Image: A Hello! Loom.
Thanks for reading our weekly roundup of news and events at the School of Human Ecology. Have something we should know about? Email Public Relations Manager Serena Larkin, or submit your SoHE event via this form.
Poehlmann-Tynan research featured in IRP’s Focus
The Institute for Research on Poverty is out with its latest issue of Focus, this one focused on mass incarceration and prison proliferation in the United States. It makes special note in its “research to watch” section (PDF, page 11) of the work of Dr. Julie Poehlmann-Tynan, SoHE’s Dorothy A. O’Brien Professor in Human Ecology. Along with SoHE colleagues Dr. Margaret Kerr (Human Development and Family Studies), Dr. Karen Holden (Consumer Science, emerita), and Lesley Sager (Design Studies), as well as others at UW–Madison, she is exploring ways to improve the visit experience between incarcerated parents and their children, and the long-term impacts of improved experiences for children’s behavioral health and parents’ recidivism rates.
Fairbanks launches Hello! Loom
Design studies assistant professor Marianne Fairbanks has officially launched Hello! Loom to make her popular handheld, portable loom commercially available. SoHE interviewed her on the inspiration and scholarship behind the invention.
Call for posters opens for CCFW’s Mindful Schools, Families, and Communities Conference
The Contemplative Practices Conference Series is a joint effort by the Centers for Child and Family Well-Being at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the University of Washington. Every other year, each Center takes a turn at hosting a conference to gather together researchers and practitioners whose work promotes the well-being of children and families through mindfulness. The conference’s call for posters is now open, with submissions due January 17, 2020. Learn more.
Gaddis interviewed on WORT Radio and in FERN’s Ag Insider
“The first federal involvement [in school lunch] is during the Great Depression. There’s this recognition that there are starving children and also a need to remove surplus agricultural commodities from the market. There was [a] need to find a politically, socially, and morally acceptable outlet for surplus food, and poor children really fit the bill.” Assistant professor of civil society and community studies Dr. Jennifer Gaddis spoke with Food & Environment Reporting Network’s Leah Douglas for the group’s Ag Insider publication. Read the full interview, and hear her discuss the topic on WORT Community Radio.
Halpern-Meekin on the social, psychological effects of food insecurity for UW–Madison students
The Daily Cardinal interviewed Human Development and Family Studies associate professor Dr. Sarah Halpern-Meekin on the impacts of poverty and food insecurity for UW–Madison students. “The fact that everybody else during spring break is like, ‘Where are you going?’ and you’re like, ‘I’m staying here, I can’t go anywhere,’ and feeling like you’re left out and different and people don’t understand you can be stressful.”
Sarmadi research informs Pennsylvania proposed legislation
Research from SoHE design studies professor Dr. Majid Sarmadi is being cited by lawmakers in Pennsylvania to support their proposed legislation to add “blaze pink” as an acceptable apparel color option for the state’s hunters.
Raison research with Usona Institute gets key green-light from FDA
The FDA has granted “Breakthrough Therapy Designation” to research into psilocybin treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD). Led by Dr. Charles Raison, SoHE’s Mary Sue and Mike Shannon Chair for Healthy Minds, Children, and Families, and undertaken at Usona Institute, the research represents a “significant milestone for the over 17 million people in the U.S. who suffer from MDD.” Read the full press release.