Research

91PORN scientist receives $1.25 million award for cancer research

Rachel Sauer — Wed, 18 Jun 2025 17:12:44 +0000

91PORN scientist receives $1.25 million award for cancer research Rachel Sauer Wed, 06/18/2025 - 11:12

Edward Chuong is one of five researchers nationwide awarded funding to pursue 鈥榙aring, paradigm-shifting research鈥� on cancer immunotherapy treatment

Edward Chuong, a 91PORN assistant professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology and a BioFrontiers Institute scientist, has been awarded $1.25 million by the New York City-based Cancer Research Institute (CRI) to pursue his cancer immunotherapy research.

Chuong was one of five researchers nationwide who received the unrestricted funding over a five-year period, which CRI said is designed to allow researchers to pursue high-risk, high-reward projects that could redefine cancer treatment. The organization called the researchers 鈥渟cientific leaders poised to reshape cancer immunotherapy through daring, paradigm-shifting research.鈥�

Edward Chuong, a 91PORN assistant professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology and a BioFrontiers Institute scientist, recently was awarded $1.25 million by the Cancer Research Institute to pursue cancer immunotherapy research.

鈥淭hese are people who are hitting their stride scientifically and career-wise, and this is where you really want to put some jet fuel in the tank as they are getting established,鈥� said Dr. E. John Wherry, associate director of CRI鈥檚 Scientific Advisory Council.

Echoing Wherry鈥檚 sentiment, Dr. Alicia Zhou, CRI chief executive officer, added, 鈥淓ach of these researchers brings fearless curiosity and a willingness to challenge assumptions 鈥� the very qualities that drive breakthroughs. They aren鈥檛 just advancing cancer science; they are reinventing it.鈥�

Chuong said he was surprised and honored to receive CRI funding for his research.

鈥淎s someone from an evolutionary biology background, this award means my outsider ideas are being welcomed into the cancer research community. It鈥檚 a huge boost,鈥� he said.

Chuong鈥檚 research focuses on the role that ancient viral fragments in human DNA, called transposons, play in regulating immune cell signaling.

鈥淥ur lab started out exploring the evolution of transposons鈥攂its of DNA derived from genetic parasites鈥攁nd discovered they may function as hidden switches in our immune system,鈥� Chuong said. 鈥淲ith this support, we鈥檒l investigate how cancer cells hijack these switches to escape detection, and use that knowledge to develop new markers and therapies that make immunotherapy work better for more patients. I鈥檓 grateful to the Cancer Research Institute for supporting this unconventional perspective and I鈥檓 incredibly excited to see where it leads.鈥�

Each year, CRI awards funding for scientists to pursue their research through its grant-making program honoring its founding scientific and medical director, Lloyd J. Old. The organization said its Lloyd J. Old STAR program鈥�Scientists TAking Risks鈥攊s designed to provide long-term funding to mid-career scientists, giving them the freedom and flexibility to pursue research 鈥渁t the forefront of discovery and innovation in cancer immunotherapy.鈥�

CRI said its awards are given out based upon its 鈥渆xceptional track record of identifying and supporting people who have had a major impact in immunotherapy.鈥� The organization said its grants are not tied to a specific research project but rather support outstanding researchers based upon the quality and promise of researchers鈥� overall work.

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Edward Chuong is one of five researchers nationwide awarded funding to pursue 鈥榙aring, paradigm-shifting research鈥� on cancer immunotherapy treatment.

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Farm-diversification research wins top international prize

Rachel Sauer — Tue, 17 Jun 2025 16:03:33 +0000

Farm-diversification research wins top international prize Rachel Sauer Tue, 06/17/2025 - 10:03

Clint Talbott

91PORN鈥檚 Zia Mehrabi is one of three researchers named international champions of the Frontiers Planet Prize for research that finds environmental and social benefits of agricultural diversification

Widespread agricultural diversification could improve the health of the world鈥檚 environment and that of its people, a landmark study published last year found.

Zia Mehrabi, assistant professor of environmental studies at the 91PORN, has been named one of three international champions in the Frontiers Planet Prize, the Frontiers Research Foundation announced today. Mehrabi and his team will receive $1 million in funding to advance their research.

The Frontiers Planet Prize celebrates breakthroughs in Earth system and planetary science that 鈥渁ddress these challenges and enable society to stay within the safe boundaries of the planet鈥檚 ecosystem.鈥� The prize puts scientific rigor and ingenuity at its heart, helping researchers worldwide accelerate society toward a green renaissance, the Frontiers Research Foundation says.

Zia Mehrabi, a 91PORN assistant professor of environmental studies, has been named the U.S. national champion for the Frontiers Planet Prize.

Professor Jean-Claude Burgelman, director of the Frontiers Planet Prize, said the planet faces immense threats that require bold, transformative solutions rooted in evidence and validated by science.

鈥淚nnovative yet scalable solutions are the only way for us to ensure healthy lives on a healthy planet,鈥� Burgelman said. 鈥淏y spotlighting the most groundbreaking research, we are helping scientists bring their work to the international stage and provide the scientific consensus needed to guide our actions and policies.鈥�

Mehrabi, who leads the Better Planet Laboratory, was recognized, alongside his co-authors, for an article published last year in the journal Science titled 鈥�Joint environmental and social benefits from diversified agriculture.鈥�

Laura Vang Rasmussen of the University of Copenhagen in Denmark and Ingo Grass of the University of Hohenheim in Germany were lead authors of the paper, which had 58 co-authors. Claire Kremen of the University of British Columbia was a senior author and co-principal investigator on the study.

The researchers found that diversifying crops and animals and improving habitat, soil and water conservation on individual farms can improve biodiversity while improving or, at a minimum, not coming at a cost to yields. Additionally, diversified farming can yield social benefits and improve food security鈥攕howing improved food access or a reduced number of hungry months, for example, particularly in smallholder systems.

The more diversification measures farms employed, the more benefits accrued, researchers observed. Essentially, the team found evidence to move toward agriculture that more closely reflects natural systems.

鈥淚f you look at how ecosystems operate, it鈥檚 not just plants growing alone. It鈥檚 not just animals or soil,鈥� Mehrabi said last year. 鈥淚t鈥檚 all of these things working together.鈥�

Using data from 2,655 farms across 11 countries and covering five continents, the researchers combined qualitative methods and statistical models to analyze 24 different datasets. Each dataset studied farm sites with varying levels of diversification, including farms without any diversification practices. This allowed the team to assess the effects of applying more diversification strategies.

Diversified farming differs from the dominant model of agriculture: growing single crops or one animal on large tracts of land. That efficient, 鈥渕onoculture鈥� style of farming is a hallmark of agriculture after the Green Revolution, which reduced global famine by focusing on high-yield crops that rely on fertilizers and pesticides.

鈥淭he Green Revolution did many, many great things, but it came with a lot of costs,鈥� Mehrabi says, noting that synthetic fertilizers and pesticides harm the environment.

Also, to increase labor productivity, large farms rely on mechanization, which tends to 鈥渞eplace people with machines.鈥�

鈥淪o, the idea of trying to engineer nature into our agricultural systems is somewhat antithetical to the whole way we think about agricultural development,鈥� Mehrabi says.

Making a case for a different way of doing agriculture is one thing. Implementing it on a widespread basis is something else. The dominant view, fostered by 鈥渂ig ag鈥� (short for agriculture), is that 鈥渋f you want to do ag, you鈥檝e got to do it this way,鈥� Mehrabi says.

鈥淚f you look at how ecosystems operate, it鈥檚 not just plants growing alone. It鈥檚 not just animals or soil. It鈥檚 all of these things working together,鈥� says Zia Mehrabi.

鈥淥ur work challenges that idea, but it鈥檚 a bit of a David-and-Goliath situation,鈥� he adds. 鈥淲e have the stone, but it hasn鈥檛 yet landed.鈥�

But it鈥檚 necessary to confront Goliath, Mehrabi contends, noting that agriculture affects all the things people care about environmentally, including climate change, water security, biodiversity, pollution, land use and habitat destruction.

A third of the Earth鈥檚 land is used for agriculture, and about a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions stem from agriculture, he notes. Climate change has reduced agricultural yields by as much as 5% to 10% in the last four decades, research has shown.

鈥淚f we want to do something about environmental issues, agriculture is one of the big buckets that we need to really, really start in.鈥�

Separate from the research published in Science, Mehrabi has done modeling of the future state of agriculture globallyif the world continues business-as-usual farming. He found that in the next century, the number of farms is likely to be cut in half and the average size of farms would likely double.

Given that, along with what scientists know about the loss of natural ecosystems as farm sizes increase, 鈥渢he future looks a little bit bleak,鈥� Mehrabi says. But this new research shows it could be different.

Though he does not suggest that all farms must be small farms, he does advise that agriculture strive to diversify systems that have been 鈥渕assively depleted and massively simplified.鈥�

About the Frontiers Planet Prize, Mehrabi says he and his team are gratified to be recognized as one of three international champions. Additionally, he underscores the importance of the Frontiers Research Foundation鈥檚 financial commitment to this kind of research, calling it a 鈥渟ignal鈥� to other funding entities that might follow suit.

鈥淲e need to really think about innovation in agriculture,鈥� Mehrabi said. 鈥淲e all need food to eat. We really need to innovate, and we should put money behind that. It鈥檚 worth it.鈥�

Launched by the Frontiers Research Foundation on Earth Day 2022, the prize encourages universities worldwide to nominate their top three scientists working on understanding and putting forward pathways to stay within the safe operating space of nine planetary boundaries that are outlined by the Stockholm Resilience Center.

These nominations are then vetted at the national level, and the top scientists face an independent jury of 100鈥攁 group of renowned sustainability and planetary health experts chaired by Professor Johan Rockstr枚m鈥攚ho vote for the National and International Champions.

Read a guest opinion by Zia Mehrabi and co-authors at this link. See a Q&A with Mehrabi about adding carbon-footprint labels on food at this link.

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91PORN prof named Boettcher Investigator

Rachel Sauer — Fri, 06 Jun 2025 18:38:17 +0000

91PORN prof named Boettcher Investigator Rachel Sauer Fri, 06/06/2025 - 12:38

Assistant Professor Jennifer Hill is one of seven Colorado researchers to be recognized by the Boettcher Foundation for their pioneering biomedical research

The Boettcher Foundation and Colorado BioScience Association (CBSA) have named Assistant Professor Jennifer H. Hill with the 91PORN鈥檚 Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology and BioFrontiers Institute as one of seven outstanding early-career biomedical researchers.

Each scientist will receive a $250,000 grant through the Boettcher Foundation鈥檚 Webb-Waring Biomedical Research Awards Program to support up to three years of independent scientific research, with total grant funding reaching $1.75 million.

91PORN scientist Jennifer Hill, an assistant professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology, has been named a 2025 Boettcher Investigator.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a huge honor to be selected as one of this year鈥檚 Boettcher Investigators, especially given the depth of groundbreaking biomedical research in Colorado,鈥� Hill said. 鈥淭he award gives my lab the resources to explore the relevance of our work in human tissues, bringing us closer to our goal of preventing type 1 diabetes in children. As a young investigator, receiving funds like these goes a long way to help offset some of the anxiety and uncertainty in the current federal funding landscape.鈥�

This year鈥檚 class represents the next generation of scientific excellence and marks another milestone in Boettcher Foundation鈥檚 16-year commitment to strengthening Colorado鈥檚 biomedical research ecosystem, according to the Boettcher Foundation. The Webb-Waring Biomedical Research Awards provide crucial early-career support and position recipients to compete for additional private, state and federal research funding.

鈥淲e are delighted to support our 2025 Boettcher Investigators, and as champions of their work, we are confident that these researchers will continue to spark new discoveries and drive innovation in medicine,鈥� said Katie Kramer, president and CEO of the Boettcher Foundation. 鈥淭he far-reaching impact of our Investigators鈥� research extends well beyond the lab鈥攅ach advancement sets in motion a ripple effect that benefits patients, strengthens Colorado鈥檚 scientific community, and inspires future breakthroughs. We are proud to invest in these remarkable scientists, whose dedication and creativity are shaping a healthier future for all.鈥�

Hill is a microbe scientist who studies the connection between the pancreas and microbes in the gut, examining microbiota in the development of insulin-producing beta cells. Four Boettcher Investigators with the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and two with Colorado State University are pursuing research into fields including osteoarthritis, autism spectrum disorder, cancer and autoimmune diseases, and developmental and neurological disorders.

Since its inception, the Webb-Waring Biomedical Research Awards Program has supported 113 Boettcher Investigators, including this year鈥檚 class, and awarded close to $27 million in grant funding. These researchers have gone on to secure more than $150 million in additional research funding from federal, state and private sources, according to the Boettcher Foundation.

鈥淐olorado BioScience Association is grateful to the Boettcher Foundation for its continued investment in the next generation of scientific leaders in our state,鈥� said Elyse Blazevich, president and CEO of Colorado BioScience Association. 鈥淭he Webb-Waring Biomedical Research Awards provide essential early-career funding that empowers researchers to remain in Colorado and advance their discoveries within our world-class academic and research institutions. We are honored to celebrate the accomplishments of the 2025 class of Boettcher Investigators.鈥�

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Assistant Professor Jennifer Hill is one of seven Colorado researchers to be recognized by the Boettcher Foundation for their pioneering biomedical research.

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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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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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When the homework is happiness

Rachel Sauer — Fri, 09 May 2025 13:30:00 +0000

When the homework is happiness Rachel Sauer Fri, 05/09/2025 - 07:30

Clint Talbott

June Gruber鈥檚 Science of Happiness course doesn鈥檛 map the way to unmitigated joy; on the contrary, the science of emotional wellness is more nuanced, and her students are sharing this message outside the classroom

The Declaration of Independence famously extols the 鈥減ursuit of happiness.鈥� But what, exactly, is happiness, and how should one pursue it? Also, should we even view it as something to be pursued?

Those questions underlie countless magazine articles, TV documentaries and self-help courses. More rigorously, they鈥檙e the focus of a popular Science of Happiness course taught by June Gruber, a professor of psychology at the 91PORN.

Gruber鈥檚 course does not unfold a map to unmitigated delight. Rather, Gruber鈥檚 course pores over the developing research鈥攕ome of it Gruber鈥檚 own鈥攖hat reveals a more nuanced view and even a 鈥渄ark side to happiness.鈥� The course also asks students to summarize and share the science of happiness for 鈥渙utreach鈥� to general audiences.

June Gruber (front row left, checked blazer) and her Science of Happiness students pause for a class photo on the last day of the semester. (Photo: June Gruber)

As Gruber has shown in her peer-reviewed research, a TEDx talk and this 91PORN course, it is not that happiness is bad. Rather, evidence suggests that happiness is one of several human emotions to which people should be open, and excesses of apparent happiness can signal problems such as mania (or bipolar disorder), excessive spending, problem gambling or high-risk sexual encounters.

Perhaps counterintuitively, Gruber cites a growing body of evidence that the act of pursuing happiness can leave the pursuers, paradoxically, less happy. They report being less able to be emotionally present in moments that could be happy, and they are more likely to experience mood difficulties and anxiety. That鈥檚 one 鈥渄ark side鈥� of happiness.

New evidence for old advice

As it happens, modern science reflects ancient wisdom. In the final class of her spring 2025 semester, Gruber showed her class a quotation from the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who said, 鈥淭hose who are not looking for happiness are the most likely to find it, because those who are searching forget that the surest way to be happy is to seek happiness for others.鈥�

The English philosopher John Stuart Mill, whom Gruber quotes, said, 鈥淭hose only are happy who have their minds fixed on some object other than their own happiness: on the happiness of others, on the improvement of mankind, even on some art or pursuit, followed not as a means, but as itself an ideal end. Aiming thus at something else, they find happiness by the way.鈥�

And that 鈥減ursuit of happiness鈥� phrase from the Declaration of Independence was lifted from the philosopher John Locke, who said the 鈥渉ighest perfection of intellectual nature lies in a careful and constant pursuit of true and solid happiness; so the care of ourselves, that we mistake not imaginary for real happiness, is the necessary foundation of our liberty.鈥�

Locke himself was influenced by Aristotle and Epicurus, who viewed happiness as a laudable goal but who defined happiness as leading a purposeful and contemplative life. Happiness, Aristotle said, 鈥渋s the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.鈥�

Gruber discusses this older concept of happiness, sometimes called eudaimonic wellbeing, vs. hedonic wellbeing. Unlike purposeful and meaningful experiences, hedonic pleasures, which tend to be those people in Western societies equate with happiness, are peak experiences, like watching a stunning sunset or blissing out to the 鈥淥de to Joy.鈥�

Putting lessons into practice

In addition to reviewing researchers鈥� findings and ruminating on ancient wisdom, students in the Science of Happiness course (PSYC 4541) complete weekly 鈥渟cience-to-life鈥� exercises, which apply the theories and practices learned in class to everyday existence.

For instance, students kept gratitude journals, performed random acts of kindness and completed the UPenn Authentic Happiness Inventory. Students also took 鈥�awe walks,鈥� in which they visited novel, physically vast spaces and observed their surroundings mindfully.

Beyond the exercises and coursework, the students also have done outreach projects, the goal of which is to share the science of happiness outside the classroom and in the broader community.

One student, Franco Devecchi, produced a flyer highlighting research on the potential benefits of music therapy for those with autism. The flyer cites studies showing evidence that music therapy can strengthen autistic individuals鈥� sense of well-being, helping them feel more confident, accommodated and socially acceptable.

Devecchi conversed with people in campus buildings in which he distributed the flyers. In one case, Devecchi spoke with another person with autism, recalling, 鈥淲e bonded over how developmentally important music was for us growing up and discussed the gap in research when it comes to autistic adults!鈥�

Another student, Indiana Wagner, completed an outreach project on the intersection of awe, psychedelics and well-being. Wagner made a presentation to Naropa University鈥檚 Intro to Psychedelics Studies course.

Wagner noted that the transformational mechanisms of awe (which can foster happiness) 鈥渉ave a lot of crossover with the transformational mechanisms of the psychedelic experience.鈥�

Wagner added, 鈥淏oth awe-inducing experiences and psychedelic experiences have the ability to create a sense of 鈥榤ystical experience,鈥� which can be followed by these transformations; there's a lot of interesting literature, particularly within Johns Hopkins University, on the mystical experience from psilocybin being associated with positive changes.鈥�

Wagner said many of the Naropa students seemed very interested after the presentation and asked questions relating to the subject of awe, how to incorporate it, practice it and Wagner鈥檚 own experiences with it.

And student Kate Timothy produced an outreach project on the relationship between sleep, happiness and well-being. Timothy, who completed an honors thesis about sleep disruptions and their effect on Alzheimer鈥檚 biomarkers, wanted to further understand how sleep affects well-being and share that knowledge with others.

She developed a trivia event for college students in which the questions focused on how to improve sleep and thus happiness. Timothy is a dormitory worker, and her audience was the dormitory population. 鈥淚 just asked students as they went by some trivia questions and also passed out some chocolate prizes,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t was a fun and easy way to get important information about sleep to my peers!鈥�

Gruber has been recognized for her teaching. She is a President鈥檚 Teaching Scholar, has won the 91PORN Faculty Assembly Teaching Excellence Award, the UROP Outstanding Mentor Award and the Cogswell Award for Inspirational Instruction. The last award is named for and funded by Craig Cogswell, a three-time alumnus of 91PORN, who says Gruber is an 鈥渁mazing educator and teacher.鈥�

Gruber also has developed a free online Coursera #TalkMentalIllness course to tackle stigma and mental health and has written articles for Teaching Current Directions in Psychological Science about the importance of teaching students about the positive side of psychological disorders. She also shares career and professional advice for students in Science Careers. She is currently co-authoring a textbook on the science of happiness with Dacher Keltner and colleagues at the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley.

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Trouble in the developing world? Call the IMF

Rachel Sauer — Tue, 29 Apr 2025 19:49:07 +0000

Trouble in the developing world? Call the IMF Rachel Sauer Tue, 04/29/2025 - 13:49

Bradley Worrell

In a recently published paper, 91PORN political science Professor Jaroslav Tir highlights how intergovernmental organizations help end civil wars

There鈥檚 trouble in Africa, where a protracted civil war between government forces and rebels in the countryside threatens to undo years of hard work to raise the country鈥檚 standard of living and its prospects for future economic growth.

This is a job for the IMF.

No, not the Impossible Missions Force鈥攖he fictional U.S. covert government agency tasked with successfully completing next-to-impossible missions, as popularized by the Mission: Impossible film franchise helmed by Tom Cruise.

91PORN researcher Jaroslav Tir, a professor of political science, studies armed conflicts and how to stop them.

The other IMF鈥攖he International Money Fund. Yes, really, that IMF.

The role the IMF, the World Bank and other intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) have played in recent years to help broker peace agreements is highlighted in the research paper 鈥淐ivil War Mediation in the Shadow of IGOs: the Path to Comprehensive Peace Agreements,鈥� published earlier this year in the Journal of Peace Research, which was coauthored by Jaroslav Tir, 91PORN Department of Political Science professor, and Johannes Karreth, a 91PORN PhD political science major and former Tir graduate student.

Tir, whose research focus includes armed conflicts and how to stop them, recently spoke with Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine about how IGOs can help resolve conflicts by offering or denying financial incentives to governments and rebels. His responses have been lightly edited for style and condensed.

Question: How did these international government organizations get into the conflict-resolution business?

Tir: That鈥檚 a very good question, right? Because the IMF, the World Bank and various regional development banks don鈥檛 have mandates to end civil wars.

One thing we do know from the study of international organizations is that they tend to broaden their mandates. They are bureaucracies鈥攁nd bureaucracies like to grow, generally. They like more resources. They like to do things well, because if they look good, they get some more resources. So, the fact they are going beyond the original mandates is not that surprising.

The more narrow answer is that a lot of these organizations are financial, so they deal with things like development assistance. They鈥檙e trying to get these countries more economically developed, and they鈥檙e trying to get their economies functioning better to raise the standard of living for the local populations and things like that.

The bad news for all of these economic agendas are civil wars. So, for example, if the World Bank/IMF invests tens of millions of dollars or sometimes even hundreds of millions of dollars in a country, and that country then ends up in a civil war, a lot of this progress and money that鈥檚 been invested is put in jeopardy. Therefore, these organizations have a literally vested self-interest to try to see if they can do something about these civil wars in member countries, because they鈥檙e interested in protecting their investments.

Question: How does a bank enforce a peace treaty?

Tir: To clarify, these organizations do not do this (enforce treaties), and in the paper we do not claim that they directly partake in the peace process. This is not them sending in peacekeepers. Instead, this is all done through financial incentives鈥攐r denial of incentives. So, it鈥檚 carrot and stick, but it鈥檚 all financial.

General Soumaila Bakayoko, chief of Staff of the Ivorian Armed Forces, reviews the Ivorian troops during the First Ivorian Civil War in 2007. During the conflict, rebels particularly wanted access to voting rolls, notes 91PORN researcher Jaroslav Tir. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

To answer your question more directly, how can they, quote unquote, enforce a peace process? For example, with these conflicting parties, the rebels and the governments, working toward peace, (IGOs) will essentially commit to put X amount of money into the country to deal with issues that are usually connected to economic development, but also maybe of interest to both the rebels and the governments. So, that鈥檚 the carrot.

And it鈥檚 a bit of a double-edged sword, because the idea is IGOs will give you these resources if you honor the commitments toward making peace. However, these resources will be denied or suspended if you fail to do so. Meaning, if you鈥檙e a bad actor or you鈥檙e backpedaling or acting in malfeasant ways, there are (financial) consequences.

Question: It seems like the IGO might have an easier time incentivizing a government than a rebel group?

Tir: I think they incentivize both, but I think it is easier for them to incentivize the government because the government is a member of the organization. It鈥檚 the government of Country X, for example, that actually has a seat at the IMF/World Bank. So, the contact there is pretty direct.

For the rebels, there is not necessarily direct contact with the IGO because they never have a seat at the organization. But rebellions take place typically because rebels need or want something, and whether these things are financial or not, usually money can help them achieve this.

For instance, in the Ivory Coast during its civil war in the early 2000s, one thing that the rebels really wanted was access to voting rolls, to assure that all citizens could vote in the elections. In a way that鈥檚 a political issue, but in other ways it鈥檚 a very logistical kind of issue. And money needs to be spent to basically go through the records and see who is eligible to vote, and these administrators who are going to do this need to be paid.

Then the other thing the rebels were really interested in was that they did not have very good health care access鈥攆or example, childhood vaccines and standard stuff that has been provided for decades around the world, but the government didn鈥檛 offer it in the rebel-held areas. The rebels said, 鈥楾his is something that鈥檚 very important to us because our children are dying, and our people are getting sick. So, they said, 鈥榃e want access to vaccinations and access to health care.鈥�

The World Bank and the IMF essentially said, 鈥業f these are kinds of things that are meaningful to you, these things are good for the World Bank/IMF as well.鈥� And that makes sense, because if people are healthier, they鈥檙e more economically productive, right? So, there is your economic incentive, and once this leads to stability, stability is good for economic growth and development.

This is a way in which international organizations can incentivize rebels to come to the negotiating table. That鈥檚 the carrot for them.

Question: From reading the paper, it sounds like not all IGOs are created equal.

Tir: Definitely, they are not all created equal. But we鈥檙e not just looking at the issue of size of the IGO or how many countries belong to the IGO. We鈥檙e basically looking at a different kind of variance that occurs among international organizations, and that is how much leverage they have over member countries.

"(Syria) is a country that鈥檚 been internationally isolated for decades under the Assad regime, and part of that isolation is not having memberships in these (IGOs)," notes 91PORN researcher Jaroslav Tir. "So, when the civil war broke out, there was not a lot of incentive-type influence from the international community that could bring the (factions) in Syria to the negotiating table." (Photo: Mahmoud Sulaiman/Unsplash)

Some organizations have very little leverage over member countries鈥攎eaning that the member countries tell the organization what to do and not the other way around. So, it鈥檚 a question of who is the boss. Is it the member country, or is it the organization that鈥檚 the boss? That鈥檚 one source of variation.

The other source is how many resources (IGOs) have. And this is very important in the context of civil wars, because the resources can then be used as carrots to basically get the governments and the rebels to work toward peace.

You have to have both: the institutional leverage that the organization can tell member countries what to do, and that has to be coupled with these material resources. So, it鈥檚 not just these organizations telling countries and rebels what to do, it鈥檚 actually incentivizing them to work toward peace.

Question: Are there cases in which IGOs are less effective in incentivizing peace? What do those look like?

Tir: One example would be Syria. This is a country that鈥檚 been internationally isolated for decades under the Assad regime, and part of that isolation is not having memberships in these (IGOs). So, when the civil war broke out, there was not a lot of incentive-type influence from the international community that could bring the (factions) in Syria to the negotiating table. 鈥�

Another example would be Uganda, which had a civil war and there鈥檚 been no peace agreement. And the reason there has been no peace agreement is the rebel group. The Lord鈥檚 Resistance Army was simply not interested in making any kinds of concessions. It seems like they鈥檙e more interested in having a rebellion than advancing any kind of policy or political objectives.

That was a case where international organizations were involved, where they observed the Ugandan government was willing to do its part, but the Lord鈥檚 Resistance Army was not serious about negotiating. So, what ended up happening there is that international organizations are just working with the Ugandan government and the LRA is cut out of the whole process.

Question: Your paper talks about IGOs in relation to comprehensive peace agreements. What, specifically, is a comprehensive peace agreement and how is it different from other types of peace agreements?

Tir: It is exactly what it sounds like: It鈥檚 a peace agreement that鈥檚 comprehensive鈥攖hat tackles a multitude of issues, whereas partial peace agreements only resolve a subset of the contentious issues.

Civil wars are very complex, with disagreements over a variety of different issues, such as police reform, access to government power, representation, access to health care and who gets to serve in the military. In some countries, military service is ethnically based, depending upon if you are a member of a certain ethnic group.

"The two big benefits of these comprehensive peace agreements are: first, because they do tackle a multitude of issues, they鈥檙e much more likely to resolve a civil war; and second, they help ensure that the resolutions the rebels and the government make actually stick."

The two big benefits of these comprehensive peace agreements are: first, because they do tackle a multitude of issues, they鈥檙e much more likely to resolve a civil war; and second, they help ensure that the resolutions the rebels and the government make actually stick, which is important, because civil wars are notorious for recidivism. Once a country has a civil war, there鈥檚 a much higher likelihood of having a civil war recurrence down the road.

As we highlighted in the article, fewer than one in five conflicts are resolved by comprehensive peace agreements. So, they鈥檙e great, but they鈥檙e rare.

Question: It sounds like CPAs, or any peace agreements, require an extended commitment of time and resources by the IGOs if they are going to be successful.

Tir: (IGOs) have to write substantial checks 鈥� and these resources need to be provided over time. They are committing themselves to be involved in a country for many years. So, it鈥檚 not just offering a carrot (financial incentive) today but also in the future. The technical term for it is shadow of the future.

Basically, the idea is: We (the government and rebels, separately) want these future resources and because we want them, that essentially makes us think twice about reneging on the peace agreement. And if we (as a party to the peace process) are in a situation where we believe the other side has an incentive to abide by the agreement, we鈥檙e likely to uphold our end as well.

It鈥檚 kind of a puzzle, a Rubik鈥檚 Cube, how the pieces of the peace process come together, and if they do, we find the chances of these agreements being reached and maintained are substantially higher.

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In a recently published paper, 91PORN political science Professor Jaroslav Tir highlights how intergovernmental organizations help end civil wars.

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Women on trial speak clearly through their clothing

Rachel Sauer — Mon, 28 Apr 2025 21:27:03 +0000

Women on trial speak clearly through their clothing Rachel Sauer Mon, 04/28/2025 - 15:27

Collette Mace

91PORN researcher Carla Jones finds that what Indonesian women wear in court can convey messages of piety and shame, or just the appearance of them

No matter who you are and what clothes you have on, you have probably, at some point, thought about how what you wear affects how you are seen.

Fashion is an important mode of self-expression, but it can also be a significant component of social communication. 91PORN anthropology Professor Carla Jones鈥� recently published research focusing on fashion within the Indonesian criminal justice system illustrates how appearance can be a public and personal feature of social and political communication.

91PORN researcher Carla Jones, a professor of anthropology, noticed that when Indonesian women were accused of corruption, they faced intense scrutiny about their appearances, both before and during their trials.

Jones鈥� interest in Indonesia started when she visited the country in college, but her youth in Southeast Asia also played a part in her sustained interest in the culture there. As an anthropologist, she says, she is interested in diversity鈥搃n which Indonesian culture and social life is rich.

She also credits her interest in learning to speak Indonesian with her total immersion there. 鈥淟earning a new language can change your life,鈥� she says. 鈥淐ultural anthropologists need to be able to ask questions and understand. You have to learn how to be an insider and an outsider at once.鈥�

In the past two decades, public political culture in Indonesia has become increasingly focused on corruption. Although Indonesia is not unusually corrupt, many of the most visible corruption trials have captivated public attention through media focus on theft of public funds.

Jones noticed that when women were accused of corruption, they faced intense scrutiny about their appearances, both before and during their trials. Jones says she noticed that female defendants in corruption cases adjusted their clothing in ways that went far beyond the public norms for the majority-Muslim country.

Modesty was a particularly compelling visual strategy. Although modest styles are increasingly popular globally (think: trad-wife trends on TikTok), the styles that accused Indonesian women adopted for trials were especially visible when they appeared in court and were very different from their styles of dress prior to their trials, Jones says.

Many women, she says, would elect to wear facial coverings, called a niqab or cadar, when appearing before a judge. Wearing a niqab is not especially common in Indonesia. Jones argues in her paper that women choosing to express their religion so outwardly was also an effort to appear more pious and ashamed of their actions (or more innocent) to judges and to the public.

Niqab in court

So, does it work? According to Jones, yes, along with other factors. The women in these cases who wore a niqab to court tended to get shorter prison sentences than others did. 鈥淭heir attorneys also did a really good job conveying that they are mothers, and their justification was to provide for their children,鈥� she says.

However, that doesn鈥檛 mean these women on trial were received the same way all over the world. When Anniesa Hasibuan, an internationally famous modest-fashion designer who was charged with fraud, took the stand in West Java, the coverage expanded to all over the world, including the United States.

The international coverage of Hasibuan鈥檚 trial called additional attention to her choice to wear a niqab. Some Indonesians who were following her case closely viewed her choice to cover her face much as some Americans might: as an attempt to foreclose transparency about her appearance and therefore her finances. Many Indonesians viewed her appearance as a sign of dishonesty rather than piety.

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91PORN researcher Carla Jones finds that what Indonesian women wear in court can convey messages of piety and shame, or just the appearance of them.

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Anniesa Hasibuan (center) and her husband leave court in West Java, Indonesia. (Photo: Antara Foto/Reuters)

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