Exterior of Nancy Nicholas Hall in the evening, with lamps and windows glowing.
News & Events

SoHE News: Jan 15–21

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. View past issues of news and events here.

In-house highlights

Robb wins university’s distinguished teaching excellence award

Dr. Cliff Robb, associate professor of Consumer Science and faculty director of the Personal Finance major, has won the Class of 1955 Teaching Excellence Award. He is one of just 13 faculty across UW chosen to receive this year’s Distinguished Teaching Awards, an honor given out since 1953 to recognize the university’s finest educators.

MFA Alumna Cheong is local award semi-finalist; soon to show in Chennai, India

Design Studies MFA alumna Yeonhee Cheong just won a 2020 semi-finalist award from the Women Artists Forward Fund and will soon open a new exhibition with the InKo Center of Chennai, India, titled “A Porous Membrane.”

Design Studies PhD alumna Dr. Kaufmann-Buhler publishes history of American office design

Dr. Jennifer Kaufmann-Buhler, a 2013 alumna of SoHE’s PhD program in Design Studies and now Assistant Professor of Design History in the Patti and Rusty Rueff School of Design, Art, and Performance at Purdue University, has published a book, Open Plan: A Design History of the American Office (Bloomsbury), based on on her dissertation research while at SoHE.

SoHE scholars in the news

Addo, Harrington op-ed: “Cancel Black student debt now”

Dr. Fenaba Addo, the Lorna Jorgenson Wendt Associate Professor in Money, Relationships, and Equality (MORE), who has just left UW to join UNC–Chapel Hill, along with Ashley Harrington, federal advocacy director at the Center for Responsible Lending, penned an op-ed for Yahoo! Finance calling on the new Biden administration to provide substantial student debt cancellation as one of his first priorities in office and describing why income-dependent repayment plans are not enough.

Podcast: Nix discusses his toddler healthy eating research with Pediatrics on Call

Dr. Robert Nix, the Audrey Rothermel-Bascom Professor and Integrated Specialist in Diverse and Underserved Children, Families, and Communities, joined “Pediatrics on Call,” the podcast of the American Association of Pediatrics, to discuss his latest research published in the group’s journal on promoting healthy eating habits in toddlers via an Early Head Start program he developed with colleagues from Penn State University (his segment starts around 18:40).

Whelan shares tips for fending off winter blues

Dr. Christine Whelan, Director of Money, Relationships and Equality Initiative and Clinical Professor of Consumer Science, spoke with Consumer Reports to share four easy tips for improving one’s mood and outlook amid the long, lonely winter days.

The Good Men Project shares Kirkorian commentary on weird children’s TV

The Good Men Project republished a 2019 story quoting Dr. Heather Kirkorian, Department Chair, Associate Professor of Human Development and Family Studies, the Laura M. Secord Chair in Early Childhood Development, and Faculty Director of the Child Development Lab, on how young children do and don’t understand television narratives.

Research

Huambachano: Values, Knowledge, and Rights Shaping Land Use in the Peruvian Amazon

Dr. Mariaelena Huambachano, Assistant Professor of Civil Society and Community Studies, is first author on a new paper in Case Studies in the Environment, “Values, Knowledge, and Rights Shaping Land Use in the Peruvian Amazon: The Shimaa and Diamante Case Studies.”, comparing two Traditional Ecological Knowledge models of sustainable land management.

Events

“Do the Next Right Thing: Purpose in Times of Uncertainty,” with Dr. Christine Whelan

Thursday, January 28, 7 p.m. CT, Virtual | Hosted by the Ashland University Dauch College of Business and Economics, Dr. Christine Whelan, Director of Money, Relationships and Equality Initiative and Clinical Professor of Consumer Science, will speak on finding purpose amidst challenging times—specifically championing for the “twentysomething generation” struggling through a pandemic. This virtual lecture will be followed by a Q&A session. Learn more and register.

Plus, view the full online calendar of SoHE-sponsored events.