A&S scholars sharing their expertise in the media

From conservation activist Jane Goodall’s legacy to domestic military deployment in the U.S., experts from a range of disciplines across the Faculty of Arts & Science are sharing their expertise on a variety of issues in the media.

Here’s some of what they had to say this week.

September 26

• Department of History professor Eric Jennings’s new book about the origins of vanilla is reviewed in The Wall Street Journal (paywall).
• Department of Computer Science professor Arvind Gupta is among the members of a new AI strategy task force, as reported by BetaKit and The Logic (paywall).
• Centre for Industrial Relations & Human Resources professor Rafael Gomez comments for the National Post (paywall), Toronto Star (paywall), Bell Media Radio and Global Radio on the Canada Post strike.
• Trinity College’s Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History senior fellow Jon Allen discusses on CBC News and Global News takeaways from the UN General Assembly.
• Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics assistant professor Bart Ripperda and postdoctoral fellow Sebastiano von Fellenberg share with Smithsonian magazine their study that finds the magnetic field of the supermassive black hole M87 unexpectedly flipped over a few years.
• Department of Philosophy professor Mark Kingwell shares his ethical perspective with Toronto Star (paywall) readers on keeping a perfume sample received with a gift purchased for a friend.

September 27

• Centre for Criminology & Sociolegal Studies professor Scot Wortley is noted in the Toronto Star (paywall) for consulting on the 2008 Roots of Youth Violence report.
• Centre For Criminology & Sociolegal Studies associate professor Matthew Light tells CBC News online that Russia has relied on willing partners abroad to evade sanctions.
• Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics assistant professor Reed Essick shares with Universe Today and Gizmodo (Brazil) his study that shows daylight savings time generates noise that can distort gravitational wave readings.
• Victoria University professor Ira Wells talks to CBC Radio: Just Asking about the importance of defending free speech, even for those with different views, as essential to democracy.

September 29

• Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy professor Timothy Snyder writes in the Boston Globe (paywall) and El País and comments for Salon about recent U.S. National Guard deployments and authoritarianism.
• Department of Geography & Planning professor and School of Cities Infrastructure Institute director Matti Siemiatycki talks to CTV News about 10 locations in Toronto that accounted for the most parking tickets last year.
• Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy founding director Janice Stein weighs in on U.S. President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan for CBC News.

September 30

• Department of Economics professor emeritus Morely Gunderson’s 2021 study, as noted in the Calgary Herald, finds that very few minimum wage earners are in households that fall below the poverty line.

October 1

• Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology assistant professor, teaching stream Danielle De Carle shares with The New York Times (paywall) her ancient leech fossil discovery.
• Department of Earth Sciences and School of the Environment professor Miriam L. Diamond discusses on CityNews: The Big Story podcast regulatory differences between the E.U. and Canada for banning harmful products.
• Department of Political Science postdoctoral fellow Lewis Krashinsky explains in the National Post (paywall) what travellers should know about the U.S. government shutdown.
• Department of Computer Science associate professor Fan Long is noted in South China Morning Post (paywall) as the founder of Conflux Network, a public blockchain operator in China.
• Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy professor Jason Stanley discusses on ABC Radio: The Minefield the meaning of fascism.

October 2

• Human Biology Program sessional lecturer Kerry Bowman talks to the Canadian Press and CBC online about Jane Goodall’s legacy in conservation work.
• Department of Economics assistant professor Clémentine Van Effenterre discusses with Radio-Canada online how a minimum wage increase impacts the labour market.
• Department of English professor and provostial advisor on civil discourse Randy Boyagoda reviews the novel Shadow Ticket by Thomas Pynchon for the Financial Times (paywall).
• Department of Philosophy professor Mark Kingwell writes in The Globe and Mail (paywall) about satire and censorship in the U.S.
• Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy professor Timothy Snyder talks to CBC Radio: Frontburner about Donald Trump and the alarm bells of fascism.
• Department of History professor Dimitry Anastakis discusses comments for CBC News online on the future of GM’s Oshawa plant.
• Department of Sociology associate professor Jooyoung Lee comments for the Los Angeles Times (paywall) on perceptions of what constitutes a “monster” in the documentary Psycho: The Lost Tapes of Ed Gein.
• Department of Geography & Planning professor and School of Cities Infrastructure Institute director Matti Siemiatycki comments for the Toronto Star (paywall) on Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s planned removal of bike lanes on Bloor and Yonge streets.