(By Kate Still, neuroscience Ph.D. student) In the weeks leading up to my proposal defense, I suffered from anxiety because I feared that my committee would see the shortcomings that I perceived in myself. And when I didn’t pass, the failure confirmed my self-doubts. Eventually, as my loss of confidence became a bigger problem, I knew that I had to do something about it.
(Commentary co-written by Gabrielle Kruks-Wisner, assistant professor of politics and global studies) One of the most enduring puzzles concerning India’s development is why the poor, who constitute a sizeable share of the electorate, continue to receive low-quality public services.
(Commentary by Karthik Muralidharan, Paul Niehaus, and Sandip Sukhtankar, associate professor of economics at UVA) Whether you believe its proponents or its critics, Aadhaar may be one of the most transformative investments in state capacity ever made. A leading use case for Aadhaar has been to reduce leakage in India’s largest welfare program, the public distribution system.
(Commentary by Qian Cai, director of the UVA Weldon Cooper Center’s Demographics Research Group) Unfortunately, another new approach by the U.S. Census Bureau presents an even bigger concern. If implemented, this new approach will make the 2020 census the first census where the actual counts for counties, cities and towns will be distorted before they are released.
(Commentary by Bob Gibson, communications director and senior researcher at UVA’s Cooper Center for Public Service) Legislation to decriminalize marijuana possession and bills to make voting easier are rocketing toward Gov. Ralph Northam’s desk faster than their Democratic sponsors dreamed possible even last year, when Republicans still held two-seat majorities in both chambers and routinely gave such bills a swift and timely Richmond dispatch.
(Registration required) UVA management professor Emma Zhao’s research concludes that the co-chief executive structure is “probably not a good thing,” she says. With coauthor Lindred Greer at the University of Michigan, Zhao conducted studies of how groups negotiate and found that “when higher-power individuals work with other higher-power individuals, destructive power dynamics may emerge, which harm group performance.”
“I think they wanted to show that carrying weapons, whether it’s open or concealed, is a normal thing that millions of Americans do every day,” says Tom Ferguson, a UVA senior who came to Richmond in January to lobby on behalf of gun rights. “The right has understood that the battle of ideas is terribly important, because people want to feel that they are part of a crusade that is inspired by a philosophically sophisticated ... and morally significant agenda or purpose,” says Colin Bird, a UVA political philosopher.
University of Virginia constitutional and local government law expert Richard Schragger in January said the Norton militia resolution appeared to conflict with existing state law on militias.
Several high-profile examples of students who have succeeded in pulling off alternate dissertations. Amanda Visconti, who earned a Ph.D. in literature at the University of Maryland in 2015, created an interactive digital project that enables readers to annotate James Joyce’s “Ulysses.” Visconti got a tenure-track gig as an assistant research professor at Purdue University. She eventually left that to become managing director of the Scholars’ Lab at the University of Virginia. A.D. Carson, who earned a Ph.D. in rhetorics, communication and information design at Cle...
“There’s a big appetite out there among the public for the horse race. It’s like sports,” said Kyle Kondik, the Washington-based communications director for UVA’s Center for Politics and managing editor of its nonpartisan newsletter, “Sabato’s Crystal Ball.” Campaigns conduct polling differently, Kondik said. “They use it as a tool to inform how to run a campaign,” he said.
Sanders’ prospects are still threatened by the possibility of a single candidate winning a large share of the black vote, according to analysts at UVA’s Center for Politics. But that threat has greatly diminished with Biden’s struggles. “For Sanders,” wrote the center’s Kyle Kondik and J. Miles Colman., “the more viable candidates remain, the better his position.”
Barbara Perry, director of presidential studies at the Miller Center, and Saikrishna Prakash, law professor, were among three guest commentators taking stock of the evolution of the office itself, what the presidency has become and where it is headed.
Gov. Ralph Northam has announced the following appointments: Christopher Goyne of Charlottesville, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, to the Aerospace Advisory Council. Appointed to the Maternal Mortality Review Team: Donald J. Dudley of Charlottesville, director of the division of maternal-fetal medicine at the University of Virginia School of Medicine and chairman of the Virginia Neonatal Perinatal Collaborative; and Elizabeth Newton of Charlottesville, registered dietitian nutritionist at UVA Health System.
Jonah Fogel, program manager for UVA’s Environmental Resilience Institute, has been following the changing policies around the solar industry in Virginia. The simultaneous push for renewable energy from companies like Facebook and Amazon — both of which have agreed to purchase energy from solar projects in Virginia — and the state have combined to create a rapidly expanding industry.
Some say Dominion and Appalachian should be moving faster to renewable energy, in light of the growing climate change crisis. But that’s often hard for large, investor-owned utilities, said Cale Jaffe, a UVA professor of law and director of the law school’s Environmental and Regulatory Law Clinic. “I sort of analogize them to those huge container ships you might see out in the ocean,” Jaffe said. “They’re doing a lot, they’re carrying a lot, and as a result they’re very slow to turn.”
Cale Jaffe, director of the Environmental and Regulatory Law Clinic at UVA and a former SELC attorney, said the National Environmental Policy Act was intended to create an environmental mandate, forcing developers and the government to consider the environmental impact of potential development and determine less harmful methods.
“I’ve watched Joe Biden since he was first elected [to the Senate] in 1972,” Larry Sabato, director of UVA’s Center for Politics, said. “He was full of energy and joking around and had a big personality, but I don’t think anyone has associated the word ‘vision’ with Joe Biden. Democrats are looking for a vision; Biden’s vision is to go back to Obama’s policies. I understand it, but it doesn’t get you standing up and cheering.”
While indulging in that sugary goodness may not be harmful for one day like Valentine's Day, a UVA Health clinical dietitian is warning consumers to be mindful of their daily consumption of added sugar. "If you have a little bit of sugar, it can make you feel good and perk you up and make you feel happy, but if you are consuming excessive amounts of added sugar, over time, it can lead to the total opposite," Katherine Basbaum said.
“A lot of it is a continuation of a trend that goes back decades,” said Hamilton Lombard, a demographer with UVA’s Weldon Cooper Center. “Chesapeake has lots of space for new homes," unlike Norfolk, where building something new means “knocking something down.”
A network of academic medical centers throughout the South and Midwest — including the University of Virginia — have filed a federal lawsuit, asking to prohibit the federal government from implementing the policy.