News
2017
Professor Jeff Milyo and Assistant Teaching Professor Myoung Lee, both from the Department of Economics, received the Purple Chalk Award for their excellence as instructors.
The College of Arts and Science Student Council honored two professors, a graduate instructor, and an adviser with Chalk Awards for the spring 2017 semester. The student council solicits nominations from students for their favorite instructors and advisers, and the council’s executive committee makes the final selections. The student council will host a luncheon for the award winners later this semester.
Purple Chalk Awards
Brooks Blevins (left), History Professor at Missouri State University and President of the Steering Committee for the event; James W. Endersby, co-author of Lloyd Gaines and the Fight to End Segregation; and Gary Kremer, Director of the State Historical Society of Missouri. The book won the 2017 Book Award at the Missouri Conference on History last week.
SPRINGFIELD, MO—Associate Professor James W. Endersby and Teaching Professor William T. Horner are the recipients of the Missouri Conference on History 2017 Book Award for their co-written book, Lloyd Gaines and the Fight to End Segregation (University of Missouri Press, 2016). Endersby accepted the award on March 24 at the awards luncheon held at the University Plaza Hotel in Springfield, Missouri.
College of Arts and Science Interim Dean Pat Okker talks about the need for a new School of Music building during the reveal of the design renderings at Whitmore Recital Hall March 21.
MU faculty, staff, and patrons of the arts got a first glimpse of the designs for the new School of Music building, to be located at the intersection of Hitt Street and University Avenue. The University of Missouri Board of Curators approved Phase One of the building project last December.
Commerce Bank Chairman and CEO Teresa Maledy and MU Interim Chancellor Hank Foley present the 2017 William T. Kemper Fellowship for Teaching Excellence to Michael Podgursky, a professor of economics.
COLUMBIA, Mo. – University of Missouri Interim Chancellor Hank Foley and Commerce Bank Chairman and CEO Teresa Maledy today awarded one of the 2017 William T. Kemper Fellowships for Teaching Excellence to Michael Podgursky, a professor of economics in the MU College of Arts and Science.
Vom Saal released Integrative Environmental Medicine, a comprehensive book outlining practical resources and tools, such as websites and smartphone apps, to help health care practitioners promote healthier choices for themselves and their patients.
COLUMBIA, Mo. – More than 87,000 chemicals are available commercially in the U.S., including analogues of bisphenol A (BPA), an industrial chemical that is used in consumer products. Frederick vom Saal, a University of Missouri endocrinologist and researcher, has studied BPA and other chemicals and their effects on humans and animals for more than 20 years.
Jake Haselswerdt, assistant professor of public affairs and political science, found that increases in Medicaid enrollment as a result of Medicaid expansion were related to considerably higher voter turnout in 2014.
COLUMBIA, Mo. – Since becoming law, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has been used by political parties in attempts to mobilize voters. In a new study, Jake Haselswerdt, assistant professor of political science and public affairs at the University of Missouri, found a correlation between voter turnout and Medicaid expansion, a key component of the ACA. He says that increases in Medicaid enrollment are related to considerably higher voter turnout in states that expanded Medicaid.
Greyson Holliday, a Mizzou undergraduate student studying psychology, found a strong correlation between philosophical religious thoughts and epilepsy.
COLUMBIA, Mo. – A relationship between epilepsy and heightened religious experiences has been recognized since at least the 19th century. In a recent study, researchers from the University of Missouri found a neurological relationship exists between religiosity— a disposition for spiritual experience and religious activity—and epilepsy. This finding sheds light on the connection between religion and neuropsychological processes within the human brain.
Julius Riles, an assistant professor of communication, says one of the things that attracted him to the University of Missouri was a proposed media diversity center. Prior to his hiring last fall, Riles had been in contact with MU Associate Professor Lissa Behm-Morawitz, and the pair discovered their research interests aligned closely.
Dennis Kelley, an associate professor in the Department of Religious Studies, serves as the coordinator of the new minor in Native American Indigenous Studies.
Most Missourians probably are aware of their state’s Native American heritage, if for no other reason than the plethora of Native American place names such as Miami, Neosho, Osceola, and Tecumseh, to name just a few.
2017 is turning out to be a very good year for MU’s Department of Geological Sciences. The department is in the process of installing the first micro-CT scanner on campus, which will allow researchers across campus to analyze samples three-dimensionally without destroying them, as well as a highly customized scanning electron microscope.
The College of Arts and Science honored three distinguished alumni and two friends of the college for their distinguished service to the college during the Arts and Science banquet at the Reynolds Alumni Center Feb. 17. Recipients Jeanne Sinquefield, Rick Ross, Mark Wilkins, and Paul Leath pose for a photo during the reception (not pictured – Yvonne Clark)
The College of Arts and Science honored three distinguished alumni and two friends of the college for their distinguished service to A&S during the 36th annual Arts and Science Banquet at the Reynolds Alumni Center, Feb. 17. The banquet, the culmination of Arts and Science Week on campus, is a celebration of all things A&S.
The University of Missouri has faculty members spread across the Columbia campus who study various aspects of the Korean peninsula. Until now, MU has lacked a central location where these scholars of Korea can discuss their work, collaborate on research projects, and find new research opportunities. The Institute for Korean Studies (IKS), which opens Feb. 9, will serve as a focal point for research about the Korean peninsula.
For more than 20 years, MU Assistant Teaching Professor Martin Holman has worked in the traditional Japanese puppet theater commonly known as Bunraku. For the past 12 years, he has directed a theater troupe, Bunraku Bay Puppet Theater, made up largely of his former MU students.
Colleen Heflin, professor in the MU Truman School of Public Affairs, found that SNAP benefits may be beneficial in reducing visits to the emergency room, saving money for families, health care facilities and taxpayers.
COLUMBIA, Mo. –In 2014, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), a federal program to address food insecurity in the United States, provided $70 billion in nutrition support to 46.5 million families and children living in 22.7 million American households. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, SNAP benefits reduced the incidence of extreme poverty by 13.2 percent and child poverty by 15.5 percent between 2000 and 2009.
A new chess rating system developed by a team including J. Isaac Miller, an associate professor of economics at the University of Missouri, creates a single rating that has proven to be more accurate than the ratings systems currently in use.
Chess players who are rated by the World Chess Federation are ranked three different ways—how they fare in a classical game that allows two hours for the first 60 moves, how they fare in a 30-minute rapid chess game, and how well they perform in blitz chess, which is a game played in five minutes or less.
Tiger Pantry is located on Rock Quarry Road south of Stadium Blvd. at University Surplus Property, and students can visit the pantry once a month for dry goods and every week for produce. Meal plans will be considered produce, so students can come in each week to receive more transferred meals.
Beginning this week, MU students can transfer up to 10 meals to help feed their fellow students. Faculty, staff, and students from the College of Arts and Science, Campus Dining Services, Missouri Student Association, Residence Halls Association, Tiger Pantry, and other organizations have spent the past few months developing a pilot program that will allow students to transfer unused meals to students who may be food insecure.
Basket weaving, or simply basketry, is one of the most ubiquitous and oldest forms of craft making in human civilization, with some of the oldest known baskets dating back nearly 12,000 years. Early basket makers used materials close at hand, such as grass, wood, even animal remains—which decay over time without proper preservation—so much of the early history of the craft has been lost.
Committed to engaging with the communities it serves, MU's College of Arts and Science offers Beyond Campus, a series that showcases the range and relevance of the college's research and programs, which serve as the foundation for all undergraduates at MU, whether they major in an A&S discipline or not. The events in this series are intended for the general public, including alumni, business and community leaders, and prospective students.
Prof. Hearne’s upcoming book, Chickasaw Hollywood: The Fox Brothers and the Studio System, 1914–1954, focuses on the history of the first indigenous family of writer–directors in Hollywood.
Until recently, most depictions of indigenous people in films and documentaries were of the stereotypical “cowboys versus Indians” variety or tales of the “vanishing Indians” who once proudly roamed the plains of early America. A common misconception about the early years of Hollywood is that indigenous people were actors or extras but never writers, directors, or heads of studios.
Committed to engaging with the communities it serves, MU's College of Arts and Science offers Beyond Campus, a series that showcases the range and relevance of the college's research and programs, which serve as the foundation for all undergraduates at MU, whether they major in an A&S discipline or not. The events in this series are intended for the general public, including alumni, business and community leaders, and prospective students.