Recent Press Coverage
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4 Georgia poets discuss their art for National Poetry Month
April 12, 2021
Travis Denton, academic professional in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication, associate director of Poetry @ Tech, and McEver Chair in Poetry, contributed his thoughts to the article "4 Georgia Poets Discuss their Art for National Poetry Month," published April 9, 2021 in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Denton, who has been at Georgia Tech for more than a decade and works to expose broader audiences to poetry in his position, spoke to the strategy of getting newcomers interested in the medium.
Excerpt:
The foundations of page poetry and spoken word poetry, I think they’re pretty much the same. They both hinge on figurative language, simile and metaphor. You always want to share with your reader what it was like. They are also both founded in music and sound. You want to cultivate that rhythm, that music and sound. In page poetry and spoken word poetry you want to have concrete images, you want to avoid the abstraction, stick with that concrete. They both deal with who we are, our shared humanness. We can have this discourse through poems.
We have a strong community (of poets and fans) at Georgia Tech and in Atlanta. That happened because of the generous spirit of (the late Tech professor) Thomas Lux in those early days. We had these gifts, and it was important that we share these gifts with the community. Too, it was the types of poetry and poets we bring to Tech. We have a no-boring-poets policy.
Published in: Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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NASA/JPL Named Two Sites on Mars After an Author and an Engineer. Here’s Why You Should Know Them, Too
April 10, 2021
Lisa Yaszek, Regents Professor in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication, was quoted in the article "NASA/JPL Named Two Sites on Mars After an Author and an Engineer. Here’s Why You Should Know Them, Too," published April 10, 2021 in USA Today.
The article explores the decision of a team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to name the landing site of the Perseverance Mars rover after Octavia Butler, a groundbreaking science fiction author. Yaszek, one of the nation's leading science fiction scholars, spoke to Butler's stature in the field.
Excerpt:
Science fiction aficionados — readers, college professors and publishers — hold Butler in high regard.
"She's important because she's a pioneer and the first Black female science fiction author," says Lisa Yaszek, Regents professor of science fiction studies in the School of Literature, Media and Communication at Georgia Tech.
Butler rose to prominence in the traditionally white bastion of science fiction. She was the first to write about prominent Black characters in science fiction settings, using dystopias, time travel and other tropes.
"She was literally one of the first, if not the first, Black women to publish in modern science fiction magazines under her own name," Yaszek says.
Published in: USA Today
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‘Technology’ Is the Most Useless Word in the English Language
April 9, 2021
Eric Schatzberg, professor and chair in the School of History and Sociology, was mentioned in the article "‘Technology’ Is the Most Useless Word in the English Language," published April 9, 2021 in Bloomberg.
The article, which discusses the meaning – or lack thereof – in the use of the word "technology" in commercial applications today. Schatzberg's contributions to studying the term and its history are used as supporting material.
Excerpt:
The meaning wasn’t always so expansive. Until the 1930s, in line with its ancient Greek etymology, it applied primarily to the study of the technical arts, according to the historian Eric Schatzberg. Hence the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was founded in 1861 to study and teach applied science and engineering rather than to study and teach “technology.”
Published in: Bloomberg
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PUBP Welcomes New Chair
April 8, 2021
Cassidy Sugimoto, the incoming chair of the School of Public Policy, was mentioned in the article "PUBP welcomes new chair," published April 3, 2021 in Technique.
Sugimoto, who comes to SPP from the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering at Indiana University Bloomington, was announced as incoming chair on March 19 and will formally begin work on June 1.
Excerpt:
Her research is within the specializations of scholarly communication, scientometrics, as well as science policy. Within her principle research, she investigates the ways in which knowledge is produced, disseminated and evaluated. Sugimoto also has a special interest in diversity and inclusion.
“I am confident that Dr. Sugimoto will advance the mission and goals of the school and the college as we envision the purpose and potential for humanities and social sciences at a technologically focused institution in the 21st century,” said Ivan Allen Dean Kaye Husbands Fealing, who was the previous SPP chair.
Published in: Technique
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The State of Play with Russia and Ukraine with General (Ret) Philip Breedlove
April 6, 2021
Gen. (ret.) Philip Breedlove, distinguished professor of the practice in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, was featured on the "State Secrets" podcast by The Cipher Brief on April 6, 2021.
Breedlove discussed strategic issues with Ukraine and Russia, as well as topics related to China and NATO, on the podcast.
Published in: The Cipher Brief
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30 Predictions From “Retro Future” That Were Either A Hit Or A Miss
March 19, 2021
Lisa Yaszek, Regents Professor in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication, was featured in the article "30 Predictions from 'Retro Future' That Were Either a Hit or Miss," published March 19, 2021 on the website Bored Panda.
Yaszek, a leading scholar in the field of retrofuturism, provided a synopsis of the field for the article, which examined what came to pass – or not – in past depictions of the future.
Excerpt:
To find out more about the weird and wonderful retrofuturism movement, Bored Panda reached out to Lisa Yaszek, a Regents Professor of Science Fiction Studies at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Lisa explained that when we talk about retrofuturist objects and images, we usually refer to images of the past from the late 1800s through the space race, like many of the images collected here. “And when we look at these images, it becomes clear that people from the past actually had expectations of the future that were often quite like our own!”
Published in: Bored Panda
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The Problem With Venting About Your Students
March 18, 2021
Karen Head, associate professor and associate chair of the School of Literature, Media, and Communication, was quoted in the article "The Problem With Venting About Your Students," published March 18, 2021 in the Chronicle of Higher Education.
The article explored the pitfalls of the ubiquitous practice of professors and teachers voicing gripes about their students, which has recently been placed under the microscope due to it being caught on video. Head offered her thoughts on two recent high-profile examples at Widener and Georgetown universities.
Excerpt:
Characterizing students’ abilities based on their race crosses a bright line for many professors. “We know that implicit bias is a problem,” said Karen Head, associate chair of the School of Literature, Media, and Communication at the Georgia Institute of Technology. What the Georgetown instructor said, though, was “pretty explicit,” said Head, who is also the executive director of the Naugle CommLab.
The Widener comments, Head said, sound more like the run-of-the-mill venting session professors might have in the mailroom, or over a coffee. “Complaining about students,” Head said, “is as old as teachers and students.” So long as it stays behind closed doors, she said, it’s often seen as harmless. But, she added, “I don’t think that it is.”
Full article (login required).
Published in: The Chronicle of Higher Education
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Opinion: Ga. voting processes should be both secure and usable
March 13, 2021
Michael Best, professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs and the School of Interactive Computing, co-authored the opinion piece "Ga. voting processes should be both secure and usable," published March 13, 2021 in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Best, along with Ellen Zegura and Richard DeMillo of the College of Computing, shared results of the research they undertook on the accessibility of voting locations, which was partly spurred by dissatisfaction in the wake of June 2020's primary elections. One key point of the findings was the highly levels of voter satisfaction regarding the use of stadiums as voting locations.
Excerpt:
State Farm Arena claims to be the nation’s first stadium to offer itself as a polling location, though many other arenas across the nation followed suit. All of us should be proud of the way our professional sports teams stepped up. The organizations that operate sports arenas are filled with professionals focused on customer experience and usability. So, should sporting arenas continue to serve as large-scale early voting locations? Maybe. After all, stadia often are built with considerable public support and taxpayer investment and offering themselves as polling places is a great way for them to give back to their communities.
The usability concepts that are common in stadia can also be applied to our more-typical polling locations, such as churches, libraries, and schools. More user-friendly election systems don’t require sporting venues. Instead, what is required is an investment in useful, efficient, easy, and pleasant voting experiences. This investment will only happen with broad political support.
Published in: Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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Who Would Kamala Harris Pick as VP if She Runs in 2024?
March 10, 2021
Richard Barke, associate professor in the School of Public Policy, was quoted in the article "Who Would Kamala Harris Pick as VP if She Runs in 2024?" published March 10, 2021 in National Interest.
The article explores the question of Harris' potential running mate should Joe Biden decide to step aside and his vice president runs for president. Barke zeroed in on Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) as a solid possibility, given Ryan's "Midwestern blue-collar" bona fides.
Excerpt:
Another potential contender could be Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), who ran for president in 2020 where he emphasized the significance of focusing on working-class voters. Ryan is also reportedly running for GOP Sen. Rob Portman’s vacant seat next year, a race that will likely boost his national name recognition considering Democrats have razor-thin margins in both congressional chambers.
“[Ryan] is generally seen as a centrist who could appeal to the Midwestern blue-collar electorate. Anything can happen in the next three years, as we have seen, but Ryan might be the kind of Democrat that could balance the Harris ticket,” Barke said.
Published in: National Interest
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10 US cities paving the way for the future by investing in technology, sustainability, and infrastructure
March 8, 2021
Christopher Le Dantec, associate professor in the School of Interactive Computing and School of Literature, Media, and Communication, was quoted in the article "10 US cities paving the way for the future by investing in technology, sustainability, and infrastructure," published March 4, 2021 by Insider.
The article explores the ways that cities around the country are coping with growth and change, and Le Dantec, whose work largely focuses on civic participation by citizens and the concept of "smart cities," spoke to the efforts ongoing in Atlanta.
Excerpt:
Smart streetlights are also being added, and the city is testing a gunshot detection system that would send alerts to 911, police patrol cars, and residents' smartphones. Other systems would help drivers detect parking spots. Atlanta partnered with Georgia Power, AT&T, and Current by GE for the project.
"There's a lot of activity going on just in general around transit and Atlanta, in and around the larger metro area," Christopher Le Dantec, associate professor in the School of Interactive Computing and School of Literature, Media, and Communication at Georgia Tech, told Insider. That means thinking through the transportation of people and goods around the city and its suburbs.
"It's a very difficult problem to solve because there are so many different agencies at play," he added.
Published in: Insider
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The Next 400: Communities continue to suffer from redlining’s racist effects
March 8, 2021
Todd Michney, assistant professor in the School of History and Sociology, was quoted in the piece "The Next 400: Communities continue to suffer from redlining’s racist effects," published March 5, 2021 by 19News in Cleveland, Ohio.
The piece explores the still-visible effects of discriminatory housing policies that affected Black families moving to Cleveland, which Michney described in his book Surrogate Suburbs: Black Upward Mobility and Neighborhood Change in Cleveland, 1900-1980.
Excerpt:
Figures show the number of “non-white” residents grew from roughly 8700 in 1910 to more than 243,000 in 1959.
Reaction to this population explosion was blunt—and racist.
“White people, as more black people moved to Cleveland, were less willing to share space and live next to them,” said Michney. “They would react violently if African Americans started moving out of the area they considered acceptable.”
And thus, the practice of hemming in Black people into certain areas began. Lending institutions drew up maps that deemed largely white areas as good and minority areas as bad.
“If you trace the financial dimensions of it. These houses have not appreciated in value as much, so that’s had all kinds of effects,” noted Michney. “Any new development after 1920, you could basically expect to find deed restrictions, saying this property cannot be sold to a black person.”
Published in: 19News
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After 63 Years, China Rethinks Strict Residency Rules
March 5, 2021
Fei-Ling Wang, professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, was quoted in the article "After 63 Years, China Rethinks Strict Residency Rules," published March 5, 2021 in Voice of America.
The article explores policy changes in China that loosen the restrictions imposed upon residents that wanted to move from rural to urban areas. Wang, who has studied the "hukou" policy extensively, spoke to the change's potential impact on the labor market.
Excerpt:
Fei-Ling Wang, a professor of international affairs at Georgia Institute of Technology and the author of “Organization Through Division and Exclusion: China’s Hukou System,” told Sixth Tone, a state-owned English-language online magazine based in Shanghai, that the removal of settlement restrictions was “a bold step in the right direction to ease restrictions of labor mobility.”
“It is very much in line with the general trend of localization of the hukou administration, signaling a progressive relaxation of the control of domestic migration and a welcome effort of reducing the urban-rural barriers, at least within a province,” he said.
Published in: Voice of America
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Deep Science: AI adventures in arts and letters
March 5, 2021
Research by Omar Asensio, assistant professor in the School of Public Policy, was featured in the article "Deep Science: AI adventures in arts and letters," published March 5, 2021 in Televisor.
The article features examples of applications of artificial intelligence and machine learning systems applied to the humanities and social sciences. Asensio has used machine learning to comb through reviews of electric vehicle charging systems and extract larger conclusions from the dataset.
Excerpt:
You arrive at a charge point for your electric car and find it to be out of service. You might even leave a bad review online. In fact, thousands of such reviews exist and constitute a potentially very useful map for municipalities looking to expand electric vehicle infrastructure.
Georgia Tech’s Omar Asensio trained a natural language processing model on such reviews and it soon became an expert at parsing them by the thousands and squeezing out insights like where outages were common, comparative cost and other factors.
Published in: Televisor
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Georgians Unlikely to See Six Figure Utility Bills, But Freak Weather Could Still Bring Surprises
February 25, 2021
Marilyn Brown, Regents and Brook Byers Professor of Sustainable Systems and interim chair of the School of Public Policy, was interviewed about Georgia's electricity rate structure and the potential for "sticker shock" seen recently after the winter storms in Texas on WABE 90.1's "All Things Considered" on Feb. 24, 2021.
Brown spoke to the dynamics induced by "demand-side billing," which can reduce electricity use and emissions by tying a consumer's bill to their consumption at the peak period. However, that plan is structured in a manner that allows consumers to control their bills better than Texans would have been able to during the storms and accompanying deep freezes. Furthermore, Georgia is less likely to experience the supply shortages that also contributed to skyrocketing prices in Texas.
Excerpt from Brown's segment:
"The lessons that I think both Texas and Georgia can learn are how to better manage the demand side of the equation. I'm not sure anyone has talked about that. The ability to manage demand so the customers can reduce their consumption and still meet critical needs can help both Georgia and Texas ride through events like they've just experienced."
Full story here (Brown's segment starts at 2:57).
Published in: WABE 90.1
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Is Georgia susceptible to rolling blackouts during extreme cold weather? Here’s what experts say
February 18, 2021
Marilyn Brown, Regents and Brook Byers Professor of Sustainable Systems in the School of Public Policy, was quoted in the piece "Is Georgia susceptible to rolling blackouts during extreme cold weather? Here’s what experts say," broadcast Tuesday, Feb. 16 on WSB-TV.
Brown, a former member of the Tennessee Valley Authority board and a renowned expert on sustainable energy systems, spoke to the factors that may have precipitated the widespread blackouts taking place in Texas in the midst of a deep cold snap in the state.
Excerpt:
In Texas, the state’s electric grid operator opted not to prepare its system for extreme cold.
“You got to have thermal management practices in place. So Texas did not because it’s such a rare event,” said Dr. Marilyn Brown with Georgia Tech.
Published in: WSB-TV
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Severe weather, blackouts show the grid's biggest problem is infrastructure, not renewables
February 15, 2021
Emily Grubert, an assistant professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering who also holds a courtesy appointment in the School of Public Policy, was mentioned in the article "Severe weather, blackouts show the grid's biggest problem is infrastructure, not renewables," published Feb. 15, 2021 in TechCrunch.
A tweet from Gruber commenting on recent blackouts resulting from a winter storm in the Midwest was featured in the story from author Jonathan Shieber, which explored issues with the power infrastructure that contributed to the blackouts.
Excerpt:
As Dr. Emily Grubert, an assistant professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and, by courtesy, of Public Policy at the Georgia Institute of Technology, noted, the problem is more of a total systems issue than one associated with renewable power.
"Let us be absolutely clear: if there are grid failures today, it shows the existing (largely fossil-based) system cannot handle these conditions either," Grubert wrote on Twitter. "These are scary, climate change-affected conditions that pose extreme challenges to the grid. We are likely to continue to see situations like this where our existing system cannot easily handle them. Any electricity system needs to make massive adaptive improvements."
Published in: TechCrunch
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SEPADPod: The Biden Administration in the MENA
February 4, 2021
Lawrence Rubin, associate professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, was featured on the Feb. 4, 2021 edition of the podcast "SEPADPod," produced by the Richardson Institute.
During the appearance, Rubin spoke about his thoughts and expectations on the Biden administration's tactics regarding policy and diplomacy towards the Middle East.
Published in: Richardson Institute
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Lockhart says trading frenzy a ‘concern,’ but doubts likelihood of regulatory action
February 4, 2021
Dennis Lockhart, distinguished professor of the practice in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs and former president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, was interviewed in "Ex-Fed official says trading frenzy a ‘concern,’ but doubts likelihood of regulatory action” by Fox Business.
Find an excerpt:
'One, the integrity of our markets is fundamental to our economic system. And secondly, they always have their eye on something that might trigger a financial event of some kind of systemic event that harms everyone.'
Watch the interview on Fox Business.
Published in: Fox Business
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Biden’s Challenge: Continuing Progress in Eastern Europe Despite Russian Adventurism
February 3, 2021
General Phil Breedlove, USAF (Ret.), distinguished professor of the practice in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, has written "Biden’s Challenge: Continuing Progress in Eastern Europe Despite Russian Adventurism." The article written with lulia-Sabina Joja, senior fellow for the Frontier Europe Initiative and an adjunct professor at Georgetown University. was published by the Middle East Institute.
Find an excerpt:
The West’s response to Russia’s 2014 occupation and annexation of Crimea has long been perceived as insufficient, especially in the Black Sea region. Following the 2016 NATO Warsaw summit, a significant military force was deployed in the Baltic Sea states to deter Russia. However, the southern front of the Alliance’s eastern flank, where Russia has created a series of frozen conflicts and carried out invasions in both 2008 and 2014, remains challenged. Russia’s blockade of the Sea of Azov in 2018 has also been met with limited response. The West must do more to deter Russia’s increasingly aggressive Anti-Access/Area Denial efforts in the Black Sea.
Published in: Middle East Institute
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Meet the Creative Class Making Atlanta the New Epicenter of American Arts
February 3, 2021
Joycelyn Wilson, assistant professor in the School of Literature, Media, and Communications, was featured in the article "Meet the Creative Class Making Atlanta the New Epicenter of American Arts," published Feb. 3, 2021 in Instyle.
Wilson, who helps lead LMC's Black Media Studies program and whose research focuses on hip hop culture in particular, gave her perspective in the article on the factors contributing to the ascendence of the city's arts scene.
Excerpt:
What makes Atlanta so sacred? It's long been a hub for anything and everything that matters — music, art, films, and certainly, as recent current events will attest, politics. But now, perhaps due to the spotlight on politics, people are paying attention to the city's unlimited potential and the supremely talented people who live there.
One such person is Dr. Joycelyn Wilson, the assistant professor of hip-hop studies and digital media at Georgia Tech's Ivan Allen College, who wrote an essay for March issue describing Atlanta's rich history and cultural significance, especially for the Black community. "Atlanta, like Wakanda, is a special place for Black Americans," she writes. "The difference is there are parts of the mecca mythology that actually exist. First, it's the birthplace of Dr. King — whose noble actions turned Atlanta into one of the most culturally resilient cities in the American South. Second, Atlanta has repeatedly applied its secret sauce for mixing music, culture, and business with progressive Democratic politics to keep the city blue and, more recently, help flip a traditionally red state."
Published in: InStyle
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