Jordanna Bailkin is a University of Washington professor of history and author of the new book “The Afterlife of Empire.” She answered a few questions about the book for UW Today. (more…)
COLUMBIA, Mo. – As recently as the Vietnam and Korean wars, soldiers’ families commonly had to wait months to receive word from family members on the front lines. Now, cell phones and the internet allow deployed soldiers and their families to communicate instantly. However, along with the benefits of keeping in touch, using new communication technologies can have negative consequences for both soldiers and their families, according to a study by University of Missouri researcher Brian Houston. This research could lead to guidelines for how active military personnel and their families can best use modern communications.
“Deployed soldiers and their families should be aware that newer methods of communication, especially texting, can have unintended impacts,” said Houston, assistant professor of communication in the College of Arts and Science. “The brevity and other limitations of text messages often limit the emotional content of a message. The limited emotional cues in text messages or email increases the potential for misunderstandings and hurt feelings. For example, children may interpret a deployed parent’s brief, terse text message negatively, when the nature of the message may have been primarily the result of the medium or the situation.” (more…)
Chinese-American author speaks as part of visiting writers series
Acclaimed Chinese-American author Ha Jin came to the United States almost 30 years ago as neither immigrant nor exile, but he experienced elements of both as he struggled to establish a personal identity and carve out a place for himself in the literary world.
On Thursday, March 7, close to 300 people turned out to hear the award-winning writer share his perspective on the contemporary immigrant experience. The lecture was part of a visiting writers series, Transnational Encounters: World-Renowned Authors at the University of Delaware. (more…)
YSPH Postdoc Examines how Armed Conflict Increases the Incidence of Intimate Partner Violence
The armed conflict in Burma is not one that receives much attention in the western media. But it has forced thousands of people to flee their homes and seek relative safety just over the border in Thailand. (more…)
More than 190,000 people have been killed in the 10 years since the war in Iraq began. The war will cost the U.S. $2.2 trillion, including substantial costs for veterans care through 2053, far exceeding the initial government estimate of $50 to $60 billion, according to a new report by scholars with the “Costs of War” project at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies. The 10th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq is March 19, 2013.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Ten years after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq on March 19, 2003, researchers have released the first comprehensive analysis of direct and indirect human and economic costs of the war that followed. According to the report, the war has killed at least 190,000 people, including men and women in uniform, contractors, and civilians and will cost the United States $2.2 trillion — a figure that far exceeds the initial 2002 estimates by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget of $50 to $60 billion. (more…)
People assigned to positions of power tend to dehumanize those in less powerful positions even when the roles are randomly assigned, according to a new study by the University of Colorado Boulder. (more…)
Newt Gingrich described for the audience at a recent University of Chicago Institute of Politics event the shock he felt when he realized last Election Day that President Obama would win re-election, confounding Gingrich’s predictions and hopes.
Gingrich said he and his wife Callista stared at each other in disbelief as they took in exit polls and then voting returns that showed a loss beyond anything he had feared, especially among Senate races in traditionally Republican states. It led Gingrich to take a hard look at the tactical and technological gap that may have contributed to his party’s loss. (more…)
AUSTIN, Texas — Although a large majority of Texans support background checks for all gun purchases, they are not eager to change existing gun laws in Texas, according to a University of Texas at Austin/Texas Tribune poll.
Seventy-eight percent of Texans support requiring criminal and mental health background checks on all gun purchases in the United States, including at gun shows and for private sales. However, 52 percent think that gun control laws should either be left as they are now (36 percent) or made less strict (16 percent). Forty-four percent said gun control laws should be stricter. (more…)
