Today’s News from the University of Kansas
From the Office of Public Affairs | http://www.news.ku.edu
Headlines
Natural mentors provide crucial social connection for student athletes, study finds
LAWRENCE — New University of Kansas research investigates how former high school athletes view relationships with their school-based mentors. The research finds natural mentors represent a fundamental social connection that helps participants to feel like they matter. “Fundamentally, mentors make people feel important,” said Margaret Kelley, associate professor of American studies.
Molecular biosciences professor receives NSF CAREER Award
LAWRENCE — The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) went to Robert Unckless, assistant professor of molecular biosciences in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. The award is the highest honor given by the NSF to young researchers.
University Dance Company concert explores theme of information overload
LAWRENCE — The University of Kansas Dance Company will present its Spring Concert online, highlighting the many stimuli people experience as they move physically and virtually through the world. Six KU Department of Theatre & Dance faculty members will present original choreography in contemporary, ballet and hip-hop dance styles.
Full stories below.
————————————————————————
Contact: Jon Niccum, 785-864-7633, [email protected]
Natural mentors provide crucial social connection for student athletes, study finds
LAWRENCE — Oprah Winfrey famously said, “A mentor is someone who allows you to see the hope inside yourself.”
Now there is research to support that claim.
“Coaches and teachers are frequently identified by youth as natural mentors who provide great significance during a critical physical and emotional developmental stage,” said Margaret Kelley, associate professor of American studies at the University of Kansas.
Her article “What Matters to You Matters: Natural Mentors and Self-valuation in School Sports” investigates how former high school athletes view relationships with their school-based mentors. The research finds natural mentors represent a fundamental social connection that helps participants to feel like they matter. It’s published in the current issue of Sociological Inquiry.
“Fundamentally, mentors make people feel important,” said Kelley, who co-wrote the article with Kathryn Vaggalis, KU doctoral candidate in American studies, and Howard Lune, professor at Hunter College in New York City.
One of the findings that really resonates with Kelley is how the physicality of this experience allows the mentoring to be very intense.
“This is something a non-athlete doesn’t necessarily understand,” she said. “You might get that intensity in a musical relationship, like you’re working hard at an instrument. But the intensity around athletic performance is unique. Players practice every day. They travel. It is a rigorous, time-consuming experience. And there is something that opens the doors for these good words from a mentor to take hold.”
“What Matters to You Matters” assembles 42 retrospective interviews with collegiate undergraduates who are former high school athletes. Using social learning theory as a framework,
Kelley identifies three structural domains of social identity in which mattering operates: relationship, athletic and gender.
“Both young men and women benefit from these relationships, although they do it slightly differently,” she said. “In general, men were mentored in some traditional ways about masculinity, and women were mentored in some way to break the rules. To be in sports is, even now, still a little bit norm-breaking for women to be serious athletes.”
Another way gender proved significant in the study was women were often asked to understand sports from a male perspective, but the opposite wasn’t the case.
“Men don’t really think about women athletes or women as athletes. Some of that came because of who their mentors were. The men all had male mentors, while women had a split of men and women. That’s probably something men are missing out on by not having a broader gender experience of role models,” she said.
Kelley herself is a multi-sport athlete who played Division I volleyball at Wichita State University. She considers her own involvement with mentors to be “extremely inspiring,” citing a strong bond with her high school coach.
“Part of being screened into this study was, ‘Did you have a natural mentor who made a positive influence on your life?’ Although I was seeking positive experiences, I didn’t realize just how positive these relationships are to them — like really important. Now they’re all in college, and when they reflect back on their lives, you see on their faces the influence these mentors had.”
Kelley’s research in this area focuses on “natural mentors,” also known as “informal mentors.” This refers to a social network of non-parental adults that includes relatives, neighbors, teachers, coaches and religious advisers. The professor believes her findings might encourage institutions to provide more youths with mentored activities in the hopes of helping them adjust to adolescence and possibly even reduce their encounters with the criminal justice system.
She said, “One key thing to note is all the respondents were student athletes, but not all the mentors were coaches. Some of them were just teachers. I don’t want that to get lost that teachers also do all these things, and they even impact the athletic environment and experience.”
————————————————————————
The official university Twitter account has changed to @UnivOfKansas.
Refollow @KUNews for KU News Service stories, discoveries and experts.
————————————————————————
Contact: Aspen Grender, 785-864-9389, [email protected]
Molecular biosciences professor receives NSF CAREER Award
LAWRENCE — An assistant professor at the University of Kansas received a prestigious grant designed to help early-career faculty members in STEM disciplines establish a lifetime of leadership in their respective fields.
The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) went to Robert Unckless, assistant professor of molecular biosciences in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. The award is the highest honor given by the NSF to young researchers.
Robert Unckless“Dr. Unckless is already making discoveries that are helping us understand fundamental biological processes that could have future implications for human health,” said Simon Atkinson, vice chancellor for research. “This award recognizes the importance of that work and endorses Dr. Unckless’ potential to serve as a leader in his field for years to come.”
“As someone who has served on many NSF review panels, I can greatly appreciate the significance of this award. NSF CAREER awards are highly competitive and rare,” said John Colombo, interim dean of the College. “This is a tremendous achievement for Dr. Unckless and another clear reflection of the quality of research among KU faculty.”
Unckless joined KU in 2016 as an assistant professor in the Department of Molecular Biosciences. He will receive over $1 million over the next five years to support his research on parasitic elements within the genome and his work with incoming transfer students to help them integrate into the campus community and provide them research experience.
“We often think of the genome as one entity working together for the good of the organism. This simple view is clearly false – much of the genome (close to 50% in humans) is made up of parasitic DNA that copies itself without regard to the ‘good of the organism,’” Unckless said. “We study a particularly drastic form of these genetic parasites called meiotic drivers. We are trying to understand the genetic basis and evolutionary consequences of these genomic parasites.”
Unckless is often asked why it is important to fund this kind of research.
“There are two main reasons to do basic science research,” he said. “First, humans want to understand the natural world, so any project that works to explain natural phenomena – especially those that are widespread like meiotic drive – gets us to a better understanding of nature.”
“The second reason,” he added, “is that basic research is often the source of biomedical innovation. In our case, the gene that we think is responsible for meiotic drive in Drosophila affinis encodes for the same type of protein that leads human embryos with a Y chromosome to develop into males. Therefore, by studying the phenomenon in fruit flies, we may learn something about human fertility.”
Unckless credits the university-sponsored CAREER workshop, including Doug Bornemann, Lisa McLendon and the other participants, for useful guidance and feedback during the award application process.
The NSF has existed since 1950 to promote discovery in the sciences and to fund those on the frontier of scientific innovation. NSF CAREER Awards, first issued in 1995, support junior faculty who engage in outstanding research, education and integration of education and research in their academic roles.
The Department of Molecular Biosciences is in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, KU’s largest, most diverse academic unit.
————————————————————————
Subscribe to KU Today, the campus newsletter,
for additional news about the University of Kansas.
Contact: Lisa Coble-Krings, 785-864-5685, [email protected]
University Dance Company concert explores theme of information overload
LAWRENCE — The University of Kansas Dance Company will present its Spring Concert online, highlighting the many stimuli people experience as they move physically and virtually through the world. Six KU Department of Theatre & Dance faculty members will present original choreography in contemporary, ballet and hip-hop dance styles.
Neon dance silhouette logoThe free concert will debut online at 7:30 p.m. April 9 and remain available for viewing until 10 p.m. April 11. The link is available on the dance department’s website, dance.ku.edu.
The UDC Spring Concert will also pay tribute to Patrick Suzeau, professor of dance, who closes a 31-year career at KU with his retirement in summer 2021. He will present “Be Still… And Feel,” a mixture of choreography and videography that explores isolation, from descent into darkness to ecstasy, and reflects the realities of the pandemic.
Michelle Heffner Hayes’ choreographed work, “Currents,” is inspired by concepts from traditional Chinese medicine and the dance professor’s personal experience with the practice of qi gong. The title refers to the movement of water as well as electronic media current events. This screendance features scenography by Kelly Vogel, resident artist/academic associate, who is also credited for scenography on “Be Still… And Feel.”
James Moreno, associate professor of dance, also choreographed “Cubic,” which explores the relationship between humans and objects; more specifically, the objectification of humans and the merging of people and the technologies they use. Scenic and costume design for this piece is by Rana Esfandiary, assistant professor of scenography, and lighting design by Devan Ryan, MFA student in scenography from Lawrence.
Lecturer Ashley Brittingham will present her ballet “Fragmented,” inspired by the complicated emotions during an unprecedented era. Dancers represent piano and orchestra competing against each other by using angry broken chords in combination with lamenting melodies — but there is brightness. “Fragmented” features costume design by Vogel and lighting design by Ryan, who are similarly credited on “When, Where Does It End?”
Waeli Wang, visiting assistant professor, created “When, Where Does It End?,” a contemporary/modern work diving into the information superhighways of cyberspace. This original piece highlights the need to be always informed and the desire to always have one’s eyes “glued to the screen.”
Lecturer Maya Tillman-Rayton presents an up-tempo, three-section ensemble work titled “Messaging.” It is a commentary of current events, referencing the constant signaling of media figures and the effect it has on Americans by using 2000’s hip-hop culture. Rachel Bundstein, a senior in strategic communications from St. Louis, and Ryan are featured as costume and lighting designer, respectively.
Also presented is “Rosas Remix,” an ensemble-based contemporary work choreographed by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, adapted by Waeli Wang through “The fABULEUS Rosas Remix Project.”
All UDC Spring Concert videography is by Bryce Heesacker and Gary Lange.
The University of Kansas Dance Company’s Spring Concert is supported in part by KU Student Senate. The University Dance Company is a production wing of KU’s Department of Theatre & Dance. Information about its performances and auditions can be found at dance.ku.edu.
The Department of Theatre & Dance is part of three departments within the School of the Arts. As part of the KU College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, the School of the Arts offers fresh possibilities for collaboration between the arts and humanities, sciences, social sciences, international and interdisciplinary studies.
————————————————————————
KU News Service
1450 Jayhawk Blvd.
Lawrence KS 66045
Phone: 785-864-3256
Fax: 785-864-3339
Erinn Barcomb-Peterson, director of news and media relations, [email protected]
Today’s News is a free service from the Office of Public Affairs
