Arts and Letters in the News
Anthropology ID Makes International News
After the human remains studied for decades in the Department of Anthropology were identified as an outlaw, major news outlets across the world covered the case.
Samantha Blatt’s work with the DNA Doe Project concluded years of work on the case in the department, identifying the longtime John Doe as the outlaw Joseph Henry Loveless. The identification received international news coverage in outlets such as:
“Every missing person deserves to be found. They had a mother and a father, a favorite food, and saw the same blue sky you do everyday,” Blatt said. “Helping, even in a small way, to give back someone’s name or to give their family some closure, particularly a victim of violence, is probably the most significant reward my field can afford me.”
Psychology Professor Featured in NPR Show
National Public Radio highlighted research by psychology professor Mona Xu in an episode of “Life Kit.” The episode featured science-based tips to quit smoking.
Xu studied the link between experiencing new things and quitting smoking. She found that compared to people who went back to smoking, people who successfully quit had more than double the amount of new and novel experiences.
That doesn’t necessarily mean you should try to make a new a friend or pick up a new hobby to quit smoking, Xu said, but the evidence does suggest when you should start trying to curb your habit.
“When you have other forms of reward and motivation, when you have things that are interesting to you happening in your life besides smoking, that might be a good time to think about quitting," she said in the episode.
Listen to the episode from NPR.
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Road Scholars Program Highlighted in ISU Magazine
Since 2016, the Road Scholars program has awarded scholarships to more than 170 Idaho high school students. Meant to combat Idaho’s low go-on rate for students enrolling in college after high school, the program sends Arts and Letters leadership to personally deliver awards.
“All the barriers I faced made it difficult to proceed on with my studies, but the Road Scholarship gave me the financial stability to go through all the hardship,” said recipient Leonor Serna. “I am immensely grateful for this scholarship, and there are no words to describe the true impact it had on my life.”
Read the story in the Fall 2019 issue of ISU Magazine.
Debate Squad’s Success Celebrated in Newspaper
Idaho State’s Rupp Debate Squad has maintained its momentum throughout the spring season, placing at tournaments in Utah and Washington. The news made the Sunday edition of the Idaho State Journal on Feb. 2.
The team took first and second place in the open division of International Parliamentary Debate hosted by Seattle University and tied for second place at the Great Salt Lake International/UTEP IE Classic held at the University of Utah.
Rupp Debate Squad’s next event will be its public debate about universal basic income on Feb. 11 at 6 p.m. in the Pond Student Union. The event is free and open to the public.
Read about the team’s latest wins in the Idaho State Journal.