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Endicott College: Part of the Legacy in Korea of a Former Georgia Tech Prof

April 29, 2020

John Endicott, professor emeritus in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, was interviewed in "Endicott College, Part of the Legacy in Korea of a Former Georgia Tech Prof" in Global Atlanta.

After his career at Georgia Tech, Endicott became co-president of Woosong University in Daejon, South Korea, and later became the namesake of the Endicott College of International Studies.

Excerpt:

While handling the administrative responsibilities, he has continued to teach. “Everybody can read the lines,” he added, “but I also need to read between the lines.” To do that, he said he had to remain in close touch with his students. “We learn from them, they learn from us.”

Read the full article here.

Published in: Global Atlanta
New Changes to State’s Virus Data Confuse Experts, Residents Alike

April 29, 2020

Aaron Levine, associate professor in the School of Public Policy, was quoted in the article "New changes to state's virus data confuse experts, residents alike" on April 29, 2020 in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The article explores the sources and implications of discrepancies in the state's reporting of the toll of the coronavirus pandemic. Levine, who has been closely tracking the numbers of the pandemic himself, spoke to the overall messiness and potential for error implicit in the process.

Excerpt:

“I think everyone gets mistakes will be made,” said Aaron Levine, an associate professor at Georgia Tech’s school of public policy who has also been critical about how DPH presents its data.. “This is real time. There’s lots of public attention with messy data sources coming from all sorts county health departments.”

Read the full article here.

Published in: Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Researchers Highlight Risks for Children in Terms of Abuse and Neglect During Pandemic

April 28, 2020

Lindsey Bullinger, assistant professor in the School of Public Policy, was mentioned in the article "Researchers Highlight Risks for Children in Terms of Abuse and Neglect During Pandemic," published April 28, 2020 in The Sector.

Bullinger, whose research has focused on child and family welfare, was part of a research group that has raised the alarm for the potential negative consequences of the coronavirus pandemic on "vulnerable" populations worldwide.

As well as the economic and health issues arising from the COVID-19 pandemic globally, the potential danger to vulnerable children who may be at higher risk of abuse and neglect has been noted by a team of researchers involved with the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children (APSAC).

With families facing an unprecedented period of crisis, decision makers have a duty to help all children, but especially those already vulnerable, to survive the pandemic, at every stage. Failing to do so, APSAC said, will lead to negative consequences across the board.

An alert in relation to the issue was prepared by two University Of Connecticut (UConn) specialists in child neglect issues, Megan Feely, Assistant Professor of Social Work, and Kerri Raissian, Associate Professor of Public Policy, and their collaborators, Lindsey Bullinger, Assistant Professor of Public Policy at Georgia Tech, and Will Schneider, Assistant Professor of Social Work at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. All are Doris Duke Fellows for the Promotion of Child Well-Being.

Read the full article here.

Published in: The Sector
The US-China Cold War in Cyberspace

April 23, 2020

Milton Mueller, professor in the School of Public Policy, contributed the article "The US-China War in Cyberspace" to CircleID on April 22, 2020.

Mueller, a renowned cybersecurity expert, analyzes the United State's recent antagonistic stance toward China and that translates to cyberspace.

Excerpt:

The US is not thinking clearly about what this means and how to react to it. It does not seem to have the wisdom to plan for long-term co-existence and complementarity with another economic giant. Instead, it interprets all indications of China's rise as a threat and indulges in the fantasy that blockades and negativity will somehow turn back the clock to 1998 when China's economy was a fraction of its current size, and the US held uncontested dominance in the ICT sector.

Internet governance is at the center of this conflict. The Internet provides the common meeting point for ICT goods and services. It is the nexus of common technical standards and some of the shared governance institutions through which China and the West interact. Telecommunication equipment, telecommunication services, and information services are the main battleground upon which the conflict is being fought. The US and China are unable to reach agreement about how their digital economies will become integrated with each other. Both sides do not trust each other's private ICT companies to participate in their markets. In the US-China conflict, the entire digital economy is being used as a hostage.

Read the full article here.

Published in: CircleID
A Side Effect of the Covid-19 Pandemic? Reading Got a Lot Harder

April 22, 2020

Lisa Yaszek, professor in the School of Literature, Media and Communication, was quoted in the article "A Side Effect of the Covid-19 Pandemic? Reading Got a Lot Harder" in Chronicle of Higher Education on April 20, 2020.

The article explores another unfortunate consequence of the coronavirus pandemic, one that has affected even people not afflicted by the virus: The difficulty of focusing on their work. Yaszek discussed the intersection of that issue with the world of science fiction, one of the focuses of her scholarship.

Excerpt:

Lisa Yaszek is also trying to be kind to herself. These days, the last thing the professor of science-fiction studies wants to do is read more science fiction. She already feels as if she’s living through a disaster, Yaszek said. She doesn’t need the excitement of somebody else’s.

Of course, she said, some might find comfort in dystopian stories, like E.M. Forster’s “The Machine Stops,” about a world where society lives underground, reliant on a giant machine to provide its needs, and the machine breaks down. The parallels are obvious.

Lots of science fiction is inherently optimistic, said Yaszek, who teaches at the Georgia Institute of Technology. It’s about the possibility that people might put down their differences and work together. Reading those narratives can feel discomforting right now, she said, because when you’re done, you return to this imperfect world, where people are making imperfect choices.

Read the full article here.

Published in: Chronicle of Higher Education
Patent Filings, Litigation May Shift in Economic Crisis

April 21, 2020

Alan Marco, associate professor in the School of Public Policy, was quoted in "Patent Filings, Litigation May Shift in Economic Crisis," published April 21 in Bloomberg Law.

The economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic could affect patent applications and the market for trademarks in ways that are still being manifested, and Marco, a former chief economist with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, spoke to the potential effect of business failures on the market.

Excerpt:

And as startups and small businesses fail, patents and other IP assets will hit the open market at bargain prices. Alan Marco, a Georgia Tech professor and former chief economist at the PTO, said there could be an unprecedented number of IP transactions in the next year. That could lead to litigation as new patent owners seek to enforce their rights.

Read the full story here.

Published in: Bloomberg Law
Scratching the Surface: Handmade Cinema in the Digital Age

April 20, 2020

Gregory Zinman, assistant professor in the School of Literature, Media and Communication, had his book Making Images Move: Handmade Cinema and the Other Arts mentioned in the article "Scratching the Surface: Handmade Cinema in the Digital Age" in the Los Angeles Review of Books on April 17, 2020.

Zinman's book, which was published earlier this year, explores the practice of filmmakers creating expressive visual sequences by physically altering the film. In the article, author Holly Willis uses it as a gateway for exploring these aspects of filmmaking.

Excerpt:

To explore the history of handmade filmmaking in more detail, I turn to Gregory Zinman’s brand-new book Making Images Move: Handmade Cinema and the Other Arts, which echoes the title of Christopher Horak’s 1997 book, Making Images Move, an analysis of work of photographers who venture into the realm of filmmaking. Zinman, a faculty member in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication at the Georgia Institute of Technology, in some ways continues Horak’s exploration of the boundaries that only ostensibly separate media forms by chronicling a rich, 100-year history of handmade moviemaking in which artists similarly trespass into other areas of creative practice.

Written with careful precision and breadth, the book opens on the extraordinary 75-minute film by Spanish filmmaker José Antonio Sistiaga titled ere erera balebu izik subua aruaren. Sistiaga could not afford to shoot and process footage to create a traditional film, so he instead spent two years — between 1968 and 1970 — painting and drawing on transparent film by hand. In some cases he painted frame by frame, and in others he crafted sequences across sections of film. The result is a dazzling explosion of color and texture which, according to Zinman, “is almost too much to process.” He writes, “Sistiaga uses cinematic spectacle to overwhelm the viewer’s senses, to bring us in and out of our minds.”

Read the full article here.

Published in: Los Angeles Review of Books
Georgia Institute of Technology-led Study Looks at Impacts of Woody Biomass Demand

April 20, 2020

A study by Alice Favero, academic professional and associate director of graduate studies in the School of Public Policy, was mentioned in "Georgia Institute of Technology Study Looks at Impacts of Woody Biomass Demand," in Biofuels Digest on April 16, 2020.

The study evaluated the consequences of varying policy environments based on controlling carbon emissions and found that those that go beyond simple carbon taxes can promote "protection of natural forests by valuing the standing stock."

Excerpt:

Using the global timber model (GTM) to assess how bioenergy demand affects the forestry sector, forestland and carbon sequestration, the researchers compared timber harvesting and management in more than 200 managed and natural forest ecosystems across 16 world regions under different bioenergy demand scenarios, including a no-bioenergy demand scenario, to isolate the role of management on forest carbon stocks.

Read the full article here.

Published in: Biofuels Digest
Meet the New Dean of Georgia Tech’s Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts

April 15, 2020

Kaye Husbands Fealing, professor and chair of the School of Public Policy and incoming dean and Ivan Allen Jr. Chair of the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, was profiled in Diverse: Issues in Higher Education in the April 2, 2020 issue.

The article explores Husbands Fealings' upbringing and career path, including the factors that brought her to Georgia Tech and led her to take on her newest position.

Excerpt:

With her background in technology and innovation, Husbands Fealing transitioned to Georgia Tech in 2014.

“It just seemed like a natural place for me to come to,” she says.

Most recently, she was named dean and Ivan Allen Jr. Chair of the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts at Georgia Tech and will assume her role June 1.

“It’s just a really great opportunity to help the faculty, staff and students throughout the organization excel and do their best but also to see and look for opportunities to do things collaboratively across these different schools,” says Husbands Fealing.

Read the full article here.

Published in: Diverse: Issues in Higher Education
Lawmakers cry foul as Trump considers retreating from Open Skies Treaty

April 12, 2020

Sam Nunn, a distinguished professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs and and founder of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, was cited in article “Lawmakers cry foul as Trump considers retreating from Open Skies Treaty” in The Hill.

“At a time when tensions with Moscow are on the rise, the Open Skies Treaty serves as a very useful tool for the United States and our allies to monitor Russian military activities,” former Secretary of State George Shultz, former Defense Secretary William Perry and former Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) wrote in a memo to the Trump administration released by the Nuclear Threat Initiative this week. “Unilateral U.S. withdrawal from Open Skies would undermine American allies and friends in Europe.”

Read the article on The Hill.

Published in: The Hill
Blindsided | On the Media

April 11, 2020

Ian Bogost, professor in the School of Literature, Media and Communication, was interviewed on WNYC's "On the Media" on April 11, 2020.

The episode of the popular radio program explored the implications of the spread of coronavirus, including on broadcast media. Bogost spoke to how esports broadcasts could – or could not – fill the gap left by live sports, which have almost all been cancelled for the time being.

Excerpt:

MICAH LOEWINGER: And even Ian Bogost thinks sports fans are ready for it.

IAN BOGOST: It's like the announcers job now to persuade the viewer that everything is normal, even when everyone knows that it's not. But that's kind of what the sports viewer wants. In a way. It's not just the game with a kind of first one is the ritual. I watch sports on the weekends or you know, I watch Monday Night Football, whatever it is, replacing that loss with something that resembles sports enough or where you're play-acting as if it is quote, unquote, real sport. That may actually tick the box.

Listen to or read the transcript of the program here.

Published in: WNYC
Georgia Man Pleads Guilty in Plot to Attack the White House

April 1, 2020

Margaret Kosal, associate professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, was quoted in the article "Georgia man pleads guilty in plot to attack the White House," published April 1, 2020 on WSBRadio.com.

The article describes a legal resolution to the case of Hasher Jallal Taheb, a Forsyth County man who plotted an attack on the White House, which was foiled by the FBI. Kosal commented on the need for authorities to take the threats seriously, even if they seemed "fantastical."

Excerpt:

“In the course of trying to get to accomplish a fantastical plot, somebody can get hurt,” Georgia Tech professor Margaret Kosal said shortly after Taheb’s arrest. “The FBI is forced to take all of them seriously, and that is what they should do.”

Read the full article here.

Published in: WSBRadio
Exploded View | For a Cameraless Cinema: Making Images Move: Handmade Cinema and the Other Arts

March 31, 2020

Gregory Zinman, associate professor in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication, had his book Making Images Move: Handmade Cinema and the Other Arts reviewed in the online publication Cinema Scope.

Zinman's book, first published in January, gives an overview of experimental techniques that saw filmmakers altering the physical film as an extension of artistic expression. In his review, Chuck Stephens remarked on the book's combination of accessibility and comprehensiveness.

Excerpt:

Lucid, smart, but entirely readable, and compellingly illuminated with colour illustrations of the wonders it describes, Making Images Move is formidable historiography: it’s a volume you’ll want to display proudly on your shelf, somewhere between Gene Youngblood’s Expanded Cinema and Amos Vogel’s Film as a Subversive Art. High praise indeed, but Zinman easily earns it.

Read the full review here.

Published in: Cinema Scope
Anisfield-Wolf Book Award Winners Can Connect Us During the Pandemic

March 31, 2020

"Deaf Republic," the award-winning book from School of Literature, Media and Communication Professor Ilya Kaminsky, was mentioned in "Anisfield-Wolf Book Award Winners Can Connect Us During the Pandemic" on March 30 on Cleveland.com.

The article looked at winners of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards, which are given out by the Cleveland Foundation.

Excerpt:

From Ilya Kaminsky’s “Deaf Republic”:

We lived happily during the war

And when they bombed other people’s houses, we

protested

but not enough ...

Read the full article here.

Published in: Cleveland.com
Denser Cities Could Spare Climate but Also Increase Virus Transmission

March 30, 2020

Marilyn Brown, Regents' and Brook Byers Professor in the School of Public Policy, was quoted in the article "Denser Cities Could Spare Climate But Also Increase Virus Transmission" on March 27 in E&E News.

The article examines a tradeoff involved in making cities more dense, which can decrease their overall carbon footprint but leave them more susceptible to disease outbreaks like that of COVID-19. Brown spoke to how reducing sprawl is essential not just for reducing emissions but also for optimizing response to disease outbreaks.

Excerpt:

“I would say sprawl is the epitome of what we don’t want to do in terms of emissions from transportation and buildings,” said Marilyn Brown, professor of sustainable systems at the Georgia Tech’s School of Public Policy in Atlanta.

Density can make pandemics more manageable because it fosters communication and efficiency in the delivery of essential public services, she said.

Read the full article here.

Published in: E&E News
And the Winners of the 2020 Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards Are ...

March 30, 2020

Ilya Kaminsky, professor in the School of Literature, Media and Communication, was recognized for winning an Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for his book "Deaf Republic" in Crain's Cleveland Business on March 30, 2020.

The Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, "the only national juried prize for literature that confronts racism and explores diversity," is one of a number of prizes that Kaminsky has won for "Deaf Republic."

Excerpt:

Kaminsky, born in Odessa in 1977, is a poet, editor and translator whose first book, "Dancing in Odessa," was published in more than 20 languages. He holds the Bourne Chair in Poetry at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

As a child, he was misdiagnosed by a Soviet doctor who thought he had a cold, and the mistake left Kaminsky hard of hearing.

Via the Cleveland Foundation: Amid rising antisemitism, Kaminsky's family won political asylum from the United States in 1993 and resettled in Rochester, New York, where he was fitted with hearing aids. Kaminsky, adept in Russian, Ukranian and English poetry, became a lawyer first. When "Deaf Republic" arrived, the BBC named Kaminsky "one of the 12 artists that changed the world in 2019." Anisfield-Wolf Juror Rita Dove said the book haunted her, "a parable that comes to life and refuses to die." It describes an unnamed country whose citizens can no longer hear one another, set amid political unrest. The book, which contains pictograms of sign language words, became a finalist for the National Book Award.

Read the full article here.

Published in: Crain's Cleveland Business
Coping With Coronavirus: How Professors Can Support Students in Traumatic Times

March 24, 2020

Karen Head, associate professor and associate chair in the School of Literature, Media and Communication, contributed to the resource "Coping With Coronavirus: How faculty members can support students in traumatic times" in the Chronicle of Higher Education.

In her contributed essay, Head advocates for the prioritization of empathy and understanding in faculty members' teaching plans in the time of coronavirus, as the disease can have wide-ranging consequences that affect every part of a student's life.

Excerpt:

The accompanying sense of insecurity should be a focus of course redevelopment as we move to remote delivery, because we need first to focus on the human part of this experience. Students may not have access. They may be distracted by sick relatives. They may be forced to work to help their families financially. They may have to look after younger siblings. They may not have a safe place to live off campus. They may be ill themselves.

You can submit your email to download the full article at this link.

Published in: Chronicle of Higher Education
Coronavirus Goes Viral: How Online Meme Culture Reflects Our Shared Experience Of A Global Pandemic

March 20, 2020

André Brock, associate professor in the School of Literature, Media and Communication, was interviewed on the Georgia Public Broadcasting program "On Second Thought" on March 20, 2020.

Brock, whose work has examined the online meme culture of the African American community, such as the "Black Twitter" phenomenon, spoke to the connective power of the internet in a time of mandated physical distancing between people.

Excerpt:

Memes tend to draw upon shared cultural commonplaces. And for a large part of it, they draw on shared networks. So it's a group of people, your friends and your family, or usually a group of people who will understand where your humor is coming from. And in return, their friends and family will have maybe not the same understanding, but a similar one. Where memes become huge and become immensely taken up is when that initial content actually turns out to be relatable to many more people than their original user could have even imagined. While there are many deliberate memes, I find that many memes which were not as deliberate have somehow become also influential in helping people understand how to deal with this virus.

Listen and read highlights from the program here.

Published in: Georgia Public Broadcasting
Transcript: Philip Breedlove, former NATO supreme allied commander, on "Intelligence Matters"

March 18, 2020

General Phil Breedlove, USAF (ret.), former NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe and the US European Command Commander and a distinguished professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, was interviewed by Admiral Sandy Winnefeld, a distinguished professor in the Nunn School and former ninth Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in CBS News "Intelligence Matters."

Read an excerpt:

Russia has the ability to quickly move and mass their forces, where NATO has to respond to the area. And I know you understand this better than most because of your naval background, but in the Cold War we almost took-- we fought to maintain the lines of contact with the East Coast of America and Europe.

During the post-Cold War days, we have all but stopped worrying about fighting our way across the Atlantic. In fact, we assume safe passage across the Atlantic. And that's not the case anymore. And so Russia enjoys that ability to rapidly bring forces together. And if you've ever looked at Moscow and the spider network of roads and railroads from there, you understand how quickly they can do this. And then you have to look at what NATO has to do to respond. It's a physics problem.

The interview and transcript is available on the CBS News Website.

Published in: CBS News
U.S. Recession Still a Risk But the Central Bank’s Moves Deserve Applause, Says former Fed Official

March 16, 2020

Dennis Lockhart, former Atlanta Federal Reserve president and now distinguished professor in the Georgia Tech Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, was interviewed by CNBC.

Excerpt:

“I think recessionary conditions are definitely a risk and we’re dealing with so much uncertainty now on how this virus situation unfolds and what the economic impact turns out to be, nobody really knows,” Dennis Lockhart, Atlanta Fed president from 2007 to 2017, told CNBC’s Squawk Box Asia on Monday.

For the full interview, please visit the CNBC website.

Published in: CNBC