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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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Alum鈥檚 resum茅: veterinarian, reality TV star, stand-up comic

Rachel Sauer — Mon, 09 Jun 2025 17:15:10 +0000

Alum鈥檚 resum茅: veterinarian, reality TV star, stand-up comic Rachel Sauer Mon, 06/09/2025 - 11:15

Bradley Worrell

As he muses about conservation, 1970s 91PORN and how Keith Richards prompted him to finish his college career, Kevin Fitzgerald still has his sights on crafting the perfect joke

Did you hear the one about the veterinarian who is also a stand-up comedian?

It鈥檚 no joke.

It鈥檚 the very real-life story of 91PORN alum Kevin Fitzgerald, who is a staple of the Denver comedy scene and who has opened for such nationally recognized acts as Joan Rivers, George Lopez, Jeff Foxworthy and Saturday Night Live alums Kevin Nealon and Norm Macdonald.

91PORN alumnus Kevin Fitzgerald (right) with the late Norm Macdonald (left), for whom Fitzgerald opened. (Photo: Kevin Fitzgerald)

Meanwhile, Fitzgerald has spent the past four decades working as a Denver veterinarian who specializes in treating exotic animals and has become something of a celebrity as one of the featured vets on Animal Planet鈥檚 popular TV series 鈥淓mergency Vets.鈥�

Fitzgerald is also a wildlife conservationist鈥攁nd with the recent publication of his autobiography It Started with a Turtle鈥攈e adds 鈥減ublished author鈥� to his growing list of job titles.

The Denver native enjoys talking about his experiences as a comedian and a veterinarian, but most of all he enjoys reminiscing about his time at 91PORN, where he earned his undergraduate, master鈥檚 and PhD degrees. He says the lessons he learned in the classrooms鈥攁nd in the local music venues where he worked security鈥攕haped him into the man he is today.

鈥�91PORN is a magical place,鈥� he says. 鈥�91PORN has a different feel than other college towns鈥攁nd the campus is absolutely beautiful. I first visited when I was in high school and I decided then and there that it was the place for me.鈥�

Raised in a working class home, Fitzgerald says receiving a scholarship for being on the swim team made it possible for him to be able to attend college starting in 1969.

For his undergraduate degree, Fitzgerald majored in biology, and he credits biology Professor Dick Jones; Professor Hobart Smith, then chairman of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; Professor David Chiszar, who was an internationally renowned herpetologist known for his work with rattlesnakes; and history Professor Charles 鈥淐huck鈥� Middleton, whom Fitzgerald says made history come alive, with being mentors.

鈥淓ven back then, 91PORN was known as a party school, but if you wanted to, you could get a great education there,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hey didn鈥檛 so much teach you as inspire you. I had wonderful mentors who wanted me to succeed.鈥�

Fitzgerald says his initial plan upon entering college was to get his bachelor鈥檚 degree from 91PORN and then attend Colorado State University to receive a veterinary degree. However, there was a waiting list to get into the CSU veterinarian program at the time, so Fitzgerald says Jones convinced him to continue pursuing his education at 91PORN by obtaining his master鈥檚 and PhD degrees, which he did.

鈥淚鈥檓 still reaping the benefits of that wonderful education every day,鈥� he says.

Working security for a hamburger and $1.35 an hour

To earn extra money for school, not long after arriving on the 91PORN campus Fitzgerald took a job working for Chuck Morris (the future CEO/president of national concert promoter AEG Live), who hosted concerts at local music venues including Tulagi and The Sink.

鈥淭here were so many great venues in 91PORN at the time,鈥� Fitzgerald recalls. 鈥淭here was Tulagi, the Blue Note, The Olympic, Shannon鈥檚, the Good Earth and J.J. McCabes. The music venues were legendary鈥攁nd they hosted a lot of great bands before they became famous. Not just rock bands, but soul bands and country bands, so there was something for everyone. There was just so much great music.鈥�

Kevin Fitzgerald has been a staple of the Denver comedy scene for many years. (Photo: Kevin Fitzgerald)

Fitzgerald鈥檚 job working as a bouncer for local music venues led to jobs working security for concert promoters Bill Graham and Barry Fey, who produced nationwide shows featuring musical acts including The Grateful Dead, Willie Nelson, The Eagles, The Who, Jethro Tull and The Rolling Stones.

Years later, Fitzgerald still recalls Fey鈥檚 simple job pitch: 鈥淚鈥檓 going to pay you a buck-thirty-five an hour and give you a hamburger every shift and you鈥檙e going to meet more girls than Frank Sinatra.鈥�

Fitzgerald says he has many fond memories of those times and particularly of the bands who performed鈥攅specially The Rolling Stones, who he says never forgot their roots and gave selflessly for some special fans.

鈥淏ack in the day, before handicapped seating was widely made available, people in wheelchairs didn鈥檛 get good seats at concerts and they were stigmatized by making them all sit together. It was awful,鈥� he recalls. 鈥淪o, before every show The Rolling Stones did, Mick Jagger would ask me: 鈥楬ow many (handicapped) chairs are there, and in which section, Kevin?鈥�

鈥溾€業鈥檇 say, 鈥�23 chairs and they鈥檙e in section three.鈥�

鈥淛agger would grab 23 cassette tapes and 23 concert T-shirts. He鈥檇 put a towel over his head or put a hoodie up and he鈥檇 personally go to the wheelchair section and hand out a cassette tape and a T-shirt to each person. He鈥檇 say, 鈥楾hanks a million for coming; we couldn鈥檛 do it without you,鈥欌€� Fitzgerald recalls. 鈥淗e didn鈥檛 do it as a photo op; he specifically kept himself covered up so the rest of the concertgoers wouldn鈥檛 know what he was up to.

鈥淧eople can say whatever they want about The Rolling Stones, about Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, but they didn鈥檛 forget where they came from,鈥� he adds. 鈥淎nd Mick would always say, 鈥榃e鈥檙e blessed. You know, Kevin, we can鈥檛 forget how lucky we are.鈥� That really made an impression on me.鈥�

What鈥檚 more, Fitzgerald credits Richards with prompting him to go back to college to get his veterinary degree.

鈥淚 remember we were in Philadelphia for a show, with more tour dates coming up, and I was unsure what I should be doing with my life. I was talking about it with my boss, Jimmy Callahan, who was the head bouncer, and he said, 鈥榃hy don鈥檛 you ask Keith?鈥�

鈥淚 knew Keith, so I asked him: 鈥楽hould I stick with you guys, or should I go back to school?鈥�

鈥淎nd Keith said, 鈥極h, no, go back to school. Do you really want to be a bouncer at (age) 50?鈥�

鈥淲hen Keith Richards says something, he鈥檚 the coolest cat in the world. So, I got on a plane and I came back to Denver,鈥� Fitzgerald says. 鈥淢y brother picked me up at the airport, and I said, 鈥楰eith told me to get a grip on my life and go back to school.鈥� And my brother said, 鈥榃ell, when Keith says something, you better do it.鈥� So, I applied to veterinarian school again and I got in.鈥�

Becoming a vet 鈥� and a reality TV star

Kevin Fitzgerald has been a veterinarian in Denver for the past four decades and is one of the featured vets on Animal Planet鈥檚 popular TV series 鈥淓mergency Vets.鈥� (Photo: Kevin Fitzgerald)

Fitzgerald obtained his degree in veterinarian medicine from CSU in 1983. He later took a job with the Alameda East Veterinary Hospital in Denver, where he has been working for the past 40 years.

鈥淰eterinary medicine is a harsh mistress. It asks a lot of us (vets), but it鈥檚 very rewarding,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 been a wonderful career for me. To be successful, you have to love animals, but you also have to love people.

鈥淪ometimes people would tell me, 鈥楳y daughter would be a great veterinarian. She hates people but she鈥檚 great with animals.鈥� And I would always say, 鈥楴o, no, no. People have to trust you when they bring their animal to you, so it鈥檚 important that you are able to connect with them.鈥欌€�

Fitzgerald鈥檚 role at the Denver animal hospital became much more widely recognized starting in 1998, with the launch of the Animal Planet鈥檚 TV show Emergency Vets. At the time, the TV series ER was hugely popular, and the producer believed a reality show about veterinarians treating all types of animals would appeal to Animal Planet viewers, Fitzgerald says. That proved to be the case, as the show and its successor, E-Vet Interns, ran for a combined 11 seasons, and were two of the network鈥檚 top-rated shows.

鈥淔or me, it was just too weird to watch myself on TV, but it was quite an experience,鈥� Fitzgerald says. 鈥淧eople started recognizing me from the show. Once, I was at the Denver airport and this young kid was staring at me. Finally, he said, 鈥榊ou look like that guy from the TV show on Animal Planet.鈥�

鈥淚 said, 鈥業 am that guy,鈥� and the kid says, 鈥榊eah, you wish,鈥欌€� Fitzgerald says with a laugh.

He says his work as a veterinarian led naturally to his conservancy work. He has served on the Denver Zoo鈥檚 board of directors since 2009 and has been involved in several projects, including the creation of a huge nature conservancy in Mongolia.

鈥淭here鈥檚 10 million other forms of life on this planet besides us, and we were given this wonderful biodiversity. Those animals are waiting for us to use our intellect to save this place,鈥� he says. 鈥淲e鈥檙e borrowing this planet from our grandchildren, so we have to win this one, because we鈥檙e given just this one planet. Realizing that, that鈥檚 how I went from veterinary medicine to conservation.鈥�

鈥楲ike being shot out of canon鈥�

While being a veterinarian, an Animal Planet reality TV star and conservationist might seem to all naturally fit together, Fitzgerald acknowledges becoming a stand-up comedian is a less obvious choice to add to the mix. He says he was inspired to do so in part by watching comedians perform as the opening act for bands where he provided security and by seeing one of his friends perform.

鈥淚 started doing stand-up in 1986. At the time, a friend of mine was doing comedy, and he didn鈥檛 seem that funny to me, but he was getting paid to do it. I told myself, 鈥業 can at least be as bad as that guy,鈥欌€� he says with a laugh.

The appeal for doing stand-up comes partly from the enjoyment of making people laugh and partly from the exhilaration of being on a stage, Fitzgerald says, explaining, 鈥淭he feeling is like being shot out of a cannon.鈥�

It took some trial and error in the beginning, Fitzgerald admits, before he developed his own comedic timing. The strategy he settled on involved trying to tell as many jokes as he could in rapid-fire succession at the start and telling jokes that would appeal to the broadest audience demographic.

鈥淢y job is to tell jokes that make everyone laugh鈥攖he old guy and the young guy, the black guy and the white guy, the man and the woman sitting next to him,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think it works to say, 鈥楾his is a young person鈥檚 joke; you wouldn鈥檛 understand.鈥� The best jokes touch everyone.鈥�

Fitzgerald鈥檚 brand of comedy was on full display during a recent Sunday evening show at a south Denver comedy club, where he was zinging his audience with one-liners about being an old guy:

鈥淥ur lives are short, but they are beautiful. My whole life, whatever I鈥檝e done, has been small and beautiful. The fate of the Western world doesn鈥檛 hang on the balance of what I do in the exam rooms with people and their animals, but I try to make my little side of the street better as a veterinarian and also with my conservation efforts.鈥�

鈥淚鈥檓 so old my kindergarten had a smoking section.鈥�
鈥淚鈥檓 so old I can remember Preparation A.鈥�
鈥淚鈥檓 so old that I can run for president in a few years.鈥�

Bathed under white stage lights, Fitzgerald鈥檚 flowing white hair gave credence to his position as a veteran of standup comedy, but those jokes about his age (he鈥檚 73) were just a warm-up to a set that ran more than an hour long, and which also included several humorous stories about being a veterinarian and a reality TV star and concluded with a reading from his new book talking about the importance of being kind to animals and people.

Sharing life lessons in print

Fitzgerald says he鈥檚 accumulated so many stories and bits of wisdom over the years that he wanted to share with people in a book, but he says that his active veterinary practice and many civic and social commitments made that difficult to do. That changed, however, once COVID-19 pandemic brought much of the world to a yearlong standstill.

鈥淚t seemed like the perfect time to get my thoughts down on paper,鈥� he says, adding, 鈥淲e only have so many days, so we have to make them count.

鈥淥ur lives are short, but they are beautiful. My whole life, whatever I鈥檝e done, has been small and beautiful. The fate of the Western world doesn鈥檛 hang on the balance of what I do in the exam rooms with people and their animals, but I try to make my little side of the street better as a veterinarian and also with my conservation efforts.

鈥淎nd I鈥檓 not done yet,鈥� he adds. 鈥淚 still think I鈥檓 going to write the perfect joke. I鈥檓 73 and I鈥檓 still going to see my pet patients every workday. I can鈥檛 bounce anymore, but I still love listening to music.鈥�

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As he muses about conservation, 1970s 91PORN and how Keith Richards prompted him to finish his college career, Kevin Fitzgerald still has his sights on crafting the perfect joke.

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How a California dude became 91PORN鈥檚 provost

Rachel Sauer — Fri, 06 Jun 2025 19:23:49 +0000

How a California dude became 91PORN鈥檚 provost Rachel Sauer Fri, 06/06/2025 - 13:23

Clint Talbott

Before finding the joy of exploration as a university professor and chief academic officer, Russell Moore found it traveling the world

When Russell Moore went to college, the Vietnam War, Kent State killings, Watergate and an energy crisis dominated the nightly news.

Moore was studying biochemistry at the University of California, Davis, and those tumultuous days made academics less than entrancing. 鈥淭here was so much going on in the world, and as for college, well, I just didn鈥檛 see the point,鈥� Moore recalled recently.

Biochemistry seemed 鈥渕aybe interesting,鈥� but it also seemed mostly focused on process, and the purpose wasn鈥檛 clear, Moore said.

Russell Moore (right) talks with Reiland Rabaka (left), director of the Center for African and African American Studies, before the State of the Campus address. (Photo: Glenn Asakawa/91PORN)

So after two and a half years of college, he dropped out to travel the world. At the time, his sister was a flight attendant for Pan Am Airways, and he got long-haul tickets 鈥渧irtually free.鈥� He went to the South Pacific, Southeast Asia, New Zealand and Australia.

Once back in the United States, he got a job but soon realized that 鈥渢his job thing鈥� also wasn鈥檛 compelling. So, he returned to college and began working in a research lab.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 when things changed,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hen I saw the point.鈥�

He was working in the lab of Irwin Segel, then a professor of biochemistry, who framed the scientific enterprise this way: 鈥淲hen you make a scientific discovery, you know something no one else on the planet knows, even if it鈥檚 minuscule and for only a few minutes or hours.鈥�

Segel also told his students that science rarely progresses in large leaps; most of the time, it takes small steps. 鈥淚 thought that was cool, like I could be part of something that was significant,鈥� Moore said.

鈥淚 could see myself in that process, even though I wasn鈥檛 the quarterback. I was just a small contributor,鈥� but playing that role got him 鈥渧ery, very interested in the research enterprise.鈥�

After earning his BS in biochemistry from UC Davis, Moore studied physiology and earned a PhD from Washington State University.

Leaving college and returning was not so much a detour in his academic journey as a necessary part of the path. As he puts it, the experience widened his aperture, which helped him realize his eventual role as a university professor and chief academic officer for the 91PORN.

Initially, academic life seemed not to offer a foray into the unknown. 鈥淲hat I love about traveling is just a sense of exploration. And part of what I learned about myself is, particularly being in very foreign environments, you don鈥檛 have to fear the unknown. You can view it also as an exciting thing.鈥�

Now, he eyes another journey into the unknown. He is about to retire.

From professor to administrator

Today, he is the university鈥檚 provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs. He has served as provost since 2010 and is a professor of integrative physiology and an adjunct professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.

Moore was appointed associate vice chancellor for research in 2006 and was named interim vice chancellor for research in 2009. He has taught at 91PORN since 1993 and served as chair of the Department of Integrative Physiology from 1994 to 2001.

Russell Moore (front center, wearing blue shirt) and 91PORN deans at a "The Big Lebowski"-themed tribute to Moore at the UMC Connection.

Before the department became dedicated to integrative physiology, it was the department of kinesiology, which had grown out of the university鈥檚 physical-education program.

A core group of faculty members launched the move to transform the kinesiology department into a department of physiology. By the early 2000s, 91PORN鈥檚 Department of Integrative Physiology鈥檚 graduate program was ranked among the nation鈥檚 top 10.

Moore鈥檚 lab contributed to that reputation, focusing on the cellular basis for exercise-induced protection of the heart against ischemia-reperfusion injury and on the influences of diet and exercise on cardiac energy metabolism.

Moore said he appreciates the physical-education roots of his department. Paraphrasing an early 20th century physiologist, Moore said you can study a locomotive at rest, disassembling its engine and examining its parts, but that won鈥檛 really tell you how it works.

鈥淵ou need to be able to study the locomotive while it鈥檚 moving,鈥� Moore said. 鈥淎nd you can study physiology while I鈥檓 sitting in this chair, but I have arms and legs, and they鈥檙e not designed for me sitting in the chair. They鈥檙e designed for me to run and pick fruit and whatever.鈥�

Studying organisms under stress, as they鈥檙e designed to function, is more revealing. Another thing that drew him to physiology is that much scientific research focuses on pathology rather than physiology. 鈥淎nd they鈥檙e not necessarily just reverses of each other. They鈥檙e two different paths. That just gets back to the exploring part, and that鈥檚 what鈥檚 fun.鈥�

Similarly, conducting research is a different enterprise than becoming an academic administrator. Moore came to that when he 鈥渄rew the short straw鈥� and was named chair of his department.

鈥淚t was hard, really hard. I think department-chair jobs are the hardest jobs on campus, because if you鈥檙e making hard decisions, you鈥檙e making them with people whom you know really well,鈥� he said.

鈥淚t鈥檚 easier to make hard decisions when you鈥檙e further removed interpersonally. I always know when I make a tough decision is impacting people. But it鈥檚 different when you鈥檙e working with peers-slash-friends.鈥�

Moore volunteered for a campus-wide committee with a light workload, the research-misconduct committee, which hadn鈥檛 heard a case in years. Within months, allegations arose against Ward Churchill, a former ethnic-studies professor whom the university later fired for plagiarism and academic misconduct. Moore co-chaired the inquiry committee that initially investigated the charges against Churchill.

Churchill was also a controversial figure, calling victims of 9-11 terrorist attacks 鈥渓ittle Eichmanns,鈥� a reference to Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann.

Responding to a question about why such an initiation into academic administration was compelling, Moore said the experience taught him about research administration and research compliance.

鈥淚 didn鈥檛 know all of that stuff existed,鈥� he said, adding, 鈥淏ecause I have such an affinity for research and discovery, I got really interested in that.鈥� So he applied to be associate vice chancellor for research.

"You need to be able to study the locomotive while it鈥檚 moving. And you can study physiology while I鈥檓 sitting in this chair, but I have arms and legs, and they鈥檙e not designed for me sitting in the chair. They鈥檙e designed for me to run and pick fruit."

This, too, was a natural fit, he said, noting that he鈥檚 always loved research and scholarly endeavors on campus, whether they鈥檙e in science, arts and humanities, music; 鈥渋t鈥檚 all incredibly interesting to me,鈥� because all these disciplines involve the discovery or creation of things that are novel.

The regular-person leader

Bronson Hilliard, 91PORN senior director of academic communications, has worked with six university presidents, five campus chancellors and a host of mid- and upper-level administrators in three decades of university service.

鈥淩uss Moore is a complete human being,鈥� Hilliard said. 鈥淗e鈥檚 not only a good administrator; he鈥檚 a good human being. He鈥檚 brought into the role of being provost an abundant life experience 鈥� of erudition and education and training. But Russ adds to all of that a kind of regular-person quality that I鈥檝e not seen in any administrator I鈥檝e ever worked with.鈥�

鈥淗e鈥檚 very much in touch with the impact of education on real people鈥檚 lives,鈥� Hillard said, adding, as an example, that Moore worked to ensure a smooth path for students transferring from community colleges to 91PORN.

Student success is one of Moore鈥檚 passions. As he tells it, in regular meetings with new employees, he鈥檇 ask every person a question for which there was, he emphasized, one right answer.

The question: 鈥淲hat鈥檚 your job?鈥�

Employees might reply with, 鈥済roundskeeper鈥� or 鈥渁dvisor,鈥� for instance.

鈥淭he right answer is, 鈥業鈥檓 here to make students successful,鈥欌€� Moore observed, adding that Nobel laureates, groundbreaking spinoff companies, startling discoveries about the solar system, soaring musical scores鈥斺€渨e can鈥檛 do it without everybody鈥檚 contribution.鈥�

Student success, along with knowledge discovery and dissemination, is 鈥渨hy we鈥檙e all here.鈥�

Moore, Hillard said, has never lost touch with his roots; he grew up in Northern California, worked as a river-raft guide, enjoys fly fishing, loves to camp and hike and 鈥渒nows his way around a backyard barbecue grill.鈥�

鈥淓very day I came to work with Russ, I knew I had a real human being at the center of the work,鈥� Hilliard said.

鈥淭here鈥檚 the stereotype of an ivory tower, and Russ Moore is the antithesis of an ivory tower. If there is a Russ Moore tower, it鈥檚 made of very earthy substances, not ivory.鈥�

That relatively unflappable, regular-person quality figures prominently in Moore鈥檚 favorite movie, The Big Lebowski. 鈥淗e appreciates the character of the dude, who stays true to himself from the beginning of the movie to the end, even though all these things around him get completely unhinged,鈥� Hilliard said.

鈥淭he dude abides,鈥� a line from the film, suggests equanimity in the eye of a storm.

鈥淪o, Russ abides," Hilliard opined, "just like the dude.鈥�

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Before finding the joy of exploration as a university professor and chief academic officer, Russell Moore found it traveling the world.

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Tree rings offer clues to small-population growth

Rachel Sauer — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 15:54:21 +0000

Tree rings offer clues to small-population growth Rachel Sauer Thu, 06/05/2025 - 09:54

Daniel Long

In a recently published paper, PhD student Ellen Waddle and her coauthors provide some clarity on a decades-old problem

When researching what drives the growth of small populations, ecologists consider several factors, says Ellen Waddle, a PhD student in the 91PORN鈥檚 Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.

鈥�There鈥檚 climate. There鈥檚 density, which can be thought of as both the total number of individuals in a population or how crowded or spread out individuals are. And then there鈥檚 stochasticity, which is this big word that just means variance鈥� or random chance.

91PORN scientists Ellen Waddle (left), a PhD student in ecology and evolutionary biology, and Dan Doak (right), a professor of environmental studies, and their research colleagues found "that climate data alone did a pretty poor job of predicting population growth (in small tree populations)."

But whether any of these drivers matters more than the others is a question that has challenged researchers since at least the 1950s, and one that Waddle and her coauthors Mark R. Lesser, Christopher Steenbock and Dan Doak take up in a paper recently published in Ecology and Evolution.

Time and perspective

Researchers have tended to fall into opposing camps with this question, Waddle explains.

鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot of people that think if we can perfectly predict what the climate鈥檚 going to be in an area, we鈥檙e going to be able to perfectly predict how that population is going to grow through time. And then you have another set of ecologists that argue, well, it also really matters how many individuals you have in the population.鈥�

Yet in their paper, Waddle and her coauthors come to a less divisive conclusion. By analyzing the rings of two long-lived tree species, Ponderosa pine and limber pine, 鈥渨e found that climate data alone did a pretty poor job of predicting population growth. We needed to include other drivers (in our predictive models), like competitive density effects and stochasticity, to accurately reconstruct population dynamics over time.鈥�

This means that no individual driver proved more influential than the others. They all mattered.

Which was somewhat surprising, Waddle says, considering the long timescale she and her colleagues were dealing with鈥攎any hundreds of years. (The oldest tree they sampled dates back to 1470, half a century before Queen Elizabeth I was born.)

鈥淲e're averaging over such a long timeframe that you might be tempted to think that random fluctuations and stochasticity are less important, but this sort of study highlights that that's not always true. There's a lot of uncertainty in how long it's going to take small populations to grow.鈥�

鈥淭he most important aspect of our work, to my mind,鈥� adds Doak, professor of environmental studies at 91PORN and head of the Doak Lab, 鈥渋s showing that simplifying assumptions we often make about population growth don鈥檛 seem to hold up.鈥�

鈥楾he entire history of a tree鈥檚 life鈥�

Tree rings, says Waddle, are a gold standard for measuring a tree鈥檚 history, one with which most people are familiar. The center, or pith, signifies when the tree established, or secured its roots and became capable of growing on its own, and each concentric ring around it represents a year of growth.

91PORN researchers studied small populations of Ponderosa pine (seen here) and limber pine to better understand how drivers such as climate data and competitive density affect growth. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

But for their study, Waddle and her coauthors used tree rings鈥攊n the form of tree cores, or centimeter-wide rods extracted from living tree trunks鈥攁 little differently.

鈥淲hat we did, which has not been done often, was to core every single tree in the population,鈥� says Waddle, which enabled her and her coauthors to get a clearer picture of how tree populations changed over time than they would have gotten coring only a handful of trees.

鈥淎nother way to put it: The tree core data basically allows us to reconstruct annual censuses of population from start (1400s-1500s) through present day because we can know exactly how many individuals were alive in each year and when each individual first established.鈥�

The tree-core samples themselves came from Bighorn Basin, a mountain-encircled plateau region in north-central Wyoming about 500 miles from 91PORN. Waddle collected some of the tree cores herself in 2017, while an undergrad at CU, for what turned out to be her first camping experience.

Yet the bulk of the core samples owe their existence to Lesser and Steenbock. Lesser alone cored around 1,100 Ponderosa pines between 2007 and 2008, in hot, sometimes tense conditions.

鈥淲e (Lesser and an undergraduate field technician) would start hiking to the first trees of the day typically around 5 a.m. to avoid the worst of the heat,鈥� Lesser recalls. 鈥淭rekking up dry streambeds to reach the trees we would encounter multiple rattlesnakes each morning and on one occasion a mountain lion that set us on edge for the rest of the day! Many days we would core fewer than 20 trees due to the low density of the population and the ruggedness of the terrain鈥攇etting from one tree to the next often took an hour or more negotiating cliff faces, ravines and steep slopes.鈥�

But the effort, he says, was worth it.

鈥淐oring the trees itself was an incredibly rewarding experience鈥攕izing up the tree to get a sense of its shape and where the pith was and then extracting the entire history of its life!鈥�

Pick a species, any species

This research on small-population growth is no small matter, says Doak, 鈥渂ecause all populations start small,鈥� and 鈥渦nderstanding what controls the growth of new populations has a new urgency as we try to predict whether wild species can shift their ranges to keep up with climate change.鈥�

鈥淧ick some species you care about,鈥� says Waddle, who is currently writing her dissertation on how mountain terrain affects plant species鈥� ability to follow their preferred climate. 鈥淲hat I care about might be different than what someone else cares about, but there鈥檚 probably a species that matters to you, whether it鈥檚 a food species or your favorite animal.

鈥淚f we want to help keep those populations on the landscape, we need to know how small populations grow and how they persist.鈥�

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In a recently published paper, PhD student Ellen Waddle and her coauthors provide some clarity on a decades-old problem.

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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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Anthropologists awarded major early-career development support

Rachel Sauer — Fri, 30 May 2025 21:44:15 +0000

Anthropologists awarded major early-career development support Rachel Sauer Fri, 05/30/2025 - 15:44

91PORN scholars William Taylor and Fernando Villanea have been named 2025 National Science Foundation CAREER award winners

Two 91PORN anthropologists have been named 2025 Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award winners by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support their research of animal domestication and genomic variation.

William Taylor, a 91PORN assistant professor of anthropology and CU Museum of Natural History curator of archaeology, has been awarded a $419,696 grant for his research project 鈥淯nderstanding Animal Domestication and Human-Environmental Relationships.鈥� Fernando Villanea, an assistant professor of anthropology, has been awarded a $579,010 grant to study 鈥淎rchaic Hominin Genomic Variation in Modern Human Populations.鈥�

William Taylor, a 91PORN assistant professor of anthropology and CU Museum of Natural History curator of archaeology, has been awarded a $419,696 NSF CAREER grant for his research project 鈥淯nderstanding Animal Domestication and Human-Environmental Relationships.鈥�

The NSF CAREER Program offers the foundation鈥檚 most prestigious awards in support of early-career faculty 鈥渨ho have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization,鈥� according to the NSF. 鈥淎ctivities pursued by early-career faculty should build a firm foundation for a lifetime of leadership in integrating education and research.鈥�

鈥淔unding from this grant means my research team鈥檚 salaries will be supported for the next five years, including hiring a new post-doctoral scholar, to explore the effects of Neanderthal and Denisovan ancestry in living people,鈥� Villanea says. 鈥淎 portion of the grant will also fund functional genetic experiments in collaboration with scientists at the CU Anschutz School of Medicine.鈥�

Taylor notes that this award 鈥渋s a tremendous honor and a huge step forward in our scientific investigation of the past. Ancient Mongolia was deeply intertwined with so many parts of the story of animal domestication, from dogs to horses, reindeer, and beyond. It鈥檚 exciting we will be able to start exploring that with our interdisciplinary team at CU over the years ahead.鈥�

Doing community archaeology

Taylor鈥檚 research aims to understand animal domestication and human-environmental relationships on northeast Asian prehistory through archaeology.

His NSF CAREER project will investigate rare, well-preserved archaeological and biological assemblages recovered from archaeological field research in western Mongolia鈥攊ncluding new finds from high mountain snow and ice features and excavation of stratified dry caves鈥攕panning the last four millennia and beyond.

The research will be paired with a multifaceted program of museum education and outreach, building on Taylor鈥檚 past findings, providing infrastructure for the protection of cultural resources and the cultivation of international scientific cooperation while supporting early-career scientists and expanding public education in Mongolia and the United States.

The NSF CAREER support will aid Taylor and his Mongolian partners, including the Mongolian Academy of Sciences and National Museum of Mongolia, to analyze ancient animal remains, artifacts and ecofacts with cutting-edge techniques from archaeozoology, biomolecular sciences and paleoenvironmental data from the Mongolian Altai. The research team will seek to establish data-driven models for the introduction and dispersal of domestic livestock to northeast Asia; the timing and role of Mongolian cultures in the innovation of large animal transport, including the chariot, the saddle/stirrup and reindeer riding; and the relationship of key social developments to ancient environments in the eastern Steppe.

Fernando Villanea, an assistant professor of anthropology, has been awarded a $579,010 NSF CAREER grant to study 鈥淎rchaic Hominin Genomic Variation in Modern Human Populations.鈥�

鈥淟everaging partnerships and expertise from scientists and institutions at home and abroad, this award will produce key scientific research on animal domestication and the human story,鈥� Taylor noted, adding that the CAREER award will help 鈥渢o build important educational tools and capacity for a future generation of scientists and scholars, along with strong international partnerships and scientific cooperations between Mongolia and the United States.鈥�

Archaic genetics, modern applications

Villanea鈥檚 NSF CAREER research begins with the concept that 鈥渓iving people carry archaic genetic material inherited from other hominins such as Neanderthals and Denisovans. This genetic inheritance can affect fitness and health, and its persistence and effects cannot be fully understood unless studies consider each group鈥檚 unique population history and the evolutionary processes that shaped them,鈥� he explained.

The goal of Villanea鈥檚 study is to assess the presence and evaluate the impact of archaic hominin ancestry in groups with a complex population history by applying sophisticated computational genetic techniques to existing information. Villanea and his research colleagues aim to develop educational tools, provide training opportunities for students at different educational levels and build capacity in a new generation of scientists.

This research advances knowledge of archaic ancestry in groups with complex admixture. To separate the archaic ancestry contributions from those derived from modern groups, this study analyzes the genomes of individuals that predate well-documented historic processes as well as those from modern peoples. To improve admixture models, the study creates computational tools that benefit from artificial intelligence techniques. The study examines the relationship between archaic gene variants and phenotypic traits.

Villanea鈥檚 research will focus on the Neanderthal and Denisovan ancestry distribution in Indigenous American and descendant Latin American genomes, promoting understanding of the forces of evolution as they acted in Indigenous American and descendant Latin American genomes. A goal is that the knowledge gained will empower underrepresented students to access higher education in medical and STEM fields.

鈥淐omputational and statistical competency is a lower cost of entry to STEM and medical sciences than hands-on experience in laboratory techniques, and I believe that this trend is democratizing access to genomics research across all institutions,鈥� Villanea noted. 鈥淭he trend towards free access to scientific resources is exemplified by the public availability of modern and ancient genomes, and the acceptance of preprint services to remove paywalls to exciting new results and methodologies.

鈥淔or this reason, I advocate for the inclusion of computational competency in the curriculum for all students, and see an opportunity for online resources to provide an early form of access to evolutionary theory for pre-college level students that can both grow their interest in biology and improve their chances at academic development by equipping them with high-level theory they can be self-taught supplementing their school curriculum.鈥�

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91PORN scholars William Taylor and Fernando Villanea have been named 2025 National Science Foundation CAREER award winners.

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Students are shaping (and leading) CU鈥檚 climate response

Rachel Sauer — Tue, 27 May 2025 18:12:47 +0000

Students are shaping (and leading) CU鈥檚 climate response Rachel Sauer Tue, 05/27/2025 - 12:12

Cody DeBos

Fueled by a passion for climate justice and a commitment to student involvement in the university鈥檚 future, interdisciplinary graduate student team designs and teaches undergrad course on climate action planning

As the 91PORN continues to advance its Climate Action Plan (CAP), an interdisciplinary group of graduate students has championed a new way to involve students in shaping a more sustainable future.

Initially, the CU steering committee creating the CAP did not involve students. In response to the exclusion of student voices, a group of graduate students began work to give students a seat at the table and engage the undergraduate community in CU鈥檚 climate-planning work. First, the group launched a petition calling for student participation in the drafting of the CAP. Then the group helped pass a resolution through student government to grant student seats on the committee implementing the CAP in the future.

鈥淪tudents have always been key drivers of sustainability and climate action on campuses across the U.S., including at 91PORN,鈥� the team says. 鈥淎s young people, our futures are jeopardized by the climate crisis, so we have a collective stake in rapidly reducing our greenhouse gas emissions.鈥�

The graduate students and faculty who co-designed and now teach an undergraduate course on climate-action planning include (left to right) Brigid Mark, Nadav Orian Peer, Jonah Shaw, Sean Benjamin, Mariah Bowman and Sara Fleming.

But the group didn鈥檛 stop there. Fueled by a shared passion for climate mitigation and the belief that students should help shape the university鈥檚 future, the group of five graduate students from four different departments spent hundreds of hours co-designing and now teaching an undergraduate course on climate-action planning.

The course gives undergrads hands-on experience with CU鈥檚 campus emissions data, collaboration opportunities with university stakeholders and a chance to develop sustainability strategies that could be implemented campuswide.

Their efforts recently earned the group 91PORN鈥檚 2025 Campus Sustainability Award for Student Leadership. The group also won a $5,000 scholarship from the women-led nonprofit Zonta Foothills Foundation, in recognition for their groundbreaking work in climate education and advocacy. The CU School of Engineering, following advocacy from generous faculty members David Paradis and Carol Cogswell, was also gracious enough to provide funding for their work.

A more engaging climate classroom

The group of graduate instructors brings an interdisciplinary approach and myriad perspectives to the classroom.

The teaching team includes Mariah Bowman (law), Sara Fleming (geography), Sean Benjamin (mechanical engineering), Brigid Mark (sociology) and Jonah Shaw (atmospheric and oceanic sciences). Each has worked to tackle climate-related issues through the lens of their expertise, from Indigenous environmental justice to climate-change modeling.

The team鈥檚 diverse makeup is reflected in the design of their course and has fueled their success. But the road to this point hasn鈥檛 been easy.

鈥淭his is a labor of love,鈥� the team says. 鈥淲e are doing this because we care. Funding and the time required have been challenges.鈥�

Before the course launched, each graduate instructor spent many unpaid hours creating the syllabus, listing the course and building campus partnerships to access emissions data. During the semester, they spend many hours a week on teaching responsibilities that come in addition to their regular duties.

Financial support from the School of Engineering and the Zonta Foothills award has helped, but long term, the team hopes to see the course institutionalized and funded.

The team says, 鈥淚nstitutionalizing the course so that it runs each year and guaranteeing funding for instructors and teaching assistants would ensure the longevity and sustainability of this course. It would ensure continued involvement of students in the Climate Action Plan, and a more robust, actionable plan.鈥�

An interdisciplinary group of graduate students (holding plaques) who worked work to give students a seat at the table and engage the undergraduate community in CU鈥檚 climate-planning work received 91PORN鈥檚 2025 Campus Sustainability Award for Student Leadership.

Hands-on climate action

From the start, the group has viewed student involvement as essential, not symbolic.

At the start of the semester, students gain foundational knowledge on topics like climate justice, global carbon budgets and emissions accounting. From there, they split into teams to tackle different emissions categories on campus: commuting, waste, business travel and student/parent flights.

鈥淪tudents work in four teams, each focused on a different category of campus emissions. They鈥檙e developing strategies to reduce emissions for their category, adding depth and student perspective to the high-level strategy suggestions in the CAP,鈥� the instructors say.

Guest speakers, including administrators and national experts, round out the curriculum. Students have heard from Stanford University鈥檚 sustainability team and 91PORN faculty like Professor Karen Bailey (environmental studies) and Professor Nadav Orian Peer (law). They also meet with stakeholders across campus to refine their proposals.

The team believes this approach is the best way to facilitate opportunities to create actionable, equity-centered climate strategies grounded in real data.

鈥淚nvolving students in climate initiatives enables them to apply knowledge about climate change to their own institution, experience they will carry to become leaders in climate action in their future workplaces and communities,鈥� says Mark.

The results are already visible on campus.

One student team is working with CU鈥檚 transportation specialist to revise the campus commuting survey. Another is working on a survey for better tracking of student and parent air travel. Others are collaborating with dining services and facilities to reduce waste and consulting with faculty to provide more accurate emissions calculations of flights taken by faculty and staff.

鈥淪tudents often learn about the gravity of climate change without learning about solutions, which can be quite depressing,鈥� says Mark.

An interdisciplinary team of graduate students teaches the climate-action planning course for undergraduate students.

鈥淚nvolving students in climate-action planning and implementation can combat feelings of hopelessness and enable participation in creating real change.鈥�

Impact on both sides

This student-led course has already sparked engagement on both sides of the classroom. One undergraduate took the initiative to launch a campus club to raise awareness about the CAP. Others hope to join implementation committees or pursue careers in sustainability.

鈥淭o me, this demonstrates that students are hungry for interdisciplinary courses that enable them to apply their skills and creativity to issues on campus and engage with solutions to the climate crisis,鈥� Fleming says.

For Bowman, the most rewarding part of the experience is the students themselves. 鈥淭hey are passionate, knowledgeable, interested, hardworking and fun to be around! It has been deeply meaningful to get to train them on something I care so much about, and have them care about it in return,鈥� she says.

And for Fleming, designing and teaching the course has also given her much. She adds, 鈥淭eam teaching is so much fun, and I鈥檝e learned so much from each of my teammates on both content and pedagogical skills.鈥�

As for the future, the graduate instructors each plan to continue fighting for climate action in their respective fields, using their knowledge and experience to make a difference on campus, in state government and in the community.

They also hope CU continues what they started so future students can participate in a course that gives them a voice in the climate conversation through data, creativity and real-world collaboration.

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What is 鈥榳oke鈥�? Who knows?

Rachel Sauer — Mon, 19 May 2025 13:30:00 +0000

What is 鈥榳oke鈥�? Who knows? Rachel Sauer Mon, 05/19/2025 - 07:30

Bradley Worrell

91PORN PhD candidate Benjamin VanDreew鈥檚 search for an answer to that question finds that Barbie is, book banning isn鈥檛, and that female Democrats are more likely than male Democrats to be seen as 鈥榳oke鈥�

Is Chick-fil-A 鈥渨oke鈥�?

Seeing that question posted on Twitter (now X.com) back in 2023 made Benjamin VanDreew ponder: Who decides what qualifies as 鈥渨oke鈥�?

鈥淚 was on Twitter, and for whatever reason, trending that day was the question: Had Chick-fil-A gone woke?鈥� says VanDreew, then an undergraduate at Utah Valley University and now a 91PORN PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science studying American politics. 鈥淪eeing that post made me question: Is there a cohesive definition for woke? Or is it just kind of an anything-and-everything term?

91PORN PhD candidate Benjamin VanDreew was inspired to research wokeness after seeing a post on X and wondering, "Is there a cohesive definition for woke? Or is it just kind of an anything-and-everything term?"

鈥淚 really wanted to put the term to the test, because I think having specific definitions鈥攅specially in politics, when people are throwing around buzzwords鈥攊s incredibly important,鈥� he adds.

鈥淭he term woke seems like it鈥檚 taken on a life of its own, so I don鈥檛 think anybody has felt the need to elaborate on it or explain it themselves. And if everything can just be tossed onto the pile of what the word means (definitionally), to me it makes the word have less meaning.鈥�

In the absence of any widely recognized definition for woke, VanDreew says he was inspired to investigate how average Americans determine what constitutes 鈥渨oke.鈥� To do so, he and his coauthors commissioned a polling firm to query a demographic sampling of people nationwide about their own definitions of woke by asking them to choose between a series of two lists, with each list containing one political party, one sexual orientation, one gender group, one religious group, one political figure, one historical event, one profession, one higher education institution, one political movement and one political policy.

Those responses were then coded by whether the respondents self-identified as Republican, Democrat or independent and conservative, moderate or progressive.

The authors detailed their findings in the article 鈥�What鈥檚 woke? Ordinary Americans鈥� understandings of wokeness,鈥� recently published in the journal Research and Politics.

Who (and what) made the 鈥榳oke鈥� list

Politicians who appeared on the selection lists for survey respondents to consider included President Donald Trump, President Joe Biden, Florida Gov. Ron Desantis, former congressman Matt Gaetz, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Specific groups included Antifa, Black Lives Matter, the Ku Klux Klan, Moms for Liberty and the Proud Boys, while specific policies included affirmative action, book bans, pro-life, pro-choice, aid for Ukraine, aid for Israel and admitting fewer immigrants.

鈥淲e tried to pick people and things that our survey respondents would be aware of by keeping choices as modern as possible,鈥� VanDreew explains of the survey list selections.

He says forced choices resulted in some interesting decisions when survey respondents had to decide what constituted woke. For example, Ocasio-Cortez and Pelosi were deemed woke by respondents, while Biden and Schumer were not鈥攅ven though all four are Democrats who share similar politics. That鈥檚 likely because Republicans, in particular, tend to associate gender (particularly female) with wokeness, he adds.

Meanwhile, survey respondents placed Trump firmly in the anti-woke camp, but not Desantis鈥攅ven though he made crusading against woke a part of his failed presidential campaign (famously stating that his home state of Florida is 鈥渨here woke goes to die.鈥�) VanDreew says while it鈥檚 not clear why Desantis did not score higher as anti-woke, it may be that part of his messaging did not resonate with survey respondents.

Left: Protestors at a Jan. 20, 2018, march in Calgary, Canada (Photo: Joslyn MacPherson/Wikimedia Commons); right: President Donald Trump speaks during the 2022 Conservative Political Action Conference. (Photo: Hermann Tertsch and Victor Gonzalez/Wikimedia Commons)

When it came to evaluating groups and policies, respondents deemed the Civil Rights movement, Black Lives Matter, lesbians and being pro-choice as being woke, while Republicans, Proud Boys, the KKK, book bans, aid to Israel and admitting fewer immigrants were judged as being anti-woke.

鈥淲e were able to see that partisanship does show up across a lot of these things as far as, if something more associated with the Democratic Party, it鈥檚 more likely to be viewed as woke, and if it was Republican-associated it would be viewed as less woke. Also, things that are associated with feminism or LGBTQ are more likely to be considered woke, and things that are conservative related to gender and race were seen more as anti-woke,鈥� VanDreew says.

Reviewing the survey results, VanDreew says there was actually a fair amount of agreement between Republicans and Democrats on specific areas of what was deemed woke, as Democrats joined Republicans and independents in identifying certain individuals, groups and causes as woke.

鈥淲hat was different was the connotation as to whether they viewed woke as a negative or a positive. It鈥檚 an interesting thing that they agreed but also completely disagreed on certain subjects,鈥� he says.

Meanwhile, independents as a whole had much less consistent views, tracking more closely with Democrats when it comes to some considerations, while more closely aligning with Republicans on others, he adds. In particular, independents were generally in agreement with Republicans regarding gender issues, which suggests that the political right has been especially successful in reframing gender progressivism as woke, the authors state in their paper.

Other survey responses showed that those polled generally don鈥檛 generally consider the religions, careers or products/companies listed in the survey as especially woke or anti-woke鈥攚ith one major exception: Barbie.

In late 2023, around the same time respondents were surveyed, the movie Barbie debuted and was recognized for addressing gender and stereotyping issues, which may account for the fact that Barbie placed in the woke category, VanDreew says.

Today鈥檚鈥榳oke鈥� is different than yesterday鈥檚鈥榳oke鈥�

"For the sake of voters, we need politicians on both sides to do a better job about transparency when it comes to woke or other buzzwords, and what they鈥檙e platforming."

Based upon the survey results, VanDreew says there are some conclusions that can be drawn about woke. First, the term has undergone a radical transformation in recent years.

鈥淲oke is typically attributed to coming about during the Civil Rights movement, as kind of a discrete way for people to show support for the struggle. It may not have been just the word woke by itself, but it could be terms like 鈥榮tay woke,鈥欌€� he says.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 where it started, and I would say that definition stuck until more modern times, when we鈥檝e seen it take on a completely different context, which is a confusing and not well-organized context.鈥�

Second, research suggests some on the political right have co-opted the term and used it to include anything deemed politically correct, liberal or 鈥渁nti-American,鈥� VanDreew says. Despite this conceptual stretching, however, the term remains linked to social justice, he adds.

At the same time, research shows that how ordinary Americans view woke as a whole remains unclear. Given that the research paper determined there are implied meanings and associations with woke鈥攂ut not a clearly spelled-out definition鈥擵anDreew says it reinforces his belief that politicians on either side of the woke issue owe it to their constituents to explain exactly what they mean when they use the word.

鈥淔or the sake of voters, we need politicians on both sides to do a better job about transparency when it comes to woke or other buzzwords, and what they鈥檙e platforming,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 think a better understanding of the word (woke) as it鈥檚 used by people in power would only help us as a country. That was my only intention here. I didn鈥檛 come at this (topic) trying to be polarizing in any direction; I just came at it with a question and the data led to the published results.鈥�

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91PORN PhD candidate Benjamin VanDreew鈥檚 search for an answer to that question finds that Barbie is, book banning isn鈥檛, and that female Democrats are more likely than male Democrats to be seen as 鈥榳oke.'

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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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