In the Spotlight: March 6, 2020

Kudos to these faculty, staff and programs

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  • Maiah Jaskoski, associate professor of politics and international affairs, published the article, “Approving of but Not Choosing Violence: Paths of Nonviolent Radicals,” in Terrorism and Political Violence. The article explains why some people believe in using violence for political ends and sympathize with violent political groups, but do not perform violent acts or join violent organizations. Jaskoski and her collaborators analyzed the interviews of 129 nonviolent activists in 12 countries experiencing violent internal conflict.
  • David Van Ness, senior lecturer of art, and Matthew Salanga, assistant professor of biological sciences, will present their attempt to create proteins from Beethoven’s 8th piano sonata in C minor and a generative musical theme on Beethoven through gene-altering methods at the College Music Society Pacific Southwest conference. Intern to Scholar student Zachary DeHaven supported their efforts by creating a sorting algorithm that assigns Zebrafish codons to musical notes.
  • Kurt Lancaster, professor in creative media and film; Toni D’Aztlan-Smith, former assistant professor of practice; Shelley Smithson, independent journalist; and Joshua Biggs, photographer and marketing manager at NAU; created a film titled, “The Frybread Myth: Fighting for Food Sovereignty in Native America.” The film examines the Native American Food Sovereignty movement and was accepted into the Ethnographic Film Festival held in Paris.
  • Paulina Swiatkowski, lecturer of communications, authored a chapter titled, “We aim to please: Reading into rational dynamics,” published in “Communication in Kink: Understanding the influence of the Fifty Shades of Grey phenomenon.”
  • Regents’ professor of politics and international affairs Zachary Smith authored the second edition of “Sustainability: If It’s Everything, Is It Nothing?”
  • Brian Petersen, director of sustainable communities and professor of geography, planning and recreation, coauthored the article, “Reconceptualizing Climate Change Denial: Ideological Denialism Misdiagnoses Climate Change and Limits Effective Action,” in “Human Ecology Review.”
  • Assistant professor of criminology and criminal justice Brooke A. de Heer co-authored the article, “Pornography, Masculinity, and Sexual Aggression on College Campuses,” recently accepted for publication in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence.
  • Amy Horn, senior lecturer of photography has six photographs on display at the Phippen Museum. The photographs are in the show, CLICK: EXPOSE THE WEST, on display in the Marley Gallery starting March 7.
  • Regents’ Professor Pete Fulé was selected for a Fulbright Scholarship to Morocco. He plans to work with local partners to conduct research on forest and fire ecology in the Talassemtane National Park area.
  • Affordable Schools ranked Northern Arizona University No. 23 on its list of 50 Best Affordable Online Early Childhood Education Degree Programs and No. 11 on its list of 25 Best Affordable Online Dental Hygiene Degree Programs. Average cost of attendance, student-to-faculty ratio and graduation rate were evaluated.