Faculty Create New Teaching and Learning

What do students in Minnesota have in common with their peers in the Middle East? For starters, the way they spend their free time text-messaging their favorite reality television shows. That was one conclusion reached by students in Catherine Squires’ seminar on global media. “It broke some pervasive media stereotypes,” she explains.

As Cowles Professor of Journalism, Diversity, and Equality, Squires integrates research and teaching to create learning environments where students discuss how mass media influences their own beliefs and prejudices. This approach helps students rethink the standards that media set for what is and isn’t covered in the mainstream.

Philip Portoghese is also rethinking something that is commonly held: pain-relieving drugs come with negative side effects. For decades, Portoghese and his research group in neurosciences and medicinal chemistry have been working to understand pain management and develop analgesic drugs without adverse side effects.

Now, his pledge of $1 million to establish a chair in medicinal chemistry will ensure that researchers continue the quest for better analgesic drugs and for those that will treat the likes of schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s disease, and depression. “The U has exceptional strength in neurosciences,” he says. “And medicinal chemistry will play a key role in advancing the field.”

The U also leads in environmental fields, and this knowledge is making its way into K-12 classrooms thanks to the generosity of geologist Pete Palmer, ’50 Ph.D. His gift established a summer sustainability institute for K-12 teachers. “We worked with educators to design teaching strategies for topics like environmental ethics, climate change, waste management, and population growth,” says Fred Finley of the College of Education and Human Development. “Pete has really given us two gifts: his financial contribution and his lifelong experience in geology.”