Recent Press Coverage

Current News and Events

It's Back to the Future in Run-up to Russian Elections

January 18, 2018

Dina Khapaeva, a professor in the School of Modern Languages at the Georgia Institute of Technology, was quoted in the January 13 Voice of America article, “It’s Back to the Future in Run-up to Russian Elections.” The School of Modern Languages is part of the Georgia Tech Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts.

Excerpt:

Last October, the government endorsed the country's first-ever monument to Ivan the Terrible, with the unveiling in the city of Orel of a statue to the 16th-century czar who expanded Russia but at great human cost. Ivan the Terrible is reputed to have killed one of his sons during a rage.

The official lionization of historical despots feeds into an embrace of anti-democratic values, according to academic Dina Khapaeva, professor of Russian at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She noted in an article for Project Syndicate, a nonprofit that distributes commentary, that Russian officials have even spoken approvingly of Russian serfdom, which "complements the desire for a return to autocracy."

"No wonder, then, that monuments to Stalin, too, are multiplying in Russian cities," she said.

For the full article, visit Voice of America website.

Published in: Voice of America
The Antitrust Case Against Facebook, Google and Amazon

January 16, 2018

Milton Mueller, professor in the Georgia Tech School of Public Policy, was quoted in The Wall Street Journal, January 16, article, “The Antitrust Case Against Facebook, Google and Amazon.” The School of Public Policy is a unit in Georgia Tech’s Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts.

For the full article, visit The Wall Street Journal website. Subscription is required.

Published in: The Wall Street Journal
Gene Therapy Could Make Cancer Care More Unequal, and This Map Shows Why

January 12, 2018

Aaron Levine, associate professor in the Georgia Tech School of Public Policy, was quoted in the MIT Technology Review, January 12, article, “Gene Therapy Could Make Cancer Care More Unequal, and This Map Shows Why.” The School of Public Policy is a unit in Georgia Tech’s Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts.

Excerpt:

Many patients have had remarkable recoveries, but they can also suffer toxic and sometimes deadly side effects. Aaron Levine at the Georgia Tech School of Public Policy, who has studied the ethics of CAR-T cell therapies, says these side effects will likely be the biggest obstacle to making the therapies more widely available, “as only a small number of physicians and medical teams are prepared to address them.”

For the full article, visit the MIT Technology Review website.

Published in: MIT Technology Review
What It’s Like to Walk Away From a Job at Google to Pursue a Career in Stand-Up Comedy

January 10, 2018

Sarah Cooper, alumna of the Digital Media graduate program at Georgia Institute of Technology, was the subject of the Business Insider, January 10, article, “What It’s Like to Walk Away From a Job at Google to Pursue a Career in Stand-Up Comedy.” The Digital Media graduate program is part of the Georgia Tech Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts.

Excerpt:

Three years ago, Sarah Cooper made an unusual career move. The Georgia Tech graduate had spent the past eight years working in user experience (UX) design at tech companies including Yahoo and Google, but now she was giving up her coveted career in tech to pursue her passion: comedy.

Cooper recently chatted about her decision to quit Google with journalist Kara Swisher and former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo — who once pursued a career in standup comedy himself — on Recode's latest Recode Decode podcast.

For the full article, visit the Business Insider website.

Published in: Business Insider
On Second Thought For Tuesday

January 9, 2018

Lisa Yaszek, professor in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication at Georgia Institute of Technology, was interviewed in the GPB News, January 9, article and radio segment, “On Second Thought For Tuesday.” The School of Literature, Media, and Communication is a unit in the Georgia Tech Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts.

Excerpt:

The Georgia legislative session has begun. Among many bills in play: a sweeping plan to revitalize rural Georgia. This might mean paying people who move to the country, subsidizing internet connections, and making it easier for small hospitals to stay open and in the black. But how all this attention under the Gold Dome translates to real improvements for people outside Atlanta remains to be seen. We talk with Sharon Wright Austin, a political scientist at the University of Florida. And Mark Niesse, a reporter for the Atlanta Journal Constitution… The sci-fi world may still be very much dominated by men behind the scenes, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t female trailblazers. Georgia Tech professor Lisa Yaszek went on a mission to honor some of these unsung heroines in her book, “Sisters of Tomorrow: The First Women of Science Fiction.” We talk with her and Bill Campbell. He’s the head of Rosarium Publishing, which works to bring more diversity to science fiction.

To listen to the full interview, visit the GPB News website.

Published in: GPB News
Big Brother: College Edition

January 5, 2018

Professor Ian Bogost was quoted in the article “Big Brother: College Edition” and subtitled “Student blasts Georgia Tech for monitoring his social media accounts” in the Atlanta Journal Constitution December 21, 2017.

“Bogost is Ivan Allen College Distinguished Chair in Media Studies and professor of interactive computing at Georgia Tech, who also has a significant Twitter presence, disagreed. He posted an article by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which first reported the story, and said, ‘shameful, astounding behavior from my employer.’”

Read full article Big Brother: College Edition

Published in: Atlanta Journal Constitution
Why Russia is Suddenly Eulogising its Past

January 2, 2018

Dina Khapaeva, professor in the School of Modern Languages at the Georgia Institute of Technology, wrote the Gulf News, January 2, article, “Why Russia is Suddenly Eulogising its Past.” The School of Modern Languages is part of the Georgia Tech Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts.

Excerpt:

While much of the world is busy dismantling monuments that divide people, Russians are moving in the opposite direction, erecting statues to medieval warlords. Understanding this revival can shed light on the direction of Russia’s politics. Last October, with the endorsement of Russia’s culture minister, Vladimir Medinsky, the country’s first-ever monument to Ivan the Terrible was unveiled in the city of Orel. A month later, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the leader of the ultra-nationalist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, called for Lenin Avenue in Moscow to be renamed Ivan the Terrible Highway. And in July of this year, President Vladimir Putin christened Moscow’s own tribute to the tyrant, declaring, erroneously, that “most likely, Ivan the Terrible never killed anyone, not even his son.”… Dina Khapaeva is Professor of Russian at the Georgia Institute of Technology’s School of Modern Languages. Her most recent book is The Celebration of Death in Contemporary Culture.

For the full article, visit the Gulf News website.

Published in: Gulf News
Putin’s Medieval Dreams

December 29, 2017

Dina Khapaeva, professor in the School of Modern Languages at the Georgia Institute of Technology, wrote the Project Syndicate, December 29, article, “Putin’s Medieval Dreams.” The School of Modern Languages is part of the Georgia Tech Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts.

Excerpt:

Ivan the Terrible is not the only medieval vestige being revived in Russia. Cultural vocabulary is also reverting. For example, the word kholop, which means “serf,” is returning to the vernacular, a linguistic devolution that parallels a troubling rise in Russia’s modern slavery. Data from the Global Slavery Index show that more than one million Russians are currently enslaved in the construction industry, the military, agriculture, and the sex trade. Moreover, serf “owners” are also happily identifying themselves as modern-day barins.

Even Russian officials speak approvingly of modern slavery. Valery Zorkin, who chairs the Constitutional Court, wrote in Rossiyskaya Gazeta, the official government newspaper, that serfdom has long been a “social glue” for Russia. And another medieval term – lydi gosudarevy, which translates to “servants of his majesty” – has returned to favor among high-ranking bureaucrats.

For the full article, visit Project Syndicate’s website.

Published in: Project Syndicate
Why Spice Is a Staple of Science Fiction

December 28, 2017

Lisa Yaszek, professor in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication at Georgia Institute of Technology, was featured in the Food and Wine, December 28, article, “Why Spice Is a Staple of Science Fiction.” The School of Literature, Media, and Communication is a unit in the Georgia Tech Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts.

Excerpt:

For many writers, creating new worlds in genre requires first mining through the social and scientific things they’re familiar with and then making them unfamiliar, either by changing their composition or context. Speaking to Food and Wine, Georgia Tech University professor and former president of the Science Fiction Research Association Lisa Yaszek noted that because spice is both a regionally distinctive and internationally mundane aspect of life, it’s a fitting launching board for establishing that familiar and unfamiliar dichotomy in a world of altered technology.

For the full article, visit the Food and Wine website.

Published in: Food and Wine
Yes, Smartphone Use Is Probably Behind the Spike in Driving Deaths. So Why Isn’t More Being Done to Curb It?

December 28, 2017

Robert Rosenberger, associate professor in the Georgia Tech School of Public Policy, wrote the Slate, December 28, article, “Yes, Smartphone Use Is Probably Behind the Spike in Driving Deaths. So Why Isn’t More Being Done to Curb It?” The School of Public Policy is a unit in Georgia Tech’s Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts.

Excerpt:

The U.S. has seen a 14-percent spike in roadway fatalities over the past two years. It’s also seen the biggest back-to-back increase in motor vehicle–related death rates per mile driven in more than 50 years and 37,461 lives lost by drivers, passengers, cyclists, and pedestrians in 2016 alone. What’s to blame? Many experts, writers, and organizations are pointing to smartphone use and other tech-related distractions while driving as major culprits. Official statistics from the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) seemingly counter this claim, attributing only about 9 percent of traffic deaths to distracted driving in general and far fewer to phone use specifically. In fact, the DOT stats suggest that even that minuscule percentage attributed to phone use has dropped over the past year.

For the full article, visit the Slate website.

Published in: Slate
Trump’s ‘Beautiful Vision’ vs. China’s Imperial Dream

December 27, 2017

Fei-Ling Wang, professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at Georgia Institute of Technology, was quoted in The National Interest, December 27, article, “Trump’s ‘Beautiful Vision’ vs. China’s Imperial Dream.” The Sam Nunn School of International Affairs is part of the Georgia Tech Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts.

Excerpt:

“All political power and all judicial verdicts must come from a singular source of the son of heaven, just like all light of life comes from a single sun,” writes Fei-Ling Wang of Georgia Tech, explaining Chinese thinking on the issue in his newly released The China Order: Centralia, World Empire, and the Nature of Chinese Power. Accordingly, Chinese leaders have been obsessed with avoiding division and have sought as their ultimate objective a “Grand Unification” of the world.

For the full article, visit The National Interest website.

Published in: The National Interest
Cleveland’s Outer Neighborhoods Could Be the Key to the Future

December 21, 2017

Assistant professor Todd Michney recently wrote an op-ed titled, “Cleveland’s Outer Neighborhoods Could Be the Key to the Future” for Cleveland Magazine. The article, which looks at the development of outer-city, historic black neighborhoods in Cleveland, can be found here.

Excerpt from the article:

The center-out process of development often seems to coincide with continued residential segregation. As early as the turn of the century, small numbers of black families moved to Cleveland’s urban periphery. But by the 1920s, African-Americans were targeted by a new real estate market that defined them as “detrimental” to property values. Their white would-be neighbors sought to exclude them through deed restrictions and covenants, until outlawed by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1948. Black borrowers were denied bank loans on homes outside of established African-American settlements.

More on this topic can be found in Dr. Michney’s book, Surrogate Suburbs: Black Upward Mobility and Neighborhood Change in Cleveland, 1900 - 1980.

Published in: Cleveland Magazine
Degree in Hand, Shamire Devine Moves Ahead

December 21, 2017

Degree in Hand, Shamire Devine Moves Ahead an article published in the December 21, 2017 Atlanta Journal Constitution profiles the personal journey of the new LMC Bachelor’s of Science graduate who overcame a disadvantaged background to attend Georgia Tech on a football scholarship and graduated in December 2017. (*Subscription required)

Published in: Atlanta Journal Constitution
Tech's New D.C. Partner: Charles Koch

December 10, 2017

“A Georgia Tech public policy expert” was mentioned in the December 10 article in Politico “Tech's New D.C. Partner: Charles Koch.” The School of Public Policy is part of the Georgia Tech Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts.

Excerpt:

The tech industry has found a surprising new ally in its effort to shape public policy in Washington: the 82-year-old libertarian billionaire Charles Koch. Two organizations founded by Koch, one an education-focused institute and the other a grant-making foundation, have spent the past year ramping up their efforts to shape public debate on tech policy topics like self-driving cars and the rights of online publishers. And despite their ideological distance on issues like the Paris climate accord, the Koch groups and left-leaning Silicon Valley are working together to advance the argument that innovation is most likely to flourish when legislators and regulators leave it alone … Beyond Washington, the Koch foundation says it's also increased support for academics considering tech policy, including a Texas A&M accounting professor launching a center for the study of innovation and a Georgia Tech public policy expert who works on issues related to internet governance.

Read the full article Tech's New D.C. Partner: Charles Koch

Published in: Politico
The U.K. Is in Brexit Trouble. It Can’t Decide whether to be Closer to the E.U. or to the U.S. (Note: Dr. Young disclaims the title created by the Post for his article)

December 7, 2017

Alasdair Young, a professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at the Georgia Institute of Technology, wrote The Washington Post, December 7 article, “The U.K. is in Brexit Trouble. It Can’t Decide Whether to be Closer to the E.U. or to the U.S.” While the article was accurately printed, Dr. Young objects to the title written by the Post. The Sam Nunn School of International Affairs is part of the Georgia Tech Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts.

Excerpt:

The United Kingdom has now used up more than half the time it had to agree on an exit deal with the European Union, once it decided to leave in the Brexit referendum. The deadline to wrap up the negotiations is March 29, 2019. First of all, the U.K. has to decide the terms under which it will exit the European Union. The leaders of the other 27 E.U. member states will decide in mid-December whether sufficient progress has been made in these initial negotiations. If they think that enough progress has been made, the U.K. and E.U. can then start negotiating early next year about their future relationship. It’s not yet clear what future relationship the U.K. wants. It claims that it wants both a close trading relationship with the E.U. and an ambitious trade agreement with the United States, but it can’t have both. Here is how things are likely to play out. Written by Alasdair R. Young, a professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he directs the Center for European and Transatlantic Studies, a Jean Monnet Center of Excellence.

For the full article, visit The Washington Post website.

Published in: The Washington Post
Digital Distractions: Animal Crossing: Picket Camp

December 7, 2017

Ian Bogost, a professor in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication at the Georgia Institute of Technology, was quoted in The Chronicle of Higher Education December 7, article, “Digital Distractions: Animal Crossing: Picket Camp.” The School of Literature, Media, and Communication is part of the Georgia Tech Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts.

Excerpt:

Fans of mobile game systems like the Nintendo 3DS have long been waiting to see similar experiences emerge on mobile phones, and Nintendo’s recent forays into the mobile app world continue to raise hopes even as the leap from expensive console game to “free to play” models usually falls flat. However, there’s one title just released that I’ve been waiting for years to see make the leap: Animal Crossing. Animal Crossing, for the uninitiated, is a somewhat disturbing simulation that invites the player to become mayor of a town, continually going into debt in the search of larger and larger houses while serving as errand-runner and occasional mediator for a town of animal residents. Ian Bogost (Georgia Tech) observed that previous titles in this series have an unresolved tension between the grind for material goods and the appreciation of a virtual natural world: “On the one hand, a rhetoric of affluenza encourages the player toward excess, toward more goods and a larger house in which to store them. In this context, the menial everyday tasks of gardening, fishing, and doing errands for the animals become an occupation, the necessary but undesirable frenzy of work necessary to sustain that lifestyle. On the other hand, a rhetoric of pastoralism encourages the player to tend the land, appreciate the rolling hills and bubbling waterfalls, and to socialize with others before returning to a modest homestead to retire.”

For the full article, visit The Chronical Higher Education website.

Published in: The Chronicle of Higher Education
No Family Is Safe From This Epidemic: As an Admiral I Helped Run the Most Powerful Military on Earth, but I Couldn't Save My Son from the Scourge of Opioid Addiction.

December 1, 2017

James A. “Sandy” Winnefeld, U.S. Navy (retired), distinguished professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, wrote the article “No Family Is Safe from This Epidemic: As an Admiral I Helped Run the Most Powerful Military on Earth, but I Couldn’t Save My Son from the Scourge of Opioid Addiction,” which appeared in The Atlantic on December 1, 2017. Winnefeld shares what he and his family learned about drug addiction through the loss of their son. He urges the nation to recognize the opioid epidemic as a national emergency, and outlines the areas of response needed to address the problem. The Nunn School is a unit of Georgia Tech’s Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts.

Excerpt:

The last photograph of my son Jonathan was taken at the end of a new-student barbecue on the campus green at the University of Denver. It was one of those bittersweet transitional moments. We were feeling the combination of apprehension and optimism that every parent feels when dropping off a kid at college for the first time, which was amplified by the fact that we were coming off a rocky 16 months with our son.

Read the full article in The Atlantic.

Published in: The Atlantic
The Six Laws of Technology Everyone Should Know

November 26, 2017

Melvin Kranzberg, co-founder of the Society for History of Technology and former professor in the School of History and Sociology at Georgia Institute of Technology, was featured in the Wall Street Journal, November 26, article, “The Six Laws of Technology Everyone Should know.” The School of History and Sociology is part of the Georgia Tech Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts.

Excerpt:

Three decades ago, a historian wrote six laws to explain society’s unease with the power and pervasiveness of technology. Though based on historical examples taken from the Cold War, the laws read as a cheat sheet for explaining our era of Facebook, Google, the iPhone and FOMO. You’ve probably never heard of these principles or their author, Melvin Kranzberg, a professor of the history of technology at Georgia Institute of Technology who died in 1995.

For the full article, visit the Wall Street Journal website. Subscription required.

Published in: The Wallstreet Journal
Designing Reality: Three Brothers Anticipate the Rise of Digital Fabrication

November 21, 2017

Philip Shapira, professor in the School of Public Policy at the Georgia Institute of Technology, wrote the book review “Designing Reality: Three Brothers Anticipate the Rise of Digital Fabrication” for the November 21 Science magazine blog. The School of Public Policy is part of the Georgia Tech Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts.

Excerpt:

Nonetheless, all the brothers anticipate the expansion of digital fabrication. Indeed, Neil posits that the number of fab labs will double every 18 months, an exponential surge inspired by the prescient prediction from Intel’s Gordon Moore in 1965 that transistors on integrated circuits would double every 2 years. Alan and Joel counter with a limiting factor, observing that institutional change rates are, at best, linear.

The Gershenfelds agree that any technological road map for digital fabrication needs to be integrated with a societal road map. They argue for early consideration of impacts and for anticipatory processes of redesign for digital fabrication. Recommendations to scientists, philanthropists, investors, government officials, and community leaders call for improved tools, integrated deployment, inclusiveness, and risk minimization.

Published in: Science Magazine Blog
Driverless Cars Will Change the Way Cities Feel

November 15, 2017

Ian Bogost, professor in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication at the Georgia Institute of Technology, wrote the CityLab, November 15, article, “Driverless Cars Will Change the Way Cities Feel.” The School of Literature, Media, and Communication is part of the Georgia Tech Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts.

Excerpt:

It’s 6 p.m. in Tempe, Arizona and pitch-black outside. I’m standing in the middle of a five-lane thoroughfare, among a group of people too numerous for the narrow median. We got trapped here after a brigade of left-turning cars preempted our passage—that’s a thing that happens in cities like this one, designed for automobiles over pedestrians. An SUV pulls up as we cower inches away, waiting for the next traffic-light cycle. The driver’s window is rolled down to allow some of the cool night air in. The man behind the wheel looks bored like most drivers do. But he isn’t a driver, not exactly. The vehicle he controls is an autonomous Volvo operated by Uber, which is conducting an ongoing test of its self-driving fleet here. With his hands idle in his lap, the driver is more like us pedestrians—waiting for the cars around him to move. Whether in five years or 25, eventually cars like this one will probably convey most people to their destinations. Bogost is a contributing editor at The Atlantic. He is the Ivan Allen College Distinguished Chair in media studies and a professor of interactive computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

For the full article, visit CityLab’s website.

Published in: CityLab

Recent Press Coverage

It's Back to the Future in Run-up to Russian Elections

The Antitrust Case Against Facebook, Google and Amazon

Gene Therapy Could Make Cancer Care More Unequal, and This Map Shows Why

What It’s Like to Walk Away From a Job at Google to Pursue a Career in Stand-Up Comedy

On Second Thought For Tuesday

Big Brother: College Edition

Why Russia is Suddenly Eulogising its Past

Putin’s Medieval Dreams

Why Spice Is a Staple of Science Fiction

Yes, Smartphone Use Is Probably Behind the Spike in Driving Deaths. So Why Isn’t More Being Done to Curb It?

Trump’s ‘Beautiful Vision’ vs. China’s Imperial Dream

Cleveland’s Outer Neighborhoods Could Be the Key to the Future

Degree in Hand, Shamire Devine Moves Ahead

Tech's New D.C. Partner: Charles Koch

The U.K. Is in Brexit Trouble. It Can’t Decide whether to be Closer to the E.U. or to the U.S. (Note: Dr. Young disclaims the title created by the Post for his article)

Digital Distractions: Animal Crossing: Picket Camp

No Family Is Safe From This Epidemic: As an Admiral I Helped Run the Most Powerful Military on Earth, but I Couldn't Save My Son from the Scourge of Opioid Addiction.

The Six Laws of Technology Everyone Should Know

Designing Reality: Three Brothers Anticipate the Rise of Digital Fabrication

Driverless Cars Will Change the Way Cities Feel

Georgia Institute of Technology

General

Legal