A Cosmic Duet</h1> <article> <h1>A Cosmic Duet</h1> <p>awillia2 — Tue, 11 Mar 2025 04:05:33 +0000</p> <span>A Cosmic Duet</span> <span><span>awillia2</span></span> <span><time datetime="2025-03-11T00:05:33-04:00" title="Tuesday, March 11, 2025 - 00:05">Tue, 03/11/2025 - 00:05</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-subhead field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">For Julia Christensen, the distinctive convergence of art and technology is explored through connections with leading aerospace engineers—and the music created by trees.</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2025-03-21T12:00:00Z">Fri, 03/21/2025 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Eloise Rich ’26</div> <div class="text-content field field--name-field-intro-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>The question of obsolescence—whether a technology, artwork, product, or idea remains relevant—is crucial to the work of artists and scientists. Obsolescence is relevant for myriad reasons. For one, we are often left wondering how much time we have left, with both our technology and life itself. At the same time, contemporary scientific and artistic developments are informed by previous trends.</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=4292">�鶹��Ƶ Research Review</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25436">Studio Art</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-faculty field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/julia-christensen" hreflang="und">Julia Christensen</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/art" hreflang="und">Studio Art</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-caption field--type-string-long field--label-hidden field__item">Cover art from the limited edition vinyl record.</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-cte-images field--type-list-string field--label-hidden field__item">Yes (Individual Images)</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Courtesy of Space Song Foundation: Tree Songs Art Center</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-flex-content field--type-entity-reference-revisions field--label-hidden vertical-spacing--basic field__items"> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-40687" class="paragraph paragraph--type--pb-el-bq paragraph--view-mode--default"> <blockquote class="blockquote--distinguished" data-text-size-giant> <p>Trees have power, like humans do, to regulate climate and vastly shape the world we live in.</p> </blockquote> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-40367" class="paragraph paragraph--type--para-el-copy paragraph--view-mode--default o-flex--basic-copy basic-copy"> <p>Julia Christensen, the Eva and John Young-Hunter Professor of Integrated Media, has been working on projects related to obsolescence and technology for several years. Through a 2017 Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) Art + Tech Lab Fellowship, she connected with engineers and scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory who were also thinking about obsolescence, specifically in the context of long-term space missions. A group at the lab was working on a study to develop a potential spacecraft launch to our nearest exoplanetary neighbor, Proxima b. With the proposed technologies, this equals a 42-year journey.</p> <p>Christensen was asked to come up with an art project to be embedded on such a craft, which was slated to launch in 2069, and settled on something music-related. She first faced a “complex conceptual problem,” as she puts it. “It takes 4.2 years for any data to travel back to Earth because data travels at the speed of light. We’re looking at an 80-year timeline here for this technology.”</p> <p>And as Christensen began to think about what to record, she came back to the obsolescence of life on Earth. “Humans will come and go between now and our Proxima b mission,” she explains. “But there are species that will be here for the whole time. Some fish live for a long time; so does coral.” </p> <p>Eventually, Christensen decided to focus on something else long-lasting—trees, which she says are “potentially the most important cornerstone of our ecosystem. Trees have power, like humans do, to regulate climate and vastly shape the world we live in.” </p> <p>This idea grew into The Tree of Life, a project of a nonprofit called the Space Song Foundation that Christensen co-chairs with Steve Matousek, a longtime project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. This project involves putting sensors on trees around the world that read light, water, and temperature. The numeric data gathered from these sensors is translated into frequencies that can be interpreted both visually and aurally. On a daily basis, variations in frequency arise as a result of the Earth’s natural rotation, determining whether the wired trees are facing the sun. In the long term, changes in frequency describe seasons and even global shifts in climate.</p> <p>“We are making this ongoing song of the trees around the planet,” Christensen says. “The idea is we start that song now, and when an interstellar spacecraft launches in 50 years, we can etch the sine waves produced by our trees on the side of the craft.” </p> <p>There’s precedent for this: In 1977, two phonograph records called the Voyager Golden Records launched aboard the interstellar space probes Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. These also comprise sonic representations of life on Earth, encompassing whale songs and compositions by Beethoven and Mozart, and they have staying power. As of January 2025, the Golden Records <a href="https://science.nasa.gov/mission/voyager/where-are-voyager-1-and-voyager-2-now/" target="_blank">remain in space</a>.</p> <p> “The Tree of Life’s cosmic duet can be embedded on future interstellar spacecrafts telling a story about life on Earth,” Christensen says. “But this time, it’s from the perspective of the trees that support our terrestrial ecosystem and the technology we build. It’s like a Golden Record but of the trees, facilitated by the humans and by the technology that we build.”</p> <p>Some of the work has been released already on <a href="https://spacesong.bandcamp.com/album/tree-songs-art-center-2" target="_blank">Bandcamp</a>. All of this data will be publicly available and welcome both scientific and artistic “remixes” in addition to being part of the spacecraft.</p> <p>“For me, having these sonifications of data is really interesting from an artistic and cultural perspective,” she says. “But we’ve always wanted the project to have as much scientific integrity as it does artistic integrity, and this auditory system that we’ve built is really helpful for scientists. They’ve said when you’re parsing an immense amount of data, it’s sometimes easier to hear a shift or a change than it is to see it.”</p> <p>At its core, The Tree of Life is a meditation on scientific and artistic longevity. “A lot of the scientists that I’m working with are visionary people,” Christensen says. “We’ve realized we’re asking the same questions: Who are we? Why are we here? How long have we got? Is there anybody else out there? All the same existential questions underlie their scientific and engineering work, along with the grand artistic questions about life.”</p> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-40368" class="paragraph paragraph--type--para-el-copy paragraph--view-mode--default o-flex--basic-copy basic-copy"> <hr> <p><em>Julia Christensen’s multidisciplinary research navigates the world between art, technology, and time. She earned an MFA in electronic music and recording media at Mills College and an MFA in integrated technology arts at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and was a 2018 Guggenheim Fellow.</em></p> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div class="field field--name-field-bio-card-el-biography field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> <div class="biography-card"> <figure> </figure> <div class="biography-card__content"> <h2><span>Julia Christensen</span> </h2> <ul class="item-list list--clean" style="margin-top: 0px;"> <li class="professional-title">Eva and John Young-Hunter Professor of Art</li> <li class="professional-title">Director of the BA+BFA Integrated Arts Program</li> </ul> <a class="view-more" href="/julia-christensen">View Julia Christensen’s biography</a> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-40386" class="paragraph paragraph--type--para-el-copy paragraph--view-mode--default o-flex--basic-copy basic-copy"> <h2 class="small-headline" style="margin-top: 1.25rem;">About the Image</h2> <figure class="captioned-image obj-right" data-cte style="margin-bottom: 1.75rem;"> <figcaption><em>Click the image to expand</em></figcaption> </figure>  <p>Courtesy of Space Song Foundation: Tree Songs Art Center.</p> <hr class="hr--light" style="clear: both; margin: 1.25rem 0;"> <p><a class="view-more" href="/node/488025">Return to <em>�鶹��Ƶ Research Review</em></a></p> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-40369" class="paragraph paragraph--type--para-el-copy paragraph--view-mode--default o-flex--basic-copy basic-copy"> <p class="header-tag no-show" id="header-tag">�鶹��Ƶ Research Review</p> <style> .no-show { display: none } </style> <script> (function() { var header = document.querySelector(".story-header"); var headerTag = document.getElementById("header-tag"); header.insertBefore(headerTag, header.firstElementChild); headerTag.classList.remove("no-show"); })(); </script>  <script> (function() { var credit = document.querySelector(".top-combo__figure .figure__credit"); credit.innerText = credit.textContent.replace("Photo credit","Image credit"); })(); </script>  <style> aside .list--clean li { margin-bottom: 0.25rem; } aside ul.list--clean { margin-top: .5rem; font-family: var(--font-sans-serif); font-size: 0.875rem; } aside .basic-box { margin: .5rem 0; max-width: 240px; } aside .basic-box .small-headline { font-size: 1rem; } </style>  <style> .biography-card blockquote { display: none } .body-centered-layout blockquote { margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: -1rem; } </style> </div> </div> </div> </article> <article> <h1>A Galaxy of Options</h1> <p>awillia2 — Fri, 07 Mar 2025 04:59:39 +0000</p> <span>A Galaxy of Options</span> <span><span>awillia2</span></span> <span><time datetime="2025-03-06T23:59:39-05:00" title="Thursday, March 6, 2025 - 23:59">Thu, 03/06/2025 - 23:59</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><figure class="captioned-image obj-left"> <figcaption><em>Forty Ways to Know a Star</em> by Jillian Scudder</figcaption> </figure> <p>Astronomers can measure how much non-hydrogen glowing gas a galaxy has using a value called metallicity. This is a really useful metric in principle, Scudder says, because low metallicity values indicate unprocessed gas, and high metallicity values signify heavily recycled gas. Unfortunately, there isn’t a single, clean way of calculating that value. “We don’t have one method that works,” Scudder says. “We have a dozen methods that all kind of work in different contexts.” </p> <p>Scudder’s latest research, published in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stae2719" target="_blank"><em>Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society</em></a> with coauthors Aidan Khelil ’22 and Jordan Ordower ’25, aimed to make sure that metallicity values were still reliable coming from regions of a galaxy dominated by light from young stars, even as the data available to astronomers became massively more detailed.</p> <p>In the past, astronomers only had access to a single spectra—a term that describes which wavelengths are present in light—per galaxy. Those wavelengths correspond to different elements, so it’s a way to identify what object (e.g., a star, a pulsar, a black hole) made the light. If this single spectra wasn’t dominated by starlight, astronomers would toss that galaxy and move on. </p> <p>Thanks to technology, galaxy images are more detailed; for example, the ones Scudder is working with have about 10,000 galaxies with anywhere between 200 and 2,000 spectra each. You can think of it like astronomers now seeing a 4K image instead of a blurry one. With this newly granular boundary, suddenly it mattered more to know if the dividing lines between starlight and not-starlight were affecting the metallicities.</p> <p>Scudder took all the public spectral data for these galaxies, to the tune of 1.5 million data points, and ran them through 12 different methods for estimating metallicity values. “This is where data management becomes important, because you will ruin your computer if you ask it to plot 1.5 million things times 12,” she says. “If you ask it, the computer will go, ‘No,’ and shut down.” </p> <p>She then created a SQL database of these metallicity values and loaded them into computers in her lab for student researchers. Within these values, students looked at the image of each galaxy and where the boundary line changed, pixel by pixel, from “starlight” to “not starlight,” with each metallicity estimation method.</p> <p>Scudder analyzed the boundary to find pixels with trusted metallicity values located right next to a pixel that <em>didn’t</em> seem like starlight. Since there should be a rotational symmetry in a galaxy, she rotated along that plane to find another pixel with the same metallicity value located the same distance from the center—but surrounded by trustworthy pixels.</p> <p>“If there is not a difference, it tells me that being adjacent to something I don’t trust actually doesn’t matter at all,” she says. “This means the way we’ve been splitting these galaxies up is fine. But if I <em>do</em> see a difference, that tells me we have to be more careful about how we do our metallicity work going forward.” </p> <p>Her result was initially surprising. “What I found was that it matters <em>some</em> of the time,” Scudder says. For three of the 12 methods she tested, the boundary of star to not-star was getting contaminated, or displaying false positives. The common denominator? Those three methods calculated metallicity only using the ratio of nitrogen to hydrogen. </p> <aside class="pull obj-right"> <div class="basic-box basic-box--light"> <h2 class="small-headline">Student Researchers</h2> <ul class="list--clean"> <li>Megan Kyi ’26</li> <li>Jonah Ordower ’25</li> <li>Tanisha Shende ’26</li> <li>Abby Tejera ’25</li> <li>Jenna Walker ’26</li> </ul> </div> </aside> <p>Scudder suspected the problem was a sensitivity to nitrogen. Young stars have a “shell” of partially ionized material that includes a thin layer of nitrogen. But other celestial objects create different volumes of glowing nitrogen. For example, a supermassive black hole’s higher-energy light produces a thick shell of partially ionized nitrogen, which then permits a brighter nitrogen glow. </p> <p>The good news is that Scudder found that the metallicity methods that used elements in addition to nitrogen, like oxygen and sulphur, were not affected. Now that astronomers know this, they can either choose metallicities that aren’t so sensitive to nitrogen or just pay more attention to their boundary conditions. </p> <p>Scudder’s next project is figuring out how to compare these 12 metallicity methods to each other so that researchers can compare directly between the metallicities. Ultimately it means that the data and research up to this point is all OK. “It’s really good news for everything we have done so far,” Scudder says. “I found this result to be really reassuring in many ways.”</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-subhead field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Jillian Scudder is making sure astronomers can trust old data before leaping into new research.</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2025-03-21T12:00:00Z">Fri, 03/21/2025 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Dyani Sabin ’14</div> <div class="text-content field field--name-field-intro-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>When astronomers assess the ages of galaxies, they look at the glow of the elements created by nuclear fusion. “Our hydrogen gas comes prebaked with the universe,” says Associate Professor of Physics Jillian Scudder. “Anything else has gone through a star, because the only way you get these heavier elements is if a star built them.”</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=4292">�鶹��Ƶ Research Review</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25411">Physics</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-faculty field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/jillian-scudder" hreflang="und">Jillian Scudder</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/physics-and-astronomy" hreflang="und">Physics and Astronomy</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-cte-images field--type-list-string field--label-hidden field__item">Yes (Individual Images)</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Andrea Wang ’19</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-flex-content field--type-entity-reference-revisions field--label-hidden vertical-spacing--basic field__items"> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-40342" class="paragraph paragraph--type--para-el-copy paragraph--view-mode--default o-flex--basic-copy basic-copy"> <hr> <p><em>Jillian Scudder’s research addresses questions of how galaxies function and change. She earned her doctorate at the University of Victoria in British Columbia and was a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Sussex in England. Her latest book is 40 Ways to Know a Star (Chronicle Books, 2025).</em></p> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div class="field field--name-field-bio-card-el-biography field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> <div class="biography-card"> <figure> </figure> <div class="biography-card__content"> <h2><span>Jillian Scudder</span> </h2> <ul class="item-list list--clean" style="margin-top: 0px;"> <li class="professional-title">Associate Professor of Physics</li> </ul> <a class="view-more" href="/jillian-scudder">View Jillian Scudder’s biography</a> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-40375" class="paragraph paragraph--type--para-el-copy paragraph--view-mode--default o-flex--basic-copy basic-copy"> <h2 class="small-headline" style="margin-top: 1.25rem;">About the Illustration</h2> <figure class="captioned-image obj-right" data-cte style="margin-bottom: 1.75rem;"> <figcaption><em>Click the image to expand</em></figcaption> </figure> <p class="subhead" style="color: var(--darkgray);">Illustrator: Andrea Wang ’19</p> <blockquote data-add-quotes data-no-attribution> <p>Academic papers were a rich source of visual references for the diagrams—one of them depicts a “protostar,” the earliest stage in a star’s life cycle. Little accents like magnetic field lines, scientific symbols, chart data points, are also inspired by various charts and diagrams. The textures are pulled from turbulence simulations of molecular clouds, modeling conditions conducive to star formation.</p> </blockquote> <p class="icon-text"><span aria-label="Phone" class="icon-text__icon fas fa-fw fa-link" style="color: black;"></span><a href="https://andreajw.com/" target="_blank">andreajw.com</a></p> <p class="icon-text"><span aria-label="Instagram" class="icon-text__icon fas fa-brands fa-instagram"></span><a href="https://www.instagram.com/andreajw_" target="_blank">@andreajw_</a></p> <hr class="hr--light" style="clear: both; margin: 1.25rem 0;"> <p><a class="view-more" href="/node/488025">Return to <em>�鶹��Ƶ Research Review</em></a></p> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-40343" class="paragraph paragraph--type--para-el-copy paragraph--view-mode--default o-flex--basic-copy basic-copy"> <p class="header-tag no-show" id="header-tag">�鶹��Ƶ Research Review</p> <style> .no-show { display: none } </style> <script> (function() { var header = document.querySelector(".story-header"); var headerTag = document.getElementById("header-tag"); header.insertBefore(headerTag, header.firstElementChild); headerTag.classList.remove("no-show"); })(); </script>  <script> (function() { var credit = document.querySelector(".top-combo__figure .figure__credit"); credit.innerText = credit.textContent.replace("Photo credit","Image credit"); })(); </script>  <style> aside .list--clean li { margin-bottom: 0.25rem; } aside ul.list--clean { margin-top: .5rem; font-family: var(--font-sans-serif); font-size: 0.875rem; } aside .basic-box { margin: .5rem 0; max-width: 240px; } aside .basic-box .small-headline { font-size: 1rem; } </style> </div> </div> </div> </article> <article> <h1>Active Learning, Transformative Education</h1> <p>awillia2 — Sun, 09 Mar 2025 03:17:08 +0000</p> <span>Active Learning, Transformative Education</span> <span><span>awillia2</span></span> <span><time datetime="2025-03-08T22:17:08-05:00" title="Saturday, March 8, 2025 - 22:17">Sat, 03/08/2025 - 22:17</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>“In the first vote, maybe 50 percent get the question right, but after peer discussions, 80 to 90 percent do,” Taylor says. “It’s amazing to see the shift.” </p><p>For Taylor, computer science isn’t just a technical skill—it’s a “fundamental literacy” for the modern world, she says. Yet the teaching of computer science is not keeping up with the rapid advance of the field.</p><p>“We have overwhelming evidence that active learning is better than standard lectures for all students,” Taylor says. “It closes race and gender gaps, helps first-generation students, and improves outcomes across the board.” </p><p>The real challenge, she’s found, is getting professors to embrace teaching methods that work better. This conviction underpins her two-pronged research mission: to measure how much of the material students comprehend and to understand how programming concepts are most effectively taught.</p><p>Researching computer science teaching methods stemmed from her work on developing a Concept Inventory (CI) for Basic Data Structures Inventory (BDSI), which she <a href="https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3291279.3339404" target="_blank">presented at a 2019 conference</a>. This is a multiple-choice instrument for researchers to measure conceptual understanding of core concepts—for example, linked lists, hash tables, and trees—beyond traditional test performance. Now widely adopted by entities including Google, the BDSI was developed after six years of interviews, open-ended surveys, and testing with thousands of students. Taylor published results of this research in a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1145/3470654" target="_blank">2021 article</a> in <em>ACM Transactions on Computing Education</em>.</p><p>More recently, Taylor’s work extends beyond assessment tools to course design. In her coauthored 2023 paper “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1145/3545945.3569779" target="_blank">How Do I Get People to Use My Ideas? Lessons from Successful Innovators in CS Education</a>,” Taylor identified the “novice effect” as one of the pitfalls of computer science pedagogy. </p><p>“Experts and novices speak different languages,” she explains. “Peers can explain things in ways novices understand because they’re closer in their learning journey. As experts, we can’t unlearn what we know, so we lose touch with what it’s like to struggle with the basics.” </p><p>As an example, Taylor cites a 2007 <em>Journal of Science Education and Technology</em> article where professors, graduate students, and undergraduates watched the same lecture. The researchers were shocked to find the groups didn’t just interpret the topics differently—they disagreed about what topics were even covered.</p><p>Taylor’s research proved that interactive, student-centered teaching methods were most effective. Even small changes, like pausing during lectures to give students a moment to reflect, discuss, or think of a question, made a big difference. “It’s simple, but you’d be shocked how much more interaction you get,” Taylor says. For professors willing to go further, she recommends peer instruction, or “think-pair-share”: posing a question, then having students discuss it in small groups and share their insights with the class. </p><p>The research also highlighted the barriers professors face when integrating new teaching methods. The optimal time to embed active learning, paired instruction, and other newer protocols is early on in course development. Departmental culture also plays a role. When one professor adopts new methods and shares materials with colleagues, professors are “more likely to try and help each other through the learning curve,” Taylor says. This peer support is especially important in the first semester, when everything feels more experimental. </p><p>At �鶹��Ƶ, Taylor has led efforts to make introductory courses more accessible by moving away from traditional math-heavy examples. “Computer science frequently has come out of math departments,” she says. “We tried to really separate out, ‘Do students need this math, or are we just using this as an example where we could use something else?’” </p><aside class="pull obj-right"><div class="basic-box basic-box--light"><h2 class="small-headline">Student Researchers</h2><ul class="list--clean"><li data-list-item-id="e1c24081cc3dca858e86cd822864b303d">Alisha Akhtar ’28</li><li data-list-item-id="e72fdf9054055bdbfa868c8a970480516">Madison Kekic ’26</li><li data-list-item-id="e492c491e70f92fb5ead6043ea4305968">Maxann Neiger ’26</li><li data-list-item-id="ee8f5b07fbc7db6488d62016f09e9748f">Ben Newman ’25</li><li data-list-item-id="e6a78fb0f76b22714ef2080f8e8934d79">Miriam Rairick ’25</li><li data-list-item-id="ee6b6d3c1d53278d954a73c5bf85a9669">Austin Rockwell ’27</li><li data-list-item-id="eec2eb079fbed4ab96c9d123e20e0c92a">Tanisha Shende ’26</li><li data-list-item-id="e84298c028b6fb37cd06a4de27ea1e591">Lawrence Wright ’25</li></ul></div></aside><p>Her team now emphasizes creative projects and real-world applications. Students might analyze datasets or create art through code, she says. This also helps dispel what she calls one of the biggest myths about computer science—that it’s only for “math people.” </p><p>“People categorize themselves as, ‘Oh, I’m a humanities person; I’m not a STEM person.’ But in computer science, you’re just building a thing. It’s still a creative practice.” She would know; Taylor majored in creative writing as an �鶹��Ƶ undergraduate. </p><p>Taylor sees programming becoming as necessary a skill as writing. “So much of our lives are mediated by code,” she says. “Understanding programming, even at a basic level, makes you so much better at your job and more informed about the technology shaping our world—it’s as much art as science.”</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-subhead field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Cynthia Taylor ’02 is identifying the most effective ways to teach computer science—and understanding how to make it easier for professors to adopt them.</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2025-03-21T12:00:00Z">Fri, 03/21/2025 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Sarah Grant</div> <div class="text-content field field--name-field-intro-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>The students in the introductory computer science course of Associate Professor of Computer Science Cynthia Taylor ’02 don’t scroll through social media in her lectures. Instead, they’re holding iClickers, small devices that enable them to vote on questions posed during class. Then they discuss the problems in small groups, collectively working out the complex concept.</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=4292">�鶹��Ƶ Research Review</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25321">Computer Science</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-faculty field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/cynthia-taylor" hreflang="und">Cynthia Taylor ’02</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/computer-science" hreflang="und">Computer Science</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-cte-images field--type-list-string field--label-hidden field__item">Yes (Individual Images)</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Ohni Lisle</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-flex-content field--type-entity-reference-revisions field--label-hidden vertical-spacing--basic field__items"> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-40348" class="paragraph paragraph--type--para-el-copy paragraph--view-mode--default o-flex--basic-copy basic-copy"> <hr><p><em>Research by Cynthia Taylor’02 has received funding from the National Science Foundation and her research spans active learning, assessment tools, and making computer science education accessible and effective for all. She earned a master’s degree and a doctorate in computer science and engineering at the University of California, San Diego.</em></p> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div class="field field--name-field-bio-card-el-biography field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> <div class="biography-card"> <figure> </figure> <div class="biography-card__content"> <h2><span>Cynthia Taylor ’02</span> </h2> <ul class="item-list list--clean" style="margin-top: 0px;"> <li class="professional-title">Associate Professor of Computer Science</li> <li class="professional-title">Chair of Computer Science</li> </ul> <a class="view-more" href="/cynthia-taylor">View Cynthia Taylor ’02’s biography</a> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-40378" class="paragraph paragraph--type--para-el-copy paragraph--view-mode--default o-flex--basic-copy basic-copy"> <div style="padding:56.25% 0 0;position:relative;"></div><script src="https://player.vimeo.com/api/player.js"></script><hr><h2 class="small-headline" style="margin-top:1.25rem;">About the Illustration</h2><figure class="captioned-image obj-right" style="margin-bottom:1.75rem;" data-cte><p></p><figcaption><em>Click the image to expand</em></figcaption></figure><p class="subhead" style="color:var(--darkgray);margin-bottom:0;">Illustrator: Ohni Lisle</p><blockquote data-add-quotes data-no-attribution><p>When thinking about creating a visual for collaborative learning, I wanted to somehow convey that moment when another person’s outside perspective, thought, or musing is the missing puzzle piece to something you’ve been agonizing over. This led me to create this visual of fantasy puzzle of pieces coming together in space to make a face, with the mind area lighting up with solutions.</p></blockquote><p class="icon-text"><span class="icon-text__icon fas fa-fw fa-link" style="color:black;" aria-label="Phone"></span><a href="https://ohnilisle.com/" target="_blank">ohnilisle.com</a></p><p class="icon-text"><span class="icon-text__icon fas fa-brands fa-instagram" aria-label="Instagram"></span><a href="https://www.instagram.com/ohnilisle" target="_blank">@ohnilisle</a></p><hr class="hr--light" style="clear:both;margin:1.25rem 0;"><p><a class="view-more" href="/node/488025">Return to <em>�鶹��Ƶ Research Review</em></a></p> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-40349" class="paragraph paragraph--type--para-el-copy paragraph--view-mode--default o-flex--basic-copy basic-copy"> <p class="header-tag no-show" id="header-tag">�鶹��Ƶ Research Review</p> <style> .no-show { display: none } </style> <script> (function() { var header = document.querySelector(".story-header"); var headerTag = document.getElementById("header-tag"); header.insertBefore(headerTag, header.firstElementChild); headerTag.classList.remove("no-show"); })(); </script>  <script> (function() { var credit = document.querySelector(".top-combo__figure .figure__credit"); credit.innerText = credit.textContent.replace("Photo credit","Image credit"); })(); </script>  <style> aside .list--clean li { margin-bottom: 0.25rem; } aside ul.list--clean { margin-top: .5rem; font-family: var(--font-sans-serif); font-size: 0.875rem; } aside .basic-box { margin: .5rem 0; max-width: 240px; } aside .basic-box .small-headline { font-size: 1rem; } </style> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-article-header field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">0</div> </article> <article> <h1>Agents of Change</h1> <p>awillia2 — Fri, 07 Mar 2025 11:02:31 +0000</p> <span>Agents of Change</span> <span><span>awillia2</span></span> <span><time datetime="2025-03-07T06:02:31-05:00" title="Friday, March 7, 2025 - 06:02">Fri, 03/07/2025 - 06:02</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>“A wildfire could pop up in a place you’re not expecting—or the winds could shift, and now it’s heading toward a population center,” Eck says. “The world around us is so dynamic: How do we model that, account for it, and make decisions in the presence of that?”</p><p>In artificial intelligence terms, these robots are known as autonomous agents and possess humanlike qualities. “An autonomous agent is an AI that acts independently on its own,” Eck says. “It gathers information from the world, makes its own decisions about how to accomplish its goals and tasks, and then takes actions to physically change the world.”</p><p>When the robots are figuring out how to put out wildfires, cooperation is key, which is where Eck’s research comes in: He studies the social side of artificial intelligence, where multiple autonomous agents gather in what’s called a multiagent system. </p><p>“We want the robots to come up with strategies to fight fires together, to put everything out as fast as possible,” he says. “A big part of this social side is modeling what the other AIs are doing, predicting their actions, and then trying to cooperate with them. If they all choose to fight individual fires, then they’re not going to be nearly as strong as if they do things together.”</p><p>For the robots, this is easier said than done. These multiagent systems are in turn operating within a complex open agent system that’s always changing. It’s likely the robots aren’t setting up rules or coordinating actions ahead of time; as a result, they must predict all potential scenarios they might face in a wildfire. Autonomous agents also shift in and out of these open systems, requiring the robots to first predict who’s around and then try to figure out how to work with that group. </p><p>Complicating matters further is that these open agent systems have task openness, which means the set of tasks someone is trying to accomplish changes over time. “The wildfire-fighting robots might get picked up and moved to a whole new area,” Eck explains. “In that case, they’d have to reorient themselves and say, ‘OK, I’ve got different fires I need to fight now. How does that change my behaviors?’”</p><p>Eck notes these open agent systems also possess type openness, where the capabilities of the agents change over time. “Maybe the robots get damaged and can’t fight fires as well anymore. How does that change their decision making? How do you continue working with someone who has new capabilities?”</p><p>To date, Eck and his students are doing this research via computer simulations of wildfires, based on software that approximates how the real world works using either numbers or a visualization. While artificial intelligence is at the core of this research, Eck’s lab uses human insights to inform hypotheses. For example, they incorporated information about how fires spread and under what conditions from past simulations built by wildfire domain experts.</p><p>“We use human thinking as inspiration and try to imagine, ‘If I were to tackle this problem, what would I do?’” he says. “Afterward, it’s fun to see how the AI ends up solving it. It’s inspired by humans to begin with, but it might come up with entirely new ideas and do it in a different way that people hadn’t thought of before.” </p><p>Eck isn’t building robots and sending them into the field to fight wildfires yet. The decision-making abilities of these autonomous agents aren’t quite fast enough for the unpredictable nature of the real world. Eck stresses that these multiagent systems are enormously complex and challenging to scale up. </p><p>“It’s one thing for a robot to decide independent of everybody else, ‘What fire do I want to fight?’” he says. “But once you have to start modeling everybody else, the more neighbors that we have, the more time I have to allocate to predicting for each one of them. That slows down my own decision-making.”</p><aside class="pull obj-right"><div class="basic-box basic-box--light"><h2 class="small-headline">Student Researchers</h2><ul class="list--clean"><li data-list-item-id="eda6fb7fdbc29051829fa78357e56ef58">Dung Do ’24</li><li data-list-item-id="e796d8d9a609bc60fd5115c609ff4a4a5">Kenean Yemane Kejela ’25</li><li data-list-item-id="e32b395631d3a59ef9af86e658b859e96">Graham Lazorchak ’24</li><li data-list-item-id="e5b1cf8f0ebc45f40a2d700caa8c2688a">Dat Le ’25</li><li data-list-item-id="e84404b529172395887a27e433d788d2a">Quan Nguyen ’24</li><li data-list-item-id="e1bc18b43023fee42d219c05c9861645c">Benjamin Rapkin ’25</li><li data-list-item-id="e121a2cc7587469be1c72444589645ac7">Menard Simoya ’27</li><li data-list-item-id="edea4dd71f07edfa077cc14e185ea935b">M. Daud Zarif ’28</li></ul></div></aside><p>Eck has received two National Science Foundation (NSF) research grants to study open agent systems, leading to multiple publications. Along with collaborators at the University of Georgia and University of Nebraska, he published a paper with the <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=en&user=_DksRmEAAAAJ&sortby=pubdate&citation_for_view=_DksRmEAAAAJ:ZeXyd9-uunAC" target="_blank">2020 AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence</a>. Eck has also published work focused on decision-making in open systems, including a paper at the 2022 UAI Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence and a <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/aaai.12131" target="_blank">2023 article in <em>AI Magazine</em></a>.</p><p>He’s also looking at other applications of these open agent concepts, including decision-making around dynamic ride sharing of autonomous cars; supporting business managers over time as they gain new responsibilities within complex organizations; and coordinating behaviors of cybersecurity agents protecting critical infrastructure.</p><p>“Much of AI is building on previous solutions,” Eck says. “You start by tackling simpler problems, and then you can get harder and harder and harder as you go along. We’re trying to model even more complicated environments to get closer to what the real-world situation is to make these problems easier to solve.”</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-subhead field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Adam Eck is studying whether artificial intelligence-powered robots can fight wildfires more efficiently.</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2025-03-21T12:00:00Z">Fri, 03/21/2025 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Annie Zaleski</div> <div class="text-content field field--name-field-intro-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Fighting wildfires is difficult, dangerous work that puts the lives of firefighters at risk. But what if we had a more efficient way to extinguish these fires while putting fewer people in harm’s way? David H. and Margaret W. Barker Associate Professor of Computer Science and Business Adam Eck just might have the solution: highly specialized robots, powered by artificial intelligence, that have learned how to respond to and suppress these unpredictable natural disasters.</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=4292">�鶹��Ƶ Research Review</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25321">Computer Science</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-faculty field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/adam-eck" hreflang="und">Adam Eck</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/computer-science" hreflang="und">Computer Science</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-cte-images field--type-list-string field--label-hidden field__item">Yes (Individual Images)</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Nick Giammarco</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-flex-content field--type-entity-reference-revisions field--label-hidden vertical-spacing--basic field__items"> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-40346" class="paragraph paragraph--type--para-el-copy paragraph--view-mode--default o-flex--basic-copy basic-copy"> <hr><p><em>Adam Eck’s research interests include decision making for intelligent agents and multiagent systems in complex environments, as well as interdisciplinary applications of artificial intelligence and machine learning in public health and computational social science. The chair of the data science program, he earned a master’s degree and doctorate in computer science from the University of Nebraska.</em></p> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div class="field field--name-field-bio-card-el-biography field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> <div class="biography-card"> <figure> </figure> <div class="biography-card__content"> <h2><span>Adam Eck</span> </h2> <ul class="item-list list--clean" style="margin-top: 0px;"> <li class="professional-title">David H. and Margaret W. Barker Associate Professor of Computer Science and Business and Data Science</li> <li class="professional-title">Chair of Data Science</li> </ul> <a class="view-more" href="/adam-eck">View Adam Eck’s biography</a> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-40380" class="paragraph paragraph--type--para-el-copy paragraph--view-mode--default o-flex--basic-copy basic-copy"> <div style="padding:56.25% 0 0;position:relative;"></div><script src="https://player.vimeo.com/api/player.js"></script><hr><h2 class="small-headline" style="margin-top:1.25rem;">About the Illustration</h2><figure class="captioned-image obj-right" style="margin-bottom:1.75rem;" data-cte><p></p><figcaption><em>Click the image to expand</em></figcaption></figure><p class="subhead" style="color:var(--darkgray);margin-bottom:0;">Illustrator: Nick Giammarco</p><blockquote data-add-quotes data-no-attribution><p>This piece reflects on design as a process, conceptually shaped by the article it accompanies. Using real fire data and AI-generated code, it serves as both a physical and visual manifestation of information. I was particularly interested in creating something that not only mimicked the way I imagine AI processes data to combat wildfires but also visually explored how AI might interpret vast datasets in a problem-solving scenario—analyzing patterns, predicting spread, and generating insights. By coding this visualization in p5.js, a JavaScript library that allows for creative coding and interactive graphics, I aimed to create a piece where the design itself emerges from the data, making the visualization both an artistic expression and a direct extension of the subject matter.</p></blockquote><p> </p><hr class="hr--light" style="clear:both;margin:1.25rem 0;"><p><a class="view-more" href="/node/488025">Return to <em>�鶹��Ƶ Research Review</em></a></p> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-40347" class="paragraph paragraph--type--para-el-copy paragraph--view-mode--default o-flex--basic-copy basic-copy"> <p class="header-tag no-show" id="header-tag">�鶹��Ƶ Research Review</p> <style> .no-show { display: none } </style> <script> (function() { var header = document.querySelector(".story-header"); var headerTag = document.getElementById("header-tag"); header.insertBefore(headerTag, header.firstElementChild); headerTag.classList.remove("no-show"); })(); </script>  <script> (function() { var credit = document.querySelector(".top-combo__figure .figure__credit"); credit.innerText = credit.textContent.replace("Photo credit","Image credit"); })(); </script>  <style> aside .list--clean li { margin-bottom: 0.25rem; } aside ul.list--clean { margin-top: .5rem; font-family: var(--font-sans-serif); font-size: 0.875rem; } aside .basic-box { margin: .5rem 0; max-width: 240px; } aside .basic-box .small-headline { font-size: 1rem; } </style> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-article-header field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">0</div> </article> <article> <h1>Building Blocks</h1> <p>awillia2 — Wed, 05 Mar 2025 22:50:18 +0000</p> <span>Building Blocks</span> <span><span>awillia2</span></span> <span><time datetime="2025-03-05T17:50:18-05:00" title="Wednesday, March 5, 2025 - 17:50">Wed, 03/05/2025 - 17:50</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Those goals may be within reach for Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry <a href="/node/253486" target="_blank">Shuming Chen</a>. </p> <p>Harnessing the computing power available through �鶹��Ƶ’s supercomputing cluster, she uses quantum chemistry software to program computational models, creating virtual experiments and chemical reactions that in the past required extensive laboratory testing. She and her students build up complex molecules on a screen like virtual Legos and manipulate them in different ways to test out hypotheses just like experimentalists do on a lab bench. </p> <p>“It’s still a challenge to predict the outcomes of chemical reactions,” Chen said. “It’s something we increasingly want to phase out because experimentation takes a lot of human and energy resources, along with environmental costs. The holy grail we’re working toward is replacing those initial exploratory experiments with simulated reactions.” </p> <p>Chen caught the chemistry bug early in her undergraduate career at Grinnell College, when she learned about valence shell electron pair repulsion (VSEPR) theory as a model to predict molecular structures. “VSEPR theory made me realize that molecules actually have characteristic three-dimensional shapes,” explained Chen. “If you know the number of electrons and bonds connected to central atoms, you can even predict the twists and sheets of something as complex as proteins, the bases of life.”</p> <p>Chen’s fascination with molecular architecture led her to study the potential of manipulating those structures. Slight variations in molecules can make a drug safer and more effective—or, potentially, deadly—but as she noted, chemistry experiments are often a matter of serendipity with a lot of trial and error involved. Chemical reactions can require a significant amount of energy, and many reagents and solvents essential for chemical experimentation pose severe environmental or health hazards.</p> <p>One focus of Chen’s lab is using metals as chemical catalysts. This has important real-world implications. For example, platinum and other metals in catalytic converters react with car exhaust to reduce harmful emissions. Biological organisms—including humans—also use metals in their bodies to enable basic metabolism and detoxification.</p> <p>But metals can also catalyze reactions that wouldn’t normally take place in nature, leading to the creation of novel molecules that treat diseases. After using computational chemistry to identify chemical reactions of interest, scientists can use lab experiments to refine the most desirable molecules and manufacture better drug candidates.</p> <p>For example, Chen recently published a paper in <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.orglett.4c03130" target="_blank"><em>Organic Letters</em></a> with undergraduate biochemistry and clarinet performance major Marisa Ih ’25 on using iron as a more sustainable catalyst to create amino acids that don’t occur in nature; this approach can be used to develop antibiotics that mimic the body's natural defenses against pathogens. “Unnatural amino acids allow us to make interesting modifications to protein structures that can dramatically alter their functions,” said Chen. “They actually underpin a lot of new and exciting developments in biological chemistry.”</p> <p>Chen’s contributions to pharmaceutical development also include a recent project to synthesize rauvomine B, a molecule produced by the poison devil’s-pepper plant (<em>Rauvolfia vomitoria</em>). Total synthesis is an area of chemical research that focuses on assembling simpler, smaller building blocks to make larger and more complex molecules that already exist in nature. Through total synthesis, natural molecules that hold promise as new pharmaceutical drugs can be made in virtually any quantity on demand. In addition to facilitating pharmaceutical development, this also prevents the natural sources of such molecules—often vulnerable plant or animal populations—from being overexploited for global drug supplies. </p> <aside class="pull obj-right"> <div class="basic-box basic-box--light"> <h2 class="small-headline">Student Researchers</h2> <ul class="list--clean"> <li>Sofia Bielinski Leitão ’25</li> <li>Zachary Cheng ’25</li> <li>Olivia Coyle ’27</li> <li>Sam Guarino ’26</li> <li>Shuxiu Jiang ’27</li> <li>Lilly Kramer ’26</li> <li>Brielle Lam ’25</li> <li>Namu Makatiani ’26</li> <li>Andrea Muliawan ’26</li> <li>Gabriel Negrao de Morais ’25</li> <li>Aurora Wildes-Payne ’27</li> <li>Lucas Zimmer ’27</li> </ul> </div> </aside> <p>For a paper published in the <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jacs.4c07669" target="_blank"><em>Journal of the American Chemical Society</em></a>, Chen and undergraduate chemistry student Gabriel Negrao de Morais ’25 collaborated with Myles Smith and colleagues at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center to synthesize rauvomine B. </p> <p>The �鶹��Ƶ team contributed by conducting quantum chemical computations to reveal the key to making the ambitious synthetic endeavor work. Insights from these computations showed that the clever attachment of what chemists call a “protecting group” to a critical part of the molecule had the effect of directing the molecule to take its final, desired shape. Now, scientists can test rauvomine B’s potential to fight inflammation and pathogens while sparing the poison devil’s-pepper. </p> <p>“So many useful drugs already come from the plant family the devil’s-pepper is part of,” Chen explains. “If we can create more molecules like rauvomine B and even tweak their structures to make them more effective, we could produce them in much larger quantities and for a lower price than if they were extracted from the plants themselves.”</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-subhead field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">How Shuming Chen uses virtual chemistry to develop real-world solutions</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2025-03-21T12:00:00Z">Fri, 03/21/2025 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Jen DeMoss</div> <div class="text-content field field--name-field-intro-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>What if chemists were able to speed up the creation of new medications using computer-simulated experiments? Or foster lab processes with fewer environmental impacts?</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=4292">�鶹��Ƶ Research Review</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25306">Chemistry</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25246">Biochemistry</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-faculty field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/shuming-chen" hreflang="und">Shuming Chen</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/chemistry-biochemistry" hreflang="und">Chemistry and Biochemistry</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-cte-images field--type-list-string field--label-hidden field__item">Yes (Individual Images)</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Matt Chase</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-flex-content field--type-entity-reference-revisions field--label-hidden vertical-spacing--basic field__items"> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-40340" class="paragraph paragraph--type--para-el-copy paragraph--view-mode--default o-flex--basic-copy basic-copy"> <hr> <p><em>Shuming Chen’s research leverages the synergy of computation and experiments to discover what drives chemical selectivity. The insights generated in turn aid the design of reactions that are more selective, efficient, and environmentally friendly. She earned her PhD at Yale University.</em></p> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div class="field field--name-field-bio-card-el-biography field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> <div class="biography-card"> <figure> </figure> <div class="biography-card__content"> <h2><span>Shuming Chen</span> </h2> <ul class="item-list list--clean" style="margin-top: 0px;"> <li class="professional-title">Associate Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry</li> </ul> <a class="view-more" href="/shuming-chen">View Shuming Chen’s biography</a> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-40376" class="paragraph paragraph--type--para-el-copy paragraph--view-mode--default o-flex--basic-copy basic-copy"> <h2 class="small-headline" style="margin-top: 1.25rem;">About the Illustration</h2> <figure class="captioned-image obj-right" data-cte style="margin-bottom: 1.75rem;"> <figcaption><em>Click the image to expand</em></figcaption> </figure> <p class="subhead" style="margin-bottom: 0; color: var(--darkgray);">Illustrator: Matt Chase</p> <blockquote data-add-quotes data-no-attribution> <p>Quantum chemical computation isn’t something that an illustrator (generally) knows much about. Hence my relief at DeMoss analogizing the process to LEGOs, which as a child held a near monopoly on my interest, and which I often used as prototypes for things I would later build with other materials. The digital molecule here acts in much the same way: a blueprint for its future, real-world counterpart.</p> </blockquote> <p class="icon-text"><span aria-label="Phone" class="icon-text__icon fas fa-fw fa-link" style="color: black;"></span><a href="https://chasematt.com/" target="_blank">chasematt.com</a></p> <p class="icon-text"><span aria-label="Instagram" class="icon-text__icon fas fa-brands fa-instagram"></span><a href="https://www.instagram.com/doble_entendre" target="_blank">@doble_entendre</a></p> <hr class="hr--light" style="clear: both; margin: 1.25rem 0;"> <p><a class="view-more" href="/node/488025">Return to <em>�鶹��Ƶ Research Review</em></a></p> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-40341" class="paragraph paragraph--type--para-el-copy paragraph--view-mode--default o-flex--basic-copy basic-copy"> <p class="header-tag no-show" id="header-tag">�鶹��Ƶ Research Review</p> <style> .no-show { display: none } </style> <script> (function() { var header = document.querySelector(".story-header"); var headerTag = document.getElementById("header-tag"); header.insertBefore(headerTag, header.firstElementChild); headerTag.classList.remove("no-show"); })(); </script>  <script> (function() { var credit = document.querySelector(".top-combo__figure .figure__credit"); credit.innerText = credit.textContent.replace("Photo credit","Image credit"); })(); </script>  <style> aside .list--clean li { margin-bottom: 0.25rem; } aside ul.list--clean { margin-top: .5rem; font-family: var(--font-sans-serif); font-size: 0.875rem; } aside .basic-box { margin: .5rem 0; max-width: 240px; } aside .basic-box .small-headline { font-size: 1rem; } </style> </div> </div> </div> </article> <article> <h1>Expressive Machines</h1> <p>awillia2 — Tue, 11 Mar 2025 04:15:42 +0000</p> <span>Expressive Machines</span> <span><span>awillia2</span></span> <span><time datetime="2025-03-11T00:15:42-04:00" title="Tuesday, March 11, 2025 - 00:15">Tue, 03/11/2025 - 00:15</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-subhead field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">How Steven Kemper’s Musical Robots Enhance Human Creativity.</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2025-03-21T12:00:00Z">Fri, 03/21/2025 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Lucy Curtis ’24</div> <div class="text-content field field--name-field-intro-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>How do we think about musical expression, especially in relation to robots and machines? That’s the question Steven Kemper aims to answer in his research. In the age of artificial intelligence—and the various concerns surrounding it—Kemper’s research proves that robots can, in fact, enhance human creativity.</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=4292">�鶹��Ƶ Research Review</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=33031">TIMARA</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-faculty field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/steven-kemper" hreflang="und">Steven Kemper</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/conservatory/divisions/contemporary-music" hreflang="und">Contemporary Music</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-cte-images field--type-list-string field--label-hidden field__item">Yes (Individual Images)</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Israel Vargas</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-flex-content field--type-entity-reference-revisions field--label-hidden vertical-spacing--basic field__items"> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-40688" class="paragraph paragraph--type--pb-el-bq paragraph--view-mode--default"> <blockquote class="blockquote--distinguished" data-text-size-giant> <p>If those machines go on to make art or make music, ultimately there’s still humans in the chain who have contributed creativity to that.</p> </blockquote> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-40370" class="paragraph paragraph--type--para-el-copy paragraph--view-mode--default o-flex--basic-copy basic-copy"> <p>“Robots exist in the world, and machines that do things exist in the world, and people are always going to make art with the latest technologies,” says the associate professor of computer music and digital arts in the Technology in Music and Related Arts (TIMARA) department. “That’s always been the case, whether it’s the printing press or electricity. Artists have always been on the front lines of using things not as they were originally designed and intended, but for creative purposes.”</p> <p>His research spans beyond the theoretical: Kemper actually designs and creates the musical robots that he studies. He is involved in every step of the process—whether it’s brainstorming ideas, researching technology, writing software, or developing hardware and fabricating parts. </p> <p>“What is interesting about this?” he always asks himself when creating a new machine. “What can I do that's going to be novel?”</p> <p>That question is poignant, especially with the growing fears that AI and robots might eliminate certain professions and diminish our ability and need to be creative and produce our own original work. Kemper acknowledges these fears but explains that his work doesn’t necessarily use AI.</p> <p>On the contrary, Kemper builds machines that humans can use to realize their creative vision. As he outlines in an article in the journal <em>Frontiers in Robotics and AI</em>, there are many different types of musical robots. For example, one of his creations is a performance system that involves vibrating motors. He held the motors, controlling the speed of their vibrations by turning his wrist a certain way, and then used them to play a harp. The machine didn’t remove humans from the process of making music; instead, the machine changed and expanded the sounds we could produce. </p> <p>Kemper has also explored the concept of machines making “mistakes” to illustrate robots being musically expressive. He explains that when we watch a human performer, we feel a sense of empathy for (and an inherent connection to) them because they are another human. This is the impact of hearing music, especially when we see it performed live. </p> <p>This concept becomes more complicated when it comes to robots, as empathy is a human quality. “How do we empathize with robots?” Kemper wondered. “How do we anthropomorphize these machines?” </p> <p>His solution was to program his musical robots to “get stuck” in a loop. The robot will suddenly start repeating the same action over and over. Though this is deliberate on the part of the creator, it gives the appearance of a glitch.</p> <p>“It’s like a mode of failure,” he explains. “As an audience member, you’re thinking, ‘Oh, is it stuck? Is it working?’ There’s this moment of empathy for this machine, like, ‘Oh, I want it to work.’ But it’s also a critique on mechanization in general—how we view machines and technologies as things that are perfect and always working.”</p> <p>This critique and alteration of people’s perspectives on robots and machines is an integral part of Kemper’s research and mission. Given the multifaceted nature of his work, it also has many layers of impact. On one hand are the boundaries he pushes with the music he makes through his robots. Because they are machines, they can be sonically distinct from humans. On the philosophical side, Kemper wants people to question their preconceived notions about creativity and machines. </p> <p>“As humans, we invented the concept of creativity,” Kemper stated. “You can’t have creativity without human involvement. So one way to think about it is that the design of robots and machines in general is an outgrowth of human creativity. If those machines go on to make art or make music, ultimately there’s still humans in the chain who have contributed creativity to that.”</p> <p>Kemper’s work lends itself well to student collaboration, and he’s taught relevant classes such as Workshop in Music and Media Technologies. But he views ideas and inspiration as a constant flow—which is why he introduces students to his work and assists them with their own research.</p> <p>“The more students can be involved with my research and see what I’m doing,” he says, “the more that I can also help them with the projects that they want to pursue.”</p> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-40371" class="paragraph paragraph--type--para-el-copy paragraph--view-mode--default o-flex--basic-copy basic-copy"> <hr> <p><em>Steven Kemper’s research revolves around musical robotics and the impact they can have; this research involves the creation of his own machines. He earned his doctorate in composition and computer technologies at the University of Virginia. Prior to coming to �鶹��Ƶ, he was an associate professor of music technology and composition and the director of the music department at the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University.</em></p> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div class="field field--name-field-bio-card-el-biography field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> <div class="biography-card"> <figure> </figure> <div class="biography-card__content"> <h2><span>Steven Kemper</span> </h2> <ul class="item-list list--clean" style="margin-top: 0px;"> <li class="professional-title">Associate Professor of Technology in Music and Related Arts</li> </ul> <a class="view-more" href="/steven-kemper">View Steven Kemper’s biography</a> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-40387" class="paragraph paragraph--type--para-el-copy paragraph--view-mode--default o-flex--basic-copy basic-copy"> <h2 class="small-headline" style="margin-top: 1.25rem;">About the Illustration</h2> <figure class="captioned-image obj-right" data-cte style="margin-bottom: 1.75rem;"> <figcaption><em>Click the image to expand</em></figcaption> </figure> <p class="subhead" style="color: var(--darkgray);">Illustrator: Israel Vargas</p>  <p class="icon-text"><span class="icon-text__icon fas fa-fw fa-link" aria-label="Phone" style="color: black;"></span><a href="https://israelgevargas.net/" target="_blank">israelgevargas.net</a></p> <p class="icon-text"><span class="icon-text__icon fas fa-brands fa-instagram" aria-label="Instagram"></span><a href="https://www.instagram.com/israelgevargas" target="_blank">@israelgevargas</a></p> <hr class="hr--light" style="clear: both; margin: 1.25rem 0;"> <p><a class="view-more" href="/node/488025">Return to <em>�鶹��Ƶ Research Review</em></a></p> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-40372" class="paragraph paragraph--type--para-el-copy paragraph--view-mode--default o-flex--basic-copy basic-copy"> <p class="header-tag no-show" id="header-tag">�鶹��Ƶ Research Review</p> <style> .no-show { display: none } </style> <script> (function() { var header = document.querySelector(".story-header"); var headerTag = document.getElementById("header-tag"); header.insertBefore(headerTag, header.firstElementChild); headerTag.classList.remove("no-show"); })(); </script>  <script> (function() { var credit = document.querySelector(".top-combo__figure .figure__credit"); credit.innerText = credit.textContent.replace("Photo credit","Image credit"); })(); </script>  <style> aside .list--clean li { margin-bottom: 0.25rem; } aside ul.list--clean { margin-top: .5rem; font-family: var(--font-sans-serif); font-size: 0.875rem; } aside .basic-box { margin: .5rem 0; max-width: 240px; } aside .basic-box .small-headline { font-size: 1rem; } </style>  <style> .biography-card blockquote { display: none } .body-centered-layout blockquote.blockquote--distinguished { margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: -1rem; } </style> </div> </div> </div> </article> <article> <h1>Marketing For Good</h1> <p>awillia2 — Sun, 09 Mar 2025 04:09:15 +0000</p> <span>Marketing For Good</span> <span><span>awillia2</span></span> <span><time datetime="2025-03-08T23:09:15-05:00" title="Saturday, March 8, 2025 - 23:09">Sat, 03/08/2025 - 23:09</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Professor of Environmental Studies and Biology <a href="/node/5696" target="_blank">John Petersen ’88</a> says yes to both. “The tools advertisers have developed to influence people’s behavior are well researched,” he explains. “Instead of convincing people to buy a lot of things they don’t need, we should be using ads to convince people to exhibit pro-environmental and pro-community behavior.” </p> <p>Petersen and Professor of Psychology and Environmental Studies <a href="/node/6296" target="_blank">Cindy Frantz</a> coauthored a field study published in 2024 in the journal <em><a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/17/7312" target="_blank">Sustainability</a></em> that demonstrated digital signs were effective in fostering positive environmental norms and behaviors. This includes greater awareness of (and sense of connection with) the local community and ecology; increased electricity conservation; and increased perception of youth engagement. “There are advertisements all over the place, and a lot of people believe they’re not influenced by them,” Frantz says. “But research shows you can be persuaded even if you’re not consciously paying attention.”</p> <p>The professors first zeroed in on the online opportunities for digital research and social connections. The problem, Petersen and Frantz explained, is that people tend to occupy online communities that reinforce their preexisting beliefs. Unless people purposefully seek them out, pro-environmental messages can get lost in virtual echo chambers. </p> <p>Around 70 percent of U.S. residents report they believe in climate change. But people also greatly underestimate the beliefs of others. For example, Petersen notes that people who care about climate change but believe other people don’t are less likely to take action to address the problem.</p> <p>Frantz and Petersen theorized that public digital advertising, which is encountered by happenstance, can circumvent online habits. With funding from sources like the Environmental Protection Agency’s People, Prosperity and the Planet program and the Great Lakes Protection Fund, Petersen developed the Environmental Dashboard, a system of digital signs across the city of �鶹��Ƶ. The signs display community events, environmental conditions, and consumption of electricity and water.</p> <p>The Environmental Dashboard also highlights Community Voices (CV), a series featuring images of community members with quotes about their positive activities in �鶹��Ƶ. A previous Frantz and Petersen study in the journal PLOS One demonstrated that people shown CV content in a controlled setting felt more environmental concern. </p> <p>Testing the messages in the real world on the Environmental Dashboard was the next step. To populate the CV images, �鶹��Ƶ students collected positive thoughts and actions related to the environment and the community from local residents. The project intentionally developed more content representing the perspectives of Black residents to negate a false perception that white Americans are more concerned about the environment than Black Americans. The team then worked with community members to place the signage in high-traffic public areas where people from diverse social, economic, and racial backgrounds would encounter them. </p> <p>Student research assistants working with Frantz and Petersen surveyed 174 community members at six Environmental Dashboard sites before the signs were installed and 133 people two years after the screens were placed. They asked questions about community and environmental norms they predicted would be most affected by Environmental Dashboard content. </p> <p>“We found that when the environmental actions of community members are made visible, it really does shift social norms,” Frantz said. “If you see people you identify with making statements about what they’re doing or what’s important to them, it makes you more hopeful and more likely to take action.”</p> <p>The researchers found a significant increase in pro-environmental beliefs two years after the signs were installed. They also found that boosting Black representation on the screens made a significant impact on the responses from Black respondents, with their environmental norms shifting more than those of white interviewees. </p> <aside class="pull obj-right"> <div class="basic-box basic-box--light"> <h2 class="small-headline">Student Researchers</h2> <ul class="list--clean"> <li>Emma Grant-Bier ’26</li> <li>Thomas Holmes ’26</li> <li>Bryn Kearney ’25</li> <li>Derya Taspinar ’25</li> <li>Chau Anh Tran ’28</li> </ul> </div> </aside> <p>Based on their results, Petersen and Frantz have launched a similar study on climate change action. The team is also installing digital signs in Cleveland to test the impact of Community Voices, using vignettes of community climate action and more climate-oriented content. </p> <p>Petersen praises �鶹��Ƶ’s collaborative environment for his decades-long research partnership with Frantz. “There’s a creativity here that happens in no other environment,” he says. “And there are so many opportunities for students with broad interests to engage with faculty who are working in unique ways across disciplines.” </p> <p>Frantz says she is excited about what the future might hold with the power of environmental messaging. “We have this impression that nobody cares about climate change,” she says. “But that’s not true. And we’re turning that false narrative on its head, using digital signs to shift social norms and make people more likely to take action on climate and environmental issues.”</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-subhead field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Cindy Frantz and John Petersen ’88 found that leveraging stealth marketing can encourage pro-environmental thoughts and action.</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2025-03-21T12:00:00Z">Fri, 03/21/2025 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Jen DeMoss</div> <div class="text-content field field--name-field-intro-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Advertising signs are used to sell everything from legal services to razor blades. But are there ways to leverage advertising psychology for the good of the planet? And could digital signs be used to encourage pro-environmental thoughts and action?</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=4292">�鶹��Ƶ Research Review</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25286">Psychology</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25351">Environmental Studies and Sciences</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25251">Biology</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-faculty field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/cindy-frantz" hreflang="und">Cynthia (Cindy) Frantz</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/john-petersen" hreflang="und">John Petersen ’88</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/psychology" hreflang="und">Psychology</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/environmental-studies" hreflang="und">Environmental Studies and Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/biology" hreflang="und">Biology</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-cte-images field--type-list-string field--label-hidden field__item">Yes (Gallery Style)</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Flotsam Jetsam</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-flex-content field--type-entity-reference-revisions field--label-hidden vertical-spacing--basic field__items"> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-40350" class="paragraph paragraph--type--para-el-copy paragraph--view-mode--default o-flex--basic-copy basic-copy"> <hr> <p><em>Chair of the Department of Psychology Cindy McPherson Frantz is a professor of psychology and environmental studies. Frantz graduated from Williams College and earned her doctorate in social and personality psychology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is a social and environmental psychologist whose research, teaching, service, and activism focus on mitigating and preparing for climate change. She directs the award-winning Community-Based Social Marketing Research Project, a collaborative research program between faculty, students, and staff to develop, test, and promote behavior change programs that reduce �鶹��Ƶ College’s carbon emissions. She is also a founding member of a grassroots environmental justice organization POWER (Providing �鶹��Ƶ With Efficiency Responsibly), which seeks to promote energy efficiency in �鶹��Ƶ and surrounding areas.</em></p> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div class="field field--name-field-bio-card-el-biography field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> <div class="biography-card"> <figure> </figure> <div class="biography-card__content"> <h2><span>Cynthia (Cindy) Frantz</span> </h2> <ul class="item-list list--clean" style="margin-top: 0px;"> <li class="professional-title">Professor of Psychology and Environmental Studies</li> <li class="professional-title">Chair of Psychology</li> </ul> <a class="view-more" href="/cindy-frantz">View Cynthia (Cindy) Frantz’s biography</a> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-40351" class="paragraph paragraph--type--para-el-copy paragraph--view-mode--default o-flex--basic-copy basic-copy"> <hr> <p><em>John Petersen ’88, �鶹��Ƶ’s Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Biology, is a systems ecologist. His research focuses on understanding the role of feedback control in environmental and social systems. </em></p> <p><em>Through the Environmental Dashboard project he leads, he has been instrumental in developing real-time feedback display technologies for buildings, organizations, and whole cities with the goal of engaging, educating, motivating, and empowering resource conservation and pro-environmental and pro-community behavior. A founder of the design firms Lucid and Community Hub, he has developed technology that’s now installed in thousands of buildings across the U.S. and Canada. Petersen earned a master’s at Yale University and a doctorate at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.</em></p> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div class="field field--name-field-bio-card-el-biography field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> <div class="biography-card"> <figure> </figure> <div class="biography-card__content"> <h2><span>John Petersen ’88</span> </h2> <ul class="item-list list--clean" style="margin-top: 0px;"> <li class="professional-title">Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Biology</li> </ul> <a class="view-more" href="/john-petersen">View John Petersen ’88’s biography</a> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-40381" class="paragraph paragraph--type--para-el-copy paragraph--view-mode--default o-flex--basic-copy basic-copy"> <h2 class="small-headline" style="margin-top: 1.25rem;">About the Illustration</h2> <figure class="captioned-image obj-right" data-cte style="margin-bottom: 1.75rem;"> <figcaption><em>Click the image to expand</em></figcaption> </figure> <p class="subhead" style="margin-bottom: 0; color: var(--darkgray);">Illustrator: Flotsam Jetsam</p>  <p> </p> <hr class="hr--light" style="clear: both; margin: 1.25rem 0;"> <p><a class="view-more" href="/node/488025">Return to <em>�鶹��Ƶ Research Review</em></a></p> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-40352" class="paragraph paragraph--type--para-el-copy paragraph--view-mode--default o-flex--basic-copy basic-copy"> <p class="header-tag no-show" id="header-tag">�鶹��Ƶ Research Review</p> <style> .no-show { display: none } </style> <script> (function() { var header = document.querySelector(".story-header"); var headerTag = document.getElementById("header-tag"); header.insertBefore(headerTag, header.firstElementChild); headerTag.classList.remove("no-show"); })(); </script>  <script> (function() { var credit = document.querySelector(".top-combo__figure .figure__credit"); credit.innerText = credit.textContent.replace("Photo credit","Image credit"); })(); </script>  <style> aside .list--clean li { margin-bottom: 0.25rem; } aside ul.list--clean { margin-top: .5rem; font-family: var(--font-sans-serif); font-size: 0.875rem; } aside .basic-box { margin: .5rem 0; max-width: 240px; } aside .basic-box .small-headline { font-size: 1rem; } </style> </div> </div> </div> </article> <article> <h1>Telling Complicated Stories</h1> <p>awillia2 — Sun, 09 Mar 2025 04:32:47 +0000</p> <span>Telling Complicated Stories</span> <span><span>awillia2</span></span> <span><time datetime="2025-03-08T23:32:47-05:00" title="Saturday, March 8, 2025 - 23:32">Sat, 03/08/2025 - 23:32</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-subhead field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Sebastiaan Faber asked Spaniards how they deal with their country’s dictatorial past—and their answers explain the politically polarizing present.</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2025-03-21T12:00:00Z">Fri, 03/21/2025 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Aimee Levitt</div> <div class="text-content field field--name-field-intro-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>It’s been nearly a half-century since the Spanish Nationalist general-turned-fascist dictator Francisco Franco Bahamonde died after close to 40 years in power. That’s a long time for a country to exist under a dictatorship. But even now, Spaniards can’t agree on what it all meant or what lingering effects it may have on Spain today — if they bother to discuss it at all.</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=4292">�鶹��Ƶ Research Review</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=4796">�鶹��Ƶ</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25276">Latin American Studies</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-faculty field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/sebastiaan-faber" hreflang="und">Sebastiaan Faber</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/hispanic-studies" hreflang="und">�鶹��Ƶ</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/latin-american-studies" hreflang="und">Latin American Studies</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-cte-images field--type-list-string field--label-hidden field__item">Yes (Individual Images)</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Valerie Chiang</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-flex-content field--type-entity-reference-revisions field--label-hidden vertical-spacing--basic field__items"> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-40684" class="paragraph paragraph--type--pb-el-bq paragraph--view-mode--default"> <blockquote class="blockquote--distinguished" data-text-size-giant data-add-quotes> <p>The real challenge has been the fact that what story to tell about the past has become such a political weapon.</p> </blockquote> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-40360" class="paragraph paragraph--type--para-el-copy paragraph--view-mode--default o-flex--basic-copy basic-copy"> <figure class="captioned-image obj-left"><p></p><figcaption><em>Exhuming Franco: Spain’s Second Transition</em> by Sebastiaan Faber</figcaption></figure><p>“A lot of the political struggle between right and left is fought over how to tell the story of the national past,” says Professor of �鶹��Ƶ Sebastiaan Faber. In this respect, Spain isn’t much different from other countries that have been dealing with painful histories that linger in living memory: Germany and the Nazis, for instance, or the American South and Jim Crow.</p><p>Faber’s latest book, <em>Exhuming Franco: Spain’s Second Transition</em> (Vanderbilt University Press, 2021; second edition, 2023), was inspired by the 2019 decision by the Socialist-led Spanish government to move the generalissimo’s body from the Valley of the Fallen, a public memorial erected by Franco to the soldiers who died in the Spanish Civil War, to a private family plot. Proponents of the move argued that a democratic country should not continue to honor a fascist leader. Right-wing opponents claimed that moving Franco would be tantamount to erasing history. The fight went all the way to the Spanish Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of the exhumation. </p><p>For Faber, the debate echoed not just the 2017 protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, after the removal of a monument to the Confederate general Robert E. Lee, but also the rise of the American far right led by Donald Trump. The far-right Vox party, which began its rise in Spain in 2018, even borrowed one of Trump’s most popular slogans, vowing to make Spain great again.</p><p>“Generally, people in Spain who identify as conservative have a much more cavalier view of the legacy of Francoism,” Faber says. “They're not always convinced that it was bad for Spain to begin with.” The left, of course, feels otherwise.</p><p>These debates were not new to Faber, who frequently writes for American and Spanish media, so when his editor at Vanderbilt University Press suggested that he compile a book of interviews with academics, activists, and journalists about the current state of Spain after Franco’s exhumation, he jumped at the chance. “Using interviews as the basis for the book made it more readable,” Faber says, “and underscored the unresolved nature of these questions.” </p><p>Faber spoke to 35 people for the book. What surprised him the most in the interviews was how strongly people on the left disagreed about how much Francoism has impacted present-day Spain. Some of the people he talked to see many of Spain’s current political problems — the corruption, the closed nature of the Spanish party system, the complicated relationship between Madrid and the 17 regional governments — as direct results of Francoism. Others believe those problems actually existed before Franco, as far back as the 19th century, and the dictatorship just exacerbated them. Still others believe the current state of corruption started after Franco, during the Transition period of the ’70s and ’80s from dictatorship to democracy.</p><p>“The real conundrum these days,” Faber says, “is how to explain the rise of the far right in Spain.” The Vox party isn’t Francoist, he argues, although it sometimes uses Francoist language and nostalgia for the dictatorship; notably, Vox, along with the Franco family, was one of the chief opponents of moving the generalissimo’s body. Instead, Faber says, it’s more like other far-right parties in Europe today, which aren’t totalitarian as much as geared toward protecting the interests of the rich.</p><p>Still, the rise of the right does remind people of Spain’s not-so-glorious past and makes them wonder about the best way to acknowledge and commemorate it. In that respect, Spain is a lot like France or Germany or Faber’s home country of the Netherlands. But because Spain’s history is so much different from the history of those countries — it didn’t participate in World War II, and Franco’s dictatorship lasted until 1975 — Spaniards tend to see the gap between themselves and other Western Europeans as larger than it actually is.</p><p>“I try to propose that Spain is not necessarily behind,” Faber says. “Spain has actually achieved much more than it thinks by grappling with these issues of what to do, how to think about the past, how to teach it, how to process it. The real challenge has been the fact that what story to tell about the past has become such a political weapon.” This new Transition, then, may be about what story Spain decides to tell.</p> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-40355" class="paragraph paragraph--type--para-el-copy paragraph--view-mode--default o-flex--basic-copy basic-copy"> <hr><p><em>Sebastiaan Faber’s research focuses on contemporary Spain and Latin America. He is the author of multiple books and is a frequent contributor to Spanish and U.S. media. Faber earned his doctorate in Spanish and Spanish American literature with a designated emphasis in critical theory at University of California, Davis.</em></p> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div class="field field--name-field-bio-card-el-biography field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> <div class="biography-card"> <figure> </figure> <div class="biography-card__content"> <h2><span>Sebastiaan Faber</span> </h2> <ul class="item-list list--clean" style="margin-top: 0px;"> <li class="professional-title">Professor of �鶹��Ƶ</li> <li class="professional-title">Program Director, Latin American Studies</li> </ul> <a class="view-more" href="/sebastiaan-faber">View Sebastiaan Faber’s biography</a> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-40382" class="paragraph paragraph--type--para-el-copy paragraph--view-mode--default o-flex--basic-copy basic-copy"> <div style="padding:56.25% 0 0;position:relative;"></div><script src="https://player.vimeo.com/api/player.js"></script><hr><h2 class="small-headline" style="margin-top:1.25rem;">About the Illustration</h2><figure class="captioned-image obj-right" style="margin-bottom:1.75rem;" data-cte><p></p><figcaption><em>Click the image to expand</em></figcaption></figure><p class="subhead" style="color:var(--darkgray);margin-bottom:0;">Illustrator: Valerie Chiang</p><blockquote data-add-quotes data-no-attribution><p>The Franco dictatorship tore Spain apart during his decades-long reign, so I wanted to approach this illustration with the idea of fragmentation. I love using negative space in my work and don’t normally get the opportunity to play with that when doing commissions. For this piece, I relegated Franco to the very edge of the frame, reducing his prominence while using cut up historical photographs of the Spanish people to emphasize the devastating consequences of Franco’s rule.</p></blockquote><p class="icon-text"><span class="icon-text__icon fas fa-fw fa-link" style="color:black;" aria-label="Phone"></span><a href="https://rappart.com/artists/valerie-chiang/" target="_blank">Valerie Chiang’s portfolio</a></p><p class="icon-text"><span class="icon-text__icon fas fa-brands fa-instagram" aria-label="Instagram"></span><a href="https://www.instagram.com/ninebagatelles" target="_blank">@ninebagatelles</a></p><hr class="hr--light" style="clear:both;margin:1.25rem 0;"><p><a class="view-more" href="/node/488025">Return to <em>�鶹��Ƶ Research Review</em></a></p> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-40356" class="paragraph paragraph--type--para-el-copy paragraph--view-mode--default o-flex--basic-copy basic-copy"> <p class="header-tag no-show" id="header-tag">�鶹��Ƶ Research Review</p> <style> .no-show { display: none } </style> <script> (function() { var header = document.querySelector(".story-header"); var headerTag = document.getElementById("header-tag"); header.insertBefore(headerTag, header.firstElementChild); headerTag.classList.remove("no-show"); })(); </script>  <script> (function() { var credit = document.querySelector(".top-combo__figure .figure__credit"); credit.innerText = credit.textContent.replace("Photo credit","Image credit"); })(); </script>  <style> aside .list--clean li { margin-bottom: 0.25rem; } aside ul.list--clean { margin-top: .5rem; font-family: var(--font-sans-serif); font-size: 0.875rem; } aside .basic-box { margin: .5rem 0; max-width: 240px; } aside .basic-box .small-headline { font-size: 1rem; } </style>  <style> .biography-card blockquote { display: none } .body-centered-layout blockquote.blockquote--distinguished { margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: -1rem; } </style> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-article-header field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">0</div> </article> <article> <h1>The Drawbacks of “Black Don’t Crack”</h1> <p>awillia2 — Sun, 09 Mar 2025 04:19:58 +0000</p> <span>The Drawbacks of “Black Don’t Crack”</span> <span><span>awillia2</span></span> <span><time datetime="2025-03-08T23:19:58-05:00" title="Saturday, March 8, 2025 - 23:19">Sat, 03/08/2025 - 23:19</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>In a 2023 article published in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/07311214221139441" target="_blank"><em>Sociological Perspectives</em></a> and another in the Winter 2024 issue of Contexts, Associate Professor of Sociology and Comparative American Studies Alicia Smith-Tran ’10 explored the results of her study that investigated the concept of “Black don’t crack”—the idea that Black women defy aging by, for example, having wrinkle-free skin. She found that for Black women, being regarded as “too young” within their workplaces made successes more difficult to achieve. </p><p>“Even though media tells us we should look younger, whether your perceived age is beneficial or detrimental depends on your other social identities,” Smith-Tran explains. “The women I talked to are not only combating sexism and racism—gendered racism—in the workplace. They’re also making the effort to mitigate how people perceive their professional legitimacy. It’s a huge mental load.” </p><p>Her study, funded through an Institute for Citizens & Scholars Career Enhancement Fellowship, emerged in part from personal experiences. In a previous professorial position, another faculty member mistook her for an undergraduate student. In another instance, she overheard her father suggesting that her mother reveal her age to coworkers in a majority-white office in an effort to be taken more seriously. </p><p>“A lot of my research comes from events in my day-to-day life,” Smith-Tran notes. “Things that occur on an individual level aren’t just happening to us. They can actually be the product of troubling systemic processes.” </p><p>Smith-Tran interviewed 18 middle-class Black women about their career experiences around age in the workplace. All of the interviewees regularly dealt with the burden of wondering whether a lack of promotions and respect were due to race, gender, age—or the intersection of all these factors. </p><p>Through direct comments, the women were profoundly aware that some fellow employees perceived them as younger and therefore less capable. For example, administrative colleagues called a middle-aged Black interviewee named Alexis “little girl” due to her youthful appearance. Such infantilization was taxing, leaving the women feeling undervalued. In response, many mentioned their ages, children, and grandchildren in a bid to be taken seriously in the workplace. </p><p>Many of the interviewees also strategically modified their identities to avoid appearing youthful to their coworkers. Some avoided braided hairstyles that might make them look younger. A few were relieved that each strand of gray hair signaled advanced age and expertise in their professions. Other interviewees reported intentionally dressing more formally to avoid being stereotyped as young and inexperienced. Naima, a 26-year-old content editor, bought professional clothes for a workplace with a very casual dress code after her boss complained about “people in her generation.” Having to purchase different clothes also placed an additional financial burden on Naima, Smith-Tran observed.</p><p>“There’s already research about people being strategic about self-presentation at work,” Smith-Tran said. “But we haven’t seen much about Black women intentionally presenting as older or the entanglement of these particular prejudices and their mental toll. It’s unfortunate that they have to make these decisions every day, but their strategies are so creative and brilliant.” </p><p>Smith-Tran also noted the irony that even as Black women achieve a celebrated aesthetic goal, they age faster biologically than white women. Stress and discrimination literally weather Black women’s chromosomes, causing higher levels of chronic illness and premature mortality. </p><p>Many of her interviewees were surprised by the study. They had spent years working to project authority, but some had never talked about their strategies. Knowing that other women were going through the same experiences made them feel less alone. </p><p>Smith-Tran envisions her research informing diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives—and, in particular, hopes her study inspires other researchers working with social institutions on diversity initiatives to consider the influences of ageism as well as race and gender. </p><aside class="pull obj-right"><div class="basic-box basic-box--light"><h2 class="small-headline">Student Researchers</h2><ul class="list--clean"><li data-list-item-id="e6d750ea35b8cd55b3bef12f1b245e282">Maggie Balderstone ’24</li><li data-list-item-id="e9300255bfb86c702ec7f4a047448d25c">Jonah Covell ’24</li><li data-list-item-id="e760ba1d4ebf5a0481c339ccec553a5cc">Sunny Hunt ’27</li><li data-list-item-id="e49b793de691ce6e4f00101a4d14ab375">Charlie Kline ’25</li><li data-list-item-id="eda0d0a35eded2aa3dc945d17858deea4">Izze Powell ’27</li><li data-list-item-id="e1c02b82d1f1b0219f7855e7146c8860c">Bella Saunders ’25</li><li data-list-item-id="e25a55b2932a18ad951592ed73184b8b5">Cami Sweet ’25</li><li data-list-item-id="ecd339e8bec3696339624bdd1627ebc43">Dakota Wynn ’27</li></ul></div></aside><p>In future projects, Smith-Tran plans to explore neurodiversity and disability as marginalizing aspects of people’s daily lives. She’s committed to making her �鶹��Ƶ classes as accessible as possible, and she’s dedicated to examining the intersections among health, race, and interactions with the medical establishment.</p><p>As an undergraduate, Smith-Tran received a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship, which exists to diversify college faculty and support marginalized scholars. Today, she mentors current students in the program. </p><p>“My husband and I both went to �鶹��Ƶ, so joining the faculty was like coming home to me,” Smith-Tran says. “Being around faculty who supported my ideas during my undergraduate years helped inform my idea that research can help us understand the undercurrents of society and help people live better lives.”</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-subhead field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Alicia Smith-Tran ’10 investigated how for Black women, looking younger can be detrimental to their professional lives.</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2025-03-21T12:00:00Z">Fri, 03/21/2025 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Jen DeMoss</div> <div class="text-content field field--name-field-intro-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Eternal youth is sold by the bottle at beauty retailers and features heavily within U.S. mass media. But what if people who possess years of hard-won skills and knowledge experience prejudice at their jobs for looking younger than they are?</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=4292">�鶹��Ƶ Research Review</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25431">Sociology</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-faculty field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/alicia-smith-tran" hreflang="und">Alicia Smith-Tran ’10</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/sociology" hreflang="und">Sociology</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-cte-images field--type-list-string field--label-hidden field__item">Yes (Individual Images)</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Loveis Wise</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-flex-content field--type-entity-reference-revisions field--label-hidden vertical-spacing--basic field__items"> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-40353" class="paragraph paragraph--type--para-el-copy paragraph--view-mode--default o-flex--basic-copy basic-copy"> <hr><p><em>Alicia Smith-Tran’s research explores the intersections of racism and ageism and the experiences of Black middle-class women navigating predominantly white spaces. She earned a master’s degree in journalism at Syracuse University, and a master’s degree and a doctorate in sociology at Case Western Reserve University.</em></p> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div class="field field--name-field-bio-card-el-biography field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> <div class="biography-card"> <figure> </figure> <div class="biography-card__content"> <h2><span>Alicia Smith-Tran ’10</span> </h2> <ul class="item-list list--clean" style="margin-top: 0px;"> <li class="professional-title">William G. Smith Associate Professor of Sociology and Comparative American Studies</li> </ul> <a class="view-more" href="/alicia-smith-tran">View Alicia Smith-Tran ’10’s biography</a> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-40377" class="paragraph paragraph--type--para-el-copy paragraph--view-mode--default o-flex--basic-copy basic-copy"> <div style="padding:56.25% 0 0;position:relative;"></div><script src="https://player.vimeo.com/api/player.js"></script><hr><h2 class="small-headline" style="margin-top:1.25rem;">About the Illustration</h2><figure class="captioned-image obj-right" style="margin-bottom:1.75rem;" data-cte><p></p><figcaption><em>Click the image to expand</em></figcaption></figure><p class="subhead" style="color:var(--darkgray);margin-bottom:0;">Illustrator: Loveis Wise</p><blockquote data-add-quotes data-no-attribution><p>This illustration balances literal and conceptual interpretations of the accompanying text with the group of people surrounded by mosaic-like, ‘cracked’ pieces.</p></blockquote><p class="icon-text"><span class="icon-text__icon fas fa-fw fa-link" style="color:black;" aria-label="Phone"></span><a href="https://www.loveiswise.com/" target="_blank">loveiswise.com</a></p><p class="icon-text"><span class="icon-text__icon fas fa-brands fa-instagram" aria-label="Instagram"></span><a href="https://www.instagram.com/loveiswiseillu" target="_blank">@loveiswiseillu</a></p><hr class="hr--light" style="clear:both;margin:1.25rem 0;"><p><a class="view-more" href="/node/488025">Return to <em>�鶹��Ƶ Research Review</em></a></p> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-40354" class="paragraph paragraph--type--para-el-copy paragraph--view-mode--default o-flex--basic-copy basic-copy"> <p class="header-tag no-show" id="header-tag">�鶹��Ƶ Research Review</p> <style> .no-show { display: none } </style> <script> (function() { var header = document.querySelector(".story-header"); var headerTag = document.getElementById("header-tag"); header.insertBefore(headerTag, header.firstElementChild); headerTag.classList.remove("no-show"); })(); </script>  <script> (function() { var credit = document.querySelector(".top-combo__figure .figure__credit"); credit.innerText = credit.textContent.replace("Photo credit","Image credit"); })(); </script>  <style> aside .list--clean li { margin-bottom: 0.25rem; } aside ul.list--clean { margin-top: .5rem; font-family: var(--font-sans-serif); font-size: 0.875rem; } aside .basic-box { margin: .5rem 0; max-width: 240px; } aside .basic-box .small-headline { font-size: 1rem; } </style> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-article-header field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">0</div> </article> <article> <h1>The Meaning Behind the Motions</h1> <p>awillia2 — Tue, 11 Mar 2025 03:56:35 +0000</p> <span>The Meaning Behind the Motions</span> <span><span>awillia2</span></span> <span><time datetime="2025-03-10T23:56:35-04:00" title="Monday, March 10, 2025 - 23:56">Mon, 03/10/2025 - 23:56</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-subhead field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Samuel Gardner reveals the profound ways a musician’s gestures deepen our connections to music.</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2025-03-21T12:00:00Z">Fri, 03/21/2025 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Sarah Grant</div> <div class="text-content field field--name-field-intro-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>What makes a live performance unforgettable? Assistant Professor of Music Theory Samuel Gardner has uncovered compelling evidence that physical gestures—ranging from subtle, unconscious movements to lively, intentional displays—are central to understanding how both performers and audiences connect with sound.</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=4292">�鶹��Ƶ Research Review</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=28876">Music Theory</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-faculty field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/samuel-gardner" hreflang="und">Samuel Gardner</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/conservatory/divisions/music-theory" hreflang="und">Music Theory</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-cte-images field--type-list-string field--label-hidden field__item">Yes (Individual Images)</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Christian Woltman</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-flex-content field--type-entity-reference-revisions field--label-hidden vertical-spacing--basic field__items"> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-40686" class="paragraph paragraph--type--pb-el-bq paragraph--view-mode--default"> <blockquote class="blockquote--distinguished" data-text-size-giant> <p>Music lives in the body as much as it does in the ear, so by not considering the impact of gestures in music, we’re missing half the conversation.</p> </blockquote> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-40364" class="paragraph paragraph--type--para-el-copy paragraph--view-mode--default o-flex--basic-copy basic-copy"> <p>“We know from studies that gestures organize our thoughts and shape how others perceive us,” Gardner says. “If you ask someone to sit on their hands and give directions, they’ll struggle. The question was, ‘How does this apply to music?’”</p><p>A research study Gardner published in <a href="https://mtosmt.org/issues/mto.22.28.3/mto.22.28.3.gardnershea.pdf" target="_blank"><em>Music Theory Online</em></a> coauthored with Nicholas J. Shea, an assistant professor of music theory at Arizona State University, answers this question by exploring how movements impact the perception and structure of music. </p><p>The spark for this research emerged during an unexpected moment during the COVID-19 pandemic. While exchanging favorite performance clips with Shea, Gardner found himself transfixed by footage of rock ’n’ roll pioneer Sister Rosetta Tharpe. “She wasn’t just playing guitar,” he recalls. “She was narrating the song with her body.” Her exuberant movements, including rhythmic foot tapping and sweeping arm gestures, amplified the music’s emotional core and guided the audience’s focus.</p><p>Gardner and Shea analyzed dozens of live performances, including those by Tharpe, R&B singer Macy Gray, Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson, and folk-leaning singer-songwriter Tracy Chapman. They selected performances where the camera angles made gestural analysis accessible to lay audiences, not just trained musicians. In “Fast Car,” for instance, Chapman’s deft finger movements along the fretboard mirror the song’s chordal progression, providing visual cues for audiences to anticipate the music’s direction. The study also deliberately excluded choreographed movements, instead focusing on spontaneous gestures that help performers process and express musical ideas.</p><p>The research identified three distinct categories of gestures. Some, like strumming or clapping, produce sound directly. Others, like pointed fingers or raised chins, are communicative, used to enhance or clarify ideas. The third category facilitates musical transitions, guiding both artist and audience through the song’s structure. Expanding on a concept music theorist David Temperley calls the “surface-to-structure process,” Gardner suggests that more pronounced gestural performances allow aspects of musical structures to rise to the musical surface.</p><p>In addition, the research revealed systematic patterns in how musicians use space and movement. For example, Gardner notes the study found that “the formal sections” of a song—like the verse, bridge, and chorus—“are often delineated by where the guitar player is. Empirically, we actually see larger shifts and leaps on the guitar fretboard when formal sections change.”</p><p>Comparing gestures across genres also yielded surprising insights. “Rock music actually had a lot more natural gestures than pop music,” Gardner says, “and these increased depending on where they were in the formal section of the song.” For example, singers moved far more in the choruses than they did in the verses.</p><p>Instrument-specific physicality also emerged as a crucial factor. “Balance plays a huge role in how drummers and pianists perform,” Gardner observed. “For drummers, it depends on how their kit is set up or the tempo of the song. For pianists, the physicality of moving across the keyboard shapes how their bodies interact with the music.”</p><p>The implications of this study extend from stadium concerts to places like conservatory classrooms. At �鶹��Ƶ, Gardner emphasizes stage presence awareness in education and cites classical pianist Lang Lang’s theatrical style as an example. “There’s an interview where someone asked him, ‘Why do you do that when so many pianists don't like it?’” he says. “And he said, ‘It’s to bring new kids into piano and classical music—they see me; they get really excited.’”</p><p>Gardner also frequently involves �鶹��Ƶ students in his research. In 2024, he coauthored a study with Abby Fiedler ’26 that was presented at the national conference of the Society for Music Perception and Cognition and later submitted for publication. This study examined how genre familiarity affects how audiences interpret the movements of performers. “Working with students allows us to test new ideas and push the boundaries of what we know about music,” Gardner says. “Their fresh perspectives often lead us to unexpected discoveries.”</p><p>Gardner’s findings raise intriguing questions about live performance’s evolution: How might classical concerts change with increased attention to movement? Could performers strategically use gestures to shape audience expectations? These questions suggest that understanding the physical language of music may be key to its future.</p><p>“Concerts create real-time connections that recordings can’t replicate,” Gardner notes. “Why else do people keep going to concerts? It’s not just to hear the songs—it’s to feel them with others.</p><p>“Gestures are not just embellishments,” he continues. “Music lives in the body as much as it does in the ear, so by not considering the impact of gestures in music, we’re missing half the conversation.”</p> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-40365" class="paragraph paragraph--type--para-el-copy paragraph--view-mode--default o-flex--basic-copy basic-copy"> <hr><p><em>Samuel Gardner studies music cognition and music theory; his research, which has a specific focus on modern popular music, emphasizes how gesture facilitates and embodies our musical understanding. He earned a doctorate at The Ohio State University.</em></p> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div class="field field--name-field-bio-card-el-biography field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> <div class="biography-card"> <figure> </figure> <div class="biography-card__content"> <h2><span>Samuel Gardner</span> </h2> <ul class="item-list list--clean" style="margin-top: 0px;"> <li class="professional-title">Assistant Professor of Music Theory</li> </ul> <a class="view-more" href="/samuel-gardner">View Samuel Gardner’s biography</a> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-40385" class="paragraph paragraph--type--para-el-copy paragraph--view-mode--default o-flex--basic-copy basic-copy"> <div style="padding:56.25% 0 0;position:relative;"></div><script src="https://player.vimeo.com/api/player.js"></script><hr><h2 class="small-headline" style="margin-top:1.25rem;">About the Illustration</h2><figure class="captioned-image obj-right" style="margin-bottom:1.75rem;" data-cte><p></p><figcaption><em>Click the image to expand</em></figcaption></figure><p class="subhead" style="color:var(--darkgray);margin-bottom:0;">Illustrator: Christian Woltman</p><blockquote data-add-quotes data-no-attribution><p>Music, words and movement are all forms of communication. But more importantly they communicate a feeling. Visual Communication Design—or Graphic Design and Illustration—helps communicate information. It’s the hope that my work not only communicates, but also evokes a feeling.</p></blockquote><p class="icon-text"><span class="icon-text__icon fas fa-fw fa-link" style="color:black;" aria-label="Phone"></span><a href="https://reference-studio.com/" target="_blank">reference-studio.com</a></p><p class="icon-text"><span class="icon-text__icon fas fa-brands fa-instagram" aria-label="Instagram"></span><a href="https://www.instagram.com/reference.studio" target="_blank">@reference.studio</a></p><hr class="hr--light" style="clear:both;margin:1.25rem 0;"><p><a class="view-more" href="/node/488025">Return to <em>�鶹��Ƶ Research Review</em></a></p> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-40366" class="paragraph paragraph--type--para-el-copy paragraph--view-mode--default o-flex--basic-copy basic-copy"> <p class="header-tag no-show" id="header-tag">�鶹��Ƶ Research Review</p> <style> .no-show { display: none } </style> <script> (function() { var header = document.querySelector(".story-header"); var headerTag = document.getElementById("header-tag"); header.insertBefore(headerTag, header.firstElementChild); headerTag.classList.remove("no-show"); })(); </script>  <script> (function() { var credit = document.querySelector(".top-combo__figure .figure__credit"); credit.innerText = credit.textContent.replace("Photo credit","Image credit"); })(); </script>  <style> aside .list--clean li { margin-bottom: 0.25rem; } aside ul.list--clean { margin-top: .5rem; font-family: var(--font-sans-serif); font-size: 0.875rem; } aside .basic-box { margin: .5rem 0; max-width: 240px; } aside .basic-box .small-headline { font-size: 1rem; } </style>  <style> .top-combo.top-combo--news .top-combo__figure img { border: 1px solid var(--lightgray) } </style>  <style> .biography-card blockquote { display: none } .body-centered-layout blockquote.blockquote--distinguished { margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: -1rem; } </style> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-article-header field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">0</div> </article> </main></body></html>