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

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Study reveals same genes that can drive cancer also guide neural-circuit growth

LAWRENCE — Many people are familiar with oncogenes — genes long known to be involved in cancers in humans, such as the gene “Src.” What’s less widely understood is that oncogenes didn’t evolve just to cause cancer in species, but rather to control events of normal growth and differentiation. Now, in new research appearing in PLOS ONE, University of Kansas researchers have added new specifics to the role Src plays in our biology, showing the gene is required for healthy development of the nervous system.

KU Law’s moot court program ranks 25th in nation

LAWRENCE — The University of Kansas School of Law’s moot court program is 25th in the nation, according to rankings published recently by the University of Houston Law Center. The rankings are determined by a point system, awarding point values in various categories for successes in regional and national competitions throughout the year.

Full stories below.

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Contact: Brendan Lynch, KU News Service, 785-864-8855, [email protected], @BrendanMLynch

Study reveals same genes that can drive cancer also guide neural-circuit growth

LAWRENCE — Many people are familiar with oncogenes — genes long known to be involved in cancers in humans, such as the gene “Src.”

What’s less widely understood is that oncogenes didn’t evolve just to cause cancer in species, but rather to control events of normal growth and differentiation.

“As an organism grows from a single fertilized egg to form all the different tissue types, these oncogenes, including Src, evolved to control these normal events,” said Erik Lundquist, professor of molecular biosciences and associate vice chancellor for research at the University of Kansas. “To understand what these oncogenes are doing in cancer, it’s important to understand what they’re doing in normal development when they’re not defective. When Src gets a mutation that causes it to be defective, it becomes an oncogene. But we’re looking at what Src does in a normal developmental context.”

Now, in new research appearing in PLOS ONE, Lundquist and colleagues from his lab at KU have added new specifics to the role Src plays in our biology, showing the gene is required for healthy development of the nervous system.

The work depended on a model organism called C. elegans, a nematode worm whose Src gene is very similar to humans — but called “SRC-1.”

“The fun thing is that by the time humans and this worm last had a common ancestor, about 600 million years ago, most of the functions of the Src protein had already been worked out in that common ancestor,” Lundquist said. “What we study about the SRC-1 protein in this model organism, the nematode worm, will be relevant to what it’s doing in human growth and development and therefore human pathogenesis and cancer.”

By using CRISPR gene editing technology in Lundquist’s lab to knock out the SRC-1 gene’s function entirely in the nematodes, the KU researchers showed the gene plays a key role in development of the nervous system by guiding axons.

“As the nervous system develops, neurons are born, and they have to elaborate these structures called axons,” Lundquist said. “Axons are the electrical wiring of the nervous system. The SRC-1 protein is involved in the normal development of these axons.

“For example, in a human context, if you have a motor neuron born in your spinal cord, how does the axon get out to your fingertip to a muscle versus to your stomach to a muscle? That’s called axon guidance. The SCR-1 protein is a key player in axon guidance, and this paper shows that.”

Lundquist’s collaborators at KU were graduate research assistant Snehal Mahadik and former undergraduate student Emily Burt.

“Snehal was a graduate student in our lab initially, did the work and received her Ph.D. a couple of years ago,” Lundquist said. “She also worked with an undergraduate student in the lab who’s also an author on the paper — Emily, who helped do a lot of the experiments and was responsible for some of the analysis. Snehal did the genome editing, but Emily did many of the surrounding experiments.”

The KU team established new details about how SRC-1 is involved in the growth of axons, finding SRC-1 regulates a cellular structure called a growth cone.

“It’s like the steering wheel of the axon that guides the axon to its target — either a motor neuron or another neuron in the nervous system — to form a synapse,” Lundquist said. “Because the axon needs to be in place for a synapse to form, the SRC-1 protein acts in axon guidance.”

Moreover, the team settled scientific debate about how SRC-1 contributes to axon guidance in normal development.

“There had been some discrepancies in the literature about the role of this gene, and we settled that by deleting it entirely — which is quite definitive,” Lundquist said. “It turns out the mutation most people were using to study SRC-1 in worms wasn’t a loss of gene function. It was an activated form of the gene, more like what an oncogene does.”

Lundquist, who also serves with the KU Cancer Center and KU Center for Genomics, said oncogenes often lose their ability to be regulated by other proteins, leading to uncontrolled activity that can cause carcinogenesis.

“The mutation in the SRC-1 gene was like this,” he said. “But we did a clean, precise knockout, ensuring the gene had no potential function in the organism. We found the phenotype (its physical appearance) was opposite of the previous mutation, confirming the previous mutation was not a loss of function but an overactive form of the gene.”

The work is the initial step in developing new therapies for spinal cord injuries and stroke, which involve neuron damage and death.

“In genetics, there are often cassettes of molecules that are reused in different events,” Lundquist said. “We’re looking at and defining a cassette that’s being used by Src in axon guidance. But that same cassette might also be involved in processes related to oncogenesis and cancer. This understanding gives us more targets for therapeutic intervention.”

The KU researcher said if scientists can understand how Src is engaging its effectors, it broadens the target for therapeutic intervention with proteins that can be specifically modified by particular pharmaceutical compounds, maybe in ways that weren’t previously appreciated. For this reason, the research was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

“That’s the bigger picture importance to biomedical research — understanding how these proteins relate to each other in this context,” he said. “There’s also the potential for repairing or alleviating the effects of stroke, hypoxia and nerve damage after stroke or spinal cord injury. Our central nervous systems do not regenerate well, so understanding how neurons normally grow might eventually help us understand how they might regrow.”

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Don’t miss new episodes of “When Experts Attack!,”

a KU News Service podcast hosted by Kansas Public Radio.

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

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Contact: Emma Herrman, School of Law, [email protected], @kulawschool

KU Law’s moot court program ranks 25th in nation

LAWRENCE — The University of Kansas School of Law’s moot court program is 25th in the nation, according to rankings published recently by the University of Houston Law Center. The rankings are determined by a point system, awarding point values in various categories for successes in regional and national competitions throughout the year.

“This is the sixth year in a row that our moot court program has been ranked one of the top 25 programs in the nation,” said Pam Keller, moot court director and law professor. “I think everyone in the program is proud of that sustained success. Our students are committed to building their advocacy skills and to helping each other be successful. We have a long and strong moot court tradition at KU, but to be in the top 25 is special.”

This is the fourth consecutive year that KU Law has won the National Native American Law Student Association (NNALSA) Moot Court Competition. The winning team, composed of 2024 graduates Jade Kearney and Justin Shock, contributed their success to the support of KU Law alumni and KU Law’s moot court program. Three-time NNALSA winner Emily DePew, a 2023 graduate, lent her support and expertise as she traveled with the team to Montana.

“This spirit of collaboration is something we hope to continue as we aspire to return the favor in future years by assisting incoming NNALSA competitors, just as those before us have done, to uphold KU Law’s illustrious reign as the NNALSA Moot Court champions for years to come,” Shock said.

KU Law’s continued success led to its invitation to the 2024 Hunton Andrews Kurth Moot Court National Championship to which only the top 16 moot court programs are invited to attend. Karlie Bischoff and Hailey Reed, 2024 graduates, represented KU Law and received the award for second-best brief.

“Our program has grown a lot, especially in the last 10 years,” Keller said. “We have more faculty coaches than ever before and have increasingly relied on our KU Law alumni to coach teams and mentor our students.”

Other notable highlights from the 2023-2024 moot court season:

Arielle Jacobs, a 2024 graduate, and Sam Crawford, a third-year student, represented KU Law at the annual Shapero Bankruptcy Moot Court Competition in Detroit. The team advanced to the final round, finishing in second place. Jacobs came in second for Best Advocate.
Third-year students Skylee James and Lauren Bretz also represented KU Law at the NNALSA Moot Court Competition. They advanced to the quarterfinals where they took home the second-best brief award.
Karlie Bischoff and Hailey Reed, 2024 graduates, competed in the Jerome Prince Memorial Evidence Competition in Brooklyn, New York. The pair argued all the way to the final four, where they went head-to-head with NYU.
John Langmaid and Anthony Leeks, 2024 graduates, competed in the Stetson International Moot Court Competition and received the award for second-best brief in the regional competition.
Most KU Law students who competed in national tournaments were the top finishers in the school’s in-house moot court competition during their second year of law school. Competitions generally consist of writing an appellate brief and presenting a mock oral argument before an appellate court.

Past KU Law rankings by the University of Houston Law Center:

2023: No. 10
2022: No. 14
2021: No. 13
2020: No. 22
2019: No. 14
2018: No. 26
2017: No. 17
2016: No. 19.
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KU News Service

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Phone: 785-864-3256

Fax: 785-864-3339

[email protected]

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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

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Contact: Wendy Conover, KU Libraries, [email protected]

KU Libraries name 2024 Rubinstein/Mason Award recipients

LAWRENCE — University of Kansas Libraries have named Katherine Bryan and Connor Reazin recipients of the 2024 Rubinstein/Mason Award. The scholarship supports current and former KU students in graduate study in librarianship and archival studies in honor of the late Joseph Rubinstein and the late Alexandra Mason, commemorating their years of principled service as KU librarians.

“It is incredibly inspiring to read the students’ applications — to see what has led them to become interested in the field and what they want to accomplish through a career in libraries,” said Elspeth Healey, special collections curator at Kenneth Spencer Research Library and chair of the award committee. “So many of them are motivated by a desire to preserve information, make it more accessible and serve communities that have been underserved in the past.”

Bryan, a 2024 graduate from Lake Elmo, Minnesota, has worked as a collections inventory specialist for the History of Black Writing Project at Watson Library for the past two years — a role that inspired her to pursue further studies in library science.

“The position has taught me a great deal about myself and my professional aspirations,” Bryan said of her work. “I’ve developed a deep appreciation for the importance of both digital and physical preservation. Being a part of a team dedicated to preserving and promoting Black literary heritage has been truly fulfilling, and I value the opportunity to contribute to such meaningful work.”

Bryan will pursue a master’s degree in library science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the fall.

Reazin, a 2022 graduate from Wichita, worked with KU Libraries in public services and media preservation in audiovisual conservation at Spencer Research Library. His work in Spencer’s Audio-Visual Preservation Lab and mentorship from KU librarians sparked his interest in library career paths and a passion for both preserving and expanding access to materials.

“KU Libraries taught me a lot, but none so much as my own passion and dedication toward libraries,” Reazin said. “I am excited to become an active contributor to librarianship and to help the mission of preservation and accessibility in whatever way I can.”

Reazin will attend Indiana University Indianapolis to pursue his master’s in library science with special interest in digital librarianship and archival studies.

The Rubinstein/Mason award is made possible by private funds and managed by KU Endowment. Rubinstein was the first head of KU Libraries’ Department of Special Collections, and Mason was a Distinguished Librarian at KU from 1957 until she retired in 1999.

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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

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Contact: Jon Niccum, 785-864-7633, [email protected]

Attorney marketing tactics compared to ‘corporate ambulance chasing’ in new study
LAWRENCE — The cliché of an unscrupulous lawyer pursuing clients who’ve just been injured after an accident is known as “ambulance chasing.” But does this same tactic also apply to big business?

“The most cynical view of corporate ambulance chasing is that any time a stock price drops or a negative press release is announced, you see lawyers chasing it,” said Eric Weisbrod, an associate professor of accounting at the University of Kansas School of Business. “We were curious to see if that played out in the data.”

His team’s research has resulted in a working paper titled “Corporate Ambulance Chasing? Plaintiff’s Attorney Marketing as a Signal of Corporate Litigation Risk.” It reveals that both traditional and social media announcements of plaintiff’s attorneys’ corporate investigations strongly predict future litigation.

And it finds that attorneys’ efforts to recruit additional plaintiffs after a lawsuit has been filed signal that the action is more likely to succeed and result in more severe damages.

Co-written with KU’s Adi Masli and Matt Peterson and Steven Kaplan of Arizona State University, the paper is predicated on a common litigation strategy. Upon learning of an “adverse” corporate event, plaintiff’s attorneys sometimes issue marketing releases announcing they are “investigating potential claims” against the corporation on behalf of shareholders and encouraging them to contact the law firm.

“Only 19.87% of the adverse events examined in our study lead to material lawsuits, but these lawsuits are costly for shareholders and managers when they do occur,” Weisbrod said.

“When something bad happens, people want to know, is the company going to get sued? We find that, instead of chasing every adverse event, attorneys use their judgment to selectively invest in marketing in situations where there’s more likely to be grounds for a lawsuit. So if you see attorneys marketing around such an event, that should raise the risk of a lawsuit or a negative outcome to the company.”

What is his definition of an adverse event?

“We examine announcements of things like financial restatements, missed earnings targets, auditor resignations and management turnover. We also look at mergers and acquisitions, which can increase litigation risk because shareholders of the target company sometimes sue to try to block the acquisition and get a higher acquisition price,” he said.

Weisbrod and his team conducted their main analyses at the company-month level, resulting in a sample of 298,411 company-month observations from 2013-2020. He searched for keywords on social media such as “investigation, behalf, shareholders” combined with terms such as “LLP” to let them know a law firm was involved.

“We started looking at tweets around restatements and saw a lot of them were from law firms starting investigations,” he said. “Once we saw that, we realized this could be a bigger phenomenon,” he recalled.

Litigation risk is invariably a concern for corporations and their shareholders. Weisbrod noted that maximum potential dollar losses from securities class action lawsuits reached an all-time high of $2.25 trillion in 2023.

“I always try to target my research to be relevant to investors,” he said. “But there are additional stakeholders who should be interested in this project. If an adverse event is announced, management is going to be very concerned if they’re going to get sued.

“Audit committees and boards of directors who have a vested interest and could potentially be named as defendants in a lawsuit might want to pay attention. Insurance companies also have an interest in estimating whether they will have to pay out claims resulting from the lawsuits. And it might have some interest to regulators, particularly the social media aspect of it.”

He also believes the study’s results imply that attorney marketing should not be considered indiscriminate ambulance chasing.

“Lawyers are really using their judgment to only market in cases where they think there’s a legitimate harm to shareholders,” he said.

Weisbrod previously served as an academic fellow in the Office of the Chief Accountant at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington, D.C. The Dallas native came to KU in 2020, where his research focuses on financial data providers and financial analysts.

“If you see an investigation announcement on Twitter or in The Wall Street Journal, then watch out, because it’s a very good signal there’s going to be a lawsuit coming up soon,” Weisbrod said. “This is like the sharks circling. If you see attorneys raising flags, then you really know to take seriously what’s happening.”

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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

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Study finds US does not have housing shortage, but shortage of affordable housing
New research from the University of Kansas finds that most of the nation’s markets have ample housing in total, but nearly all lack enough units affordable to very low-income households. The researchers found only four of the nation’s 381 metropolitan areas experienced a housing shortage in the study time frame, as did only 19 of the country’s 526 “micropolitan” areas — those with 10,000-50,000 residents. The findings suggest that addressing housing prices and low incomes are more urgently needed to address housing affordability issues than simply building more homes, the authors wrote.

Annual summer solstice tour of KU medicinal garden set for June 21
The public is invited to the summer semiannual tour of the KU Native Medicinal Plant Research Garden at 7 p.m. June 21, one day after the summer solstice. The garden, situated just east of the Lawrence Municipal Airport, includes research plantings, a large native plant demonstration garden and the KU Community Garden.

Frederick Douglass’ relationship with audiences illustrates ‘outsized impact’ of public speaking in politics, scholar says
A new scholarly article examines Frederick Douglass’ relationship as an orator with his audiences — both present and imagined — and how this give-and-take was present during a notable shift in his thinking. “Thinking about audience and the way he was seeing audiences and they were seeing him led him down this road toward reinterpreting the Constitution,” said Laura Mielke. “Today it might be too easy for us to say politics are all about social media and the internet. I would suggest that public speaking still has an outsized impact on the American political scene.”

Full stories below.

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Contact: Mike Krings, 785-864-8860, [email protected]

Study finds US does not have housing shortage, but shortage of affordable housing
LAWRENCE — The United States is experiencing a housing shortage. At least, that is the case according to common belief — and is even the basis for national policy, as the Biden administration has stated plans to address the housing supply shortfall.

But new research from the University of Kansas finds that most of the nation’s markets have ample housing in total, but nearly all lack enough units affordable to very low-income households.

Kirk McClure, professor of public affairs & administration emeritus at KU, and Alex Schwartz of The New School co-wrote a study published in the journal Housing Policy Debate. They examined U.S. Census Bureau data from 2000 to 2020 to compare the number of households formed to the number of housing units added to determine if there were more households needing homes than units available.

The researchers found only four of the nation’s 381 metropolitan areas experienced a housing shortage in the study time frame, as did only 19 of the country’s 526 “micropolitan” areas — those with 10,000-50,000 residents.

The findings suggest that addressing housing prices and low incomes are more urgently needed to address housing affordability issues than simply building more homes, the authors wrote.

“There is a commonly held belief that the United States has a shortage of housing. This can be found in the popular and academic literature and from the housing industry,” McClure said. “But the data shows that the majority of American markets have adequate supplies of housing available. Unfortunately, not enough of it is affordable, especially for low-income and very low-income families and individuals.”

McClure and Schwartz also examined households in two categories: Very low income, defined as between 30% and 60% of area median family income, and extremely low income, with incomes below 30% of area median family income.

The numbers showed that from 2010 to 2020, household formation did exceed the number of homes available. However, there was a large surplus of housing produced in the previous decade. In fact, from 2000 to 2020, housing production exceeded the growth of households by 3.3 million units. The surplus from 2000 to 2010 more than offset the shortages from 2010 to 2020.

The numbers also showed that nearly all metropolitan areas have sufficient units for owner occupancy. But nearly all have shortages of rental units affordable to the very low-income renter households.

While the authors looked at housing markets across the nation, they also examined vacancy rates, or the difference between total and occupied units, to determine how many homes were available. National total vacancy rates were 9% in 2000 and 11.4% by 2010, which marked the end of the housing bubble and the Great Recession. By the end of 2020, the rate was 9.7%, with nearly 14 million vacant units.

“When looking at the number of housing units available, it becomes clear there is no overall shortage of housing units available. Of course, there are many factors that determine if a vacant is truly available; namely, if it is physically habitable and how much it costs to purchase or rent the unit,” McClure said. “There are also considerations over a family’s needs such as an adequate number of bedrooms or accessibility for individuals with disabilities, but the number of homes needed has not outpaced the number of homes available.”

Not all housing markets are alike, and while there could be shortages in some, others could contain a surplus of available housing units. The study considered markets in all core-based statistical areas as defined by the Census Bureau. Metropolitan areas saw a nationwide surplus of 2.7 million more units than households in the 20-year study period, while micropolitan areas had a more modest surplus of about 300,000 units.

Numbers of available housing units and people only tell part of the story. An individual family needs to be able to afford housing, whether they buy or rent. Shortages of any scale appear in the data only when considering renters, the authors wrote. McClure and Schwartz compared the number of available units in four submarkets of each core-based statistical area to the estimated number of units affordable to renters with incomes from 30% to 60% of the area median family income. Those rates are roughly equivalent to the federal poverty level and upper level of eligibility for various rental assistance programs. Only two metropolitan areas had shortages for very-low-income renters, and only two had surpluses available for extremely-low-income renters.

Helping people afford the housing stock that is available would be more cost effective than expanding new home construction in the hope that additional supply would bring prices down, the authors wrote. Several federal programs have proven successful in helping renters and moderate-income buyers afford housing that would otherwise be out of reach.

“Our nation’s affordability problems result more from low incomes confronting high housing prices rather than from housing shortages,” McClure said. “This condition suggests that we cannot build our way to housing affordability. We need to address price levels and income levels to help low-income households afford the housing that already exists, rather than increasing the supply in the hope that prices will subside.”

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Follow @KUnews for KU News Service stories, discoveries and experts.

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Contact: Kirsten Bosnak, 785-864-6267, [email protected]

Annual summer solstice tour of KU medicinal garden set for June 21
LAWRENCE — The public is invited to the summer semiannual tour of the University of Kansas Native Medicinal Plant Research Garden at 7 p.m. June 21, one day after the summer solstice.

The garden, situated just east of the Lawrence Municipal Airport (directions and map), includes research plantings, a large native plant demonstration garden and the KU Community Garden. Garden pathways are ADA-compliant, and the site is open to the public dawn to dusk.

Kelly Kindscher, a senior scientist at the Kansas Biological Survey & Center for Ecological Research and a professor in the KU Environmental Studies Program, will give an overview of the research gardens and highlight important species. The group will explore the garden and see the work of the Douglas County Extension Master Gardeners, who partner with the research center to manage the garden.

The tour will end before dark, but visitors are welcome to stay to watch the sunset or to watch full Strawberry Moon rise at 9:10 p.m.

The garden site, established in 2010, serves as a gateway to the KU Field Station, as it is the first of several Field Station sites on East 1600 Road in Douglas County north of Highway 40. Land for the garden was made available by KU Endowment. See the KU Calendar event and the Facebook event page.

The KU Field Station, established in 1947, is managed by the Kansas Biological Survey & Center for Ecological Research, a KU designated research center. The core research and operations area of the Field Station, just north of Lawrence, consists of 1,650 acres, with five miles of public trails. The Field Station is a resource for KU students, faculty and staff in the sciences, arts, humanities and professional programs, as well as for visiting researchers and community members.

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Contact: Erinn Barcomb-Peterson, 785-864-8858, [email protected]

Frederick Douglass’ relationship with audiences illustrates ‘outsized impact’ of public speaking in politics, scholar says

LAWRENCE — The late 18th to the mid-19th century was the golden age of public speaking. Part education, part entertainment, being a good orator was critical — particularly in certain social circles.

For writer and reformer Frederick Douglass, public speaking was among the vehicles he used to tell his story of enslavement, to call for abolition and to defend Black Americans’ rights.

A new scholarly article from Laura Mielke, “‘The Sea of Upturned Faces’: The Rhetorical Role of Audience in Frederick Douglass’s Constitutional Interpretation at Midcentury,” examines Douglass’ relationship as an orator with his audiences — both present and imagined — and how this give-and-take was present during a notable shift in his thinking.

Mielke is the Dean’s Professor of English at the University of Kansas, where she also serves as interim chair of the Department of History. The article appeared in the journal MELUS (Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States).

Douglass was acutely aware of his audiences, both those in the room and the audience that would read written accounts of his oration in newspapers and other publications. In fact, Douglass advised fellow anti-slavery organizers to make sure the venues for lecturers had the audience illuminated.

“I imagine how Douglass wanted to see his audience so that he was constantly gauging their reaction, shifting his delivery and his tactics based on what he saw,” Mielke said. “He could shift from fire to comedy, from condemnation to satire.”

Mielke, whose scholarship has delved into the impact of theatre on the anti-slavery movement, said Douglass and his contemporaries understood how to leverage the art form’s popularity, even incorporating imitations of pro-slavery preachers and politicians.

“We can have a negative connotation with performance, but he was a talented performer,” Mielke said. “He knew it was important for him to perform — to capture imaginations — but also to counter the racist performances of popular theater,” Mielke said.

In her article, Mielke explores Douglass’ ideological transformation from seeing the U.S. Constitution as a pro-slavery document to seeing it as an anti-slavery document through the lens his relationships with his audiences. What has otherwise been described as Douglass’ personal and intellectual transformation, Mielke sees having taken place in the presence of his many live audiences, as well as other writers, thinkers, readers and activists.

“He had shifted from lectures that were primarily focused on his autobiography to lectures that are more about what he is reading, what others should read — the sense of it being a collective project,” Mielke said. “Thinking about audience and the way he was seeing audiences and they were seeing him led him down this road toward reinterpreting the Constitution.”

Particularly in a presidential election year, the term “political theatre” is a charged one. Yet the way candidates relate to and play off their audiences matters, even to those who aren’t present to witness it.

“Today it might be too easy for us to say politics are all about social media and the internet,” Mielke said. “I would suggest that public speaking still has an outsized impact on the American political scene.”

Case in point, the amount of coverage given to candidates’ audiences as well as the candidates themselves — not unlike newspaper coverage of Douglass in the 1800s.

“Live public speaking and its reception are very powerful, even when we are encountering them in a written record,” Mielke said.

The written record of Douglass’ life is a particular area of interest for Mielke, who has been involved in KU’s observance of Douglass Day, a nationwide event during which volunteers transcribe documents related to Black history to make the content digitally accessible.

“I love participating in Douglas Day because I love looking at old documents and learning about history,” Mielke said. “But I also have a sense that if I’m going to do scholarship in the field of 19th century African American literature I should do something to help sustain it. Anything we can do to help sustain community around the preservation of that history and the dissemination of those documents is important.”

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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