Big Ideas TXST

Texas State University’s Colleen Myles, an associate professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, joins the Big Ideas TXST podcast to discuss her research into the social interplay between craft breweries and the communities they reside in.

The contemporary craft brewery boom is having a broader impact on U.S. culture than simply providing an array of beverages to consume. Those small, independent craft breweries are increasingly active participants in their communities’ environmental and social sphere. These breweries often take up and champion local causes, becoming powerful agents of advocacy for sustainability initiatives, wildlife conservation, public spaces, defending the rights of marginalized populations, fighting hunger, homelessness and a host of other causes. Almost half of craft breweries engage in some form of social advocacy, bringing to bear on local issues the innovation and independence for which these businesses are known.  

Myles is a rural geographer and political ecologist with specialties in land and environmental management; (ex)urbanization; (rural) sustainability and tourism; wine, beer and cider geographies (aka fermented landscapes); and agriculture, inclusive of urban, peri-urban and “local.” She holds a level 1 certificate in wine from the Wine Spirit Education Trust, a specialist of Texas wines certification from the Texas Wine School and is a certified specialist of wine by the Society for Wine Educators. She completed her Ph.D. in geography and her master’s in community development both at the University of California-Davis. She earned her bachelor’s with a double major of liberal studies and political science at Sonoma State University.  

Further reading:

Fermented Landscapes

Craft breweries are fermenting change, addressing local ills while serving local ales

Texas State University’s Ali Forbes, an assistant professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Texas State University, joins the Big Ideas TXST podcast to discuss her research into the cultural impact of video games—NBA2K, in particular.

NBA 2K debuted in 1999 and since then has become an enduring franchise. The game simulates professional basketball and attracts millions of players around the globe. Along the way, NBA 2K has developed its own culture—as a multiuser domain game, players can create their own characters and socialize with other players—but has also become part of the larger, real-world culture of the National Basketball League. Forbes is particularly interested in the interactions players of different ethnicities have within the game environment, as well as those of women and girls. Her research is the basis for a book she is currently writing.  

Forbes completed her Ph.D. at Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. She is from Canada, where her family still lives. Forbes’ professional background is in live broadcast production for radio, television and online and she teaches classes in studio production, live sports production, advanced issues and ethics in sports journalism.

Further reading:
Playing for a level court in esports

Understanding the Culture of NBA2K

Texas State’s STARS report

Sustainability Culture Assessment

Texas State earns STARS Silver rating for sustainability achievements

Research To Accelerate Pandemic Recovery in Special Education: Grantee Spotlight Blog Series Featuring Dr. Alyson Collins

Turning the TIDE: Building Teacher Capacity to Accelerate Text-Based Writing Performance of Students With and At Risk for Disabilities

The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment

Meadows Center constructing new glass-bottom boat dock at Spring Lake

Meadows Center and San Marcos Chamber hold ribbon cutting for restored glass-bottom boat #1963

Meadows Center reintroduces snorkel, kayak tours at Spring Lake

Texas State University’s Farzan Irani, professor in the Department of Communication Disorders at Texas State University, joins the Big Ideas TXST podcast to discuss the stereotypes and myths about stuttering.

Of particular interest to Irani is fluency development in bilingual children and the misconception that bilingual children are more likely to stutter than their monolingual counterparts. Irani has also done extensive longitudinal work on stuttering treatment outcomes. Irani oversees the Comprehensive Stuttering Therapy Program, an intensive clinical program designed for adolescents and adults who stutter that is based at Texas State’s Round Rock Campus. The program, established in 2011, is offered by the Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic every July.

Irani received his bachelor's degree in speech-language pathology and audiology at the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences, Mumbai India. He received his master's degree and earned his doctorate in communication sciences and disorders at Bowling Green State University, Ohio. He has experience working as a graduate student and clinician at Bowling Green State University's Intensive Clinic for Adolescents and Adults. He also gained experience in delivering therapeutic services to People Who Stutter via telepractice during his doctoral program. His research interests include psychosocial aspects of stuttering, multicultural aspects of stuttering and treatment effectiveness in stuttering.

Further reading:

Texas State University’s Laure Brimbal, assistant professor in the School of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Texas State University, joins the Big Ideas TXST podcast to discuss the research that shows children are judged more harshly for telling blunt truths than for lies.

Research published in October by Brimbal suggests children who tell blunt truths such as “I don’t want this present – it’s ugly!” are judged more harshly by adults than those who bend the truth to be polite or protect others. Published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Moral Education, the research demonstrates the mixed messages that adults are giving children about lying versus telling the truth in different contexts.

The study followed 267 adults from the Northeast U.S. being shown videos of children, aged 6 to 15, telling the truth or lying in various social situations. In some scenarios, the 24 different children lied to protect others. Findings showed that the adults judged the blunt truth-tellers more harshly than those who lied or told vague truths, but only when they told lies in order to be polite. When children lied to protect others, telling blunt truths or lies had less of an influence on how adults viewed the child.

Prior to coming to Texas State, Brimbal was a postdoctoral research associate at Iowa State University. She earned her Ph.D. in psychology and law from the Graduate Center, CUNY in 2016. Her research interests lie at the intersection of psychology and the criminal justice system, specifically policing. Her focus is on interviewing and issues such as how to build rapport to overcome resistance and how to use evidence in an interview to improve lie-detection accuracy. She has also examined broader issues of decision-making in investigations, evaluating the effectiveness of training approaches and integrating research and practice.

Further reading:

Children who tell blunt truth, as opposed to lying, are being judged harsher by adults

Inconvenient truth-tellers: Perceptions of children’s blunt honesty

Texas State University’s Stella Silva, assistant vice president for inclusive excellence-faculty and staff initiatives, and Victoria Black, associate dean of University College student services, join the Big Ideas TXST podcast to discuss the university’s recent designation as a Seal of Excelencia recipient.

Texas State is one of only six institutions certified in 2022 for the seal by Excelencia in Education, the nation’s premier authority on efforts accelerating Latino student success in higher education. Texas State joins an exclusive group of 30 colleges and universities nationally who are so recognized for demonstrating through data, evidence-based practices and leadership, how they are intentionally serving Latino students.

The Seal of Excelencia framework was developed with colleges and universities over many years as a tool for institutional self-assessment. The seal certification is valid for three years and institutions committed to a journey of transformation to intentionally serve their Latino students may choose to apply. This marks the fourth year Excelencia has offered the Seal of Excelencia—a national certification process supporting institutional transformation to serve Latino, and all, students.

Texas State has been designated as a Hispanic Serving Institution since 2011. Currently, 40.5% of the student body identifies as Hispanic/Latino. In 2021, Hispanic Outlook magazine recognized Texas State as one of the Top 100 Colleges and Universities for Hispanics. Texas State was nationally ranked in seven categories, including 13th for total bachelor’s degrees granted to Hispanics, 28th for total Hispanic enrollment among 4-year schools and 47th for total master´s degrees granted to Hispanics.

Further reading:

National spotlight on Texas State for Seal of Excelencia honor
Excelencia in Education

Rodney Rohde, Texas State University System Regents Professor in the College of Health Professions and chair of the Clinical Laboratory Science Program at Texas State University, joins the Big Ideas TXST podcast to discuss the recent outbreak of monkeypox in the U.S.

Rohde holds certifications as a specialist in virology, specialist in microbiology, and molecular biologist from the American Society for Clinical Pathology. He spent a decade as a public health microbiologist and molecular epidemiologist with the Texas Department of State Health Services Bureau of Laboratories and Zoonosis Control Division prior to his academic career. His research interests are diverse but focus on adult education and public health microbiology, specifically with respect to rabies virology, oral rabies wildlife vaccination, antibiotic resistant bacteria and molecular diagnostics/biotechnology. He has published numerous articles and has received a variety of grant support for his research. Rohde is a member in the prestigiousAlpha Mu Tau Fraternity (AMTF) and was named a CLS Distinguished Author, along with his colleagues, in 2013. He received the 2007 ASCLS Scientific Research Award and again in 2014for his work with MRSA and rabies, respectively.

Further Reading 

What is monkeypox? A microbiologist explains what’s known about this smallpox cousin

What do HIV and COVID-19 have to do with monkeypox?

Monkeypox Arrives in the U.S.—Now What?

Monkeypox: What We Do and Don’t Know About Recent Outbreaks

Louis Pasteur’s scientific discoveries in the 19th century revolutionized medicine and continue to save the lives of millions today

Aimee Villarreal, an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology at Texas State University, joins the Big Ideas TXST podcast to discuss her appointment by U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland to the Advisory Committee on Reconciliation in Place Names, a federal advisory group to help identify and recommend changes to derogatory terms still in use for places throughout the country.

Villarreal was trained in anthropology at the University of California at Santa Cruz with specialization in Mexican American culture and history. As a Chicana with roots in New Mexico and Texas, she is descended from farmworkers, faith healers, educators and community workers whose collective spirit she brings to her teaching, scholarship and creative projects. She is committed to homeplace ethnography and applied projects in partnership with local stakeholders.

Her interdisciplinary research explores social movements and other acts of rebeldía for social justice, equity and sustainable futures in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. She produced and served as lead researcher for an award-winning documentary animation about the 1680 Pueblo Revolt. Currently, she is working on Unsettled Refuge, a historical project involving researchers in Canada and the U.S. who are documenting Indigenous practices of sanctuary and humanitarianism in North America. Her forthcoming book Sanctuaryscapes in the New Mexico Borderlands tells time-traveling stories about how vulnerable people band together to create communities of protection and care.

Further reading:

1680 Pueblo Revolt: Frontera!

Villarreal named to federal Advisory Committee on Reconciliation in Place Names

Hank Hehmsoth, an associate professor of practice in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Texas State University, joins the Big Ideas TXST podcast to discuss his work with Christopher Cross, music education and the fascinating discoveries he’s made in jazz research.

As a performing artist, Hehmsoth has played more than 10,000 international, national, state and regional area performances, from classical to jazz to pop/rock, as well as Broadway, concert tour music, nightclubs and symphony. He is a lifetime voting member for the Grammy Awards.

Hehmsoth teaches composition and jazz piano. His students play piano, bass, sax, flute, guitar and have won awards and scholarships including Berklee College of Music  and the Patti Strickel Harrison Scholarship. Composition students learn commercial arranging and contemporary techniques in jazz. His studio includes international students from Serbia, China, South Korea and South America.

He is a MacDowell Norton Stevens fellow in composition, a National Endowment for the Arts fellow in jazz composition (1979), a Fulbright Senior Specialist in jazz studies, a National Endowment for the Arts project specialist and a research scholar for the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University.

Further reading:

Hehmsoth YouTube channel

Texas State's Hehmsoth uncovers audio trove of jazz history

We Are the Music Makers

Hehmsoth on Wordpress

Dale Blasingame, an assistant professor of practice in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Texas State University, joins the Big Ideas TXST podcast to discuss National Parks, State Parks and incorporating these outdoor treasures into higher education.

A founder of the Study-in-America program at Texas State, each semester Blasingame oversees a class of students who travel to public parks across the U.S. to hone their journalism skills and learn to tell stories with substance and relevance. Students benefit from the experience of studying beyond the traditional classroom setting, much like studying abroad.

Blasingame is an avid hiker and traveler. In 2014, he visited all 95 state parks in Texas in one year. He’s now almost halfway through his mission to visit all 400+ national park properties. Dale’s dog, Lucy, joins him on trips and loves to hike and climb rocks. Blasingame and Lucy were included on Texas Highways Magazine’s list of Extraordinary Texans for 2016, and his stories have been featured on TV, radio, digital and in magazines. He’s been able to marry his passions of technology and our parks by creating a course called Mobile Storytelling in the Park, in conjunction with Texas Parks and Wildlife, where students produce social video content at state parks. In 2017, Blasingame received a grant to develop the School of Journalism and Mass Communication’s first Study in America course, where he took students to do similar work in national parks. The program is now in its third year.

Blasingame is a member of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation, National Park Foundation, National Parks Conservation Association and The Trail Foundation. He’s also a licensed commercial drone pilot.

Before joining the Texas State faculty, Blasingame was a television news producer. He spent nine years at WOAI-TV in San Antonio, where he won two Lone Star Emmy awards and was nominated for a third. Before that, he was a news anchor and sports reporter for KTSA-AM in San Antonio. Blasingame is a member of the Online News Association, Society of Professional Journalists and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.

Further reading:

Study-in-America: Journalism Students report from state, national parks as they create content for digital and social media outlets

Digital Media Innovation

Dale Blasingame on Instagram

Lucy And Her Leash

Kate Spradley, a professor in the Department of Anthropology at Texas State University joins the Big Ideas TXST podcast to discuss her work along the South Texas border with Operation I.D.

Beginning in 2013, the Forensic Anthropology Center at Texas State began a service-learning project ‒ Operation Identification (OpID) led and directed by Spradley. Operation ID was founded to facilitate the identification and repatriation of unidentified human remains found along or in close proximity to the South Texas border through community outreach, scientific analysis and collaboration with governmental and non-governmental organizations.

The process of identification of migrant remains in Texas, as in every other border state requires collaboration. FACTS faculty and staff work closely with the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team, South Texas Center for Human Rights, Colibrí Center for Human Rights, in addition to foreign consulates, the USCBP Missing Migrant Project, the National Missing and Unidentifeid Persons System (NamUS) and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, as some of the cases represent individuals under the age of 18. Working together with undergraduate and graduate students, Spradley’s team serves the families of the missing and law enforcement agencies within Texas that have limited resources to pursue identification efforts. Operation Identification facilitates exhumation, processing, analysis, storage, and identification efforts of migrant deaths from South Texas.

Spradley received her master’s from the University of Arkansas in 2000 and her Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee in 2006. She is a biological anthropologist with specific research interests in human biological variation, forensic anthropology, bioarchaeology and quantitative methods.

Further reading:

The Guardian: ‘Treated like trash’: the project trying to identify the bodies of migrants
Texas Public Radio: The Dead In The Desert: Unknown Burials And Operation I.D.
New York Times: Can Skeletons Have a Racial Identity?
Esquire: Inside the Four-Year Forensic Search to Give One Migrant Family an Answer
 

Seoyoun Kim, an associate professor in the Department of Sociology at Texas State University joins the Big Ideas TXST podcast to discuss the surprising health benefits of volunteering.

Kim's research indicates that that health benefits derived from volunteer work are greater for lower-income volunteers than for wealthier ones. In the U.S., approximately 29 million older adults volunteer through an organization annually, contributing 3 billion hours of service to the community at large. Kim analyzed data from the Health and Retirement Study, a nationally representative U.S. study funded by the National Institute on Aging and the Social Security Administration that surveys approximately 20,000 older adults every two years and accounts for income. Using this data, her research team created a quasi-experimental study using statistical analyses to adjust for the fact that wealthier older adults were more likely to volunteer, among other factors, thereby reducing bias in their results.

Findings showed that in the full sample, volunteering enhanced self-reported health and reduced depressive symptoms for older adults in general. Significantly, those in the lowest wealth quintile experienced more gains in self-reported health from volunteering compared to their wealthy counterparts. Volunteering was associated with fewer depressive symptoms regardless of wealth status.

Kim earned her bachelor's degree in sociology from Michigan State University and her in Ph.D. in sociology gerontology Purdue University. Her research interests include

aging and the life course, physical and mental health and quantitative methods.

Further reading:

Volunteering provides greater health benefits to low-income volunteers than more wealthy counterparts

Volunteering as an Equalizer: A Quasi-Experimental Study Using Propensity Score Analysis

Andrew Ojede, an associate professor in the Department of Finance and Economics at Texas State University joins the Big Ideas TXST podcast to discuss the impact that international sanctions are having in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

When Russian forces crossed the border into Ukraine on February 24, the international response was swift. The United States, European Union and other nations around the world imposed strict and far-reaching economic sanctions on Russia that far exceeded previous sanction efforts. From targeting Russian banking interests, oligarchs and Russian President Vladimir Putin himself, the unprecedented financial pressures are having a crippling effect on the Russian economy… but also spilling over to affect those countries imposing the sanctions as well.

Ojede is the co-founder of the Africa Policy & Analytics Group. He earned his B.A. in economics from Makerere University, Uganda, his master's in economics from the University of North Texas and his Ph.D. in economics from Kansas State University. His research interests include international economics, macro economics, regional economic growth and international development.

Further reading:

Analysis of rouble currency crisis
 

Andrea Banzatti, an assistant professor in the Department of Physics at Texas State University joins the Big Ideas TXST podcast to discuss the observatory time he has been awarded on NASA's recently-launched James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

JWST is NASA's flagship infrared telescope designed to study exoplanets and distant galaxies. The telescope was successfully launched Dec. 25, 2021, and is now at its permanent home at the L2 Lagrangian point, where it will observe the deepest reaches of the cosmos. Banzatti will use 19 hours of observation time during the telescope's first cycle of observations in the summer of 2022 for the research program, "The infrared water spectrum as a tracer of pebble delivery to rocky planets."

Banzatti earned his Ph.D. at ETH Zurich, Switzerland in 2013, after earning both his master's and bachelor's degrees in physics from the University of Milan, Italy. Banzatti's research interests include the observations of protoplanetary disks and exoplanet formation across the wavelength spectrum (ultra-violet, optical, near- and mid-infrared, and radio), and across disk evolutionary stages (primordial, transition and debris disks). Much of his research focuses on monitoring biologically-relevant gas chemistry, such as water and organic molecules, in planet-forming regions.

Further reading:

Exoplanet Formation Research at Texas State

Texas State physicist to use James Webb Space Telescope to study water delivery to exoplanets

Elizabeth K. Eger, an assistant professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Texas State University joins the Big Ideas TXST podcast to discuss presenteeism—the pressure to work while sick—and the negative impacts this has on both the individual and business.

Presenteeism, or sickness presence, is the act of showing up for work without (really) being productive. The individual is there because they have a project to finish or a boss or co-workers who depend on them. Another reason people engage in presenteeism is that they don’t have paid sick leave and COVID has greatly complicated the situation with the increase in remote working.

Eger obtained her Ph.D. at the University of Colorado Boulder where she also received graduate certificates in citical theory and in women and gender studies. Eger teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in organizational communication, qualitative methods, gender and communication, and work, identity and difference. Her research examines how we understand ourselves in relationship to work, how communication of difference impacts our organizational, health, and life experiences, and how collectives create organizational identities. Her ongoing research explores difference-based organizing, including long-term ethnographies of a transgender outreach center and a computing camp for girls of color. For five years before joining Texas State, Dr. Eger worked as a researcher for the National Center of Women and Information Technology to advance the meaningful participation of women and underrepresented people in IT careers and education.

Further reading:

Why Americans Can't Call in Sick
https://www.damemagazine.com/2022/01/26/why-americans-cant-call-in-sick/

Communication Studies professor looks at how presenteeism affects workers and work places
news.txstate.edu/research-and-innovation/2021/how-presenteeism-affects-workers-and-work-places.html

#mydisabledlifeisworthy on Twitter:
twitter.com/search?q=%23mydisabledlifeisworthy&src=typed_query

Josh Daspit, an associate professor of religious studies in the Department of Philosophy at Texas State University, and Daniel Roy join the Big Ideas TXST podcast to discuss the Sustainable Cultivation and Advancement of Local Enterprises for Underserved Populations (SCALEUP) program.

SCALEUP is a new initiative at Texas State designed to research the factors restraining minority-owned business growth and develop remedies.

Daspit's research interest is in entrepreneurship and he focuses on issues related to family businesses, innovation and social dynamics. He has more than 40 articles published in outlets such as California Management Review, Corporate Governance, Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, Family Business Review, Human Resource Management Review, Journal of Business Research and Journal of Knowledge Management. Daspit currently serves as an Associate Editor for Family Business Review and for Journal of Family Business Strategy. He also serves as the Social Media Editor of Family Business Review and is on the editorial review boards of Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, Journal of Family Business Management and other journals.

Roy is a graduate of St. Mary's University in San Antonio where he received a BBA in Corporate Financial Management. After a brief stint in corporate banking, he returned to Texas and embarked on 25-year entrepreneurial journey starting three successful companies each deeply committed to the core values of integrity, caring and excellence. Roy was part of a national effort to develop a certification credentialing program that provides foundational employability skills to help people land jobs and get promoted in retail stores and beyond. To date, more than 50,000 jobseekers have been trained nationally. He has also served on the State Board of Directors for the Texas Association of Business, as chairman of the board for the Greater San Marcos Chamber of Commerce and numerous community and non-profit boards.

Further reading:

Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship project descriptions

Joseph Laycock, an associate professor of religious studies in the Department of Philosophy at Texas State University, joins the Big Ideas TXST podcast to discuss religious freedom, new religious movements and the fascinating, pan-cultural phenomenon of exorcism.

Laycock teaches courses on world religions, religion in America and the intersection of religion and popular culture. He is the author of several books including The Penguin Book of Exorcisms, Speak of the Devil: How The Satanic Temple is Changing the Way We Talk About Religion, Dangerous Games: What the Moral Panic Over Role-Playing Games Says About Play, Religion, and Imagined Worlds and The Seer of Bayside: Veronica Lueken and the Struggle to Define Catholicism.

Laycock has been interviewed for several documentaries as well as Geraldo at Large, The Colbert Report, Coast to Coast AM, Mysteries Decoded, NPR, The Texas Standard, The Jenny McCarthy Show and Armchair Experts with Dax Shepard.

Further reading:

Joseph P. Laycock website

Joseph Laycock on Twitter

Religious studies professor explores exorcisms in new book from Penguin Classics

‘Speak of the Devil’ by Philosophy professor Joseph Laycock looks at The Satanic Temple and religion in America

How the Satanic Temple is using ‘abortion rituals’ to claim religious liberty against the Texas’ ‘heartbeat bill’

Kim Rossmo, holder of the University Chair in Criminology and Director of the Center for Geospatial Intelligence and Investigation at Texas State University, joins the Big Ideas TXST podcast to discuss geographic profiling and the surprisingly wide range of applications for that discipline in various fields of study.

Rossmo has researched and published in the areas of environmental criminology, the geography of crime and criminal investigations. He was formerly the director of research for the Police Foundation in Washington, D.C. Prior to that, he was the detective inspector in charge of the Vancouver Police Department’s Geographic Profiling Section, which provided investigative support for the international law enforcement community.

Rossmo is a member of the Police Investigative Operations Committee of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) and was a commissioner and chair for the Austin Public Safety Commission for 10 years. He is an adjunct professor at Simon Fraser University, sits on the editorial board for Homicide Studies and is a full fellow of the International Criminal Investigative Analysis Fellowship. Rossmo has completed projects studying the geospatial structure of terrorist cells, geographic profiling applications in counter-insurgency and patterns of illegal border crossings. He is currently the principal investigator for two National Institute of Justice research grants, one on offender decision-making and the other on the systemic causes of wrongful convictions. He has published books on geographic profiling and criminal investigative failures and a crime atlas for Texas. Rossmo has been awarded the Governor General of Canada Police Exemplary Service Medal.

Further reading:

Jack the Ripper: A wrongful conviction based on flawed DNA analysis

TXST helps Killeen Police Dept fight crime by identifying crime hotspots

Geographic profiler uses Nazi Berlin to model terrorist activities

Research indicates sharks are nature's serial predators

NIJ grant to fund study of wrongful convictions, investigative failures

Kaitlin Hopkins, head of the Musical Theatre Program at Texas State University, joins the Big Ideas TXST podcast to discuss building a ground-breaking musical theatre program from the ground up and then navigating the program through the COVID pandemic.

Hopkins is an award-winning actress, director, producer and educator who has worked in theater, film and television for more than 30 years. In 2009 she revived the BFA Musical Theatre program at Texas State, which is now ranked in the top 10 musical theatre programs in the nation. She is also the proud co-founder of EETA, Educators for Equity in Theatre Arts.

In addition, she is the co-founder of Living Mental Wellness, which is a holistic evidence-based company that offers educational programs to enhance mental wellness for performing artists through an integrated scientific life skills model. Her TEDx Talk on the importance of mental wellness education for students, along with her research and curriculum-based mental wellness training program for performing artists at Texas State has garnered international attention.

As an educator, she received the 2016 Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching from Texas State and was recognized by Broadway Dreams Foundation as an innovative voice in education, and one of the 6 top women educators in the performing arts. In 2012, in collaboration with the ProJazz Institute Hopkins created and launched the first musical theater-training program in Chile. In addition, she serves as an external examiner for the Sharjah Performing Arts Academy in Dubai and on the artistic advisory board for North Texas Performing Arts. Hopkins teaches master classes all over the country and consults for multiple individuals and arts organizations.

As a director, writer and producer her production of The World According to Snoopy made its world premiere at Texas State and had regional premiers at Theatre Under The Stars and Theatre Aspen. Other producing credits include producing radio plays and musicals for The Plays the Thing Series (LA Theatre Works) and The Pet Shop (Animal Planet Network) hosted by comedian Andy Kindler. Her directing credits at State University include: The Hunchback of Notre Dame, RENT, Anything Goes, Urinetown, Hair, All Shook Up, Oklahoma!, The Wild Party, A Little Princess (world premiere) and Bat Boy-The Musical. Her productions at Texas State have been recognized with numerous awards by the Austin Critics' Table Awards.

Further reading:

www.kaitlinhopkins.net

Living Mental Wellness

www.LivingMentalWellness.com

Erika Nielson, director of the Common Experience at Texas State University, joins the Big Ideas TXST podcast to discuss the 2021-2022 Common Experience theme of "Compassion."

Texas State presents an academic theme each year, providing numerous opportunities for everyone — students, faculty, staff and community members — to share in a Common Experience. The Common Experience theme for the 2021-2022 academic year is Compassion. It's an academic and real-world look at the self. The university community will focus on topics such as mindfulness, support, relief and genuine human kindness — for oneself, for others, and for everything around us.

This Common Experience theme focuses on compassion as a concept that unites in commitment to affect change for the better beginning with the self and expanding throughout the campus, community, country and world. With profound implications for personal wellbeing and growth, dynamic potential for application and collaboration across disciplines, and promise of deeper connection between students, faculty, staff and administration, moving toward compassion can empower our university and its members to shape lasting personal and collective change for the better on the Texas State campuses and beyond.

In addition to heading up the Common Experience, Nielson is the Common Reading coordinator, new student convocation chair and is a senior lecturer in University College. She received a B.A. in anthropology from Texas A&M University, an M.A. in reading education from the University of Texas of the Permian Basin and a Ph.D. in developmental education, literacy specialization from Texas State. Nielson is also a yoga student of 24 years and a yoga teacher of 20 years. Her research focus includes educators and students in pre-kindergarten through higher education engaging in mindfulness, self-compassion and yoga practices, and their understanding and observations of those practices, as well as the literacy practices of adult learners.

Further reading:

Common Experience

https://www.txstate.edu/commonexperience/ce-theme.html

Nick Dornak, director of watershed services with the Meadows Center for Water and the Environment at Texas State University, joins the Big Ideas TXST podcast to discuss the Clean Coast Texas Collaborative.

The collaborative will provide coastal communities with technical assistance on best practices to reduce nonpoint source pollution and incorporate stormwater management techniques. As a primary component of the recently launched Clean Coast Texas initiative, the collaborative encompasses a dynamic team of scientists, educators, engineers and communication professionals, who will work with communities throughout the Texas Coastal Zone to address stormwater management and water quality concerns. Partners in the collaborative include the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Services’ Texas Community Watershed Partners, the Texas Sea Grant College Program and Doucet & Associates.

Dornak has extensive experience with community-based planning, wildlife remediation work and public policy related to natural resources. His work is driven by his knowledge of the issues and his determination to find workable solutions. He is based in Driftwood.

Further reading:

Clean Coast Texas

Meadows Center, General Land Office launch Clean Coast Texas Collaborative

Award-winning novelist Jennifer duBois, assistant professor in the Department of English at Texas State University, joins the Big Ideas TXST podcast to discuss her career, creative process and joys of teaching in the MFA program in creative writing at Texas State.

duBois has written three acclaimed novels. Her debut, A Partial History of Lost Causes, was the winner of the California Book Award for First Fiction, the Northern California Book Award for Fiction, a Whiting Writers' Award, a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 Award and was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Fiction. Her second book, Cartwheel, was the winner of the Housatonic Book Award fiction and was a finalist for the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Award. Her most recent novel, The Spectators, earned recognition from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Civitella Ranieri Foundation. duBois' writing has appeared in such publications as The New York Times, The Kenyon Review, The Missouri Review, Lapham's Quarterly, American Short Fiction and The Wall Street Journal.

Further reading:

Novel by Texas State Professor Jennifer duBois Reviewed in the New York Times

Texas State English professor named NEA Creative Writing Fellow

Texas State lecturer receives prestigious Whiting Writers Award

Jennifer duBois website

Katherine Warnell and Jennifer Clegg, assistant professors in the Department of Psychology at Texas State University, join the Big Ideas TXST podcast to discuss their ongoing research into how children learn to lie.

Lying is a complex behavior that requires sophisticated social cognition. The liar—in this case, children—have to think about how others are perceiving them, what they know, and whether the lie is successful or not. In their studies, Warnell and Clegg examine how children between 4- and 10 years old learn about different types of lies: Anti-social lying, as when a child tries to deny guilt after doing something wrong, and prosocial lying, or polite lies, which are often used to avoid hurting someone’s feelings. Anti-social lies appear early in development, whereas prosocial lies are more difficult for younger children to grasp. On top of that, there are differences in lying across cultures, which adds further complications to the research.

Further reading:

Texas State psychology professors and students study how and why youngsters lie

Merritt Drewery, assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural Sciences at Texas State University, joins the Big Ideas TXST podcast to discuss her innovative study into using black soldier fly larvae as an environmentally sustainable, high-protein feed source for cattle production.

Drewery’s research program focuses on the identification of novel feedstuffs to enhance livestock production. She is currently working on insects and insect products as feed for beef cattle. She is also dabbling in social sciences, assessing the impact of Covid-19 on different professional groups. A first-generation college graduate, Drewery credits her academic mentors with much of her professional success. As such, she is committed to helping students succeed in their academic and professional pursuits. She teaches animal science, leadership, research methods and grant development courses, but encourages any student to reach out to her for guidance and support.

Further reading:

Fly larvae studied as potentially novel livestock feed under USDA grant

Ag program aims to increase underrepresented students in grad programs via USDA grant 

Matthew McAllister, assistant professor in the Department of Health and Human Performance at Texas State University, joins the Big Ideas TXST podcast to discuss the how intermittent fasting can contribute to weight loss and other surprising health benefits.

As director of the Metabolic and Applied Physiology Laboratory (MAP Lab) at Texas State, McAllister works with human subjects with a focus on dietary and exercise interventions aimed at improving aspects of cardiometabolic health and performance. McAllister earned his B.S. in health and human performance and M.S. in health and sport sciences from the University of Memphis and his Ph.D. in nutrition from Mississippi State University. His research interests include the impact of nutraceuticals and dietary modification on markers of health and performance; the impact of dietary or exercise interventions on metabolic/oxidative stress induced by caloric dense feedings; and methods to mitigate physiological effects of stressors in high stress occupations, such as firefighters, law enforcement etc.

Further reading:

Intermittent fasting shown to provide broad range of health benefits in new Texas State study

Research shows intermittent fasting provides health benefits

Emily K. Brunson, associate professor in the Department of Anthropology at Texas State University, joins the Big Ideas TXST podcast to discuss the how vaccination hesitancy is complicating the effort to immunize the U.S. population against the COVID-19 pandemic.

An applied anthropologist specializing in medical anthropology, Brunson received an M.P.H. in epidemiology and a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Washington in Seattle. Her primary research focus is health care access and decision-making, and particularly how policies, social structures (including class and racial inequalities), social networks and personal experience combine to produce health outcomes for individuals. She is currently developing research plans and conducting policy outreach in relation to COVID-19 vaccination with colleagues from the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and working on a study of COVID-19 vaccination knowledge, attitudes and behavior among college students.

Further reading:

• CommuniVax aims to strengthen community role in COVID vaccination campaign
• New report warns of potential obstacles to effective COVID-19 vaccine delivery
• Vaccination research looks at where, how parents get their information

Steve Ison, founder and CEO of Rebecca Creek Distillery, joins the Big Ideas TXST podcast to discuss how he made the leap from selling insurance to opening one of the first craft spirits distilleries in Texas.

Ison, a 1993 political science graduate of Texas State University, founded the San Antonio-based distillery in 2009, making Rebecca Creek one of the first commercial distilleries opened in Texas  since prohibition. Since then, Rebecca Creek has grown to become one of the larger craft spirits distilleries in the country, producing Rebecca Creek Whisky, Texas Ranger Whisky and Enchanted Rock Vodka. In spring 2020, with the COVID-19 rapidly spreading, the distillery switched over to full-time production of ethyl alcohol, which is the primary component in hand sanitizer. Ultimately, Ison and Rebecca Creek donated hundreds of gallons of sanitizer to Texas State and other public universities as well as San Antonio, Fort Worth, Dallas, Houston and Austin for use by those cities' first responders to help prevent them from contracting COVID-19.

Further reading:

Rebecca Creek Distillery shifts production from whiskey to hand sanitizer in fight against COVID-19

Hector Saldaña, curator of the Texas Music Collection at Texas State University's Wittliff Collections, joins the Big Ideas TXST podcast for a wide-ranging interview to discuss his more than 20 years working as a music journalist and how that prepared him for the dream job as music curator with The Wittliff, and the amazing materials that may be found in the collection.

Saldaña's articles have covered a wide range of subjects, from hard-hitting investigative reporting along the Texas-Mexico border, to celebrity interviews with Yoko Ono, George Carlin and Beyoncé. In his career, Saldaña has been a regular contributor to the Austin-American Statesman, Texas Monthly, Country Weekly, MTV and KUT-FM. He has won national journalism awards, including the Best of the West's 2017 award for Arts and Entertainment Writing and awards for Features Specialty Writing Portfolio and General Feature from the Society for Features Journalism in 2016.

The Texas Music Collection expands The Wittliff’s mission to collect, preserve and share the cultural legacy of the region. The collection showcases the full range of Texas music, from classic and progressive country to Tejano, conjunto, folk, rock and roll, blues, hip-hop, zydeco, Western Swing and more. The Texas Music Collection curates a broad range of materials, from handwritten song lyrics and historical documents to audio and video recordings, artifacts, memorabilia, photographs, posters and interviews from music journalists and biographers.

Further reading:

Hector Saldaña named Texas Music Collection curator at The Wittliff

Texas Music Collection at The Wittliff

Acclaimed poet Cyrus Cassells, a professor in the Department of English at Texas State and an instructor in the university's MFA in creative writing program, sits down with the Big Ideas TXST podcast for a wide-ranging interview examining his career, family and creative process. Keenly interested in history and world travel, Cassells talks about his hermitage time spent at a Catholic monastery and visit to a Hawaiian leper colony, and how those experiences impacted his writing.

Cassells is the author of six books of poetry: The Mud Actor, Soul Make a Path through Shouting, Beautiful Signor, More Than Peace and Cypresses, The Crossed-Out Swastika, and The Gospel according to Wild Indigo, which was a finalist for the Helen C. Smith Award for the Best Book of Poetry from the Texas Institute of Letters and a nominee for the NAACP's Image Award for Outstanding Literature in Poetry. In 2019, he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship.  Among his other honors are a Lannan Literary Award, a William Carlos Williams Award, a Pushcart Prize, two NEA grants, and a Lambda Literary Award.

Further reading:

A man of his words (Hillviews Magazine, 2019)

Department of English spotlight: Cyrus Cassells (Department of English spotlight, April 10, 2020)

In March of 2020, Dr. Rodney Rohde, a professor in the College of Health Professions and chair of the Clinical Laboratory Science Program, joined the Big Ideas TXST podcast to discuss the emerging novel coronavirus and the health threat it posed. Now, more than eight months later, Dr. Rohde returns to the podcast to discuss how much the world medical community didn't know back then, how much more is known about the virus now, the staggering death toll in the U.S. and the prospects of navigating the looming third spike of the virus this winter.

Dr. Rohde's previous Big Ideas TXST episodes may be listened to here and here.

For realtime updates on the coronavirus and other topics, follow Dr. Rohde on his various social media platforms.

Twitter: @RodneyRohde / @TXST_CLS /@TXST_THR

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100010172941875 and https://www.facebook.com/txstate.cls/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rodneyerohde/ and https://www.linkedin.com/company/31389292/admin/ [CLS Program]

Personal website: https://rodneyerohde.wp.txstate.edu/

Dr. Sarah Fritts, Dr. Ivan Castro-Arellano and Dr. Sara Weaver discusses the threat white-nose syndrome poses for native bats in Texas and the damaging environmental and ecological consequences that could unfold if the disease continues to spread unchecked.

Further reading:

Texas Parks & Wildlife taps Texas State team to research white-nose syndrome in bats

Eugene Lee, Artist in Residence in the Department of Theatre and Dance and director of the Black and Latino Playwrights Celebration at Texas State, discusses why the annual workshop remains an important outlet for marginalized voices in its 18th year. Lee also discusses his career, his evolution as a performer and mentor, and how the BLPC can contribute to healing the unrest and strife afflicting U.S. society today.

Dr. Melinda Villagran, a professor in the Department of Communication Studies and director of the Translational Health Research Initiative at Texas State, discusses the fascinating results of a research study she conducted with Movability to survey the impact of daily work commuting in the Austin area. The research overlapped with teleworking initiatives implemented by many employers in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and yielded fascinating—and in some instances, unexpected—findings.

Dr. Shannon Weigum, an associate professor in the Department of Biology and head of the Weigum Research Group at Texas State University, sits down with BIG IDEAS to talk about the recently-established Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, discussing the environment and mindset necessary to encourage cross-disciplinary collaboration.

Dr. Jennifer Devine, an assistant professor in the Department of Geography, and Dr. Nate Currit, associate professor and director of the Texas Center for Geographic Information Science, discusses the staggering environmental destruction and human suffering being wrought in Central America by narcotics traffickers clearcutting huge swaths of rainforest to establish cattle ranches to launder drug money.

In the second installment of a two-part interview, Dr. Rodney Rohde, a professor in the College of Health Professions and chair of the Clinical Laboratory Science Program, discusses how the understanding of the novel coronavirus has changed since it first came to global attention in January, the urgency of widespread testing and the importance of ensuring proper medical supplies and equipment are readily available to medical providers.

For realtime updates on the coronavirus and other topics, follow Dr. Rohde on his various social media platforms.

Twitter: @RodneyRohde / @TXST_CLS /@TXST_THR

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100010172941875 and https://www.facebook.com/txstate.cls/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rodneyerohde/ and https://www.linkedin.com/company/31389292/ [CLS Program]

Personal website: https://rodneyerohde.wp.txstate.edu/

In the first installment of a two-part interview, Dr. Rodney Rohde, a professor in the College of Health Professions and chair of the Clinical Laboratory Science Program, discusses the novel coronavirus causing the global COVID-19 pandemic, stripping away some of the mystery from a disease that has led to the cancellation of SXSW, suspension of the NBA season and school closures across the country.

For realtime updates on the coronavirus and other topics, follow Dr. Rohde on his various social media platforms.

Twitter: @RodneyRohde / @TXST_CLS /@TXST_THR

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100010172941875 and https://www.facebook.com/txstate.cls/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rodneyerohde/ and https://www.linkedin.com/company/31389292/admin/ [CLS Program]

Personal website: https://rodneyerohde.wp.txstate.edu/

Dr. Eddie Piner, a professor in the Materials Science, Engineering and Commercialization Program, discusses materials with intelligence that hold the potential to transform infrastructure and make sense of the massive amounts of data generated by modern society.

Dr. Pete Blair, director of the Advance Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training (ALERRT) Center, sits down with Big Ideas TXST to discuss how cutting-edge augmented- and virtual reality training will impact law enforcement, first responders and public safety.