Julia Clancy-Smith

History Professor Julia Clancy-Smith was named a Regents' Professor, the highest honor bestowed on faculty in the Arizona state university system.

Clancy-Smith teaches about modern and early modern Africa and the Middle East. Clancy-Smith has authored several award-winning books, including The Modern Middle East and North Africa: A History in Documents as well as Mediterraneans: North Africa and Europe in an Age of Migration, c. 1800-1900. She has received numerous fellowships, including the National Humanities Center's Research Fellowship. More 

A common assumption about the aging is that the inequities they may have experienced earlier in life dissolve or are diminished with age and universal access to programs such as Social Security and Medicare. But in his new book The End Game, UA sociologist Corey Abramson argues that age is not the great equalizer some imagine. More

How did long-gone peoples respond to changing environments in their homelands? How did catastrophic events impact human populations? What conditions allowed empires to rise and triggered their collapse, and what can today's societies learn about the future? The Center for Mediterranean Archaeology and the Environment (CMATE) brings together experts from a variety of disciplines, including the School of Anthropology, to tackle the mysteries of how civilizations cope with changes in the environment. More 

Jerry Gaus Photo by Gage Skidmore

An interview with Philosophy Professor Jerry Gaus on the philosophical issues concerning political disagreement was featured in The New York Times. "The standoff in current U.S. politics is not because we disagree; every contemporary democracy is characterized by deep disagreements," said Gaus. "I am skeptical about the value of any single-cause explanation of current American political life, but I do think one factor is the common belief among many Democrats and Republicans that the other side is stupid, corrupt and, indeed, evil." More 

Student Carla DeMore explains her research about poverty.

In May, the School of Sociology hosted the first Poverty in Tucson Community Forum, where students in the Poverty in Tucson Field Workshop presented the results of their research on poverty in Tucson. Over seven weeks, the students completed 257 surveys in eight high-poverty neighborhoods. Many in the sample were employed, and the leading source of struggle was the cost of housing. One of the biggest surprises for the researchers was that almost 25 percent of those living in extreme poverty did not use government assistance and more than half reported never receiving any type of nonprofit or charitable funding. More 

Shaun Nichols

UA philosopher Shaun Nichols and Duke University psychologist Nina Strohminger examined family members' perceptions of patients with neurological disorders. In the study, relatives filled out a questionnaire about the patient's symptoms, including memory loss, as well as about the patient's personality traits and moral character. Finally, they answered questions about their perceptions of the patient's identity, such as "How much do you sense that the patient is still the same person underneath?" The results showed that identity disintegrates primarily when the moral system is impaired. More 

Graduate students who received Confluencenter grants

Geography and Development Ph.D. student Jeffrey Wilson received a graduate fellowship from the UA Confluencenter for Creative Inquiry to create a graphic novel that explores the experiences of Detroit residents battling Type 2 diabetes and housing insecurity. Jeffrey is just one of seven SBS students who received a Confluencenter fellowship. Learn more about their projects here.    

Several SBS faculty received Collaboration Grants from the Confluencenter. These interdisciplinary projects involve art perception, grandparent/grandchild communication, Barrio stories, virtual Harlem, and border cowboys. More  

Leishara Ward Photo by John de Dios

Four students (two from SBS) have been chosen to write about their summer experiences for UANews. 

Ashley Tsosie-Mahieu is a doctoral candidate in American Indian Studies. She is one of four fellows to be selected to work with the Peabody Essex Museum in Massachusetts, and she will serve as the Curatorial Fellow in Native American Art and Culture. You can read Ashley's blog posts here and here. 

Leishara Ward is in the MPA program in the School of Government and Public Policy. This summer, Leishara will serve as a public administration intern with the U.S. Agency for International Development. She will be stationed in Tanzania, working with the U.S. Embassy. You can read Leishara's blog post here. 

Lillian Fisher

Lillian S. Fisher, who inspired us with her passion for justice and civic leadership, died on June 7 at the age of 93. The former Superior Court Judge was a generous contributor to the Magellan Circle, which is the donor society for the College of SBS. This year, she endowed her Magellan Circle gift, which means that a student will be given a scholarship in her name forever. Click here to read an article on Fisher in the Arizona Daily Star and here to read a story in the Arizona Jewish Post. The family requests that memorial gifts be made to the Lillian Fisher Magellan Circle Scholar Endowment.