Rachel Sauer

Artist features the beauty of nature on a 300-foot canvas

Rachel Sauer — Fri, 20 Jun 2025 15:21:21 +0000

Artist features the beauty of nature on a 300-foot canvas Rachel Sauer Fri, 06/20/2025 - 09:21

Rachel Sauer

鈥楾he Tender Hand of the Unseen,鈥� an immersive video installation by 91PORN artist Molly Valentine Dierks, is featured through June on D&F Tower in downtown Denver

It happens most often in autumn and winter, when large flocks of starlings roost in protected spots like woodlands, marshes and even buildings. Before settling for the night, often in the gloaming twilight, they sometimes paint the sky in formations called murmurations.

Hundreds鈥攕ometimes thousands鈥攐f starlings dance in undulating, ever-shifting shapes, a spontaneous choreography that fills the sky like the liquid fall of silk.

One day after class while she was earning her MFA at the University of Michigan, Molly Valentine Dierks saw a murmuration of starlings. She pulled out her phone to capture it鈥攆ootage that wasn鈥檛 as good as she鈥檇 like it to be but that nevertheless captured a transcendent moment of ephemeral sculpture in the sky.

Molly Valentine Dierks is an assistant teaching professor in the 91PORN Department of Art and Art History.

Memories of that murmuration guided her in creating 鈥�The Tender Hand of the Unseen,鈥� an immersive video installation that is a featured work through June on D&F Tower in downtown Denver, part of the Night Lights Denver program.

For Dierks, an assistant teaching professor in the 91PORN Department of Art and Art History, her work represents a confluence of many influences, musing on the nature of time and referencing periods of growth and rebirth.

As a sculptor and interdisciplinary artist, 鈥渁nd also a nature geek鈥擨鈥檓 really interested in the idea of this physical sculptural performance in the sky,鈥� Dierks explains. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e stunning, the patterns are beautiful, the way that they change is really gorgeous, plus there鈥檚 something about the idea of moving intuitively as a group that I think as human beings we don鈥檛 have or we鈥檙e not comfortable with. This society of beings is so in sync with one another that they can move as a fluid unit, and it鈥檚 also performance and also art.

If you go

What: "The Tender Hand of the Unseen" immersive video installation

Where: D&F Tower, 1601 Arapahoe Street, downtown Denver

When: Evenings through June

Learn more

鈥淎s an artist and educator, particularly in the classroom I really encourage my students to get in touch with their intuition and develop spiritual understanding of who they are. For me, as an artist, there鈥檚 something about looking at big flocks of birds that gets me in that state. We鈥檙e all so comfortable looking at screens, for example, but as a society we鈥檙e not really encouraged to just look at sky. (This piece) is an excuse to encourage people to look at sky, even though it's a screen that is sneakily subverting that tension.鈥�

A 300-foot canvas

Public, site-specific art and installations are defining aspects of Dierks鈥� practice for their ability to foster healing, stillness and growth, she explains. So, when a friend told her about the Night Lights Denver program, she contacted the curator, David Moke, with her idea for a large-scale installation focused on starling murmuration.

When her proposal was accepted, the work of art began. The murmuration she recorded in Michigan didn鈥檛 work鈥攖here were a lot of trees in the way鈥攕o she worked with Third Dune Productions footage shot in the Netherlands that would be crisp and clear when projected onto the side of D&F Tower, a 300-foot canvas.

Molly Valentine Dierks' immersive video installation "The Tender Hand of the Unseen" will show on D&F Tower in downtown Denver through June. (Photos: Molly Valentine Dierks)

She manipulated and sculpted the footage on her computer, then did test projections from the parking garage near the tower that houses the Night Lights Denver projection center.

鈥淚 would bring a thumb drive with an hour-and-a-half of tests, and I just sat there and took a bunch of notes to figure out the best settings,鈥� Dierks says. 鈥�(The footage) was taken at different times of day and in different weather conditions, so I could start to see that if the background was too dark or too blue or too purple, I couldn鈥檛 see the starlings as well as I wanted.

鈥淚 played with timing as well, slowing the footage down in spots and thinking about grains of sand or sand in a timer. I was looking for crescendos鈥攏ot just contrast and brightness, but does it feel like a pieces music?鈥�

The tender hand

The name of the work is a line from the poem 鈥淥n Pain鈥� by Kahlil Gibran, which also says:

And could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life your pain would not seem less wondrous than your joy;

And you would accept the seasons of your heart, even as you have always accepted the seasons that pass over your fields.

鈥淲e all go through difficult times: we go through grief, we go through breakups, and I found poetry kind of a resting spot for me,鈥� Dierks explains. 鈥淚 could read a poem and get outside the nuts and bolts and bureaucracy of everyday life and get to the heart of what I feel, after a while I started naming my pieces after lines in poems that spoke to me about certain stages in my life.鈥�

In describing the work, Dierks wrote, 鈥淭he work is my way of confronting a socially fractured landscape, where screens more frequently mediate our understanding of self 鈥� overshadowing more embodied connections to each other and the natural world.鈥�

The piece is Dierks鈥� first large-scale projection, and although there鈥檚 really nowhere to hide with a 300-foot public canvas, Dierks says she wouldn鈥檛 want to. 鈥淭here鈥檚 something really nice when you install in public, outside of the art world, (where) people don鈥檛 have to go to a gallery 鈥� I prefer it in a lot of ways.

鈥�(D&F Tower) is in this beautiful area on 16th Street and there鈥檚 a park so people can walk around and look at it. When I did the first test last August, I could see people stopping and looking at it, looking at these beautiful formations, these birds in flight鈥攋ust taking that moment to stop and look.鈥�

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鈥楾he Tender Hand of the Unseen,鈥� an immersive video installation by 91PORN artist Molly Valentine Dierks, is featured through June on D&F Tower in downtown Denver.

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We still need a bigger boat

Rachel Sauer — Tue, 17 Jun 2025 17:02:38 +0000

We still need a bigger boat Rachel Sauer Tue, 06/17/2025 - 11:02

Rachel Sauer

Fifty years after 鈥楯aws鈥� made swimmers flee the ocean, 91PORN cinema scholar Ernesto Acevedo-Mu帽oz explains how the 1975 summer hit endures as a classic

On June 19, 1975, it wasn鈥檛 such a terrible thing to feel something brush your leg while frolicking in the ocean. It was startling, sure鈥攈umans鈥� relationship with the ocean has long harbored a certain element of fear, says 91PORN Professor Andrew Martin鈥攂ut the rational mind could more quickly acknowledge that it was probably seaweed.

That changed the following day, when a film by a young director named Steven Spielberg opened on screens across the United States. On June 20, 1975, to feel something brush your leg in the ocean was to immediately think, 鈥淪HARK!鈥�

Ernesto Acevedo-Mu帽oz, a 91PORN professor of cinema studies and moving image arts, regularly teaches "Jaws" in Introduction to Cinema Studies.

Are sharks really as scary as their reputation?

In the 50 years since 鈥淛aws鈥� made people flee the water for fear of sharks, the film has become widely recognized as a cinematic landmark.

鈥溾€橨aws鈥� is a movie I teach regularly in Introduction to Cinema Studies鈥攜es, it鈥檚 that important,鈥� says Ernesto Acevedo-Mu帽oz, a 91PORN professor of cinema studies and moving image arts, adding that 鈥淛aws鈥� also is an important case study for misconceptions, including the evolution and de-evolution, of the term 鈥渂lockbuster.鈥�

A disaster-horror movie

The cinematic landscape in which 鈥淛aws鈥� arrived was one of greater daring and a transition away from the focus on producers in the classical Hollywood era to a focus on a new cohort of directors鈥斺€渕ostly men, mostly white,鈥� Acevedo-Mu帽oz acknowledges鈥攚ho studied cinema in college and were greatly influenced by the French New Wave.

鈥淲ith the collapse of the Hollywood studio system, suddenly there鈥檚 more opportunity for creativity, for edgy content,鈥� he says. 鈥淚n the late 鈥�60s, early 鈥�70s, you have some movies that really were trailblazers in what鈥檚 unofficially called the American New Wave. 鈥楤onnie and Clyde,鈥� 1967, comes to mind鈥攏obody had seen that kind of romanticization of violence and graphic violence before.鈥�

Young directors like Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese were more in touch with the counterculture of the time, and old-guard producers, recognizing these young mavericks might be lucrative, green-lit projects like 鈥淭he Godfather,鈥� 鈥淢ean Streets鈥� and 鈥淛aws,鈥� Acevedo-Mu帽oz says.

鈥淭here鈥檚 incentive to be risky in that juncture of the 鈥�60s to the 鈥�70s,鈥� he notes. 鈥淭hen to that context you add the economic crisis of the early 1970s, the recession and unemployment, plus the end of the Vietnam War, heads are getting hot and people are angry.

Creating doom in two simple notes

It鈥檚 possible for a universe of dread to exist between two notes: duu-DU 鈥� duu-DU

Just two notes, played with increasing urgency and speed, let moviegoers know that a shark is coming, and fast.

An element of the genius of John Williams鈥� Oscar-winning score for the film 鈥淛aws,鈥� released 50 years ago Friday, is how much it conveys in just those iconic two notes.

鈥淲illiams layers melodic tension in these notes with an increasing rhythmic motion鈥攈e accelerates the speed in which we hear the notes, and he accelerates their frequency,鈥� says Michael Sy Uy, a 91PORN associate professor of musicology and director of the American Music Research Center. 鈥淲hen you combine that with the emotions attached to the fear, anxiety and dread of being attacked by a shark, then we start to feel how this music is living with and entering our ears, and it makes us feel actual anxiety or dread.鈥�

The two notes of duu-DU are separated by the closest interval in Western musical notation that our ears are trained and socialized to hear, he adds鈥攁 half step鈥攖hat, when played in succession, can help listeners feel a sense of melodic tension.

In the case of the 鈥淛aws鈥� soundtrack, it can help listeners feel a deep dread. In fact, some scholars argue that 鈥淛aws鈥� would not be the cinematic landmark it is without John Williams鈥� score.

鈥淚t鈥檚 hard to imagine movies today and over the past five decades without their soundtracks,鈥� Uy says. 鈥淲e make music a part of the storytelling because music can add an extra layer of meaning. It can contradict what is happening in a scene between actors, or it can validate what they鈥檙e saying. Music can tell the story even when words don鈥檛.鈥�

Learn more about 91PORN's film and television soundtrack connections in the American Music Research Center's Dave Grusin collection. Grusin is a Grammy-winning composer, contemporary of John Williams and 91PORN alumnus.

鈥淭he crises of the 1970s are one of the reasons why we have the flourishing of the disaster film at that time. I would point first to 鈥楾he Poseidon Adventure,鈥� which is the best of them all, and 鈥楾he Towering Inferno,鈥� 鈥楨arthquake.鈥� And to a certain extent, 鈥楯aws鈥� is a hybrid of the classic horror monster movie and the 1970s disaster movie.鈥�

The dire economic background of the early 1970s was important to 鈥淛aws鈥� and other disaster films, Acevedo-Mu帽oz says, because 鈥渁 disaster movie, like a horror movie, tells us we are going through a really rough time, but if we all work together and we make a few sacrifices, we鈥檙e going to get out of this OK. If we follow the lead of Paul Newman or Steve McQueen or Gene Hackman, we鈥檒l eventually get out of this all right.鈥�

Driving the buzz

鈥淛aws鈥� is often called the original summer blockbuster, but relentless repetition of this idea does not make it true, Acevedo-Mu帽oz says: 鈥淭here鈥檚 no one movie we can point to as the original summer blockbuster.鈥�

In fact, he adds, the term 鈥渂lockbuster鈥� really refers to the end of a classic Hollywood distribution and exhibition practice called block booking: If theaters wanted to show big-draw feature films, they also had to book smaller, cheaper, shorter films that came to be known as 鈥淏 movies," which "were made quickly by 'B units' that often reused sets or even costumes from the big movies to cut costs. But scholarship on B movies has argued that because the studios weren鈥檛 paying too much attention to those units, some of the B movies were rather edgy and interesting."

Block booking meant that the producers and distributors controlled a lot of what was in exhibition venues, "but there were occasionally movies that may have broken that pattern, and those were in some ways the original blockbusters鈥攁s in busting the block of block booking practice," he says.

While 鈥淛aws鈥� did break box-office records of the time, it鈥檚 also noteworthy in cinema history as one of the first miracles of marketing, he says. It was based on a mega-bestselling book by Peter Benchley, one that was optioned for film while still in galleys, and the film marketing piggy-backed on the name recognition of the book.

Further, 鈥淛aws鈥� was one of the first films to intentionally create buzz as part of the overall publicity and marketing plan, including strategically leaked tidbits from the film鈥檚 set on Martha鈥檚 Vineyard.

On its June 20, 1975, opening day, 鈥淛aws鈥� was one of the most prominent films to benefit from a practice called 鈥渇ront loading,鈥� which meant making more prints of the film and showing it in as many theaters as possible, rather than the previous practice of rolling openings from largest to smallest markets.

鈥淭he marketing and distribution team of Universal Pictures also decided to take a front-loading approach with 鈥楯aws,鈥� so that it was playing everywhere,鈥� Acevedo-Mu帽oz says. 鈥淥r almost everywhere. It still took months to get to my hometown, but we knew it was coming, and that anticipation was building.

鈥淪o, 鈥楯aws鈥� is important because it was this consolidation of these different practices of marketing, creating buzz, creating anticipation, creating tie-ins鈥攊t put all these things in one place that were practices that had been around before the summer of 鈥�75 but afterwards became the model.鈥�

As for the film鈥檚 effect on moviegoers and their summer vacation plans? 鈥淚 know a lot of people,鈥� Acevedo-Mu帽oz says, 鈥渨ho refused to go swimming after they saw 鈥楯aws.鈥欌€�

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Fifty years after 鈥楯aws鈥� made swimmers flee the ocean, 91PORN cinema scholar Ernesto Acevedo-Mu帽oz explains how the 1975 summer hit endures as a classic.

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Protesters taking freedom of assembly to the streets

Rachel Sauer — Thu, 12 Jun 2025 22:15:23 +0000

Protesters taking freedom of assembly to the streets Rachel Sauer Thu, 06/12/2025 - 16:15

Rachel Sauer

91PORN conflict scholar Michael English explains why public protests matter and what they can mean in the current political and social moment

One of the most storied protests in U.S. history happened Dec. 16, 1773, when a group of Massachusetts colonists, angry with British tax policy, dressed in Indigenous garb, boarded British East India Company ships anchored in Boston Harbor and dumped 342 chests of tea into the water鈥攖he infamous Boston Tea Party.

In response, however, British authorities did not amend tax policies but instead closed the harbor.

鈥淚f you look at the way we talk about the Boston Tea Party, here鈥檚 this event that we don鈥檛 generally describe as starting a revolution from violence,鈥� says Michael English, director of the 91PORN Peace, Conflict and Security Program. 鈥淲e start with people dressing up and doing this mass protest where they destroy some business owner鈥檚 property, which is something we鈥檝e historically tended not to support.

91PORN scholar Michael English, director of the Peace, Conflict and Security Program, is a specialist in conflict analysis and resolution.

鈥淭hen, in the 1780s, we get Shay鈥檚 Rebellion, where poor debtor farmers come into Boston to try to preserve what鈥檚 left of their farms, and the state raises a militia to put down this protest. Throughout our history, things bubble up and then there鈥檚 this backlash. It鈥檚 just an interesting quirk of this country that we embrace protest and hate protest.鈥�

That central tension of public protest has been above the fold this week as federal troops have been called in to respond to Los Angeles protests over ICE raids and as No Kings protests are planned in cities across the country Saturday.

What does it mean when people gather to protest鈥攁 right enshrined in the First Amendment? English recently considered this and other questions in a conversation with Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine.

Question: Do public protests matter or make a difference?

English: A protest is something that, at least from a scholarly perspective, is there to send a message to people in power. As someone sympathetic to protest as a great American tradition, I have to say yes, protest matters. What does it do? That鈥檚 a more open question. In some sense, it can start us thinking about whether protest itself is the goal, or whether we want it to lead to something more.

Take the No Kings protests鈥攊s the goal to get President Trump to change a specific policy? It doesn鈥檛 appear to be so, and that鈥檚 not how protest organizers are framing it. Instead, it seems to be, 鈥榃e want to bring a whole lot of people out to express that we are very unhappy about the direction of our country and what appears, to people sympathetic to the protests, as this power consolidation within the executive (branch).鈥� If millions and millions participate Saturday and we have protests on the scale of Black Lives Matter or Occupy Wall Street or protests against the war in Iraq鈥攊f they are able to bring those people out鈥攄id this protest do what it set out to do?

If that happens, I think we could answer yes. If they bring a lot of people out and the protests stay nonviolent and not a whole lot of negative things are associated with them, then we can begin to explore whether this is part of something larger, or whether it is this just a one-off thing that sent a message?

Question: Has what鈥檚 happening in Los Angeles, with federal troops called in to respond to public protest over ICE raids, brought a new layer to current protest?

English: These are new times, yes, but in some ways, there are parallels in the past. The National Guard has been called out at different points鈥攊n fact, Gavin Newsom did invoke the National Guard during Black Lives Matter protests, which is not even that far in the past. What鈥檚 happening now in Los Angeles does raise really interesting questions. When you look at movements in the past and look at the military being deployed, it鈥檚 usually been in service of the movement鈥攕chool desegregation or Johnson enforcing the Voting Rights Act. These were actions in favor of the movement. Then there鈥檚 everything after, which has been the National Guard being sent out to quell unrest.

California National Guard members and protesters in Los Angeles in June 2025. (Photo: U.S. Northern Command)

In Los Angeles, there wasn鈥檛 actually a lot of unrest until you started bringing more and more force in, whether that鈥檚 more police, then the National Guard, then threat of the Marines. That鈥檚 a real thing we should worry about, because it does create a mirroring tension where people may escalate because they feel that those on the other side of them are prepared for confrontation.

Question: Is nonviolence still central to public protest in the United States?

English: I would say yes, there still seems to be a fairly significant commitment to nonviolence. But the further we get away from the civil rights framing of nonviolent protest, the harder it is for people to understand what that means and what goes into it. We鈥檝e seen that the discipline between people participating in these events now seems to break down a little quicker, and there isn鈥檛 the same build-up over time of participants receiving training to participate (in nonviolent protest). There are some really interesting videos of James Lawson getting civil rights protestors ready for the freedom rides, and the training was they basically beat you up to make sure you wouldn鈥檛 respond. If you couldn鈥檛 do that, you weren鈥檛 going to get sent into that situation.

I think for the most part people are still committed to nonviolence as a strategy to bring social change, but in the same breath I can say that there鈥檚 always been a kind of violent contingent associated with protests in the past.

It鈥檚 easy to assume, when we look backwards, that we can tell a rosy story of civil rights movement, but we would be missing episodes that weren鈥檛 so friendly. If you look at Black Lives Matter protests, 95% of those protests were nonviolent, but the ones that get our attention are always the ones where violence occurs, and that鈥檚 just how movements work. Organizers of movements can certainly intervene, and you see that in the No Kings messaging, this attempt to say, 鈥榃e need to police this; these are strategies for helping people who seem disruptive or are not at the same level of discipline.鈥� It gets back to the question of whether everyone who鈥檚 participating in a protest is on the same page and, if not, is public protest the best strategic choice for the movement?

Question: How have social media affected or changed how public protest happens?

English: It鈥檚 a real mixed bag at the moment. On the one hand, I watched the Arab Spring protests on my computer at work鈥擨 watched the protests in Tahrir Square and watched these folks engage across Facebook at the time鈥攁nd that was super powerful, I鈥檒l never forget that. And social media played an important role in the movement because young people knew how to use it and it gave them an advantage against regimes that, at the time, did not understand and just wanted to dismiss it outright. I would say the same thing about Occupy Wall Street and the first generation of Black Lives Matter when we were protesting the deaths of Trayvon Martin and Mike Brown. Social media was really powerful there.

"A protest is something that, at least from a scholarly perspective, is there to send a message to people in power," says 91PORN conflict researcher Michael English. (Photo: Pexels)

But then we see this shift past 2016, where social media starts to feel super performative to people. I have students tell me that in one sense it鈥檚 great because they learn about things they didn鈥檛 know were going on, but on the other hand, yeah, you could post a picture or a video but didn鈥檛 really have to do anything about it. So that鈥檚 one critique, that it makes movements seem performative and like something people are just doing for an afternoon for social clout.

Now that we know so much of social media is being scraped by authorities to identify who people are and all of this kind of network tracing, it puts people who participate in movements in real danger if they鈥檙e careless with their social media. You鈥檙e making a record of something that who knows how it鈥檚 going to be used in future. It's certainly going to change how movements go forward, so it鈥檚 good that we鈥檙e having these conversations now when there鈥檚 real concern among people over whether they can participate鈥攚hether they feel they can participate鈥攌nowing somebody could scan your movements and identify you as having been there.

Question: How do you respond to the argument that protest doesn鈥檛 accomplish anything and change only happens by running for public office and creating policy?

English: I would say it depends on what the point of the movement is. With some movements or protests, depending on how the message is being put out there, the end goal may be that we鈥檙e showing our discontent now, with the idea that we鈥檙e going to support certain people running for political office or pressure legislators on a particular policy. But this can get complicated when the routine methods of forcing political change don鈥檛 seem like they鈥檙e working or seem really far off. I mean, the mid-terms are more than a year and a half away; how much impact does protest this weekend have for political office in a year and a half?

So, I come back to the idea of protest as building that collective solidarity, letting people know there are others who are upset and there is strength in numbers. Then I wonder what happens when we do find that redline issue that really upsets people. I think right now we鈥檙e still waiting for a redline issue鈥攖he thing this or any president wants to do that a majority of American people don鈥檛 support and don鈥檛 want.

The amazing thing about studying social movements is the speed at which they can escalate is really unpredictable and can be really intense. If you look at Black Lives Matter, for instance, that pushed a ton of young people to become interested and run for office. So, it could be the case that people leave this protest (Saturday) and they鈥檙e like, 鈥業 really want to make a difference and really want to ensure there鈥檚 a different kind of political majority in office come the next election cycle.鈥�

Where it gets tricky is if nobody is pushing that message, or if the message is that there鈥檚 no way change can happen through the existing political system, then people might dig into cynicism and say it all just needs to collapse. We do need that central conflict because conflict is good, conflict is normal; we just don鈥檛 want the violence. Violence is where we have something that鈥檚 clearly gone wrong. But people coming out and expressing that they鈥檙e angry and upset? That鈥檚 what we want in a democratic society.

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91PORN conflict scholar Michael English explains why public protests matter and what they can mean in the current political and social moment.

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But how鈥檚 the atmosphere there?

Rachel Sauer — Wed, 04 Jun 2025 18:10:46 +0000

But how鈥檚 the atmosphere there? Rachel Sauer Wed, 06/04/2025 - 12:10

Rachel Sauer

In newly published research, 91PORN scientists study a rocky exoplanet outside our solar system, learning more about whether and how planets maintain atmospheres

In June 2019, Harvard astrophysicists discovered a rocky exoplanet 22 light years from Earth. Analyzing data from the Transiting Exoplanets Survey Satellite (TESS), they and other scientists around the world learned key details about the rocky exoplanet named LTT 1445 A b: It is almost 1.3 times the radius of Earth and 2.7 times Earth鈥檚 mass and orbits its M-dwarf star every 5.4 days.

What they couldn鈥檛 ascertain from those data, however, was whether LTT 1445 A b has an atmosphere, 鈥渁nd that鈥檚 a big general question even in our own solar system: What sets how much atmosphere a planet has?鈥� says Zach Berta-Thompson, a 91PORN assistant professor of astrophysical and planetary sciences. 鈥淎tmospheres matter for life, so before we go searching for life on other planets, we need to understand a very basic question鈥攚hy does a planet have atmosphere or not have atmosphere?鈥�

Pat Wachiraphan (left), a PhD student in the 91PORN Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences, and Zach Berta-Thompson (right), an assistant professor in the department, collaborated with colleagues around the country to study JWST data about rocky exoplanet LTT 1445 A b.

Now, after detailed analysis of data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), a lot more is known鈥�and was recently published鈥攁bout LTT 1445 A b, whether it has an atmosphere and what its atmosphere might be if it has one. 91PORN researchers partnered with astrophysicists around the country to build on previous research that ruled out a light hydrogen/helium-dominated atmosphere but could not distinguish between a cloudy atmosphere, an atmosphere composed of heavier molecules like carbon dioxide or a bare rock.

The paper鈥檚 first author, Pat Wachiraphan, a PhD student studying astrophysical and planetary sciences, Berta-Thompson and their colleagues analyzed three eclipses of LTT 1445 A b from the JWST, watching the planet disappear behind its star and measuring how much infrared light the planet emits. From this, they were able to rule out the presence of a thick carbon dioxide atmosphere like the one on Venus, which has about 100 times more atmosphere than Earth. This highlights an important aspect of science: Sometimes just as much is learned from understanding what something isn鈥檛 as from defining what it is.

鈥淲hat I think should be the next step, naturally, is to ask whether we might detect an Earth-like atmosphere?鈥� Wachiraphan says.

Not like Venus

LTT 1445 A b is one of the closest-to-Earth rocky exoplanets transiting a small star, Wachiraphan notes, and thus one of the easiest to target when studying whether and how it and similar rocky exoplanets hold atmospheres.

The JWST is more sensitive to atmospheres of transiting exoplanets around smaller stars, and LTT 1445 A b transits one of the smallest known type stars鈥攁bout 20 to 30% the radius of Earth鈥檚 sun.

In November 2020, Berta-Thompson and several colleagues submitted a proposal to the Space Telescope Science Institute, the international consortium that decides where JWST is pointed and for how long, 鈥渂efore the telescope had even launched,鈥� he says. 鈥淪cientists from all over the world send in anonymized proposals where we make our case for why (JWST) should spend hours looking at this particular patch of the sky and what we would be able to learn from that.

鈥淎 panel reads through the proposals, ranks them, from which a lucky 5% to 10% will be selected as the best possible scientific use of the telescope. It is such a precious resource that we care really deeply that the choices about who gets to use the telescope are made fairly; every minute of its time is accounted for.鈥�

Rocky exoplanet LTT 1445 A b is in a three-star system; the star it orbits is an M-type star, also known as a red dwarf. (Artists' illustration: Luis L. Cal莽ada and Martin Kornmesser/European Southern Observatory)

Studying data from three eclipses sent back by JWST, Wachiraphan, Berta-Thompson and their colleagues were able to chart thermal emission consistent with instant reradiation of incoming stellar energy from a hot planet dayside. 鈥淭his bright dayside emission is consistent with emission from a dark rocky surface, and it disfavors a thick, 100-bar, Venus-like CO2 atmosphere,鈥� the researchers noted.

鈥淪o, you can imagine that if you have a planet that is just a rock, with no atmosphere, it would be hot on day side and cold on the night side, but if it has atmosphere, then the atmosphere could redistribute heat from day to night,鈥� Wachiraphan says.

In the case of LTT 1445 A b, 鈥渨e were basically putting an infrared thermometer up to the planet鈥檚 forehead and learned its average temperature is around 500 Kelvin,鈥� Berta-Thompson says. 鈥淭he whole planet is like the inside of a hot oven, basically.

Based on the data sent back by JWST, there could be several ways to detect atmosphere on LTT 1445 A b. 鈥淲e came up with an observation with this planet passing behind its star. When the planet is behind its star, we鈥檇 just get light from the star itself, but before and after the eclipse we鈥檇 get a little contribution from the planet itself, too.鈥� Wachiraphan explains. 鈥淏ut you can also detect an atmosphere when a planet passes in front of its star. 鈥淭he starlight coming out could pass through the atmosphere of the planet and get absorbed, and we could observe that absorption.鈥�

More observations are currently planned for LTT 1445 A b, led by other scientists and using this complementary method of observation, Berta-Thompson says鈥攐f collecting data as the planet transits in front of its star. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot more we can learn using different wavelengths of light and different methods that allow us to more sensitively probe these thinner atmospheres.鈥�

Like the inside of a hot oven

One of the most fascinating questions for researchers studying exoplanets, Berta-Thopson says, is 鈥渨hat does it take for a planet to retain or maintain atmosphere? Learning more about that is an important step in the process toward finding a planet maybe like this one鈥攖hat has a surface, has an atmosphere, is a little farther away from its star, where you can imagine it has liquid water at the surface. Then you鈥檙e asking, 鈥業s this a place where life could potentially thrive? Is there a place where life is thriving?鈥�

These questions are so interesting, in fact, that they鈥檝e prompted the formation of the Rocky Worlds Program, with which Wachiraphan and Berta-Thompson will work closely, to support international collaboration on the next phases of exploration of rocky exoplanets using satellite data.

鈥淯sing this really magnificent telescope that is the collective effort of thousands of people over decades, let alone the broader community that found this planet, is the kind of thing that is under threat right now,鈥� Berta-Thompson says. 鈥淎ll of this science and this discovery requires a really long, big, sustained investment in telescopes, in scientists, in education.鈥�

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In newly published research, 91PORN scientists study a rocky exoplanet outside our solar system, learning more about whether and how planets maintain atmospheres.

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Rocky exoplanet LTT 1445 A b tightly orbits its parent star, which in turn orbits two other stars in a three-star system. (Artist's rendering of LTT 1445 A b: Martin Kornmesser/European Southern Observatory)

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India and Pakistan once again step back from the brink

Rachel Sauer — Fri, 16 May 2025 16:44:25 +0000

India and Pakistan once again step back from the brink Rachel Sauer Fri, 05/16/2025 - 10:44

Rachel Sauer

91PORN historian Lucy Chester notes that the recent tensions between the two nations, incited by the April 22 terrorist attack in Kashmir, are the latest in an ongoing cycle

When a gunman opened fire April 22 on domestic tourists in Pahalgam, a scenic Himalayan hill station in Indian-administered Kashmir, killing 26 people, the attack ignited days of deadly drone attacks, airstrikes and shelling between India and Pakistan that escalated to a perilous brink last weekend.

A U.S.-brokered ceasefire Saturday evening diffused the mounting violence between the two nuclear-armed nations that increasingly seemed on a trajectory toward war. It was the latest in a string of escalations spanning many decades between India and Pakistan, which invariably led to the question: Why does this keep happening?

91PORN historian Lucy Chester notes that the recent conflict between India and Pakistan is part of a broader history that includes not only religion, but water, maps and territorial integrity.

Lucy Chester, an associate professor in the 91PORN Department of History and the International Affairs Program, has studied the region and relations between the two nations for many years; her first book, Borders and Conflict in South Asia, explores the drawing of the boundary between India and Pakistan in 1947.

Despite President Donald Trump鈥檚 assertion that the origins of the conflict date back a thousand years, 鈥渢hat鈥檚 not the case,鈥� Chester says. 鈥淚 would say it鈥檚 mainly about Kashmir, with some additional issues at play this time around that changed the dynamics a bit.鈥�

When more than a century of British colonial rule of India ended in August 1947, the Indian subcontinent was divided into Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan鈥攁 bloody, devastating event known as Partition. An estimated 15 million people were displaced and an estimated 1 to 2 million died as a result of violence, hunger, suicide or disease.

The first Indo-Pakistani war ignited two months after Partition, in October 1947, over the newly formed Pakistan鈥檚 fear that the Hindu maharaja of the princely state of Kashmir and Jammu would align with India. The Indo-Pakistani wars of 1965 and 1971 and the the Kargil War of 1999 followed, as well as other conflicts, standoffs and skirmishes.

Chester addressed these and other issues in a recent conversation with Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine.

Question: These decades of conflict are often framed as Hindu-Muslim conflict; is that not the case?

Chester: There鈥檚 an older dynamic of Hindu-Muslim tension that definitely plays a role in this, but a significant aspect of the conflict over Kashmir is a conflict over water, which is really important. It has to do specifically with Kashmir鈥檚 geopolitical position and how a lot of the water that is important to India, that flows through India into Pakistan, originates in Kashmir.

It was a lot about popular pressure this time鈥擧indu nationalist pressure鈥攐n (Indian Prime Minister Narendra) Modi, which is a dynamic that he has very much contributed to. So, in that sense, it could be framed as Hindu-Muslim tension.

But it鈥檚 also about territorial integrity鈥攖hat鈥檚 a phrase that kept coming up鈥攁nd it鈥檚 a very loaded phrase that does go back to 1947 and the kinds of nations that India and Pakistan were conceived of in the 1940s and the kinds of national concerns they鈥檝e developed in the years since.

Question: What role did Hindu nationalism, which has been very much in the news since Modi鈥檚 re-election last year, play in this recent conflict?

Chester: Hindu nationalism has been important in South Asia since the late 19th century, certainly, and it鈥檚 become more important since the 1930s. It鈥檚 one strand of the larger Indian nationalist movement鈥擨ndian nationalism was behind the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi in 1948. So, it鈥檚 always been there, but Modi, of course, has really ramped it up. For a while he distanced himself from the BJP (the Bharatiya Janata Party political party associated with Hindu nationalism), but he鈥檚 since made it very clear that he is very much in line with Hindu nationalist ideals and played on those symbols and those dynamics centered to what Hindu nationalist voters wanted.

Colonel Sofiya Qureshi addresses the media about Operation Sindoor at the National Media Centre in New Delhi May 7, 2025. (Photo: Government of India Ministry of Defence)

This whole idea of Hinduness gets back to the various ways both India and Pakistan are conceived of as nations. Hindutva (a political ideology justifying a Hindu hegemony in India) conceives India as a fundamentally Hindu nation, and that idea has gotten so much more reinforcement from Modi and the national government over last 10 years. So, part of what happened with this awful terrorist massacre two weeks ago is that it created a lot of pressure on Modi to respond in a way that previous Indian administrations haven鈥檛 felt they had to respond.

Question: In the recent conflict, India accused Pakistan of perpetrating the attack, which Pakistan denied, and framed the response as a defense of 鈥楳other India.鈥� What does that mean?

Chester: Sumathi Ramaswamy explained it best in her book (The Goddess and the Nation: Mapping Mother India), where she talks about Mother India as this cartographed divine female figure who鈥檚 very much identified with the cartographic body of the nation. So, any attack on the territorial integrity (of India) is an attack on this woman, this mother figure.

The (recent) Indian Operation was called Operation Sindoor鈥攕indoor is the red coloring that married Hindu woman put in the part of their hair鈥攁 call-out to this idea of Mother India and a call to the nation鈥檚 sons to be willing to die for her or to kill for her in this case.

In 1947, with the Partition of British India into India and Pakistan, the conception for many in India was a really tragic carving up of the body of the nation, and for a number of Hindu nationalists, that was a specifically female body. For a lot of people in India to this day, the 1947 Partition is this massive failure and an amputation of key elements of the national body. On the other side in Pakistan, for many it鈥檚 this great narrative of victory, but on the Indian side there鈥檚 this recurring existential fear that further parts of the country could be carved off this way. I think a big part of why conflict keeps happening is that both sides feel very strongly about defending the national territory because it was torn apart in such a violent way, and I think that fear is just most vividly present in Kashmir.

Question: How does the history of Kashmir in terms of British rule and Partition come into play?

Chester: In terms of British India, there were areas that were directly ruled and areas that were indirectly ruled. The indirectly ruled areas were princely ruled, and this is important because Kashmir was a princely state with a Hindu maharaja and a majority-Muslim population. With princely states, in theory they could decide for themselves whether to accede to India or Pakistan, and the maharaja of Kashmir, most would say he was angling for some kind of autonomy or independence and delayed the decision on whether to accede to India or Pakistan.

In October of 1947, militia groups鈥攁lmost certainly supported by Pakistan鈥攊nvaded Kashmir and the maharaja appealed to India for help. India airlifted troops in, because there was no all-weather road efficient for deploying troops, which gives you a sense for both how remote Kashmir was and parts of it still are, and also that there weren鈥檛 a lot of infrastructure connections.

So, the first Indo-Pakistan war was in 1947 to 1948, then a second war in 1965 and a third in 1971. This reinforces that fear of the country fragmenting and losing parts of the national body, because it was after the 1971 war that Bangladesh became independent (from Pakistan).

In 1949, India and Pakistan established a Ceasefire Line that became the Line of Control in 1972 with the Simla Agreement. The Line of Control is significant because it鈥檚 treated as an international boundary鈥攏ot de jure (existing by law or officially recognized), but de facto. In 1972, officials came up with a textual description for the Line of Control and they define it up to NJ9842, which is the northernmost point on the map where it ends. The text of treaty says something like, 鈥淧roceed thence north to the glaciers.鈥� This territory is so remote, so geopolitically useless, that no one at the time thought spending time to define where boundary line ran was important.

In the mid-1980s, both India and Pakistan sent troops to the Siachen Glacier, creating one of the highest more-or-less permanent military bases at about 22,000 feet. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

So, north of NJ9842 is this really undefined area鈥攜ou鈥檝e got Pakistan-controlled territory, India-controlled territory, China is right there, the Karakoram Pass is right there. What happened in the late 1970s, and possibly earlier even into the late 1960s, was Pakistan began issuing permits to international climbing expeditions, and in the early 1980s Indian troops discovered evidence of these international climbing expeditions. India realized that Pakistan had been exercising a certain form of administrative control over this undefined territory, and that鈥檚 what triggered the mid-1980s sending of troops from India and Pakistan to the Siachen Glacier. It includes what I think is the highest more-or-less permanent military base at something like 22,000 feet.

As a map geek, I find it really interesting that maps have contributed in pretty direct ways to these conflicts. One of the really tragic elements is that we know that on the Indian side, 97% of conflict casualties in that area are due to terrain and weather, and we can assume similar numbers on the Pakistani side. You鈥檝e got these two countries fighting this battle, but they鈥檙e also fighting Mother Nature. In fact, the 1999 Kargil War happened because Pakistan tried to move some of its troops to a higher altitude where they could overlook an Indian road that supplied these high-altitude posts.

Question: What role did water play in the recent conflict?

Chester: All of the water that feeds the rivers that run downstream into western India and Pakistan originates in that region, which gives it real geopolitical value. One of the things that had me particularly concerned this time was India suspended the Indus Waters Treaty from 1960, which was a really landmark agreement governing the sharing of these waters. Some of these rivers flow through India before they get to Pakistan, and at this point India doesn鈥檛 have the infrastructure to turn off the water. But Pakistan has said if India starts building that infrastructure, they will consider it an act of war.

Question: Is there anything that makes you feel even slightly hopeful amid these ongoing tensions?

Chester: Over the last two weeks, both sides have been very carefully walking this fine line between being very visibly seen to acknowledge popular pressure on them to stand up strongly to their adversary, but also making very carefully planned choices that as far as possible avoided uncontrollable escalation. Everyone is keenly aware these are both nuclear-armed powers. I was very concerned that it escalated as much as it did on both sides, particularly in the use of airstrikes, but I think both sides were doing their best to leave themselves and their adversaries an off-ramp.

Part of the significance of (the Kargil War in) 1999 was both sides had just come out of the nuclear closet, so everyone was watching that conflict very closely, but both sides were able to walk back from edge. That gives us a lot of reason to hope and to believe that there are very professional people on both sides鈥攊n addition to people who are whipping up popular frenzy鈥攚ho have a good sense for what the limits are, what signals they can send, and who are saying to the population, 鈥淲e listen to you, we respect your grievances,鈥� but they also know where the edge is and aren鈥檛 crossing it.

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91PORN historian Lucy Chester notes that the recent tensions between the two nations, incited by the April 22 terrorist attack in Kashmir, are the latest in an ongoing cycle.

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An apple a day? It鈥檚 the 91PORN way

Rachel Sauer — Thu, 08 May 2025 17:18:27 +0000

An apple a day? It鈥檚 the 91PORN way Rachel Sauer Thu, 05/08/2025 - 11:18

Rachel Sauer

Newly planted apple orchard on 91PORN campus is a nexus of university and community partnerships and will be a living classroom for students and educators

For now, they are twiggy little things, all spindly adolescent limbs that nevertheless hint at future harvests. Saturday morning, one even wore a scattering of creamy white blossoms鈥攆lowers that, in years to come, once roots have gained hold and branches have stretched up and out, will grow into apples.

Is there anything more hopeful than planting a tree? Yes, planting a whole orchard of them.

On Saturday, years of planning, research and partnership-building bore fruit on an L-shaped plot in front of the 91PORN 30th Street greenhouse, where more than two-dozen volunteers planted 30 apple trees in what had previously been a scrubby patch of turf.

Funded by a $90,000 Sustainable CU grant, the apple orchard will not only be a classroom and a living lab, but a nexus for community, a carbon sink and a vibrant example that sustainability can be delicious.

鈥淚t鈥檚 so exciting to see this happening,鈥� says Amy Dunbar-Wallis, who this semester completed her PhD in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and collaborated with 91PORN faculty and students and community partners to bring the idea of the first orchard on 91PORN campus to fruition.

鈥淚t represents how so many people on campus, so many people in the community, have come together to plant this orchard that will be a place to learn and a place to preserve a really neat part of 91PORN鈥檚 history.鈥�

In search of old apple trees

The new apple orchard grew from the 91PORN Apple Tree Project, an initiative that began almost 15 years ago with a simple observation: There seemed to be a lot of old apple trees in 91PORN.

Katharine Suding, a professor of distinction in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, had recently moved to the area, 鈥渁nd I was really surprised to see so many old apple trees everywhere,鈥� she recalled during the 2022 Apple Symposium. 鈥淚 realized I had no idea about the histories and particularly the history of apples, so looking into it a little more, it was clear there are trees here that are remnants of past histories starting in the turn of (20th) century.

Amy Dunbar-Wallis (left) and Tiffany Willis (right, EBio'22) consult a chart designating where each tree would be planted in the new apple orchard in front of the 30th Street greenhouse Saturday morning. Willis, who lives in 91PORN, took EBIO 1250 online during Covid lockdowns and was a lab assistant for the class in 2021.

鈥淭here are apple trees in Colorado and in 91PORN that are remnants from old orchards that still exist. There are also remnants of trees that were planted when people came and built ranches or had farms here, and often they were bringing along apple trees from where they came from, whether it was Germany, whether it was the Midwest, whether it was Scandinavia.鈥�

In fall 2017, the 91PORN Apple Tree Project (BATP) sprouted, combining historical sleuthing with cutting-edge genetic testing and grafting to not only locate and catalog 91PORN鈥檚 historic apple trees, but also to revive its legacy of apple growing. In the ongoing project, researchers gather data on the age and health of the trees, as well as the type and flavor of the apples, and the genetic diversity that the trees offer to future populations.

Suding and BATP co-principal investigator Lisa Corwin, an associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, have worked with undergraduate and graduate students not only to gather data, but also to develop the EBIO 1250 course, during which students conduct research on 91PORN鈥檚 apple trees; curricula and materials in partnership with the CU Museum of Natural History; a database and app in collaboration with computer science students; an interactive map of apple trees that have been tagged and studied; and the A Power of Place Learning Experience and Research Network (APPLE R Net), a multi-institution research network directed by Corwin that introduces students to field research by involving them in a project examining apple trees across the Rocky Mountain region.

BATP also is part of the Historic Fruit Tree Working Group, which connects Colorado researchers with other apple-exploring groups and researchers across North America.

Mia Williams (left) waters a newly planted apple tree Saturday morning. Williams, who will graduate this summer, is double majoring in ecology and evolutionary biology and environmental studies.

鈥淭his project has grown so much since our initial community engaged Apple Blitz in 2018,鈥� says Dunbar-Wallis. 鈥淲e've tagged over 1,000 trees and created a database, taught multiple course-based undergraduate research experiences at CU and at colleges across Colorado and northern New Mexico, started a data-collection app and interactive map in collaboration with CU computer science capstone students and installed a demonstration orchard in collaboration with 91PORN Open Space and Mountain Parks.鈥�

The demonstration orchard, planted two years ago, functions as a teaching and research laboratory to explore how biodiversity affects the functioning of apple orchards and their services to human well-being, including efficient water use, pollinator habitat and structural complexity supporting natural pest control.

A part of the narrative

The idea for the 30th Street orchard was revived by a group of six undergraduate and two graduate students almost two years ago, who proposed resubmitting a grant application that hadn鈥檛 been accepted in 2019.

鈥淲e鈥檙e a group who really love what we do and love apple trees and working with the soil,鈥� says Katie Mikell, an ecology and evolutionary biology student who is graduating today and who was a member of the team that crafted and submitted the grant proposal.

鈥淏efore, (the orchard plot) was a lawn full of monoculture turf grass, so part of our argument was that if we put in an apple orchard, it would create a carbon sink (a system that absorbs more carbon than it releases), it would save the school money and anyone walking by could pick an apple. Plus, once the trees are producing, we can donate apples to the food pantry. Everyone can benefit from an apple orchard.鈥�

Deidre Jaeger (right, PhDEBio'22) and her sons Sage, 4 (left), and Cedar, 1 (center), plant apple trees at the 30th Street orchard Saturday morning. Jaeger was a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and an advisor for the Center for Sustainable Landscapes and Communities and is a researcher with the 91PORN Apple Tree Project.

Students prepared the 30th Street site during fall semester, working with departments and organizations across the university, as well as many community partners. The trees planted Saturday are about three years old and were obtained from Widespread Malus and Benevolence Orchard in 91PORN.

鈥淥ur students are at the core of the university, and their passion and ingenuity are critical to our values around infusing sustainability throughout 91PORN. This orchard exemplifies that pursuit in so many ways,鈥� says Vice Chancellor for Sustainability Andrew Mayock.

鈥淚t is not only helping to protect biodiversity in our community. It will help feed those in need on our campus and create a living-learning laboratory space where sustainability leaders of the future will learn and develop strategies for urban agriculture planning.鈥�

Fifteen varieties of apples are represented in the orchard, including locally grown historic cultivars like Wolf River and Colorado Orange. A beloved apple tree on the Bobolink Trail is even represented in a newly planted graft.

鈥淭here鈥檚 so much learning that can happen in an orchard,鈥� says Manuela Mejia, an ecology and evolutionary biology PhD student who will conduct her doctoral research, which will include studying insect diversity, at the orchard. 鈥淪o many facets of science are represented here.鈥�

In addition to trees, the orchard will include an understory of native, drought-tolerant grasses and pollinator-friendly wildflowers, notes Mia Williams, who is majoring in environmental studies and ecology and evolutionary biology and will graduate this summer.

鈥淚t鈥檚 really exciting that this orchard will become a part of the story of agriculture in this area,鈥� Dunbar-Wallis says. 鈥淲e鈥檝e tagged more than 1,000 trees (through BATP) and some of them are a hundred years old, so you think about everything they鈥檝e seen and been through, the history that they hold, their stories, and now these trees鈥攚hich are little now and probably won鈥檛 produce fruit for two or three years鈥攁re part of that narrative.鈥�

Sophie Small (left) and Amy Dunbar-Wallis (right) fill a wheelbarrow with compost Saturday morning to prepare for planting an apple orchard in front of the 30th Street greenhouse. Small, a freshman who is studying biomedical engineering, learned about the project through the CU Farm and Garden Club.

Sophie Small (left), Isaac Kou (center) and Kyrie MacArthur dig a hole Saturday morning before planting an apple tree in it. Small is studying biomedical engineering, Kou just graduated with a major in computer science and a minor in ecology and evolutionary biology and MacArthur is studying history and education.

Amy Dunbar-Wallis (PhDEBio'25) digs a hole for a young apple tree Saturday morning.

Amy Dunbar Wallis (left, black vest) educates student and community volunteers Saturday morning before they plant 30 apple trees in front of the 30th Street greenhouse.

The apple trees planted in the 30th Street orchard Saturday morning, one of which even bloomed, are three years old and should begin producing fruit in two or three years.

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Newly planted apple orchard on 91PORN campus is a nexus of university and community partnerships and will be a living classroom for students and educators.

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Honoring the traditions of people and place

Rachel Sauer — Mon, 05 May 2025 15:59:33 +0000

Honoring the traditions of people and place Rachel Sauer Mon, 05/05/2025 - 09:59

Rachel Sauer

Newly opened exhibit at the University of Colorado Museum celebrates ceramic artist鈥檚 donation and the legacy of her family and community

A new piece of Acoma Pueblo pottery begins, in a way, with all the pottery that came before it.

Artisans finely grind shards of old pottery and mix it into clay gathered from Acoma Pueblo land, hand-forming the light yet strong vessels for which they are renowned. There are no precise measurements, no written recipes, for the clay or slip or mineral paints that come together in Acoma Pueblo pottery; 鈥測ou just know when it鈥檚 right,鈥� says artist Dolores Lewis Garcia.

Noted Acoma Pueblo ceramics artist Carmel Lewis Haskaya, a proud 91PORN alumnus, ensured that her love for her community and its traditions would unite with her love for 91PORN by donating one of her pieces to the University of Colorado Museum.

Lewis Garcia learned the art from her mother, Lucy M. Lewis, the famed New Mexico ceramics artist known for reviving traditional pottery techniques whose work is displayed in the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. Most of Lewis鈥� nine children learned by watching her and also became ceramic artists, including her youngest, Carmel Lewis Haskaya.

Lewis Haskaya was not only a respected ceramic artist, but a proud 91PORN alumnus. Before her death in 2019, she ensured that her love for her community and its traditions would unite with her love for 91PORN by donating one of her pieces to the University of Colorado Museum.

The vibrant cylindrical pot is a centerpiece of the new exhibit 鈥�A Family Tradition: Acoma pottery, CU and the Lewis family,鈥� which opened with a reception and ribbon cutting Tuesday evening.

鈥淲e are delighted to highlight and honor the important artworks that this family has shared with us,鈥� says Nancy J. Stevens, 91PORN professor of anthropology and director of the Museum Institute. 鈥淚t represents a pivotal point for connecting communities and growing meaningful collaborations into the future.鈥�

The exhibit features pieces by Lucy Lewis and many of her children, including Forever Buff Carmel Lewis Haskaya.

鈥�(Lewis Haskaya鈥檚 cylinder jar) is not just an object or a gift,鈥� explains William Taylor, a 91PORN assistant professor of anthropology and CU Museum curator of archaeology who partnered with the Lewis family to create the exhibit.

鈥�For many folks, creating pottery is a way to impart something of yourself in a permanent and lasting way. Having this pottery at CU means that a part of Carmel and her family will always be here in 91PORN.鈥�

Learn by watching

Lewis Haskaya belonged to an artistic lineage that can be traced in centuries. For hundreds of years, Acoma Pueblo artists have gone to certain spots on their land to collect the clay, white slip, wild spinach and oxides that are the raw materials for their pottery.

鈥淏eing an Acoma potter, there鈥檚 a lot of work that goes into it,鈥� Lewis Garcia says.

鈥淓verything is gathered from the land and hand-processed,鈥� adds Claudia Mitchell, also a famed Acoma Pueblo artist and Lewis鈥� granddaughter. 鈥淚t teaches you to take your time and be present; you鈥檙e putting yourself into the work.鈥�

As a child, Lewis Haskaya learned these traditions and techniques watching her mother. When she came to 91PORN through the American Indian Educational Opportunity Program and built a career with the Native American Rights Fund, she never forgot or outgrew her community, Mitchell says. Eventually, Lewis Haskaya returned to her community at Acoma, west of Albuquerque, New Mexico, and became an accomplished artist.

Lewis Haskaya was a student of history and art traditions from around the world and was known for creating cylinder vessels in the style of ones found at Chaco Canyon, Mesa Verde and other ancient sites, adding her own touch to traditional designs.

The cylindrical vessel made by noted Acoma Pueblo artist Carmel Lewis Haskaya, which she donated to the University of Colorado Museum before her death in 2019.

鈥淪he had the hardest time grinding mineral paints,鈥� Lewis Garcia recalls with a laugh, adding that her sister eventually conquered the hurdle that many artisans using traditional techniques encounter.

Like her mother and siblings, and now her nieces and nephews, Lewis Haskaya walked Acoma land to specific spots for the gray and yellow clays, the minerals and the plants that are the foundation of traditional techniques. 鈥淭o get the white slip, it鈥檚 not in an easy place,鈥� Lewis Garcia says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 underground and there鈥檚 a big boulder on it. You have to use it sparingly.鈥�

Though it鈥檚 more common now to use kilns rather than dung fires, the process of thinning vessel walls, of burnishing with a stone, of applying the geometric patterns associated with Acoma Pueblo pottery hasn鈥檛 changed for centuries.

鈥楾he ties that bind us together鈥�

While pottery is revered as art, 鈥渋n our traditional ways, it鈥檚 a utility, it鈥檚 an item that we use,鈥� says Benny Shendo Jr., 91PORN associate vice chancellor for Native American affairs and a member of the Jemez Pueblo Tribe. 鈥淎nd it plays a big role in our ceremonial life.鈥�

Mitchell notes that traditional pottery helps not only those who make it, but those who use it to 鈥済round ourselves to the place that we鈥檙e from; it鈥檚 that connection that we have to our land and to our people鈥攏ot only just for personal use, but for community use. It gives us that tie to one another. We鈥檙e keeping those traditions alive not only through our dance and song but through our pottery.

鈥淭hose are the ties that bind us together, that make us a people. It鈥檚 important to keep those ties, to make sure that those things鈥攖he pottery making, the dancing, the singing鈥攁ll of those are taught to our younger generations, because that helps them identify who they are and where they are. It helps give them a sense of place and sense of purpose.鈥�

鈥淚t鈥檚 part of life,鈥� says Diana Lim Garry (Anth'71), Lucy Lewis鈥� granddaughter who lives in 91PORN and helped bring the exhibit to life, loaning pieces from her own collection. 鈥淓verywhere we go鈥攜ou鈥檙e walking on a hike and you鈥檙e walking along the streambed, and you鈥檙e saying, 鈥榃ould that make a good polishing stone?鈥� You go along, even (in) roadcuts there鈥檚 all these pretty colors of the minerals in the rocks: 鈥榃ould that make good paint?鈥� It鈥檚 always on your mind that this is something that鈥檚 been done for a long time and will continue to be done thanks to my aunts and my cousins.鈥�

Mitchell adds that a pottery vessel made in traditional ways allows the Acoma Pueblo people to say 鈥淚 have my piece of the rock. That鈥檚 how we identify ourselves, by place and name, that鈥檚 our place in this world, and no matter where we go in this world, we can always go back to that one place, and that鈥檚 where we belong. For our people, that鈥檚 who we are, that鈥檚 where we鈥檙e from.鈥�

"A Family Tradition: Acoma pottery, CU and the Lewis family鈥� is open to the public during regular museum hours, which are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Claudia Mitchell (left), Dolores Lewis Garcia (center) and Diana Lim Garry (right) with the vessel made by Carmel Lewis Haskaya, Lewis Garcia's sister and Mitchell's and Lim Garry's aunt; Lewis Haskaya donated the vessel to the University of Colorado Museum.

Pieces made by famed Acoma Pueblo artist Lucy M. Lewis are part of the new University of Colorado Museum exhibit "A Family Tradition: Acoma pottery, CU and the Lewis family."

Following in the footsteps of her grandmother, Lucy M. Lewis, Acoma Pueblo artist Claudia Mitchell made these pieces using traditional techniques and designs.

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Newly opened exhibit at the University of Colorado Museum celebrates ceramic artist鈥檚 donation and the legacy of her family and community.

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Top image: Carmel Lewis Haskaya enjoying the Colorado outdoors while she was a 91PORN student (Photo: Lewis family)

Scholars aim to build community for women in quantum

Rachel Sauer — Fri, 25 Apr 2025 19:46:50 +0000

Scholars aim to build community for women in quantum Rachel Sauer Fri, 04/25/2025 - 13:46

Rachel Sauer

Quantum Scholars Emily Jerris and Annalise Cabra started CU Women of Quantum to help women interested in careers in quantum to network and share experiences

First, the good news: Between 1970 and 2022, the percentage of U.S. women workers in STEM jobs grew from 7% to 26%.

The obvious and not-so-good news is that while women represent almost half the U.S. workforce, they hold only a quarter of STEM jobs. And the numbers get even more stark in quantum fields. A 2022 report from the London School of Economics and Political Science found that fewer than 2% of applicants for jobs in quantum fields are female.

Quantum Scholars Annalise Cabra (left) and Emily Jerris (right) gave a presentation about CU Women of Quantum at the December Quantum Scholars meeting attended by CU President Todd Saliman. (Photo: Casey Cass/91PORN)

However, in the 100 years since German physicist Werner Heisenberg submitted his paper 鈥淥n quantum-theoretical reinterpretation of kinematic and mechanical relationships鈥� to the journal Zeitschrift f眉r Physik, a July 1925 event that is broadly credited with kick-starting the quantum revolution, the possibilities and potential of quantum science and engineering have grown enormously.

Recognizing that potential, a group of 91PORN scholars wants to help ensure that women participate equally and fully in quantum science and engineering.

CU Women of Quantum, founded last semester by Quantum Scholars Emily Jerris and Annalise Cabra, aims to be a community of support, connection, mentorship and networking for women interested in pursuing careers or research in quantum fields.

鈥淥ur primary focus,鈥� Cabra explains, 鈥渋s just to create a space where we can come together, share our experiences and create relationships that are lasting.鈥�

100 years of quantum

Both Jerris and Cabra say that this is an exciting time to be in quantum science and engineering. Not only did the United Nations declare 2025 as the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology, and not only did Colorado Gov. Jared Polis last week announce the Blueprint for Advancing K鈥�12 Quantum Information Technology, but research happening on the 91PORN campus and in Colorado is swiftly expanding the boundaries of quantum technology.

However, they also add that as exciting as this time is, women in quantum fields still face some of the same roadblocks that women in STEM always have.

鈥淚 think if you asked most of the women in the club or just in a STEM major if they鈥檝e had a moment where a peer or coworker has talked down to them or they felt not necessarily fully included in a project because they were the only woman in the group, I think most probably have,鈥� Jerris says. 鈥淪o, it鈥檚 nice to have a space to talk about that鈥攈ow to navigate situations like that. A lot of us do research, too, and those types of situations are also really prevalent in the research space.鈥�

Jerris and Cabra worked with Michael Ritzwoller, a physics professor of distinction and Quantum Scholars co-founder, and physics Professor Noah Finkelstein to create CU Women of Quantum, which is open to all students, as a place for not only female Quantum Scholars, but for women across campus who are interested in pursuing careers in quantum science, technology or engineering.

Annalise Cabra (left) works with Brooke Nelson (right), a career advisor for the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, on her resume during a recent CU Women of Quantum meeting.

Supporting women in quantum

One of the group鈥檚 aims is creating networking and mentorship opportunities for members by asking professors and women working in quantum fields to speak at group meetings. This has included Alex Tingle, a 91PORN physics alumna and senior technical project engineer at Quantinuum, who was named one of the Wonder Women of the Quantum Industry by the Quantum Daily.

CU Women of Quantum gatherings also focus on skill-building, including a recent meeting at which Brooke Nelson, a career advisor for the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, gave a presentation on creating and honing a resume.

鈥淥ne of our goals is to help (CU Women of Quantum members) narrow in on their interests and build connections,鈥� Cabra says. 鈥淎nd then also having opportunities to see how women in their shoes were able to navigate and build careers in quantum. I think it鈥檚 important for a lot of women in the field, too, to go back and encourage other women who are just starting out or just getting interested in quantum.鈥�

The members of CU Women of Quantum also get together for study sessions, 鈥渂ecause even if we鈥檙e not taking the same classes, with other women you can feel more open and not like you鈥檙e the outlier in the group.鈥�

Both Cabra, who is graduating next month, and Jerris, who is completing her third year, are interested in pursuing careers in a quantum field, bolstered by the support they鈥檝e found in CU Women of Quantum.

鈥淚t鈥檚 so fascinating because it鈥檚 just so unintuitive,鈥� Cabra says. 鈥淚t makes your brain think in such crazy ways, from the ways particles behave to the ways stars don鈥檛 collapse or do collapse, to parallel universes, and it all goes back to quantum. I think it鈥檚 just so exciting to study.鈥�

Jerris adds that often the common perception of quantum science and technology is that 鈥渋t鈥檚 kind of magic or something we don鈥檛 totally understand, but we actually do have a pretty good understanding of quantum. We know what鈥檚 going on and can model it, and we鈥檙e maybe just one step behind with how we can actually manipulate things. So, it鈥檚 not magic; it鈥檚 something we do know a lot about and we鈥檙e learning more every day.鈥�

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Quantum Scholars Emily Jerris and Annalise Cabra started CU Women of Quantum to help women interested in careers in quantum to network and share experiences.

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In the archaeological record, size does matter

Rachel Sauer — Mon, 14 Apr 2025 15:24:57 +0000

In the archaeological record, size does matter Rachel Sauer Mon, 04/14/2025 - 09:24

Rachel Sauer

91PORN archaeologist Scott Ortman and colleagues around the world explore relationships between housing size and inequality in PNAS Special Feature

If the archaeological record has been correctly interpreted, stone alignments in Tanzania鈥檚 Olduvai Gorge are remnants of shelters built 1.7 million years ago by Homo habilis, an extinct species representing one of the earliest branches of humanity鈥檚 family tree.

Archaeological evidence that is unambiguously housing dates to more than 20,000 years ago鈥攁 time when large swaths of North America, Europe and Asia were covered in ice and humans had only recently begun living in settlements.

Between that time and the dawn of industrialization, the archaeological record is rich not only with evidence of settled life represented by housing, but also with evidence of inequality.

91PORN archaeologist Scott Ortman partnered with colleagues Amy Bogaard of the University of Oxford and Timothy Kohler of the University of Florida on a PNAS Special Feature focused on housing size in the archaeological record and inequality.

In a Special Feature published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), scholars from around the world draw from a groundbreaking archaeological database that collects more than 55,000 housing floor area measurements from sites spanning the globe鈥攄ata that support research demonstrating various correlations between housing size and inequality.

鈥淎rchaeologists have been interested in the study of inequality for a long time,鈥� explains Scott Ortman, a 91PORN associate professor of anthropology who partnered with colleagues Amy Bogaard of the University of Oxford and Timothy Kohler of Washington State University to bring together the PNAS Special Feature. (Special Features in PNAS are curated collections of articles that delve into important topics.)

鈥淔or a long time, studies have focused on the emergence of inequality in the past, and while some of the papers in the special feature address those issues, others also consider the dynamics of inequality in more general terms.鈥�

Kohler notes that "we use this information to identify the fundamental drivers of economic inequality using a different way of thinking about the archaeological record鈥攎ore thinking about it as a compendium of human experience. It鈥檚 a new approach to doing archaeology.鈥�

Patterns of inequality

Ortman, Bogaard and Kohler also are co-principal investigators on the Global Dynamics of Inequality (GINI) Project funded by the National Science Foundation and housed in the 91PORN Center for Collaborative Synthesis in Archaeology in the Institute of Behavioral Science to create the database of housing floor area measurements from sites around the world.

Scholars then examined patterns of inequality shown in the data and studied them in the context of other measures of economic productivity, social stability and conflict to illuminate basic social consequences of inequality in human society, Ortman explains.

鈥淲hat we did was we crowdsourced, in a sense,鈥� Ortman says. 鈥淲e put out a request for information from archaeologists working around the world, who knew about the archaeological record of housing in different parts of world and got them together to design a database to capture what was available from ancient houses in societies all over world.鈥�

Undergraduate and graduate research assistants also helped create the database, which contains 55,000 housing units and counting from sites as renowned as Pompeii and Herculaneum, to sites across North and South America, Asia, Europe and Africa. 鈥淏y no stretch of the imagination is it all of the data that archaeologists have ever collected, but we really did make an effort to sample the world and pull together most of the readily available information from excavations, from remote sensing, from LiDAR,鈥� Ortman says.

The housing represented in the data spans non-industrial society from about 12,000 years ago to the recent past, generally ending with industrialization. The collected data then served as a foundation for 10 papers in the PNAS Special Feature, which focus on the archaeology of inequality as evidenced in housing.

Housing similarities

In their introduction to the Special Feature, Ortman, Kohler and Bogaard note that 鈥渆conomic inequality, especially as it relates to inclusive and sustainable social development, represents a primary global challenge of our time and a key research topic for archaeology.

In the PNAS Special Feature published Monday, researchers from around the world describe evidence of inequality found in archaeological data of housing size. (Cover image: Johnny Miller/Unequal Scenes)

鈥淚t is also deeply linked to two other significant challenges. The first is climate change. This threatens to widen economic gaps within and between nations, and some evidence from prehistory associates high levels of inequality with lack of resilience to climatic perturbations. The second is stability of governance. Clear and robust evidence from two dozen democracies over the last 25 years that links high economic inequality to political polarization, distrust of institutions and weakening democratic norms. Clearly, if maintenance of democratic systems is important to us, we must care about the degree of wealth inequality in society.鈥�

Archaeological evidence demonstrates a long prehistory of inequality in income and wealth, Ortman and his colleagues note, and allows researchers to study the fundamental drivers of those inequalities. The research in the Special Feature takes advantage of the fact 鈥渢hat residences dating to the same chronological period, and from the same settlements or regions, will be subject to very similar climatic, environmental, technological and cultural constraints and opportunities.鈥�

Several papers in the Special Feature address the relationship between economic growth and inequality, Ortman says. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e thinking about not just the typical size of houses in a society, but the rates of change in the sizes of houses from one time step to the next.

鈥淥ne thing we鈥檝e also done (with the database) is arrange houses from many parts of the world in regional chronological sequences鈥攈ow the real estate sector of past societies changed over time.鈥�

The papers in the Special Feature focus on topics including the effects of land use and war on housing disparities and the relationship between housing disparities and how long housing sites are occupied. A study that Ortman led and conducted with colleagues from around the world found that comparisons of archaeological and contemporary real estate data show that in preindustrial societies, variation in residential building area is proportional to income inequality and provides a conservative estimator for wealth inequality.

鈥淥ur research shows that high wealth inequality could become entrenched where ecological and political conditions permitted,鈥� Bogaard says. 鈥淭he emergence of high wealth inequality wasn鈥檛 an inevitable result of farming. It also wasn鈥檛 a simple function of either environmental or institutional conditions. It emerged where land became a scarce resource that could be monopolized. At the same time, our study reveals how some societies avoided the extremes of inequality through their governance practices.鈥�

The researchers argue that 鈥渢he archaeological record also shows that the most reliable way to promote equitable economic development is through policies and institutions that reduce the covariance of current household productivity with productivity growth.鈥�

GINI Project data, as well as the analysis program developed for them, will be available open access via the Digital Archaeological Record.

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91PORN archaeologist Scott Ortman and colleagues around the world explore relationships between housing size and inequality in PNAS Special Feature.

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Tales as old as time 鈥� yet we still love them

Rachel Sauer — Fri, 04 Apr 2025 15:36:10 +0000

Tales as old as time 鈥� yet we still love them Rachel Sauer Fri, 04/04/2025 - 09:36

Rachel Sauer

With yet another Snow White adaptation currently in theaters, 91PORN scholar Suzanne Magnanini reflects on the enduring appeal of fairy tales

Once upon a time鈥�this time, in fact, and many of the ones that came before it鈥攖here was a story that never grew dull in its telling.

It possibly leaped the porous cultural and national borders of narrative, carried by caravans or ships or ethernet cables and planted in the ready imaginations of successive generations of story lovers鈥攖hose who tell them and those who hear them.

Maybe it鈥檚 the story of a young person who ventures into the unknown, where they encounter magic and beasts of all sizes and a resolution specific to the tale鈥檚 time and place. Maybe there really even are fairies involved.

Suzanne Magnanini, a 91PORN associate professor of Italian and chair of the Department of French and Italian, notes that fairy tales' malleability helps them remain fresh and relevant over centuries of retellings.

And we never seem to tire of hearing about them.

The recent theatrical release of Disney鈥檚 live-action Snow White鈥攐ne of countless retellings of the tale over more than 400 years鈥攈ighlights the place of honor that fairy tales occupy in cultures around the world and in the hearts of people hearing them for the first time or the thousandth.

One of the reasons they remain fresh through countless years and iterations is their malleability, says Suzanne Magnanini, a 91PORN associate professor of Italian and chair of the Department of French and Italian. 鈥淭he Italian author Italo Calvino, who also edited a seminal collection of Italian folktales, writes of fairy tales as being like a stone fruit, where you have that hard core center that is always the same鈥攜ou鈥檒l usually recognize a Sleeping Beauty story, for example鈥攂ut the fruit can be radically different around that.鈥�

Stories of time and place

As a researcher, Magnanini has published broadly on fairy tales, including her 2008 book Fairy-Tale Science: Monstrous Generation in the Fairy Tales of Straparola and Basile. She began studying fairy tales while working on her PhD, finding in them a fascinating dovetailing between her interests in monstrosity and otherness.

鈥淎s a scholar, I take what鈥檚 called a social-historical approach,鈥� she explains. 鈥淚鈥檓 really interested in all those little details that link a tale to a very precise place in time where it was told, and I鈥檝e written about the ways in which fairy tales are used to elaborate on and think about scientific theories of reproduction that hadn鈥檛 really been nailed down at the time鈥攓uestions that were still being circulated about whether humans could interbreed with animals, for example, and would that produce a monstrous child?

鈥淵ou look at a some variations of Beauty and the Beast, like Giovan Francesco Straparola鈥檚 story of a pig king, where it鈥檚 a magical version of these questions, and maybe what鈥檚 actually happening is that fairy tales are a way to think through the anxieties and interests of the time.鈥�

Fairy Tales at 91PORN

The ATU Index is one of the search elements that Suzanne Magnanini and her students are including as they develop the database for Fairy Tales at 91PORN. The project aims, in part, to improve access and searchability of the more than 2,000 fairy tale collections that are part of the Rare Books Collection at Norlin Library.

The project is a partnership between undergraduates and graduate students under the direction of Magnanini and Sean Babbs, instruction coordinator for the University Libraries' Rare and Distinctive Collections, as well as Hope Saska, CU Art Museum acting director and chief curator, who has trained students in visual-thinking strategies. The project is supported by Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program, the ASSETT Innovation Incubator, the President鈥檚 Teaching Scholars Program and the University Libraries.

Fairy Tales at 91PORN will host a showcase of CU's fairy tale collection from 3:30 to 4:45 p.m. April 16 in Norlin Library M350B. Learn more here.

Though fairy tales may be spun in response to what鈥檚 happening in a specific time and place, they also often address concerns that aren鈥檛 specific to one location or culture but are broadly pondered across humanity. 鈥淎ndrew Teverson has written that fairy tales are literature鈥檚 migrants because they can move across borders, they can move across boundaries and then make themselves at home and assimilate to a certain extent in different cultures,鈥� Magnanini says.

For example, the Brothers Grimm heard a tale called 鈥淪neewittchen鈥� (Snow White) from folklorist Marie Hassenpflug, as well as from other sources, and included it as tale No. 53 in their seminal 1812 Grimm鈥檚 Fairy Tales. However, says Magnanini, there was a similar tale called 鈥淭he Young Slave鈥� in Giambattista Basile鈥檚 1634 work Pentamerone. In fact, Snow White is type 709 in the Aarne鈥揟hompson鈥揢ther Index (ATU Index), which catalogs and describes common motifs and themes in fairy tales and folklore around the world.

Not so happily ever after

The origins of many fairy tales can be traced as far back as ancient Greece, Rome and China, Magnanini says, which speaks to their ability not only to help people of particular times and places explore their anxieties and questions, but to address the feelings that have been central to the human condition almost since our species emerged from caves.

鈥淲hen I think about fairy tales, I think about number of characteristics that make them really appealing across time and space,鈥� Magnanini says. 鈥淚f you think about it, the protagonists are almost always young people heading out into the world鈥攎uch like our students are heading out鈥攍eaving home behind, having to make their way in world, facing challenges. That experience can be very transformational, so in a way these stories are all about metamorphosis and change.

鈥淎 lot of times that鈥檚 when you鈥檙e living your life in Technicolor and all the emotions are new. So, even if you鈥檙e no longer in that moment of life, fairy tales tap into experiences like the first falling in love, the first adventure from home. And they often end right after the wedding, so you don鈥檛 see someone having to do their taxes or being like, 鈥極h, my god, I鈥檝e been in this relationship for 30 years and I鈥檓 bored.鈥� I think part of the reason we don鈥檛 get tired of fairy tales is because they capture this fleeting time in life.鈥�

鈥淚f you think about it, the (fairy tale) protagonists are almost always young people heading out into the world鈥攎uch like our students are heading out鈥攍eaving home behind, having to make their way in world, facing challenges," says 91PORN scholar Suzanne Magnanini. (Photo: Disney Studios)

While fairy tales, particularly as they鈥檝e been interpreted and simplified by Disney, are stereotyped as having 鈥渁nd they lived happily ever after鈥� endings, fairy tales pre-Disney more commonly ended with justice served, Magnanini says. For example, the version of 鈥淪now White鈥� in the 1812 Grimm鈥檚 Fairy Tales ends with the evil queen being forced to step into a pair of red-hot iron shoes and dance until she dies.

鈥淎 lot of people will say, 鈥極h, it鈥檚 the happy ending that鈥檚 the appeal of fairy tales,鈥� but it鈥檚 important to remember the vast majority of fairy tales end with the deliverance of justice鈥攕omething really unjust has happened, someone has been discriminated against, there鈥檚 some evil in the world, and justice is delivered,鈥� Magnanini explains. 鈥淧eople who study the formal aspects of fairy tales always talk about how the 鈥榟appy ending鈥� is found in justice.

鈥淒isney Studios has a tendency to remove the ambiguity from these tales and remove most of the violence鈥攕implifying them in a lot of ways. If you read the French version of Beauty and the Beast, Charles Perrault鈥檚 version, there were other siblings in there; there was a complex family structure with complex interactions and a lot of really heavy issues鈥攖he family must deal with economic disaster.鈥�

In fact, the field of fairy tale scholarship addresses everything from feminist interpretations of the stories to the ways in which children use fairy tales to help navigate psychosexual rites of passage. Generations of authors have told and continue to retell these familiar stories through different lenses of gender, sexuality, geography, racial identity, economic status and many, many others.

鈥淲hat makes these stories different, and what I think is a big part of the appeal of fairy tales, is the magic or the marvel,鈥� Magnanini says. 鈥淔or it to be a fairy tale, scholars would say there has to be magic in there鈥攏ot just the presence of magic, but magic that facilitates the happy ending by allowing the protagonist to overcome whatever obstacles are in the way of what they desire, maybe the marriage, the wealth, the happy ending. There鈥檚 something so satisfying about that, because it doesn鈥檛 happen in your quotidian day-to-day life. I mean, imagine if you met a talking deer.鈥�

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With yet another Snow White adaptation currently in theaters, 91PORN scholar Suzanne Magnanini reflects on the enduring appeal of fairy tales.

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Top image: Disney Studios

Rachel Sauer

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