In the Spotlight: Aug. 16, 2019

Kudos to these faculty, staff and programs

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  • Jerry Anderfuren, producer for NAU-TV, Josh Biggs, photography manager for University Marketing, and composer Alexander Thomas received Emmy nominations for their work on several promotional videos for NAU. “Chocolate Falls,” an NAU Outdoors promo, earned the trio nominations in the Photographer (Short Form) and Promotional Program (Single Spot or Image) categories, while “The One With the Mountain,” NAU’s Giving Day video, earned Anderfuren a nomination in the Writer (Short Form) category. The winners will be announced at the 42nd Annual Rocky Mountain Emmy Awards in September.
  • Criminology and criminal justice professor Marianne Nielsen co-authored a forthcoming project that is expected to be released this year. The book, “Colonialism Is Crime,” presents an analysis of the relationship between colonial crimes and their continuing criminal and social consequences that exist today. The authors focus primarily on countries colonized by Britain, especially the United States.
  • Communication professor Zhan Xu recently published a study that appeared in two journals. “The Easier the Better? Comparing the Readability and Engagement of Online Pro- and Anti-Vaccination Articles,” was published in the Health, Education and Behavior journal, and “Personal stories matter: topic evolution and popularity among pro- and anti-vaccine online articles,” was published in the Journal of Computational Social Science. In the study, Xu examines how pro- and anti-vaccine topics and public interests have changed from 2007 to 2017.
  • NAU alumni Brooke Andersen and Lopez Lomong recently earned awards. Andersen took home the silver medal in the Women’s Hammer Throw competition at the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima, Peru. Just a few weeks prior, Lomong won the Men’s 5000-meter and 10,000-meter races at the 2019 U.S. Track & Field Outdoor National Championships in Des Moines, Iowa. Both athletes are striving for a spot on the podium in their respective events in Tokyo for the 2020 Summer Olympics.
  • Criminology and criminal justice professor Nancy Wonders recently had several works published, including an article in a special issue of the Theoretical Criminology journal. The article, “Transforming Boarders from Below: Theory and Research from across the Globe” investigates places and context where migrants have made social, economic and political strides. 
  • Northern Arizona University has been recognized in LendEDU’s fourth annual Student Loan Debt by School by State Report for having one of the lowest average student loan debt per borrower figures in the state and country. Northern Arizona University’s average debt per borrower figure for the Class of 2018 was $23,685, which ranked No. 1 in Arizona as one of the lowest, and No. 95 amongst all public schools in the U.S. 
  • NAU Social continues to rake in the awards. Northern Arizona University ranked No. 7 on Rival IQ’s list of Top 10 Universities Instagram for engagement and also made the Consistently Crushing It list.
NAU Communications