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Engaging our statewide community

Over the next four weeks, four WSU researchers in the College of Arts and Sciences will share their work and expertise with communities across the state of Washington.

The WSU faculty are members of the Humanities Washington Speakers Bureau and the initial cohort of WSU Foley Fellows.

Clockwise from top left, Rebecca Craft, Travis Ridout, Matthew Sutton, & Stephen Stehr.
Clockwise from top left, Rebecca Craft, Travis Ridout, Matthew Sutton, & Stephen Stehr.

Speakers Bureau talks are free public presentations on history, politics, music, philosophy, and everything in between. Humanities Washington’s roster of presenters are professors, artists, activists, historians, performers, journalists, and others—all chosen not only for their expertise, but their ability to inspire discussion with people of all ages and backgrounds. All talks are free and open to the public, and each lasts about an hour.

The four WSU faculty presentations begin with:

  • Higher Power: The History of Evangelicals in American PoliticsTuesday, Feb. 18, at 6:30 p.m.
    Indian Trail Library, Spokane WA

    Matthew Sutton, an Edward R. Meyer Distinguished Professor of history, traces the history of the religious right in America, from its early roots to its rise to power under Ronald Reagan and into the current era.

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WSU Insider

Bloomberg’s Instagram meme ad campaign is backfiring

The Democratic candidate’s recent sponcon doesn’t seem to be convincing people he’s any more relatable, hip, or funny than he was before.

The advertising industry that thrives on Instagram seems to love Michael Bloomberg’s U.S. presidential campaign — one marketer who posted a Bloomberg meme told the Times it was the most successful ad he’s ever posted. But the onslaught of critical comments on the memes raises questions about the effectiveness of the campaign — both for Bloomberg and for the influential meme pages that risk losing their cool by promoting a candidate who’s viewed by many of their followers as an out-of-touch billionaire trying to buy his way into an election.

Travis Ridout.
Ridout

“I’m not surprised by the negative reaction,” Travis N. Ridout, a professor of government and public policy at Washington State University who researches online political advertising, told Recode. “Especially given the media attention that he is getting for this, people could feel like they’re being duped or manipulated.”

Many of the negative comments specifically called out Bloomberg for his wealth — labeling him as an “oligarch.” Others accused him of trying to distract from his checkered past on racial issues, which includes instituting controversial “stop-and-frisk” policing in New York City that disproportionately impacted people of color.

“A lot of times, memes are seen as organic, created by people who have something funny to say,” Ridout said. But “to the extent that this is seen as something that is paid for by a rich guy” then it may not have the same impact.

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Vox

Putting numbers to inequality

A Pew Research Report was published online on Jan. 9 with findings on income inequality for the United States. There is what is called a Gini coefficient, which shows inequality. The higher the fraction, the higher the inequality.

The most current Gini coefficient for income in the U.S. from 2017 is 0.434. We are approaching India (0.495) at this time. We lead all G7 countries, with the closest being the United Kingdom at 0.392, the U.S. being 11% higher.

Tim Kohler
Kohler

So what, you may wonder? The study conducted by 13 institutions and led by Dr. Tim Kohler, Anthropology professor from Washington State University, found troubling outcomes from civilizations with high Gini coefficients. The higher coefficients tend to suddenly fall at some point of time, always accompanied by violence and including revolution.

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Missoulian

Scientists document collapse of the white-lipped peccary

White-lipped peccaries have declined by as much as 87% to 90% from their historical range in Central America, signaling a population collapse of a key species in the region, according to a study published recently in the journal Biological Conservation. The research was conducted by a team of 50 scientists from 30 organizations including Washington State University, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and El Colegio de Frontera Sur.

A pig-like animal that is an important food source for large animal predators and humans alike, the white-lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari) also plays a critical ecological role by dispersing seeds and creating water holes that benefit other animals. The study found that current IUCN estimates underestimated the population decline. The study results are a 63% drop from the current IUCN range estimates for the region.

Daniel Thornton.
Thornton

“White-lipped peccary populations are in more of a critical condition than previously thought,” said lead author Dan Thornton, assistant professor in the School of the Environment at Washington State University. “While these results are sobering, they also offer a roadmap on how to conserve this iconic, ecologically important species.”

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Science Daily

WSU Insider

Trump, Bloomberg Super Bowl ads test what a candidate can buy

In almost every other election, it would be unimaginable for a candidate to consider buying a commercial during the Super Bowl, television’s most coveted advertising space. For President Donald Trump and billionaire businessman Michael Bloomberg, it hardly made a dent in their massive campaign war chests, though it’s not clear what effect the ads will have on voters, if any.

According to AdAge, a 30-second spot in this year’s Super Bowl cost a whopping $5.6 million. Trump bought two 30-second ads and Bloomberg bought one 60-second spot.

Travis Ridout.
Ridout

“I think Bloomberg may have bought a little bit more than Trump,” said Travis Nelson Ridout, co-director of the Wesleyan Media Project and professor of political science at Washington State University. “Trump isn’t on the ballot for another nine months and most of our research says the persuasive effects of ads aren’t going to last that long.”

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Komo News