College of Letters & Science
IN FOCUS August 2019, Vol. 9, No.8
(From left) Jeff Ksiazek, Amy Richter and Heather Lewin are the three members of the Irish band รกthas. (Photo by Tom Peters) Page 6.
A reel good time
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Contents Feature Stories
Student’s beer internship at Smithsonian JAMS alum releases video for Dylan song Celtic Studies alumni deliver Irish tunes CLACS Institute examines immigration Student works to build school in Haiti Physicist’s research could aid space travel Student works on non-addictive pain meds Prof explains women’s suffrage history
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Columns Research award winners Laurels and Accolades People in Print In the Media Alumni Accomplishments
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When John Harry applied for the UWM History Department’s graduate program, he had trouble deciding what area of history he wanted to focus on. “It never occurred to me that I had to pick a lane. I’ve always collected beer antiques, what they call ‘breweriana.’ I was like, what about beer history?” Harry recalled. “Around the same time, (a woman named) Theresa McCulla got her job as the beer historian at the Smithsonian. I thought, that’s amazing. I can combine my love of beer and history.” Now, thanks to his research, Harry is wrapping up a summer internship working for McCulla at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. The internship started as a pie-in-the-sky idea to fulfill an internship requirement for Harry’s degree. “I figure, shoot high, right? If I could study with somebody and learn what they do, who would I want to be with?” Harry asked. The answer was, of course, the beer historian herself, Theresa McCulla. Harry sent her an email asking if she would be willing to take him on. Despite obstacles like the government’s fiveweek shutdown this past December and January, they eventually connected and McCulla agreed to mentor Harry for a summer internship. He’s spent the past two months assisting McCulla with her job as one of the curators at the American History Museum. His main duties include transcribing and adding metadata to almost 40 oral histories McCulla has collected from people involved in the history of craft beer and home brewing. A major highlight of his internship was being able to go along with McCulla to two breweries to record these oral histories, where he was able to contribute by asking his own questions. Harry was also accepted to write a blog post on the history of the legality of homebrewing for the museum’s website.
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When he’s not working on McCulla’s research, Harry is conducting his own. His UWM thesis focuses on the role of African American labor and consumerism in the Civil Rights era surrounding breweries, so Harry’s been digging up old labor documents at the Library of Congress and the Beer Institute lobbying firm in D.C., among other places.
glass
pends summer at the Smithsonian for beer internship
(Left) UWM history graduate student John Harry stands on the steps of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, where he is completing a summer internship working with the Smithsonian’s beer historian. (Right) Harry conducts an interview with Nassim Sultan, brewmaster of Gordon Biersch Brewing in McClean, Virginia. Photos courtesy of John Harry.
Harry calls his internship experience “amazing,” and not just because the Smithsonian is home to some fantastic pieces of history. (“I got to go into the staging area, and there’s C3PO and R2D2 just hanging out. They keep them around because they’re on public display so often,” Harry laughed.) “The best part of it for me is that there’s this academic community where you get to bounce ideas off of really smart people who are super-generous with their knowledge and want you to succeed,” he added. The journey to get to his current location was long and twisting. Harry entered UWM’s graduate program in public history last fall after a 10-year career as a radio DJ. He’s always been fascinated by brewing culture and history, and he even helped Point Brewery in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, pen a book about its history. The brewery celebrated its 160th anniversary in 2017, and it’s the fifth-oldest brewery in the nation. The book is due out in November.
“One of the fun things is the community involvement in these projects,” Harry said. “I’m not telling my story; I’m telling the community’s story about the brewery. For the Point Brewery book, I got to do what’s called a history harvest, where I had people bring in their favorite Point Beer artifacts and memories. One lady sent me a picture of her husband in Vietnam kissing a Point Beer can in the ‘70s.” Harry also helped create a pop-up exhibit for the Milwaukee County Historical Society that explores the intersection of brewing and the Civil Rights movement. The exhibit, which runs through October, focuses on a group of African American businessmen in the 1960s who attempted to buy Blatz Brewing in hopes that the brewery could create jobs and help lift African Americans in Milwaukee out of poverty. “Beer history shows up everywhere in American history – it’s related to everything,” Harry said. By Sarah Vickery, College of Letters & Science College of Letters & Science • UW–Milwaukee • 3
JAMS alum resurrects Bob Dylan’s “ He may have been raised in Minnesota, but Bob Dylan had a fondness for Wisconsin. More than 50 years ago, he wrote out lyrics for a song, “On Wisconsin,” as a love letter to the state. Decades later, singer/songwriter and UWM alumnus Trapper Schoepp put Dylan’s words to music and in July, released a music video of the new/old song featuring famous Wisconsinites. Schoepp, a 2013 graduate who majored in journalism, advertising, and media studies, sat down to tell the College of Letters & Science all about his and Dylan’s labor of love. How did you come to write the music to Bob Dylan’s lyrics? One day I woke up and I’m scrolling through Facebook and see the news article that would forever change my life. It was a Rolling Stone article saying that a long-lost Dylan song about my beloved home state of Wisconsin was unearthed and put up for auction for $30,000. The photograph showed two pages of hastily scribbled lyrics. The pages were torn, sepia-toned, and the ink was fading, barely clinging onto the page after over half a century.
I had a sinking feeling in my gut that told me I needed to finish what was started. I made a pot of coffee, sat down at the piano and tried to get inside of a song that Dylan started 57 years ago. The song is written from the perspective of a lonesome drifter like in an old Woody Guthrie song, where the singer is imagining a happy homeland filled with Wisconsin’s finest exports: milk, cheese, and beer. I immediately connected with it. I ended up adding a chorus inspired by my state’s fight song, “On Wisconsin,” and recording it with my band that weekend – going entirely off that photograph of faded lyrics. Months later, I received an email from my manager simply stating, “Dylan has it now.” Through a series of Hail Mary passes, he’d begun talking with Dylan’s team about the possibility of me and the Nobel Prize winner publishing the song together for the first time. But hours turned into days, days turned into weeks, weeks into months. I figured my hero didn’t fancy our take. But then I get a ding on my phone and voila! I get an email saying Dylan had signed off on it. For a Wisconsinite raised on Dylan’s music to now share a songwriting credit with him in a song about Wisconsin seemed stranger than fiction. Journalism, advertising, and media studies alum Trapper Schoepp put Bob Dylan’s “On, Wisconsin” lyrics to music. Photo by Kayla Jean.
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“On, Wisconsin” with famous faces Dylan was a personal hero of yours growing up. This must have been a wonderful “full-circle” moment for you. After a series of bad BMX bicycle accidents, my mom signed me up for guitar lessons. From there I heard Bob Dylan’s “Hurricane” in a music video and it lit a fire in me. I grew up in small Wisconsin town just a few miles from Highway 61. This is where I’d take the deep dive into Dylan’s world of folk songs, alluring Shakespearean characters, twisted Biblical imagery, and the urgency of the Civil Rights movement. My brother and I began with a boxset of early Dylan gifted to us by our dentist, who was surprised we’d expressed interest. We heard the question Dylan famously asked the world in 1963, “How many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man?” Dylan had a line of inquiry: “Who killed Davey Moore? Why? And what’s the reason for?” But I had questions, too. Who is Hattie Carroll? Where is Desolation Row? What’s so funny about “Talkin’ John Birch Paranoid Blues” anyway? Dylan addressed societal sentiments and inspired me in ways a history book never could. This video is basically your own love letter to Wisconsin. How did you arrange so many famous faces to appear? It was a year in the making. I wanted to highlight public figures and everyday people of Wisconsin in an unpretentious way. It was a monumental task in tracking down all 70 participants, but I thought Dylan’s official imprint on this state made it worth it. One guest led to the next. Many of the more prominent figures like Russ Feingold are Dylan fans, so I couldn’t help but ask. One of the people who appears in your video is UWM’s own Marc Tasman, a senior lecturer in the Journalism, Advertising, and Media Studies department. What drew you to UWM and journalism? My brother and bassist Tanner Schoepp went to UWM the year before, so I followed in his footsteps. Telling stories is in my DNA. My grandpa was a South Dakotan farmer
with a knack for telling tales both tall and true. Journalism felt like an extension of this family trait and my music. I wrote about music at the UWM Post newspaper for years, as well as worked as a production assistant for WUWM’s Lake Effect. You also earned a certificate in Rock and Roll Studies while you attended UWM. Can you speak a bit about your experiences with those classes? Through this program I met a living embodiment of rock ‘n’ roll, Dr. Martin Jack Rosenblum. Known as the Holy Ranger, Marty was a professor, biker poet, and mythological mentor to myself and many others. I gravitated towards him and his classes, which gave me a sense of belonging at UWM. His appreciation for the folk process, as well as artists like Dylan and Springsteen, was infectious. With his guidance, I got a Certificate in Rock and Roll Studies for my analysis of early folk and blues music. We studied folk music in a way that’s typically only reserved for classical music in academic circles. Marty passed a few years ago and it’s left a hole in my heart. When I got the contract from Bob Dylan’s lawyers about a joint publication of “On, Wisconsin,” I printed it off and signed it on his old office door at UWM. My final assignment, if you will. By Sarah Vickery, College of Letters & Science College of Letters & Science • UW–Milwaukee • 5
Traditions and Tune
Celtic Studies alums brigh
When the members of áthas were searching for their band name, they didn’t get much further than the “A” section of the Irish language dictionary. “Áthas is the Irish word for ‘joy and happiness,’” said guitarist Jeff Ksiazek, though, he admits, “When I call someplace to book a gig, I purposely Americanize it. I tried using the Irish pronunciation one time and people thought I was saying ‘office.’” Joy and happiness are exactly what the trio delivers each time they play. With Ksiazek on guitar, Heather Lewin on fiddle, and Amy Richter on bodhrán (Irish drum), the band has been a staple in Milwaukee’s Irish music scene for almost 15 years, reeling out toetapping jigs and catchy hornpipes at every event from Irish Fest to the UWM Celtic Studies graduation celebration. Music in Milwaukee You might not expect it from a city primarily built by German immigrants, but Milwaukee’s Irish music scene is second only to Chicago, Boston, and New York City. That’s thanks to a contingent of Irish immigrants who brought their own music traditions with them to their new home, Ksiazek said. “This is one thing I dived into in my work with (Irish music) archives,” he explained. “If you go back through old newspapers, the earliest mention I found of a concert featuring Irish music was 1856. From there, there were more and more performances of noted Irish musicians from Chicago and some prominent touring musicians.” The newspapers also listed the winners of dancing competitions held by the Ancient Order of Hibernians. “Some of the last names are starting to change from typical Irish last names to German last names as the communities started to intermarry. You’d start to have 6 • IN FOCUS • August, 2019
second- and third-generation Irish Americans taking on the tradition,” Ksiazek said. Irish music fell out of favor in Milwaukee by 1940, but it came roaring back by 1990 as Milwaukee Irish fest popularized the genre once again. The Irish tradition Richter has a guess to why the music catches people’s attention: Anyone can play. “It’s an orally passed down tradition and it’s a lot of repetition, and you can pick it up without having to read music,” she said. “And when you’re not reading music, you’re looking at the people while you’re playing with them. It’s a very social kind of music. I was very shy growing up, and it really pulled me out of my shell.” Irish music is typically divided into certain types of tunes, like reels, jigs, polkas, slip jigs, or hornpipes. Musicians gather for sessions, where everyone comes together to show off their skills and play with each other. Players will craft sets by stringing together two or three tunes with matching beats.
es
hten Milwaukee’s Irish music scene Catch áthas at Milwaukee Irish Fest! Thursday, Aug. 15, 8:30 p.m. at the Dance Pavilion Saturday, Aug. 17, 12:15 p.m. at the Aer Lingus Stage and 10 p.m. at the Dance Pavilion Celtic Studies at UWM Ksiazek, Lewin, and Richter formed áthas in 2005 after they kept bumping into each other at sessions around Milwaukee. At the time, all three were working toward a certificate in Celtic Studies at UWM, which gives students a thorough grounding in Irish and Celtic culture, history, language, and literature. All of that education has proved invaluable.
Musicians will often play at ceilis, or parties, or they might provide the music for Irish set dancers. In fact, that’s how Lewin got her start in Irish music: To celebrate a coworker’s birthday, Lewin’s entire office went Irish dancing at a pub. She was intrigued by the dancing and the musicians and returned each week until she began playing for the dancers herself. Ksiazek got his start thanks to radio. Already a talented saxophone player, he was listening to NPR one day and heard an Irish music program. The fingerings for the tin whistle and saxophone were similar, so he decided to try his hand at the new instrument and fell head-first into Irish music. Richter owes her interest in Irish music to Riverdance and the UWM Celtic Studies program. Riverdance was the first time she was exposed to Irish music and dance, and she pursued that interest by taking a tin whistle class through the Celtic Studies program. “My teacher took me to a session as my final exam. I met a bodhrán player and I fell in love with the bodhrán. I thought, okay, this is what I’m supposed to be doing.”
“The dance tradition informs Irish music; the Irish language informs Irish music,” Ksiazek said. “Having a good basis for understanding what goes into Irish culture gave me a solid footing for Irish music.” “We’ve been to Ireland a bunch of times. Learning about the culture before we went was huge. None of that would have happened if not for the Celtic Studies program,” added Lewin, who also earned a bachelor’s degree from UWM with majors in anthropology and American Indian Studies. Those trips to Ireland have been exciting; Lewin recalls one trip where she approached a street musician playing his whistle and accidentally started a town-wide session that took up two pubs. That’s the beauty of Irish music, she said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re actually Irish; it doesn’t matter how old you are or what your ability is. It’s an oral tradition, so you can learn something from every person you meet.” By Sarah Vickery, College of Letters & Science College of Letters & Science • UW–Milwaukee • 7
CLACS Institute takes teachers on a deep d This July at the southern border, thousands of migrants waited to cross into the United States in hopes of seeking asylum from political unrest and crushing poverty.
only migration to the United States, but the current societal and political situations in Central American countries like El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Guatemala.
Hundreds of miles north, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, dozens of teachers gathered at the CLACS annual summer institute in July to learn about the circumstances driving that migration.
“It would have been hard not to choose this theme,” Kline said. “It matters in terms of listening to the news, making informed decisions about what you read and what you see, and noticing who’s telling the story.”
“It comes down to the lack of opportunity, lack of education, lack of ability to make a living and support a family. Violence, certainly,” said Julie Kline, the assistant director of the UWM Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. “If people had a choice as to what was possible for them in the country they were born in, they would stay in a heartbeat. But somehow to them, the better choice is taking on a journey that is very dangerous and very uncertain.”
From top to bottom: The flags of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Panama, all Central American countries discussed at the annual summer institute of UWM’s Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies in July.
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The UWM Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, or CLACS, is a federally funded entity tasked with helping students and educators alike understand the politics, history, and culture of Latino and Caribbean countries. As part of their ongoing mission to conduct teacher training, CLACS hosts a yearly summer institute devoted to a particular aspect of Central American or Caribbean studies, cosponsored with UW-Madison. This year, Florida International University also participated as a cosponsor. This year, the theme centered on “Society and Politics in Contemporary Central America,” which explored not
Though the topic had the potential to be controversial, given the current divisive state of American politics surrounding immigration policy, CLACS administrators strove to keep discussions as factual and unbiased as possible. “My goal is not to sway anyone in terms of their political opinion; my goal is to give them the tools to think about problems and analyze what’s going on either historically or contemporarily,” said Natasha Borges Sugiyama, the director of CLACS. “We want to provide our educators with both broad and deep knowledge so that they can talk about what is appearing in the headlines with nuance and understanding.” To help their attendees understand those nuances, organizer Seth Meisel at Northwestern University, with assistance from Kline, lined up a series of talks by speakers uniquely qualified to discuss the current state of affairs in Central America. The past president of Costa Rica spoke to the group via video conference one morning, while Salvadoran poet Jorge Argueta talked to the attendees via a shaky internet
dive into Central America, immigration
Independent journalist Lauren Markham discusses American rhetoric and policy surrounding the designation “unaccompanied minors” at the summer institute of the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies in July. Photo by Sarah Vickery.
connection from his “Library of Dreams,” a small library he runs for Salvadoran children. UWM historian Aims McGuinness talked to educators about using storytelling in their lessons and used the story of the 1989 Panama invasion as an example of how to do it, while journalist Lauren Markham taught audience members to critically analyze headlines concerning immigration and understand how word choice drives a political narrative. Other speakers discussed countries like El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua. The lessons learned at this year’s Institute, and those from past institutes, have been invaluable to teachers from all over Wisconsin. “These institutes give me updated, contemporary information about different topics. Since I teach courses with political and historical contexts, that’s very helpful,” said Elena De Costa, a Spanish professor at Carroll University who
has attended nearly ever summer institute CLACS has offered. “That’s very important because my students rarely have contact with Hispanic communities. They don’t know the issues that impact Hispanic populations in Wisconsin and other places in the U.S.” If Latin American communities and issues seem far away for Wisconsin students, they hit close to home for Francisco Ara’s students. A high school Spanish and social studies teacher from California, Ara attended the institute for the first time this year. “A lot of my students are immigrants – first generation. They’re predominately Spanish speakers. They bring with themselves these stories of persecution or fear or threat of deportation. Some of them are unaccompanied minors when they came to the U.S.,” Ara noted. “There’s little bit of trauma. All teachers, it is not something that we are not taught as part of our teaching credentials, so it’s something that we have to learn. These CLACS events do
precisely that. They raise awareness; they inform us about ways and methodologies to reach these students and keep them engaged in a very compassionate way.” That’s why these institutes are essential, said Borges Sugiyama: They provide teachers with the tools to address political and social issues that impact students from across the country, no matter their immigration status or race. “We have a role and a responsibility as educators to develop an informed and capable citizenry,” she added. “That’s one of the things that we need if we’re going to have democracy, if we’re going to have a space where people have a chance to participate and voice their preferences and hold leadership accountable.” By Sarah Vickery, College of Letters & Science
College of Letters & Science • UW–Milwaukee • 9
Communication student works to build sch Through hard work, perseverance and a little bit of luck, one UWM student is building the connections and resources to achieve his goals: Construct a sustainable community in Haiti. The first step is to build a school. Steven Duclair is the CEO and founder of the nonprofit Sustain the Future. He will earn a bachelor’s degree with a major in interpersonal communication in August 2019. The plans for the school are already in motion. In July, Duclair traveled to Haiti to set up an office, meet with the Department of Education and maintain already established business and governmental connections. “Whatever community shows the most interest and engagement and is willing to invest is where we will build the school,” said Duclair. “When you have a high level of community engagement and investment, you solve problems much easier. Every person becomes a resource.” Duclair is working with local professionals across different disciplines to build this school, including Lauren Beckmann, principal of St. Robert School, and James Steiner, senior lecturer at UW-Madison’s Department of Planning and Landscape Architecture. “Steven has this very upbeat, charming, positive attitude that I think draws people to him,” Steiner said. “He has an interesting story, and the project is interesting. So, I’m very committed.” Making connections in Haiti Duclair and Steiner went to Haiti together in March with two goals: Finding land for the school and learning about the logistics of building a school. They accomplished both goals. What they didn’t plan on was the important professional connection they made. At breakfast one morning at their hotel, Duclair and Steiner saw some wealthy businessmen and officials across the room. Duclair decided to introduce himself and his plans for building a school. One of the businessmen he met was Reginald Abraham, a property developer with 2,000 acres of land and plans to build a new community for all levels of income in the town of Ganthier. Abraham was one of the people that Sustain the Future worked with during their trip in July. Sustain the Future’s new grant writer, Nakisha Adams, went down in July to talk to Abraham and experience Haiti firsthand.
10 • IN FOCUS • August, 2019
Steven Duclair (at rear, holding up shoes) and his team, including Emily Ruder (on Duclair’s left) and Niki center in Haiti last year. After that visit to donate shoes and water filters, Duclair and team returned this y
How donated shoes sparked inspiration Duclair and others brainstormed plans for the school after their first service trip to Haiti in the summer of 2018. Duclair and a few friends fundraised over $4,000 to go to the township of Cité Soleil to give away gently used shoes and build a water filter for a community center. Beckmann and her school had given monetary donations to Duclair and his colleagues and was one of the main partners for the shoe donation. The 2018 summer trip was a success, although Duclair thought he and his team could do more. “A pair of shoes, once it’s worn out, it’s worn out. Your mind, the education you receive, can never be taken away from you,” Duclair said. Duclair and some his friends from the summer trip came together at the end of 2018 to create the nonprofit Sustain the Future. The nonprofit’s mission to create a sustainable community, with building a school as their first project.
Congratulations, Research Award Winners!
hool in Haiti
Each year, UWM recognizes several of its outstanding faculty for their dedication to student learning and research. These Letters & Science faculty members will receive the following awards at a ceremony on Oct. 16. •
Lawrence Baldassaro, Ernest Spaights Plaza Award
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Christopher Cantwell, History, Joanne Lazirko Award for Excellence in Teaching with Technology
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Jocelyn Szczpaniak-Gillece, English, Research in the Humanities Award
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Philip Chang, Physics, Office of Research/UWM Foundation Research Award
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Jolien Creighton, Physics, Office of Research/UWM Foundation Senior Faculty Research Award
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Gregory Jay, English, Office of Research/UWM Foundation Senior Faculty Research Award
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Douglas Stafford, Chemistry/Biochemistry, UWM Academic Staff Outstanding Performance & Service Award
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Gwynne Kennedy, English/Women’s and Gender Studies, UWM Faculty Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award
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Aims McGuinness, UWM Faculty Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award
ia Johnson (on Duclair’s right), share a moment with children and staff at a community year to push forward their effort to build a school. (Daniel Carillo Gonzalez photo)
State of education in Haiti The state of education in Haiti is dire — the average Haitian 25 years and under has had only five years of schooling or less. “Before going to Haiti, I didn’t know what developing world poverty looked like. It’s one thing to see poverty on TV and another to have actually witnessed it through these children,” said Nikia Johnson, operations manager for Sustain the Future. These statistics are not only numbers for Duclair. These numbers are real life experiences for him, having grown up in Port-au-Prince for much of his childhood. There were days that he went hungry and had no shoes on his feet. “I have this opportunity to live my life to give back to people who are in need,” Duclair said. “Especially when I go back to Haiti and the kids can see someone who looks like them, who
speaks the same language as them, and who lived in the slums with them.” Duclair hopes, with this new school, that Sustain the Future will have a hand in cultivating education from the ground up. The school will focus on elementary age students from kindergarten to fourth grade. When Duclair started planning the school, he reached out to Beckmann to see if she would be an educational advisor for his nonprofit, which would add some credibility to the school project. “I’m thinking this is a real project, it’s really going to happen, and I would love to be associated with it,” Beckmann said. Beckmann is advising on several aspects of the project, including the curriculum, budgeting, and other educational matters. “I was a seed of inspiration as that reality check about what schools need and what schools are all about,” Beckmann said. By Claire Hackett, University Relations
College of Letters & Science • UW–Milwaukee • 11
Physicist’s invisible radiation shield may help NASA Technology surged forward when the U.S. government invested heavily in science and engineering in the 1960s to get humans to the moon. Now, 50 years after Neil Armstrong set foot on the lunar surface in July 1969, some of the work in UWM labs has the potential to make space exploration safer and transport space travelers even farther. With private companies now contributing – and shouldering some of the astronomical costs – UWM research could attract the attention of a growing number of interested parties. NASA officials say that landing people on the surface of Mars is an achievable goal. But a major barrier is the lack of an effective way to shield people from dangerous highenergy radiation, which bathes outer space beyond Earth. Lead is one of the few physical materials that could deflect these deadly particles, but it’s too heavy to add to spacecraft. But members of Prasenjit Guptasarma’s lab, together with NASA collaborators, have suggested an alternative. The Earth is shielded by a magnetic field encompassing the planet. Why, then, couldn’t a magnetic field be created to protect people in the space shuttle? Guptasarma, a professor of physics, researches unconventional magnetism and superconductivity in materials. He conducts some of the work with a superconducting magnet – an electromagnet that is wrapped in superconductive wire. Below a certain temperature, there is no electrical resistance in a superconducting wire; an electrical current can flow unrestricted, and a superconducting
coil can conduct electric currents forever, without any outside electrical power source like a battery. So, a superconducting magnet can maintain a magnetic field forever. Guptasarma’s lab has investigated the feasibility of generating a magnetic shield powered by a superconducting magnet. The current would be initiated on Earth and last the entire journey to Mars. There are still lots of questions to answer before the idea could be designed, he said. Could deep-space radiation change the temperature at which superconductive properties appear? Could galactic radiation eventually destroy the magnetic shield itself? To test it further, he will need a high-energy beam of particles that simulates the deep-space cosmic rays. Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York has the right equipment, and Guptasarma is looking for funding. By Laura Otto, University Relations
Laurels and Accolades Liam Callanan’s (English) novel, Paris by the Book, was selected as “best book by an author with a Wisconsin connection” by the Wisconsin Library Association Literary Awards Committee. Paris by the Book will be included on Outstanding Achievement Lists that will be circulated to libraries throughout Wisconsin. https://bit.ly/2YoPgT1 Nan Kim (History) received the 2019 Scott Bill’s Memorial Prize by the Peace History Society for her recent book, “Memory, Reconciliation, and Reunions in South Korea.” Kim will receive $500 and recognition at the organization’s biennial conference at Kent State University in October. Simonetta Konewko (Italian) received a 5,500 euro grant from the Italian Consulate General in Chicago to develop distance learning delivery, or online, courses of Italian 103 and 104.
Nan Kim
UWM’s MS in nonprofit management and leadership is one of nine universities nationwide to receive accreditation from the Nonprofit Academic Centers Council in their inaugural year of offering accreditation. 12 • IN FOCUS • August, 2019
Doctoral student Daniel Knutson works in the UWM Shimazdu Laboratory for Advanced and Applied Analytical Chemistry to develop a painkiller that will provide pain relief without the risk of addiction. (UWM Photo)
A promising search for relief without addiction Daniel Knutson watched as his wife of nearly 10 years struggled with depression and migraine headaches until an addiction to prescription medications took her life. Knutson had worked for nearly two decades in the pharmaceutical industry, and about the same time as his wife’s death, he was planning to return to school. The confluence of timing gave him a new calling – helping develop nonaddictive drugs to alleviate what so troubled his wife. “My graduate work is my passion,” says Knutson, a doctoral candidate in chemistry at UWM’s College of Letters & Science, “my heartfelt attempt to prevent anyone else from having to bury a loved one.” He’s making significant progress. Knutson and his collaborators have discovered a compound with the potential to treat pain and mental illness while sidestepping the destructive problems that can occur when using current popular medications. Benzodiazepines are prescribed by doctors to treat anxiety, which is frequently associated with depression. Opioids are prescribed to treat migraine pain. These drugs interact with many receptors in the brain, and this “master key” approach unlocks potentially harmful side effects. For example, in addition to pain relief, opioids produce euphoria, opening the door for the misuse that leads to addiction. Knutson is developing a compound that will interact with
a site on the specific receptor in the brain – the α6 GABA A receptor – that’s associated with depression, head and neck pain, migraine and schizophrenia. “It’s like a shot in the dark, trying to find the exact key to unlock a specific receptor,” Knutson says. His work proceeds under the guidance of James Cook, an emeritus distinguished professor of chemistry and one of UWM’s most prolific inventors, and it uses state-of-theart mass spectrometers at the Shimadzu Laboratory for Advanced and Applied Analytical Chemistry. Knutson synthesized the world’s first and only α6-specific molecule at Cook’s lab, and the molecule’s design and uses were patented in 2016. Research has shown encouraging results to treat just the disease, with no side effects that might otherwise arise from the “master key” approach. The work, affiliated with UWM’s Milwaukee Institute for Drug Discovery, was published in February 2018 in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. Knutson also found a way to improve the metabolic stability of the drug compound. This essentially means that instead of having to take a large, horse pill-sized tablet, a patient could treat the illness with a much smaller pill. The next step involves looking for investment partners who can fund the research to carry it forward into clinical trials. By Gene Armas, University Relations College of Letters & Science • UW–Milwaukee • 13
Path to women’s suffrage was long, windin This year marks the centennial of congressional approval of the U.S. constitutional amendment giving women the right to vote. After Congress passed the amendment in June 1919, Wisconsin was the first state to ratify it a week later. (Tennessee was the final of the required 36 states to ratify, on Aug. 18, 1920.)
Carolyn Eichner, associate professor of history and women’s and gender studies at UWM, stands with a 1917 poster showing the progress of women’s suffrage. This National Woman Suffrage Publishing Company poster is part of the American Geographical Society Library Digital Map Collection. (UWM Photo/Elora Hennessey)
Carolyn Eichner, associate professor of history and women’s and gender studies at UWM, talks about the struggle that led to the 19th Amendment and its legacy. What were the reasons some opposed the amendment? Some people believed men belonged in the public, political sphere and women in the private sphere. But, in reality, workingclass women worked both inside and outside of the home, and many elite women became reformers, campaigning for abolition, temperance and child labor laws. Anti-suffragists feared what women would do with the vote, like support Prohibition. Some men did not want to share power; they rejected the democratic ideal of equal citizenship regardless of gender. What are some key moments in the struggle for voting rights? It took 72 years after the first women’s rights convention, the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention, for women to win full citizenship. They finally succeeded after World War I, at least in part in recognition of women’s participation on the home front. A number of states had already granted women’s suffrage on the state level. The abolition and suffrage movements overlapped significantly. In 1840 the abolitionist Lucretia Mott attended the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London with her 14 • IN FOCUS • August, 2019
husband, but she, along with all of the other women, had to sit behind a curtain. She recognized that women needed emancipation too. With Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Mott organized the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention to address women’s status. Because women’s suffrage seemed like such a radical concept, they only included it in the convention’s Declaration of Sentiments after much heated debate. The abolitionist – and former slave – Frederick Douglass played a prominent role at Seneca Falls, supporting the inclusion of the vote in the convention’s declaration. Following the Civil War, many thought women should support voting rights for black men first. Stanton and Anthony refused, splitting the suffrage movement for over 20 years. By the turn of the 20th century, the movement had divided again, this time based on politics and tactics. Suffragists marched in Washington D.C. and protested outside the White House. They faced violent opposition and arrest. Many went on hunger strikes in prison and suffered violent forcefeeding. It was the brutal treatment of women of privilege that helped shift public opinion.
Working-class women had always worked, but during World War I, they took over jobs long considered male-only. Women delivered mail, drove streetcars and worked in manufacturing. Afterward they were fired to make way for the returning men. But their patriotic contribution was recognized to the extent that it increased support for women’s enfran-chisement. How did the American push for suffrage compare with what was happening in other countries? England, France and the U.S. claimed universal suffrage – but they did not count women. In 1893, New Zealand, became the first country with women’s suffrage. Finland was the first European nation in 1906, followed by Denmark, Norway, Russia and Germany. Women in Afghanistan
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got the right to vote before U.S. women did. Some U.S. states were early (Wyoming was the first, in 1869), but as a nation, we were not. Did the amendment accomplish what was expected? Opponents feared women would vote as a bloc. But most women of voting age didn’t vote. Younger women did vote as soon as they could. Americanborn white women slowly began voting, but black and immigrant women remained disenfranchised by racist practices including illegal poll taxes. Most U.S. suffragists were white and middle class. Other feminists had more tangible goals than voting, including women’s wages and labor conditions. The gender gap as we know it — women voting in higher percentages than men — did not appear until 1980, although starting in the 1960s, more women than men voted. What are the legacies of the 19th Amendment? While the amendment made women full citizens for the first time, in reality many women remained excluded by racial barriers. The Equal Rights Amendment – guaranteeing equal legal rights regardless of sex – was introduced in 1921, and reintroduced in the 1970s, but failed. Today no constitutional protection exists against sexbased discrimination. The centennial is important to raise awareness of the length and difficulty of the suffrage movement, of who was included, and who was excluded. Women were not “given the vote,” rather they worked and fought for it for three-quarters of a century. Feminists have undoubtedly made notable progress, but in terms of wages, political representation, social status, and rights over our bodies – among other concerns – there still is far to go. By Karen Samelson, University Relations From the Library of Congress
Weidong Li, Qingniao Zhou, Yong Gao, Yonghua Jiang, Yuanjie Huang, Zengnan Mo, Yiming Zou (Mathematical Sciences), and Yanling Hu. 2019. eQTL analysis from colocalization of 2739 GWAS loci detects assocated genes across 14 human cancers. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 426: 240-246. https://bit.ly/2VetHOS Sara VanderHaagen (Communication). 2019. (Mis) Quoting King: Commemorative Stewardship and Ethos in the Controversy over the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial. Argumentation and Advocacy. Online. https://bit.ly/2EJRPTM
Nolan A. Kopkin and Erin N. Winkler Sara VanderHaagen (both African and African Diaspora Studies). 2019. Naming Black Studies: Results from a Faculty Opinion Survey. Journal of Black Studies, 50(4): 343-366. https://bit.ly/2Z0Vi7V Sarah K. Patch (Physics), Daniel Santiago-Gonzalez, and Brahim Mustapha. 2019. Thermoacoustic range verification in the presence of acoustic heterogeneity and soundspeed errors - Robustness relative to ultrasound image of underlying anatomy. Medical physics, 46(1): 318-327. https://bit.ly/2Mhzaov
Andrew J. Petto (Biological Sciences). 2019. Technology Meets Pedagogy: Comparing Classroom Response Systems. Journal of College Science Teaching, 48(4):55-63. Manuel Díaz-Azpiroz, Carlos Fernández, and Dyanna M. Czeck (Geosciences). 2019. Are we studying deformed rocks in the right sections? Best practices in the kinematic analysis of 3D deformation zones. Journal of Structural Geology, 125: 218-225. https://bit.ly/2XyiAkL John Heywood and Bryan Weber (Economics). 2019. University-provided transit and crime in an urban neighborhood. The Annals of Regional Science, 62(3): 467495. https://bit.ly/2G1CluK Mark Netzloff (English). 2019. Lines of Amity: The Law of Nations in the Americas. In Cultures of Diplomacy and Literary Writing in the Early Modern World (eds. Tracey Sowerby and Joanna Craigwood), Oxford University Press: 54-68. Sergey Kravtsov (Atmospheric Sciences) and Gregory Reznik. 2019. Numerical solutions of the singular vortex problem. Physics of Fluids (online). https://bit.ly/2G1yj5N College of Letters & Science • UW–Milwaukee • 15
In the Media and Around the Community The Queer Zine Archive Project, a collection of historical and contemporary zines highlighting LGBTQ culture and co-founded by Milo Miller (L&S College Relations), was featured on WUWM in June. https://bit.ly/2XmTJ85 A new study authored by graduate student Kristin Maple (Psychology) found that cannabis users had lower brain volumes in a region of the brain responsible for processing emotions seen on people’s faces, the Centre Times Daily reported. https://bit.ly/309wrPW
Did sexism play a role in the North Carolina Republican House primary race in mid-July when political newcomer Joan Perry lost to Greg Murphy? Kathy Dolan (Political Science) shared her thoughts in Politico.com article. https://politi.co/2NU0Ikt
Gordon Gidlund (’77, BA Political Science) presented several talks at libraries in San Diego in July detailing Shakespearean influences during the Civil War. https://bit.ly/2Xuyht6
There’s a dark side to the lively drinking culture in Wisconsin. Ryan Shorey (Psychology) went on WUWM to discuss the relationship between alcohol and intimate partner violence. https://bit.ly/2xrXEBl
Sonia Bardy (Biological Sciences) says she “wasn’t surprised” when TODAY’s TMJ4 found millions of microbes inside some makeup bags.
Turkey’s ruling party is fracturing thanks to the defection of several high-profile party leaders. Graduate student Yunus Orhan and John Reuter (both Political Science) analyzed the breakdown of the county’s Justice and Development Party in the Washington Post.
Jeffrey Sommers (African and African Diaspora Studies and Global Studies) was invited to give a presentation, “The Collapsing Center in the World’s Liberal Center,” Europe 30 Years after the fall of the Berlin Wall (Co-author, Cosmin Marian) at the opening conference and workshop of the London School of Economics Ideas Central and South-East Europe Programme Desk at Babes-Bolyai University, ClujNapoca, Romania, in June. He also published a piece in The Cap Times advocating for a change in Wisconsin’s health care spending. https://bit.ly/311V6Xn
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When President Trump asked if lawyers could delay the start of the 2020 U.S. Census following the Supreme Court blocking a citizenship question, Reuters quoted Margo Anderson (emerita History) as saying that a move would be “unprecedented.” (https://reut.rs/3270lGA) The USA Today network quoted a 2018 Washington Post article that cited Anderson’s research on personal protections for people responding to the Census (https://bit.ly/30mvDaK) while the Washington Post (https://wapo.st/2LNv1H3) and The New York Times (https://nyti.ms/30x11n0) called upon her expertise to outline the Census’ thorny past with slavery. She explained the controversy of previous Censuses on The Hill (https://bit.ly/2JS91bB) and in Time Magazine (https://bit.ly/2Sz7oDw). An Associated Press article repurposed in national outlets including The New York Times (https://nyti.ms/2LmMh6w) and Fortune (https://bit.ly/2XHQxEf), quoted Anderson to say that contrary to rumor, President Obama did not remove a citizenship question from a past Census.
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Students should take about 15 credits each semester if they want to graduate in four years, a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article reported. The piece drew on expertise from Senior Associate Dean Dave Clark (English). https://bit.ly/2Yq8K5z
David Pritchard (emeritus Journalism, Advertising, and Media Studies) was quoted in a report published on LawNow, a site relating to law in Canada. The article, about freedom of the press, drew on Pritchard’s expertise concerning libel laws. https://bit.ly/2xAkFBZ Fast food restaurants in Milwaukee are struggling to hire and retain workers in part because the labor force has more attractive employment options at companies like Amazon or Starbucks, Avik Chakrabarti (Economics) told CBS 58 News. https://bit.ly/2XzeGgk Thomas Holbrook (Political Science) provided insight into a new poll detailing President Trump’s favorability ratings and his chances against a slew of Democratic primary challengers in a piece by the Sinclair Broadcast Group. https://bit.ly/2JntgyK Urban Milwaukee quoted research by James Nelsen (’12, PhD History) suggesting that Milwaukee’s Civil Rights-era of busing to integrate public schools was a disastrous failure. https://bit.ly/2xDbyR5
Alumni Accomplishments
This year marks the 50 anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, and Jean Creighton (Planetarium) explained how some of the technologies that we enjoy every day, from GPS to weather forecasting, can trace their origins to the moon race. Her conversation was printed in several international outlets. (https://bit.ly/2YGcVud) She also spoke about the 50th anniversary of the moon landing on WUWM (https://bit.ly/2NTWDNh) and on Wisconsin Public th
Sandra Pucci and Hamid Ouali (both Linguistics) gave their thoughts on the planned opening of a second Arabic immersion school in Brookfield, Wisconsin, in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. https://bit.ly/30z4VLU An ill-timed telegram documents a little-known German covert mission in the days before the onset of World War II, Neal Pease (History) told Atlas Obscura.
William Yoder (’03, BA History) was lauded as a Patient Preferred Physician representing foot & Ankle Surgery for the State of Wisconsin by Patient Preferred Physicians and Practitioners, a medical society of highly-referred healthcare providers from medicine, dentistry, radiology, nursing, and other health professions. Yoder’s practice is the Family Foot & Ankle Clinics of Wisconsin LLC. https://bit.ly/2KWGwfQ Joseph Frederickson (’11, BS Geosciences) was hired as the new director of the Weis Earth Science Museum at UWFox Valley. The facility is the official mineralogical museum of Wisconsin and is open daily. Frederickson has considerable experience in museum work, including at the Sam Noble Museum, Southwestern Oklahoma State Natural History Collections, and the Utah Museum of Natural History. https://bit.ly/2XtVXmo
Joseph Frederickson
Musical lyrics have all sorts of hidden messages, but Georg Essl (Mathematical Sciences) discussed the possibility of encoding actual hidden messages via inaudible data embedded in soundwaves in a Daily Beast article. https://bit.ly/2OcFvCL
Crystal Wilken (’17, BA Journalism, Advertising, and Media Studies) joined BOLT Lock as the company’s new digital marketing manager. The company provides one-key lock technology for automobiles. Wilken previously worked as the marketing and social media manager for the Ewald Automotive Group in Delafield, Wisconsin. https://bit.ly/2Xpf3Kc
Gizmodo.com asked, what ubiquitous items will become obsolete in 50 years? Thomas Haigh (History) predicts it will be neckties. (https://bit.ly/2ZffAeM) He also outlined the incredible scientific feat represented by NASA’s moon landing in 1969 and why Silicon Valley tech companies are mis-using the word “moonshot” in the Australian Financial Review. https://bit.ly/2JZqyj7
Scott Dettman (’09, BA; ’13, MA Political Science) was named the CEO of Avenica, an entry-level recruitment and career-placement company. Dettman will also sit on the Avenica Board of Directors. He previously worked at Manpower Group and has completed an executive leadership program at Harvard Business School. https://bit.ly/2XKs8gz
Agriculture Industry Today reported on Gyaneshwar Prasad’s (Biological Sciences) research into creating staple crops that will nurture the soil they grow in, leading to sustainable agriculture. https://bit.ly/32NszX3
Helen Rountree (’73, BA Anthropology) presented a talk on “Indians of the James River’s South Bank and What Happened to Them from 1607 to the Present” at the Smithfield Center in Virginia in July. She was featured in the Daily Press in advance of her presentation. https://bit.ly/2XzYeaJ
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Nick Fleisher (Linguistics) offered his opinion on a new bill concerning tuition freezes for the UW System on Wisconsin Public Radio. https://bit.ly/2SEcRsC Noelle Chesley (Sociology) presented a webinar for The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) on the implications of data science and artificial intelligence for workers and their jobs.
Cassandra Bretl (’19, BA Journalism, Advertising, and Media Studies) joined NBC Channel 13 WREX Newsroom in Rockford, Illinois, as a multi-media journalist. https://bit.ly/2M4HyWz
College of Letters & Science • UW–Milwaukee • 17
