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February 26th, 2019
For decades, psychedelic drugs have been associated with “turning on, tuning in, dropping out” and the countercultural baggage of the 1960s. But what if they hold the key to treating a series of health afflictions? Are they safe? Are they effective?
Six-time New York Times best-selling author Michael Pollan will explore these ideas March 20 in a Q&A session led by Rhonda Phillips, interim dean of Purdue University Libraries and School of Information Studies. “What If Psychedelics Could Heal?” is set to start at 6 p.m. in Stewart Center’s Fowler Hall. The lecture/presentation is open free to the public. The presentation will be followed by a book signing outside Fowler Hall at 7:15 p.m.
Pollan is author of the recent “How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence,” as well as other books including “The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals.”
This Ideas Festival presentation is among many events celebrating Purdue’s sesquicentennial celebration, 150 Years of Giant Leaps, which acknowledges the university’s global advancements made in a variety of fields. This event aligns with one of the celebration’s Giant Leaps themes, Health, Longevity and Quality of Life.
Pollan has dedicated the last 30 years to exploring and writing about the many ways in which the human and natural worlds intersect. He is the author of eight books, six of which have been New York Times best-sellers, including “Cooked,” which served as the basis for the 2016 Netflix miniseries of the same name; and “The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World” and “In Defense of Food,” both of which have inspired PBS documentaries. Pollan also appeared in the Oscar-nominated documentary “Food Inc.,” which was partially based on another of his books, “The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals.” His work has led him to be chosen by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world, and has earned him many accolades within his field.
“How to Change Your Mind,” an immediate No. 1 New York Times best-seller, explores the revolutionary potential psychedelics hold in relieving depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and addiction — afflictions that have been characteristically difficult to treat. Today, as scientists and researchers worldwide reevaluate hallucinogens and their potential healing powers, Pollan strives to provide some clarity on the safety and effectiveness of these substances.
“As the world of medicine continues to evolve, psychedelics and their role in treating mental illness have become a huge area of research interest,” Phillips said. “Given Purdue’s longstanding dedication to seeking out innovative solutions to improve the quality of life, we are very excited to hear Pollan’s take on an unconventional method of healing, as well as the medical and societal implications it may have.”
This event is sponsored by Purdue Libraries and School of Information Studies and Purdue Archives and Special Collections – which is home of the Betsy Gordon Psychoactive Substances Research Collection – and is co-sponsored by the Department of Chemistry, the Honors College, the College of Pharmacy, the College of Science, Purdue Graduate Student Government, and the Ideas Festival Committee.
Writer: Jaclyn Lawmaster, jlawmast@purdue.edu
Media Contact: Amy Patterson Neubert, 765-494-9723, apatterson@purdue.edu
Filed under: collections, events, generalFebruary 21st, 2019
This week, several members of Purdue University faculty and staff published, “Creating Student-Centered Learning Environments and Changing Teaching Culture: Purdue University’s IMPACT Program” through the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA).
The invited paper describes Purdue’s IMPACT (Instruction Matters: Purdue Academic Course Transformation) course design program, which was recognized last year by The Chronicle of Higher Education as one of six encouraging innovations in education.
According to the paper abstract on the NILOA website, IMPACT has involved 321 instructors, 529 courses, and in some semesters, as many as 95.1% of first-time, full-time undergraduate students.
Authors of the paper include (in order, L to R, top row, center row, and bottom row in graphic):
Download the paper from NILOA at http://learningoutcomesassessment.org/occasionalpaperthirty.
Filed under: Faculty E-Newsletter, faculty_staff, general, UncategorizedFebruary 15th, 2019
“Critical Data Studies is an emerging interdisciplinary field that addresses the ethical, legal, sociocultural, epistemological, and political aspects of data science, big data, and digital infrastructure.”
There is a great deal of talk about data-driven research and “Big Data” at Purdue and, in general, in the business and education sectors across the U.S. For example, through the University’s Integrated Data Science Initiative (IDSI) launched this year, Purdue researchers aim to be at the “forefront of advancing data science-enabled research and education by tightly coupling theory, discovery, and applications while providing students with an integrated, data science-fluent campus ecosystem.”
There is growing acknowledgement across sectors that reliance on automated and data-driven decision-making, ubiquitous data collection, and the networked nature of daily life has profoundly impacted human relationships, trust in public institutions, and power imbalances across societies.
The Critical Data Studies Collaborative at Purdue is a multidisciplinary community that seeks to create opportunities for dialogue about the ethical, legal, sociocultural, epistemological, and political aspects of data science, big data, and digital infrastructure by providing a space to share work and expertise; promote student, trainee, and faculty learning; and collaborate on new research and learning initiatives.
During the 2018-2019 academic year, the CDS Collective launched the inaugural Critical Data Studies Distinguished Lecture Series, Fall (Safiya Noble, Oct. 3) & Spring (Virginia Eubanks, Feb. 13); and the monthly Open Seminar Series. Beginning 2019-2020, the collaborative will launch a Critical Data Studies Cohort of the Data Mine Learning Community in collaboration with faculty and postdocs affiliated with the Purdue Honors College, Purdue University Libraries and School of Information Studies, African American Studies, and the Department of Anthropology.
To learn more, visit http://tinyurl.com/critdatastudies.
February 8th, 2019
In late 2017, at a conference in Bonn, Germany, Jason Reed and a few of his Purdue University colleagues convinced government officials to play a game.
If you are wondering why on Earth people from Purdue would do such a thing, Earth is exactly why they did.
Here’s some context… The conference was the Bonn Climate Change Conference, a midyear working meeting between the UN Climate Change conferences, the “foremost global forums for multilateral discussion of climate change matters”; the government officials were climate negotiation delegates; and the video game, “Earth Remembers” is a unique teaching and learning tool developed within a research project that explores “the relationship between global temperature targets, a hot topic in the recent Paris Agreement, and global climate tipping points….”
Reed, an assistant professor and a health sciences information specialist in Purdue Libraries and School of Information Studies, is among the members of the Purdue University faculty working on this project, “Climate Tipping Points: Gaming Climate Futures,” led by principal investigator Assistant Professor of Political Science Manjana Milkoreit.
Along with three other funded projects, the project is part of Purdue’s “Breaking Through: Developing Multidisciplinary Solutions to Global Grand Challenges” internal grant opportunity, a three-year program that “enables multidisciplinary teams to tackle grand challenges in new ways. Supported through funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the program also “embeds policy experts, publishing professionals, and Libraries faculty in the scholarly research and communication process, in order to provide researchers with expert assistance in communicating results directly to the public and key stakeholders.” (See www.purdue.edu/breaking-through/ for more information.)
Reed has been part of “Climate Tipping Points: Gaming Climate Futures” since a few short months after he arrived at Purdue in late 2016. The “Breaking Through” program began in August that year and will continue to fund the four projects through May 2019.
“We spent the first year collecting data, because the first thing we needed to know is what climate negotiators know about climate tipping points. We’re working on a paper right now to present the results of that project,” Reed noted.
The Highest Stakes
Through the project, Purdue and external researchers at Utrecht University and Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) commissioned GCU undergraduate-student game developers to create “Earth Remembers.” At the Bonn Climate Change Conference, “Gaming Climate Futures” team members were able to engage a few climate negotiation delegates to play the game. Other officials, including non-government organization (NGO) officials, as well as a group of students, played “Earth Remembers,” too.
“In the game, the players take on roles to represent different countries. As the representative of a specific nation, the player will make funding decisions for that country, so the player considers how much to allocate for non-environmental-related projects, such as infrastructure, healthcare, defense—all the things governments have to fund. Then, in the game, the players allocate money toward mitigation and adaptation for climate change, as well as money toward a net energy technology. If it is real climate negotiation delegates playing the game, we ask them to represent another country besides their own. That way, they can see the results of their decisions from the perspective of another nation,” Reed explained. “They are allotted 10-15 minutes to talk within their alliances, which are based on real-world alliances. For example, a player can discuss funding allocation ideas with other country representatives in the same alliance. They can also talk with representatives from countries in other alliances. This provides the opportunity for countries that do not have a lot of money to have input with nations with more financial resources; they can advocate for their larger-nation counterparts to pledge more funds to help the environment.”
Once the players lock in their allocation decisions, the game takes the players to a screen that represents what the world will look like in five years.
“The game will show where we, as humans, are on the path to the outlined global temperature targets, which call for humans to limit the global average temperature rise to between 1.5 and 2 degrees above that of the pre-industrial age,” Reed added. “With those results, based on the percentage chance of a tipping point occurring (which is based on the temperature), we assess whether or not we have come closer to—or even surpassed—a climate tipping point. In the situation (within the game) that we have surpassed at a tipping point, we will then discuss the real-world effects.
Reed noted the game can simulate what could happen, based on sustaining the global temperature target (or surpassing the target range), as far as 50 years into the future.
He points to the world’s threatened coral reefs as an often-discussed example of negative outcomes resulting from nearing or surpassing climate tipping points. The disappearance of these extremely biodiverse ecosystems will have economic, social, and health consequences, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN, www.iucn.org/resources/issues-briefs/coral-reefs-and-climate-change).
The “Gaming Climate Change” researchers have plans to continue to tweak and improve the “Earth Remembers” game, as well as recruit even more climate negotiation delegates to play it at upcoming climate change conferences and events. They are still working through their plans to seek funding to extend the research project, as well as how to further develop the game for possible use by educators in high school and college-level classrooms.
Filed under: faculty_staff, general, HLS
February 8th, 2019
The second annual Women in Data Science (WiDS) at Purdue University is set for Monday, March 4 in the Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship in Discovery Park.
Started at Stanford in 2015, the WiDS initiative aims to inspire and educate data scientists worldwide, regardless of gender, and support women in the field. The annual global conference is now held in conjunction with many other entities around the world. At Purdue, the goal is to help build a community focused on data science and to inspire and raise awareness among students and community members about the opportunities for women in the data science field.
The daylong conference is set from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. in Morgan (MRGN) 121 and is open free to Purdue University students, faculty, staff, and individuals in industry who work in data science. Registration is required, and the deadline is noon, Monday, Feb. 25. Register online at http://go.lib.purdue.edu/wids/. Breakfast, lunch, and a networking reception will be available (please list any dietary restrictions via the online registration form).
“This year, we have an exciting lineup, including a keynote presentation, presentations by distinguished faculty, a workshop session, a panel discussion on data ethics, and poster presentations by students,” noted WiDS Purdue University 2019 Co-Ambassador Anna Subramaniam, administrator of library applications, Purdue University Libraries and School of Information Studies. “In conjunction with dozens of other WiDS events worldwide, we will livestream some of the Stanford events, which, hopefully, will make for a unique and collaborative conference experience.”
Dimple Dhawan, a senior Purdue student majoring in computer science is serving as the 2019 WiDS co-ambassador with Subramaniam. The event is sponsored by the Department of Biochemistry, Purdue University Center for Cancer Research, Department of Computer Science, College of Engineering, Purdue University Libraries and School of Information Studies, the Integrative Data Science Initiative (IDSI), and the College of Science.
The full conference schedule is also available at http://sites.lib.purdue.edu/wids/.
For more information about the WiDS Conference at Purdue, contact Subramaniam at subrama@purdue.edu.
Filed under: faculty_staff, general, UncategorizedFebruary 4th, 2019
Hone your research and writing skills with help from personnel in Purdue Libraries and the Purdue Writing Lab! Purdue University students can now set up one-on-one consultations—conveniently located in the Hicks Undergraduate Library—with members of Purdue Libraries faculty and/or Purdue Writing Lab personnel.
Libraries faculty can work with you on a number of research and scholarly communication topics including: research questions, literature review sources, and poster design. Libraries faculty can also connect you with others to discuss research methods exploration, data storage, data ethics, and more.
Writing Lab staff can work with you on any aspect of writing, including getting started, focusing your topic, integrating your research, developing your argument, genre conventions, and more.
Sign up for research consultation at http://calendar.lib.purdue.edu/booking/researchconsult
Sign up for a writing consultation at https://cla.purdue.edu/wlschedule.
Filed under: faculty_staff, general, RSRCH
January 30th, 2019
Courtesy of Purdue News Service
In an increasingly automated world, what if artificial intelligence (AI) tools are harmful to poor people? They just might be.
Virginia Eubanks, associate professor of political science at the University of Albany, SUNY, will address this question in her lecture “What IF AI tools Punish the Poor?” She argues that government data and its abuses have worsened inequality and created a digital poorhouse by imposing a new regime of surveillance, profiling, punishment, containment and exclusion in our society.
The lecture, which is free and open to the public, is 4:30 p.m. Feb. 13 in Stewart Center’s Fowler Hall. It will be followed by a Q&A session.
For 20 years, Eubanks has worked in community technology and economic justice movements. She was a founding member of Our Data Bodies Project and was a fellow at New America.
The event is a part of Purdue’s Ideas Festival, the centerpiece of Purdue’s Giant Leaps Sesquicentennial Campaign, which is a series of events that connect world-renowned speakers and Purdue expertise in a conversation on the most critical problems facing the world. One of the Ideas Festival’s themes is artificial intelligence, algorithms and automation.
Eubanks is the author of “Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police and Punish the Poor” and “Digital Dead End: Fighting for Social Justice in the Information Age.” She also co-edited with Alethia Jones “Ain’t Nobody Turn Me Around: Forty Years of Movement Building with Barbara Smith.” Her writing about technology and social justice has appeared in Scientific American, The Nation, Harper’s and Wired.
This Spring Critical Data Studies Distinguished Lecture is sponsored by the Honors College. Eubanks’ visit also is co-sponsored by the AI Committee/Ideas Festival, American Studies Program, Black Cultural Center, Brian Lamb School of Communication, Center for Science of Information – NSF Science & Technology Center, Civic Engagement and Leadership Development, Critical Data Studies, The Data Mine, Department of History, Department of Political Science, Department of Sociology, Diversity Resource Office, Honors College, Purdue University Libraries – Seminar Committee, Purdue Graduate Student Government, and Purdue University Fort Wayne.
Filed under: general, press_releaseJanuary 30th, 2019
Due to the wind chill emergency at Purdue University, the Veterinary Medical Library and the Aviation Technology Library will close at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 30.
Visit www.lib.purdue.edu/hoursList for Purdue Libraries’ hours.
Filed under: generalJanuary 25th, 2019
Due to some technical difficulties with an electrical project in Stewart Center, the building may experience a power outage Friday, Jan. 25. If this occurs, the outage will impact the Humanities, Social Science, and Humanities (HSSE) Library, and the library will be evacuated and closed until power is restored.
Filed under: general, HSSEJanuary 17th, 2019
In March, Purdue Libraries will offer a special Tinkering Humanist Workshop series focused on text analysis. Led by Purdue Libraries Assistant Professor of Digital Humanities Matt Hannah and Library Assistant Trevor Burrows, the series will explore how to incorporate such methodologies as sentiment analysis and stylometrics into humanities research using the programming language R. The workshop instructors will also consider some of the practical and theoretical questions particular to these approaches.
The series schedule is listed below. Registration for each workshop is required.
Register online at https://goo.gl/forms/u6KdezbBE4jgyDpm2. No previous programming experience is necessary, but participants should be comfortable with basic computer operations.
All sessions will be held in D-VELoP (Data Visualization Experience Lab of Purdue), located in the Wilmeth Active Learning Center (WALC 3045).
For more information, contact Assistant Professor Hannah at hannah8@purdue.edu.
Filed under: faculty_staff, general, HSSE, Uncategorized