College of Letters & Science
IN FOCUS
May 2021, Vol. 11, No.5
Martian mineral mystery A geosciences graduate student analyzes the red planet from a California lakebed Pg. 6
Do NOT stop a
Contents
UWM greenho
Feature Stories “Corpse Flower” blooms in UWM greenhouse Italian professor’s book on a baseball legend Grad student studies Martian surface UWM debuts data science major Biologist named UW Regents Scholar Geosciences major studies Lake Michigan shore Economics student takes on income disparity Art History prof finds Peru parallels to Chicago
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On April 17, the first-ever Titan Arum bloomed at the UWM Biological Sciences Greenhouse. The Titan Arum, or “Corpse Flower,” is recorded to have the largest, and one of the smelliest, inflorescences of the plant world. Convention dictates that an individual Titan Arum plant is named upon its very first bloom. The Biological Sciences Department affectionately named theirs ‘Hoot’, in honor of Dr. Sara Hoot. Currently, UWM’s Biological Sciences instructional collection maintains nine individual Amorphophallus titanum plants.
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Life Cycle of the Titan Arum The Corpse Flower, or Titan Arum, is native to the rainforests of Sumatra in Indonesia. They are uncommon in the wild and are under considerable population pressure as their native habitats are rapidly being destroyed, primarily due to illegal logging and land conversion for agricultural use. As of 2020, A. titanum is listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). A. titanum grows from a corm, which in older specimens have been documented weighing up to 198 pounds. From the corm, a single umbrella-like leaf composed of a trunklike petiole topped with an array of leaflets will emerge, photosynthesizing and storing food for 9-12 months (in our greenhouse).
and smell this flower!
ouse enjoys a rare bloom from the “Corpse Flower” Next, the leaf will senesce (die back) and the plant will go dormant. The dormancy period of the Biological Sciences Department’s specimens varies from 2-5 months. The process then repeats itself until the plant sends up a flower bud instead of a leaf. In cultivation, this will average 7-10 years after seed germination. Blooming is considered a very rare event in cultivation and even more rare in the wild. The average A. titanum bloom grows roughly 6.5 feet tall, making it the largest unbranched inflorescence in the world. Alas, the Titan Arum is not the world’s largest individual flower. This title is held by Rafflesia arnoldii, another stinky flower, also named Corpse Flower. A titanum‘s bloom is a flower structure consisting of a tall spadix (spike) wrapped by a spathe (a frilly modified leaf). The flowers themselves are quite small and form a small cluster at the base of the structure. The male flowers are located on the top of this cluster and release pollen, and the female flowers are located on the bottom of the cluster.
See a timelapse video of the Titan Arum, or Corpse Flower, begin to bloom.
A unique smell While the foliage is stunning, it is the fragrance, the smell of decaying animal flesh, from this inflorescence that gives the A. titanum its namesake of the “Corpse Plant”. As evening approaches, the female flowers open, thermogenesis begins and the spadix heats up to 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, volatilizing its pungent scent, trying to entice pollinators such as carrion beetles, flies, and other insects that are active at night. Dr. Kite of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew found the key odorants to be sulfides; dimethyl trisulfide (a rotting, animal-like sulfury odor) and dimethyl disulfide (a garlic-like smell). Other compounds present include isovaleric acid, (the smell of sweaty feet) and methylthiol acetate (an unsavory blend of moldy garlic and rotten cheese). The next day, the male flowers open. Within 24-48 hours of maturity, the smell dissipates, the flower structure begins to wilt and eventually collapses, having expended most of its energy. Trimethylamine is released (the source of that lovely rotting fish smell), and hopefully the plant had a successful pollination event! By the UWM Biological Sciences Department Wendy Semski, a graduate student in Biological Sciences professor Jeff Karron’s lab, poses with “Hoot,” a Corpse Flower that recently bloomed in the UWM Greenhouse. Photo courtesy of the Biological Sciences Department.
College of Letters & Science • UW–Milwaukee • 3
A forgott Italian professor’s book remembers one Before Joe DiMaggio ever donned a Yankees uniform, Tony Lazzeri was swinging for the fences. A Hall of Famer and a gifted athlete, Lazzeri wore five World Series rings by the end of his career.
Baseball (2011). It was during his research for that book that he learned about Lazzeri’s achievements. Not only was Lazzeri an amazing player, Baldassaro found, but he was working against a medical handicap.
You’ve probably never heard of him. You might have heard of his teammates, though – baseball legends Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.
“He was afflicted with epilepsy. Every day, he lived with the uncertainty of whether he might have a seizure,” Baldassaro explained.
Lawrence Baldassaro wasn’t familiar with Lazzeri either. “I knew he was in the Hall of Fame, and I knew he played for the Yankees, but I never had researched him in depth,” Baldassaro admitted. “When I realized what a major figure he was in his own time and what he accomplished, I thought, his story has to be told. This Lawrence Baldassaro is too important a figure not to have his achievements chronicled and put into historical perspective.”
Epilepsy may have contributed to his death; Lazzeri passed away at age 42 after a fall that may have been the result of a seizure. Whatever the cause, Lazzeri’s early death made Baldassaro’s writing process challenging. As he was researching, Baldassaro reached out to Lazzeri’s relatives and descendants, but there was no one left alive who actually knew Lazzeri himself.
So, Baldassaro did just that. His new book, Tony Lazzeri: Yankees Legend and Baseball Pioneer, was released in April by the University of Nebraska Press. The launch was hosted by Boswell Books, and featured a panel moderated by Tom Scheiber, the senior curator at the Baseball Hall of Fame. The writing challenge Baldassaro is an emeritus professor of Italian and the former director of the Honors College at UWM. He retired in 2008 after 36 years of service, and he still connects with the university as an instructor in the School of Continuing Education and as a donor who supports the Honors College. He’s also a baseball fan and loves Italian American history. He’s authored several books on the subject, including Beyond DiMaggio: Italian Americans in 4 • IN FOCUS • May, 2021
But they had the next best thing. “Lazzeri’s immigrant father, Agostino, kept scrapbooks of Lazzeri’s career starting from his first years in the minor leagues. (Lazzeri’s) grandson in Oregon invited me to go there and look through these scrapbooks,” Baldassaro said. He also relied on newspaper clippings from the era. He had to take them with a grain of salt – journalists of the time routinely embellished their stories, and Lazzeri was notoriously reluctant to grant interviews – but the papers revealed the ballplayer’s storied career. A forgotten legend Lazzeri was born on Dec. 6, 1903 to Italian immigrants living in San Francisco. At 18, he was signed to the Pacific Coast League, just a step beneath the majors, where he began setting records. In his final year with the Salt Lake City Bees, Lazzeri marked 222 RBIs and 60 homeruns, a feat that had never before been accomplished in the minor or major leagues, until Babe Ruth hit 60 in 1927.
ten legend of baseball’s greats Despite his stats, major league teams were reluctant to sign Lazzeri because of his epilepsy. At the time, Baldassaro said, the condition was not wellunderstood and there was enormous stigma attached. And there was the matter of his heritage. “A lot of teams didn’t want to sign Italians at that time. There were all the stereotypes: They were hotblooded, they were prone to criminality,” Baldassaro noted. Before Lazzeri, only 15 Italian Americans had been signed to the majors. But the Yankees took a gamble after management learned that Lazzeri’s seizures tended to happen in the morning, so he would be free to play afternoon games. His career took off. “So, in 1926, there was a 22-year-old rookie playing alongside Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. That in itself was amazing. But here’s what’s more amazing: In those days, major leaguers didn’t welcome rookies,” Baldassaro said. “If some kid comes up, he’s there to take your job if you’re a veteran. “For whatever reason, Tony Lazzeri not only was accepted by his teammates, he was respected by them to the extent that as a rookie, he was acknowledged by the media and the general manager as a leader of the team on the field, like a captain. That’s unheard of, especially on the Yankees.” Lazzeri played second base at a time where middle infielders generally didn’t hit for power. In his 12 years with the Yankees, Baldassaro said, only six other American League players hit more home runs than Lazzeri, and just five drove in more runs. “So, he was one of the elite sluggers of his time,” Baldassaro said. An American influence Lazzeri becomes even more impressive when you consider American culture and politics at the time, Baldassaro said. As Lazzeri was dominating the minor leagues, Congress passed the 1924 Immigration Act, severely restricting Italian and other southern and eastern Europeans from immigrating to America. As Lazzeri moved up to the majors, the most famous Italian in America, Al Capone, was tightening his grip on the city of Chicago.
Tony Lazzeri was signed to the New York Yankees in 1926. He played second base and was a power hitter on the famed “Murders Row” team alongside Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.
“So Italian Americans, who for decades had been belittled, all of a sudden had this 22-year-old kid who was being cheered and admired by millions of Americans. That instilled a sense of pride in these people,” Baldassaro noted. “He was the first to draw Italians into baseball. “Moreover, it is difficult, I believe, to overestimate Lazzeri’s impact in countering negative perceptions of Italians. As the antithesis of all the stereotypes that had been lodged in the public consciousness for many decades, he helped change the way they were perceived by others.” Lazzeri’s legacy was cut short by his death. Thanks to his reluctance to grant interviews and his larger-thanlife teammates, Lazzeri faded into history, despite his accomplishments and achievements. Baldassaro hopes his book can help change that. “I’ve never written a biography,” he said. “I felt a great sense of responsibility to this man, to get the story right and to do him justice, and hopefully, perhaps, restore him to his rightful place in baseball history.” By Sarah Vickery, College of Letters & Science College of Letters & Science • UW–Milwaukee • 5
From Earth to Mars There are two schools of thought as it concerns the early Martian surface. The first is that, about 3.5 billion of years ago, Mars used to be a cold and icy planet. The second contends that Mars had a more temperate climate, and rivers and lakes flowed over the land. So, which theory is correct? The answer lies in an unlikely place: The bottom of a California lake. That is where UWM graduate student Gayantha R. L. Kodikara (“Kodi”), who is working toward his PhD in geosciences, is examining lake sediments in hopes of better understanding a class of minerals called zeolites. In turn, those zeolites on Earth might give researchers a better understanding of Mars. Answers in zeolite Zeolites are a class of minerals that form within a wide variety of rock types, both in marine and nonmarine environments – especially in areas where volcanic ash reacts with different sources of water. Scientists mainly find them in saline-alkaline lakes, in deep sea sediments, hydrothermal environments, and in certain soils and land surfaces on Earth. The general rule is that zeolites need some form of water in order to form their structure from precursor materials. Therefore, Kodikara said, if scientists can infer that zeolites form on Earth in certain circumstances – a closed basin lake where volcaniclastic materials are present, for example – then it’s reasonable to deduce that zeolites will form, or did form, under the same circumstances on Mars. “When we look at Mars, we have a lot of signatures of volcanoes. There are key minerals that indicate a hydrothermal process,” Kodikara pointed out. “Then we
6 • IN FOCUS • May, 2021
Geosciences PhD student Gayantha Kodikara sits in on the shore of Lake Tecopa in California in 2019, gathering samples of zeolites. Photo courtesy of Gayantha Kodikara.
have rivers, that carved canyons on Mars. Then we have lakes, closed basin lakes with inlets and open basin lakes with inlets and outlets, and seas.” In other words, there are plenty of places on the Martian surface where it’s likely that zeolites may have formed. So, where are they? “We have data mainly from four rovers on Mars: Spirit, Opportunity, Curiosity, and Perseverance. These rovers studied several locations on Mars, but none of them have found these zeolite minerals yet,” Kodikara said. “We have a lot of images from Mars covered by satellites, but from these satellite images only one (zeolite) mineral called analcime have been identified as a possible detection.”
Geosciences student studies analog minerals to understand the Red Planet It’s possible that there just aren’t any zeolites, he acknowledged. Perhaps they existed at one point but were removed through a physical or chemical process. Or maybe they were just absent to begin with. Or, Kodikara said, the zeolites really are there, but our current orbital remote sensing methods can’t detect them. Answers in a lake bed To figure it out, he’s using Earth analogs to answer Martian questions. Kodikara and his PhD advisor, geosciences professor Lindsay McHenry, are mainly focusing on Lake Tecopa in California. In 2018 and ’19, the pair spent a few weeks gathering sediment samples from the saline-alkaline paleolake and analyzing them for zeolite minerals. They also assessed the possibility of identifying the zeolites using orbital spectral image data analog to Mars orbital spectral data. “We found that, in the lake sediments, zeolite can be covered by other kinds of base. It can be covered by the dust, and when it’s covered by dust, we can’t see it. Or it can be covered by other kinds of sediment, like rock material,” Kodikara said.
such when using orbital remote sensing data. Kodikara is adopting deep learning methods to see if he can distinguish them from each other. He also collected the bulk mineral assemblages of over 2,360 sediments from previously published work and his studies from paleolake deposits from the U.S., Mexico, Greece, and Tanzania. Using machine learning methods to understand their chemical patterns, Kodikara gained a better understanding of how zeolites form on Earth. Then, he needed to apply that knowledge to Mars. But there were a few snags. “The problem is, Earth and Mars are completely different,” he laughed. “The second thing is, I’m not thinking about today’s Mars. I’m thinking about 3.5 billion-years-ago Mars. The only way to look at this is with thermodynamic modeling and chemical modeling.” Continued on Page 8
“The other thing is, (if) the thickness of the zeolite is very small, they can’t be detected by the remote sensing data. So, it might be there on Mars, but we can’t detect it for these reasons. Even on the Earth, with remote sensing data, it’s difficult to identify, and we know it’s there!” Common zeolites in paleolake deposits include chabazite, clinoptilolite, erionite, and phillipsite, among others. It might also be that these zeolites are present, but their spectral signatures are so similar to each other and to polyhydrated sulfates, that it’s possible that the nonanalcime zeolites can be identified as other minerals
This chart shows the similar wavelengths of various zeolite minerals. The similarities make it hard for orbital remote sensing methods to accurately detect the presence of zeolite minerals on Mars. Courtesy of Gayantha Kodikara.
College of Letters & Science • UW–Milwaukee • 7
This illustration by Gayantha Kodikara represents how orbital remote sensing by satellites can be used to detect zeolites both on Earth and Mars. Using analog minerals on one planet may help determine what the surface of the other looks like. Courtesy of Gayantha Kodikara.
Mars minerals
Continued from Page 7
In essence, if scientists assume that Mars used to be warm and wet, they can hazard a guess as to what its atmosphere must have been like, given current evidence and knowledge about the conditions of the solar system billions of years ago. Kodikara used those estimates to establish parameters about what Mars’ oxygen and carbon dioxide contents might have been like, the pressure of the atmosphere, and other factors that would affect zeolite formation. “From numerical thermodynamic modeling, we found that it is possible to form the same mineral assemblages with the given environmental conditions on Mars, as we see on the Earth,” Kodikara said. So Kodikara’s work continues. If he and other scientists can use what they know of Earth’s zeolites and how to detect them using orbital remote sensing, they may be able to refine their process of searching for zeolites on Mars. A personal passion Kodikara plans to graduate in fall after a summer spent interning with the Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI). He hopes to find a postdoc position where he can continue researching zeolites and the Martian surface. He loves his work because it’s exactly what he envisioned as a child. 8 • IN FOCUS • May, 2021
“When I was a small kid, I had a dream to be a planetary scientist. I collected all the newspaper articles about space and planets,” he recalled. Kodikara attended college in his home country, Sri Lanka, before being accepted to a graduate programs in the Netherlands (ITC) and India (IIRS) before arriving at UWM as a PhD student. As a geoscientist, Kodikara firmly believes the theory that Mars used to be a warmer, wet planet. The evidence is in the craters and canyons that carve up the planet’s surface, he argues, and scientists need a better understanding of what Mars used to look like. “For me, it’s very personal. I am researching Mars to see what happened to Mars,” Kodikara said. “If, billions of years ago, there was a lot of water, what was the reason we lost it? Where did it go? Why did Mars become a dry planet?” Once again, he’s thinking about analogs – this time from Mars to Earth. “I’m not looking to go and colonize Mars because first of all, my thinking is, we need to save our Earth. To save our Earth, we planetary scientists can help. We can see what happened to other planets,” he said. “I am looking at Mars to see what happened to Mars. If there was life there, what happened to it?” And what, he added, does that mean for Earth? By Sarah Vickery, College of Letters & Science
Get the data on UWM’s new degree The future lies in data, so the UWM Mathematical Sciences Department is making sure its students are prepared. The department debuted a new degree in Data Science this spring, partnering with the Computer Science Department in the UWM College of Engineering and Applied Science to offer coursework centered around data analytics, data architecture, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. UWM is well-poised to begin training students in Data Science, said Suzanne Boyd, Associate Professor and Chair of the Mathematical Sciences Department. After all, the university’s been doing it informally for the past 45 years. “There were already students who were self-selecting the particular math, statistics, and computer science courses that would be more pertinent to data science,” she said. “Students have been doing this for a long time; it’s just now we can give them name recognition for this.” And there will plenty of uses for such a degree right here in Milwaukee, if not throughout the country, added Daniel Gervini. He’s a Mathematical Sciences professor and one of the architects of the new degree. “In Milwaukee, for instance, there are a lot of insurance companies, including Northwestern Mutual. That’s a place where these types of skills are in high demand, always,” he said. “There are all sorts of companies where data analysis is necessary.”
Suzanne Boyd
In fact, the Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that the demand for data scientists, already high, will only grow in the coming years. Data scientists cover a range of professional duties, including database management, big data analysis and handling, statistics and analytics, and more. In addition to teaching the technical and hard skills required for that type of work, Gervini said that the Data Science degree also requires students to have a firm grounding in communication and data ethics. “An important issue in data science and analysis and handling, is how the data is used and for what purpose it will be used, and issues surrounding privacy and security,” he explained. “We thought that that was an angle that we have to cover in addition to the purely technical aspects.” “More and more, we see employers and students who are increasingly interested in soft Daniel Gervini skills for those holding technical positions,” Boyd added. “To be successful in a modern office space, students can’t just have the technical skills down. To be competitive in the interview and application process, they need good soft skills.” Beyond coursework, Boyd and Gervini hope that UWM’s partnership with Northwestern Mutual through the Northwestern Mutual Data Science Institute will also provide students with avenues for internships and research. Gervini is especially hopeful that data science majors will be able to complete internships or capstone projects through the Institute to enhance their coursework. Ultimately, Boyd said, the new Data Science degree is a way to meet the needs of both UWM students and the greater community. “It seemed natural and easy to say, there seems to be a demand for this,” she said. “We as a faculty and our students have a wide range of interests, and we try to honor that and give the students what they need. And, we want to give the community and southeastern Wisconsin what they need in terms of a technical workforce.”
By Sarah Vickery, College of Letters & Science College of Letters & Science • UW–Milwaukee • 9
UWM biologist named a 2021 UW System Regent Scholar Ava Udvadia, UWM associate professor of biological sciences, has been named by the University of Wisconsin System as one of three 2021 Regent Scholar recipients. The honor recognizes both Udvadia’s research into the genetics that allow healing of nerve damage and also her efforts to encourage undergraduates to participate in that work. The UWS Regent Scholar program, which was introduced in 2014, provides a one-time $50,000 grant to individual faculty members or campus UWM’s Ava Udvadia wins UW System Regent Scholar Award programs that undertake undergraduate research projects having the potential to foster She and her team have identified more than 7,000 genes innovation, entrepreneurship and talent development. involved in the regeneration process. The researchers “This is significant recognition and a wonderful statement categorized which genes’ expressions peaked during the about the exponential impact of Dr. Udvadia’s work,” said early, middle and later portions of the fish regeneration UWM Chancellor Mark Mone. “We are extremely proud of timeline. This approach has revealed the gene Dr. Udvadia and her students. I commend her for carrying programming that tells the cell which genes to turn on the torch for future young scientists and researchers.” and off for regeneration, and when to do it. They also have learned about changes in “transcription factors” – Udvadia’s research may one day provide new treatments for human eye injuries or diseases, such as glaucoma, that chemicals that bind to the DNA and control the genes for regeneration. cause permanent vision loss. Her work is inspired by fish, which can restore full function of their optical nerve cells after damage and regain lost sight. Vision requires both the light information detected by eyes and its translation by the brain, a connection made by the optical nerve cells. This process of replacing the cellular parts needed to transmit visual information to the brain is called regeneration. However, the central nervous system cells in humans do not regenerate, even though they have the same genes and pathways used by fish. “Fish, frogs, salamanders, mice and humans – we all run a genetic program to build this connection from the eye to the brain in the same way,” Udvadia said. “What are the instructions that fish use to turn genes on and off in order for that regeneration to happen? We want to be able to apply that ultimately to human patients.” 10 • IN FOCUS • May, 2021
Now the researchers are equipped to work on the next piece of the puzzle: identify from among these transcription factors which ones are different between mammals (including humans) and fish. Udvadia said that research experience for undergraduates equals workforce development because hard work and creativity by students make scientific discoveries possible. She described her own undergraduate research experience as powerful. “Being able to give that experience to our undergraduates, that’s probably been the thing that I’ve loved the most at UWM,” she said. “Here, they play an active role in our research, and that’s a lot of what my lab has always been all about.” The UW Board of Regents announced the grant recipients at its April 8 video-conferenced meeting. By Laura Otto, University Relations
Student researcher ‘stepping back in time’ on Lake Michigan shore UWM student Mikayla Walker show a fragment of peat with well-preserved plant and insect material unearthed at Sheridan Park in Cudahy. The fossil was found at the bottom of a bluff containing sedimentary strata deposited under a nearly mile-thick glacial at the end of the last ice age. Behind Walker are student Rene Chavez and geosciences lecturer Scott Schaefer. (UWM Photo/Troye Fox)
Between 35,000 and 40,000 years ago, Lake Michigan’s geography looked drastically different. Much of its presentday shoreline was made up of marshes and bogs. Student researchers are studying fossils deposited during that time to learn more about the area’s ecosystems. “It’s like stepping back in time,” Mikayla Walker, a junior majoring in geology, said of her work in a Cudahy park on Lake Michigan. She is one of the student researchers studying fossils deposited along the lakeshore there. She became interested in geology through GO FoRWARD, a program that encourages more students from underrepresented groups to go into the geosciences. Her mentor is Scott Schaefer, a lecturer in geosciences. Dyanna Czeck is principal investigator for the GO FoRWARD program, which is funded by the National Science Foundation. The work Walker is doing is looking at sediments from a geological layer that runs under and expands beyond Cudahy, which includes strata of ancient bog material – peat. The material contains flora and fauna that predate the last glacial advance. “The bog preserves things very well, which is what is really neat about it,” she said. Fragments of beetle fossils are among the clues to the paleoecology of the area that were left behind, and that’s where Walker has focused her research. Since the pandemic hit, much of her work is being done in the lab, tearing apart the compressed peat material to recover the fossils, and studying them under a microscope rather than out in the field. Beetles are the largest animal remains found in the samples. Figuring out which family the fragments fall into and classifying the ancient beetles is a challenge, she said.
“When you’re doing research, you think you’re going to learn so much – and I did – but you also find more questions that need researching. The more you learn the more you question.” The project she is working on would complement similar work being done by a professor on the other side of Lake Michigan, she said, and she is thrilled at the idea that what she is doing is related to the body of research on what life was like before the Great Lakes region resembled what we know today. Walker, who transferred from MATC, is happy that she’s been able to do research at an R1 university – “I didn’t even know what an R1 university was when I came here.” (R1 is a ranking that indicates the university is engaging in the highest level of research activity.) Now, she said, “I’m still really proud of what I’ve done. It seemed scary in the beginning, but I feel like a scientist after working on it.” She’s a junior and has been offered the opportunity to travel to Spain with Czeck to study tectonic plates – whenever travel restrictions are lifted. Walker said she feels it is important to encourage more young women and people of color to go into geology and geosciences, fields that are currently mainly white and male. “My goal is to inspire women and children to go against the status quo and pursue degrees in STEM.” By Kathy Quirk, University Relations
College of Letters & Science • UW–Milwaukee • 11
Taking a long-term look at income inequality John Schwendel took an extraordinarily long view while researching income inequality in the United States. He explored some 70 years of data, a time frame from 1946-2015, and studied the central range of earners, which offered new insights into how inequality continued to grow throughout the period. Schwendel, who recently earned his doctorate in economics under Professor Hamid Mohtadi, sourced geographically precise income data from the Internal Revenue Service. He found that high-earners have steadily pulled ahead of all other earners in the U.S., even during the prosperous post-World War II years of shared economic growth. Schwendel’s research also allowed him to divide income earners into smaller groupings than had been available before. Previously published IRS data presented only large brackets of income, without breaking down how incomes were distributed within bands of varying size. “It’s both a major methodological contribution and a contribution in terms of expanding the data set,” says Mohtadi, noting the new and surprising discovery that there was a rise in inequality even in the 1950s.
John Schwendel
Schwendel found that middle-class incomes certainly rose from 1946-74, which meshes with the general idea of a strong middle class in the postwar period. “But that’s also when the 90th percentile earners were running away the fastest,” he says. And after 1974, inflation-adjusted wages for the middle class have barely budged while the top group continues to rise. The end result is greater inequality. Schwendel’s research suggests that in 1946, the 50th percentile of households made approximately $26,000 in annual adjusted gross income in 2020 dollars, while the 90th percentile made about $56,000. Those adjusted approximations for 2015: the 50th percentile made $38,000; the 90th percentile made $170,000. From 1946 on, factors such as the GI Bill, unionization and women in the labor force helped boost mid-range incomes. Of particular note was how working women boosted income for two-earner couples, even in the ’40s and ’50s, which helped the 90th percentile of households pull away from lower groups. So did unionization, given the position of skilled workers in the income distribution in the past. By David Lewellen, University Relations
Video Story If you could give the next generation of Panther’s a piece of advice, what would you tell them? Hear from some of our current Panthers - including psychology major Kayla Jackson and communications major Jeff Saether. https://youtu.be/jUtV8DxaIvA
12 • IN FOCUS • May, 2021
A modern agricultural field is nestled against ancient ruins in Peru. (Photo courtesy of David Pacifico)
A thread tying ancient Peru to modern Chicago For nearly 20 years, David Pacifico has traversed the terrains of Peru. First, helping colleagues interview Spanishspeaking locals as an archeology intern. Then, excavating areas in the ancient city of El Purgatorio, about 200 miles north of Lima. Pacifico also has close ties to Chicago, where he did his graduate and postdoc work. Which explains, the assistant art history professor says, the inspiration for some of his latest research. Pacifico juxtaposed neighborhoods in 14th-century El Purgatorio and 20th-century Chicago – namely, Bronzeville – to explore how diverse communities form. Despite their historical and cultural differences, the origin stories of both neighborhoods share some unexpected commonalities. “Looking at Bronzeville and El Purgatorio was about studying individual houses and seeing how they fit into the broader community,” says Pacifico, who’s also director of the UWM Art Collection and Emile H. Mathis Art Gallery. “That’s where you can start reconstructing these kinds of stories.” It’s a common misconception, Pacifico says, that neighborhoods evolve because pods of homogenous people naturally come together in a neighborhood. Instead, migration of various types of people – who often share broad characteristics – into an area is the building block upon which populations grow and neighborhoods form. And the neighborhoods Pacifico examined became nexuses, housing diverse people arriving through several historical processes. El Purgatorio’s residents, for example, are believed to have arrived from the surrounding countryside due to climate change and to escape the imperial Chimú culture. Migration to Bronzeville, meanwhile, stemmed from people seeking industrial David Pacifico work due to World War I and to escape oppression in the South. Bursts of mass migration to both communities provided access to jobs and resources, so diverse neighborhoods blossomed despite racial segregation in Chicago and class-related segregation in El Purgatorio. There was the inevitable factioning, but those internal divisions also helped create the individual characters of the neighborhoods. “I was thinking about neighborhoods as special kinds of communities,” Pacifico says, “because neighborhoods are based in places and residences. They speak to the way we really experience our lives with people who, at the very least, seem familiar to us.” By LaBreea Watson, University Relations College of Letters & Science • UW–Milwaukee • 13
In the Media and Around the Community Derek Handley (English) described his experience as a Chamberlain Fellow at Amherst College (before his time at UWM) in a piece published by The Phoenix, the student newspaper of Swarthmore College. Iranians have a new book to read; the Tehran Times reported that Liam Callanan’s (English) 2018 novel, Paris by the Book, has been translated into Persian. Gladys Mitchell-Walthour (African and African and Diaspora Studies) was the keynote speaker for the North Central Council of Latin Americanists conference held on April 18. Her presentation was about “Afro-descendants, Crises, and Resistance in Latin America.” She also appeared on Capitol Hill in April where she moderated and presented at a U.S. Congressional briefing to staffers of Congress members.
How did the plethora of southside Milwaukee churches come about? Chris Cantwell (History) explained on WUWM’s show “Bubbler Talk.” Cary Costello (Sociology) decried both the new legislation banning on gender-affirming therapies and surgeries for transgender children and those laws’ exceptions for surgeries for intersex children in a Vice article. The cherry trees are in bloom, so Aragorn Quinn (Japanese) took to WUWM Radio to explain the significance of their ephemeral blossoms in Japanese culture. Carolyn Eichner (French) received a glowing review for her book, Franchir les barricades: Les femmes dans la Commune de Paris, in the French-language online newspaper Mediapart. There’s a new Mexican restaurant in Green Bay with a controversial name, and Kathleen Wheatley (Spanish) explained its meaning in an article published in The Newcomer.
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U.S. Census expert Margo Anderson (emerita History) said that the Census Bureau failed to inform states when it conducted the Census using a new privacy tool, according to an Associated Press article reprinted throughout the country. After Foxconn fell far short of job and building targets, Jeffrey Sommers (Global Studies and African and African Diaspora Studies) told WUWM that the deal is a cautionary tale for how governments should incentivize private corporations. After predicting the peak of the second wave of coronavirus infections in Argentina, Daniel Gervini (Mathematical Sciences) discussed his statistical methods in the online publication Archyde.com. News makes the headlines, but who makes the news? Jane Hampden Daley’s (Journalism, Advertising, and Media Studies) new podcast series “Making News” interviews reporters and journalists in local Milwaukee media and is available via Apple Podcasts. Bettina Arnold (Anthropology) gave two lectures and presented a workshop at the virtual Getty-CAS Spring School on “The Impact of the Political on Archaeological Research” at the University of Sofia, Bulgaria, in April. Brenda Cárdenas (English) gave a talk and poetry reading titled, “Writing Working Class Lives,” for the University of Washington-Bothell’s “Labor in Times of Crisis” Colloquium. She has also been invited to teach a generative workshop and give a poetry reading at the June retreat of CantoMundo, a national poetry organization that cultivates community for Latinx poets.
Apple and Epic Games are locked in a lawsuit over Apple’s decision to ban Epic Games’ popular “Fortnite” game from its app store. The Verge reported that Nancy Mathiowetz (emerita Sociology) may be called as an expert witness in the trial. Jocelyn Szczepaniak-Gillece (Film Studies) discussed the future of movie theaters on WUWM.
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Upcoming Events When the Today Show tracked the start of spring during one show in April, they relied on Mark Schwartz’s (Geography) Spring Indices for their data. A poetry collection inspired by Kansas birds includes a poem written by graduate student Canese Jarboe (English), KCUR 89.3 reported. Sara Benesh (Political Science) opined in a Politifact article that a Democratic proposal to increase the number of Supreme Court justices does indeed count as court-packing. Former president Barack Obama and President Joe Biden have different personal styles that may help account for the difference in their messaging early in their terms, Michael Mirer (Journalism, Advertising, and Media Studies) told the Wisconsin Examiner. Madison’s WORT 89.9 FM invited Nancy Bird-Soto (Spanish) to talk about the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies’ Latin American Film Series on the radio show, A Public Affair. Lab-grown lobster? John Pattinson (‘08, BA Economics) and his company, Cultured Decadence, are attempting to generate lobster “meat” in a lab, according to a Wisconsin State Journal article. May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Chia Youyee Vang (History) discussed its importance with TMJ4 News. Kristine (Berg) Joseph (‘07, BA Communication) was profiled in the Sun This Week for her newlyreleased memoir, Simply Because We Are Human (Wise Ink, Minneapolis).
May 6 Virtual Literary Salon: Contemporary Jewish Writers in Conversation. 7 p.m. via Zoom. The 2021 Faye Sigman “Woman of Valor” event features fiction writers Elisa Albert, Molly Antopol, and Lauren Fox. Free and open to the public. Register at https://bit.ly/3ta5cmt.
May 7 Geography Undergraduate Students Research Symposium. 1 p.m. via MS Teams. Geography majors present their individual research projects. https://bit.ly/2POdhji
Neuroscience Seminar: Using RNA to find answers in neurodegeneration. 2 p.m. via Zoom. Yuna Ayala, St. Louis University. https://bit.ly/3nIE4Kj
May 20 Virtual Book Launch of “Jewish Cultural Studies” by Simon Bronner. 7 p.m. via Zoom. Simon Bronner (UWM) discusses Jewish cultural studies with Sander Gilman (Emory University), Jonathan Boyarin (Cornell University), and Lisa Silverman (UWM). Free and open to the public. Register at https://bit.ly/3tcNyi3.
June 2 Author Visit for “SHAPE: The Hidden Geometry of Information, Biology, Strategy, Democracy, and Everything Else”. 7 p.m. via Zoom. New York Times bestselling author Jordan Ellenberg and John Urschel, former guard with the Baltimore Ravens, meet for a virtual conversation regarding mathematics. This event is in partnership with Boswell Books. Register at https://bit.ly/3vIaxDr. College of Letters & Science • UW–Milwaukee • 15
Laurels and Accolades Mauricio Kilwein Guevara (English) was invited to be the inaugural curator for Woodland Pattern Book Center’s Milwaukee Poem-a-Day Project. The Project is in celebration of National Poetry Month, and six of the seven poets Mauricio chose either hold degrees from UWM’s nationally recognized Creative Writing Program or are active graduate students. In addition, he was a featured writer at a national poetry conference in April sponsored by Write On, Door County. Finally, his new short story was accepted for Summer 2021 publication in The Georgia Review. Entitled “Pachakutik,” the story dramatizes a decades-long restitution case for environmental damage to the eastern rainforest of Ecuador and its inhabitants. Kimberly Blaeser (English and American Indian Studies) recently had her poem, “The Where In My Belly,” featured as Poem of the Week by Split This Rock, a poetry organization devoted to justice and social change. She is also serving as guest curator for Split this Rock’s, “The Quarry: A Social Justice Poetry Database.” Among the poems Mauricio Kilwein Guevara she selected is “Music Arises from Component Parts or The Dream of a Clarinet,” by Toby Wray (‘17, PhD English) an alumnus of UWM’s graduate Creative Writing program. The work of both poets will remain a part of “The Quarry.” Camila Guarda Velasco’s (Journalism, Advertising, and Media Studies) documentary, “The Women and the Sea,” was chosen for screening at the Milwaukee Film Festival in May. “The Women and the Sea” has won Best International Latino Short Film at NYC’s Latin Film Market and the Latino Short Documentary Award at Texas’ Festival de Cine Latinoamericano. It is also eligible for awards at the Milwaukee Film Festival. Four UWM students earned prizes at the 2021 Wisconsin State Chinese Speech Contest. All four winners are currently in their second semester of learning Chinese. •
Freshman Abigail Griepentrog, who has not decided a major, won a 1st place prize.
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Seung Yun Kim is an undecided sophomore and won a 1st place prize. (She lives in Korea and takes synchronous classes at UWM meaning she is taking class at 2:00 am Korea time)
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Evan Kreuger (Global Studies) is a junior and won a 3rd place prize.
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Jean Baker is a senior auditor and won a 3rd place prize.
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Amalia Maria Cecilia Perez performed an original song in Chinese during the performance section of the competition. Amalia is a freshman film major also taking second semester Chinese.
UWM student journalists, many majors in Journalism, Advertising, and Media Studies, scooped up top honors in the regional Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Awards, including eight first-place awards out of 17 awards in total. The first-place winners will go on to compete in the national SPJ competition.
People in Print Jean Creighton (Planetarium) and Robin Mellow (Theater). 2021. Tale of Scale: Infusing astronomical concepts into an undergraduate storytelling course. The Planetarian, 50(1), 13-18. https://bit.ly/32hmDGF Alice Gattoni (Communication). 2021. Narratives of mental illness in “This is Us”. In Normalizing Mental Illness and Neurodiversity in Entertainment Media: Quieting the Madness (M.A. Johnson and C.J. Olson, eds.): Routledge. Jeffrey Sommers (African and African Diaspora Studies and Global Studies) and C. Marian. 2020. Syldavia and the Borduria Treaty: Trianon at 100. Trianon Report: 100 Years After. London School of Economis IDEAS Central and South-East Europe Programme Desk at FSPAC 2020: 38-48. https://bit.ly/32cRhkH 16 • IN FOCUS • May, 2021
Alumni Accomplishments Martin Shanks (‘12, Masters of Public Administration) was named the new administrator of the village of Oregon, Wisconsin, and will begin in his role in May. Shanks currently serves as the administrator of the village of Poynette, Wisconsin. https://bit.ly/32ihIFD Michelle Grabner (‘88, MA Art History) was named a 2021 Guggenheim Fellow. Grabner was one of just 184 Fellows chosen from over 3,000 applicants to receive the prestigious award, which recognizes “exceptional individuals in pursuit of scholarship in any field of knowledge and creation in any art form.” https://bit.ly/3e3swwH
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Gary Hoover (‘93, BA Economics) was selected to the inaugural Nobel Prize Summit on April 26-28. He was among a group of 40 distinguished Nobel Laureates and other innovators discussing “Our Planet, Our Future” in a virtual conference. Hoover is an economist and the director of Tulane University’s Murphy Institute. https://bit. Michelle Grabner
Cleo D. Rucker (‘00, BA English) is Vanderbilt University’s new chief human resources officer. Rucker joined Vanderbilt in 2011 and for the past three years has served as senior director of HR Consulting, Employee, and Labor Relations. He assumes his new position in May. https://bit.ly/2Qtckwv
Ryan Sorenson (‘16, BA Political Science) became the city of Sheboygon’s youngest mayor on record after he was elected to the position in the April 2021 elections. He is also among the youngest mayors in the state of Wisconsin. He sat on the Sheboygan city council for four years before his run and also served as the council president. https://bit.ly/3g8d7Of
Luis De Leon (‘18, BA Journalism, Advertising, and Media Studies) accepted a new position as a reporter with 9News KUSA Denver, and will leave his current position as a reporter with KVUE Austin in Texas. https://
Gary Hoover
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David Luhrssen (‘91, MA History) is the author of the 2021 book World War II on Film. The book compares fact with fiction in popular movies that depict the war. World War II on Film is published by ABC-Clio. David Reeves (‘92, BA Political Science) is returning to his Milwaukee roots; OpenGov, which provides Cloud ERP software for city, county, and state governments and agencies, is expanding to Milwaukee. Reeves is the President of the Silicon Valley start-up. https://prn.to/3xJVrig
Kristin Flora (‘07, PhD Psychology) was appointed the vice president for acadamic affairs and dean of the college at Franklin College in Franklin, Indiana. Flora held the position on an acting basis since June of 2020 and before that, served in the college’s Psychology Department. https://bit.ly/3wX2TGn
Ryan Sorenson
Phi Beta Kappa is a nationally-recognized honors society whose inductees are chosen for their excellent academics and dedication to the liberal arts and sciences. This year, UWM is proud to induct the 2021 Phi Beta Kappa class and recognize their academic achievements. While we wish we could celebrate
Zhanna (Vaynberg) Slor (‘08, BA English) received a glowing review for her debut crime novel, At the End of the World, Turn Left, by NPR book critic Bethanne Patrick.
their accomplishments in person, this year’s class was lauded virtually. Meet the 2021 Phi Beta Kappa class at
https://uwm.edu/phi-beta-kappa/2021-phi-betakappa-members.
College of Letters & Science • UW–Milwaukee • 17
Peter Blewett, a lecturer in the UWM English Department, worked with students from his Multicultural America course in the 2021 Adopt-a-River Earth Day Clean-up sponsored by the Center for Community-based Learning, Leadership, and Research and the Urban Ecology Center.
