Randall Kuhn, director of the Global Health Affairs Program at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies, had a paper, “Trends in Compulsory Licensing of Pharmaceuticals Since the Doha Declaration: A Database Analysis,” published on PLoS Medicine, a web journal published by the Public Library of Science. Kuhn co-authored the paper with Reed Beall, a Korbel graduate and assistant director of study abroad programs at DU’s Office of Internationalization.

Celia Taylor, a professor in the Sturm College of Law, had an article, “Conflict Minerals and SEC Disclosure Regulation,” published in the online Harvard Business Law Review.

Elizabeth Henry, a lecturer in the Department of Media, Film and Journalism Studies, released the documentary film Susan’s Horses in 2011. The film explores a humble Colorado horse camp for kids, run by a woman whose troubled past helps inform her unique relationship to her animals. The film has screened at the Flicker Spokane festival in Washington, the U.S. Super 8 Film Festival at Rutgers University, the Wisconsin Film Festival in Madison, Wis., the Antimatter International Film Festival in Vancouver, B.C., the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival in Hot Springs, Ark., and the Denver International Film Festival.

Andrea Stanton, assistant professor in the Department of Religious Studies, presented “Islamic Emoticons: Pious Sociability and Community Building in Online Muslim Communities” at the International Conference on Digital Religion at the University of Colorado-Boulder.

KK DuVivier, a professor in the Sturm College of Law, was named secretary of the American Association of Law Schools’ Section on Natural Resources and Energy Law.  The nonprofit association of more than 160 law schools provides improvement of the legal profession through legal education. DuVivier’s The Renewable Energy Reader was recently published by Carolina Academic Press.

Don Smith, a lecturer in the Sturm College of Law and director of the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Program, has been asked to remain in the position of editor-in-chief of the peer-review journal Utilities Policy: Policy, Regulation, Strategy for the next two years. Smith has edited the journal for 10 years.

Deborah Zalesne, visiting professor of law, and her colleague David Nadvorney will present “Making Assessment Goals Explicit: An Integrated Skills/Doctrine Syllabus” at the Albany Law School on March 29–30. Deborah also was asked to author the casebook Contracting Law (5th ed. Carolina Academic Press).

David Montano, associate professor in the Lamont School of Music, had an article, “Academic Citizenship and Schools of Music in Twenty-First-Century ‘Engaged’ Universities Dedicated to the Public Good,” published in College Music Symposium, the journal of the College Music Society.

Joseph Szyliowicz, professor in the Josef Korbel School of International Studies, has recently published “Safeguarding Hazmat Road and Rail Shipments in the U.S.: Policies and Challenges,” in Security Aspects for Uni and Multi modal Hazmat Transport Systems (Wiley, 2011); “Airport Security,” in Encyclopedia of Terrorism, (Sage, 2nd ed., 2011); and “Intermodalism in the U.S.: Issues and Prospects,” in Integrated Transport: From Policy to Practice (Routledge, 2010). Szyliowicz also was awarded a grant from the European Union Atlantis Fund for the Improvement of Secondary Education to study sustainable transportation issues in Bologna. In July he presented an invited paper (co-authored with Courtney Schultz) at the Maritime Security Conference sponsored by the Port Operations Research and Technology Centre at Imperial College in London. The paper will be published in a volume containing selected papers presented at the conference. In August he traveled to Pretoria, where he delivered a series of lectures to students and faculty at the University of South Africa on sustainable development and globalization.

Natasha Dobrinen, an associate professor in the Department of Mathematics, was invited to participate in the half-year-long program at the Field’s Institute in Toronto on “Forcing and Its Applications.” She also is a member of the program committee for the Association for Symbolic Logic 2012 winter meeting, which was held at the Joint Mathematics Meetings in Boston in January. Natasha was a plenary speaker at the third European Set Theory Conference in Edinburgh, Scotland, in July 2011, and her article “Tukey Types of Ultrafilters,” co-authored with Stevo Todorcevic, was accepted for publication in the Illinois Journal of Mathematics.

SoleJourney, a short film by associate film Professor Sheila Schroeder, has been selected as part of “Reel Equality,” a statewide campaign in North Carolina to defeat anti-human rights legislation in that state.

Over the holiday break, music Professor Lawrence Golan conducted a tour of China with the American Festival Orchestra. The tour consisted of concerts in 10 different cities over the course of two weeks. The concerts were greeted with great public enthusiasm and critical acclaim. In addition to conducting, Golan also performed as violin soloist on each of the concerts.

Faith and Race in American Political Life, a book co-edited by assistant political science Professor Nancy Wadsworth, came out in January through the University of Virginia Press.

The Family, Marriage, and Radicalism in British Women’s Novels of the 1790s: Public Affection and Private Affliction, by University College arts and culture instructor Jennifer Golightly, was published Jan. 1 by Bucknell University Press as part of the Transits: Literature, Thought, and Culture, 1650-1850 series.

Robert Fusfeld, a lecturer at the Institute for Public Policy Studies, recently published two pieces on the Thomson Reuters News & Insight blog.

Nick Galatos, associate professor of mathematics, represented DU at four international mathematics conferences during 2011 by delivering invited talks in the U.S., France and Poland.

Law Professor Eli Wald presented “Federalizing Legal Ethics, Nationalizing Law Practice and the Future of the American Legal Profession in a Global Age” to the Colorado Attorney Chapter of the Federalist Society in Denver on Dec. 14. Wald also presented “Of Interest: Understanding the ‘Ethical Screen’ and Its Utility” at the Colorado Law Institute’s 16th annual ethics conference on Dec. 12 and presented “Nationalizing of Law Practice: The Future of Law Practice in Colorado” to the Weld County Bar Association and the 19th Judicial District Bench-Bar Committee in Greeley, Colo., on Dec. 9.

Foreign, comparative and international law librarian Joan Policastri was a guest speaker at the monthly meeting of the International Law section of the Colorado Bar Association on Dec. 13. Her presentation, “Now You’re in the Know: Great Reference Materials for International Business Lawyers in Denver – A Librarian Can Bring You Back the Right Answer,” focused on the Westminster Law Library and its print and electronic resources.

The Tender Cut, co-authored by DU Professor Peter Adler, was published in August 2011.

The Tender Cut
By Patricia Adler and Peter Adler

New York University Press, 2011

For the past decade, DU sociology Professor Peter Adler and his wife Patti, professor of sociology at the University of Colorado-Boulder, have been studying self-injury.

Their book, The Tender Cut (New York University Press, August 2011), has been getting national attention. It offers new insights into people who deliberately injure themselves by cutting, burning, branding and breaking bones.

“Although self-injury continues to be an act mostly done in isolation, our research shows that an increasing number of people have formed a subculture of self-injurers through posts and blogs on the Internet,” Peter Adler says. “This behavior has emerged from the shadows and is openly frequently openly discussed online.”

The story about the book on CNN created a discussion with 273 people posting comments and nearly 800 Facebook recommendations. They’ve also been interviewed by magazine reporters, bloggers and NPR. The book has been featured on Salon.com, where Mandy Van Deven interviews Patti Adler.

“Our longitudinal data show that many people who struggle with self-injury during their formative years, like those who try drugs, eating disorders or delinquency, grow out of it to live fully functioning productive lives as professionals, parents and spouses without further problems,” Patti Adler says.

Before their research, studies of self-injury had primarily been conducted by psychologists or physicians, and their research subjects came from therapeutic or hospital settings. The picture that emerged from these previous studies was one of an addictive behavior practiced mostly by privileged white teen-age girls — practically all of whom were diagnosed with severe psychiatric illnesses.

“A completely different picture emerges when a close look is taken at all self-injurers,” Patti Adler says.

The Adlers trace the evolution of societal attitudes toward a behavior that once was highly stigmatized but now is considered more of a “thing that people do.” And, rather than a suicidal gesture or an addictive behavior, they found that it is a coping mechanism for many.

“There is no question that there is still a group who do this with serious lifelong problems,” Peter Adler says. “But in contradiction to previous studies, we found that a significant number grow out, take a break, or find other means to cope as they age. They are not the ‘crazies’ that people originally thought they were.”

The majority of people involved in self-injury do it to deal with anxiety or emotional pain, the Adlers say. Self-injurers report that it “self-soothes” and gives people a sense of control. And it helps many people get over a rough patch in their lives.

“Although society was initially shocked to discover that people might harm their bodies intentionally, when compared to other ways that people seek relief from pain it offers several benefits: It’s not illegal, it’s not addictive, it doesn’t hurt others and the body eventually heals,” Adler says. “For those trapped in bad situations, it can be a way to make it through until their lives improve.”

The Adlers conclude that self-injury should not be sought as a way to get better, but that they want their work to give “voice” to a group that were silenced.

The Adlers also wrote about self-injury as part of their new blog, “The Deviance Society,” for the Psychology Today website.