College of Liberal Arts | Spring 2021

News & Features

Signs for letters A,S & L
David Ching

Sign of the times

Lauren Romanchek remembers the moment from her childhood when Santa Claus became real. It happened while watching a memorable scene in the 1994 remake of

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West Lafayette police car
David Ching

Vehicle for change

The nature and scope of American policework underwent massive change across the last century, and one factor drove much of that evolution: the automobile’s emergence

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Randy Roberts
Christy McCarter

Malcolm and Muhammad

To Randy Roberts, the tragic friendship between Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali is more than a compelling story from the American past. As with much

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Natasha Duncan
CLA Staff

‘Guide on the side’

Natasha Duncan’s administrative role in the Honors College – she serves as Associate Dean of International Education and Affairs – prevents her from spending as

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Gilles Deleuze
Chris Starrs

Accessing Deleuze

Parisian Gilles Deleuze was one of the most important philosophers of the 20th century, and thanks to the work of Purdue’s Daniel Smith and his

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Mentorship chat
David Ching

Showing the way

Not so long ago, Macey Warren was a Brian Lamb School of Communication upperclassman who felt uncertain about how to take her first professional steps.

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Frederick Douglass Timeless
David Ching

Timeless Wisdom

Frederick Douglass was a man of deep conviction, and also great complexity. Himself an escaped slave, Douglass gained international renown in the 19th century as

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Nayli Husna
David Ching

Foundations in film

Purdue’s film and video studies program provides students with technical knowhow that is essential to work in the industry. However, it takes more than technical

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Westminster Village kitchen
Anne Marie Yarbrough

Designing for seniors

For Diane Smith, a home needs to be much more than just a visually attractive living space. A resident of Westminster Village, a West Lafayette

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Delita Martin
David Ching

An artist’s voice

Delita Martin is happy she was alone when she went to see “The Photograph.” Martin knew that some of her artwork might be featured in

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David Ching

Multiplier effect

Jay Zawacki can look back and identify many ways in which his Purdue experience impacted the direction his life would take. For one thing, it

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Chloe Edwards
David Ching

A giving spirit

Chloe Edwards hasn’t met Mary Findling, but she has benefited from her generosity. As one of dozens of College of Liberal Arts students who received

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Jack Klink
Matt Schnepf

Prime-time player

When most TV shows halted production this spring amid COVID-19, Jack Klink, a 2015 graduate in film and video studies, seized the opportunity to edit

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Pizza and Politics
Chris Starrs

Polarized politics

How do citizens’ emotions affect the ways they engage with news and politics, and what role does listening – and the desire to be heard

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Patrick Hagmaier
David Ching

A fairer wage

The problem had been on Patrick Hagmaier’s mind prior to COVID-19, but the pandemic’s economic fallout hammered home its urgency. America’s tipped wage system is

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Virtual reality
Eric Butterman

Virtually visiting Japan

Walking through his hometown of Tokyo, you might see some of Kazumi Hatasa’s old haunts. A restaurant with carefully crafted dishes, welcoming neighborhoods he explored

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Seth Rogen
David Ching

At their fingertips

Melanie Morgan and Jennifer Hall frequently offer a simple instruction to those teaching courses in speech and communication. “Don’t tell them, show them.” In “Presentations

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Corinne Feight
Aaron Rooks

Seeing sounds

Corinne Feight is on a mission to make the home a safer place for people with hearing loss. Feight – a 2013 Purdue graduate in

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Rosetta1
David Ching

Archaeology by drone

Imagine you are an archaeologist studying an island that has been uninhabited for centuries. You are able to identify locations where houses and churches once

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Machu Picchu
David Ching

Human touch

Not so long ago, Joe Tort recalls taking regular calls from distraught students who were struggling to adapt to the cultural differences they experienced while

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Grindstone2
David Ching

Perspective via podcast

Casual listeners probably will not notice, but Matthew Kroll occasionally catches it in the sound of his own voice.  Kroll and cohort Caroline Cross spent

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Balcony in Italy during quarantine
David Ching

Their quarantine stories

As a fan of Brandon Stanton’s “Humans of New York” project, Amanda Mayes has come to appreciate that everyone has a story to tell.  Stanton’s memorable interview series came

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Phoebe Farris
David Ching

Honoring her ancestors

When NASA was preparing to name the farthest object ever visited by spacecraft, it asked the National Museum of the American Indian for help. The NMAI pointed the

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Prosthetic Hand
Anne Marie Yarbrough

Printing with a purpose

The average traditional prosthetic can range from $5,000 to $50,000, and for many, taking on that financial burden isn’t an option. A group of Purdue students

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Seoul lights
David Ching

Reason to add Korean

Purdue’s global engineering program experienced a problem that became increasingly common in recent years as South Korea’s global industrial presence continued to grow. The number of students interested

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Purdue Religion 1
Jim Davidson and Don Mitchell

Studying religion at Purdue

Religion is a bigger part of Purdue’s history than most people realize, but studying religion at Purdue is a fairly recent development. In fact, the two of us

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Forensic anthropology
Anne Marie Yarbrough

What bones can tell us

From identifying dead bodies in East Africa to analyzing crime scenes like the forensic anthropologist featured in the TV show “Bones,” Melanie Beasley brings many

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Kim Gallon
David Ching

New Directions in History

The way Frederick Rowe Davis sees it, his department’s “New Directions in History” series is valuable on multiple levels. For starters, it enriches the intellectual

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Basketball
David Ching

Bigger than basketball

For those who didn’t know the back story, it was certainly unexpected on Nov. 9 to see Purdue’s basketball student section – the Paint Crew

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TJ Boisseau
David Ching

Global reach

In 1945, Sen. J. William Fulbright of Arkansas introduced legislation to use funds from surplus war materials to support a new international educational exchange program

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Don Mitchell and Pope Francis
David Ching

A faithful partnership

As someone who has practiced both religions at points in his life, Donald Mitchell is uniquely qualified to serve as an intermediary between Buddhists and

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Purdue debate
David Ching

Stating their case

As a student at Loyola Marymount University, James Mollison became a nationally successful debate competitor without any of the resources available to those at bigger

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Voss Model
David Ching

Space walking

A student project to highlight Purdue’s distinguished history in space exploration includes little-known facts that hold an element of surprise for everyone – even members

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Daenerys Targaryen
Chris Starrs

Creating new languages

When Daenerys Targaryen speaks Valyrian or Dothraki on “Game of Thrones,” she might be a made-up character in a fantasy world, but she’s speaking languages

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OWL logo
David Ching

The OWL at 25: OWL stories

From engagement projects that improved site accessibility to contributors’ random encounters in hometown grocery stores, the Purdue Online Writing Lab’s reach extends into areas that

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Statue of Liberty
David Ching

Broadening perspectives

An American Studies program could easily become an exercise in navel-gazing, with U.S.-born scholars and students examining the nation’s role as a global leader. Purdue’s

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Emily Haas
Eric Butterman

A safe approach

Emily Haas has long had a passion for safety. That passion took her to the mining community as a senior research behavioral scientist for the

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Data Mine
Eric Butterman

Living the data life

Data is often called a language – one that few people speak well. On the other hand, those who are proficient with data and technology

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Business Languages
Chris Starrs

The languages of business

Business is frequently conducted on the global stage, which makes having a familiarly with multiple languages and cultures much more than an edge – it’s

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Chris Francis
Kirsten Gibson

Fanciful footwear

Chris Francis used to jump trains and shine shoes. He traveled the United States extensively using this economical technique, but decided to settle down in

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She Kills Monsters
David Ching

Dragon designers

Avid “Dungeons & Dragons” enthusiast Carina Stocker might as well have hand-selected the play where she would complete her general engineering capstone project. When Purdue

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Greensburg team
David Ching

Millennial marketers

Economic development officials everywhere deal with the same problem. In this digital age, what is the most effective way to present a community online so

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Agincourt
David Ching

Partnering with the people

The initial aim of the Agincourt Health and Socio-Demographic Surveillance System was to assess and improve local health processes in a rural region of northeast

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Robin Stryker
David Ching

Meet Robin Stryker

When it comes to Robin Stryker’s hiring, Linda Renzulli is pleased that she accepted the challenge. Renzulli, the head of sociology, wanted to beef up

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Brandenburg Gate
David Ching

A time of reflection

When she reflects upon the atmosphere in post-Cold War Europe, Rebekah Klein-Pejšová happily recalls the optimism of the time. Klein-Pejšová studied in Budapest as an

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Josh Boyd
David Ching

Avoiding risk on Super Sunday

Abandoning a prevalent theme from the last few Super Bowls, Sunday’s television advertisements mostly avoided messaging about social responsibility. There were a few exceptions, where

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STEM + Gender

Why was it not standard practice for automakers to use pregnant crash-test dummies in accident simulations? Why do plumbers and electricians talk about inserting “male”

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Just say no to straws

Did you know that the Purdue community blows through an average of 1.6 plastic drinking straws per person, per day? Extrapolate that average across a

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Sharing their expertise

All college graduates benefit from having practical experience prior to landing their first job. In videography it is essential. To work in a technical role

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What’s bugging you?

Alison Kirkham knows that bugs have a PR problem. Millions of Americans are at minimum uneasy about coming into contact with insects, if not terrified

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What Google can tell us

Online searches concerning flu symptoms doubled over the last two days in Houston, potentially signaling an outbreak in America’s fourth-largest city. Real-time satellite data from

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Unwavering focus

Kristin Graham still has a screen capture that lists her in the credits as a producer of The Oprah Winfrey Show. It’s the kind of

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Made By History

In an ever-changing media landscape where the truth is being contested, Kathryn Cramer Brownell, assistant professor of history, seeks to bridge the gap between the

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Liberal Arts Works

The Liberal Arts Career Center helps students launch their careers. Through company partnerships, alumni connections, and career-focused programming, the Career Center works to help students

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Influenced by Hawthorne

Literary minds have taught and discussed the novels and short stories of Nathaniel Hawthorne since their publication in the mid-19th century. Hawthorne’s dark romantic works,

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