Author: Cheryl Miller

Dr. Netta Engelhardt will be presenting “The Black Hole Information Paradox: A Resolution on the Horizon?” at 2 p.m., April 7 via Zoom. Use the Zoom Meeting ID: 4179547349  and Password: Physics.

Dr. Engelhardt is the Biedenharn Career Development assistant professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She works on quantum gravity, primarily within the framework of the AdS/CFT correspondence. Her research focuses on understanding the dynamics of black holes in quantum gravity, leveraging insights from the interplay between gravity and quantum information via holography. Her current primary interests revolve around the black hole information paradox, the thermodynamic behavior of black holes, and the cosmic censorship hypothesis (which conjectures that singularities are always hidden behind event horizons).

The Watkins Visiting Professorship was created in 1974 by the Watkins Foundation. This grant is now provided through the Watkins fund, a part of the Wichita State University Foundation’s endowment. For more information about this lecture series, contact Dr. David Eichhorn at (316) 978-6659.

The Department of Women’s, Ethnicity, and Intersectional Studies, formerly the women’s studies department, has reorganized and expanded its curriculum to reflect growing nationwide interest in gender issues and ethnicity.

“We are excited about the new name and the programmatic changes it brings in placing women, gender, and ethnicity at the center of studies, especially in their intersection with race, class, sexuality, disability, and other hierarchies of power and relations of power,” said Chinyere Okafor, professor and chair of women’s, ethnicity, and intersectional studies, said.

Dr. Guy A. Caldwell, university distinguished research professor at the University of Alabama (UA), will present a public lecture, “Some Worm Saved My Life Tonight: Invertebrate-Driven Personalized Medicine,” at 3:30 p.m., today, March 2 at Hubbard Hall (Room 209).

Caldwell is visiting as part of the Watkins Visiting Professorship. The Watkins Visiting Professorship was created in 1974 by the Watkins Foundation. This grant is now provided through the Watkins fund, a part of the Wichita State University Foundation’s endowment.

His lab, The Worm Shack, studies C. elegans, a roundworm that lives in soil, and possesses genes that have functional counterparts in humans. Worms of this species are used as models for human disorders and illnesses such as Parkinson’s disease, kidney disease and congenital heart disease.

In the hot, humid mugginess of east Texas in August 2021, Crystal Dozier and a group of students made two exciting discoveries at the Box Springs archaeological site. Dozier, WSU assistant professor of anthropology, used magnetometry and ground penetrating radar to discover the precise location of an assumed mound.

Dr. Jenny Pearson, Wichita State professor of sociology, has been elected president of the Midwest Sociological Society. The society is a nonprofit, regional, professional society dedicated to building community among sociologists and to advancing sociological knowledge, teaching and practice for social scientific purposes and social betterment. A number of Wichita State University faculty and students attend the conference and present their research each year.

Pearson will serve a four-year term in April as president elect-elect; followed by president-elect and program chair; president; and immediate past president. She previously served as the Kansas state director and the co-founder and chair of the MSS LGBTQ+ Task Force, collaboratively working toward making the organization and annual conference more inclusive for LGBTQ+ members.

Fairmont College faculty, staff are invited to a town hall with President Rick Muma beginning at 2 p.m. today, Jan. 31 via Zoom. Interim Executive Vice President and Provost Shirley Lefever will also be a featured guest.

Campus and community members who missed Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Perspectives talks can now access them on YouTube. Each of the Perspectives series addressed current topics of interest and featured experts from a variety of fields. Fairmount College Dean Andrew Hippisley hosted each series. All the talks can be viewed on the Fairmount College YouTube channel.

Perspectives on the Pandemic, Part I: Topics include influenza pandemics since the Russian Flu, modeling the spread of the coronavirus, COVID-19’s impact on local public health practice and policy and searching for a COVID-19 vaccine and therapeutics.

Perspectives on the Pandemic, Part II: Topics include COVID-19’s impact on world democracies, opportunities for city and community changes after the pandemic, COVID-19’s effect on incarcerated people and their families, COVID-19 health disparities and COVID-19’s influence on the performing arts.

Reestablishing Reality: Topics include science and bias, current parallels with The Big Lie, motivation for ignoring facts, African-American narratives and sharing misinformation online.

Legacies of Racism in American Culture: Topics include the Bible and race in American Christian cultures; Jim Crow in the business world, becoming an American citizen and labor representation at the insurrection.

The Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences inducted three new members into its Hall of Fame on Oct. 22, 2021. The college was thrilled to formally recognize alumni Quincalee Brown, Vincent Gott and Alfonso Lenhardt for their significant impacts on the region, nation and world through their careers and professional contributions.

The “Legacies of Racism in American Culture” as part of the Perspectives series will return at 3 p.m. Dec. 8 via Zoom (Meeting ID: 998 4330 8081, Passcode: 441316). Dr. Chuck Koeber, associate professor and chair of the sociology department, will present on the subject while Andrew Hippisley, dean, Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, will host the event.

This presentation will address the context of work (labor) and its influences on the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection. It examines the types of jobs in which insurrectionists were employed and also reviews types of right-wing political activism that took place within mass and social media and within communities and political rallies. Several, if not many, insurrectionists learned the skills necessary to carry out a military-style attack while working in their vocation. However, and perhaps more importantly, was the work done away from their jobs, as would-be insurrectionists devoted much time and money to consuming, producing and transferring media and social media content, much of which was not factual. This resulted in the formation and spread of radical right-wing political and racial ideologies that motivated the insurrectionists.

While at Wichita State, Koeber has been the director of the Center for Teaching Excellence and senior associate dean of Fairmount College. He teaches courses in introductory sociology, sociological theory, work and globalization. His research examines contemporary changes and social inequalities in the nature and organization of work. He is the coeditor of “The Critical Study of Work:  Labor, Technology, and Global Production,” and the author of a handbook for laid-off Wichita workers titled “I’ve Been Laid Off, What Should I Do?” Koeber has published in several peer-reviewed journals.

The “Legacies of Racism in American Culture” series will return at 3 p.m. today, Dec. 1 via Zoom (Meeting ID: 998 4330 8081, Passcode: 441316). Robert E. Weems, Jr., who has been Wichita State’s Willard W. Garvey Distinguished Professor of Business History since 2011, will present on the subject while Andrew Hippisley, dean, Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, will host the event.

Many people associate Jim Crow racial segregation with the discriminatory treatment of African Americans in the realms of public accommodations, education and housing. However, this phenomenon also manifested itself in the realm of business. This presentation will discuss how the birth, growth and disappearance of black-owned insurance companies represents a useful case study of how “separate and unequal” operated in the business world.

Weems has published and spoken widely in the field of African American business history. His publications in African American business history include five books and numerous articles and book chapters. Weems served as a historical consultant and appeared in the documentary “Boss: The Black Experience in Business,” which premiered on PBS in April 2019. In June 2021, Weems was the keynote speaker at a program sponsored by the regional banks of the Federal Reserve titled “Racism and the Economy: Focus on Entrepreneurship.”