MEDIA MENTIONS

April 15, 2024: UBNow published an article about the new Vice Provost for Inclusive Excellence and Gender Institute Affiliate, Seval Yildirim. Yildirim has been advocating for diversity, equity and inclusion long before it was ever a phrase. As a lawyer, she worked pro bono on civil and human rights cases around the United States. As a law professor, she pushed for more diversity among the faculty ranks. And as a university administrator, she served as chief diversity officer. Now, Yildirim brings her experience in DEI to UB, where she started as vice provost for inclusive excellence in November, charged with removing structural barriers to access and continuing to move the university’s culture of equity and inclusion forward. “In one sense, I think UB is ahead of most other universities in that it already has an infrastructure that’s in place with unit diversity officers,” Yildirim says. “It seems everybody top down, bottom up is excited about and committed to equity and inclusion.”

April 10, 2024: Science News quoted Jessica Kruger, clinical associate professor of community health and health behavior and Gender Institute Affiliate, in an article explaining why so many teens are using an unregulated form of delta-8, a form of the substance THC. Unlike delta-9, delta-8 is found only in small amounts in cannabis plants, so it’s usually chemically synthesized from other cannabinoids like CBD. “They’re putting different chemicals in [other cannabinoids] to create [delta-8] from a naturally occurring substance,” Kruger says. “It often contains harmful additives and byproducts, much of which is unknown.”

April 10, 2024: A USA Today story about the renewed online criticism of celebrity Jojo Siwa that is leading experts to explain why we “love to hate” featured a quote from David Schmid, associate professor of English and Gender Institute Affiliate. “Social media activity is an endless repeating cycle of controversy, outrage and our sacred right to say whatever we want about whoever we want with no consequences,” says Schmid, who studies Americans’ obsession with murder and crime, told USA TODAY. “Once we've chewed (a person) up and spat them out, we'll move to someone else, and so it goes on, ad nauseam, at a pace dictated by our ever-shrinking attention span.”

April 8, 2024: Sarah Baillie, Program Director of Women In Science and Engineering (WiSE) and Gender Institute Affiliate, was quoted in a UBNow story on WiSE celebrating 10 years of supporting women in STEM. Sarah states, “WiSE provides a support network and understanding that other women are your teammates and not your competition, which helps us develop successful and resilient students and STEM professionals.”

April 2, 2024: Erin Hatton, professor of sociology, College of Arts and Sciences, and Gender Institute Affiliate, was quoted in Grist in an article about whether Big Wind, an Indigenous climate activist, should be paid for their efforts. “The parallel is absolutely apt,” said Hatton, who specializes in gender and labor markets. “Because of our capitalist system, labor outside the home has a measure of respect.”  Earthwork, Hatton says, broadens that definition of home by taking care of the Earth as one would tend to a household where everyone lives. “It’s a home more broadly constructed,” she said.

March 27, 2024: NBC News quoted Carine Mardorossian, professor of global gender and sexuality studies and Gender Institute Affiliate, in a story about the support former Nickelodeon star Drake Bell received after sharing his story of sexual abuse in the "Quiet on Set" docuseries. “In our culture, we just want people to be good or evil,” said Carine, who authored “Framing the Rape Victim: Gender and Agency Reconsidered.” She also said that in the search for the “good” or “bad” person in a nuanced scenario, oftentimes, “more harm than good” is done.

March 19, 2024: Scientific American quoted Cody Mejeur, assistant professor of media study and Gender Institute Affiliate, in an article about how many LGBTQ+ video gamers are using gaming to build community, especially in areas that are considering anti-LGBTQ+ legislation.

March 15, 2024: Erin Hatton, professor of sociology, College of Arts and Sciences, and Gender Institute Affiliate, was quoted in a Business Insiderstory on Uber and Lyft threatening to leave Minneapolis if the city approves an ordinance that would boost their drivers’ pay.

March 11, 2024: Leading researchers, clinicians and policymakers from around the world will meet next month in Calgary, Alberta, for a conference devoted to recovery capital, a pioneering theory in the field of addiction recovery that was co-developed by UB faculty member and Gender Institute Affiliate Robert Granfield.

March 7, 2024: Biologist Vincent Lynch was quoted in a Business Insider story about the biotechnology firm Colossal that created elephant stem cells in an attempt to bring woolly mammoths back from extinction.

March 7, 2024: Kenneth Joseph, assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering and Gender Institute Affiliate, was quoted in a USA Today story about the anonymous social media app Sidechat, which is wildly popular with college students. 

March 6, 2024: A  New York Times story reporting that the biotechnology firm Colossal recently created elephant stem cells in an attempt to bring woolly mammoths back from extinction quoted Vincent Lynch, associate professor of biological sciences and Gender Institute Affiliate. “The ability to study this with iPSCs is very exciting,” Dr. Lynch said. The discovery “opens a world of possibilities to study cancer resistance,” he added.

March 6, 2024: A UB symposium opened Women’s History Month with a wide-ranging exploration of topics centered on social justice and the struggle to achieve it in today’s calamitous world. Even with tough things to talk about, a gentle vibe of kindness, empathy and mutual support prevailed throughout the presentations, panel discussion and keynote address. Speakers’ remarks, as well as audience responses, were often deeply personal, containing many thought-provoking observations about what it means to be privileged or not. Speakers included Gender Institute Affiliates Anyango Kamina and Seval Yildirim. Closing remarks were given by Gender Institute Director, Victoria Wolcott. 

February 14, 2024: Artist talk. UB faculty member and Gender Institute affiliate Joan Linder, whose exhibition “Joan Linder: Belly” is on display at Rivalry Projects gallery through Feb. 23.

February 13, 2024: Assistance provided by bilingual adults in a community increases the chances of employment for immigrant men who struggle with English proficiency, but does not play a similar role for women with that same language barrier, according to a new study by Yunju Nam, associate professor in the School of Social Work, Gender Institute affiliate, and the study’s corresponding author.

January 25, 2024: Connecticut Public Radio interviewed Carrie Bramen, former director of the UB Gender Institute, affiliate, and author of “American Niceness: A Cultural History,” in a story about how we define “niceness” and “likability,” from presidential politics to popular culture.

January 24, 2024: UBNow sat down with Kyla Tompkins, professor and chair of the Department of Global Gender and Sexuality Studies, College of Arts and Sciences, Gender Institute Affiliate and Executive Committee member, and new UB hire.  When asked about her research, she said, "Feminist studies is the place where it’s possible to discuss gender, race, sexuality, class, disabilities and other topics that impact us every day and are also at the level of local and global political patterns. In this field, you get the tools to understand and analyze how the world works at different scales, and the methodology can be applied to almost every research area."

January 23, 2024: Professor and Gender Institute Affiliate David Herzberg was quoted in UBNow in a story about UB's new MA program in Drugs, Health, and Society. “Our full-spectrum program covers the scientific and medical angles but does so in continual dialogue with social and political questions, preparing students for the widest possible range of careers helping our society navigate the boom in psychoactive products, and helping individuals with the problems that can be associated with drug use,” Herzberg adds. Students of the program will develop knowledge of the science of drugs, drug use and addiction, and will become familiar with and able to apply the main modalities of addiction treatment. They will develop critical thinking skills wrestling with the biomedical, psychological, public health and political dimensions of drug commerce, drug use and drug addiction.

January 9, 2024: UBNow published an article on the five faculty members who were awarded Gender Institute Faculty Fellowships. Recipients during the fall 2023 round of funding are Nadine Shaanta Murshid, Andrea Pitts, Michelle Sperlich, Despina Stratigakos and Gwynn Thomas. The grants range from $1,000-$5,000 and will support interdisciplinary research projects in various fields. Applications for the spring 2024 funding cycle for the Gender Institute’s Faculty Research Grants opens on March 4.

January 3, 2024: Associate Professor and Gender Institute Affiliate David Schmid was quoted in USA Today in a story about the nation’s true-crime obsession with Gypsy Rose Blanchard, who rose to social media stardom after wrapping up a prison sentence for murder for conspiring with her then-boyfriend to kill her mother. "In many ways, (Blanchard) is the perfect embodiment of the fusion of these two passions (true crime and celebrity). Combine that fact with the tabloid-like 'truth is stranger than fiction' characteristic of (Blanchard's) story, and you've got a perfect storm of factors coming together to launch both a million memes and what could be a long-standing career in the public eye."

January 2, 2024: Erin Hatton, GI Affiliate and Professor of Sociology, was featured in Marketplace, which airs on NPR affiliates, in a story about how the disappearance of temp jobs is a good thing for workers and companies. Dr. Hatton, author of the book “The Temp Economy,” said that not only are permanent workers more committed, they tend to be better trained. “Oftentimes, you’ll see temporary employees thrown into jobs,” she said. “They don’t maybe even know what they’re supposed to do until they arrive. So that doesn’t make for great outcomes for productivity.” Hatton said having workers in permanent jobs also gives them more economic stability, which makes them more comfortable spending.

December 13, 2023: Gender Institute Affiliate Jasmina Tumbas's second book project, "Queer and Feminist Yugoslav Diaspora: Art of Resistance Beyond Nationhood," has just been awarded a prestigious Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant. "The Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant is a highly competitive grant that has recognized the groundbreaking work of scholars I have admired for years," Tumbas says. "I am humbled to be part of such an impressive community of arts writers.

December 12, 2023: The University at Buffalo has received a $2.5 million grant from The Mellon Foundation in support of a new interdisciplinary research project that seeks to better understand and address issues faced by caregivers and those with disabilities. Communities of Care will combine the expertise of UB’s Center for Disability Studies (CDS) and the Institute for Research and Education on Women and Gender (Gender Institute) to develop elements both within the university and throughout the larger community. “The key here is the power of storytelling,” says Victoria Wolcott, PhD, a co-principal investigator and UB professor of history who directs the university’s Gender Institute. “The humanities are well situated to gather and collect these important stories and create the space required to create new levels of awareness by sharing those narratives with the broader public.”

December 7, 2023: UB architect and Gender Institute Affiliate Kelly Hayes McAlonie has won the 2023 Arline Custer Memorial Award for her book documenting the life and career of Louise Blanchard Bethune, America’s first professional female architect. The award recognizing “Louise Blanchard Bethune: Every Woman Her Own Architect” (SUNY Press, 2023) was presented by the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference. It recognizes the best books and articles written or compiled by individuals and institutions in the MARAC region — the District of Columbia, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia. The award was presented last month at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference.

November 24, 2023: Erin Hatton, GI Affiliate and Professor of Sociology, was interviewed by NPR for a story about how ski patrollers are unionizing as housing prices continue to rise at resorts in the Mountain West. Dr. Hatton is quoted as saying, " Those workers are now saying, hang on. We're workers, and we demand more than we're getting. We deserve more than we're getting."

October 18, 2023: The Spectrum, UB's student newspaper, covered the Gender Institute's joint program with the University Archives and Jeffry Iovannone, "Leslie Feinberg's Buffalo", in an article called "Jeff Iovanonne will preserve LGBTQ+ history — no matter what cult tries to stop him."

September 15, 2023: Victoria W. Wolcott, professor of History and Gender Institute Director, is quoted in a story UB Now. “The Gender Institute draws on all of UB’s talents, and we’re interested in continuing to develop and foster those connections,” says Wolcott. “We want to find innovative ways to creatively think about LGBTQ issues, bodily integrity, reproductive rights in this post‑Dobbs moment, caregiving and wage issues that reframe feminism and discrimination — not just as social and political categories, but as an economic category as well.

October 6, 2023: Jessica Kruger, clinical associate professor of community health and health behavior, GI Affiliate, and co-investigator on a CTSI seed grant that is enabling the Lighthouse Free Medical Clinic to expand its services to include dental care, is quoted in UB Now.

September 8, 2023: A new historical marker celebrating Black suffragist Charlotte Dett was unveiled recently during a ceremony in Niagara Falls, thanks to the efforts of UB faculty member and GI Executive Council Member Lillian S. Williams, who nominated Dett for the honor. “Dett is an unknown story, like that of so many African American women, and will enhance our understanding of these reform movements,” said Williams, who is an Associate Professor in the Department of Africana and American Studies. Read more in UBNow. 

September 5, 2023: Matilde Sánchez-Peña, Assistant Professor of Engineering and Gender Institute Affiliate, is principal investigator of a project that recently received a $300,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to determine why, despite more than 20 years of investment in NSF programs seeking to promote gender equity, disparities still persist: Only about 20% of engineering students and tenure-track faculty nationwide are female. When she argues for inclusivity in engineering, Sánchez-Peña says, “We are missing a lot of really important perspectives from the engineering table. It’s not just females; it’s also people of color, first-generation college students, people with disabilities. It’s not surprising that a lot of our engineering misses the insights these people could offer.”

August 7, 2023: Co-creators with Mattel of Architect Barbie and GI Affiliates, Hayes McAlonie, director of campus planning at UB, and Stratigakos, professor of architecture, School of Architecture and Planning, call the Barbie movie “brilliant,” and were elated to see their creation on the big screen. “We were thrilled to discover our doll featured in the opening sequence — it was very exciting indeed,” Hayes McAlonie recalled.

August 2023: Axios quoted Jessica Kruger, clinical associate professor of community health and health behavior and Gender Institute Affiliate, in a story discussing that while all marijuana is still illegal in North Carolina, getting high on cannabis is easy and legal due to loopholes.

Juy 24, 2023: Victoria W. Wolcott, professor of History and Gender Institute Director, is quoted in a story on CNN about the disappearance of public pools in America. "Racial stereotypes around cleanliness and safety, as well as intense fears of Black men interacting with White women in bathing suits, turned pools into some of the most segregated public spaces in America."

July 13, 2023: A story in the Washington Post on birds using anti-bird spikes to fortify nests quoted Gender Institute Affiliate Joyce Hwang.  “I think there is a kind of poetic justice,” Hwang said of the birds subverting the materials meant to keep them at bay. “It’s pretty remarkable.”

July 6, 2023: Associate Professor and Gender Institute Affiliate David Schmid was quoted in a recent Newsweek article entitled "James Corden's Appearance at White Party Mocked After Leaving Talk Show." "He's earned a place in the pantheon of quirky, affable, and funny last night hosts. He'll also be remembered as a reliable awards show host that audiences found easy to identify with," Schmid said. "Although The Late Late Show may turn out to be his career peak, I expect him to stick around for quite some time."

July 5, 2023: Erin Hatton, GI Affiliate and Professor of Sociology, was interviewed by Teen Vogue for a story on how unpaid work experience is a degree requirement that harms students in social work, nursing and teaching. “This unpaid labor requirement is like the gatekeeping function,” Dr. Hatton says. “They have to do this in order to embark on a career.” The fact that these jobs are construed as “education” rather than “work” means students lack protections they would have as employees, including the right to be part of a union and not be subject to discrimination, harassment, or unsafe working conditions."

May 10, 2023: Victoria W. Wolcott, professor of History, Gender Institute Executive Committee Member and Incoming Director, has been named the winner of the Living New Deal’s annual New Deal Book Award for 2022. Her book, Living in the Future: Utopianism and the Long Civil Rights Movement, (University of Chicago Press, 2022), explores the New Deal’s influence on the Civil Rights Movement. Living in the Future: Utopianism and the Long Civil Rights Movement, was unanimously chosen among eleven works nominated for this year’s award. 

May 5, 2023: A story in USA Today on a false Instagram claim that a new bill in Minnesota would protect pedophilia as a sexual orientation quoted Michael Boucai, Gender Institute Executive Committee Member and Professor of Law. Boucai told USA TODAY that sexual orientation has never been legally interpreted this way. "I’m unaware of any antidiscrimination law – ever – whose reference to 'sexual orientation' was intended by legislators or has been interpreted by courts to encompass pedophilia."

May 5, 2023: Students in UB’s School of Architecture and Planning will have the opportunity to explore questions of social equity in architecture with visiting scholars over the next three years, thanks to a new fund established by Professor and Gender Institute Affiliate Despina Stratigakos. The Despina Stratigakos Visiting Fellowship will support research on the built environment as a vehicle for the creation of more inclusive communities, with a focus on gender and sexuality in architecture.

April 26, 2023: Professor and Gender Institute Affiliate Deborah Chung was named Fellow of American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Chung is among 269 new fellows drawn from academia, the arts, industry, policy, research and science in 2023. Of those, she is one of 11 people elected under the academy’s engineering and technology section. The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is one of the oldest scholarly societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 by John Adams, John Hancock and other revolutionary leaders.

April 25, 2023: Associate Professor and Gender Institute Affiliate David Schmid was quoted in a recent USA Today article entitled "Tucker Carlson, Don Lemon and why you're furious (or relieved) at their downfall." "Rather than attempting a structural analysis that would see these news anchors as symptoms of much larger and more complex issues – for example, although Carlson is gone, the audience he's created isn't going anywhere – we prefer to individualize and personalize whenever we can because it makes things more comprehensible."

April 18, 2023: Associate Professor and Gender Institute Affiliate Lora Park was quoted in a recent Everyday Health article entitled "All About Imposter Syndrome: Definition, Health Effects, and Coping With It." “Low self-esteem is an overall, general assessment of one's self-worth. People with low self-esteem feel inferior to others and do not think very highly of themselves on a global level.” 

April 13, 2023: Gender Institute Affiliate Noelle St. Vil was awarded the 2023 Buffalo Center for Social Research Excellence in Research Award. This Award was sponsored by the UB School of Social Work and Buffalo Center for Social Research. Noelle is an Assistant Professor with the School of Social Work at UB and Faculty Support Liaison for Racially Underrepresented Students.

April 13, 2023: Executive Committee Member and Affiliate Miriam Thaggert received an Honorable Mention for the Mary Nickliss Prize in U.S. Women's and/or Gender History for her recent publication, Riding Jane Crow: African American Women on the American Railroad. Sponsored by the Organization of American Historians (OAH), the Nickliss Prize recognizes a book "that is a path breaking work or challenges and/or changes widely accepted scholarly interpretations in the field" and "makes a significant contribution to the understanding of U.S. Women's and/or Gender History."

April 14, 2023: Associate Professor and Gender Institute Affiliate David Schmid was quoted in a recent Newsweek article entitled "The Rise and Fall of James Corden." 
"I think the puncturing of Ellen's apparent likeability delivered a fatal blow to her career, but I think Corden has already been forgiven and will be allowed to move on. Why? Good old-fashioned sexism, in my opinion," Schmid said. "Our standards for what's considered 'acceptable' conduct for male and female celebrities are just as distorted as our standards for men and women in general."

March 27, 2023: The Washington Post featured an op-ed by Victoria Wolcott, professor of history, College of Arts and Sciences, on billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s plans for building a utopian community outside Austin, Texas.

March 27, 2023:  UB Gender Institute affiliates, Mishuana Goeman (Tonawanda Band of Seneca) & Theresa McCarthy (Six Nations, Onondaga), received a $500,000 Mellon Foundation grant. The grant is to support implementation of a community-driven digital resource for the preservation and dissemination of Indigenous research. 

March 20, 2023: Michael Rembis, director of the Center for Disability Studies, was interviewed by Bloomberg Government for a story on a lawsuit alleging the federal government is shirking its responsibility under a little-known law that requires government agencies to buy from firms where people with disabilities handle at least 75% of the production work.

January 25, 2023: Time magazine interviewed David Schmid, Associate Professor of English, College of Arts and Sciences, and GI Affiliate, for a story about the public’s fascination with true crime.

January 23, 2023: The Guardian reported on China’s shrinking population and quoted Yige Dong, Assistant Professor in the departments of Sociology and Global Gender and Sexuality Studies and GI affiliate.

January 10, 2023: A Buffalo News story examining the possibility that Bills safety Damar Hamlin experienced a condition called commotio cordis, brought on by a sharp blow to the chest at a specific time in the cardiac cycle, quoted Anne B. Curtis, SUNY Distinguished Professor in the Jacobs School and GI affiliate.