CLAS Podcasts

Daniel Adler

Daniel Adler, assistant professor of anthropology in CLAS, has been excavating a Middle and Upper-Paleolithic rock shelter in the Georgian Republic to learn more about Neanderthals and how they interacted with modern humans. Like modern humans, Neanderthals were expert hunters, he has found. So why did they disappear?

Lynn Bloom

Lynn Bloom, the Aetna Chair in Writing, recorded her essay, “Teaching College English as a Woman,” for the Lumberyard Journal, a radio show on UConn station WHUS created by English graduate students Ken Cormier and Aaron Sanders. Bloom notes that it has taken 30 years before she could tell the stories that follow, starting with Part I, “My Job as a Ventriloquist Dummy.”

James Boster

James Boster, professor of anthropology, has studied emotions, values, and how religion helps humans structure our social contracts with each other. He has examined how different languages color our emotions and has found “how deeply social the emotions are.”

Preston Britner

Preston Britner, associate professor and associate department head of Human Development and Family Studies, studies children’s attachment relationships and ways to reduce child maltreatment. He’s particularly interested in mentoring – what works, and for whom.

Harry Frank

Harry Frank, professor of chemistry and associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, studies very colorful compounds – carotenoids – that originate in photosynthesis. They’re responsible for the red color of tomatoes and the pink of flamingoes, and they are thought to be responsible for reducing the risk of age-related macular degeneration and cataracts.

Anne Hiskes

Anne Hiskes, associate professor of philosophy in CLAS, chairs a committee that will develop ethical guidelines for the University’s new stem cell initiatives. The committee will provide institutional, ethical oversight for all stem cell research at the University.

Benjiamin Liu

Benjamin Liu, associate professor of Spanish, specializes in Spanish literature of the Middle Ages. He studies the conflict and coexistence of different groups in medieval Spain – Christians, Muslims, Jews, converts, and slaves.

Michael Lynch

Michael Lynch, associate professor of philosophy in CLAS, has written several books about the nature of truth. His most recent, True to Life, is “a marvelously direct defense of the traditional idea of truth, and of its political and personal importance,” according to its review in The New York Times. Hear Prof. Lynch discuss why truth matters in this podcast.

Ronald L. Mallett

Ronald L. Mallett, professor of physics, believes time travel is possible and has designed an experiment that he hopes will prove it. Hear his story below, and link to reviews of his recent book, Time Traveler, and to a list of his upcoming public talks.

David B. Miller

David B. Miller, professor of psychology and associate department head, uses iTunes Podcast to hold weekly discussions with his students about his General Psychology I and Animal Behavior courses. Recently, his animal behavior podcast was ranked 78 in the top 100 Higher Education Podcasts on the iTunes Music Store.

JoAnn Robinson

JoAnn Robinson, professor of human development and family studies, came to UConn two years ago to be director of the Early Childhood Education Training program. It is a “top rate program that is becoming a model,” says Robinson, whose research interests center on children’s social and emotional development.

Margaret Rubega

Margaret Rubega, assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology in CLAS and the Connecticut State Ornithologist, studies the red-necked phalarope, a sea-going bird whose long legs are an imperfect solution to paddling in the water. Evolution does not ensure perfection, Rubega says, as she describes why she studies birds and why wildlife conservation is important.

Gregory Sotzing

Gregory Sotzing, associate professor of chemistry, studies conductive polymers, or polymers that conduct electricity. Spinning them into a long thread that changes color is the first step toward making clothing that will change colors with changes in lighting.

Nancy Steenburg

Nancy Steenburg, assistant professor in residence of history at the Avery Point campus, is documenting the life in Stonington of Venture Smith in the late 1700s. Smith, a slave who purchased his own freedom, bought his first property in Stonington, in what is now a state-protected wildlife management area. Steenburg has documented this and located the massive boulder that marks one of its boundary points.

Robert Thorson

Robert Thorson, professor of geology with an interest in archaeology, studies the historic landscape, including New England’s stone walls. “Most of the landscape history can be sleuthed out of stone walls if you’re careful,” he says. An understanding of the landscape is critical because physical geology is at the center of global change, he says.

Richard Wilson

Richard A. Wilson, the Judi and Gary Gladstein Distinguished Chair in Human Rights and professor of anthropology, recorded this essay for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s “Perspective” program. The question the ABC posed: “Is war the only alternative to dealing with terrorism?