In the News

Assistant Professor of Information Science and IBS Affiliate, Brian C. Keegan, was consulted for a recent College of Media, Communication and Information (CMCI) Now Magazine article. The story summarizes the state of voting, polling and democracy in the United States in advance of the 2024 elections. Keegan shares his take on AI and its effect on voting and democracy. Read the article here.

Colorado voting opens October 21 through Nov. 5th at 7:00 p.m. Learn more about voting events, locations and other voting information at colorado.edu/vote.

Florida has ordered over a million people to evacuate in advance of Hurricane Milton. But not everyone is motivated to leave. IBS Research Associate, Carson MacPherson-Krutsky, studies why some people choose to stay behind during natural disasters. She emphasizes that evacuation is a privilege not everyone is able to take. CU Boulder Today’s Yvaine Ye talked with MacPherson-Krutsky on her research and what people can do to mitigate their disaster risk.

Can horseback riding impact your skeleton? A new study sheds light on when humans first took to horseback riding, and what we can and can’t discern from skeletal remains. The study, published in Science Advances, was co-authored by Associate Professor of Anthropology, IBS Affiliate and Curator of Archaeology at the CU Museum of Natural History, William Taylor and Lauren Hosek, lead author and assistant professor of anthropology at CU Boulder. Both authors talk more about their findings for CU Boulder Today’s Daniel Strain.

More than 66,000 victims of Nepal’s civil war are awaiting justice. Nepal’s truth commissions have yet to bring that justice, but their renewal for a third round of commissions this August is a tentative step forward. Tracy Fehr, a sociology Ph.D. candidate involved in the Environment and Society Program at IBS, gives her opinion on these new developments for the Conversation.

A new survey shows war weariness among Ukrainians is on the rise, with a growing number of Ukrainians willing to loose territory to save lives. John O’Loughlin, college professor of distinction in geography and IBS fellow, along with Professor in Political Science and International Relations at UCL, Kristin Bakke, and Professor of Government and International Affairs at Virginia Tech, Gerard Toal, share more about their research for The Conversation.

The short term effects of wildfires are staggering and can happen in as little as a day of exposure. Researchers are now uncovering the long term effects of wildfire exposure on human health and the environment. Colleen Reid, associate professor of Geography and IBS fellow, was recently featured on the Denver Post. She shares her concerns about what we know and don’t yet know about the long term effects of wildfires and retardant slurry.

With recent public figures championing pronatalism and growing concern from falling birth rates, greater clarity is needed on these demographic numbers. Assistant Research Professor at IBS, Leslie Root, was recently interviewed by Lisa Marshall and Nicholas Goda for CU Boulder Today. She advises of a nuanced approach to addressing population and economic challenges.

New research published this week in the journal JAMA Network Open raises questions about how the federal government represents important data. The study highlights how COVID-19 skewed maternal mortality data, providing a misrepresentation of maternal mortality after the Dobbs decision and fueling false claims about abortion. IBS Research Professor, Leslie Root, and Population Program Director and Professor of Sociology, Amanda Stevenson, co-authored the study. They sat down with Science Writer, Lisa Marshall, to discuss their findings for CU Boulder Today.