Boston University College of Arts & Sciences

What is gratitude? Is it more than just feeling thankful? What does it mean to be grateful, even in troubling times? How do we express our gratitude when we’re faced with challenges, hardships, and hopelessness? As we approach Thanksgiving and the season of giving, we asked three Arts & Sciences faculty members from three different disciplines to reflect on a big question: “What is gratitude?” Read their reflections: https://bit.ly/49cG59s

A new report details how a portion of publicly-owned land in the Greater Boston area could provide housing for 85,000 new homes. Associate Professor of Political Science Katherine Einstein provides insight into this opportunity, especially as affordable housing comes into demand. “We have this amazing resource available to us to build more affordable housing to us, and we are squandering it. We know it is so so expensive to build housing in places like Greater Boston. If we want to produce more affordable housing, what could be better than having free land?” — Katherine Einstein Read more: https://bit.ly/4ikNsjl

The Massachusetts economy had major improvements during Donald Trump's first presidency, with record low unemployment rates and increased income. But now? Economists, including Associate Professor of Economics Adam Guren, argue that things will look different. “Economists, including myself, are concerned that Trump will be inflationary. To the extent to which inflation rises, interest rates will rise.” — Adam Guren Read more here: https://bit.ly/4fyPZEB

As unmarried couples reach old age, the expectations between living together and caregiving remain increasingly blurred. When companions struggle with health crises, what is expected of their partner? A&S Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center of Innovation in Social Sciences Deborah Carr speaks to the attitudinal change between generations with unmarried cohabitation with The New York Times. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/gFw_f9xx

With the global rise of mental health issues, mental health professionals continue to recommend a common medicine: running. The popular exercise releases positive chemicals into your brain, helping to reduce stress and increase serotonin levels. Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences and Senior Fellow at the Institute for Health System Innovation and Policy Michael Otto spoke with RunSociety to discuss why people are turning to this activity to alleviate anxiety and depression. Read more: https://bit.ly/4hswUoW

Meet Ria McGuire (Boston University College of Arts & Sciences’25), Student CEO of Saxbys café inside the CDS building. We talked to McGuire about her responsibilities, her time at BU, and how this experience will aid her as she prepares to graduate. Her story ?? https://spr.ly/6040s709p

#FacultyFriday: Meet our new Sociology faculty! Sarah Miller, Assistant Professor of Sociology, in joint appointment with the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program at Boston University. Her work contributes to sociological scholarship on gender, sexuality, race, youth, education, and new media. Jane Pryma, Assistant Professor of Sociology, is a sociologist of health and medicine who explores how politics, medical technologies, and human rights shape what we know about pain and disability. Vance Puchalski, Visiting Assistant Professor of Sociology focuses on the separate and unequal world of financial services that persists in post-civil rights America. Jyothi Puri, Professor of Sociology, is a feminist sociologist whose research and teaching are enriched by the intersections of sociology, sexuality and queer studies, critical death studies, and postcolonial, decolonial, and anticolonial theories. Pamela Zabala Ortiz, Assitant Professor of Sociology, is a sociologist of race & ethnicity with a focus on migration, identity-formation, and Latinx communities in the U.S. Her research has focused on Afro-Latinidad, questions of race and racism within Latinx spaces, and constructions and contestations of Blackness in the U.S. and Latin America. Learn more about our new faculty here: https://lnkd.in/eSNh6GW8

#FacultyFriday: Meet our new Romance Studies faculty! Pau Ca?igueral Batllosera, Lecturer in Spanish, teaches courses on medieval and early modern Iberian literatures, with a specialization in the cultural exchanges in the Western Mediterranean. His research interests include Mediterranean Studies, medieval theories of hermeneutics and authorship, brief-narratives collections and translation. His first book project, Boccaccio and the Cultural Hybridity of the Neapolitan Court of Alfonso the Magnanimous (c. 1442-58), examines the role of Boccaccio’s opere minori in the multi-lingual literary production during the Aragonese age of the Kingdom of Naples. M?nica Carvalho Gimenes, Visiting Assistant Professor in Spanish & Portuguese, received her PhD in Hispanic Languages and Literatures from UC Berkeley. She holds an M.A. in Spanish and a B.A. in Multimedia Studies: Journalism from Florida Atlantic University. Her teaching and research interests include 20th and 21st century Latin American narrative, crime fiction, body politics, transnational feminisms, and decolonial theories. Her dissertation examines femicidal violence and feminist resistance in the Southern Cone (including Brazil). Esteban Crespo Jamarillo, Visiting Assistant Professor of Spanish, received his PhD from the Early Modern Studies Program and the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Yale. His research focuses on the history of gender and sexuality in the early modern Iberian worlds in relation to the history of the book, contemporary critical thought, and colonial studies. Esteban’s most recent scholarly contributions have appeared or are forthcoming in journals such as Nueva Revista de Filología Hispánica or in edited books such as Logomotives: Words that Change the Premodern World (Edinburgh University Press) and The Routledge Companion to Race in Early Modern Artistic, Material, and Visual Production. Esteban is also passionate about reaching audiences beyond academia through his writing and public speaking.

Putting Arts & Sciences into Action: Ruofei Shang (CAS’25), an anthropology major, shares more about her work as an office assistant at the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD). Video by Amber Tai (COM’24)

With 2025 on the horizon, the New Year festivities signify the start of a new year and a new generation: Generation Beta. This new generation represents a group of people, born between 2025 and 2039, who will share a common cultural experience. Good Morning America walks us through the different generations and their distinctions. Director of the BU Center of Innovation in Social Science and A&S Distinguished Professor of Sociology Deborah Carr spoke with Good Morning America to explain the difference between generations and parenting styles, with millennials being more likely to be accepting and encouraging. "Some millennial parents, who were 'helicoptered over' in their youth, are taking on a freer approach to parenting, allowing their children to explore and create without constant structure or supervision.” — Deborah Carr, Good Morning America Read more here: https://lnkd.in/esv8e_w4