When national and international media need experts to comment on and analyze news and trends, they turn to Carolina faculty and alumni. Of course, College of Arts & Sciences faculty members often make news of their own with groundbreaking research findings. Here are just a few examples; see more at college.unc.edu.
“New York is one of the most, if not the most, diverse Muslim cities in the world. There is no such thing as a ‘Muslim world’ somewhere else.”
- Katie Merriman, Ph.D. candidate in religious studies, on the free walking tours she gives on New York’s Muslim history.
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“Respondents viewed stay-at-home parents as less reliable, less deserving of a job — and the biggest penalty — less committed to work, compared with unemployed applicants.”
- Kate Weisshaar, assistant professor of sociology, on a study that found only 4.9 percent of stay-at-home mothers were contacted for job interviews after sending in resumes
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“By better understanding the factors that lead us to become hangry, we can give people the tools to recognize when hunger is [negatively] impacting their feelings and behaviors.”
- Jennifer MacCormack, Ph.D. candidate in psychology and neuroscience, on the psychological mechanisms that transform hunger into feeling “hangry”
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“They’re only measuring for E. coli total, not the specific types of E. coli that can make you sick.”
- Rachel Noble, professor of marine sciences, on the real problem with the effectiveness of most E. coli tests after an outbreak linked to romaine lettuce
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“Right now the Triangle is experiencing a housing crunch. We have an affordability problem as it is.”
- Mai Nguyen, associate professor of city and regional planning, on growing pains for North Carolina’s booming capital if Apple chooses Raleigh for a new U.S. campus
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The observation of tornillos [ low-frequency seismic events] in volcano infrasound recordings “is a very cool thing.”
- Jonathan Lees, professor of geological sciences, on the sounds recorded in the 2015 eruption of Ecuador’s Cotopaxi volcano
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- Actor LeVar Burton reads Sea Girls, a short story about a stranded mermaid, by Daniel Wallace, J. Ross MacDonald Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing, featured in episode 26