LEWISBURG, Pa. — The following are Bucknell University story ideas that may be of interest for the start of the spring semester.
1917 RECALLS WWI’S MODERN RELEVANCE — A recent refocus on the tragedy of World War I following the release and resulting box office success of the movie 1917 has reminded the world of the persistent relevance of what WWI was intended to achieve. David Del Testa, a history professor at Bucknell, has conducted extensive research in France and Belgium on the experiences of the more than 700 Bucknell alumni who served in the “war to end all wars.” In 2014, Del Testa and his team of student researchers set out to reconstruct the stories of fallen Bucknellians, and created a vast database on the stories of 718 alumni. Del Testa reflected on how the lessons of WWI may have contemporary relevance in a History News Network op-ed. “Veterans of that war have long since faded away, and most of humanity is largely convinced that the horrors of trench and chemical warfare are collectively too horrible to consider facing again,” Del Testa wrote. “But after a recent trip to Europe, made in order to visit the places where 40 of our forebears fought and fell, I left feeling unsettled by how much our world is what they fought against, rather than what they fought to achieve.” CONTACT: Del Testa, 570-577-3779, ddeltest@bucknell.edu
THE WORLD VIEW ON ADDICTION — Judy Grisel, a psychology and neuroscience professor at Bucknell and noted researcher on addiction, will speak on the topic at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2020 Jan. 21-24 in Davos, Switzerland. The Forum engages the foremost political, business, cultural and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas. Grisel will be participating in a panel entitled “The Science of Addiction” on Wednesday, Jan. 22, at 10:30 CET (4:30 EST); and will join Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), in the panel “The Future of Pain Management” on Friday, Jan. 24 at 10 a.m. The Wednesday panel will be webcast live here. The link will go live when the session starts (10:30 CET). The video will then be available on our event website for people to stream at a later date. Grisel wove her addiction research with her own experience into her first book, Never Enough: The Neuroscience and Experience of Addiction (Doubleday). A new report on analysis of death certificates by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism found that the number of women drinking dangerous amounts of alcohol is rising sharply in the United States. Grisel and her research team published a study in Feb. 2018 finding that gender and the biology of the brain may make some women more likely to reach for a drink when they feel stressed out, increasing the likelihood of alcohol dependence. CONTACT: Grisel, 570-577-1671, j.grisel@bucknell.edu
PRIME FOR MATE POACHING — Some people may look to existing couples to poach their future mates. Many men are especially prone to women whose physical appeal outshines their male partners, recent research from Bucknell shows. On the flip side, women who partner with more-attractive men are likely to have the opposite effect — pushing other men to look elsewhere for love, according to the study led by Bucknell psychology professor T. Joel Wade and social psychology graduate student James Moran. “When a woman is more attractive than her mate, straight men will think she’s more likely to be cheated on — and that she will be easier to steal away,” said Moran, who initiated the work. He expects the findings, which add to budding literature on attractiveness discrepancies in relationships, could be helpful to couples counselors or therapists. “If the woman is less attractive than her male mate, other men must think she’s bringing something really appealing to this relationship; otherwise, why would he select a partner who is less attractive?” Wade added. The work stems from a survey of college men. CONTACT: Wade, 570-577-1200, jwade@bucknell.edu
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CONTACT: Mike Ferlazzo, 570-577-3212, 570-238-6266 (c), mike.ferlazzo@bucknell.edu