From the Office of Public Affairs | http://www.news.ku.edu

Headlines

KU part of project to train future social workers to recognize domestic abuse
LAWRENCE — The University of Kansas has joined other higher education institutions across the nation to participate in Survivor Link, a program funded by AmeriCorps. Students participating in the field practicum portions of their social welfare education receive in-depth training on aspects of domestic violence. Those students will then in turn partner with agencies to deliver that training to their employees.

Spencer Museum to host community celebration of new collection galleries March 4
LAWRENCE — The Spencer Museum of Art invites the public to explore its recently renovated and reinstalled collection galleries at Level Up!, An Art Party for All, from noon to 5 p.m. March 4. This free community celebration will highlight the Spencer Museum’s upstairs collection galleries, which have been updated to increase accessibility and put more diverse artwork on display.

KU Law students offer assistance with free tax preparation
LAWRENCE — University of Kansas School of Law students with the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program will again offer sessions to prepare returns for taxpayers who are residents of Douglas County, make less than $60,000 per household per year and do not itemize their deductions. The VITA sessions will continue through Tax Day, which is April 18.

Big changes inspire ceramic artist’s new work
LAWRENCE – Globe-trotting, giving birth and then the COVID-19 lockdown — in that order — all helped to inspire the latest cycle of ceramic works from Sarah Gross, associate professor of visual art at the University of Kansas. The resulting show of those works, which Gross calls “Fruits of My Labor,” runs through March 29 at Spiva Art Gallery at Missouri Southern State University in Joplin.

Elizabeth MacGonagle honored with 2022 Woodyard International Educator Award
LAWRENCE — Elizabeth MacGonagle, associate professor of history and African & African-American studies at the University of Kansas, is the recipient of the 2022 George and Eleanor Woodyard International Educator Award. MacGonagle will give a talk at an award presentation and reception at 3:30 p.m. April 19 in the Burge Union, Forum A. The award recognizes MacGonagle’s strong support of the Global Scholars Program, leadership of the Kansas African Studies Center and collaborative work with International Affairs and the area studies centers.

Full stories below.

————————————————————————

Contact: Mike Krings, KU News Service, 785-864-8860, [email protected], @MikeKrings
KU part of project to train future social workers to recognize domestic abuse
LAWRENCE — The University of Kansas is part of a national project to better prepare future social workers to recognize and respond to domestic violence and in turn provide that training to agencies that serve survivors across the country.
KU and other universities have joined Survivor Link, a program funded by AmeriCorps. Students participating in the field practicum portions of their social welfare education receive in-depth training on aspects of domestic violence from experts across the nation. Those students will then in turn partner with agencies to deliver that training to their employees.
Meredith Bagwell-Gray, assistant professor of social welfare at KU, is site director of Survivor Link at KU and serves as mentor to the first cohort of Jayhawks to take part in the program.
“One of the things I love about Survivor Link is it focuses on multilevel practice in social work. We work in situations where people and the environment are interacting,” Bagwell-Gray said. “It focuses on capacity building in social work organizations and agencies. They’re helping build confidence and knowledge in agencies and providers who deal with domestic and intimate partner violence.”
Students receive training from experts across the participating universities. In April, Bagwell-Gray, who specializes in sexual and reproductive health in intimate partner violence survivors, will share information on the context of sexual control in relationships in which violence has occurred. Other topics will include housing insecurity and mental health’s roles in domestic violence, helping social workers identify and respond to human trafficking, teen dating abuse in the digital world, addressing adversity and trauma among men with histories of violence, and economic abuse, all within the context of COVID-19.
Participants will also receive two $2,000 stipends to partner with state and local agencies such as nonprofits, public health and health allied organizations. The students will undergo training in understanding violence, assessing risk and using local and agency-specific context to tailor services to meet unique local needs. They will also conduct pre- and post-testing with training participants at agencies to evaluate the effectiveness of the program.
Survivor Link and participants are recruiting partners at public health and domestic violence survivor agencies as well as setting such as counseling and mental health facilities, as survivors often reveal their experiences there. Kelly Jones and the School of Social Welfare’s field education office are partnering KU participants with organizations throughout the state. The goal is to cast a wide net to serve as many survivors as possible, because not everyone who experiences domestic violence has the same experience or is able to seek help in the same ways.
“The goal of building capacity in all of these places is to have more support and what we call wraparound support to build larger networks to serve communities,” Bagwell-Gray said.
Additionally, regardless of a social worker’s field, they are almost certain to work with someone who has experienced domestic violence at some point, making the ability to recognize and address the issue all the more important, Bagwell-Gray said.
KU will recruit a second cohort of students this spring, as will partner institutions Arizona State University, Ball State University, Case Western Reserve University, North Carolina State University, Simmons University, the University at Albany State of New York, University of Central Florida, University of Louisville, University of North Carolina, University Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, and the universities of Texas-Arlington and Texas-Austin.
“Students are working with their practicum sites to offer trainings in a way that is most useful to them so we can build capacity to better serve survivors together,” Bagwell-Gray said. “We want this to be a true community partnership.”
-30-
————————————————————————
The official university Twitter account has changed to @UnivOfKansas.
Refollow @KUNews for KU News Service stories, discoveries and experts.

Tweets by KUnews
————————————————————————

Contact: Elizabeth Kanost, Spencer Museum of Art, 785-864-0142, [email protected], @SpencerMuseum
Spencer Museum to host community celebration of new collection galleries March 4

LAWRENCE — The Spencer Museum of Art invites the public to explore its recently renovated and reinstalled collection galleries at Level Up!, An Art Party for All, from noon to 5 p.m. March 4. This free community celebration will highlight the Spencer Museum’s upstairs collection galleries, which have been updated to increase accessibility and put more diverse artwork on display.
Works from the Spencer’s 48,000-object collection, which spans time periods, geography, cultures and mediums, are presented in four distinct but interrelated thematic exhibitions: Intersections, Empowerment, Displacement and Illumination.
“The reimagining of our fourth floor has created new and captivating spaces for gathering, learning and connecting with art and with each other,” said Saralyn Reece Hardy, Spencer Museum director. “We are eager to engage people with our vision for the museum and collection, which is grounded in weaving more nuanced and expansive narratives of art, cultures and peoples, and in reflecting a much broader range of voices.”
The $4 million renovation also included the creation of the new 1,150-square-foot Ingrid & J.K. Lee Study Center, a multipurpose space for class and research visits as well as temporary installations and public programs that increase opportunities to share artwork from the collection.
Visitors can experience the Lee Study Center as well as the new collection galleries on March 4 through a variety of activities. The event will include gallery talks by local artists Lisa Grossman and Hong Chun Zhang, poetry readings by Anthony Boynton and Tai Amri Spann-Ryan and musical performances by Alex Kimball Williams and Tweesna Rose Mills. Spencer Museum staff will lead up-close interactions with artwork as well as art-making activities, and free refreshments will be available.
Free parking is available in lot 91 behind the Spencer Museum and on Mississippi Street.
The Spencer Museum’s Phase II renovation, reinstallation and reopening celebration are supported by Friends of the Art Museum, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts and the city of Lawrence.
-30-
————————————————————————
Subscribe to KU Today, the campus newsletter,
for additional news about the University of Kansas.

http://www.news.ku.edu
————————————————————————

Contact: Emma Herrman, School of Law, [email protected], @kulawschool
KU Law students offer assistance with free tax preparation
LAWRENCE – Do you know if you’re eligible for free tax preparation services?
This spring, University of Kansas School of Law students with the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program will once again prepare returns for taxpayers who are residents of Douglas County, make less than $60,000 per household per year and do not itemize their deductions. The VITA sessions began Feb. 20 and will run through Tax Day, which is April 18. No sessions will take place March 13-19 during KU’s spring break.
“Taxes are something most every person in the U.S. has to deal with, but it causes anxiety for a lot of individuals,” said Toni Ruo, third-year law student. “The VITA program allows KU Law students to lessen that anxiety. At the same time, even for students without a tax background, it is an opportunity not only to get more familiar with the tax code but to get to know the Douglas County community.”
Operating on a first-come, first-served basis, the VITA clinic offers several locations that taxpayers can visit for assistance. The number of preparers varies with each location so those seeking assistance are encouraged to arrive near the start of each session. Each participant should bring proof of identification and all relevant documentation, including proof of income and expenditures. For more information, call 785-864-9227 or email [email protected].
This year’s clinic is coordinated by Ruo, who is also a certified public accountant.
“I have thoroughly enjoyed my experience with the VITA program at KU Law,” Ruo said. “Coming to law school from a career in tax has been a great way to exercise the tax muscle and view tax preparation from a different perspective. When we finish a tax return and we tell the individual everything is done and taken care of, they are extremely appreciative and thankful.”
The VITA volunteers already have received gratitude from the community.
“We received a voicemail from a woman who came into the clinic, thanking us again for helping her finish her taxes,” Ruo said. “This is the reason I love the VITA clinic. You see the immediate impact on the community, and that is an invaluable perspective on tax preparation that I have gained through my participation in the VITA clinic.”
The federal income tax filing due date is April 18.

-30-
————————————————————————
Don’t miss new episodes of “When Experts Attack!,”
a KU News Service podcast hosted by Kansas Public Radio.

https://kansaspublicradio.org/when-experts-attack
————————————————————————

Contact: Rick Hellman, KU News Service, 785-864-8852, [email protected], @RickHellman
Big changes inspire ceramic artist’s new work
LAWRENCE – Globe-trotting, giving birth and then the COVID-19 lockdown — in that order — all helped to inspire the latest cycle of ceramic works from Sarah Gross. The resulting show of those works, which Gross calls “Fruits of My Labor,” opened Feb. 27 and runs through March 29 at Spiva Art Gallery at Missouri Southern State University in Joplin.
An associate professor in the University of Kansas Department of Visual Art, Gross makes ceramics that challenge the viewer’s perception of reality, be it in the directional application of glaze that makes an object appear to change colors as the viewer moves from side to side, or building a “red carpet” that, upon closer inspection, is composed of repeated masses of individual molds of the artist’s fingers pointing upward.
In “Fruits of My Labor,” the works play upon the various meanings of the word, from the traditionally feminine labor of giving birth to the traditionally masculine labor of laying bricks. A pair of heavily textured vessels, for instance, reflect the dilation of the cervix during labor.
The centerpiece of the exhibition is a brick path on the gallery floor. Each brick bears the marks of a hand squeezing it, or fingers gouging it.
“This is to draw attention to the work involved in constructing our environments, but what is interesting is that each individual brick records a moment with an emotional gesture,” Gross said.
Other pieces in the show were inspired by a 2018 artist residency, supported by the KU General Research Fund, in Italy, Gross said. Her visit to c.r.e.t.a. Rome (“creta” is Italian for pottery or clay) occurred while Gross was pregnant.
“I had a five-week research leave to look at architectural ornamentation, specifically, and also to consider the Jewish community in Rome,” Gross said, “and I wound up observing all of these plants created out of stone.
“Wreaths are also symbols of cyclical time, and of victory, like laurel crowns. And that just started to find its way into the work.”
Gross said she was struck by the contrast between “classical architectural ornaments like swags and wreaths and these symbols of plenty and celebration and fertility being rendered in stone that is unchanging and lifeless. At the same time, my body was changing, and I was observing that in real time. So that also informs the glazing of the new pieces as well.”
In the new show, Gross said, the wreath form is mashed up with another of her recent obsessions: lockdown gardening. Having grown up in New York City, Gross said, she had no experience with gardening before lockdown made it seem somehow life-affirming. In contrast to her parents and her sister living in New York, Sarah Gross could at least grow some of her own food in her Kansas backyard.
“Gardening is a way to think about the future with clear optimism, so that helped a little in the difficult days of the pandemic,” she said.
The wreaths in the new show are composed of forms created by molding fruits and other plants.
“There are molds of pumpkins and acorns, artichokes, clementines and tomatoes,” Gross said. “Each wreath symbolizes a different harvest with a different season. The idea with the wreaths is that they’re glazed directionally. So, from one side, you have a stony texture. And then on the other side, as you walk around it, it changes and becomes more saturated and juicy and alive.”
-30-
————————————————————————
The official university Twitter account has changed to @UnivOfKansas.
Refollow @KUNews for KU News Service stories, discoveries and experts.

Tweets by KUnews
————————————————————————

Contact: Christine Metz Howard, International Affairs, [email protected], @KUintlaffairs
Elizabeth MacGonagle honored with 2022 Woodyard International Educator Award
LAWRENCE — Elizabeth MacGonagle, associate professor of history and African & African-American studies at the University of Kansas, is the recipient of the 2022 George and Eleanor Woodyard International Educator Award.
MacGonagle will give a talk on what it means to be an international educator at an award presentation and reception at 3:30 p.m. April 19 in the Burge Union, Forum A. Those planning to attend are asked to RSVP by April 14.
The award recognizes MacGonagle’s strong support of the Global Scholars Program, leadership of the Kansas African Studies Center and collaborative work with International Affairs and the area studies centers through public humanities projects such as Coming to the Heartland and the ColLAB: Bridging East Africa’s Health Divides. Along with her research in Africa studies, the committee also highlighted MacGonagle’s mentorship and support of students from diverse backgrounds, dedication to securing funding for students to research and study abroad, and efforts to bring African students and scholars to KU.
“Dr. MacGonagle’s unanimous selection among a very strong field of candidates recognizes and celebrates her substantial and lasting impact on international education at KU,” said Megan Greene, selection committee chair and professor of history. “The committee recognized her sustained and consistent commitment to international education, research, service and internationalization of the curriculum.”
MacGonagle, associate chair of the history department and Donald Crook Honors Faculty Fellow, came to KU in 2001. For eight years, she served as the director of the Kansas African Studies Center, where she built research networks and secured more than $3 million in federal grants.
Working closely with International Affairs, MacGonagle was named as the director of the Global Scholars Program last fall. Prior to that she taught the Global Scholars seminar twice and served on the selection committee for several years. As part of the American Council on Education’s Internationalization Laboratory process, MacGonagle served as co-chair of the Curriculum, Co-curriculum and Learning Outcomes subcommittee.
In a joint nomination letter, Shawn Leigh Alexander, professor and chair of African & African-American studies, and Luis Corteguera, professor and chair of the history department, wrote: “She has demonstrated a rich and robust international scholarly commitment, inside and outside the classroom. Additionally, she has worked tirelessly to build an international curriculum and research platform that not only benefits her own scholarly interests but has in many ways been more beneficial to her students and colleagues.”
MacGonagle’s research focuses on the process of identity formation in African and diasporic settings. Her work crosses historical, geographical and theoretical boundaries to examine linkages among nation, culture and ethnicity.
Integral in the enhancement of the popular African and African diasporic studies curriculum, MacGonagle developed courses and secured federal grants that supported innovative teaching practices for other instructors. She regularly offers classes on modern Africa and African history, and she created new courses on sexuality and gender in African history and the liberation of southern Africa with her colleague Hannah Britton, professor of political science and women, gender & sexuality studies.
In nomination letters, colleagues praised MacGonagle’s mentorship and support of students, particularly those from historically disadvantaged backgrounds. She has mentored or led research on 18 undergraduate international research projects and worked closely with 24 graduate students on internationally themed theses and dissertations. Her students have gone on to win external grants, such as the Rotary International Scholarship to study in Ghana, a Fulbright for dissertation research in Namibia and Honors Program Writing Awards.
“These students have won these prestigious awards, in part, because of her diligent attention,” wrote Kathryn Rhine, associate professor of African & African-American studies and geography & atmospheric science, in a nomination letter. “Dr. MacGonagle motivates students to take crucial analytical risks in their work, provides all her mentees with clear and timely feedback. She balances praise with constructive criticism. She knows when to push and when to hold back, allowing students to gain the autonomy they need to become successful scholars and professionals in international studies.”
Along with Rhine, MacGonagle is co-director of ColLAB: Bridging East Africa’s Health Divides, a humanities-based lab focused on health access in East Africa. As part of that project, MacGonagle was instrumental in recruiting exceptional students, securing funding and selecting a faculty member from a minority-serving institution to join the lab’s two-week field school in Tanzania.
“Her collaborative spirit and commitment to student-centered programming in global contexts embodies the characteristics of recipients of the Woodyard International Educator Award,” Rhine wrote her nomination letter.
MacGonagle has also partnered with Marta Caminero-Santangelo, chair of the English department and former director for the Center for Latin American & Caribbean Studies, on the public humanities project Coming to the Heartland, which focuses on the diversity, adversity and struggles of Latin American and African immigrants in the Midwest. Supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts, the project examines how the digital age affects the stories that immigrants tell, as well as the possibilities for their visibility in the wider community. The project supported the involvement of four Pell-eligible students from underrepresented backgrounds in KU’s Emerging Scholars program.
“Coming to the Heartland is just one example of Liz’s commitment to social justice and the creation of a more inclusive environment for her communities at home and abroad,” Caminero-Santangelo wrote in a nomination letter. “Her leadership priorities reflect a firm commitment to prepare citizens to lead meaningful and socially responsible lives by fostering a critical engagement with the complexities of the world.”
The late George Woodyard, the first dean of international studies, and his wife, Eleanor, endowed the award, which KU International Affairs coordinates. The award recognizes faculty on the Lawrence campus who have demonstrated outstanding leadership in strengthening KU’s international reach in such areas as curriculum development, study abroad programs, relationships with international partner institutions and collaboration with international colleagues in significant research and publications. The award includes a $1,000 stipend.
A full list of previous recipients is online.

-30-
————————————————————————

KU News Service
1450 Jayhawk Blvd.
Lawrence KS 66045
Phone: 785-864-3256
Fax: 785-864-3339
[email protected]
http://www.news.ku.edu

Erinn Barcomb-Peterson, director of news and media relations, [email protected]

Today’s News is a free service from the Office of Public Affairs

From the Office of Public Affairs | http://www.news.ku.edu

Headlines

University, KU Alumni Association open Jayhawk Welcome Center and renovated Adams Alumni Center
LAWRENCE — The new Jayhawk Welcome Center, a dynamic and inviting space that represents a new era in student recruitment for the University of Kansas, is now open for campus tours by prospective students and their families — as well as events and programs for current students, returning alumni and the KU and Lawrence communities.

KU Autism Conference to feature wide range of sessions for professionals, scientists, families
LAWRENCE — Researchers, students, professionals, educators, families and advocates are invited to Autism Across the Life Span, an annual conference presented by the Kansas Center for Autism Research & Training at the University of Kansas Life Span Institute. The conference will take place in-person from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. March 24 at the KU Edwards Campus BEST Building in Overland Park.

Bestselling author to discuss the ‘dark history and troubling present of eugenics’
LAWRENCE — A scientist, broadcaster and bestselling author who focuses on the complicated, interwoven history of genetics and race will give a public seminar at the University of Kansas in early March. Adam Rutherford will discuss “Eugenics and the Misuse of Mendel” at 5 p.m. March 7 at the Lied Center of Kansas Pavilion. During a reception following the talk, Rutherford will sign copies of his most recent book, “Control: The Dark History and Troubling Present of Eugenics.”

Full stories below.

————————————————————————

Contact: Jennifer Sanner, KU Alumni Association, 785-864-9782, [email protected]; @KUAlumni
University, KU Alumni Association open Jayhawk Welcome Center and renovated Adams Alumni Center

LAWRENCE — The new Jayhawk Welcome Center, a dynamic and inviting space that represents a new era in student recruitment for the University of Kansas, is now open for campus tours by prospective students and their families — as well as events and programs for current students, returning alumni and the KU and Lawrence communities.

The building is attached to the dramatically renovated Adams Alumni Center, home of the KU Alumni Association, at 1266 Oread Ave., the entrance to historic Jayhawk Boulevard on KU’s Lawrence campus.

“The Jayhawk Welcome Center helps KU create a campus visit that no other university can match,” said Chancellor Douglas A. Girod. “Through our state-of-the-art video displays, prospective students can experience many aspects of KU life that they would not see on an ordinary campus tour. They also can see stories highlighting the research and innovations of our faculty and students, along with the achievements and service of Jayhawks around the world. The entire experience powerfully conveys what it means to be a Jayhawk.”

Funded entirely through private gifts to KU Endowment, the $29.4 million project includes 30,000 square feet of new space that will house 25 members of the KU Admissions staff. Alumni Association staff members have returned to their offices on the third floor of the renovated Adams Center, which since 1983 has served as the alumni association’s headquarters.

Both structures feature breathtaking views of Mount Oread and exhibits, including a two-story video board and a 360-degree virtual experience that transports visitors to classrooms, campus events, laboratories, Allen Fieldhouse and David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium.

The complex also includes varied spaces for KU and community events and meetings, along with dedicated space for current student leaders on the Student Alumni Endowment Board and retired KU faculty and staff who are members of the Endacott Society.

“With the collaboration of university leaders, KU Endowment, alumni donors and Jayhawk-led corporations, we set out to create a home that would unite Jayhawks past, present and future and help the university achieve its enrollment goals in a highly competitive arena,” said Heath Peterson, Alumni Association president. “We’re truly grateful for all those who shared our vision and provided the leadership and resources to make this project a reality after years of planning.”

The KU Admissions team began hosting tours for prospective students and families on Feb. 13, and early reviews have been positive, according to Lisa Pinamonti Kress, assistant vice provost and director of undergraduate admissions. “The comments from students and families confirm that the Jayhawk Welcome Center provides an amazing first impression,” she said. “It has been fun to watch the students react as they see their names on the amazing welcome board and walk through the digital exhibits before they tour our beautiful campus. We are confident that the welcome center will enhance our recruitment of future Jayhawks.”

For more information on the Jayhawk Welcome Center, including space reservations, visit jayhawkwelcomecenter.org.

-30-
————————————————————————
The official university Twitter account has changed to @UnivOfKansas.
Refollow @KUNews for KU News Service stories, discoveries and experts.

Tweets by KUnews
————————————————————————

Contact: Jen Humphrey, Life Span Institute, 785-864-6621, [email protected], @kulifespan
KU Autism Conference to feature wide range of sessions for professionals, scientists, families

LAWRENCE — Researchers, students, professionals, educators, families and advocates are invited to Autism Across the Life Span, an annual conference presented by the Kansas Center for Autism Research & Training (K-CART) at the University of Kansas Life Span Institute.

The conference will take place in-person from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. March 24 at the KU Edwards Campus BEST Building in Overland Park.

Registration is $95 for professionals, including researchers, providers and educators. The cost is $50 for families and $30 for students. Participants may register to attend online.

Matt Mosconi, K-CART director and KU professor of clinical child psychology, said the conference is an opportunity for people in the autism community — researchers, educators, providers, and autistic people and their families — to come together.

“There is something for everyone at this event,” he said.

The conference features presentations from nationally recognized scientists, including KU faculty. Highlights include discussions on advancing inclusive research; resources and strategies for families of people with autism; managing medication and therapeutic intervention for co-occurring conditions with autism; transition from childhood to adolescence to young adulthood; health care access within rural and urban environments; and self-determination of career goals.

The conference also will feature a panel discussion by women with autism on how this demographic has been historically overlooked within the autistic community. They will discuss neurodiversity, sexuality, relationships and community engagement.

Keynote speakers for the 2023 speakers are Elizabeth McGhee Hassrick, assistant professor with the Life Course Outcomes Research Program at the A.J. Drexel Autism Institute at Drexel University, and Lea K. Davis, associate professor of genetic medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and assistant professor of biomedical informatics, physiology and biophysics, and psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Vanderbilt.

McGhee Hassrick’s work focuses on investigating social network support systems for people with autism in different life stages along with their family, schools and communities.

Davis works at the intersection of genetic epidemiology, psychiatry and medical informatics to investigate the genetic basis of a wide range of mental health conditions. A major effort in her lab is to understand the links between biology and environment and both mental and physical health using data extracted from medical records and linked with genomic information.

“We are pleased to host these innovative researchers pursuing work in the area of autism,” Mosconi said. “Dr. McGhee Hassrick brings new ideas and opportunities to support autistic people by applying sociological ideas about relationships and society. Dr. Davis’ work is bringing new understanding to how environmental factors may interact with an individual’s unique biology to increase risk for common psychiatric diagnoses.”

A full schedule is available on the conference website.

-30-
————————————————————————
Subscribe to KU Today, the campus newsletter,
for additional news about the University of Kansas.

http://www.news.ku.edu
————————————————————————

Contact: Mindie Paget, Office of Research, 785-864-0013, [email protected], @ResearchAtKU
Bestselling author to discuss the ‘dark history and troubling present of eugenics’

LAWRENCE — A scientist, broadcaster and bestselling author who focuses on the complicated, interwoven history of genetics and race will give a public seminar at the University of Kansas in early March.

Adam Rutherford will discuss “Eugenics and the Misuse of Mendel” at 5 p.m. March 7 at the Lied Center of Kansas Pavilion. During a reception following the talk, Rutherford will sign copies of his most recent book, “Control: The Dark History and Troubling Present of Eugenics.” The Raven Book Store will be on hand to sell the book.

“The emergence and translation of (Austrian scientist Gregor) Mendel’s discoveries about genetics into English coincided with the rise of eugenics and provided its most devoted apostles with a biological mechanism to justify their bigotry,” Rutherford wrote in a preview of his seminar. “An ideological commitment to Mendelian pedigrees formed the pseudoscientific basis for mass sterilization and genocide.”

“We now have a much more sophisticated understanding of human genetics,” he wrote. “But this eugenic specter limps on in our culture, reinforcing a view of biology that is simplistic, deterministic and wrong.”

The seminar is sponsored by the KU Center for Genomics, which brings together both biomedical researchers and those using genomics to study fundamental biological questions of development, behavior, evolution and ecology.

“Dr. Rutherford is one of the most accomplished science communicators in the world and is especially adept at translating the mind-bogglingly complex concepts in genetics and evolution to nonspecialist audiences,” said Jennifer Raff, associate professor of anthropology and Center for Genomics advisory board member. “He is at the forefront of the movement to confront racist rhetoric with hard scientific data and challenge commonly held assumptions about heredity. The KU Center for Genomics is hoping that his visit will help inform essential conversations about science and society in our community.”

Rutherford is a lecturer in biology and society at University College London. His doctoral research centered on development of the retina, but he now focuses on the interface between genetics and society, and public understanding of genetics, with a particular interest in the history and legacies of scientific racism and eugenics.

He has written several bestselling books, including “A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived” and “How to Argue With a Racist.” He also presents a number of radio programs for the BBC, including “The Curious Cases of Rutherford and Fry” and a series on eugenics called “Bad Blood.”

-30-

————————————————————————

KU News Service
1450 Jayhawk Blvd.
Lawrence KS 66045
Phone: 785-864-3256
Fax: 785-864-3339
[email protected]
http://www.news.ku.edu

Erinn Barcomb-Peterson, director of news and media relations, [email protected]

Today’s News is a free service from the Office of Public Affairs

Kim Baldwin,
McPherson County farmer and rancher

As spring slowly approaches, my two children and I have spent a considerable amount of time in vehicles as of late getting to or from practices well into the evenings.
While in town, light poles illuminate our Main Street, a flashing red light brightens the main intersection, light streams from the windows of local businesses, and porch lights brighten otherwise dark sidewalks.
But as we get further from town and closer to our farm, the warmth of those lights fade. With every mile, the surrounding countryside becomes blacker and blacker until it is engulfed in darkness. Aside from some tiny glows coming from either front porches or distant yard lights, the blacktop leading my family home many nights is only visible because of the blazing headlights of our vehicle.
In the daytime, it feels as if there’s more blue sky in the country compared to that same sky seen in town. At night, the sky seems infinitely larger than the one viewed in town perhaps because there are no obstructions. There are no buildings or houses or billboards blocking our views of the night’s yonder as we drive home out in the country. It’s just wide-open sky.
Driving myself and my two children home recently, while I kept my eyes on the road and remained vigilant with regard to deer crossing my path, my two backseat passengers noticed two bright objects in the night sky. None of us had noticed these lights even 10 minutes before as we had driven through town; but the presence of these gleaming objects before us once within the darkness of the country kept their attention and called them to keep looking.
At first, my son thought they were satellites while my daughter suggested they were mysterious balloons. As we drove further from town and got closer to home, we decided that the two lights they’d been watching throughout the duration of our drive were not blinking and were not moving. Helicopters, airplanes, drones, balloons were quickly removed from our list of potential sources of the lights. I questioned out loud whether these orbs in the sky might be planets.
After getting home and doing a little internet searching, we discovered that it was in fact Jupiter and Venus showing off in the night sky. The kids and I gazed at the lights above and talked about how far these planets were from us and how impressive it was to be seen by us so clearly and vividly within the heavens.
A few days later, people on social media began either commenting or started inquiring about these strange lights in the evening sky. The news began mentioning the newly observed celestial glows and more and more people learned about the two planets catching everyone’s attention.
While listening to the morning news as the kids were readying themselves for school, my daughter pointed out that we had seen those lights days ago, and it was nothing new.
I had to remind her that nights are a lot darker out on the farm than in town, which was perhaps why we spotted them sooner.
In the wisdom that only a 7-year-old can articulate, my daughter decided that while the dark in the country might be bigger (and maybe scarier at times) than it is in town, it lets us see things a little earlier than others, and that’s pretty cool.
Yes, my little one, that is pretty cool. Here’s to those many dark nights out in the country and all the heavenly wonders that especially appear throughout the year from our view on the farm.