{"id":55762,"date":"2021-05-26T15:45:41","date_gmt":"2021-05-26T19:45:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cas\/?p=55762"},"modified":"2021-05-27T13:41:23","modified_gmt":"2021-05-27T17:41:23","slug":"into-the-zeitgeist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cas\/into-the-zeitgeist\/","title":{"rendered":"Into the Zeitgeist"},"content":{"rendered":"<h6><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By Siena Giljum<\/span><\/h6>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">BU Arts &amp; Sciences faculty members don&#8217;t just publish in academic journals; they bring new ideas and perspectives to the public through news outlets, TV, magazines, and social media, giving their research and ideas broader reach. If you heard something about deep fakes lately, or the depiction of Asian Americans in video games, it may have been thanks to Arts &amp; Sciences faculty. Here&#8217;s a rundown of recent appearances in the media:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Long-running PBS science docuseries<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> NOVA <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">featured <\/span><b>Malika Jeffries-EL<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Associate Professor in Chemistry and the Associate Dean of the Graduate School of Arts &amp; Sciences, for expert insight into the molecular chemistry of household plastic products. You can watch Malika\u2019s clip, which is part of the series \u201cBeyond the Elements,\u201d and read a transcript <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wgbh\/nova\/video\/plastics-durable-diverse-indestructible\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">on the PBS website<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Are you worried you forgot about how to socialize during quarantine? Director of the Psychotherapy and Emotion Research Laboratory and Professor of Psychology <\/span><b>Stefan G. Hofmann<\/b> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/04\/23\/well\/small-talk-anxiety-strangers.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">spoke to the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">New York Times<\/span><\/i><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> about why you shouldn\u2019t worry about social anxiety and how to get your small-talk game back in fighting shape. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ever-intrigued by the intersection of the Asian American experience and digital media, Assistant Professor of English <\/span><b>Takeo Rivera<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> was interviewed for a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/orientalism-cyberpunk-2077-yellow-peril-science-fiction\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">piece in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wired<\/span><\/i><\/a> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">about a controversial new video game, connecting its orientalist tropes with recent cultural history. Additionally, Takeo spoke about how Asian Americans have been othered in American media throughout the 1900s and 2000s on Al Jazeera as part of their program &#8220;The Listening Post.\u201d You can watch the entire clip <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Un_ezSd3PNU&amp;t=873s\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">on the Al Jazeera YouTube page<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/science\/archive\/2021\/04\/parachute-science-doesnt-work-in-a-pandemic\/618522\/\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Atlantic<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> heavily featured<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the words and work of biological anthropologist <\/span><b>Cheryl Knott <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">from CAS\u2019s Biology Department, who works closely with researchers in Indonesia, in an article reexamining \u201cparachute science\u201d during the pandemic.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mario Kart, a video game staple for millennials, can teach you more than just how to avoid bananas in the road. Assistant Professor of Earth &amp; Environment <\/span><b>Andrew Bell <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">recently published a paper on what the video game can tell us about building a more equitable society for farmers. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/mario-kart-poverty-inequality-sustainability-2544052\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Read more in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Futurity<\/span><\/i><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you\u2019ve ever seen a well-known image that seems just a bit off, it could be a deep fake. <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/articles\/2020\/protective-filter-defends-images-video-against-deepfake-manipulation\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A team of BU computer scientists<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> looked into this digital phenomenon, developing a shared algorithm to help combat this spread of misinformation online.\u00a0 <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Sam Sarkisian<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a lecturer of writing in CAS and COM, <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/articles\/2021\/dystopia-debut-somewhere-between-fact-and-fiction\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">sat down with <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">BU Today<\/span><\/i><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for a Q&amp;A about his new dystopian novel, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Institute<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a chilling look at government surveillance and censorship set just 15 years into the future. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After you watch the Oscar-winning film<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Mank <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and need more Hollywood history, check out <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hill Of Beans: A Novel of War and Celluloid <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">by Professor of English <\/span><b>Leslie Epstein<\/b><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">which is a fictionalized take on the production of Casablanca, with a <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/articles\/2021\/leslie-epsteins-novel-of-war-and-celluloid\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">deep dive on the book in<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> BU Today<\/span><\/i><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wbur.org\/artery\/2021\/02\/26\/leslie-epstein-hill-of-beans-casablanca\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">detailed review<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">WBUR<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Out in the deep sea, you never know what you\u2019ll encounter, and new research, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/invisible-deep-sea-bacteria-cause-researchers-to-reth-1846465073\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">featured here in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Gizmodo<\/span><\/i><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and coauthored by Research Assistant Professor of Biology <\/span><b>Randi Rotjan<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, indicates there\u2019s more invisible bacteria out there than originally thought.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a class=\"button-primary\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cas\/learning\/\">More Stories<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BU Arts &#038; Sciences faculty members bring their knowledge, insight, and senses of humor to the public arena.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3521,"featured_media":55773,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[195],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55762"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3521"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55762"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55762\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55856,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55762\/revisions\/55856"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}