College of Letters & Science
IN FOCUS
October 2021, Vol. 11, No. 10
Former Boston Globe columnist champions social justice Pg. 6
Alum advocates in column inches
Alum researches w
Contents Feature Stories Alum finds way to treat blood vessel diseases Prof translates German letters for new book Journalism alum uses career for advocacy New C21 director outlines Center’s future Biologists build frog arena to test mating calls Japanese club lends a hand with art exhibit
p.2 p.4 p.6 p.8 p.10 p.13
Columns Passings Laurels and Accolades In the Media Alumni Accomplishments People in Print Video Story Upcoming Events
Published College the
the first
Tuesday
of Letters and
University
Contact
of
of each month by the
Science
at
Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
us at let-sci@uwm.edu
L&S Dean: Scott Gronert In Focus Editor: Deanna Alba
p.12 p.14 p.15 p.16 p.16 p.16 p.17
Sarah Parker is studying what’s happening inside large blood vessels to find better ways to diagnose and treat threatening conditions like atherosclerosis and aneurysms. A UWM alum who earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in kinesiology and psychology at UWM, Parker is a researcher at the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars Sinai in Los Angeles. She and her team are looking at the molecular “signatures” of these dangerous diseases. Atherosclerosis, a buildup of plaque on artery walls, contributes to coronary artery disease, a major cause of death in the country. Aortic aneurysms weaken the arteries and predispose them to rupturing. Cedars Sinai is one of the top three centers in the country studying these types of diseases. “We need to diagnose them earlier because they are ‘indolent diseases’ – you don’t know you have them typically until they’ve become symptomatic, which is usually pretty bad,” Parker says. “The only treatment we know of is surgery.” A competitive speedskater Parker originally started her academic career at UWM because she was a speedskater, and Milwaukee’s Pettit National Ice Center was a top training facility. She initially was interested in studying sports psychology and sports medicine, and had the opportunity to work in labs in the College of Health Sciences and the Department of Psychology. With the encouragement of mentors and faculty in psychology and health sciences, she became interested in the neurological side of psychology. After earning her master’s at UWM, Parker went on to the Medical College of Wisconsin for her doctorate, focusing on using high-tech tools called mass spectrometers to get a view of biology at the molecular level. “I was really attracted to that area of research…getting a systems-level view of how biology works. You have all these molecules that come together in particular combinations to drive a process.” Her work led to research in bioinformatics, learning how to convert data into actual knowledge that can be applied to new hypotheses and new areas of biology, she said.
Find us at UWMLetSci
2 • IN FOCUS • October, 2021
After doing postdoctoral work at Johns Hopkins, she joined the Smidt Heart Institute research labs at Cedars Sinai in 2018. In her position as a faculty researcher, she said, she has the opportunity to work with Dr. Jennifer Van Eyk, one of the top researchers in the field. Parker has received a prestigious K99-R00 grant from the National Institutes of Health to help support her
ways to treat blood vessel diseases work. This Pathway to Independence grant helps support outstanding postdoctoral researchers to move into independent tenure track or equivalent positions. Looking for disease markers Her research looks at what is going on inside the blood vessels, looking for biomarkers that could indicate disease. The goal is to eventually use the findings to develop treatments that might help some patients avoid surgery. By looking at proteins and other UWM alum Sarah Parker works in a lab at Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars Sinai in Los Angeles. (Photo molecules in the courtesy of Cedars Sinai) blood that are put out by the diseased segments of the vessels, the researchers are hoping to be Being able to do research as an undergraduate at UWM able to better screen for diseases. “We can use them to was instrumental in developing her interests, Parker said. identify the presence of the disease in the same way we “You have people who are dedicated to teaching as much use cholesterol to screen for heart risk.” as to their research, and you get that really great balance. I’m now at an academic medical center, but I think that Her lab studies genetics, which can be a factor in the experience really helped inform who I was going to be as development of these large blood vessel diseases. For a professional.” example, Marfan syndrome, an inherited disease that affects connective tissue – the fibers that support and UWM provided her with more opportunities at a younger anchor connective tissues – commonly affects the heart, age than she might have gotten at a larger, bigger-name eyes, blood vessels and skeleton. school, she added. The goal is to use the research to help these patients, with the hope that the findings can be generalized to help others who suffer the same types of large blood vessels diseases, Parker said. “What we find with those patients, we can use to help others.”
“What you get at a school like UWM is really strong researchers who also have the time and energy and passion to put into mentorship.” By Kathy Quirk, University Relations
Credit to her mentors Parker credits her many mentors throughout her academic career with her success, including Professor Barbara Meyer and Distinguished Professor Fred Helmstetter at UWM. “Mentors who are really passionate and really good at supporting that passion in you have been a very critical driver for me in my area of research.”
College of Letters & Science • UW–Milwaukee • 3
A radical translat
Professor’s new book shines a light o She was a revolutionary who delivered lectures on feminism and worked with the likes of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. She founded a school for girls and advocated passionately for women’s education. She wrote for newspapers, traveled extensively, and began a Viktorija Bilic passionate relationship with another woman– a Milwaukeean named Mary Booth. Her name was Mathilde Anneke, and she’s at the heart of Viktorija Bilic’s latest research. Bilic, an associate professor in UWM’s Translation and Interpreting Studies program, is the coeditor of the new book, “Radical Relationships: The Civil War Era Correspondence of Mathilde Franziska Anneke.” She and coeditor Alison Clark Efford, a historian at Marquette University, debuted their work on Sept. 1. The book is a collection of Anneke’s letters, translated from their original 19th century German to reveal a glimpse into the life of a woman that history has mostly passed over. “Very few people know about (Anneke),” Bilic lamented. “She’s not as well-known as she should be.” A revolutionary radical When Bilic says Anneke was a radical, she means it. Anneke fought right alongside the men during the failed 1848 revolution in Germany. Defeated, Anneke and other “1848ers” fled their native land and settled in Milwaukee. 4 • IN FOCUS • October, 2021
“Milwaukee was called ‘German Athens,’ because so many immigrants moved there,” Bilic said. “In 1910, half of the city’s population claimed German ancestry. In the late 19th century, people would walk into a store and vendors felt like they had to put up signs: ‘English Spoken Here,’ because of course, German was spoken there.” There were other famous names in the wave of ‘48ers, including Peter Engelmann, for whom UWM’s Engelmann Hall is named, and Karl Schurz, whose wife, Margarethe Meyer Schurz, founded the first private kindergarten in Wisconsin. In Milwaukee, Anneke met Mary Booth, and a relationship blossomed between the two women. As Anneke’s husband Fritz fought for the Union during the Civil War, she and Booth traveled to Zurich and lived together until Booth’s death in 1865. Anneke later returned to Milwaukee, where she spent the rest of her life advocating for women’s education and suffrage. Unfortunately, Bilic said, there is so much about Anneke’s life that had to be left out of the book. For length, they focused on the letters Anneke wrote during the Civil War. “The letters are very emotional and also tell about her relationships – radical relationships with Mary Booth, her partner; with Fritz, her husband; and other radical women she met and associated with when she was in Zurich,” said Bilic. A friend or lover? For historians, the great mystery surrounding Anneke’s life was the nature of her relationship with Mary Booth. They were domestic partners, but were they lovers? Bilic doesn’t know. “I’ve seen sources where people made her to be a queer pioneer or something. She wasn’t that,” Bilic said firmly. “We (Bilic and Efford) believe that Mary Booth was the love of her life, in a way, because Mathilde says so in her letters. She also tells Fritz, ‘We should have stayed friends. … We’re not connected like lovers anymore.’ Her letters to Mary and Mary’s to her were very affectionate, but we never know whether it actually became physical. They shared a bed, yes, but that was also not uncommon in the day.” In the end, Bilic said, she translated the letters between Anneke and Booth to the best of their ability and left
tion
on Milwaukee’s Mathilde Anneke the audience to decide the nature of their relationship. The trials of translation To give the audience the best information possible, Bilic, who specializes in historical translation, spent five years deciphering Anneke’s thousands of letters. But historical translation isn’t as simple as glancing at the German and writing the English equivalent. To start with, you have to learn ‘Kurrentschrift,’ the script in which most Germans wrote up until around 1911.
“(She mentions) like, ten different Karls. Was it Karl her brother-in-law; Carl Lachmund, a Hanover-born second lieutenant in Fritz Anneke’s regiment; or another Karl? Sometimes you can tell from context, but for that, you have to know everything you possibly can about your letter writers,” Bilic said. So, she and Efford researched both the language of the time and Anneke’s connections. Bilic visited Germany and Switzerland to examine historical documents revealing more of Anneke’s life. Efford’s knowledge of German immigrant history proved invaluable. “It makes for a better book that I collaborated with a historian who could provide the historical background in a way that I couldn’t have done, and she couldn’t have translated the letters the way that I did,” Bilic said. And that faithful translation is important, she added. “I feel, as a translator, you have a responsibility to do right by those people,” she said. “(You must) give them a voice.” Bilic’s book is available through the University of Georgia Press. By Sarah Vickery, College of Letters & Science
“If you don’t work with historical documents now, you can’t read it. It’s something that I have done for such a long time that I can read it like any other script, but it took me awhile,” Bilic said. “That’s the first step, is transcribing it. I was transcribing those letters for maybe two years.” After the letters were in a more readable format, Bilic still had to convert the text from German to English. But this wasn’t any German – it was 19th century German, full of phrases and idioms that don’t translate well, if at all. On top of that, Anneke constantly discussed the people around her in her letters. Fritz or Mary might have known who she was talking about, but it was a This page, taken from one of Mathilde Anneke’s letters, shows an example of the Kurrentschrift writing. Image courtesy of Viktorija Bilic. mystery to Bilic and Efford.
Advocating in column inches: Journal When Derrick Jackson was 10 years old, he went to visit his grandparents in DeKalb, Mississippi. He remembers one trip with his grandfather into town, where young Jackson wanted to buy some comic books and an ice cream cone from a local drug store. When he ordered his dessert, Jackson, who is Black, recalled that the white girl working the register looked petrified. A white man poked his head out from the back and said, “He’s not from around here. Just give him the ice cream cone.” When Jackson returned to their car, his grandfather asked where he’d bought the comic books. Jackson told him. “He said, ‘Oh. You know that’s the white folks’ drug store.’ This was not all that long after Emmett Till was murdered,” Jackson recalled. “He got all quiet and a soft smile came to his face. He said one word. He said, ‘Good.’” Young Jackson felt validated in that moment, like he could go anywhere and had the right to do so. When he looks back, he says, his long career in journalism started in that truck. “My feeling of saying what was on my mind and not being afraid to put it on paper, I really attribute it to that moment,” Jackson said. Since then, Jackson has gone so many places. A self-described recovering sports writer and a former columnist for the Boston Globe, Jackson is also a Pulitzer Prize nominee; an award-winning author of two books; and has become a passionate advocate for public health, the environment, and social justice. Milwaukee origins Jackson’s parents always expected him to go to college, but they weren’t 6 • IN FOCUS • October, 2021
picky about where. So, Jackson, a product of Milwaukee Public Schools, headed to the university in his backyard. He majored in mass communication (now journalism, advertising, and media studies) at UWM, a love he discovered while writing for his school newspapers in middle and high school. He also worked at the Milwaukee Courier in high school and his first few months at UWM. Shortly after beginning classes, though, he dropped the Courier job when he was offered a position covering high school sports for the Milwaukee Journal. “At the same time, I became an apprentice photographer at the Associated Press. I worked under the sports photographer for the Wisconsin AP,” Jackson said. There, he covered Green Bay Packers games with his mentor, and occasionally covered the Brewers and the Bucks – including the Bucks’ 1974 championship series against the Celtics. Inside of the classroom, Jackson counted himself lucky to work with the faculty in the mass communication department, most of whom were industry professionals themselves. “They have instant credibility with you as a student. Everybody cared about their craft,” he recalled. “No one was mailing it in. No one was sleepwalking through their own past glories. They were teaching the best in journalism.” After graduating in 1976, Jackson spent two years covering sports for the Kansas City Star before moving to New York to join Newsday. There, he wrote about some of the city’s most notorious events at the time, including Bernard Goetz’s shooting of four Black youths on a subway. Jackson also covered the 1988 presidential campaign of Michael Dukakis. The more time he spent on the campaign trail, the more he found himself wishing he could express
UWM alum and former Boston Globe columnist Derrick Jackson holds restoration to the Atlantic Coast in Maine. Photo courtesy of Derrick J
his own opinions on the issues. When he and his wife, Dr. Michelle Holmes, moved back to her hometown of Boston, Jackson joined the Boston Globe as a columnist, where he spent the rest of his career before taking a buyout in 2015. In his opinion To be a good columnist, it’s not enough to just have an opinion. “I had a tremendous mentor, the late Les Payne,” Jackson said. “He always told me that a column is the subject of a made-up mind, but you can only make up your mind when you report, gather your facts, and marshal your facts. Even if someone disagrees with your point of view, they have to wrestle with your facts.”
lism alum is a voice for social justice athletes, since he spent so many years on sports desks. “I started (a column) that still lives on at ESPN’s The Undefeated. I started doing the graduation rates of teams in March Madness basketball and football bowl games. I did so because, back when I started it, the graduation rate … of the top teams were like an inverse proportion to their win rates,” Jackson said. Those columns were cited in The Wall Street Journal when he began them, and were incorporated into the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics’ major report on inequity in sports teams. “I’m really pleased that that issue is important to people – what I would call the hypocrisy of the so-called student athlete model,” Jackson added.
s a juvenile puffin during one of his many check-ins with the Puffin Project in Maine. Jackson is the author of two books about the sea bird’s Jackson.
The advice worked; Jackson has been routinely recognized for his work and was even nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 2001. “That was fun. It was kind of like making it to the Super Bowl and getting wiped out – but I did get to the Super Bowl,” he joked. But it’s the awards from the National Association of Black Journalists that mean the most, he added. They are his peers in an industry that has not always welcomed non-white points of view. He most recently won the Scripps Howard Award in April for his coverage on the disparities surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. His work, written for
the Union of Concerned Scientists and Grist.org, covered the “bald-faced racism involved in the decisions of governors, particularly in the South, of banning mask mandates, demanding people go back to work regardless of the public health situation,” Jackson said. “It feels that good that other people see me as a voice for those who are being harmed or oppressed or discriminated against.” He also scooped up two first prizes this year in Sports and Social Justice commentary from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. Advocacy Jackson’s recent work has focused on public health and the pandemic, but historically, he has advocated for
And in professional sports, he couldn’t help but notice how announcers and broadcasters praised the mental acuity of white athletes but tended to ignore that when they talked about the physicality of Black athletes. “I was told … that one set of those columns on sports language made it into the preparation package of Super Bowl announcers one year. I feel good about having an effect – in many situations, sports language did get better,” Jackson said. “The reason I’ve done those pieces is because sports, for better or for worse, is probably the single most visible way that white America sees Black men. If they are viewed as less smart than white athletes, that maintains a cascade of effects that results in a disproportionate number of white athletes being picked as coaches and general managers.”
Continued on Page 8
College of Letters & Science • UW–Milwaukee • 7
Globe columnist Continued from Page 7
He’s also passionate about public health and environmental causes. Jackson is the coauthor of two books covering Project Puffin, a project to restore the seabirds to the coast of Maine. In May, his book The Puffin Plan, published by Tumblehome Books, received the first-place Gold Award for Teen Nonfiction in the Independent Book Publishers Association’s Benjamin Franklin Awards. Unconventional life Jackson knows he’s led a remarkable life. He’s traveled, met extraordinary people, and enjoyed a national pulpit for most of his career. He likes birding with his wife and has followed the Puffin Project closely for years. He is a respected journalist who has used his position to be an advocate for others. He currently writes for organizations like the Union of Concerned Scientists, Grist.org, and The Undefeated. He also serves as a diversity consultant, and his work is lauded and referenced by others. Jackson doesn’t take it for granted – but he hopes that America soon will. “I’ve been able to get out of the books and do writing in ways and other pursuits that people are surprised to see a Black man doing,” he said. “I just hope that this country can become a place where, if you want to fight the traditional fights, that’s fine; and if you want to be out of the box, that’s fine too. No one should be surprised.” By Sarah Vickery, College of Letters & Science
8 • IN FOCUS • October, 2021
New director, new directio In 1995, her new PhD in hand, Anne Basting took the elevator to the ninth floor of Curtin Hall to begin her first-ever job in academia as a fellow in UWM’s Center for 21st Century Studies. She was concentrating on Age Studies as she developed her dissertation into a book. In 2021, she took that same elevator ride up to the C21 offices on the ninth floor. Everything was just as she remembered it – the same stunning view of Lake Michigan, the same office spaces, the same sense of purpose she felt when she first walked in all of those years ago. But this time, Basting isn’t a fellow; she’s the C21 director. “It really is full-circle,” she said with a smile. Basting, a professor in the Department of English, took over the position this year after English Professor Richard Grusin stepped down as the Center’s director. Grusin left large shoes to fill, Basting said, and to add to the challenge, C21 is also without an assistant director at this time. But in those challenges lie opportunities, and Basting plans to make the most of them as she beings her leadership. Focusing on the mission UWM’s Center for 21st Century Studies was founded as the Center for 20th Century Studies in 1968 (the name changed as the date did) as a place to engage collaborative groups of scholars across those fields to address the most pressing contemporary issues. “Before I (became a candidate for director), I did a lot of research on where humanities centers are nationally and what’s happening. In general, there’s a powerful turn towards public engagement, which is what I do,” Basting noted.
In particular, Basting works with public engagement around issues with aging and disability. She is the founder of the nonprofit TimeSlips, which works to help people form meaningful connections and engage with seniors all the way to the end of life. TimeSlips was actually developed during her second fellowship in C21, sponsored by the Brookdale Foundation. To begin her mission of fostering public engagement with C21 itself, Basting went right to the source: The actual public. “My process I call ‘spiraling conversations.’ I start with a conversation, and that conversation leads me to another one and another one and another one. It’s a deep learning process and the conversations all build off of each other,” Basting explained. “I started that with key players, former fellows, advisory folks, heads of departments and key community people associated with the center.” She also sent out a survey that faculty and community members could answer anonymously. Basting asked: What research are you doing? What research do you wish you were doing? What issues are at the top of your heart and mind right now? “We’re building our plan from that survey. We’re identifying different interest clusters and themes of the research people are doing, different methodologies people are interested in using. Then we’ll use those interest clusters to bring people together and offer programming for the center,” she said. Changes in C21 One of Basting’s first acts as director was to bring on a lead faculty advisor for C21. Art history professor Jennifer Johung is partnering
on for Center for 21st Century Studies “An idea that Jennifer and I put forth is that we’re going to … cross-pollinate those interests. Say, healthenvironmentstorying, or democracyplaying,” Basting said. “Rather than seeing people in disciplines, we see them according to those themes or methods. Then we can play with them and bring people together in ways that are going to surprise us.”
Anne Basting
with Basting to bring a critical theory perspective to the Center and lead C21’s advisory council. Both women have been thinking of ways to incorporate the survey responses into meaningful avenues of connection and research for C21 stakeholders. So far, Basting said, they have identified several areas where UWM faculty, researchers, and Milwaukee community members have things in common. In particular, she noted, respondents were interested in projects concerning health, the environment, and democracy and citizenship. They were interested in varying research methods from storying to playing to decolonizing to organizing.
To foster those connections, Basting approached College of Letters & Science Dean Scott Gronert to ask for his support for Collaboratory Funding, UWM monies designed to bolster interdisciplinary research. Basting hopes that funding and the identification of those interest areas will bring people together after the forced separation of the COVID-19 pandemic. A new project
when she first walked into the C21 offices all of those years ago. When she walked back in, she was a bit dismayed to see that the space was exactly the same as she’d left it. “So, we’re putting together a Space Committee. We’re going to look at how to make the mission manifest in the space,” Basting said. The first phase of that project is a curated exhibit of the existing C21 offices called ‘Talking Walls.’ Campus and community members are invited to tour the ninth floor of Curtin Hall and leave suggestions on post-It notes for changes to the space. “We’ll also have the images and curatorial cards on our Instagram page and invite feedback on our Instagram page for people gathering stories and ideas for transformation,” Basting said. The next step to transform the offices is a new coat of paint and some furniture. Eventually, some walls might even come down or offices moved around. Until then, said Basting, C21 remains a place where people can come together and work on the biggest issues facing humanity. “To me, it’s in collaboration where there’s innovation and new ideas and energy, and that is exactly what we need right now.” By Sarah Vickery, College of Letters & Science
These are grand goals that will take time to accomplish, but in the meantime, Basting has one project up and running, and it’s one that’s literally open to the community. Basting remembers how she was struck by the space and the view College of Letters & Science • UW–Milwaukee • 9
The love pad: UWM lab tests fr When it’s time to mate, female eastern gray tree frogs venture at night toward the pond, where they are bombarded by a chorus of hundreds of male frogs singing with pulsed “chirps” that differ in pitch, duration, volume and repetition. The collective serenade goes on for hours, though individual males take breaks. “Male calling has been described as the most energetically challenging behavior of any vertebrate,” said Gerlinde Höbel, “and the competition is stiff. Males pay attention to what other males are doing, and they push themselves as far as they can.” With so much variation to choose from, how does a female decide which she’ll respond to? The question would be impossible to study in a natural setting because of the sheer volume calls and their traits, said Höbel, an associate professor of biological sciences at UWM. Instead, Höbel and her students bring frogs they’ve caught to an environment specifically designed for tree frog romance in the lab. Inside what looks like a large walk-in freezer in Lapham Hall is a simulated setting, dubbed the “frog arena.” Here, Höbel and her lab members are teasing apart what the different types of vocalizations might mean and using the arena to investigate an assortment of questions about frog communication, including female preferences to calls.
Researchers, including doctoral students Olivia Feagles (from left, holding an amphibian friend) and Kane S inside their “frog arena.” (UWM Photo/Troye Fox)
The stakes couldn’t be higher: Most females will mate only once in their lives, while many males will not find a mate at all. So answers to mating behavior questions have evolutionary implications, Höbel said. It’s the females who often drive sexual selection, a preference by one sex for certain characteristics in those of the other sex, she said. “Much of the amazing mating diversity we see in nature – like songs, plumage color and dances – are the outcome of sexual selection by female choice. Sexual selection is one of the main drivers of biological diversity.” Traits and tribulations
Artificial ‘frog arena’ tests how females choose a mate
10 • IN FOCUS • October, 2021
Conditions inside the frog arena can be controlled to mimic the pond. The temperature is kept at 68 degrees, and a nightlight provides just enough light. The walls are covered in acoustic foam, which prevents the sound distortions that occur indoors. In a circular clearing on the floor, the researchers have placed small speakers around the circumference. In the
rog romance in unique ‘arena’ center, they confine a female frog in a pod and then leave the chamber. In some of their experiments, they will expose the female to two different male calls, and then remotely lift the lid and free her to pursue her choice.
After years of experimentation, the researchers know this species likes longer, faster calls on average. But there are plenty of females who like short or intermediate-length calls, Stratman said. Decoding the mating communication may reveal why all the calls aren’t the same, he said. A more mixed bag of female preferences in the population could mean that a larger range of males will have a chance of mating, leading to a maintenance of variation in male calls.
“In theory, the females will go faster toward what they consider the most sexy,” said doctoral student Olivia Feagles. “If the call is really ugly to them, maybe they wander around a little and wait for other options.”
For each female they test, the lab members graph the time she takes to make a choice with the length of her chosen call. Some show a steep curve indicating a strong preference. On others, the curve is more shallow, which means she has a preferred call, but she’s tolerant of those that are not a perfect match.
Thanks to a camera and an infrared light in the arena, researchers on the outside can watch without disturbing the females, who don’t see infrared light.
This tool is helping Feagles correlate the individual preferences of the females with the characteristics of the males they ultimately chose.
How choosy are they?
The only missing pieces are the actual male frogs. Instead, male calls have Stratman join associate professor Gerlinde Höbel been recorded in the field and used to program computer-generated reproductions played in the arena. “This way, we can not only manipulate the frog calls,” Höbel said, “but also other environmental features like chorus densities by adding more speakers, or predator cues by playing predator sounds.” Each season the lab members will run about 1,000 or more trials in the arena. This year, they gathered a bumper crop of female frogs from their natural habitat at the UWM Field Station near Saukville, where Höbel’s lab operates a second frog arena. Reading the female’s mind During a recent arena experiment, doctoral student Kane Stratman narrated the action from his computer screen. “The male call she was thinking about just took a break,” he reported. “And there’s a more attractive male call over there that just started up. The hypothesis is she should not wait around very long to go for it.”
Continued on page 12 College of Letters & Science • UW–Milwaukee • 11
Frog arena Continued from Page 11
Feagles also is investigating how choosy each female is, by repeatedly lengthening the perceived distance of the call and recording how far the female is willing to travel for the more attractive call. A less finicky female is more likely to choose to mate with an ugly call that is conveniently nearby rather than searching for a more attractive call across the pond. Memory is also a consideration, Stratman said. Another question he is exploring using the arena is to determine how long a female can remember where she heard a really attractive call before she settles for an “average-Joe call” that’s closer to her. It’s about balancing preferences with opportunities, Höbel said. “Mate choice is a complex affair, and females have to balance what they want – preference – and how much they want it – choosiness – with the conditions they encounter at the pond.” By Laura Otto, University Relations Olivia Feagles, a graduate student in biological sciences, collects frogs from the pond at the UWM Field Station in Saukville. (UWM Photo/Elora Hennessey)
Passings Marilyn Kesselhon, a former staff member in the Department of Mathematical Sciences, passed away on Sept. 7. Marilyn began working at UWM in 1979. She was an academic department specialist in the Department of Mathematical Sciences. She handled a wide range of responsibilities and support services for the department, including budgetary administration, supervising office staff and student workers, and providing support to the department chair. A colleague shared that Marilyn was, quite literally as her position description stated, the office “trouble shooter” and assumed many additional responsibilities as the need arose. Marilyn worked at UWM for over three decades before she retired in 2012. Marilyn fell in love with the landscape, art and culture of the Southwest and moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico after her retirement. For additional information, please see Marilyn’s obituary online. 12 • IN FOCUS • October, 2021
UWM student organization helps make Japanese art exhibit more accessible Members of the UWM Japanese Cultural Association helped to make Japanese art and culture more accessible so it can be enjoyed by the greater Milwaukee community. The Warehouse, a private art museum associated with Guardian Fine Art Services, reached out to the UWM Japanese Cultural Association to collaborate on its recent exhibition “Art Japan: 2021-1921”. The exhibition explored 100 years of Japanese art, featuring 126 pieces by 41 artists and includes weavings, paintings, sculptures and more. The UWM Japanese Cultural Association is a student organization that aims to spread awareness of Japanese traditions and modern culture to the UW-Milwaukee student body and the Milwaukee community at large. Adhering Members of the Japanese Cultural Association helped organize a performance by Milwaukee taiko drumming to this mission, officers Madeline Schmidt and group Hibiki at the Warehouse. (Robb Quinn photo) Stephanie Aguilar contributed to the exhibition’s art phone project, a cellphone audio guide composed with the help of interested community members. Serr, a UWM alum and professional artist, and her husband, Shannon, have a long history of supporting the “It is a rare opportunity to make cultures more accessible,” UWM community. In 2016, Serr and Shannon donated $1 Schmidt said. “It’s hard to share cultures, especially million to the university to renovate the now Jan Serr Art Japanese and other Eastern cultures, in the Midwest.” Studio, located in the Kenilworth Square East building. Schmidt and Aguilar each selected a piece of art and In addition to collaborating on the art phone, the recorded their interpretations for the project. Pieces in the Japanese Cultural Association helped the Warehouse exhibitions are assigned a number to which people can organize an outdoor Japanese taiko drum performance dial in on their phones while visiting the gallery, or while with the Milwaukee taiko group Hibiki. A donation box listening at home. was displayed at the event, which the Warehouse tripled “Like poetry, we tend to make art more complicated than it needs to be, and it scares people off,” Aguilar said. “It was cool to be a part of a project that allows people to hear interpretations other than the academically ‘correct’ one. I hope it encourages them to explore the art and culture in any way they want.” “Making the art more accessible and breaking down barriers to engage with art is why projects like the art phone are important” said Danielle Paswaters, the Warehouse director of exhibitions and collections and also a UWM art history grad student. “It is one of many efforts the museum is making to collaborate with the community, including UWM students.” “Jan Serr and John Shannon, the Warehouse and Guardian Fine Arts owners, place an emphasis on accessibility,” Paswaters said. “Everything here — admission, events, the art phone — is free to help make it easier for anyone to come see and experience the art.”
and divided up between the performers and the UWM Japanese Cultural Association. “We wanted to help others access opportunities to explore cultures,” Aguilar said. “It helps us see the similarities we share instead of the differences.” “Art Japan: 2021-1921” ran through Sept. 24, and was a part of the museum’s trio of Asian art exhibitions. The other two are “India: Photographs (2019),” which closed in late June, and “Jan Serr: Then and Now – Photographs of China” which opens Oct. 15. Admission to the Warehouse, located at 1635 W. St. Paul Avenue, is free, and visitors can access the parking lot free of charge. The gallery is open to the public Monday through Friday between the hours of 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. By Lauren Breunig, University Relations College of Letters & Science • UW–Milwaukee • 13
Laurels and Accolades Principal investigator Ryan Holifield and co-principal investigator Woonsup Choi (both Geography), along with Laurie Marks (Center for Community-Based Learning, Leadership, and Research); Jessica Meuninck-Ganger (Peck School of the Arts); and Deidre Peroff (UW-Sea Grant/School of Freshwater Sciences); along with City as Living Laboratory (CALL) in New York; the Center Ryan Holifield for Research and Evaluation at the Center of Science and Industry (COSI) in Columbus, Ohio; and UW-Sea Grant have been awarded an “Innovations in Development” grant for $2.8 million from the Advancing Informal STEM Learning program of the National Science Foundation. The four-year project, entitled, “WaterMarks: an Art/Science Framework for Community-Engaged Learning and Environmental Woonsup Choi Stewardship,” will support programming, research, and evaluation for WaterMarks, a collaboration among artists, scientists, and residents “to develop an inclusive and urban-scaled vision for the City of Milwaukee, to help people better understand their relationships to the water systems and infrastructure that support their lives.” Undergraduate student Mitchell Buban (Biological Sciences) was one of four recipients of a $3,000 Cropley Scholarship presented by the Kenosha Community Foundation. PhD student Alexandra Parr Balaram (Communication) recently received the 2021 James L. Golden Outstanding Student Essay in Rhetoric Award from the National Communication Association (NCA). The award is given annually as part of an essay competition to encourage and support student research on the history, theory, or criticism of rhetoric. She received the award for the essay, “Rhetorical Altermobilities: Promoting a Framework for the Study of Discourse, Mobility and Resistance.” The award will be presented on Nov. 20 at NCA’s 107th Annual Convention in Seattle. 14 • IN FOCUS • October, 2021
The UWM Research Foundation recently awarded Catalyst Grants to two projects in the College of Letters & Science. •
Charles Paradis and Josh Swigart (both Geosciences) were awarded $50,000 for their project “Mobile Produced Water Recycling and Resource Recovery System.” Swigart is a PhD student who has invented a system to recycle produced water— naturally occurring water that comes out of the ground along with oil and gas. With the Catalyst funds, they will focus on recycling produced water from drilling activities in the 86,000-square-mile Permian Basin in western Texas and southeastern New Mexico.
•
Shangping Xu (Geosciences), Yin Wang (Civil and Environmental Engineering) and Erica Young (Biological Sciences) were awarded $50,000 for their project “Novel Bioreactor for the Removal of Persistent Chemicals from Contaminated Water.” Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) represent a large group of man-made chemicals that do not break down in the environment or in the body, and are known to lead to adverse health outcomes in humans. A growing number of research papers have shown that PFAS contamination in water sources is widespread in the United States. The goal of this project is to develop highly efficient, cost-effective bioreactors that can bioaccumulate large quantities of PFAS and aid in the removal of PFAS, particularly under challenging environmental conditions.
Brenda Cárdenas (English) had several poems published in a new five-volume set of books entitled, “Kinship: Belonging in a World of Relations,” published by the Center for Humans and Nature. She also had a poem published in the new anthology, “Hope is the Thing: Wisconsinites on Perseverance in a Pandemic,” published by the Wisconsin Historical Society. Lingqian (Ivy) Hu (Urban Planning), Robert Schneider (Urban Planning), Yaidi Cancel Martinez (Center for Economic Development), and the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission received a $1 million National Science Foundation Civic Innovation Challenge award. Their project is titled, “User-Centered Mobility Solutions (UCMS): A New Vision to Connect Jobs and the Labor Force.” It will test a pilot of on-demand microtransit service that aims to connect workers living in segregated, majority-Black neighborhoods in Milwaukee with jobs in suburban employment centers.
In the Media and Around the Community “Games can be a project of inclusion,” Thomas Malaby (Anthropology) was quoted as saying in an article printed in the New York Times for Kids section on Aug. 29.
Radio Filarmonía in Lima, Peru interviewed César
WUWM Radio called on Kathy Dolan (Political
Wisconsin probably enjoyed more impact from COVID stimulus payments than many other states, which accounts for its economic slump after payments ceased, Kundan Kishor (Economics) told Wisconsin Public Radio.
Science) to explain the politics of politicians like Wisconsin senators Tammy Baldwin and Ron Johnson adopting varying stances concerning Afghan refugees housed at Wisconsin’s Ft. McCoy. Make sure recyclable food containers are free of crumbs and residue, Neal O’Reilly (Conservation and Environmental Science) advised readers of Milwaukee Magazine. Max McHone (‘19, BA History and Anthropology) penned a piece for Huffington Post recounting his experience as a bartender and “front line worker” during the COVID-19 pandemic. The events of September 11, 2001, not only changed security measures and politics for Americans, but it also had a huge impact on how media is presented, Richard Grusin (English) told WUWM Radio. Andrew Dunn-Baumann (‘15, BA Economics) was featured on FanSided for his unique role in the MLB: He serves as a translator for Spanish-speaking members of the Houston Astros baseball team. Uk Heo (Political Science) presented on “The Biden Administration and the North Korean Nuclear Crisis” for Illinois State University’s Fall International Seminar Series entitled, “A New Normal in a Global Context” in September.
Letters & Science Dean Scott Gronert and UWM Dean of Students Adam Jussell discussed how UWM is taking a trauma-informed approach to the school year on a Friday 5 Live! panel hosted by Innovative Educators.
Brenda Cárdenas (English) discussed her poem, “Our Lady of Sorrows,” on the Poetry for All Podcast in September.
Ferreira (Spanish) about his latest book, “Medio siglo de Un mundo para Julius.”
A place called Mazon Creek just southwest of Chicago has the perfect chemistry for preserving soft tissues in fossils - like an ancient horseshoe crab’s brain, Victoria McCoy (Geosciences) said in an article by ScienceNews.org. Do you pronounced the “L” in Milwaukee? Do you pronounce “bag” with a short or long vowel sound? Kelsie Pattillo and Garry Davis (both Linguistics) explained in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel why Wisconsinites sometimes have a unique way of talking. Lake Geneva News shared graduate student Dan
Koehler’s (History) inspiring story of how he not only recovered his voice after a throat surgery, but also returned to his passion of narrating astronomy shows. The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals will rehear a case opposing an 8-week abortion ban in Missouri, which Sara Benesh (Political Science) says suggests a sea-change in the abortion-rights landscape, PBS News reported. Kimberly Blaeser (English) will be a panelist at the Concord Festival of Authors on a panel entitled, “Native Nations Poetry from the Library,” in October. Graduate student Zac Dickhut (History) was profiled in The Daily Citizen for his volunteer efforts in his hometown of Waupun, Wisconsin, where he serves as the interim director of the Waupun Area Chamber of Commerce and lends his time and talents to the Waupun Historical Society.
College of Letters & Science • UW–Milwaukee • 15
Alumni Accomplishments Farrah Tafacory (‘09, BA Psychology) and her new husband, John Heikkila, are bringing new life to the old Nightingale Supper Club in Door County after purchasing it from Tafacory’s stepfather. The pair helped keep the restaurant afloat during the 2020 COVID lockdown and finalized the sale in August 2021. The Door County Pulse highlighted their efforts and upgrades. Michael Borkowski (‘86, BS Zoology) was recognized as Doctor of the Year as part of the Milwaukee Business Journal’s Healthcare Champions series. Dr. Borkowski is an occupational medical physician at the U.S. Department of Veterans’ Affairs and is the medical group commander of the 128th Air Refueling Wing, General Mitchell Air National Guard Base, where he holds the rank of colonel. Geraud Blanks, (’14, BA African and African Diaspora Studies, ’16 MA Media Studies) was profiled in Milwaukee Magazine for his creative drive and the innovations he has brought to Milwaukee Film in his role as the organization’s first chief innovation officer. He was also featured in the Milwaukee Courier in an article discussing his role.
Michael Mikos (Foreign Languages and Literature). 2021. Jan Kochanowski. Trifles (II), Apothegms, and Chess. Lublin, Poland: John Paul II Catholic University Press. https://bit.ly/3tECH2j Bettina Arnold (Anthropology). 2021. Man the hunter and field archaeologist vs. woman the gatherer and laboratory analyst. In Gender Stereotypes in Archaeology. A Short Reflection in Image and Text (Laura Coltofean-Arizancu, Bisserka Gaydarska and Uroš Matic, eds). Leiden: Sidestone Press. Bettina Arnold (Anthropology). 2021. Men were active producers of tools, art and innovation, while women were passive home-bound breeders. In Gender Stereotypes in Archaeology. A Short Reflection in Image and Text (Laura ColtofeanArizancu, Bisserka Gaydarska and Uroš Matic, eds). Leiden: Sidestone Press. Caroline Seymour-Jorn (French, Italian and Comparative Literature). 2020. Creating Spaces of Hope: Young Artists And The New Imagination In Egypt. American University in Cairo Press. Thomas Haigh (History) and Paul E. Ceruzzi. 2021. A New History of Modern Computing. MIT Press. https://bit.ly/2Ybqwy1
Geraud Blanks
Comfort Tosin Adebayo (‘20, PhD Communication) was awarded the Gerald R. Miller Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award for her study, “Maternal Healthcare Experiences of African American Women in Milwaukee: A Relational Dialectics Perspective” advised by Erin Sahlstein Parcell (with committee members Sarah Riforgiate, Sang-Yeon Kim, and Lucy MkandawireValhmu). The award was presented by the National Communication Association and recognizes the most outstanding dissertations completed in the field. Adebayo will receive her award during NCA’s 107th Annual Convention in Seattle in November. Beau Bernhoft (‘19, Master of Public Administration) was just named the new administrator of the Village of Little Chute, Wisconsin. He previously worked as the village and zoning administrator of Sister Bay, Wisconsin. Danielle Bergner (‘01, BA Economics) joined the Milwaukee office of Indianapolis-based and health carefocused law firm Hall, Render, Killian, Heath & Lyman, P.C. Bergner, previously a real estate attorney with Michael Best & Friedrich LLP, will assist her new firm’s clients with conventional and institutional financing. 16 • IN FOCUS • October, 2021
People in Print
Video Story
UWM welcomed students back to campus and kicked off a new school year with dozens of Fall Welcome events. Students participated in boat tours, tie-dye decorating, games, beach days, live music, mindfulness walks, campfires and much more. https://youtu.be/8vsQ5szW_XY
Sun
October 2021 Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
Applying for college and choosing a major can be an exciting time. Incoming students can learn more about many of the majors in the College of Letters & Science by attending our upcoming Open House events. All Open Houses are virtual except where noted. Students should register for Open House events at https://uwm.edu/letters-science/open-houses/. Email let-sci@uwm.edu with questions.
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
Upcoming Events Creative Writing Student-Faculty Readings: United We Read. 7-8:30 p.m. Sugar Maple Bar, 441 E. Lincoln Ave., Milwaukee. Readings by Doreen Pfost, Korey Hurni, Camilla Lee, and Brenda Cárdenas. Attendees must be 21 or older to enter the bar. The event will be livestreamed at youtu.be/KASe3yInk01.
October 8-29
Planetarium Show: Culturas Celestiales. 7-8 p.m. via YouTube. Experience stars, stories, and cultural perspectives throughout Latin America. Each Friday features a different guest speaker. Sponsored by UWM Sociocultural Programming, the Roberto Hernandez Center, the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, and the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. Register for the livestream at bit.ly/3tFNXLO.
October 28
Creative Writing Program Visiting Writers Series: Author Lysley Tenorio. 7-8:30 p.m. Curtin 175. This event will be both in-person and livestreamed. Author Lysley Tenorio will discuss and read from his collection, “Monstress”, and his novel, “The Son of Good Fortune,” followed by a Q&A with the audience. The livesteam link is bit.ly/Tenorio-UWM.
Oct. 13: Sociology; 5 p.m. Political Science; 6 p.m. Oct. 14: Geography; 5 p.m. Journalism, Advertising, and Media Studies; 6 p.m.
Oct. 16: Pre-Med/Pre-Physician Assistant/Pre-Pharmacy and other pre-healthcare; 12 p.m. Physics; 1 p.m.
October 7
Oct. 12: Communication; 5 p.m. Urban Studies; 6 p.m.
Oct. 20: French; 6 p.m. German; 7 p.m. Oct. 21: Math, Actuarial Science, Data Science, and Applied Mathematics and Computer Science; 4 p.m. Oct. 22: Italian; 5 p.m.
Oct. 27: Classics and Philosophy; 3:30 p.m. (*In-person option available) Geosciences; 5 p.m. (*In-person) Oct. 29: Conservation and Environmental Science; 2 p.m. (*In-person option available) Atmospheric Science; 4 p.m. (*In-person option available) Nov. 3: History; 5 p.m. Nov. 9: Economics; 5 p.m. Nov. 10: Global and international Studies Nov. 13: Psychology; 12 p.m. (*In-person)
November 11
WGS Lunch and Learn: History of Women at UWM, 1885 – 2021. Noon-1 p.m. Microsoft Teams. Presented by UWM Professor Emeritas Merry Wiesner-Hanks and Gwynne Kennedy. https://bit.ly/3CWJcRs
College of Letters & Science • UW–Milwaukee • 17
