News

Trouble in the developing world? Call the IMF

Rachel Sauer — Tue, 29 Apr 2025 19:49:07 +0000

Trouble in the developing world? Call the IMF Rachel Sauer Tue, 04/29/2025 - 13:49

Bradley Worrell

In a recently published paper, 91��ý political science Professor Jaroslav Tir highlights how intergovernmental organizations help end civil wars

There’s trouble in Africa, where a protracted civil war between government forces and rebels in the countryside threatens to undo years of hard work to raise the country’s standard of living and its prospects for future economic growth.

This is a job for the IMF.

No, not the Impossible Missions Force—the fictional U.S. covert government agency tasked with successfully completing next-to-impossible missions, as popularized by the Mission: Impossible film franchise helmed by Tom Cruise.

91��ý researcher Jaroslav Tir, a professor of political science, studies armed conflicts and how to stop them.

The other IMF—the International Money Fund. Yes, really, that IMF.

The role the IMF, the World Bank and other intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) have played in recent years to help broker peace agreements is highlighted in the research paper “Civil War Mediation in the Shadow of IGOs: the Path to Comprehensive Peace Agreements,” published earlier this year in the Journal of Peace Research, which was coauthored by Jaroslav Tir, University of Colorado Boulder Department of Political Science professor, and Johannes Karreth, a 91��ý PhD political science major and former Tir graduate student.

Tir, whose research focus includes armed conflicts and how to stop them, recently spoke with Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine about how IGOs can help resolve conflicts by offering or denying financial incentives to governments and rebels. His responses have been lightly edited for style and condensed.

Question: How did these international government organizations get into the conflict-resolution business?

Tir: That’s a very good question, right? Because the IMF, the World Bank and various regional development banks don’t have mandates to end civil wars.

One thing we do know from the study of international organizations is that they tend to broaden their mandates. They are bureaucracies—and bureaucracies like to grow, generally. They like more resources. They like to do things well, because if they look good, they get some more resources. So, the fact they are going beyond the original mandates is not that surprising.

The more narrow answer is that a lot of these organizations are financial, so they deal with things like development assistance. They’re trying to get these countries more economically developed, and they’re trying to get their economies functioning better to raise the standard of living for the local populations and things like that.

The bad news for all of these economic agendas are civil wars. So, for example, if the World Bank/IMF invests tens of millions of dollars or sometimes even hundreds of millions of dollars in a country, and that country then ends up in a civil war, a lot of this progress and money that’s been invested is put in jeopardy. Therefore, these organizations have a literally vested self-interest to try to see if they can do something about these civil wars in member countries, because they’re interested in protecting their investments.

Question: How does a bank enforce a peace treaty?

Tir: To clarify, these organizations do not do this (enforce treaties), and in the paper we do not claim that they directly partake in the peace process. This is not them sending in peacekeepers. Instead, this is all done through financial incentives—or denial of incentives. So, it’s carrot and stick, but it’s all financial.

General Soumaila Bakayoko, chief of Staff of the Ivorian Armed Forces, reviews the Ivorian troops during the First Ivorian Civil War in 2007. During the conflict, rebels particularly wanted access to voting rolls, notes 91��ý researcher Jaroslav Tir. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

To answer your question more directly, how can they, quote unquote, enforce a peace process? For example, with these conflicting parties, the rebels and the governments, working toward peace, (IGOs) will essentially commit to put X amount of money into the country to deal with issues that are usually connected to economic development, but also maybe of interest to both the rebels and the governments. So, that’s the carrot.

And it’s a bit of a double-edged sword, because the idea is IGOs will give you these resources if you honor the commitments toward making peace. However, these resources will be denied or suspended if you fail to do so. Meaning, if you’re a bad actor or you’re backpedaling or acting in malfeasant ways, there are (financial) consequences.

Question: It seems like the IGO might have an easier time incentivizing a government than a rebel group?

Tir: I think they incentivize both, but I think it is easier for them to incentivize the government because the government is a member of the organization. It’s the government of Country X, for example, that actually has a seat at the IMF/World Bank. So, the contact there is pretty direct.

For the rebels, there is not necessarily direct contact with the IGO because they never have a seat at the organization. But rebellions take place typically because rebels need or want something, and whether these things are financial or not, usually money can help them achieve this.

For instance, in the Ivory Coast during its civil war in the early 2000s, one thing that the rebels really wanted was access to voting rolls, to assure that all citizens could vote in the elections. In a way that’s a political issue, but in other ways it’s a very logistical kind of issue. And money needs to be spent to basically go through the records and see who is eligible to vote, and these administrators who are going to do this need to be paid.

Then the other thing the rebels were really interested in was that they did not have very good health care access—for example, childhood vaccines and standard stuff that has been provided for decades around the world, but the government didn’t offer it in the rebel-held areas. The rebels said, ‘This is something that’s very important to us because our children are dying, and our people are getting sick. So, they said, ‘We want access to vaccinations and access to health care.’

The World Bank and the IMF essentially said, ‘If these are kinds of things that are meaningful to you, these things are good for the World Bank/IMF as well.’ And that makes sense, because if people are healthier, they’re more economically productive, right? So, there is your economic incentive, and once this leads to stability, stability is good for economic growth and development.

This is a way in which international organizations can incentivize rebels to come to the negotiating table. That’s the carrot for them.

Question: From reading the paper, it sounds like not all IGOs are created equal.

Tir: Definitely, they are not all created equal. But we’re not just looking at the issue of size of the IGO or how many countries belong to the IGO. We’re basically looking at a different kind of variance that occurs among international organizations, and that is how much leverage they have over member countries.

"(Syria) is a country that’s been internationally isolated for decades under the Assad regime, and part of that isolation is not having memberships in these (IGOs)," notes 91��ý researcher Jaroslav Tir. "So, when the civil war broke out, there was not a lot of incentive-type influence from the international community that could bring the (factions) in Syria to the negotiating table." (Photo: Mahmoud Sulaiman/Unsplash)

Some organizations have very little leverage over member countries—meaning that the member countries tell the organization what to do and not the other way around. So, it’s a question of who is the boss. Is it the member country, or is it the organization that’s the boss? That’s one source of variation.

The other source is how many resources (IGOs) have. And this is very important in the context of civil wars, because the resources can then be used as carrots to basically get the governments and the rebels to work toward peace.

You have to have both: the institutional leverage that the organization can tell member countries what to do, and that has to be coupled with these material resources. So, it’s not just these organizations telling countries and rebels what to do, it’s actually incentivizing them to work toward peace.

Question: Are there cases in which IGOs are less effective in incentivizing peace? What do those look like?

Tir: One example would be Syria. This is a country that’s been internationally isolated for decades under the Assad regime, and part of that isolation is not having memberships in these (IGOs). So, when the civil war broke out, there was not a lot of incentive-type influence from the international community that could bring the (factions) in Syria to the negotiating table. …

Another example would be Uganda, which had a civil war and there’s been no peace agreement. And the reason there has been no peace agreement is the rebel group. The Lord’s Resistance Army was simply not interested in making any kinds of concessions. It seems like they’re more interested in having a rebellion than advancing any kind of policy or political objectives.

That was a case where international organizations were involved, where they observed the Ugandan government was willing to do its part, but the Lord’s Resistance Army was not serious about negotiating. So, what ended up happening there is that international organizations are just working with the Ugandan government and the LRA is cut out of the whole process.

Question: Your paper talks about IGOs in relation to comprehensive peace agreements. What, specifically, is a comprehensive peace agreement and how is it different from other types of peace agreements?

Tir: It is exactly what it sounds like: It’s a peace agreement that’s comprehensive—that tackles a multitude of issues, whereas partial peace agreements only resolve a subset of the contentious issues.

Civil wars are very complex, with disagreements over a variety of different issues, such as police reform, access to government power, representation, access to health care and who gets to serve in the military. In some countries, military service is ethnically based, depending upon if you are a member of a certain ethnic group.

"The two big benefits of these comprehensive peace agreements are: first, because they do tackle a multitude of issues, they’re much more likely to resolve a civil war; and second, they help ensure that the resolutions the rebels and the government make actually stick."

The two big benefits of these comprehensive peace agreements are: first, because they do tackle a multitude of issues, they’re much more likely to resolve a civil war; and second, they help ensure that the resolutions the rebels and the government make actually stick, which is important, because civil wars are notorious for recidivism. Once a country has a civil war, there’s a much higher likelihood of having a civil war recurrence down the road.

As we highlighted in the article, fewer than one in five conflicts are resolved by comprehensive peace agreements. So, they’re great, but they’re rare.

Question: It sounds like CPAs, or any peace agreements, require an extended commitment of time and resources by the IGOs if they are going to be successful.

Tir: (IGOs) have to write substantial checks … and these resources need to be provided over time. They are committing themselves to be involved in a country for many years. So, it’s not just offering a carrot (financial incentive) today but also in the future. The technical term for it is shadow of the future.

Basically, the idea is: We (the government and rebels, separately) want these future resources and because we want them, that essentially makes us think twice about reneging on the peace agreement. And if we (as a party to the peace process) are in a situation where we believe the other side has an incentive to abide by the agreement, we’re likely to uphold our end as well.

It’s kind of a puzzle, a Rubik’s Cube, how the pieces of the peace process come together, and if they do, we find the chances of these agreements being reached and maintained are substantially higher.

Did you enjoy this article? Subscribe to our newsletter. Passionate about political science? Show your support.

In a recently published paper, 91��ý political science Professor Jaroslav Tir highlights how intergovernmental organizations help end civil wars.

Traditional

White

Women on trial speak clearly through their clothing

Rachel Sauer — Mon, 28 Apr 2025 21:27:03 +0000

Women on trial speak clearly through their clothing Rachel Sauer Mon, 04/28/2025 - 15:27

Collette Mace

91��ý researcher Carla Jones finds that what Indonesian women wear in court can convey messages of piety and shame, or just the appearance of them

No matter who you are and what clothes you have on, you have probably, at some point, thought about how what you wear affects how you are seen.

Fashion is an important mode of self-expression, but it can also be a significant component of social communication. University of Colorado Boulder anthropology Professor Carla Jones’ recently published research focusing on fashion within the Indonesian criminal justice system illustrates how appearance can be a public and personal feature of social and political communication.

91��ý researcher Carla Jones, a professor of anthropology, noticed that when Indonesian women were accused of corruption, they faced intense scrutiny about their appearances, both before and during their trials.

Jones’ interest in Indonesia started when she visited the country in college, but her youth in Southeast Asia also played a part in her sustained interest in the culture there. As an anthropologist, she says, she is interested in diversity–in which Indonesian culture and social life is rich.

She also credits her interest in learning to speak Indonesian with her total immersion there. “Learning a new language can change your life,” she says. “Cultural anthropologists need to be able to ask questions and understand. You have to learn how to be an insider and an outsider at once.”

In the past two decades, public political culture in Indonesia has become increasingly focused on corruption. Although Indonesia is not unusually corrupt, many of the most visible corruption trials have captivated public attention through media focus on theft of public funds.

Jones noticed that when women were accused of corruption, they faced intense scrutiny about their appearances, both before and during their trials. Jones says she noticed that female defendants in corruption cases adjusted their clothing in ways that went far beyond the public norms for the majority-Muslim country.

Modesty was a particularly compelling visual strategy. Although modest styles are increasingly popular globally (think: trad-wife trends on TikTok), the styles that accused Indonesian women adopted for trials were especially visible when they appeared in court and were very different from their styles of dress prior to their trials, Jones says.

Many women, she says, would elect to wear facial coverings, called a niqab or cadar, when appearing before a judge. Wearing a niqab is not especially common in Indonesia. Jones argues in her paper that women choosing to express their religion so outwardly was also an effort to appear more pious and ashamed of their actions (or more innocent) to judges and to the public.

Niqab in court

So, does it work? According to Jones, yes, along with other factors. The women in these cases who wore a niqab to court tended to get shorter prison sentences than others did. “Their attorneys also did a really good job conveying that they are mothers, and their justification was to provide for their children,” she says.

However, that doesn’t mean these women on trial were received the same way all over the world. When Anniesa Hasibuan, an internationally famous modest-fashion designer who was charged with fraud, took the stand in West Java, the coverage expanded to all over the world, including the United States.

The international coverage of Hasibuan’s trial called additional attention to her choice to wear a niqab. Some Indonesians who were following her case closely viewed her choice to cover her face much as some Americans might: as an attempt to foreclose transparency about her appearance and therefore her finances. Many Indonesians viewed her appearance as a sign of dishonesty rather than piety.

Did you enjoy this article? Subscribe to our newsletter. Passionate about anthropology? Show your support.

91��ý researcher Carla Jones finds that what Indonesian women wear in court can convey messages of piety and shame, or just the appearance of them.

Traditional

White

Anniesa Hasibuan (center) and her husband leave court in West Java, Indonesia. (Photo: Antara Foto/Reuters)

Scholars aim to help women make a quantum leap

Rachel Sauer — Fri, 25 Apr 2025 19:46:50 +0000

Scholars aim to help women make a quantum leap Rachel Sauer Fri, 04/25/2025 - 13:46

Rachel Sauer

Quantum Scholars Emily Jerris and Annalise Cabra started CU Women of Quantum to help women interested in careers in quantum to network and share experiences

First, the good news: Between 1970 and 2022, the percentage of U.S. women workers in STEM jobs grew from 7% to 26%.

The obvious and not-so-good news is that while women represent almost half the U.S. workforce, they hold only a quarter of STEM jobs. And the numbers get even more stark in quantum fields. A 2022 report from the London School of Economics and Political Science found that fewer than 2% of applicants for jobs in quantum fields are female.

Quantum Scholars Annalise Cabra (left) and Emily Jerris (right) gave a presentation about CU Women of Quantum at the December Quantum Scholars meeting attended by CU President Todd Saliman. (Photo: Casey Cass/91��ý)

However, in the 100 years since German physicist Werner Heisenberg submitted his paper “On quantum-theoretical reinterpretation of kinematic and mechanical relationships” to the journal Zeitschrift für Physik, a July 1925 event that is broadly credited with kick-starting the quantum revolution, the possibilities and potential of quantum science and engineering have grown enormously.

Recognizing that potential, a group of University of Colorado Boulder scholars wants to help ensure that women participate equally and fully in quantum science and engineering.

CU Women of Quantum, founded last semester by Quantum Scholars Emily Jerris and Annalise Cabra, aims to be a community of support, connection, mentorship and networking for women interested in pursuing careers or research in quantum fields.

“Our primary focus,” Cabra explains, “is just to create a space where we can come together, share our experiences and create relationships that are lasting.”

100 years of quantum

Both Jerris and Cabra say that this is an exciting time to be in quantum science and engineering. Not only did the United Nations declare 2025 as the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology, and not only did Colorado Gov. Jared Polis last week announce the Blueprint for Advancing K–12 Quantum Information Technology, but research happening on the 91��ý campus and in Colorado is swiftly expanding the boundaries of quantum technology.

However, they also add that as exciting as this time is, women in quantum fields still face some of the same roadblocks that women in STEM always have.

“I think if you asked most of the women in the club or just in a STEM major if they’ve had a moment where a peer or coworker has talked down to them or they felt not necessarily fully included in a project because they were the only woman in the group, I think most probably have,” Jerris says. “So, it’s nice to have a space to talk about that—how to navigate situations like that. A lot of us do research, too, and those types of situations are also really prevalent in the research space.”

Jerris and Cabra worked with Michael Ritzwoller, a physics professor of distinction and Quantum Scholars co-founder, and physics Professor Noah Finkelstein to create CU Women of Quantum as a place for not only female Quantum Scholars, but for women across campus who are interested in pursuing careers in quantum science, technology or engineering.

Annalise Cabra (left) works with Brooke Nelson (right), a career advisor for the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, on her resume during a recent CU Women of Quantum meeting.

Supporting women in quantum

One of the group’s aims is creating networking and mentorship opportunities for members by asking professors and women working in quantum fields to speak at group meetings. This has included Alex Tingle, a 91��ý physics alumna and senior technical project engineer at Quantinuum, who was named one of the Wonder Women of the Quantum Industry by the Quantum Daily.

CU Women of Quantum gatherings also focus on skill-building, including a recent meeting at which Brooke Nelson, a career advisor for the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, gave a presentation on creating and honing a resume.

“One of our goals is to help (CU Women of Quantum members) narrow in on their interests and build connections,” Cabra says. “And then also having opportunities to see how women in their shoes were able to navigate and build careers in quantum. I think it’s important for a lot of women in the field, too, to go back and encourage other women who are just starting out or just getting interested in quantum.”

The members of CU Women of Quantum also get together for study sessions, “because even if we’re not taking the same classes, with other women you can feel more open and not like you’re the outlier in the group.”

Both Cabra, who is graduating next month, and Jerris, who is completing her third year, are interested in pursuing careers in a quantum field, bolstered by the support they’ve found in CU Women of Quantum.

“It’s so fascinating because it’s just so unintuitive,” Cabra says. “It makes your brain think in such crazy ways, from the ways particles behave to the ways stars don’t collapse or do collapse, to parallel universes, and it all goes back to quantum. I think it’s just so exciting to study.”

Jerris adds that often the common perception of quantum science and technology is that “it’s kind of magic or something we don’t totally understand, but we actually do have a pretty good understanding of quantum. We know what’s going on and can model it, and we’re maybe just one step behind with how we can actually manipulate things. So, it’s not magic; it’s something we do know a lot about and we’re learning more every day.”

Did you enjoy this article? Subscribe to our newsletter. Passionate about quantum scholarship? Show your support.

Quantum Scholars Emily Jerris and Annalise Cabra started CU Women of Quantum to help women interested in careers in quantum to network and share experiences.

Traditional

White

Top image: Casey Cass/91��ý

Fifth annual Staff Summit celebrates connection, adaptability, innovation

Clint Talbott — Fri, 25 Apr 2025 19:23:30 +0000

Fifth annual Staff Summit celebrates connection, adaptability, innovation Clint Talbott Fri, 04/25/2025 - 13:23

Staff members in the College of Arts and Sciences are invited to participate in the fifth annual Staff Summit, a two-day event dedicated to learning, community and professional growth. This year’s theme, Thriving Together in Changing Times, reflects the evolving landscape of higher education and our shared commitment to collaboration, adaptability and progress.

Day 1 (Tuesday, May 20) will take place virtually and feature campus leaders, expert panels and timely updates—including a keynote from Chancellor Justin Schwartz, discussions on workplace civility and innovation and briefings on federal policy and HR transformation efforts.

Day 2 (Wednesday, May 21) will bring staff together in person at the Idea Forge for connection, creativity and celebration. Activities include community-building sessions, networking opportunities, updates from the Be Heard 2.0 initiative, a hands-on design thinking workshop and a guided campus tour to close the summit.

All staff in the College of Arts and Sciences are welcome to attend. Registration is required, and we encourage managers and supervisors to support staff participation in this opportunity for professional development and community connection.

The Staff Summit is an outgrowth of the college’s Be Heard initiative and reflects our continued investment in staff engagement and organizational wellbeing. We look forward to seeing you there!

How to attend and next steps:

Please register by Friday, May 9, for one or both days of the Staff Summit at this link.
Please include your dietary restrictions for breakfast and lunch.
Help us celebrate college wins! As part of the 2025 Staff Summit, we want to celebrate the great accomplishments of the arts and sciences departments. Please take a moment to describe your department's biggest win of the year by completing a short questionnaire at this link.

For questions, contact Erin Cunningham Ritter.

Full schedule of events:

Tuesday, May 20, 2025, 10 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.

Location: virtual via Zoom

10 a.m.-10:15 a.m.: Welcome and opening remarks

Bernadette Stewart, Assistant dean of culture and people, College of Arts and Sciences

10:15 a.m.-11:15 a.m.: Keynote presentation

Chancellor Justin Schwartz will kick off the summit with a brief keynote that speaks directly to the theme: Thriving Together in Changing Times. In the midst of ongoing reorganization and the challenges facing higher education, his remarks will offer insight, encouragement and connection. Staff are encouraged to bring questions related to campus strategy and how we can move forward—together.

Justin Schwartz, chancellor, 91��ý

11:15 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. Break

11:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Blueprint Project update

Blueprint Project updates will highlight the progress of 91��ý's multi-year HR Blueprint initiative, which aims to transform HR systems, processes and governance to create a more equitable and consistent experience for staff and faculty. Co-sponsored by campus leadership, the project supports broader institutional goals around transformation and financial resilience by streamlining operations and enhancing strategic HR partnerships. The session will share key findings from the campus-wide assessment and outline progress related to designing and implementing improvements across HR functions.

Robyn Fergus, vice chancellor of human resources

Michele Moses, vice provost and associate vice chancellor for faculty affairs

12 p.m.–1 p.m.: Lunch break

1 p.m.–2 p.m.: Panel discussion: Brave Spaces & Bold Ideas: Navigating Safety, Discomfort & mInnovation

How do we distinguish between being unsafe and merely uncomfortable in the workplace? And how can constructive dissent fuel innovation instead of division? This panel explores the evolving meaning of psychological safety, the role of respectful disagreement in driving creativity and how organizations can foster brave spaces where diverse ideas thrive.

MODERATOR

Marysia Lopez, program manager, access and community engagement, College of Arts and Sciences

PANELISTS

Kirsi Aulin, Ombuds director

Dr. Ashley Grice, Senior consultant, Office of Leadership Support and Programming

Stanley Ly, MA, LPC, ACS, director, Faculty and Staff Assistance Program

2 p.m –2:15 p.m.: Break

2:15 p.m.–3:15 p.m.: Federal transition updates

CU government relations specialists will provide an overview of the latest federal transitions, including recent executive actions and policy shifts, and what they mean for 91��ý. This session will focus on how these developments may affect staff across our campuses—highlighting both challenges and opportunities as we navigate a changing national landscape together.

Kirsten Schuchman, associate vice chancellor for public policy, government relations, Office of Government and Community Engagement

Heather Bené, associate vice president of research and federal policy, Office of Government Relations

3:15 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.: Wrap-up

Erin Cunningham Ritter, PhD, director of wellness and employee engagement, College of Arts and Sciences

Wednesday, May 21, 2025, 9:45 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.

Location: Idea Forge | Project-Based Learning Studio

Fleming Building | 2445 Kittredge Loop Dr | Boulder CO, 80309

9:45 a.m. – 10:15 a.m.: Light breakfast

10:15 a.m. – 10:20 a.m.: Welcome and opening remarks

Daryl Maeda, dean, College of Arts and Sciences, interim

10:20 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.: CELEBRATE! Staff Advisory Committee (SAC) Employee of the Year winners

Chris Marelli, SAC co-chair, director of the general chemistry labs

Robyn Ronen, SAC co-chair, business manager, Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences

10:45 a.m. - 11 a.m.: Break

11 a.m. – 12 p.m.: SAC A&S college staff connection networking

Building on the success of the inaugural event held in the spring, this session will provide an opportunity for networking, learning and collaboration. The event will include group activities and discussion designed to foster cross-division collaboration, share best practices and strengthen relationships among staff.

Staff Advisory Committee members

12 p.m. - 1 p.m.: Lunch

1 p.m. - 1:45 p.m.: SAC Be Heard 2.0: Advancing civility and connection in A&S

This presentation provides an update on Be Heard 2.0, the multi-phase initiative to strengthen workplace civility, engagement and inclusion across the College of Arts and Sciences. We will revisit each phase, including Phase 1, which focused on the effect of emotions, stress and resilience on workplace behavior, and Phase 2, in which SAC participants crafted personal leadership narratives aligned with SAC’s vision for civility. We’ll also preview the goals of Phases 3 and 4, which will support team-level dialogue and unit-specific actions that promote a culture of respect, accountability and collaboration.

Staff Advisory Committee Members

Erin Cunningham Ritter, PhD, Director of wellness and employee engagement College of Arts and Sciences

1:45 p.m. - 2 p.m.: Break

2 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.: Design thinking activity

Kristen Alipit will lead the group through a skill-building session on design thinking—a commonly used and very effective approach to solving complex problems and issues in organizations. We will apply these tools to ideating and prototyping the Be Heard 2.0 initiatives to include staff expertise in solutions design. Kristen has many years of experience working in design thinking, both in training others in the framework and leading organizational projects using this technique.

Kristen Alipit, director of organizational effectiveness and engagement, finance and business strategy

3:30 p.m. - 3:45 p.m.: Idea Forge tour

Victoria Lanaghan, program coordinator, Idea Forge

3:45 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.: Campus tour

Concluding the College of Arts and Sciences Staff Summit, we invite you to join us for a tour of the Idea Forge followed by a campus tour of the University of Colorado Boulder. As the final session of the summit, this tour will immerse you in our top-tier public research institution nestled below the Flatirons. Discover the academic excellence, cutting-edge facilities and vibrant community that define the College of Arts and Sciences. From historic landmarks to awe-inspiring outdoor spaces, 91��ý offers an unforgettable educational journey in a stunning natural setting. Bring your water and walking shoes and dress for our Colorado weather!

Gavin Laing, faculty affairs senior coordinator, College of Arts and Sciences

Staff members in the College of Arts and Sciences are invited to participate in the fifth annual Staff Summit

Traditional

White

How was it for you? Women are finally being asked

Rachel Sauer — Thu, 24 Apr 2025 20:10:57 +0000

How was it for you? Women are finally being asked Rachel Sauer Thu, 04/24/2025 - 14:10

Pam Moore

91��ý scientist Chelsea Kilimnik is one of a handful of researchers looking at the correlation between sexual trauma and ‘duty sex’

Driven by a long-held interest in the ways in which unwanted and nonconsensual sexual experiences can shape individuals’ future sexual experiences and overall well-being, Chelsea Kilimnik, a licensed clinical psychologist and assistant professor in the University of Colorado Boulder Department Psychology and Neuroscience and the Renée Crown Wellness Institute, teamed up with researchers at the University of Texas at Austin to study that very topic.

It’s not surprising that research has largely neglected how women’s trauma shapes their sex lives, considering that, as a culture, “we’ve only recently acknowledged that women are sexual beings,” says Kilimnik, who is the director of the Growth, Identity, and Sexual Trauma (GIST) Lab at 91��ý.

91��ý researcher Chelsea Kilimnik, an assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience, notes that that, as a culture, "we’ve only recently acknowledged that women are sexual beings."

Kilimnik’s and her colleagues’ research, published recently in The Journal of Sexual Medicine, provides foundational insights into women’s motivations for sex—an area of study that has long been overlooked by the scientific community.

An overlooked area of research

Although the tides are beginning to turn, for many healthcare providers, the idea of prioritizing women’s sexual pleasure is still novel. Many times, when women come to the doctor reporting pelvic pain or pain during sex, their experiences are invalidated and their healthcare needs ignored, says Kilimnik. Not only is this frustrating, but the lack of belief, offered agency and validation can exacerbate mental health difficulties for those with past experiences of sexual trauma.

Meanwhile, the body of data on women’s mental health and its connection to sexual health and well-being is “still in its infancy,” says Kilimnik, who is part of a small community of researchers studying it.

“Sexual trauma affects women at disproportionately higher rates than men and has a significant influence on their sex lives, yet this connection to sexuality is something that was ignored by the literature for centuries, so we need to document it in the literature,” she explains.

While we may think of sex as something that doesn’t affect our lives beyond the bedroom, our sexuality affects many aspects of our day-to-day lives, says Kilimnik. That’s because psychological and sexual well-being are deeply linked.

Psychological well-being encompasses multiple factors, including the presence or absence of mental health disorders, general mood and overall quality of life, says Kilimnik. Sexual well-being, on the other hand, can include your sexual satisfaction, how you feel about yourself as a sexual person, the way your body operates in sexual encounters, body image and the presence or absence of sexual disorders, she says.

“While psychological and sexual well-being are two distinct constructs, they are almost always related,” says Kilimnik. For example, if you’re depressed, that will impact your sex life. And if your sex life is unsatisfying or you struggle to view yourself as a sexual being, that can impact your self-esteem, and in turn, your mental health, she explains.

What the data say

The team of researchers explored the relationships between the frequency of duty sex (the act of engaging in sex out of a sense of obligation or duty), sexual functioning and nonconsensual sexual encounters (NSEs).

"Sexual trauma affects women at disproportionately higher rates than men and has a significant influence on their sex lives, yet this connection to sexuality is something that was ignored by the literature for centuries."

While duty sex is consensual, it’s motivated not by desire but by “the feeling that you have to,” says Kilimnik. That might be for reasons ranging from not wanting your partner to be angry to the fear that they might leave you, or the sense that you have a responsibility to your partner to engage in sex.

The data revealed that people with NSE histories reported higher frequency of duty sex. They also found that people with lower levels of sexual satisfaction and higher levels of sexual pain reported more frequent duty sex.

“These relationships can be bidirectional,” Kilimnik points out, particularly with regard to duty sex and sexual pain and dysfunction. In other words, people may have more duty sex because they don’t enjoy sex due to pain or discomfort, but it’s also true that people may not find their sex lives satisfying because they’re frequently engaging in duty sex.

When the researchers controlled for sexual functioning, they found that NSEs “have this unique impact on engaging in duty sex above and beyond what sexual functioning can account for,” says Kilimnik. This is consistent with existing research that indicates those with NSE histories often have more difficulty asserting their sexual boundaries, she says.

While this paper alone can’t tell us how to improve our sex lives—and, consequently, our overall well-being—it does support the existence of an important pattern, says Kilimnik. “That pattern supports this idea that if the primary reason you’re engaging in sex is out of a sense of obligation, it can be harmful for your sex life and well-being.”

Did you enjoy this article? Subscribe to our newsletter. Passionate about psychology and neuroscience? Show your support.

91��ý scientist Chelsea Kilimnik is one of a handful of researchers looking at the correlation between sexual trauma and ‘duty sex.’

Traditional

White

Top photo: iStock

Recognizing a century of boats against the current

Rachel Sauer — Wed, 23 Apr 2025 19:17:08 +0000

Recognizing a century of boats against the current Rachel Sauer Wed, 04/23/2025 - 13:17

Collette Mace

The Great Gatsby remains relevant for modern readers by shapeshifting with the times, says 91��ý scholar Martin Bickman

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

The final words of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel, The Great Gatsby—published 100 years ago this month—are among the most known and appreciated in American literature.

Martin Bickman, a 91��ý professor of English, notes that the intentional vagueness of The Great Gatsby helps readers of all generations connect with the characters.

And according to Martin Bickman, a University of Colorado Boulder professor of English, this line and the novel’s conclusion reflect the age in which it was written and neatly ends a novel that seems to capture the American psyche.

But why is The Great Gatsby considered the Great American Novel? Not because it’s great or because it’s American, Bickman explains—although it is both. This novel has remained relevant from generation to generation because it shapeshifts with the times, continuing to carry themes that Americans are bred to notice.

Questions of the American dream, wealth, class standing and ambition are central to American values in both 1925 and today. And while these themes look very different to the modern American, Bickman says the intentional vagueness of the novel helps readers of all generations connect with the characters.

To understand this, Bickman, a CU President’s Teaching Scholar who has taught a course called American Novel, cites “reader response theory,” a framework he emphasizes is critical in the study of literature. According to reader response theory, the reader of a text to take must take an active role in constructing the meaning within the text; if readers look only at a novel through the perspective of the author, that neglects much of the text’s meaning.

For this reason, no text can be interpreted the exact way by two different people. Readers approach texts differently as a result of their position in the world, and the experiences that have shaped them inform their understanding of what they read. The text then becomes a blank canvas for what readers project onto it, Bickman says

Seeing ourselves in Gatsby

What does this have to do with Gatsby? According to Bickman, the title character is just two-dimensional enough to serve as a perfect projection screen for readers of the novel. He’s mysterious, allowing the narrator, Nick Calloway, to cast his own assumptions about the world and the wealthy onto him, as well as vague enough to allow the reader to project their own internal thoughts and biases onto him.

As well as having characters that reflect the reader in personality and perceptions, The Great Gatsby also reflects classic American messages that are relevant today.

Because of his intentional ambiguity, Gatsby as a character can reflect what the reader thinks of many different things, including the elite, the rich and even the quintessential American dreamer.

This is how The Great Gatsby becomes a chameleon, remaining relevant in era, despite its age, Bickman says. As well as having characters that reflect the reader in personality and perceptions, the novel also reflects classic American messages that are relevant today.

The green light on Daisy’s dock, for example, represents the unattainable hopes for the future that stem from the inability to transcend the past. This feeling is still present, and most likely always will be in a country that believes in the possibility of a glowing future as long as we just work hard enough to get there—such is, in essence, the American dream, Bickman says.

It also showcases the all-to-frequent pain of the American dream. Although Bickman says the billionaires of today had no equal in Fitzgerald’s time, the uneasiness surrounding the callousness of the rich is on full display in Gatsby. Daisy, for example, named for the beautiful and delicate flower that Gatsby sees her as, is just as cruel and selfish as any of the men around her. She was the one driving the car, after all.

However, as she comes from “self-earned” money, and as someone who has seemingly “won” at the American dream, does she get a pass for her selfishness? In a way, she seems to, at least for the moment. And as time moves on, and the rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer, it seems that the original questions of whether the rich can be callous changes to whether the rich can be cruel—a key difference in how the world works, according to Bickman.

“It’s a real pathology now,” he says, “I mean, these people are cruel. The richest of the rich in the 1920s were nothing like today’s billionaires.”

So the lessons of The Great Gatsby remain relevant, Bickman says, suggesting that modern readers should take a deep look between the lines and wonder what Gatsby can show us about ourselves.

Did you enjoy this article? Subscribe to our newsletter. Passionate about English? Show your support.

'The Great Gatsby' remains relevant for modern readers by shapeshifting with the times, says 91��ý scholar Martin Bickman.

Traditional

White

Top image: Warner Bros.

College of Arts and Sciences faculty win 2025 Best Should Teach Awards

Rachel Sauer — Tue, 22 Apr 2025 13:30:00 +0000

College of Arts and Sciences faculty win 2025 Best Should Teach Awards Rachel Sauer Tue, 04/22/2025 - 07:30

Peter Hunt, Warren Sconiers and Josh Strayhorn will be honored during an awards ceremony May 1

Three College of Arts and Sciences faculty members have been recognized as 2025 Best Should Teach Award winners.

Peter Hunt, a professor of classics; Warren Sconiers, an associate teaching professor of ecology and evolutionary biology; and Josh Strayhorn, an associate professor of political science, will be recognized for their excellence in teaching and academic leadership at an awards ceremony from 6 to 9 p.m. May 1 in the CASE Chancellors Hall and Auditorium.

Peter Hunt (left), Warren Sconiers (center) and Josh Strayhorn (right) have been recognized as 2025 Best Should Teach Award winners.

The Best Should Teach Initiative was established in 1996 by Lindley and Marguerite Stiles to support the idea that “the best should teach.” It celebrates excellence in teaching at primary, secondary and higher education levels and supports the preparation of college and university faculty, as well as public school teachers, in their disciplinary fields.

Hunt, who has been a faculty member at the University of Colorado Boulder since 2000, is a classical Greek historian who studies warfare and society, slavery, historiography and oratory.

Sconiers trained as an insect ecologist, studying the effects of drought stress and changes in nutritional plant physiology and insect species composition. He also researches how to increase student engagement and learning in large classroom settings, focusing on peer-to-peer collaboration, self-efficacy, bridging biology teaching and research experiences and building instructor approachability.

Strayhorn, who joined the 91��ý faculty in 2013, specializes in formal theory, political institutions and judicial politics. His research applies game-theoretic models in a variety of contexts. His work examines the implications of delegation, oversight and accountability mechanisms for outcomes within political and judicial hierarchies and for democratic governance.

The Best Should Teach Award ceremony is free and open to the public. The keynote speaker will be Alphonse Keasley, former associate vice chancellor in the Office of Diversity, Equity and Community Engagement at 91��ý who has more than 30 years of experience as a faculty member, staff and administrator.

Best Should Teach events and awards are co-funded by the Ira and Ineva Baldwin Fund in the CU Foundation and Brian Good's private Best Should Teach Fund, with additional support from the Center for Teaching and Learning, the School of Education and the College of Arts and Sciences.

Did you enjoy this article? Subscribe to our newsletter. Passionate about arts and sciences? Show your support.

Peter Hunt, Warren Sconiers and Josh Strayhorn will be honored during an awards ceremony May 1.

Traditional

White

Farm-diversification research wins high kudos

Rachel Sauer — Mon, 21 Apr 2025 19:03:22 +0000

Farm-diversification research wins high kudos Rachel Sauer Mon, 04/21/2025 - 13:03

Clint Talbott

91��ý’s Zia Mehrabi and an international group of researchers are named national champion of the Frontiers Planet Prize for research that finds environmental and social benefits of agricultural diversification

Widespread agricultural diversification could improve the health of the world’s environment and that of its people, a landmark study published last year found.

Zia Mehrabi, assistant professor of environmental studies at the University of Colorado Boulder, alongside a large group of international researchers, has been named the U.S. national champion for the Frontiers Planet Prize, the Frontiers Research Foundation announced today.

As one of 19 national champions, Mehrabi and team are in contention to be named one of three international champions, each of whom will receive $1 million in funding to advance their research. The international champions will be announced at the Frontiers Planet Prize ceremony in Switzerland in June.

Zia Mehrabi, a 91��ý assistant professor of environmental studies, has been named the U.S. national champion for the Frontiers Planet Prize.

The Frontiers Planet Prize celebrates breakthroughs in Earth system and planetary science that “address these challenges and enable society to stay within the safe boundaries of the planet’s ecosystem.” The prize puts scientific rigor and ingenuity at its heart, helping researchers worldwide accelerate society toward a green renaissance, the Frontiers Research Foundation says.

Professor Jean-Claude Burgelman, director of the Frontiers Planet Prize, said the planet faces immense threats that require bold, transformative solutions rooted in evidence and validated by science.

“Innovative yet scalable solutions are the only way for us to ensure healthy lives on a healthy planet,” Burgelman said. “By spotlighting the most groundbreaking research, we are helping scientists bring their work to the international stage and provide the scientific consensus needed to guide our actions and policies.”

Mehrabi, who leads the Better Planet Laboratory, was recognized, alongside his co-authors, for an article published last year in the journal Science titled “Joint environmental and social benefits from diversified agriculture.”

Laura Vang Rasmussen of the University of Copenhagen in Denmark and Ingo Grass of the University of Hohenheim in Germany were lead authors of the paper, which had 58 co-authors. Claire Kremen of the University of British Columbia was a senior author and co-principal investigator on the study.

The researchers found that diversifying crops and animals and improving habitat, soil and water conservation on individual farms can improve biodiversity while improving or, at a minimum, not coming at a cost to yields. Additionally, diversified farming can yield social benefits and improve food security—showing improved food access or a reduced number of hungry months, for example, particularly in smallholder systems.

The more diversification measures farms employed, the more benefits accrued, researchers observed. Essentially, the team found evidence to move toward agriculture that more closely reflects natural systems.

“If you look at how ecosystems operate, it’s not just plants growing alone. It’s not just animals or soil,” Mehrabi said last year. “It’s all of these things working together.”

Using data from 2,655 farms across 11 countries and covering five continents, the researchers combined qualitative methods and statistical models to analyze 24 different datasets. Each dataset studied farm sites with varying levels of diversification, including farms without any diversification practices. This allowed the team to assess the effects of applying more diversification strategies.

Diversified farming differs from the dominant model of agriculture: growing single crops or one animal on large tracts of land. That efficient, “monoculture” style of farming is a hallmark of agriculture after the Green Revolution, which reduced global famine by focusing on high-yield crops that rely on fertilizers and pesticides.

“The Green Revolution did many, many great things, but it came with a lot of costs,” Mehrabi says, noting that synthetic fertilizers and pesticides harm the environment.

Also, to increase labor productivity, large farms rely on mechanization, which tends to “replace people with machines.”

“If you look at how ecosystems operate, it’s not just plants growing alone. It’s not just animals or soil. It’s all of these things working together,” says Zia Mehrabi.

“So, the idea of trying to engineer nature into our agricultural systems is somewhat antithetical to the whole way we think about agricultural development,” Mehrabi says.

Making a case for a different way of doing agriculture is one thing. Implementing it on a widespread basis is something else. The dominant view, fostered by “big ag” (short for agriculture), is that “if you want to do ag, you’ve got to do it this way,” Mehrabi says.

“Our work challenges that idea, but it’s a bit of a David-and-Goliath situation,” he adds. “We have the stone, but it hasn’t yet landed.”

But it’s necessary to confront Goliath, Mehrabi contends, noting that agriculture affects all the things people care about environmentally, including climate change, water security, biodiversity, pollution, land use and habitat destruction.

A third of the Earth’s land is used for agriculture, and about a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions stem from agriculture, he notes. Climate change has reduced agricultural yields by as much as 5% to 10% in the last four decades, research has shown.

“If we want to do something about environmental issues, agriculture is one of the big buckets that we need to really, really start in.”

Separate from the research published in Science, Mehrabi has done modeling of the future state of agriculture globally if the world continues business-as-usual farming. He found that in the next century, the number of farms is likely to be cut in half and the average size of farms would likely double.

Given that, along with what scientists know about the loss of natural ecosystems as farm sizes increase, “the future looks a little bit bleak,” Mehrabi says. But this new research shows it could be different.

Though he does not suggest that all farms must be small farms, he does advise that agriculture strive to diversify systems that have been “massively depleted and massively simplified.”

About the Frontiers Planet Prize, Mehrabi says he’s gratified to be recognized as one of 19 national champions. Additionally, he underscores the importance of the Frontiers Research Foundation’s financial commitment to this kind of research, calling it a “signal” to other funding entities that might follow suit.

Launched by the Frontiers Research Foundation on Earth Day 2022, the prize encourages universities worldwide to nominate their top three scientists working on understanding and putting forward pathways to stay within the safe operating space of nine planetary boundaries that are outlined by the Stockholm Resilience Center.

These nominations are then vetted at the national level, and the top scientists face an independent jury of 100—a group of renowned sustainability and planetary health experts chaired by Professor Johan Rockström—who vote for the National and International Champions.

Read a guest opinion by Zia Mehrabi and co-authors at this link. See a Q&A with Mehrabi about adding carbon-footprint labels on food at this link.

Did you enjoy this article? Subscribe to our newsletter. Passionate about environmental studies? Show your support.

Traditional

White

Climate change is transforming how scientists think about their roles

Rachel Sauer — Fri, 18 Apr 2025 15:08:35 +0000

Climate change is transforming how scientists think about their roles Rachel Sauer Fri, 04/18/2025 - 09:08

Sarah Kuta

91��ý researcher Pedro DiNezio emphasizes solving the problems of climate change in the here and now

When Pedro DiNezio began studying El Niño and La Niña roughly 20 years ago, human-caused climate change was still a future problem. At that time, researchers spent much of their energy trying to show that humans were, in fact, influencing the world’s climate.

Flash forward two decades, and climate change is no longer some far-off, eventual phenomenon—it’s happening now. Communities and businesses are factoring climate change into their yearly, monthly and even weekly decisions.

Against this backdrop, climate scientists are starting to transition away from purely theoretical research and pivot toward more applied work and consulting. DiNezio, a University of Colorado Boulder associate professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences, for example, is embarking on a new partnership with WTW, a global insurance broker and risk advisor—an exciting prospect for putting research into practice.

“We can’t stop the drought and the heatwaves, but we can do things to become more resilient, so they don’t affect us as badly—at least for a while,” says Pedro DiNezio, a 91��ý associate professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences.

“I’m going through a career transformation right now because I’m more and more interested in solving problems in the here and now,” says DiNezio. “Because we now know so much about the climate system and about the impact it could have on society, many of us in academia are feeling that it’s time to act.”

Resilience is key

As global temperatures continue to rise, world leaders are taking steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Whether their actions will be enough to stave off catastrophic warming remains to be seen. But, in the meantime, communities and businesses must prepare for and adapt to the unprecedented extremes caused by climate change.

Drought, heatwaves, wildfires, rising sea levels, coastal erosion and other ripple effects are already causing big problems—and scientists like DiNezio might be able to help solve them.

“We can’t stop the drought and the heatwaves, but we can do things to become more resilient, so they don’t affect us as badly—at least for a while,” DiNezio says. “And hopefully we can win that time we need to stabilize the climate.”

For example, research has linked hot weather with an increased risk of accidents and injuries in the workplace. Employees are more likely to suffer heat-related illnesses on hot days. But they’re also more likely to be involved with other seemingly unrelated accidents, too.

From an ethical perspective, companies want to keep their workers safe and healthy. But, from a business perspective, they also want to keep costs down—and workers-compensation insurance is a major expense.

“We’re only starting to learn the full extent of the impact of heatwaves and how we can mitigate them,” says DiNezio. “This is having a huge impact on businesses. So, how do we prevent these accidents?”

As the climate shifts, supply chains are also becoming increasingly vulnerable. When vital waterways like the Panama Canal’s Gatun Lake dry up during droughts, ships cannot reach their intended destinations on time. And those delays cost money.

“You cannot avoid these things, but at least you can know there’s a risk and plan an alternative shipping route,” DiNezio says.

Reinsurance companies are particularly interested in anticipating disasters because they already take a long-term, big-picture view of risk. While a company in one part of the world might be worried about drought and another might be focused on sea level rise, global reinsurance companies see what’s happening around the world and connect the dots.

“Reinsurance companies look for our knowledge because their scale makes them more sensitive to the aggregated effect of climate change over large swaths of the world,” says DiNezio. “They are some of the first businesses to think, ‘How do we anticipate this new climate that is continually changing and prepare for it?’”

Why now?

Climate science is a relatively new field. But, in recent years, it’s matured enough to allow researchers to make predictions that are applicable to communities and businesses.

When vital waterways like the Panama Canal’s Gatun Lake (above) dry up during droughts, ships cannot reach their intended destinations on time. And those delays cost money. (Photo: Valiant/Shutterstock)

“We are starting to see these climate events happening, we have the tools to better predict them, and the climate sector is recognizing this as a problem, as a need,” says DiNezio. “As academics, we cannot ignore them because this is no longer a theoretical exercise.”

Teaching has played an important role in DiNezio’s transformation. After joining the 91��ý faculty four years ago, DiNezio began teaching an introductory-level class on climate change for non-science majors.

Every semester, DiNezio updated the curriculum because the climate was changing so fast. That process has been a bit of a reality check.

“When you talk about it with students, especially non-science majors, they are interested in what effect this could have on their lives and their careers,” says DiNezio. “You have to think about these things more concretely.”

Concrete problems

DiNezio, like other climate scientists who are experimenting with consulting, is approaching this new career chapter with a mix of enthusiasm and anticipation.

“I’m diving into something that I haven’t done before,” DiNezio says. “Sometimes, I describe it to my friend like I’m doing another PhD. … A lot of people in my field are going through this transformation and is entirely new.”

But, in some ways, DiNezio suspects solving real-world problems may be easier than solving theoretical ones. Either way, DiNezio is looking forward to the new challenge.

“When you move away from the purely academic, the problems become really concrete,” DiNezio says. “It’s really simple: How do you prevent heat deaths or help farmers mitigate drought? For me, the new thing is the action. The transformation is, how do we act with all this information about weather and climate? It’s very different from the academic approach. Now, we have a goal.”

Did you enjoy this article? Subscribe to our newsletter. Passionate about atmospheric and oceanic sciences? Show your support.

91��ý researcher Pedro DiNezio emphasizes solving the problems of climate change in the here and now.

Traditional

White

Don’t fear the fungi

Rachel Sauer — Thu, 17 Apr 2025 13:30:00 +0000

Don’t fear the fungi Rachel Sauer Thu, 04/17/2025 - 07:30

Bradley Worrell

91��ý mycologist Alisha Quandt says there’s little reason to fear a fungi-zombie apocalypse like the one imagined in the HBO hit TV series ‘The Last of Us’

Alisha Quandt prepared herself in advance to be asked by students and others about Sunday’s season 2 premier of “The Last of Us”—the hit HBO series that imagines a post-apocalyptic future where a fungal infection on a massive scale turns the majority of humanity into zombie-like creatures seeking to infect the last pockets of civilization.

It’s not that Quandt is a super-fan of the TV show (“I’m not into zombies, honestly,” she confesses), but as a mycologist—a scientist who studies fungi—she is used to getting asked about the TV show, specifically whether the grim future it imagines is anything people need to be worried about, or whether it’s simply harmless entertainment.

“I’m happy if it gets people excited about fungi. They’re so incredible,” says Alisha Quandt, a 91��ý assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology.

“Especially when the TV show first debuted, it was definitely a topic people wanted to discuss,” says Quandt, a University of Colorado Boulder Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology assistant professor.

“And it seems like the topic (of infectious fungi) comes up in popular culture every five to 10 years. When I was starting my PhD, people were fascinated by the ‘Planet Earth’ TV series by David Attenborough, where this ant infected by Ophiocordyceps unilateralis staggers around, being controlled by the fungus. Then later, the Last of Us videogame came out, which really got people excited about (zombie) fungi.”

Quandt did her PhD research studying Cordyceps-like fungi, which is the type of pestilence the TV show identifies as the culprit for turning civilization into a hellscape populated by zombies controlled by the spiky fungi tendrils sprouting from their heads. For the record, Quandt finds that scenario very unlikely, for a variety of reasons.

No need to panic

For starters, the TV show imagines a worldwide outbreak is caused by Cordyceps-contaminated food. However, Quandt says most fungal infections in humans are caused by inhaling spores or through contact with the eyes or skin—and not through the digestive tract. She notes that in many parts of the world, people have been ingesting Cordyceps fungi for decades without incident, because they believe they contain beneficial properties.

“I’ve eaten Cordyceps in Asia, in Korea and China,” says Quandt, who remains unzombified. “It’s considered a part of traditional Chinese medicine, especially certain species. Even here in the U.S., you can find Cordyceps in coffees and teas, for example. They sell them at stores in Boulder.”

Quandt says another reason not to be overly concerned about Cordyceps is that many of them are “specialists” that have a very narrow range of hosts that they infect, down to a specific family of ant or spider. While some Cordyceps can transition from infecting one type of arthropod to another, or to jump from infecting an insect to another fungus, she says making the leap to a healthy human being is remote.

What’s more, the average human body temperature of 97 to 99 degrees Fahrenheit is not an environment that’s hospitable for many fungi, although Quandt acknowledges there are exceptions. “The Last of Us” imagines a future in which global warming has raised Earth temperatures to a point where mutated Cordyceps zombie fungi could live comfortably in human hosts, but Quandt notes that ambient temperatures of even 90 degrees Fahrenheit are still cooler than the human body.

“That’s a hard path for me to follow,” she says of an environmental change that would allow Cordyceps to evolve in such a way. “There’s a lot of assumptions that would go into that trajectory.”

91��ý scientist Alisha Quandt finds the scenario from "The Last of Us" in which a Cordyceps-like fungi causes worldwide zombification very unlikely, for a variety of reasons. (Photo: HBO)

Beyond those arguments, Quandt says there is an even more important one as to why humans don’t need to start doom prepping for a fungi apocalypse.

“My argument about why we shouldn’t be worried about a fungal pandemic is that our bodies, when fully immunocompetent—meaning healthy human bodies—are extremely well equipped to deal with fungal propagules (spores) that come into contact with our bodies, mostly through our lungs,” she says. “Fungi have this cell wall that is made up of stuff that our bodies do not make. So, our bodies are really good identifying and dealing with that.”

Quant says fungal infections do pose a risk to people whose immune systems are compromised—particularly if they have taken a heavy dose of antibiotics, because those can kill off good bacteria, which can lower resistance to harmful fungi.

“Once our immune system goes away, which could handle those types of (fungi), we have so few antifungal drugs to treat fungal infections compared to the myriad of antibiotics that we have to treat bacterial diseases,” she says.

For the immunocompromised, Quandt says one of the most concerning fungi—which just cropped up in recent years and has spread worldwide—is Candida auris.

“It is a really concerning human pathogen because it is what we call nosocomial, meaning it is hospital related. People get these infections in hospitals, and once it’s in a hospital, it can be almost impossible to get rid of it,” she says.

“People will use all kinds of bleach and ethanol but it’s very hard to get rid of the yeast once it gets into a hospital room. And the fully immunocompetent, like nurses and doctors who are not sick, can end up spreading it from room to room to sick, often elderly, patients. Unfortunately, there’s not a good defense on the ground, so to speak, once Candida auris takes hold.”

But while “opportunistic pathogens” like Candida auris can pose a risk to the immunocompromised, the number of fungal diseases that could be described as “primary pathogens”—meaning they can infect and potentially cause serious health issues for healthy individuals—is less than a handful, Quandt says.

One primary pathogen that can be found in the United State is Valley Fever, which is primarily located in New Mexico, Arizona and southern California. Farming, construction or other practices that disrupt the soil can release the fungi’s spores, which people can then breathe into their lungs. Once inhaled, Valley Fever can potentially cause fever, cough, tiredness, shortness of breath and, in limited cases, serious conditions such as pneumonia and meningitis.

“But those are the rarer things, and I’m still not worried about them becoming common because they’re still not being spread from person to person,” she says.

In contrast with the way “The Last of Us” portrays fungi as an existential threat, Quandt sees a type of virus that’s already well-known to the scientific community and the public alike as a much greater risk for causing a global pandemic. The World Health Organization estimates the COVID-19 pandemic killed 14.9 million people worldwide between January 2020 and December 2021.

“As we’ve recently seen, unfortunately, there are a lot of other places to look for more likely suspects for (global pandemics). Things that were predicted by a lot of great investigative journalists and epidemiologists, like coronavirus and other zoonotic diseases (which jump from animals to humans), pose a much greater threat to mankind,” she says.

“As we’ve recently seen, unfortunately, there are a lot of other places to look for more likely suspects for (global pandemics). Things that were predicted by a lot of great investigative journalists and epidemiologists, like coronavirus and other zoonotic diseases (which jump from animals to humans), pose a much greater threat to mankind.”

And now, back to the show

Even beyond the fact she’s not into zombies, Quandt says her training as a mycologist can get in the way of her enjoyment of “The Last of Us” as entertainment, based upon the few episodes she has watched.

“I’m probably a little too close to watch the show—especially the fruiting bodies,” she says. “Sometimes they would show a person who is dead up against a wall, and the fruiting structures look life shelf fungi,” she says.

“Those are related to mushrooms—they’re not related to (fungi) that are molds, like Cordyceps. The artistry was beautiful, so they did a good job visually, but it’s just completely inaccurate. So, it does take you out of it a little bit to watch as an expert; you have to really suspend belief.”

Another scene that inspired disbelief for Quandt was a flashback episode—prior to the fungal pandemic—when a mycologist in Jakarta is asked by representatives of the country’s military to provide guidance on how to proceed after a group of workers in a building are found to be infected with early cases of the Cordyceps contagion. After surveying the infected, the mycologist gives the military members a chilling one-word answer: “Bomb!” (As in, bomb the entire country to try to prevent the infection from spreading.)

“My husband was watching the show with me. He paused it there and he’s like, ‘What should they do?’ I was like, ‘Get all the antifungals that you can. Get all the major ones and then get the rare ones—and start pumping these people with IVs, or all the people that you think might be exposed and get going on it.’ But the fact she said ‘bomb!’ I almost found it funny, but I was also like, ‘Oh, my God, that’s so dramatic.’ Still, it’s a TV show, and I acknowledge that.”

While Quandt may opt not to watch more episodes of “The Last of Us,” she says if the TV show raises public awareness about fungi—even if the details in the show are not entirely correct—she is all for it.

“I’m happy if it gets people excited about fungi,” she says. “They’re so incredible.”

Did you enjoy this article? Subscribe to our newsletter. Passionate about ecology and evolutionary biology? Show your support.

91��ý mycologist Alisha Quandt says there’s little reason to fear a fungi-zombie apocalypse like the one imagined in the HBO hit TV series ‘The Last of Us.'

Traditional

White

Top image: HBO

News

Trouble in the developing world? Call the IMF

Related Articles

Women on trial speak clearly through their clothing

Related Articles

Scholars aim to help women make a quantum leap

Related Articles

Fifth annual Staff Summit celebrates connection, adaptability, innovation

Related Articles

How was it for you? Women are finally being asked

Related Articles

Recognizing a century of boats against the current

Related Articles

College of Arts and Sciences faculty win 2025 Best Should Teach Awards

Related Articles

Farm-diversification research wins high kudos

Related Articles

Climate change is transforming how scientists think about their roles

Related Articles

Don’t fear the fungi

Related Articles