Category Archives: Culture

(Re-)Writing History

University of Minnesota law professor Dale Carpenter’s first book, Flagrant Conduct, took him nearly nine years of research and writing to complete. Research that included, he says, “sitting in police department parking lots at 3 a.m., trying to catch officers going on and off duty so that I could interview them.”

He characterizes the amount of time he put into the book not as a job but as a way of life. If he had been looking for a payoff in writing it, he found it. With reviews in The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, and this past Sunday, the crème de la crème of the review world—the cover of The New York Times Book Review—it’s clearly a hit with critics. (more…)

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Cultural “Tightness” Can Hold Back Female Leadership – But not Always, Says University of Toronto Study

Normative support for equality can make the difference

Countries that more strictly uphold their cultural norms are less likely to promote women as leaders, unless those norms support equal opportunity for both sexes, shows a new paper from the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management.

“Cultural tightness can prevent the emergence of women leaders because tighter cultures may make a society’s people more resistant to changing the traditionally-held practice that placed men in leadership roles,” said Professor Soo Min Toh, who is cross-appointed to the Rotman School and the University of Toronto Mississauga, and co-wrote the paper with Professor Geoffrey Leonardelli at the Rotman School and U of T’s Department of Psychology. (more…)

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Rock, Pop, White Power: How Music Influences Support For Ethnic Groups

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Just a few minutes of listening to mainstream rock music was enough to influence white college students to favor a student group catering mostly to whites over groups serving other ethnic and racial groups, a new study found.

However, white students who listened to more ethnically diverse Top 40 pop music showed equal support for groups focused on whites, African Americans, Arab Americans and Latino Americans. (more…)

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History of Sexuality

UD prof honored for research on sexuality, religion in American history

Rebecca Davis, assistant professor of history at the University of Delaware, has received a Religious History Award from the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Religious Archives Network for her essay titled “‘My Homosexuality Is Getting Worse Every Day’: Norman Vincent Peale, Psychiatry, and the Liberal Protestant Response to Same-Sex Desires in Mid-Twentieth-Century America.”

Norman Vincent Peale, to whom the title refers, was famous for his self-help book The Power of Positive Thinking. As a renowned Protestant minister, he encouraged people to heal themselves through prayer and believed heterosexual marriage was essential to personal happiness. (more…)

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Video Games Depict Religion as Violent, Problematized, MU Study Shows

COLUMBIA, Mo. ­— In the past few years, the video game industry has grown from a niche market into a major part of mainstream media. This increase in popularity and use of technology has allowed video game developers to insert more detail and nuance into the storylines of their games. Many video games have begun incorporating religion as a key aspect to plot points and story lines. Greg Perreault, a doctoral student in the University of Missouri School of Journalism, found that the many newer-generation video games equate religion with violence in the game narratives. (more…)

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UA Professor to Attend Lady Gaga Foundation Launch

UA professor Sheri Bauman, an expert in cyberbullying, is among those invited to attend the launch of Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation, a nationwide education and advocacy organization.

University of Arizona researcher Sheri Bauman is a member of a small, but powerful, nationwide contingency invited to participate in the launch of Lady Gaga’s new anti-bullying foundation. (more…)

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Family and Peer Relationships Essential to Mexican-American College Students’ Success, MU Researcher Says

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Hispanics are enrolling in the higher education system at a greater rate than ever, yet they are less likely than their non-Hispanic peers to enter college or earn degrees, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. A new study by a University of Missouri researcher found that Mexican-American college students’ family and peer attachments are associated with prosocial and physically aggressive behaviors that can affect their success in college.

Gustavo Carlo, Millsap Professor of Diversity in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies, found that college students who maintained strong relationships with their parents and peers were more likely to report less physical aggression and higher levels of empathy, an emotion associated with more prosocial behaviors, such as assisting in emergencies or helping others without expecting a reward. (more…)

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