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KU center to host listening session on environmental justice with EPA Region 7 Office
LAWRENCE — Join the KU Center for Environmental Policy, part of the Institute for Policy & Social Research at the University of Kansas, at 4 p.m. April 26 at The Commons for a listening session on environmental justice with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 7. This session will feature a discussion with a panel of students engaged in environmental issues.
Why the ‘WandaVision’ witch now?
LAWRENCE – The critical hit streaming 2021 miniseries “WandaVision” is just the latest example of the image of the witch being exploited for profit by American capitalism, according to a University of Kansas researcher. That was one of the insights that Jane Barnette, associate professor of theatre, explored in a scholarly article for Theatre Journal, titled “What is Wanda but Witches Perservering? Palimpsests of American Witches in WandaVision,” which goes beyond an update of witch history on the screen to draw connections from as far back as the Salem Witch Trials to as recently as the QAnon followers who stormed the U.S. Capitol.
KU announces new 2022-2026 Self Graduate Fellows
LAWRENCE — Eight doctoral students have been selected to receive the University of Kansas’ prestigious Madison and Lila Self Graduate Fellowship for the 2022-2023 academic year. The total value of the four-year doctoral fellowship exceeds $180,000. The students include Kansans from Leawood, Liberal and Overland Park.
Full stories below.
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Contact: Carrie Caine, Institute for Policy & Social Research, 785-864-9102, [email protected]
KU center to host listening session on environmental justice with EPA Region 7 Office
LAWRENCE — Join the KU Center for Environmental Policy, part of the Institute for Policy & Social Research at the University of Kansas, at 4 p.m. April 26 at The Commons for a listening session on environmental justice with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 7.
“The EPA is quite concerned about environmental justice and is working to identify and then address environmental disparities,” said Dietrich Earnhart, director of the KU environmental policy center.
This session will feature a discussion with a panel of students engaged in environmental issues. Discussion will center on environmental justice, a topic of concern for the EPA, and will cover how environmental burdens — extreme weather events driven by climate change, poor air and water quality, and exposure to toxins — are not equally felt by communities.
“Region 7 is excited about opportunities to reconnect with our communities after the long pause created by COVID-19,” said Meg McCollister, EPA Region 7 administrator. “Hearing from all of our communities is important, and this listening session provides a very unique opportunity to hear from students from all over the United States and even the world. The feedback that we gain from sessions like these will shape the efforts and focus of the EPA moving forward.”
All participants are welcome. For accommodations, contact [email protected]. For questions, contact [email protected].
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Contact: Rick Hellman, KU News Service, 785-864-8852, [email protected], @RickHellman
Why the ‘WandaVision’ witch now?
LAWRENCE – The critical hit streaming 2021 miniseries “WandaVision” is just the latest example of the image of the witch being exploited for profit by American capitalism, according to a University of Kansas researcher.
That was one of the insights that Jane Barnette, associate professor of theatre and a practitioner of the craft herself, gained while writing a new article about Wanda Maximoff, aka the Scarlet Witch, a character from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Barnette’s article in the latest edition of Theatre Journal, “What is Wanda but Witches Perservering? Palimpsests of American Witches in WandaVision,” goes beyond an update of witch history on the screen to draw connections as far back as the Salem Witch Trials and as recent as the QAnon followers who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
The author sketches the meta-hardly-does-it-justice plot of the nine-part, Disney+ “WandaVision” series, which focuses on a character first introduced in 1964 in Marvel Comics by creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and then transferred to the onscreen MCU starting with a cameo in 2014’s “Captain America: The Winter Soldier.”
Barnette wrote: “… why this witch now? What, for example, can popular representations of witches reveal about the role of the individual versus that of the community in the wake of current social unrest?”
One layer of what Barnette calls the show’s “palimpsestuous pleasures” is how it references early American TV tropes, with its first two episodes filmed in black and white, the first one in front of a live studio audience.
She then analyzes Wanda in terms of the binary question posed by Glinda in the 1939 film classic “The Wizard of Oz”: “Are you a good witch or a bad witch?,” concluding that the Scarlet Witch is beyond good and evil. Without divulging any spoilers, the series clearly points to Wanda’s grief over the death of her mate, the android known as The Vision, as her motivation for actions that harm others.
“I think that the series was purposefully not going to answer that question,” Barnette said, “But the fact that so many of us had different opinions is exactly what they wanted — so that there would be more conversation and more anticipation for her role in this movie that’s about to come out, ‘Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.’ But what’s nice about that, from my perspective as someone writing about witches, is that that is the best possible compliment you can pay a witch, you know? That she shouldn’t be just good or just bad. She should be someone who, as soon as you think you understand her, you don’t.”
Not that Barnette is entirely complimentary to the “WandaVision” makers. She said they gave short shrift to a Black character, Monica Rambeau, after Monica saves Wanda’s children.
“While Monica’s future as a character in the MCU holds promise for future development, in this series her role was to support and protect Wanda, akin to the ‘Black Best Friend’ stereotype,” Barnette wrote. “This tendency to undervalue the contributions of pivotal Black women in stories about witchcraft has historical precedent in Salem also …”
Barnette said such discussions “are part of what makes this work urgent for me.”
“I feel like by looking at the representation of witches, there’s a way to read the patterns that we’ve seen before,” she said. “That’s the other reason that Salem is so important for us to look at right now. Because it was never really about witchcraft in Salem. Just like the Satanic Panic of the 1980s and ’90s wasn’t really about Satanism. Just like all of the stuff about so-called critical race theory or fears of bathrooms being invaded by somebody who has a different set of genitals than you has actually nothing to do with that. But it’s a way of dehumanizing people so that the next step is to really solidify that us-versus-them barrier that, in its worst-case scenario, can lead to things like concentration camps. I don’t think I’m going too far there. I think that that is truly the danger.”
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Contact: Daniel Rivera, Self Graduate Fellowship, 785-864-7249, [email protected], @Selfgraduate
KU announces new 2022-2026 Self Graduate Fellows
LAWRENCE — Eight doctoral students have been selected to receive the University of Kansas’ prestigious Madison and Lila Self Graduate Fellowship for the 2022-2023 academic year. This incoming group of fellows is among over 200 students who have benefited from the fellowship since it was established in 1989.
The Self Graduate Fellowship is a four-year package awarded to incoming or first-year doctoral students who demonstrate leadership, initiative and passion for achievement. The fellowship covers full tuition and fees, provides graduate research assistant support of $32,000 per year, a $5,500 professional development award and a unique professional development program. The Fellow Development Program provides general education and training in communication, management, innovation, policy and leadership to assist Self Graduate Fellows in preparation for future leadership roles. The role of the development program is to complement the specialized education and training provided in doctoral programs. The total value of the four-year doctoral fellowship exceeds $180,000.
The fellowship’s mission is to identify and recruit exceptional doctoral students who demonstrate the promise to make significant contributions to their fields and society as a whole.
The late Madison “Al” and Lila Self launched and permanently endowed the Self Graduate Fellowship in 1989, motivated by their strong belief in the vital importance of developing leadership for tomorrow. Madison Self was a 1943 KU graduate in chemical engineering. Lila Self grew up in Eudora and attended KU with the Class of 1943.
The new Self Graduate Fellows for 2022-2026:
1. Alexandra Berkowicz, of Gurnee, Illinois: Bachelor’s degree in biomolecular engineering from the Milwaukee School of Engineering; first-year doctoral student in the interdisciplinary graduate program in biomedical sciences, KU Medical Center
2. Skylar Bird, of Overland Park: Bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and cellular biology from the University of California, San Diego; incoming doctoral student in the interdisciplinary graduate program in biomedical sciences, KU Medical Center
3. Aleesa Chua, of Los Angeles: Expected bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Colorado College; incoming doctoral student in chemistry
4. Grahamm Funk, of Leawood: Bachelor’s degree in biological sciences and bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Missouri-Columbia; first-year doctoral student in pharmaceutical chemistry
5. Katherine Meinhold, of Wilmington, North Carolina: Bachelor’s degree in materials science and engineering from North Carolina State University; first-year doctoral student in bioengineering
6. Diana Najera, of Liberal: Bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from Kansas State University; first-year doctoral student in the interdisciplinary graduate program in biomedical sciences, KU Medical Center
7. Kip Nielsen, of Stoughton, Wisconsin: Bachelor’s degree in atmospheric and oceanic science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and master’s degree in atmospheric science from KU; first-year doctoral student in atmospheric science
8. Jeffrey Xu, of Washington, D.C.: Bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from KU; first-year doctoral student in aerospace engineering.
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