In a recent article posted on Antenna‘s website, Rebecca Adelman, an associate professor of media and communication studies, examined public reaction to the images of Aylan Kurdi.

“I am not suggesting that the story the photographs tell isn’t wrenching (it is); but the difficulty of the image is the very thing that makes spectatorship of it easy. Certainly, spectators far removed from the Kurdi family’s suffering might genuinely experience the photos as painful. But the experience of feeling bad about the photos is accompanied by a range of sentimental rewards that ameliorate this discomfort. In part, the hyper-visibility of Aylan Kurdi is a function of the vacuous efficacy of social media, but the clicktivism it inspired is more a symptom than a cause,” she wrote.

Also in the article, Adelman discussed other images related to the civil war in Syria and how they can present different interpretation from spectators, including the U.S. government, such as viewing images of the Assad regime’s chemical weapons attacks against Syrian civilians.

“Seeking to galvanize popular and legislative support for his plan to intervene militarily in Syria, President Obama implored Americans to view the images  and the Senate Intelligence Committee compiled 13 of the most explicit  for review by its members and, presumably, the public. These images failed to persuade lawmakers or their constituents that the situation warranted U.S. involvement. Of course, there were many reasons for this reluctance and we cannot know if different pictures would have garnered different results, but it remains significant that these photos never achieved the iconic status that Aylan Kurdi’s already have.”

Read “Feeling Good about Feeling Bad about Aylan Kurdi” in Antenna.

Susan McCully, Theatre, was highlighted in a September 19 article, “Women’s Voices Theater Festival aims to level the playing field,” by Tim Smith of The Baltimore Sun. Her play Kerrmoor will be premiered at the multi-city festival, running from October 29 through November 15, and will be directed by Eve Muson (Theatre) and acted by Katie Hileman (’12, Theatre). “I just decided to be brave and write about Appalachia, where I come from,” McCully explained to Smith. “It’s a place full of amazing, noble people who are all about sacrifice, and at the same time are insular and xenophobic. It’s a dangerous mix. [Kerrmoor] is an Appalachian Greek tragedy. I like to think that if William Faulkner came back as a middle-aged white lesbian who transplanted to Baltimore, he would have written this play.”

Read the article here, and read more about Kerrmoor and the festival here.

Douglas Lamdin, Economics, had his recent study featured on the website of the American Association of Individual Investors (AAII). The article, “New Evidence on Whether Gold Mining Stocks are More Like Gold or Like Stocks” was co-authored with Mark Johnson of Loyola University, Maryland, and is forthcoming in the journal Alternative Investment Analyst Review.

The study examined the role of gold and gold mining stocks in diversified portfolios. Lamdin and Johnson found that neither gold nor gold mining stocks are a hedge against declines in the stock market. Both gold and gold mining stocks, however, do provide diversification benefits, with gold the preferred diversifying asset.

Eric Dyer, associate professor of Visual Arts, will be among six artists featured in an exhibition at the Baltimore Museum of Art that celebrates the winners of the 2014 and 2015 Baker Artist Awards. The exhibition opens Wednesday, September 16 and closes Sunday, November 15, with an opening reception on Thursday, September 17. Professor Dyer was the recipient of the 2015 Mary Sawyer Baker Prize, which included a $25,000 cash award. Read more about the exhibition here and the Baker Awards here.

Dyer’s creations explore a variety of cyclic ideas and themes through zoetrope-like sculptures, several of which can be viewed on the Baker Awards website. During the month of July, his work was featured in Times Square in New York City, where from 11:57 until midnight his work Copenhagen Cycles Journey swirled across electronic billboards — read more here. His artwork has also been exhibited worldwide at events and venues such as the Smithsonian National Gallery of Art, Ars Electronica, the London International Animation Festival, and the Cairo and Venice Biennales. He has been honored as a Fulbright Fellow, Sundance New Frontier Artist, Creative Capital Artist, and Guggenheim Fellow.