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It was hyped, promoted and delivered a ratings bonanza for CBS. Oprah Winfrey’s exclusive, no-holds barred interview with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, left many aghast by her revelations of mistreatment, constant abuse in the media and even Meghan's experience of racism when it came to the status, security and skin color of her then unborn son. Even the day after, Oprah, praised for her masterful interviewing skills, is still revealing excerpts that shine a brighter light on the situation. The Duchess of Sussex claimed the press team that would defend the royal family "when they know something's not true" failed to come to their defense. Winfrey asked Prince Harry if he hoped his family would ever acknowledge that the differences in treatment were over race. "It would make a huge difference," he said. "Like I said, there's a lot of people that have seen it for what it was… like it's talked about across the world." The people who do not want to see it, Harry claimed, "choose not to see it." March 08 – CBS News The interview has the public discussing racism and misogyny and how these are playing out in the Royal Family dynamics and the British press. And if you are a journalist looking to explore this issue, then let our experts help. Dr. Adria Goldman’s research explores the intersectionality of race, gender, culture and its connection to communication and media. She enjoys examining media’s impact on perceptions, construction of identity, social relationships and belief systems. Dr. Goldman is available to speak with media regarding Oprah Winfrey's interview with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry and what it means when it comes to race, royalty and what impact it may have on the couple and the Royal Family moving forward. If you are looking to arrange an interview, simply click on her icon now to book a time today.
With the topic of reparations under discussion and debate, Thomas Craemer -- an expert from the University of Connecticut -- had this to offer in a new essay for The Conversation: The cost of slavery and its legacy of systemic racism to generations of Black Americans has been clear over the past year – seen in both the racial disparities of the pandemic and widespread protests over police brutality. Yet whenever calls for reparations are made – as they are again now – opponents counter that it would be unfair to saddle a debt on those not personally responsible. In the words of then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, speaking on Juneteenth – the day Black Americans celebrate as marking emancipation – in 2019, “I don’t think reparations for something that happened 150 years ago for whom none of us currently living are responsible is a good idea.” As a professor of public policy who has studied reparations, I acknowledge that the figures involved are large – I conservatively estimate the losses from unpaid wages and lost inheritances to Black descendants of the enslaved at around US$20 trillion in 2021 dollars. But what often gets forgotten by those who oppose reparations is that payouts for slavery have been made before – numerous times, in fact. And few at the time complained that it was unfair to saddle generations of people with a debt for which they were not personally responsible. There is an important caveat in these cases of reparations though: The payments went to former slave owners and their descendants, not the enslaved or their legal heirs. Dr. Craemer discusses such aspects as the “Haitian Independence Debt,” British ‘reparations,’ and paying for freedom. Dr. Craemer is an expert on slavery reparations, racial bias, and the psychology of racism, and he is available to speak with media – simply click on his icon now to arrange an interview today.
The Power of Poetry in a Pandemic and Time of Social Injustice
Amanda Gorman captured hearts and imaginations across the nation when she performed her poem “The Hill We Climb” at the inauguration of President Joe Biden. While Jennifer Lopez’s stirring rendition of “This Land Is Our Land” and Garth Brooks’ “Amazing Grace” were performed to great acclaim, there was something special about the Inaugural Youth Poet Laureate’s recitation. Villanova University professor of Creative Writing and Luckow Family Chair in English, Lisa Sewell, PhD., talks about the cultural impact of poetry in times of turmoil, like the political and social uncertainty brought on by an attack on the US Capitol combined with a global pandemic. “Poetry is something people turn to in times of crisis -- and the pandemic and the ways it has made all of us face the grave inequities of our society has been an extended, seemingly endless crisis” said Dr. Sewell. “Amanda Gorman’s poem was powerful because she put a name to what so many people were feeling about the insurrection that occurred on January 6.” According to Dr. Sewell, poets like Alice Quinn, the former poetry editor of The New Yorker, have already edited a collection of “pandemic” poetry, demonstrating how artists take inspiration from and create art in reaction to what’s going on in their lives—to connect to others who may be experiencing the same complicated emotions. “In my poetry writing class, I talk to my students about how poets often try to say the impossible and write about experiences and ideas that are difficult to understand and difficult to put into words,” says Sewell. “What makes poetry powerful is the gesture, the effort to find the language that is adequate to the uncertainty and ambiguity of experience—and this seems true especially now.” The task of putting experiences into words that connect with a wide audience is not an easy one, especially with so much content competing for attention in 2021. So what it is about poetry in particular that makes it appropriate for this moment? Dr. Sewell suggests that the metaphorical language of poetry, as opposed to the certainty of prose or dialogue, hits home right now. She adds, “when the future is uncertain and the ‘before’ time seems hazier and hazier, poems are somehow both clear and direct with every word deliberately chosen, and also ambiguous and strange enough to speak to our sense of peril and uncertainty. Poems can both express our fears and also gesture towards the ways language is inadequate.” To speak with Dr. Lisa Sewell, email mediaexperts@villanova.edu
Ask the Expert: Medical distrust in Black communities
Historical racism and modern-day health care disparities have ingrained distrust in Black communities of a medical system now charged with encouraging people to take the COVID-19 vaccine. This is a vitally important topic and one that is capturing national attention with conversations surrounding inequity when it comes to distribution and immunization plans across America. Debra Furr-Holden is associate dean for Public Health Integration at Michigan State University, specializing in gender and racial health disparities and epidemiology, and was recently interviewed by MSNBC about this topic. Debra Furr-Holden is also director of the Flint Center for Health Equity Solutions, funded by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities. Furr-Holden was appointed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to be a member of the Michigan Coronavirus Task Force on Racial Disparities. She answers questions about medical distrust. Why is there medical distrust among Black communities? Medical mistrust in Black communities is rooted in both historical and modern-day wrong doings. I’ve heard many stories in the Black community of loved ones being turned away from the hospital and sent home to die during the COVID-19 pandemic. We read the headlines that confirmed the procedures used to prioritize people for COVID-19 care and hospitalization disparaged Black people. When you compound these modern-day experiences with historical wrong doings like the Tuskegee Experiments and Henrietta Lacks, there is never a chance for the wounds to heal and trust to be built. Also, the medical system is a part of a larger society and system of inequality that places a lower value on Black lives. Can racism explain some health disparities? Experiences of racism get under the skin and cause premature aging and “weathering.” This hypothesis has been proven, and we now have biological markers to prove that experiences of racism cause biological and physiological changes that shorten lives and diminishes health. This is further compounded by the tremendous emotional and financial toll that racism places on the Black community. Racism negatively impacts how people view themselves, their world and what opportunities are available to them. What is the medical field doing to change this distrust? The medical field is most importantly beginning to acknowledge that the health care system, by and large, has not treated the Black community fairly or humanely. There is still a long way to go to build trust, but it starts by acknowledging the problem and then doing the work to restore people to whole. Why is it important to get COVID-19 vaccination rates higher than expected in Black communities? In my opinion, the medical mistrust in the Black community is valid and rooted in legitimate experiences of maltreatment. My concern is that this mistrust will have the Black community refuse to take the COVID-19 vaccine, which according to the data we have now, will provide more benefit than harm. I hope that our national leaders and health experts continue to acknowledge the valid mistrust in the Black community and provide ongoing opportunities for people to get the information they need to make an informed decision built on science and data. Knowledge is power. And, I am confident that given the information by trusted and credible messengers, the Black community will make decisions about the vaccine that ultimately will increase community-wide protection. If you are a journalist looking to cover this ongoing topic – the let us help. Debra Furr-Holden is a leading expert in this field, and she is available to speak with reporters about this issue – simply click on her icon now to arrange an interview today.
Survival analysis: Forecasting lifespans of patients and products
How long will you live? Should you spring for that AppleCare+ warranty for your iPhone? When will your buddy pay you back for that lunch? For centuries, soothsayers have striven to understand the lifespan of things – be they patient longevity, product lifecycles, or even time to loan default. Nowadays, scientists have turned away from reading tea leaves and toward survival analysis – a complex data science method for predicting not only whether an event will happen (the death of a patient, the failure of a product or machine, default on a payment, and so on) but when this event is likely to occur. But it’s problematic. Until now, the tools of survival analysis have only been applicable in certain settings. This is due to the inherent heterogeneity of what is being analyzed: differences in patient lifestyles, demographics, product usage patterns, and so on. New research by Goizueta Business School’s Donald Lee, associate professor of information systems and operations management and of biostatistics and bioinformatics, has yielded a new tool that greatly extends survival analysis to broader use cases. “Historically, scientists have used classic survival analysis tools to predict the lifespan of different things in different fields, from products to patients,” Lee said. “Since the 1950s, the Kaplan-Meier estimator has been the benchmark for analyzing lifetime data, particularly in clinical trials. The next breakthrough came in the 1970s when the Cox proportional hazards model was introduced, which allows researchers to incorporate variables that can affect the predictability of things like patient mortality.” The problem with the existing survival analysis tools, Lee said, is that they make certain assumptions that can skew the predictions if the assumptions are not met. “There are very few existing tools that can incorporate variables without imposing assumptions on how they affect survival, let alone when there are a lot of variables that can also change over time. For example, two iPhones will have different lifespans depending on the temperature at which they are stored, amongst many other factors. But it’s unlikely that storing your phone at 30 degrees will halve its lifespan compared to storing it at 60 degrees. This sort of linear relationship is commonly assumed by existing tools.” Lee’s team developed a new survival methodology based on something called gradient boosting: a machine learning technique that combines decision trees to yield predictions. The method, Lee said, is totally assumption-free (or nonparametric in technical parlance) and can deal with a large number of variables that can change continuously over time, making it significantly more general than existing methods. Nothing like it has been seen until now, he noted. “Calculating the survival rate of anything is super complex because of the variables. Say you want to create an app for a smart watch that monitors the wearer’s vitals and use this information to create a real-time warning indicator for stroke. Doing this accurately is difficult for two reasons,” Lee explained. “First, a large number of variables may be relevant to stroke risk, and the variables can interact in ways that break the assumptions central to existing survival analysis methods. And second, variables like blood pressure vary over time, and it is the recent measurements that are most informative. This introduces an additional time dimension that further complicates things.” The software implementation of Lee’s method, BoXHED, overcomes both issues and allows scientists to develop real-time predictive models for conditions like stroke. The trained model can then be ported to a watch app to tell its wearer if and when they’re likely to have a stroke, a process known as inferencing in machine learning lingo. The implications, Lee said, are huge. “BoXHED now opens the door for modern applications of survival analysis. In previous research, I have looked at the design of early warning mortality indicators for patients with advanced cancer and also for patients in the ICU. These use other methods to make predictions at fixed points in time, but now they can be transformed into real-time warning indicators using BoXHED.” He cited the case of end-stage cancer patients who are often better served by hospice care than by aggressive therapy. “Accurate predictions of survival are absolutely critical for care planning. In previous analyses, we have seen that using existing predictive models to inform end-of-life care planning can potentially avert $1.9 million in medical costs and 1,600 days of unnecessary inpatient care per 1,000 patient visits in the United States. BoXHED is likely to lead to even better results.” Lee’s research paper is forthcoming in the Annals of Statistics. He has also created an open-source software implementation of BoXHED, which can radically improve the accuracy of survival analysis across a breadth of applications. The paper describing BoXHED was published in the International Conference on Machine Learning, and the latest version of the BoXHED software can be found online. If you are a journalist or looking to speak with Donald Lee – simply click on his icon now to arrange an interview or appointment today.
What Does the GameStop Buying Spree Tell Us?
Villanova School of Business assistant professor Keith Wright was in the chat rooms when individual investors were discussing pumping up the GameStop stock and forcing the hedge fund shorts to have to cover, losing millions of dollars. "At the time, David was clearly beating Goliath," says Wright, adding that some of the young people on Reddit had done extremely well. "They made significant money on their investments. Some of them were a little late; you don’t want to be the last one in who takes the position at the top." He adds, "I have a feeling that this may actually be something revolutionary, and we're seeing the bottom of the pyramid—which is Generation Z, the Millennials, the Robin Hood investors—really changing the game." "Going forward, you've got this group that's collaborating, and that makes them extremely powerful," says Wright. "If they all follow each other into a position, they can really move markets in any direction they choose... Are they powerful enough as a group to defeat the hedge funds? Now, maybe they win this battle and they lose the war. Or maybe they win this battle and they decide to try a couple of others. This is not the only occurrence; this is one stock, but it's happening in a couple of other positions as well." As to whether a group of people should have this type of an effect on the stock market, Wright suggests that maybe it's a good thing. "We live in an economy where wealth is very unbalanced. You have a lot of people at the very top who are doing extremely well. But there is some inequity, and these short sellers used to crush the average retail investor, but no longer. Maybe this will create some equity, and maybe it will even the playing field a little bit."
A selection of 30 films celebrating the past 20 years of Japanese cinema streams online throughout the U.S. on Japan Society’s virtual cinema, including films by Hirokazu Kore-eda, Naomi Kawase and Takashi Miike Plus, online U.S. premieres of Sion Sono’s Red Post on Escher Street and Yukiko Mishima’s Shape of Red, a special focus on Kiyoshi Kurosawa and a selection of breakout films by up-and-coming filmmakers Red Post on Escher Street © 2021 “Red Post on Escher Street” Film Partners Japan Society and the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan (ACA), in collaboration with the Visual Industry Promotion Organization (VIPO), announce the inaugural ACA Cinema Project online film series 21st Century Japan: Films from 2001-2020, streaming nationwide on Japan Society’s Virtual Cinema from February 5-25, 2021. As Japan’s film industry enters the third decade of the new millennium, this 30-film online series takes a look back at the last 20 years of Japanese cinema to celebrate some of the most remarkable narrative fiction films and filmmakers that define the era. Covering a wide range of production styles and genres—from small budget independent debuts to festival favorites and award-winning major studio releases—this diverse slate of feature and short films offers a guided tour of modern Japanese cinema, including special spotlights dedicated to the work of Kiyoshi Kurosawa and a selection of breakout films by up-and-coming filmmakers. A large majority of the films included are streaming in the U.S. exclusively on Japan Society’s Virtual Cinema. Series highlights include the online U.S. Premiere of Red Post on Escher Street, the latest film by cult favorite director Sion Sono (Love Exposure, 2009)—a comically reflexive, wildly unhinged, return-to-roots feature about a talented young director undergoing the production of a new film. Red Post on Escher Street is co-presented with Grasshopper Film, who will screen the title in tandem with Japan Society as part of the newly launched Projectr Movie Club from February 5-18. In addition, director Yukiko Mishima’s female-driven romantic drama Shape of Red makes its online U.S. premiere—a steamy tearjerker about a tenuous love affair adapted from the novel by Naoki Prize-winning author Rio Shimamoto featuring popular stars Kaho and Satoshi Tsumabuki. Billed as “Special Screenings,” these titles are planned to include pre-recorded video Q&As with the respective film’s director. Other highlights include harder-to-see gems by some of Japan’s most internationally prominent filmmakers, including: Hirokazu Kore-eda’s 2009 Doona Bae-starring fantasy drama Air Doll; Naomi Kawase’s 2014 Cannes competition title and self-proclaimed masterpiece Still the Water; Takashi Miike’s 2005 family-friendly monster adventure film The Great Yokai War; Shinya Tsukamoto’s 2015 adaptation of Shohei Ooka’s famous anti-war novel Fires on the Plain; trailblazing gay director Ryosuke Hashiguchi’s 2001 LGBT-themed comedic drama Hush!; and the award-winning 2006 murder mystery drama Sway by Miwa Nishikawa, whose latest film Under the Open Sky (2020) premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. “While it’s impossible to really capture the last two decades of Japanese narrative fiction filmmaking in its full breadth, we are excited to share at least the tip of the iceberg for these three weeks in February,” says K. F. Watanabe, Deputy Director of Film at Japan Society. “Online or otherwise, a large majority of these titles remain unavailable to watch with English subtitles in the U.S., so I hope this series provides an opportunity to create new fans of filmmakers such as Naoko Ogigami or Shuichi Okita and expand any preconceptions of what modern Japanese cinema can offer.” Katsura Toda, Senior Specialist for Arts and Culture at the Agency for Cultural Affairs, says, “The ACA Cinema Project was launched with the hope of sharing the diverse appeal of Japanese films to audiences around the world and to create more opportunities for these films to be seen. We are pleased to present U.S. audiences with the works of a great variety of directors—including well-established masters, filmmakers with distinctive voices and rising stars of the 21st century—and hope that many people will be able to encounter Japanese films in a fresh way.” $99 All-Access Passes with a 21-day rental window go on sale January 29 through February 4. $8 individual tickets with a 3-day rental window go on sale February 5. Individual tickets for Red Post on Escher Street and Shape of Red are $12. Japan Society members receive a 20% discount on all tickets via coupon code. All films screen online at japancuts.japansociety.org in Japanese with English subtitles unless otherwise noted. All titles available within the U.S. from February 5-25 unless sold out or otherwise noted. Titles also available beyond the U.S. are noted below. Lineup and other details are subject to change. For complete information visit japansociety.org. View the full film line-up here. Screeners available for most titles. Please send all press inquiries to Michael Lieberman at pr.lieberman@gmail.com. For inquiries regarding Japan Society and its Virtual Cinema, please contact Allison Rodman at arodman@japansociety.org.
Villanova Professor Discusses the Presidency and Future Use of Social Media
During his presidency, Donald Trump heavily utilized Twitter and other social media platforms as a key communication mechanism. But President Joe Biden’s use of social media will likely look very different according to Villanova University political science professor Matt Kerbel, PhD. “I think we’re going to see a return to something resembling normalcy in the way President Biden communicates with the public and runs his office,” says Dr. Kerbel. “President Trump was singular in his ability to use Twitter as a mouthpiece for his unfiltered thoughts because that was his brand and the basis for his campaign and presidency. Social media was an extension of his personality and a forum to amplify his message.” But President Biden’s campaign did not follow the same strategy. Dr. Kerbel predicts his social media use will vastly differ: “I expect President Biden to use social media to communicate his message of unity and publicize his plans and accomplishments. Expect a return to routine press conferences and planned media events along with social media outreach resembling what we’ve seen from the transition team.” Dr. Kerbel is an expert on political communication, including how politicians or political parties utilize traditional and new media. Due to his experience as a television and radio writer, researcher and author, he is frequently interviewed regarding politics and the media. He also writes political analyses for his blog, Wolves and Sheep.
How the Biden Administration Can Help Save the Planet
With the inauguration of Joseph R. Biden as the 46th president of the United States came a slew of executive orders—and perhaps most notably America's reentry into the Paris Climate Accord. After the Obama administration joined the largest global cooperative agreement to limit the emission of dangerously climate-altering greenhouse gasses in 2015, the U.S. withdrew in 2017 under former president Donald Trump. Villanova University biology professor Samantha Chapman, PhD, studies how "blue carbon" solutions, like the restoration of wetlands, can contribute to slowing the harmful impact of climate change on the planet. Recently, Dr. Chapman broke down the top three things the Biden administration must do to save the planet, since we are, as she puts it, "close to some scary tipping points." #1: Pressure Brazil’s President Bolsonaro to stop the devastation of the Amazon. "The Amazon Rainforest regulates our global climate. It is imperative that through diplomacy and aid, we incentivize developing countries to preserve their intact lands and biodiversity. We can't do this without helping local communities incentivize the people living in these places to save these lands. Road building in forests is a huge cause of our planet's downward slope." #2: Invest in restoration of natural ecosystems. "We must invest resources into coastal wetlands and forests, here and abroad. USAID could be partially retooled in partnership with the United Stated Geological Survey (USGS), which already does this. These natural ecosystems will serve as natural climate solutions and be harbors for threatened species and nice places for humans to recreate. We must restore the opportunity for nature to re-invoke the necessary feedbacks that make the ecosystems work. Sometimes this involves complicated engineering, sometimes it is simpler and means giving nature space to restore. We're trying both." #3: Find ways to make people feel connected to land and nature—and value it. "This is a vague one and not one that I'm sure any administration can do. The pandemic has given me hope on this—I see so many more people out hiking, fishing, walking, and hanging out in parks. When time comes for voting on taxes, people have to remember that these state parks and preserves and even neighborhood parks cost money to staff and preserve. The U.S. has incredible land and nature and yet, in my experience, Americans value and understand it less than other countries. Some of that has to do with our frontier history. We can learn from Native Americans. Appointing Representative Deb Haaland as the secretary of the interior is one good step the Biden administration has taken in this direction." Dr. Chapman emphasizes that despite the uphill battle ahead, she remains hopeful. "Left to heal and helped to heal, the ecosystem processes that sustain our lives and those of the other amazing organisms on our planet can be restored," she notes. "Good things are happening. They just need to happen at a much larger scale."
Last Friday, Georgia Southern officially opened its new Engineering and Research Building for students and researchers, a facility that will serve as the epicenter for engineering excellence and innovation in southeast Georgia. The building is designed to facilitate academic and institutional partnerships, inspire creative engineering and accelerate academic success for students in the College of Engineering and Computing. Through the instructional research labs and academic spaces that bridge theory and practice, students will be prepared to solve today’s challenges and to make tomorrow’s discoveries. “Today marks the culmination of years of forethought and investment from a number of state leaders, industry leaders and local advocates, who paved the way for us to be here,” said Georgia Southern President Kyle Marrero. “Leaders who, dating back to the 90s, could see the future of a growing industry, a state on the precipice of being a national leader in technology and innovation, and a critical need to develop talent in applied engineering across south Georgia.” The Engineering and Research Building’s sleek, contemporary environment defined by glass and natural light, soaring high-bay ceilings and modern, industrial feel is strengthened by new, industry-relevant equipment, instrumentation and technology that encourage active learning and sustainability. The highly efficient facility includes sustainable features that complements existing spaces on campus. The three-story building houses applied research spaces with a strong focus on manufacturing engineering, civil engineering, electrical and computer engineering, and mechanical engineering. The workspaces can be easily reconfigured for various uses, projects and applications and provide students with access to industry-grade equipment as well as expanded opportunities for undergraduate research. “The investment of the Engineering and Research Building solidifies Georgia Southern University’s commitment to students in providing a world-class education in the engineering field, while providing the space and resources necessary to facilitate such,” said student Kristifer Bell. “I am enthusiastic to continue my research work and look forward to the interdepartmental collaboration that will be encouraged through the housing of new student and faculty labs under one roof.” The full media release about this historic occasion is attached – and if you are a journalist looking to know more about this facility or Southern Georgia University -- simply reach out to Georgia Southern Director of Communications Jennifer Wise at jwise@georgiasouthern.edu to set and time and date.
