SUM

08/04/2021

A bittersweet goodbye for SUM. After 678 stories, 323,000 page views, 1,000 Facebook posts, 5,300 tweets, 3 million Twitter impressions, 12 podcasts, 12 videos and 33 newsletters, the website is going on hiatus. Editor Beth Harpaz is moving to Baruch College to do communications for the Weissman School of Arts and Sciences and she invites you to send her all your great stories about Baruch Weissman students, faculty and alumni. SUM's archive will stay live and searchable for now. Meanwhile, here's SUM's final newsletter with a roundup of great stories from the past few weeks.
https://mailchi.mp/gc/april8-2021-sum-newsletter-copy01

07/04/2021

In an extraordinary essay in Orion Magazine about bird murals in Harlem and Washington Heights, Professor Emily Raboteau (The City College of New York) meditates on racism, the pandemic, gentrification, and environmental threats to birds as well as to people

A writer unpacks the layered meanings of the bird murals she encounters on storefronts in Harlem and Washington Heights during the pandemic.

06/04/2021

A new open-access book, "Becoming a Scholar: Cross-Cultural Reflections on Identity and Agency in an Education Doctorate," tells the story of a group of working professionals who enrolled in a part-time international Ed.D. (education doctorate) program at University College London. Professor Maria Savva (LaGuardia Community College) co-edited the book and contributed a chapter about her experiences in the program. Though the book describes a relatively niche program, many of its takeaways are now more broadly applicable given the normalization and boom in distance learning due to the pandemic. https://sum.cuny.edu/reflections-on-an-unconventional-path-for-doctoral-students/

A new book offers reflections by a group of older doctoral students who pursued their Ed.D. degrees part-time and internationally.

05/04/2021

A new book by Professor Don Waisanen (Baruch College) says improvisation techniques are useful tools for bridging differences, increasing community engagement, and ultimately, improving democracy https://sum.cuny.edu/how-learning-improv-can-boost-democracy-even-on-zoom/

Improvisation exercises can improve learning, community relations, leadership, and even democracy--and you can even do improv via Zoom.

01/04/2021

A new study by Ph.D. student Cody Melcher (The Graduate Center, CUNY) analyzes economic insecurity and economic self-interest as factors in racism and xenophobia

New research analyzes economic insecurity and economic self-interest among white Americans as a factor in racist attitudes.

31/03/2021

A study by Queens College Professor Nakia Gray-Nicolas found that academics are quoted in local news far less often than people in other “knowledge-brokering organizations.” One exception: The Graduate Center, CUNY's Professor David Bloomfield. Read more about why here

A new study looks at why it's hard for academics to get media attention, and shows how a CUNY professor broke through.

30/03/2021

The term "survivor" is often preferred these days over the term "victim" in describing individuals who have lived through something traumatic, whether cancer, crime, or COVID. On the one hand, "survivor" is a positive word that connotes agency, resilience, and fortitude. On the other hand, when it comes to institutional harms, denying that someone was victimized absolves the responsible entities of blame and any need for compensation. Calling someone a survivor also suggests that the onus is on the individual to muster the resources to become whole again, perhaps without fully acknowledging the harm done. Professor Alyson Cole (The Graduate Center, CUNY, Queens College) unpacks the politics and implications of the victim-survivor calculus in a fascinating new essay

A political scientist explains why "survivor" has replaced "victim" as the preferred term for someone who's experienced misfortune or trauma.

29/03/2021

The American Journal of Public Health chose a piece by student Chaya Dickel from Hunter Bellevue School of Nursing (HBSON) as an “Editor’s Choice.” The piece argued that nursing students should have been allowed to help out with the pandemic from the start. Ultimately the policy was changed.

A Hunter College nursing student laments that nursing students weren't allowed to help out in healthcare settings during the pandemic.

26/03/2021

For thousands of years, vanilla grew in just one place on Earth, and it took centuries for the rest of the world to unlock the secrets to its cultivation. Read more about the history of vanilla in this delightful Reaktion Books book by New York City College of Technology (City Tech) News Prof. Rosa Abreu-Runkel

A new book looks at the history of vanilla, from its use and cultivation in ancient cultures to its modern ubiquity as a flavor and scent.

25/03/2021

We've all been hit hard in different ways by the pandemic, but the terrible toll on students at The City University of New York is made clear in this survey of 2,282 students by researchers at CUNY Graduate School of Public Health & Health Policy: 80% of CUNY students experienced a loss of household income as the pandemic got under way, half worried about losing housing, & half reported food insecurity.

A survey found 81% of CUNY students experienced a loss of household income as the pandemic started and half worried about losing housing.

24/03/2021

A study co-authored by Professor Els de Graauw (Baruch College Weissman School of Arts and Sciences, Baruch College) compared union support for immigrant rights in Houston & San Francisco. The research found that the extent & efficacy of that support depended on "local context" including local politics and the strength of local unions & immigrant advocacy groups

New research compares the extent and efficacy of union support for immigrant rights in Houston and San Francisco.

23/03/2021

New research examines the impact of mindfulness activities on college students studying entrepreneurship. In the study, Professor Roderick Shane Snipes of BMCC explains how mindfulness helps entrepreneurs by improving their ability to be empathetic

A new study examined the impact of mindfulness lessons on college students studying marketing and entrepreneurship.

22/03/2021

Vanilla's history is anything but plain. A new book by Professor Rosa Abreu-Runkel (New York City College of Technology (City Tech) News) explores its origins in ancient Meso-America, its popularity among royalty, and how an enslaved man unlocked the secret to its cultivation. Publisher: Reaktion Books

A new book looks at the history of vanilla, from its use and cultivation in ancient cultures to its modern ubiquity as a flavor and scent.

19/03/2021

How can we support Asian Americans? Listen to Celina Su, professor at Brooklyn College and The Graduate Center, CUNY: "When I have been followed by men (the gender dimension is hard for me to ignore here) on the street, yelling at me to go back where I come from, for blocks on end, I would have been so grateful if passersby had taken the time to walk alongside me for a bit. When my family received anonymous hate mail telling us to go back to China (we immigrated from Brazil) when I was in middle school, I know that it meant a lot to my parents to know that our immediate neighbors welcomed us to the community." Professor Su is a poet and also teaches political science and urban education. Read more about her reaction to the Atlanta attacks here https://m.gc.cuny.edu/News/Detail?id=59380 and take a look at SUM's story about a poem of hers that was published in The New York Times here: https://sum.cuny.edu/please-let-me-through-a-poets-airport-meditation/

A political scientist's poem -- published in The New York Times -- contemplates airports as places filled with anxiety as well as adventure.

18/03/2021

The second issue of the Journal of Teaching Disability Studies is out and online in an open access format. The journal’s editor-in-chief, Mariette Bates, is academic director of disability studies at CUNY School of Professional Studies. She says it's "the only peer-reviewed publication that promotes original research about disability studies pedagogy, and provides a space of experimentation, dialogue, and collaboration for those of us who teach about disability and disability studies across a variety of educational settings."

The latest issue of a journal on teaching disability studies looks at disability studies in classrooms, curricula, and on campuses.

17/03/2021

When an in-home aide’s client passes away, the stress is two-fold: emotional and financial. In a new study, researchers at the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health & Health Policy went to home care agencies to see what could be done to support these workers

It's stressful for in-home health aides when clients pass away, and a new study shows there's not much support in place for them.

16/03/2021

A book of poems by Professor Darrel Alejandro Holnes (Medgar Evers College, CUNY) is being published by Northwestern University Press. Called "Migrant Psalms," the collection explores themes like migration, borders, faith, identity, and more. The collection won the Drinking Gourd prize for poetry. One poem, "Amending Wall," references Robert Frost's famous "Mending Wall," which starts out “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,” and includes the famous line, “Good fences make good neighbors.” Holnes’ piece, in turn, says: “Something there is that loves a wall, that builds a boundary, that calls the structure ‘love of country.’ ... Something doesn’t love a man carving up a continent and its people to make a new world.”

A prize-winning collection of poetry called "Migrant Psalms" explores themes of identity, migration, sexuality, race, faith, and history.

15/03/2021

Fossilized teeth provide new evidence that our primate ancestors lived alongside giant dinosaurs. Professor Stephen Chester, Brooklyn College, The Graduate Center, CUNY, was an author on the study

A new study explains why fossilized teeth provide proof that our primate ancestors lived alongside dinosaurs.