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

Headlines

KU, partners receive $1.2M to transform understanding of RNA splicing
LAWRENCE — The W.M. Keck Foundation has awarded a $1.2 million grant to medicinal chemistry and computational biology researchers at the University of Kansas and the University of Chicago focused on addressing a long-unresolved problem in biomedical research — finding molecules able to target the “undruggable proteome.”

KU launches Higher Learning Commission accreditation reaffirmation process
LAWRENCE — In a little more than two years, the University of Kansas will undergo evaluation by the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) to reaffirm its accreditation. On Aug. 29, steering committee team members from all KU campuses will assemble in the Kansas Union’s Big 12 Room to formally begin a comprehensive process.

Full stories below.

————————————————————————

Contact: Brad Stauffer, School of Pharmacy, [email protected], @KUPharmacy
KU, partners receive $1.2M to transform understanding of RNA splicing
LAWRENCE — The W.M. Keck Foundation has awarded a $1.2 million grant to medicinal chemistry and computational biology researchers at the University of Kansas and the University of Chicago focused on addressing a long-unresolved problem in biomedical research — finding molecules able to target the “undruggable proteome.”
Jingxin Wang, assistant professor of medicinal chemistry at KU, applied for and received the Keck funding jointly with Yang Li, assistant professor of medicine and human genetics at the University of Chicago. Using RNA splicing modulators (a type of molecule) coupled with deep learning models (a subfield of artificial intelligence), their research holds promise to be a game-changer in drug discovery and disease research. The pair of researchers and their lab colleagues are working to identify human gene sequences that will respond to drug therapies through RNA splicing. It could open the door to successful new disease therapies and cures.
“Approximately 70% of the proteome (the entire set of proteins in certain human tissues) cannot be targeted by a drug,” Wang said. “This is alarming because we sometimes know how disease happens, but we don’t have any method to treat the disease. This is basically the undruggable proteome problem in medicinal chemistry.”
Wang and Li’s research seeks to address the undruggable problem. Recently, several RNA splicing modulators have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the life-saving treatment of previously untreatable spinal muscular atrophy and Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
“If we can precisely map where we can target RNA splicing, then researchers can focus on those genes and RNA sequences for drug development,” Wang said. “After systematic investigation, we will have a comprehensive map of splicing regulatory sequences for the whole human genome, and this will be a very valuable resource, not only for us but for the entire research community.”
The biochemical process in human cell development and replication is a complex system at the molecular level. Genes are encoded in DNA, which passes on the genetic information to RNA in a process called transcription. Then, RNA translates the encoded genetic information to protein in cells. The proteins usually act as final “executors” that perform or regulate most cell functions.
Wang’s lab is focusing on RNA splicing, an essential biological process in humans that happens before the final RNA is delivered to the protein. The processes of transcription, splicing and translation work together to dictate the amount and composition of proteins, which are drastically different among different tissues or cell states of health, development, disease and defense.
Wang’s lab at KU has an ambitious plan to focus on a subset of 100 genes to systematically identify the splicing regulatory sequence using chemical probes. To develop a map of druggable genes, Wang and Li propose taking the data from those experiments to train a deep learning model. Li’s lab at the University of Chicago will use machine learning to analyze and predict which of the 20,000 human genes are likely to respond to drugs that target RNA splicing.
“It’s quite a challenge to sift through that much data to identify which genes could be good targets,” Li said. “We are fortunate for this opportunity to collaborate with our partners to develop new computational approaches to study how targeting RNA splicing can overcome the ‘undruggable proteome’ problem.”
Wang said the Keck Foundation’s support is crucial to building a new platform of precision medicine in the treatment of disease.
“Without this Keck grant, we can’t gather or obtain those data,” Wang said, noting it would be necessary for agencies like the National Institutes of Health to fund additional research. “I’m so grateful that the Keck Foundation views research in a different way so that important projects like this are funded and get going. If successful, this will be one of the most advanced technologies in the field of RNA splicing.”
KU Endowment serves as a liaison with the Keck Foundation and was instrumental in supporting the pre-proposal and proposal development. University of Chicago Corporate and Foundation Relations also assisted in the grant proposal and presentation preparations.
Learn more about the W.M. Keck Foundation.
-30-
————————————————————————
The official university Twitter account has changed to @UnivOfKansas.
Refollow @KUNews for KU News Service stories, discoveries and experts.

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

Contact: Robin Lehman, Office of the Provost, 785-864-4410, [email protected], @KUProvost
KU launches Higher Learning Commission accreditation reaffirmation process

LAWRENCE — In a little more than two years, the University of Kansas will undergo evaluation by the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) to reaffirm its accreditation. On Aug. 29, steering committee team members from all KU campuses will assemble in the Kansas Union’s Big 12 Room to formally begin a comprehensive process.
There are three key initiatives related to KU’s work to prepare for reaffirmation:
1. The gathering of hundreds of artifacts that provide evidence KU not only meets but exceeds the core components of the HLC criteria and other requirements.
2. Institutionalizing accreditation to ensure accountability.
3. The adoption of a Quality Initiative (QI) aimed at a major improvement effort.
KU’s QI project, co-led by Neal Kingston, director of the Achievement & Assessment Institute, and Michelle Mohr Carney, dean of the School of Social Welfare, focuses on the adoption of universitywide institutional learning goals. It will work to strengthen and scale degree-level assessment at the Lawrence and Edwards campuses by developing and implementing degree maps that integrate the institutional learning goals and degree-level learning outcomes for all undergraduate and graduate programs. The QI project will also revise the academic program review processes at Lawrence and Edwards to achieve a stronger alignment of degree-level learning outcomes assessment with annual budgeting, operations and strategic plan implementation to create a culture of continuous quality improvement at KU. The Center for Teaching Excellence will also play a key role in the implementation of the QI project.
Along with ensuring continuous improvement, HLC accreditation is important because it is a requirement for awarding federal financial aid, which about half of all KU students currently receive. In addition, many academic programs need regional accreditation as a condition of receiving specialized accreditation. The Kansas Board of Regents also requires KU to maintain HLC accreditation in order to award degrees.
“As KU once again engages in a comprehensive self-study that ensures our continued institutional accreditation, it provides us with important opportunities to see where we’re performing well and areas that need improvement,” said Douglas A. Girod, KU’s chancellor. “It requires us to prove our case rather than state our case, demonstrating to our stakeholders that KU not only provides a quality educational experience but engages in continuous improvement across the core functions of our academic, research and operational missions.”
KU has been continuously accredited by the HLC since Jan. 1, 1913. The regional accrediting agency, recognized by the U.S. Department of Education, requires institutions under its authority to perform a comprehensive self-study every 10 years to demonstrate they meet the requirements for accreditation. Once an institution’s self-report is submitted, a peer review team is selected to conduct the evaluation, which includes visits to the university’s campuses and meetings with stakeholders. The reviewers then make a recommendation for continued accreditation.
HLC requires that the self-study process involve a diverse and representative cross-section of the university community. KU’s steering committee, which includes co-leads from the Lawrence and Edwards campuses and the Medical Center campus for each of the five criteria, reflects the diversity of the universitywide community of faculty, staff, students, governance representatives and administrators, and it will further represent a wide cross-section as members are added to the criterion subcommittees.
“The individuals who have agreed to serve in this critical capacity and take on the task of gathering a broad range of evidence deserve our gratitude and support as they conduct this work over the next 26 months,” Girod said.
KU’s self-study will be submitted to HLC in fall 2024. The peer review team is expected to visit campuses as part of its evaluation process early in 2025.

-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

Contact: Jon Niccum, KU News Service, 785-864-7633, [email protected]
Tribal law expert available to discuss imminent Indian Child Welfare Act case heard by Supreme Court
LAWRENCE — The U.S. Supreme Court will soon hear the case of Brackeen v. Haaland, which will consider the constitutionality of the Indian Child Welfare Act.
Sarah Deer, University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies and the School of Public Affairs & Administration at the University of Kansas, has filed an amicus brief with the court. She is available to discuss this significant event with media.
“Brackeen is the first Supreme Court case to address the Indian Child Welfare Act since Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl in 2013. There is more at stake in this case, however, because one of the questions to be resolved is whether ICWA is constitutional at all. In other words, the Supreme Court could overturn ICWA,” Deer said.
People may assume that the purpose of ICWA is to take Native children away from white foster/adoptive parents, Deer said. However, that typically only happens if ICWA is not followed from the beginning and/or is deliberately ignored.
“Native children in state court deserve to have their nation involved in any long-term decisions about custody arrangements. And ICWA is considered a ‘gold standard’ by numerous child advocacy groups, who appreciate the value of connecting Native children with their heritage and citizenship,” she said.
An amicus brief (“friend of the court”) is filed on behalf of an entity that is not one of the main parties to the litigation. People and organizations who will be affected by the decision can file these briefs so Supreme Court justices will be aware of the potential effects of their decision. Deer worked with attorneys Mary Kathryn Nagle (Cherokee) and Shoney Blake (Choctaw) to file a brief on behalf of two women who were adopted by white families pre-ICWA and struggled throughout their lives to reconnect with their tribal nations.
Deer said, “I’m trying to stay optimistic, but this particular court seems somewhat hostile to tribal nations. In addition, Justice Roberts and Justice Coney Barrett are adoptive parents (of not Indian children). As such, they may bristle at any argument that questions the value of adopting children outside the tribal nation. Clarence Thomas also has a history of suggesting — in dissents — that all Indian law is potentially unconstitutional.”
Both a 2014 MacArthur Fellow and an inductee into the National Women’s Hall of Fame, Deer is credited for her role in the 2013 reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act. Her scholarship focuses on the intersection of federal Indian law and victims’ rights, using Indigenous feminist principles as a framework. She is a citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation.
To schedule an interview with Deer, contact KU News Service public affairs officer Jon Niccum at 785-864-7633 or [email protected].

-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

Study shows how Black male teacher-coaches illustrate civic-focused education
LAWRENCE — Fostering a sense of civic engagement is one of the primary purposes of social studies education. But in an educational system that focuses on Black students and teachers through a deficit lens, that can be a very real challenge to overcome. A new study from a professor at the University of Kansas found the experiences of five Black male teacher-coaches in predominantly white private schools can illustrate civic-focused and liberatory approaches to education.

New study finds a lower voice adds credibility to leadership, depending on gender
LAWRENCE — A new paper from the University of Kansas School of Business examines how low voice pitch is known to be an auditory cue for leader dominance and thus preferred by followers in various fields, mostly with male leader voices. But lead author Midam Kim’s research shows that gender moderates this relationship, with the pitch effect becoming weaker when leaders are female. The research was presented at this year’s annual meeting of Academy of Management, where it was nominated for the Phillips and Nadkarni Award for Best Paper on Diversity and Cognition.

Paths to accessing Shakespeare affect understanding, KU scholars say
LAWRENCE – Does it matter whether we access Shakespeare by watching one of his dramas onstage or over a smartphone? Wouldn’t a rose by any other name smell as sweet? Not exactly, say two University of Kansas Shakespeare scholars in a chapter of the new book “The Routledge Handbook of Shakespeare and Interface.”

Full stories below.

————————————————————————

Contact: Mike Krings, KU News Service, 785-864-8860, [email protected], @MikeKrings
Study shows how Black male teacher-coaches illustrate civic-focused education
LAWRENCE — Fostering a sense of civic engagement is one of the primary purposes of social studies education. But in an educational system that focuses on Black students and teachers through a deficit lens, that can be a very real challenge to overcome. A new study from a professor at the University of Kansas found the experiences of five Black male teacher-coaches in predominantly white private schools can illustrate civic-focused and liberatory approaches to education.
Daniel Thomas III, assistant professor in curriculum & teaching at KU, was a secondary social studies teacher, nonprofit coordinator and athletic coach before entering higher education. He was in regular contact with other Black male teacher-coaches at schools throughout the Washington-Baltimore metropolitan area. Their intellectual thought in the classroom and civic engagement within the community stayed with him when he began his research career, he said.
His current study, published in the journal Theory & Research in Social Education and covered in the journal’s “Visions of Education” podcast, found that Black male teacher-coaches often engage in unique, civic-oriented practices in their teaching and coaching that counter historical anti-Black narratives in education and society.
“A lot of my work pushes back on the broader historical context of anti-Blackness and on the contemporary narratives of Black male teachers,” Thomas said. “Black male teachers have essentially been enclosed within a problem narrative. This stereotypical oversimplification constructs Black male teachers as a population whose only value is in their potential to serve as disciplinarians for boys labeled as ‘problems.’ My research seeks to redress this narrative by illuminating the range of intellectual, pedagogical and ideological discourses amongst Black men.”
Thomas said the study is also significant for showing that the Black history of teacher-coaches is historically separate and distinct from the American history of teacher-coaches.
“The teacher-coach tradition established by Carter G. Woodson and Edwin B. Henderson at the M Street School in Washington, D.C., was to resist anti-Blackness through intellectual thought and athletics while creating a space of civic engagement as full citizens,” Thomas said. “Like the field of social studies, this is a Black origin story of resistance to sub-personhood that is often ignored for the herofication of a progressive American story that centers white ‘founders’ like James Naismith.”
Thomas conducted in-depth interviews with five Black male teacher-coaches working at predominantly white private high schools throughout the United States. In sharing their experiences, the educators illustrated how they take unique approaches to educating students, coaching them as athletes and fostering a sense of critical civic engagement, all while navigating a society and educational system that is antagonistic toward a liberated Black existence. While each educator recounted experiences of resisting anti-Black projection for both students and themselves, they also exhibited sport-based activities informed by critical civic ideologies, social activism, community engagement, collective fellowship and caring as part of their educational and coaching approaches.
Thomas presented a conceptual framework drawing on Africana philosophy to illuminate the presence of anti-Blackness within schools and interscholastic leagues as well as how Black male teacher-coaches resist anti-Black aggression. From 15th century pseudoscientific racial knowledge produced in Europe, which framed Blackness as a problem, to more recent theories such as the Black imago — in which Black bodies are reduced to anxiety-inducing objects, with examples such as Trayvon Martin or Ahmaud Arbery — to resisting such narratives through philosophies of existence such as freedom, anguish, agency, sociality and liberation, Thomas both contextualized the current social and educational landscapes and how Black male teacher-coaches deftly operate with agency and resistance within it.
All of the study’s participants recounted experiences of anti-Blackness in athletics, from hearing racial slurs to having police called to their team hotel because their athletes were allegedly too loud while playing video games in their room.
Participants recounted how their experiences in the Black church led them to approach coaching as a ministry, in which they put the needs of others before their own and encouraged their student-athletes to do the same. Via a theme of social activism, the participants shared how they try to teach their student-athletes that they can be more than someone who plays a sport, and though they may be viewed as athletes first, they can move beyond that expectation.
The teacher-coaches also shared how they encourage their students and players to be engaged within their communities, not just as athletes who represent a school, but by being civically engaged. From hosting camps to welcome new students, to speaking at outside camps and engaging teams in service projects, the participants illustrated how they tie sports to social education. Further, they often hosted collective fellowship events that move beyond sports, requiring student-athletes to confront the range of their divergent lived realities.
Finally, the coaches illustrated the importance of caring. While they pointed out that they try to stress to their players that they care about them, they also should care for each other and those around them. One participant shared how caring for students came back and helped him through a difficult experience.
“Before I dismiss the guys, I always end by saying, ‘Take care of yourself, take care of each other,’” the study participant said. “In 2006, I had two white players die. One was battling mental health issues and was shot to death by police in front of his home on Mother’s Day. The other young man drowned during a Fourth of July weekend celebration at a park with teammates and his family. There is not a day that goes by that I do not think about those boys. I ask myself, ‘What could I have done or said differently to either one of them that would have changed those outcomes?’ When you hear me say, ‘Take care of yourself, take care of each other,’ it is because twice, I dismissed guys from workouts for the weekend and everyone did not come back.”
The experiences of the Black male teacher-coaches in the study illustrate how Black male educators deftly enact their occupation with critical, antiracist purposes while consumed within racially hostile circumstances. But beyond that, Thomas said, they show how educators can push back against anti-Blackness and move social studies education beyond the traditional classroom to foster stronger civic-minded connections and education for all students. In future work, Thomas said he hopes to continue exploring the range of intellectual thought and critical civic practices amongst Black male educators, and to push back against the myth of coaches as substandard educators.
“These teacher-coaches are doing something much larger than just coaching football,” Thomas said. “They are creating a multicultural, anti-racist society, and they are using critical, counterhegemonic practices within classrooms and athletic spaces to help students reimagine a better world.”
-30-
————————————————————————
The official university Twitter account has changed to @UnivOfKansas.
Refollow @KUNews for KU News Service stories, discoveries and experts.

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

Contact: Jon Niccum, KU News Service, 785-864-7633, [email protected]
New study finds a lower voice adds credibility to leadership, depending on gender
LAWRENCE — Elizabeth Holmes, the former CEO of Theranos, was famously suspected to have lowered her voice in an attempt to add more credibility to her billionaire con game. But did this low voice actually hurt her or help her in the business world?
A new study reveals the effect of pitch quality of CEO voices may rest entirely on gender.
“The thing that I can say to Elizabeth Holmes or any female leader is you don’t have to do that … because it’s not going to work as much as you like. It doesn’t help your integrity. And not just because it’s inauthentic,” said Midam Kim, lecturer and research associate at the University of Kansas School of Business.
Her paper titled “Think Leader, Think Deep Voice? CEO Voice Pitch and Gender” examines how low voice pitch is known to be an auditory cue for leader dominance and thus preferred by followers in various fields, mostly with male leader voices. But Kim’s research shows that gender moderates this relationship, with the pitch effect becoming weaker when leaders are female. It was presented at this year’s annual meeting of Academy of Management, where it was nominated for the Phillips and Nadkarni Award for Best Paper on Diversity and Cognition.
The reason low pitch is not perceived the same when coming from both genders, according to Kim, has to do with leadership perceptions.
“People tend to expect dominant leadership from men and communal leadership from women,” said Kim, who co-wrote the paper with Vincent Barker, KU professor of business.
“Low pitch is an auditory cue that has been expected of men leaders. So, first of all, people have not had many experiences with women leadership – so it’s hard to apply the same auditory expectation for women leaders. And, second, people just want different things from women leaders. Low pitch is a dominance cue, not a communal cue. This dominance cue does not work as effectively as male leaders when coming from women leaders.”
To examine how male and female CEOs’ vocal pitch influenced followers’ perception of their trustworthiness, the researchers created a forced-choice lab study where nearly 200 respondents selected the most trustworthy-sounding CEO among multiple options. These speech samples were acoustically altered to offer three levels of voice pitch to compare: low, original and high. Converse to male CEOs, the results showed that for women CEOs who lowered their own voice pitch, their trustworthiness perception did not get boosted as much.
“We can assume why people would perceive a low voice to be dominant,” Kim said.
“Evolutionary psychologists argue that, a long time ago in the tribal era, you might have had to be physically strong to be a leader so that the survival rate of your tribe can be higher. You have to be able to fight physically. The bigger you are as a leader, the better, right? And there’s this universal physical principle that bigger objects would make lower sounds. But it’s actually not true for people. Because you might have seen countertenors who are really tall. In human physiology, your body size and the average rate your vocal cords can vibrate are not automatically correlated. The important point is that, still, people tend to expect a lower voice from a larger human body.”
But do all cultures view a deeper male voice as preferable?
“There can be a debate about whether this is universal,” she said. “Is it universal in all countries? All cultures? All environments? We don’t know. But I’m from South Korea, and I don’t think this applies only to Western culture.”
Kim said that the foundational theory she used for this study is “implicit leadership theory.”
“Leadership is determined by the perception of the followers, not necessarily the leaders themselves,” she said. “That attribution will be built by the followers’ own expectations, experiences and learning. So, of course, followers in Germany will be totally different from those in China or from the U.S. because their experiences are different.”
Having earned a doctorate in linguistics, Kim bridges linguistics and management in her research. She first began teaching at KU’s Department of Linguistics in 2012 and has been at the business school since 2015.
“Everyone thinks a lower voice will work for leadership perception. My results say that it’s not true,” Kim said.
“You might think that our world is getting more diverse, and we’re completely paying attention to diversity in the world and in our leaders. This is also not always true, even in the academic field,” she said. “Research on diversity is still limited because there are many things to theoretically consider and implement.”
-30-
————————————————————————
Subscribe to KU Today, the campus newsletter,
for additional news about the University of Kansas.

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

Contact: Rick Hellman, KU News Service, 785-864-8852, [email protected], @RickHellman
Paths to accessing Shakespeare affect understanding, KU scholars say
LAWRENCE – Does it matter whether we access Shakespeare by watching one of his dramas onstage or over a smartphone? Wouldn’t a rose by any other name smell as sweet?
Not exactly, say two University of Kansas Shakespeare scholars in a chapter of the new book “The Routledge Handbook of Shakespeare and Interface.”
While they favor every possible means of exposing 21st century readers to the Bard, the authors wrote that, by abstracting the essential information, the delivery method matters to the recipient’s understanding.
In “Abstraction as Shakespearean Interface,” Jonathan Lamb, professor of English, and Suzanne Tanner, doctoral student in English, wrote that Shakespeare is “necessarily accessed through a variety of interfaces, including not only actors on stage but a whole range of ‘abstracts.’”
They don’t exactly argue in favor of Marshall McLuhan’s famous dictum that the medium is the message, but they do compare the text of Shakespeare and the various ways in which we now access it to a computer’s underlying operating system and its on-screen icons.
“Accessing Shakespeare has long meant interacting with frames — icons, we might say — that make possible our comprehension of the plays and poems,” the KU researchers wrote.
Those iconic abstractions can range, they wrote, from the summary in a playbill to the illustrations in a book to episodes of the popular video series “Thug Notes,” which deliver SparkNotes-type summaries of literature for humorous effect.
Thus, Lamb said, the answer to the rose/smell question would be, “It depends on what you’re trying to access when you smell the rose.
“In the article, we talk about the different types of users — the student user, the casual consumer, the scholarly user — and each of those users attends to Shakespeare wanting to get or do certain things,” he said. “The interface shapes whether they’re able to access it in the way that suits the user’s needs. … Some of those ways are going to be more abstract, and they’re going to be better for the type of access that the user wants. But sometimes they’re going to hinder the type of access users want, or complicate it, or add unexpected layers.”
Tanner said she approached the questions posed in the essay through the lens of media studies or media theory, which she described as asking, “‘What is the goal of media? What’s the point of media?’ And we talk a lot about how media is mimetic, that it represents things, and that representation is a fairly common idea. And I think using the term abstraction moves us away from representation in a productive way, in that it helps us understand that not all art, not all theater, not all language, even, is always about representation. Sometimes it’s about very abstract things, but that still communicates in a way that helps us access ideas.”
Lamb mentioned some recent high-profile efforts to “translate” Shakespeare’s works from early modern English to contemporary usage, both onstage and on the page. At first, he said, “I was kind of upset by that, because I love Shakespeare’s language. But if we can pause our taking offense and think, ‘How can we best invite people in the 21st century, for whom early modern English is very difficult, to engage with Shakespeare’s plays?,’ the easy answer is the abstraction that comes with a translation process.”

-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