE’S A REASON THAT YOUNG ADULTS FIGHT OUR WARS. THEY OFTEN FEEL IMMORTAL AND IMPERVIOUS TO RISK,” KEENE SAYS. This pandemic might usher in one critical change, though. The historian in her must wait and see where it goes, but she agrees that a new crossroads has been created, as people of color suffer disproportionally from the virus and as the world reacts to the killing of George Floyd. Yes, it’s partly because people have been quarantined at home, taking it all in.

“With the pandemic and the intersection of the murder of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement, the visibility of racial injustice in multiple forms is almost impossible to ignore. That has not really been visible to many white Americans,” she says.

The American struggle with systemic racism and health care inequities is also not new, she adds, but the coronavirus has sparked renewed attention.

“It’s peeled back the ongoing debate we have over these things,” she says. “These are literally life-and-death matters, which the pandemic has revealed.”

OF VACCINATION AND PERSUASION

W

hen a vaccine against COVID-19 arrives, researchers who study public behavior around the issues of disease prevention and health practices know that some people will opt out.

Winning over the vaccine-hesitant is the expertise of Jeff Goad, Pharm.D., professor and chair of the Department of Pharmacy Practice at Chapman University School of Pharmacy. Goad is also immediate past president of the California Immunization Coalition.

From experience and research, the coalition has learned that storytelling and a motivational interviewing approach is more persuasive than just giving facts, he says.

“I’ll ask people, ‘Have you ever been in a car accident that was so severe you almost lost your life?’ And most people say no, that’s never happened,” Goad says. “And I’ll say, ‘Then why do you wear a seat belt when you drive or put your child in a car seat?’”

The majority come around, but procrastinators are a concern, especially in the age of COVID-19, he says.

Goad notes that anti-vaccine supporters make up a small minority of those who don’t get vaccinated. He and his colleagues target most of their persuasive efforts at the hesitant and those who get some but not all vaccines.

With this group, “we really have a chance to explain the science and benefit of vaccination, which helps them get to the decision faster to vaccinate themselves and their children,” he says. “With the rates of adult and pediatric vaccination dipping fast, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, now more than ever we need to ensure people get vaccinated, and on time.”

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As the world sprang into battle against the coronavirus in spring, we all watched the numbers. How many new cases? What were the stats on the curve? How many months to a vaccine against the virus that causes the disease COVID-19?

Meanwhile, Jerika Lam, associate professor at Chapman University’s School of Pharmacy, began watching another mounting figure. The number of new clinical trials testing pharmaceutical therapies that might offer effective COVID-19 treatment. That number is now a remarkable 500.

TRACKING THE CLINICAL TRIALS In her role with a national task force, pharmacy professor Jerika Lam combs through hundreds of reports to provide practitioners with the latest insights about COVID-19 treatment.

BY DAWN BONKER

Lam knows because she has followed each trial, reading the reports and early findings, distilling from them the news of hopeful progress, as well as the ineffective dead ends. As part of a task force assembled by the Patient Safety Movement Foundation, Lam conducts this research review and compiles a weekly report for busy medical teams eager to learn the latest and best information and potentially apply it in practice.

There are more than 500 clinical trials aimed at testing therapeutics (novel and current agents approved by the FDA for other indications) and prevention strategies in the United States and other countries.

In addition, eight vaccine trials are registered on the National Institutes of Health COVID-19 Clinical Trials site. Several are in either Phase 2 or 3, and some are still recruiting patients.

Until a COVID-19 vaccine is available, a better understanding of therapeutics is especially important. Lam is helping to provide guidance to health practitioners.

“People are desperate for therapeutics, and I know everyone’s trying everything, including remedies in their mother’s kitchen cabinet,” says Lam, Pharm.D. She’s jesting, of course. But until the virus is better understood, it’s fair to say that researchers are

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“People are desperate for therapeutics, and I know everyone’s trying everything.”

combing through pharmacopeia’s existing medicine chest, so to speak, hoping to find therapeutics with crossover benefits in the battle against COVID-19.

But she also warns that it’s not a simple hop, skip and jump. Every drug therapy has side effects, risks and various levels of effectiveness. In many patient populations, those factors pose additional hazards, she says. What’s more, some COVID-19 patients also receive medications to lessen the body’s inflammatory response, along with antibiotics to treat secondary bacterial infections. It creates a challenging balancing act.

Lam welcomes the job of sorting through that profusion of information.

“I have a sense of purpose being on this task force,” she says.

Her role with the nonprofit Patient Safety Movement Foundation is part of a larger initiative at Chapman University School of Pharmacy. She is one of several faculty there who worked with the foundation to create a core curriculum to improve patient safety education for students in medical, pharmacy and nursing schools and made available for free to those institutions.

The foundation, launched by the medical technology company Masimo and its CEO, Joe Kiani, provides free access to its reports and webinars on its website, patientsafetymovement.org.

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?

5 QUESTIONS Virology Lessons in Real Time

BY DENNIS ARP

Nicolai Bonne teaches virology, and after the coronavirus crisis first hit the news early in the spring semester, he started each class with a group discussion on the state of the pandemic.

“My students have really impressed me with how much they have been reading about this and how much they have thought about this topic,” says Bonne, assistant professor of chemistry in Chapman’s Schmid College of Science and Technology.

How has the spread of the pandemic affected the conversation in your class?

Are we likely to see pandemics recur more often going forward?

At the start, before there were a lot of cases, the class had mixed opinions about whether we should be concerned about the virus. It has been interesting to hear how students’ opinions have changed as the pandemic continued to spread and the numbers changed. Students have also provided some comments on why this coronavirus is so virulent. If it was possible, I would have dedicated the entire semester to following COVID-19.

I don’t think so. Pandemics are not predictable; they are random events that occur when a virus goes through a mutation that causes it to be more virulent than before, or allows the virus to cross a species barrier and be very virulent in the new species. There is no evidence to suggest that one pandemic causes new ones to occur more often.

What are your reflections on how information is being communicated to the general public about the coronavirus?

We should maintain supplies of personal protective equipment to meet demand. We should develop guiding principles – or even legislation – for how to respond to an emerging pandemic, and how quickly we should start implementing measures such as social distancing and travel restrictions. We probably should have been quicker to limit international and domestic travel. Initially SARS-CoV-2 was an epidemic, limited to China. When the SARS-CoV-2 traveled to other places, it became a pandemic. Having guidelines on when we need to impose travel restrictions is probably one of the most useful ways to prepare for future pandemics.

The dissemination of updated information about total cases and death tolls has been very good. Institutions such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have been quick to provide regularly updated information. The communication of advice for protecting oneself from infection, and how to assess if one might be infected, has been clear and thorough. Overall, I do not think we could do any better than we have done in these aspects. However, some educational aspects could possibly be improved – for example, how to properly use a mask.

What has surprised you about this coronavirus?

Not much, really. Viruses regularly cross from one species to another, as seems to be the case with SARS-CoV-2, and often become more virulent in the new species. I guess, in a way it is mysterious that the virus mainly has severe consequences for older age groups and not young ones. Also, it does seem that it takes a very low dose of SARSCoV-2 to get infected – a much lower dose than other viruses with which we are familiar.

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Nicolai Bonne has been impressed with the response of students in his virology class and how public officials have disseminated information about the coronavirus outbreak.

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What steps should we take as a society to better prepare for the next one?

CHAPMAN ECONOMISTS HIT THE MARK WITH FORECAST UPDATE

BY DAWN BONKER

At the time, it seemed like a bold prediction.

Even as COVID-19 infections were rising, economists at Chapman University said during their annual Economic Forecast Update in early June that a recovery from the related financial downturn was already on the horizon.

By the third quarter, the turn that researchers at Chapman’s A. Gary Anderson Center for Economic Research predicted at their virtual conference was underway. Economist and Chapman President Emeritus Jim Doti said the signs had been evident early in the year as fiscal and monetary strategies fell in step together.

“The degree of coordination between the fiscal and monetary policy arms has been unprecedented. As the Cares Act led to a rapid increase in federal spending of more than $2 trillion, Federal Reserve Board assets grew by a similar amount. This close coordination between the two policy arms was seen to be critically important in ensuring that Cares Act funding would fully support an economic recovery,” Doti said.

The Chapman forecast, which uses an econometric model developed by Doti and fellow economists, was nearly exact in its GDP growth calculations.

They calculated that the seasonally adjusted annualized rate of growth in the third quarter would increase 19.2%, after a devastating decline of 35% during the second quarter. The Blue Chip consensus forecast of Real GDP of 20% is almost exactly in line with the June forecast, Doti said.

To be sure, challenges remain, particularly in job growth. By the end of the year, they predict that the U.S. will recover only 75 percent of jobs lost during the pandemic.

Building and construction will suffer, but not collapse, the economists predicted.

President Emeritus Jim Doti presents the Economic Forecast Update in a university studio, allowing the annual event to continue during coronavirus advisories. The forecast, traditionally presented to an audience at Chapman’s Musco Center for the Arts, this year was streamed to thousands of viewers.

“That’s not to say that construction will be an engine of economic growth this year. On the contrary, it will take its share of lumps.

But these lumps will not be anywhere near the kind of losses that occurred in prior recessions and especially the Great Recession,” they wrote in their report.

The Chapman University Economic Forecast has achieved an unusually high standard of accuracy since its founding four decades ago as the first U.S. forecast to be based on an urban econometric model. It provides students in Argyros School of Business and Economics with experience using econometric tools as they update the model and analyze economic trends.

CONVERSATION CONTINUES WITH ‘CHAPMAN CONNECTS’ As part of its mission to share its findings and insights, the Anderson Center for Economic Research has launched “Chapman Connects,” a webcast discussion series. It features economist Jim Doti in conversation with business leaders discussing their best practices, responses to the COVID-19 economy and more.

To access the web series, visit the Chapman Connects event page, economicforecast.chapman.edu/connects/.

Established in 1979, the Anderson Center presents its Economic Forecast each December as well as the Economic Forecast Update in June. These and other research reports are posted at chapman.edu/anderson-center.

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BIG DATA , HUGE IMPACT

BY DENNIS ARP

Research at a CU machine learning lab aids thousands with autism spectrum disorder, including the daughter of project lead Erik Linstead ’01.

Never did Erik Linstead’s Ph.D. in computer science seem so inadequate as when his 3-year-old daughter, Hannah, was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder.

“If I had a Ph.D. in psychology or something like that, maybe I could do something useful for her,” Linstead ’01 thought to himself at the time. “But then when I realized there was some interesting stuff to be done in machine learning, I decided the only rational decision was to quit my industry job and come to Chapman, where I could focus on building a research lab around machine learning and autism.”

So in 2015, Linstead left his position at Boeing and started down an academic path that led to his current role as principal investigator of the Machine Learning and Assistive Technology Lab at Chapman.

And that “interesting stuff ” on autism he saw coming via machine learning? Now it’s being done by Linstead, his faculty colleagues and their students at Chapman.

RESEARCH IS HIGHLIGHTED IN A REPORT BY AMERICAN ACADEMY OF PEDIATRICS Earlier this year, the lab team’s research was featured in a clinical report published by the American Academy of Pediatrics. The lab’s data analysis sheds new light on the link between intensity of clinical intervention and developmental progress by young people who are on the autism spectrum. Basically, the more directed time a caregiver invests with a youngster, the better the outcomes.

“The clinical report is sort of a best practices guide for providing treatment to kids on the spectrum,” Linstead said. “My colleagues and I are filling a noticeable gap on applying machine learning to behavioral data to improve treatment.”

By focusing on the relationship between treatment intensity and learning outcomes,

“For me, it’s exciting that we get to help people in need, even though we’re not right there with the child, delivering therapy.”

Elizabeth Stevens ’10 (Ph.D. ’18)

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the report is doing more than influencing developmental interactions. It’s convincing insurers to pay for the extra caregiving time, Linstead said. That’s huge for the families of the roughly 1 in 59 U.S. children diagnosed with the neurodevelopment disorder.

“Treatment hours alone can account for 35% of the learning outcomes being mastered,” he said. “That means as you consider which treatment knob to turn, the intensity knob is one of the biggest on the dial. When you turn it up, you get lots of response.”

COLLABORATION WITH INDUSTRY PARTNERS MOVES THE PROJECT FORWARD Machine learning uses algorithms to build a mathematical model for data analysis. As Linstead’s team uses machine learning and clinical data to evaluate treatment strategies, the lab benefits from a number of important partnerships, including with the consumer credit company Experian, which has funded its research. In addition, the Center for Autism and Related Disorders (CARD) provides the lab with large data sets and expertise for projects.

The association with CARD has boosted research on multiple fronts. The partnership springs from a connection between Linstead and Dennis Dixon, chief clinical officer at the Center for Autism.

“CARD had been collecting this data, and they were at a point where they really wanted to start doing some interesting analysis,” Linstead said. “They ran into obstacles finding the right people for collaboration.

Through a mutual acquaintance, Dennis and I were introduced, and it’s one of those things where you meet someone and you just know right off that you’re going to be great friends and colleagues.”

A FORMER STUDENT OF LINSTEAD PLAYS A KEY FACULTY ROLE ON THE TEAM Over the years, the lab’s collaborative connections have grown. Elizabeth Stevens ’10 (Ph.D. ’18), a former data science student of Linstead’s, left a job with Standard and Poor’s in Denver to join the research team. Last year, Stevens also became program director for the Fowler School of Engineering.

The diagnosis of his daughter Hannah with autism spectrum disorder inspired Erik Linstead ’01 to leave his industry job at Boeing and found the Machine Learning and Assistive Technology Lab at Chapman.

“I’m looking at the data and outcomes and trying to figure out, what is the data telling us? How can we tailor it so everyone can be successful?” Stevens said. “For me, it’s exciting that we get to help people in need, even though we’re not right there with the child, delivering therapy.”

For Linstead, the work has always been about the thousands of young lives impacted by the lab’s data analysis. And one life that’s as close to him as his own heart.

Hannah is now old enough that he can joke with her as he also advocates for the resources she needs to thrive. She still struggles with some social and behavioral issues, “but I mean her dad’s a computer scientist, so she probably comes by some of that honestly,” Linstead said with a chuckle.

Sometimes when he is working on a manuscript about the lab’s analysis, Hannah will look over his shoulder to read the abstract, then want to talk about the research and how it pertains to her.

The MLAT Lab’s data analysis sheds new light on the link between intensity of clinical intervention and developmental progress by young people who are on the autism spectrum, Linstead says.

“That’s fun,” Linstead said.

From the day Hannah was diagnosed, “my life and my family’s life has never been the same,” he added. “But all things considered, we’re in a good place.”

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RISE OF THE RESISTANCE

BY DENNIS ARP | PHOTOS BY JUSTIN SWINDLE

CHAPMAN RESEARCHERS WORK TO ADD ANTIBIOTIC OPTIONS AS THEY COMBAT THE GLOBAL THREAT OF DRUG-RESISTANT BACTERIA.

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E

ach year, about 2.8 million Americans get bacterial infections that resist treatment by the antibiotics designed to knock them out.

About 35,000 of those patients die – globally the mortality figure is 700,000. Projections are that by 2050, 10 million people will die every year due to antimicrobial resistance, making this one of the world’s biggest threats to health, food security and development.

Research scientists at Chapman have seen the daunting numbers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and they are motivated to pursue breakthroughs in the labs of the university’s Keck Center for Science and Engineering and the Rinker Health Science Campus in Irvine.

Michael Ibba, a microbiologist and the new dean of Schmid College of Science and Technology, is studying molecular mechanisms, including how bacteria react when an antibiotic is sent to destroy them.

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“COLLABORATION IS Parang CRITICAL.” – Keykavous Pharm.D., Ph.D.

Keykavous Parang, Pharm.D., Ph.D., works alongside his colleague, Rakesh Tiwari, Ph.D., in the lab they share at the Chapman University School of Pharmacy. The team also includes Jason Yamaki, Pharm.D., Ph.D., who works with patients fighting bacterial infections.

Collaboration is critical, Parang says.

“I’m a medicinal chemist who can synthesize a lot of active antibacterial agents, but I benefit greatly from having an infectious disease expert to evaluate further the active compounds developed at my laboratory in the preclinical and clinical setting,” he says.

Team science helps promising research projects escape what Parang calls “the valley of death.”

“You can make a lot of active compounds, but if circumstances aren’t there for strong partnership, you won’t be able to make an impact with them,” he says, noting that the chain extends to include pharmaceutical industry funding and marketing support. “There’s a link between the team approach and successful opportunities for impact.”

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Schmid College of Science and Technology.

Ibba arrived at Chapman this summer from Ohio State University, where he chaired the Department of Microbiology and led a research lab that is moving to Chapman. He and his team will continue work Ibba started two decades ago, exploring molecular mechanisms and how cells adapt to different stresses. Included in those stresses is the challenge faced by bacteria when confronted with an antibiotic sent to destroy them.

If new antibiotics just kill cells that are rapidly growing, the persistent cells will re-emerge.”

“Like any other evolutionary process, if you put a challenge in front of cells, it’s adapt or die,” says Ibba, who was associate director of the Infectious Diseases Institute and co-director of the National Institutes of Health’s Cellular, Molecular, and Biochemical Sciences Training Program at Ohio State. “That’s why when you look at a prescription, it says to make sure you take the full course of the antibiotic. You’ve got to get rid of all the bacteria cells, some of which might have already started to develop resistance.”

DEVELOPING A NEW CLASS OF ANTIMICROBIALS

EXPLORING HOW CELLS ADAPT TO UNIQUE STRESSES

Funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, and Army Research Office, Ibba’s research has yielded many insights, including nuances in the behavior of different populations of bacteria.

Joining the overall Chapman team working to combat antibiotic resistance is Michael Ibba, Ph.D., a microbiologist and the new dean of

“Some cells see antibiotics and go to sleep – basically they wait for better times to come,” he says. “This response is known as persistence.

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As he settles into his new role as dean of Schmid College, Ibba is also eager to get his lab up and running in Chapman’s 2-year-old Keck Center, a 140,000-square-foot facility he calls “stunning.”

In addition, he’s excited to explore opportunities for collaboration with colleagues in the School of Pharmacy.

“I see great potential for partnerships,” Ibba says.

For School of Pharmacy research partners Parang and Tiwari, potential is turning to progress as they investigate a new class of antimicrobial agents. This burgeoning area of research is based on peptides, short strings of amino acids with an ability to destroy microbes. They have developed a large library of cyclic antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) that have shown promising activity against several multidrug-resistant bacteria when used alone or in combination with other antibiotics. Several lead compounds are being evaluated in animal models for both efficacy and toxicity.

AMPs show promise in countering antibacterial resistance because of their broadspectrum activities as well as their resilience and stability. They also offer reduced toxicity to

host cells. In other words, there’s hope they can be programmed to kill the bad cells and keep the good.

The latest studies from the labs of Parang and Tiwari feature their work on new compounds that include synthesized peptides. The options they prioritize are active against Grampositive- and Gram-negative-resistant bacterial pathogens and bacterial biofilm production, Tiwari says.

The peptides leak the membrane of bacteria.

“If the peptide can disintegrate the membrane, the bacteria will die,” Tiwari says. “Resistance to these unique peptides takes lots of layers of adaptation, and that can take multiple years, as opposed to regular antibiotics.”

Working with Yamaki and assisted by students with lab training, the researchers modify and optimize new compounds. However, the goals of the project go beyond day-to-day steps to develop an effective new drug, Tiwari says.

“We may end up getting a drug, based on funding and other factors, but my end goals include providing cutting-edge training to students so they develop the scientific aptitude to tackle these kinds of problems,” Tiwari says.

USING PEPTIDES IN COMBINATION WITH EXISTING ANTIBIOTICS Students will continue to play important roles as the researchers take the next steps with their peptide platform.

“We’ll be looking at synergistic activity with other antibiotics and antivirals,” Parang says.

“With a combination of antibiotics, the bacteria have less chance to retain resistance; we can target different events in the life cycle of the bacteria. If they have resistance to one compound, they may still be sensitive to another.”

David Akinwale, Ph.D. graduate student in the lab of professors Keykavous Parang and Rakesh Tiwari, is aiding research that may yield new antibiotic options.

By early 2021, the Chapman researchers hope to have filed an Investigative New Drug application with the Food and Drug Administration for human trials.

“Large and small pharmaceutical companies are coming back to the effort because of the scale of the problem,” he says. “They know there will be a huge market priority in the coming years.”

“One interesting aspect is that while we have been targeting bacteria, some of the peptides are active against coronavirus because of their antiviral properties,” Parang says. “That’s another avenue we are pursuing.”

Research by Parang and Tiwari has received funding from AJK Pharmaceuticals, but the pair are pursuing further support as they prepare for the possibility of navigating multiple phases of trials.

These days, research labs like the ones on Chapman’s Rinker Health Science Campus are more important than ever. Because of the high costs of shepherding new antibiotics from lab to market and low profit margins as patients were treated quickly, some pharmaceutical companies abandoned developing new antibacterial agents in the 1980s, Parang says.

All roads lead them back to the benefits of collaboration.

But that’s changing.

THE PROBLEM:

Germs like bacteria develop the ability to defeat drugs designed to kill them. Imprudent use of antibiotics, such as overprescribing or use for the treatment of viral diseases, accelerates the emergence of multidrugresistant bacteria. As a result, infections like pneumonia, tuberculosis, urinary tract infections and salmonellosis are becoming harder to treat.

“More resources and more expertise,” Parang says. “Partnerships bring the armaments that advance the science and move projects forward.”

ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE

Chapman University researchers are part of a global effort to better understand the science of antimicrobial drug resistance and to develop antibacterial agents that address the threat.

THE RESPONSE:

CHAPMAN FORWARD

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F A C U L T Y

O P P O R T U N I T Y

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“It’s rewarding to expose where cheating is going on in the (food) industry and to share that with consumers as well as regulatory agencies.”

Rosalee Hellberg, who leads Chapman’s Food Protection Lab

Food fraud has been found to happen at all levels of the food chain, says Hellberg, shown with student researchers Eduardo Hernandez and Brittany Zavala.

FILLET OF FRAUD Powered by a Chapman fund for emerging research, food scientist Rosalee Hellberg uses molecular tools to peel back the layers of deceptive labeling.

BY DENNIS ARP

O

n a hook or in a net, red snapper isn’t difficult to distinguish from rockfish or tilapia. But once the fish are filleted, they become hard to tell apart, making it easy for the unscrupulous to slip imposters past the typical guards of consumer protection.

Just how easy? Well, a recent study by Professor Rosalee Hellberg and the Food Protection Lab at Chapman University found that 92% of retail samples labeled as red snapper were, in fact, a different species. Molecular testing identified them as mahi mahi, rockfish, tilapia or other snapper species.

Definitely not what shoppers were paying extra to get.

“There are a lot of issues and a lot of consequences of food fraud,” says Hellberg, Ph.D., associate professor of food science in Chapman’s Schmid College of Science and Technology. Hellberg’s research, which focuses on rapid methods for detection of food fraud and food contaminants, has greatly benefited from the university’s Faculty Opportunity Fund.

Launched in 2017, the fund supports Chapman research and creative activity as the researchers also pursue external funding. Over its three-year existence, the Faculty Opportunity Fund has seeded dozens of projects with awards of up to $15,000.

“The goal is to provide our faculty with opportunities to catalyze new and innovative areas of exploration,” says Vice President for Research Thomas Piechota, Ph.D., whose office oversees the fund. “We want to expand the base of competitive research, scholarship and creative activity so we can elevate our scholars’ national visibility and increase their external support.”

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F A C U L T Y

O P P O R T U N I T Y

F U N D

“The goal is to provide our faculty with opportunities to catalyze new and innovative areas of exploration.”

Thomas Piechota, vice president for research

Student researchers Gabby McBride, above, and A.J. Silva and Rachel Isaacs, at right, work on samples in the Food Protection Lab at Chapman.

For Hellberg and the Food Protection Lab, the funding helped support research that included advances in multimode hyperspectral imaging and real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology to reveal undeclared species in food products. In addition to testing seafood, the lab applies its molecular techniques to root out unlabeled ingredients in pet foods, game meats and dietary supplements.

The Grocery Manufacturers Association estimates that consumer product fraud costs U.S. manufacturers as much as $15 billion a year.

“Fraud has been found to happen at all levels of the supply chain,” says Hellberg, who previously worked for the federal Food and Drug Administration. “As you move farther down the chain, you’ll find a higher percentage of fraud.”

Sometimes the mislabeling is inadvertent, but often it’s the work of dishonest dealers substituting cheaper species for financial gain, Hellberg says. She and her lab team, which includes graduate and undergraduate students, often collaborate with scientists at enforcement agencies and publish their findings in peer-reviewed journals.

“It’s rewarding to expose where cheating is going on in the industry and to share that with consumers as well as regulatory agencies,” says Hellberg, who in 2017 received the Emerging Leaders Network Award from the Institute of Food Technologists. She also has earned Chapman’s Wang-Fradkin Assistant Professorship Award, the university’s highest honor for research, and she is the lead editor of the upcoming book “Food Fraud: A Global Threat With Public Health and Economic Consequences.”

Those health threats include food allergies triggered by unlabeled ingredients, as well as exposure to foodborne pathogens and toxins.

In addition, sometimes food fraud research identifies threatened or endangered species in consumer products, Hellberg says.

“Thanks to the Faculty Opportunity Fund, we’ve been able to conduct research that shows widespread mislabeling of red snapper and further develop techniques to improve fraud detection,” Hellberg notes.

That internal support has led to the acquisition of federal funding, including from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration for a project involving multimode hyperspectral imaging for food quality and safety.

The lab’s promising results with a benchtop imager support its goal of developing a handheld imager for rapid screening of fish species.

“We learn more with every new study we do,” Hellberg says.

Red snapper is a particular target for fraud because it is highly valued and in limited supply because of overfishing, she says.

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O P P O R T U N I T Y

I

f you’re looking for a complex and multifaceted chapter of history that few people have deeply studied, consider the relationship between Italy’s Jews and their counterparts in Italian colonies during the years leading up to World War II, says Shira Klein, Ph.D., a Chapman University professor of history.

A MISPLACED PURSUIT OF A ‘PL ACE IN THE SUN’ Historian Shira Klein explores the complex role Italy’s Jews played in colonization.

BY DAWN BONKER

Like a pendulum, Italian Jews swung from support to disdain for their counterparts in colonies such as Libya, Ethiopia and Eritrea.

Throughout, though, they stayed loyal to the fascist state, believing that as Italians they, too, would benefit from their nation’s drive for its

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when they faced torment by Christian and Muslim communities. Similarly, they sought help from colonizing authorities when their Jewish brethren back in Italy extended too heavy a hand into their affairs.

Italian Jews were concerned for the well-being of Jews in the African colonies, but in a condescending fashion. The Italian Jewish community generally considered their African counterparts not quite equals, since they were of color and living in occupied lands. They even went so far as to dispatch Italian rabbis, presuming that local rabbis were inadequate, Klein says.

A popular perception held that the activities of Italian colonizers were of a kinder brand than those practiced by fellow Europeans.

In fact, they were just as brutal. “place in the sun” amid the European colonies across Africa. So explains Klein, a scholar of Italian Jewry, Jewish migration and the Holocaust.

The Holocaust, of course, would ultimately prove them wrong. But how that scenario grew from the 1890s is the focus of a book Klein is writing.

The project, “A Place in the Sun: Italian Jews and the Colonization of Africa,” explores how Jews participated in Italy’s African empire between the 1890s and the 1940s. Initial research for the book was substantially supported by the university’s Faculty Opportunity Fund.

Shira Klein’s previous book, “Italy’s Jews From Emancipation to Fascism,“ was a 2018 National Jewish Book Award finalist. Shown above is World War I military leader Emilio Levi.

F U N D

Contradictions abound in this chapter of history explored by Klein, whose first book “Italy’s Jews From Emancipation to Fascism” (Cambridge University Press), was a 2018 National Jewish Book Award finalist.

For example, the colonized Jews learned to seek the most logical help of the moment, turning to Italian Jews

Related to this colonizer-colonized relationship is a popular perception that the activities of Italian colonizers were of a kinder brand than those practiced by fellow Europeans. In fact, they were just as brutal and deployed a variety of repressive measures, from concentration camps to forced marches, Klein says. Italian Jews devoted to securing Italy’s “place in the sun” were among the financial supporters and troops that made it all happen.

The sad irony was just a few years away, of course.

“Italian Jews supported this racist colonizing system, and in a certain way this racist system came back to haunt them through the Holocaust,” she says. “Italian Jews helped to create the racist atmosphere to which they themselves fell victim.”

F A C U L T Y

O P P O R T U N I T Y

Experiences during his Broadway dance career inform the research of Wilson Mendieta.

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roadway’s popular brand of musical theatre has long regaled its audiences with stories central to the American experience, whether it’s those rumbles between the Sharks and Jets of “West Side Story” or Tevye’s hopeful exodus for America at the end of “Fiddler on the Roof.”

But how do these tales play out when produced in other parts of the world? Are they just restaged wholesale, akin to a subtitled Hollywood blockbuster? Or do discussions about setting, casting and the social and political issues woven into the stories shape the productions to make them more resonant for new audiences?

Chapman University dance professor Wilson Mendieta asks those questions in a study supported by the university’s Faculty Opportunity Fund.

The idea for the inquiry grew out of Mendieta’s long and successful Broadway career. Throughout those years, the Colombian-American who immigrated to the U.S. at age 11 found his career molded by the realities of being a person of color. And the predictabilities.

“I was able to make a living performing in “West Side Story” (productions),” Mendieta says, referencing the romantic tragedy that reimagines Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” in an ethnically diverse neighborhood of mid-20th-century New York City.

Even still, in those pre-“Hamilton” days, he noticed that casting directors stuck to all-white casting for members of the white gang, the Jets, but chose actors from a variety of ethnicities to portray members of the Latino gang, the Sharks.

Upon entering an academic teaching career, Mendieta reflected on those experiences and watched the popularity of American musical theatre rise around the globe, from the United Arab Emirates to Asia.

He started thinking more deeply about those topics.

“I noticed they were doing a lot of productions specific to race or ethnicity,” he says, adding that the themes became central to the storytelling.

F U N D

WHEN “HELLO, DOL LY!” GOES TO ARGENTINA How does American musical theatre translate when produced abroad?

Dance professor Wilson Mendieta leaps in to find out.

BY DAWN BONKER

His research is aimed at discovering how, or if, the themes look and feel different as directors, casting directors and actors navigate these productions.

“If people of color are being represented on stage, how is the presentation of the production taken into consideration? I’m interested in trying to figure out what the conversations were behind those choices,” he says.

He’s also interested in how conventional plot devices of musical theatre connect with other cultures or their folk telling traditions.

“How do the tropes – the ingénues, the romantic leads – translate?” he wonders.

For this project, Mendieta visited South America just before coronavirus travel restrictions kicked in, and found the beginnings of interesting insights – along with some surprises. A rollicking production of “Hello, Dolly” in Argentina was unforgettable, as the audience danced in the aisles and joined in singing the iconic title song of the popular 1964 musical.

Such cultural touches are fun to note, but more critical to him are the decisions behind the productions.

“What’s more important is representation,” he says. “What I’m more interested in learning is whether people are seeing themselves represented on stage.”

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DISSECTING THE ARTISTRY OF ‘PARASITE’ DIRECTOR A new book by Chapman film studies scholar Nam Lee explores the themes of Bong Joon Ho’s work and puts his Oscar success in the context of history.

BY DENNIS ARP Chapman University Professor Nam Lee is a scholar of Korean cinema and has written a book on the films of her friend, “Parasite” writerdirector Bong Joon Ho. But even she didn’t see this breakthrough moment coming.

The 2020 Academy Award victories for Bong as Best Director and “Parasite” as the first nonEnglish-language film to win Best Picture caught Lee by surprise. On Oscar night, she and some Korean-American friends gathered to watch the telecast, and before the ceremony they tried to predict the number of awards “Parasite” would win. Only one of the eight saw the film snagging four Oscars, including Best Original Screenplay as well as Best Director for Bong.

The prescient forecaster wasn’t Lee. As a film studies scholar, she knew that Oscar hasn’t been kind to films facing barriers of language and culture.

“I was more conservative,” Lee says. “Others were more hopeful.”

But now that “Parasite” has reset the Oscar paradigm, Lee is eager to consider what comes next, including the fall 2020 release of her book, “The Films of Bong Joon Ho,” from Rutgers University Press.

For South Koreans and the Korean filmmaking community, the Best Picture Oscar is like “Parasite” won the World Series, she says.

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A PIVOTAL MOMENT FOR KOREAN CINEMA “Korean cinema has been strong for the last two decades, but the U.S. has been slower (to embrace Korean films) compared with Europe,” says Lee, Ph.D. “Now I expect that U.S. audiences will be more open to other films from South Korea, and there will be more opportunities for South Korean filmmakers.”

Lee couldn’t be happier for Bong, whom she first met in 2011 when she helped organize the Busan West Film Festival at Chapman’s Marion Knott Studios, home to Dodge College of Film and Media Arts. Bong attended as special guest for a mini retrospective of his films.

During Bong’s visit, he stayed on campus and particularly enjoyed having breakfast with students.

BONG JOON HO’S CHAPMAN VISIT “He really gave us a lot of time with students,” Lee recalls. “The students just loved him.”

In the nine years since the festival, Lee’s appreciation for Bong’s filmmaking has only grown as she and the director have continued to correspond.

“In his films, the settings and sensibilities are very Korean, but the films are also very transnational,” she says. “He is one of the most political filmmakers who works on commercial genre films today. His films successfully combine cinematic enjoyment and social critique. They can be enjoyed without knowing all the various layers of subtext.”

With “Parasite,” Bong digs deeper into themes of class conflict and economic disparity that are familiar to his fans, Lee notes. Her book explores the ways in which Bong turns genre norms upside down and steers away from saccharine Hollywood endings. She offers detailed readings of two decades of his work.

“One of the reasons ‘Parasite’ is appealing to a lot of audiences is because we share the same social issues,” she says.

A year ago, as “Parasite” started gaining industry buzz at festivals like Cannes, where it won the Palme d’Or, Bong also got new chances to share his artistic vision as well as his engaging personality.

“He’s never about himself – always humble and inclusive,” Lee says. “You could see that in his Oscar acceptance speeches. He wanted to share the moment with others.”

‘PARASITE’ BREAKS BARRIERS When “Parasite” won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film, Bong nowfamously referenced “the one-inch tall barrier of subtitles” that typically keeps non-Englishlanguage films from enjoying U.S. boxoffice success. Lee’s conversations with her students tell her that such impediments are disappearing.

“I think the barrier is getting lower with a new generation,” she says. “I had this discussion with a class, and one student said it’s because they grew up playing Japanese video games that have subtitles.”

Whatever the reason, Bong’s films resonate deeply with many of Lee’s students. That point hit home on Oscar night, when her email inbox filled with notes from students and alumni who had taken her classes. They felt as if they had shared in Bong’s Academy Award success.

“One thanked me for teaching how important Korean cinema is,” Lee says. “That was a really rewarding email.”

Chapman Professor Nam Lee first met film director Bong Joon Ho in 2011 at the Busan West Film Festival, which she helped organize at Chapman University’s Marion Knott Studios.

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STUDENT RESEARCH

HELPING UNDERGRADS OVERDELIVER Rewards abound for professors who put fledgling researchers in position to achieve.

BY ANN GORDON, PH.D. I’m passionate about undergraduate research because I’ve seen firsthand how it transforms lives. Just as important, I’ve seen how young scholars greatly contribute to successful research projects.

Working as an undergraduate researcher on the Chapman University Survey of American Fears, Matt Lyons ’15, above, gained disaster-preparedness insights from Professor Ann Gordon. At left, students working on another project take measurements documenting earthquake damage.

The influence of students was central when my co-PI partners Christopher Bader, Edward Day and I first developed the Chapman University Survey of American Fears, an in-depth examination into the fears of average Americans.

Undergraduates helped launch and are still involved in our ongoing study, which has been featured by more than 1,000 print and broadcast media outlets and is at the heart of our new book “Fear Itself: The Causes and Consequences of Fear in America,” published by NYU Press.

Every summer, for the past seven years, we have assembled a team of undergraduate researchers to work on the fear survey. The students work on group projects, such as researching new content areas for the survey, and they analyze the results. Students are excited when we get new survey results, and they can’t wait to find out what will be on the year’s top 10 list of fears.

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our small class sizes, undergrads in all disciplines – from the hard sciences to the arts, film studies to the humanities – find faculty researchers who are eager to mentor them throughout the experience.

70% OF CU STUDENTS WORK WITH FACULTY ON RESEARCH For a number of reasons, Chapman is thriving as a home for undergraduate research. First, our students are not just up to the challenge, they are up for it as well – 70% of our students seek out opportunities to work with professors on research and creative-activity projects. Because of Chapman’s teacher-scholar model and

Conducting research as an undergraduate is crucial to student success. In a traditional classroom setting, students are asked to master an existing body of knowledge.

When students do research, they create knowledge, and along the way develop skills such as critical thinking, problemsolving and intellectual independence.

These are the qualities graduate schools and employers seek.

As director of the Ludie and David C. Henley Research Lab and the Earl Babbie Research Center at Chapman, I have

STUDENT RESEARCH

Undergraduate students work on a wide range of projects and in a variety of settings, from sociology meeting rooms for the Chapman University Survey of American Fears, above, to Hawaii, right, where students presented at an international conference on the social sciences.

mentored scores of undergrad student researchers over the years. Many of them go on to their first-choice graduate school or law school – often, that school is Chapman. Beyond that, they land great jobs, sometimes with the U.S. departments of State and Defense as well as in the private sector with companies like Dell and Northrop Grumman.

When I share stories of these successes, they inspire the next generation of student researchers. But more than that, they motivate me. They are why I have dedicated my career to mentoring student researchers.

ORIGINAL PROJECTS SPRING FROM COLLABORATION Beyond the group effort to produce the fear survey, our students produce their own original projects, based on their areas of interest. These projects are presented at conferences such as the Hawaii International Conference on the Social Sciences. The fear survey data is also used by students throughout the school year in their research papers and senior theses.

Our local communities also benefit. For example, over the summer of 2019, my students researched disaster preparedness in Orange County. We used rigorous social science techniques to find out why our county was behind both Los Angeles and San Diego in preparing for disasters, especially in our sign-ups for AlertOC, the county’s smartphone notification system. We also found ways to increase these signups and shared our findings with emergency managers in Orange County.

Cities all over the county are now using this information in their disaster planning.

Disaster preparedness research will continue during the 2020-2021 academic year, as our interdisciplinary team of students tackles a new project in partnership with the National Weather Service (NWS), Los Angeles. We’re assisting with the development of debris flow and wildfire warnings that are shared on Twitter. NWS officials tell us they can predict the weather, but they need social science scholars to help them communicate effectively with the public.

Our student researchers will work with graphic design majors and faculty to develop and test these warnings, which can then be deployed nationwide. This is undergraduate research impacting lives – perhaps even saving them.

For my undergraduate student researchers and me, there is no better measure of success.

Ann Gordon is an associate professor of political science. She is working on her fifth book, co-authored with Kai Hamilton Gentry ’18, a former undergraduate research student she mentored at Chapman. Gordon is co-PI on the annual Chapman University Survey of American Fears, leading the team studying disasters and preparedness.

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RESEARCH NEWS

Chapman School of Pharmacy Professor Sun Yang is working on compounds that show promising anti-melanoma activities.

ACTIVATING THE IMMUNE SYSTEM TO COMBAT MELANOMA

BY DAWN BONKER

M

alignant melanoma rates are rising, and physicians are eager for new treatments. A Chapman University School of Pharmacy researcher and a colleague at Northwestern University have developed a strategy that may lead to new drug therapies to treat the cancer.

The approach employs techniques for targeting a small molecule signaling activity in melanoma cells, essentially harnessing the ability of the immune system to selectively recognize and attack cancer cells.

Sun Yang, Ph.D., a Chapman assistant professor of pharmacy, and Richard B. Silverman, Ph.D., a professor at Northwestern, have patented the technique. The research was made possible by grants from the National Institutes of Health.

Specifically, the technique targets a messaging molecule critical to regulating tumor microenvironments and relates to melanoma cells’ ability to escape immunosuppression treatments.

Yang says the next step is potential new drug developments.

“We have already patented our findings and the leading compounds, which exhibit promising anti-melanoma activities,” Yang says. “We are looking forward to establishing industrial partnerships to advance our project to a more sophisticated stage of drug development. We hope that by publicizing our groundbreaking findings, we will positively impact the future treatment of melanoma.”

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RESEARCH NEWS PURSUING TREATMENTS FOR INFLAMMATORY BOWEL DISEASE

BY DENNIS ARP

C

hapman University Professor John Miklavcic, who recently received a national health and nutrition research award, is investigating potential new treatments for inflammatory bowel disease.

The condition can lead to life-threatening complications for patients, who often first experience painful symptoms as children.

“We don’t have a good understanding of how the disorder is caused, and there are not a lot of treatment options,” says Miklavcic, Ph.D., an assistant professor of food science at Chapman University who also has an appointment as a visiting scientist at CHOC Children’s – Children’s Hospital of Orange County. In his dual role, Miklavcic collaborates with CHOC gastroenterologists Kenneth Grant, MD, and Gregory Wong, MD.

to see if we can prevent some of the things that seem inevitable.”

In May 2019, Miklavcic received the Health and Nutrition Division New Investigator Research Award given by the American Oil Chemists’ Society. The award recognizes young scientists who are making substantial research contributions.

His translational research focuses on understanding the therapeutic applications of functional foods and nutraceuticals in human health. Miklavcic is particularly interested in how dietary lipids interact with and regulate gene function in neonatal health and in chronic conditions.

Among their ongoing studies is one investigating buttermilk powder as a treatment that may alleviate symptoms of inflammatory bowel disease. The powder is a good source of gangliosides, a component of all animal cell membranes.

“The only time we get gangliosides is when we get human milk,” Miklavcic says.

“The content declines over the period of lactation.”

Initial research indicates that the treatment offers some protection from inflammation, he says.

“This is a type of disorder someone lives with forever. It can go into remission for months, or years if we’re lucky, but it never really goes away,” Miklavcic says. “So we want to see if we can have an impact as early as possible in a patient’s life.”

Inflammatory bowel disease patients face a greater risk of colon cancer and often require colon surgery later in life.

“The disorder can have a huge impact on quality of life,” Miklavcic says. “We want

Inflammatory bowel disease can have a huge impact on the quality of patients’ lives. “We want to see if we can prevent some of the things that seem inevitable,” says researcher John Miklavcic, an assistant professor of food science at Chapman.

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RESEARCH NEWS DIFFICULT BECOMES EASY, THANKS TO HYPNOTIC SUGGESTION

BY DENNIS ARP

C

hapman University Professor Amir Raz is a former professional magician with a penchant for tricks of the mind. So it’s no surprise that he created a research project based on a magic trick.

As director of Chapman’s Institute for Interdisciplinary Brain and Behavioral Sciences, Raz has an interest in learning more about the possibilities of hypnosis.

Previous research often highlights the capacity for hypnosis to suppress, remove or block certain perceptual experiences, Raz notes.

“Here, we show compelling new evidence that a hypnotic suggestion can also enhance, introduce and add novel perceptual experiences,” he says.

The trick was to take an objectively difficult visual task and make it easy by creating novel perceptual experiences. During the research project, highly hypnotized

individuals did significantly better at the task than did participants who didn’t respond as well to hypnosis.

“A better understanding of hypnotic phenomena answers fundamental questions about the human mind,” says Raz, Ph.D. “Our study provides compelling evidence that hypnotic suggestion can yield a towering effect on highly suggestible individuals.”

Such systematic study of hypnotic phenomena can answer important questions about mind-body interactions and advance novel therapies in medicine, psychology and dentistry, Raz adds.

Raz partnered on the project with coauthors Mathieu Landry, Jason Da Silva Castanheira and Jérôme Sackur, Ph.D. The team’s findings were published in the journal Psychological Science, the flagship journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

“A better understanding of hypnotic phenomena answers fundamental questions about the human mind,” says Amir Raz, Ph.D., director of Chapman’s Institute for Interdisciplinary Brain and Behavioral Sciences.

UNDERSTANDING HOW DEFECTS IN CILIA LEAD TO GENETIC DISEASES

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lmost all human cells have various amounts of antenna-like protrusions called cilia. Their functions are myriad, including pushing mucus up from the lungs to the back of the throat, moving eggs through fallopian tubes, and regulating kidney and cardiovascular functions.

However, less is understood about how cilia structures acquire defects, called ciliopathies. These defects lead to a wide range of genetic diseases, from polycystic kidney disease to Joubert syndrome – a brain malformation.

But new research by scientists in the Chapman University School of Pharmacy is offering valuable insights. Membrane swellings in the primary cilia, called ciliary extracellular-like vesicle (cELV), are implicated in these disorders, largely through the proteins they release.

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Professor Surya Nauli, Ph.D.; postdoctoral researcher Ashraf Mohieldin, Ph.D.; and other investigators in Nauli’s laboratory recently published their findings in Advanced Science, which featured the research as a cover story.

The research has been supported by more than $2 million in grants from the Department of Defense and National Institutes of Health.

Nauli recently received an additional NIH grant of $1.38 million “Targeting these proteins can help scientists to clearly understand the mechanism of these disorders and ultimately clear the path to potential treatments,” Nauli says.

RESEARCH NEWS

Demographer Georgiana Bostean is contributing to an update of the vaping policy statement by the American Public Health Association.

WRITING POLICY ON VAPING TO ASSESS FOR DEATHS AND ILLNESS

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here there is smoke, there’s fire, but in the case of vaping, there has also been a mist of uncertainty. Chapman University Professor Georgiana Bostean is working on writing policy for a national public health organization to bring clarity to a form of tobacco use that has seen a spike in illnesses, injuries and even deaths.

Bostean, Ph.D., is a demographer and professor double-appointed in the Department of Sociology and Schmid College of Science and Technology. She is a contributing writer for a project updating the American Public Health Association’s policy statement concerning vaping, assessing for the recent deaths and illnesses. Her current research focuses on teen access to vape products and the location of vape retailers in relation to schools.

Bostean has been researching e-cigarette trends and data since 2014. Vaping products are advertised as an alternative to smoking for existing tobacco users, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes that marketing campaigns tend to be aimed at younger consumers.

Adolescent e-cigarette use rose sharply through 2015, then appeared to dip briefly, Bostean says.

But use shot up again when new flavors and attractively styled portable devices flooded the market.

“There are many products that continue to be sold that have not been approved (by the FDA) or tested,” Bostean says.

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BOOKSHELF ISLAND ON FIRE: THE REVOLT THAT ENDED SLAVERY IN THE BRITISH EMPIRE (Harvard University Press)

Tom Zoellner, professor of English With his eighth nonfiction book, Zoellner, a New York Times bestselling author, provides a dramatic day-by-day account of a transformative uprising in Jamaica. Evoking the sights and sounds of the Caribbean in the 1830s, Zoellner shines a light on the poignant dreams of the Jamaicans who died for liberty.

THE PROPERTY SPECIES: MINE, YOURS, AND THE HUMAN MIND (Oxford University Press)

Bart J. Wilson, professor of experimental economics What is property, and why does our species have it?

The author, an economist who marvels at the natural history of humankind, explores provocative ideas for anyone who has wondered why people claim things with a spirit of possession and what that means for our humanity.

Drawing on five years of data from the Chapman Survey of American Fears, this work offers insights into what people are afraid of and how fear affects their lives. The authors also draw on participant observation with doomsday preppers and conspiracy theorists to provide fascinating narratives about subcultures of fear.

Charlie Fink, lecturer in VR/AR The Forbes columnist and his Chapman film students reinvented their class during the spring 2020 semester to research 120 companies, exploring the present and future of remote collaboration. The result is a comprehensive analysis of tools for working together when colleagues are apart.

SEX PANIC RHETORICS, QUEER INTERVENTIONS

A CULTURAL HISTORY OF COLOR IN THE RENAISSANCE

(University of Alabama Press)

Ian Barnard, professor of rhetoric and composition, director of LGBTQ studies

(Bloomsbury Academic)

Edited by Amy Buono, assistant professor of art history; Sven Dupré Covering the period 1400-1650, this work shows how innovations in color production transformed the material world, especially in ceramics, cloth and paint. Advances in technology and the increasing global circulation of colors led to a new and enriching language.

The author provides a timely and rigorously researched study of the ways that contemporary “sex panics” in a variety of political and social arenas pivot to become symptoms of queerphobia, even when the panic in question presents itself as being about something else.

THE COLLEGE CON (St. Martin’s Press)

(Oxford University Press)

(Shanti Arts)

John Thrasher, assistant professor of philosophy; Daniel Halliday

Brian Glaser, associate professor of English With this work of poems, Glaser explores pressing political and spiritual questions related to immigration, asylum, protests, religion, ethics and moral beauty. A view of the natural world is presented by, among others, the mallard duck, pigeon and snowy plover.

Susan F. Paterno, professor of English and journalism program director The author, a senior writer for American Journalism Review, unravels the Hunger Games of higher education for general audiences, explaining the growing anxiety and chaos in college admissions and exposing academia’s connection to America’s widening gap between rich and poor.

CIVIL PROTECTIONS AND REMEDIES FOR SERVICEMEMBERS (Thomson/Reuters)

BORDERLAND GENERATION: SOVIET AND POLISH JEWS UNDER HITLER

(Page Publishing)

(Syracuse University Press)

Jay Kumar, director of contemplative practice and wellbeing

Jeffrey Koerber, assistant professor of history

Synthesizing timeless spiritual wisdom and recent advances in brain science, Kumar offers a model for achieving sustainable happiness for both self and society as well as empowering strategies for navigating these challenging times.

CHAPMAN FORWARD

Christopher D. Bader, professor of sociology; L. Edward Day, associate professor of sociology; Ann Gordon, associate professor of political science; Joseph O. Baker

ALL THE HILLS

SCIENCE OF A HAPPY BRAIN: THRIVING IN THE AGE OF ANGER, ANXIETY, AND ADDICTION

REMOTE COLLABORATION & VIRTUAL CONFERENCES: THE FUTURE OF WORK

(New York University Press)

THE ETHICS OF CAPITALISM: AN INTRODUCTION

Can capitalism have moral foundations? The authors use this question to introduce classical political philosophy as a framework to evaluate the ethics of capitalism today. They connect foundational defenses of market order to contemporary discussions of economic justice.

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FEAR ITSELF: THE CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES OF FEAR IN AMERICA

Set in two cities flanking the Polish-Soviet border, this work traces the preWorld War II and wartime experiences of young adult Jews raised under distinct political and social systems. Each cohort harnessed the knowledge and skills attained during their formative years to seek survival during the Holocaust through narrow windows of chance.

Kyndra Rotunda, professor and executive director, Military and Veterans Law Institute This work is an easy-tounderstand guide that takes the guesswork out of representing servicemembers and veterans. It incorporates a “Military 101” primer for civilian lawyers, as well as an analysis of developing areas of law such as military sexual assault and harassment.

POSTDIGITAL DIALOGUES ON CRITICAL PEDAGOGY, LIBERATION THEOLOGY AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (Bloomsbury)

Peter McLaren, distinguished professor in critical studies; Petar Jandric This work presents a series of dialogues between McLaren, a founding figure of critical pedagogy, and Jandric, who works at the intersection of critical pedagogy and information technology. The authors debate the postdigital condition and its relationship to critical pedagogy and liberation theology.

CATALYZING CHANGE IN EARLY CHILDHOOD AND ELEMENTARY MATHEMATICS: INITIATING CRITICAL CONVERSATIONS (NCTM)

Cathery Yeh, assistant professor of educational studies; D. Huinker; A.M. Marshall; N. Rigelman This third book in the “Catalyzing Change” series recognizes that the strengths and needs of young children must be considered when addressing the continuity and alignment of mathematics education.

AUTISM IN THE WORKPLACE: CREATING POSITIVE EMPLOYMENT AND CAREER OUTCOMES FOR GENERATION A (Wiley)

Amy-Jane Griffiths, assistant professor of educational studies; Amy E. Hurley-Hanson, associate professor of management; Cristina M. Giannantonio, professor of human resource management With Generation A eligible to enter the workforce in unprecedented numbers, the authors offer a framework for organizations committed to hiring individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

PEDAGOGIES OF WITH-NESS: STUDENTS, TEACHERS, VOICE AND AGENCY (Myers Education Press)

(Ph.D. ’16); Linda Hogg

Edited By Suzanne SooHoo, professor emeritus of educational studies; Kevin Stockbridge, assistant professor of educational studies; Charlotte Achieng-Evensen

DEVIANCE MANAGEMENT: INSIDERS, OUTSIDERS, HIDERS, AND DRIFTERS

TEACHING PHYSICS WITH STUDENT-MADE ART

(University of California Press)

Stephanie L. Bailey, assistant professor of physics

Christopher D. Bader, professor of sociology; Joseph O. Baker This book examines how individuals and subcultures manage the stigma of being labeled socially deviant. High-tension religious groups, white power movements, paranormal subcultures and more are explored.

THE END OF EMPATHY: WHY WHITE PROTESTANTS STOPPED LOVING THEIR NEIGHBORS (Oxford University Press)

John W. Compton, associate professor of political science Exploring white Protestant social activism from the early 1900s to the present, the author traces a shift from an era of liberal activism to one in which religiosity became strongly associated with racial and economic conservatism.

CONTEMPORARY VIEWING STONE DISPLAY (Viewing Stone Association of North America)

Richard Turner, professor emeritus of art; Thomas S. Elias; Paul A. Harris The instinct to collect and display stones is widespread and deeply rooted in the human psyche. Inspired by this spirit, the authors propose an engagement with stones that is both informed by tradition and open to experiment.

With this work, Bailey makes introductory physics more accessible and interesting to undergraduates by incorporating art-based teaching. In addition to a better understanding of the material, students gain a deeper connection to an often-impersonal subject.

FOOD FRAUD: A GLOBAL THREAT WITH PUBLIC HEALTH AND ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES (Academic Press)

Rosalee Hellberg, associate professor of food science; Karen Everstine; Steven Sklare The authors provide food science researchers with an overview of strategies applicable to the food industry and guidance on how to start mitigating vulnerability to food fraud.

THE IMAGE OF THE PUPPET: ESSAYS ON LITERATURE, THEATER AND CINEMA (Metauro Edizioni)

Federico Pacchioni, associate professor of Italian studies In this time of avatars, animation and virtual reality games, Pacchioni provides an understanding of how the puppet metaphor is relevant today. Along the way, he puts the traditions of the Italian puppet theatre in the context of the Italian culture and beyond.

SHORTCUT TO SUPERCONDUCTIVITY

HOW (NOT) TO TRAIN YOUR BRAIN

(Springer)

(Oxford University Press)

Armen Gulian, senior research scientist and director of Advanced Physics Laboratory

Amir Raz, professor and director of the Institute for Interdisciplinary Brain and Behavioral Sciences; Sheida Rabipour

This accessible textbook offers a concept-led approach to superconducting electronics, using the COMSOL Multiphysics software to help describe fundamental principles.

The authors review data from hundreds of articles and provide an overarching account of the field of cognitive fitness, separating scientific evidence from publicity myth and guiding readers through how they should - and should not - train the brain.

This work offers insight into the transformative possibilities of education when enacted as the art of being with. Teachers are invited to imagine pedagogy under a new framework, actively committed to students, their voice and mutual engagement.

CHAPMAN FORWARD

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One University Drive Orange, California 92866 Chapman.edu

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10

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%

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increase in research expenditures this year.

Universities in the nation for research activity

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Top 50 Film Schools in the U.S., The Wrap

Nobel Laureate in Economics, Vernon L. Smith

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National Medal of Science Winner, Yakir Aharonov

Ranking in Bloomberg Businessweek Best Undergraduate Business School

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Rhodes Scholar Vidal Arroyo ’19 Biochemistry, Molecular Biology Chapman.edu

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Phi Beta Kappa honor society members inducted in first two classes of Chapman’s new chapter