Reed in the News

Steven Raichlen Continues to Teach us in Project Fire

This story highlights Steven Raichlen's '75 latest book and PBS program, Project Fire.

Martha's Vineyard Times

The Brain Waves That Make Frogs Pitch Perfect

Courtship calls of the amphibious? Prof. Erik Zornik and colleagues studied the brains of two closely related species of African clawed frog and learned that while males of both species emit fast trills to lure mates, a group of neurons could help to explain the difference between them.

Nature: International Journal of Science

On the Unsettling Allure of ‘Watership Down’

Peter Rock, professor of creative writing, reflects on "Watership Down"—the novel as well as the English village.

The New York Times

Bashir Wins Oregon Book Award in Poetry for "Field Theories"

Oregonian

Poet, Creative Writing Prof. Samiya Bashir Nominated for Oregon Book Award

OPB's State of Wonder

TV Writer and "Ship It" Author Britta Lundin '07 Returns Home

Daily Astorian

Did Best-Selling Novelist Alafair Burke '91 Foresee the #MeToo Movement?

LegalNews.com

Diversifying a Classic Humanities Course

Inside Higher Education

Students Said a Keystone Course Was Racist. Here’s What Professors Did About It.

The Reed faculty approved a new course structure for Hummanities 110. The new structure will begin fall 2018 with the ancient Mediterranean and Athens. Updates will proceed in the spring with new modules on Mexico City from the fifteenth through twentieth centuries and Harlem from 1919 to 1952.

Chronicle of Higher Education

How it's Easier and Harder to Vote in the U.S.

Professor of Political Science Paul Gronke talks about the changing voter landscape in the United States. The show focuses on the drive to increase efficiency, integrity and access to the American voting system, while some states are purging electoral rolls. This conversation is happening amid a backdrop of probes regarding Russian influence during the 2016 presidential election and allegations of voter fraud considered by a now disbanded presidential commission.

ABC Radio News 

The American Campus, Under Siege:

"Now under fire from an array of forces on the right, colleges must learn how to weather the attacks"

President John Kroger is quoted in this broad story about "far-right-wingers who want to take the fight to the heart of Blue America," by legislative powers and grassroots activists.

The Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription)

Music and Activism Intersect: Civil rights leader fronts new CD with Pink Martini

Longtime Portland civil rights leader and Reed College graduate Kathleen Saadat ’74 is releasing a collection of jazz standards with Pink Martini founder Thomas Lauderdale. The CD titled, “Love for Sale” will be available March 1. Kathleen Saadat was commencement speaker for Reed’s graduating class of 2015.  

Portland Observer

HBO’s 'Here and Now' introduces companion podcast features Portlanders talking about race, identity and belonging

A new HBO show based in Portland, Here and Now, has a companion podcast that features locals talking about themes explored in various episodes. Reed assistant professor of English and humanities Lucia Martinez Valdivia is featured on a segment about identity. The Oregonian wrote about the podcast which can be heard on iTunes.

Oregonian

President John Kroger to step down in June

Board Chairman Roger Perlmutter thanks John for his invaluable leadership. 

Oregonian

Dr. Demento, comedic song hero and unsung punk rock legend, gets his due on new album

The LA Times chronicles how the release of a new CD compilation, "Dr. Demento Covered in Punk," came into being. The story includes a brief retrospective of the 50-year broadcasting career of Barret "Dr. Demento" Hansen '63 and explains how he was an early supporter of punk rock music.

Los Angeles Times

Sold as Boon to Jobs in U.S., Tax Bill May Lead Firms to Open Plants Abroad

Reed Prof. of Econ Kim Clausing explains why the tax bill may lead to more foreign than domestic jobs.

New York Times

MAX Heroes are The Oregonian 2017 Newsmakers of the Year

The Oregonian

Count the ways: How the GOP tax plan would reward rich families

Professor of Economics Kim Clausing shines light on the GOP tax plan. Government and outside analyses of the House and Senate tax bills show that the benefits would flow disproportionately to the wealthy. Aides to President Donald Trump argue that lower tax rates for companies and the wealthy would trickle into substantial pay raises for middle-income workers. Clausing disagrees. 

Associated Press

The unrealized potential of nonaffiliated voters

Professor of Political Science Paul Gronke contributed to this story on Oregon’s second-largest voting block—nonafilliated voters. 

East Oregonian

The Rise of Katherine Dunn: How the late Portland author survived hard times and becomes a literary legend

The Oregonian writes a loving remembrance of Katherine Dunn ’69, the author of the  "Geek Love," a National Book Award finalist and a novel that has gained a cult-status following.

The Oregonian 

Pushing back against the conservative caricature of higher education

Tracy Thompson of Bowie, Maryland, whose relationship to Reed is unknown, came to the defense of college in the Letter to the Editor section of the Washington Post. She quoted the Reed Magazine Almanac’s section on those who perpetuate the myth on Underwater Basket weaving. Spoiler alert — It’s not real! The Paideia course continues to attract attention of those who wish to disparage higher education.

The Washington Post —Letter to the Editor 

Anne Washburn on watching 156 Twilight Zone episodes for freaky remake 

The 1991 Reed College graduate has turned The Simpsons into a post-apocalyptic opera, invented her own language and put on a communist Dracula pageant. Now, the US playwright is staging the creepy, late-night TV classic that scarred her as a child.

The Guardian

Letting politics trump science in the Pruitt’s EPA.  Prof. of chemistry and Environmental Studies Juiane L. Fry 

Prof. Fry chronicles her experience in attempting to volunteer for the The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Scientific Advisory Board, whose charter calls for its members to "provide independent advice and peer review to EPA's Administrator on the scientific and technical aspects of environmental issues.

The Oregonian

GOP tax bill wrong way to spur growth and create jobs

According to Reed College economist Kimberly Clausing, the Republican tax plan uses obsolete methods to achieve its promised growth targets.

MSNBC

Philosophy Talk: When Democracies Torture

Darius Rejali from Reed College, author of Torture and Democracy is the guest of Stanford professors John Perry and Ken Taylor who host the philosophical chat show that airs in Oregon on OPB Thursdays from 9 to 10 p.m. 

KALW

“How the GOP’s Tax Plan Puts Other Countries Before America”

Kimberly Clausing is the Thormund A. Miller and Walter Mintz Professor of Economics at Reed College wrote the following commentary.

“The international features of the Republican tax bills make an odd pairing with the nationalist rhetoric of President Trump. Trump has long made it clear to the American public that, for better or worse, he wants to put “America first.” Like most economists, I view such nationalism as simplistic and dangerous. There are substantial gains for both the world and the United States from closer economic ties and international.”

Fortune

Steve Martin's 'King Tut' Sketch is Racist, Liberal Arts Students Say

Steve Martin’s seminal “King Tut” sketch is being blasted as cultural appropriation by a group of students at a prestigious liberal arts college in Oregon after the classic "Saturday Night Live" parody was played in a humanities course.

NewsWeek

Paradise Papers investigation Calls Out Reed College Fossil Fuels Investment

Student protestors are asking Reed College to consider social and environmental goals in its investment strategy. The student body has long been active in divestment movements, including a current sit-in since Oct. 23 in the president's office and hallway to protest the use of Wells Fargo as the college's operational bank.

Portland Tribune

The Right Way to Cut Corporate Taxes

Prof. of Economics Kim Clausing's proposal to tax companies for sales that take place within US boarders to help eliminate tax shelters was mentioned by the Times Editorial Board in Sunday's editorial. This mentions resulted in many other media outlets including Nov. 13th broadcast of NPR's Morning Edition.

The New York Times

Sarah Silverman Shares Some Interesting Thoughts On The Evolution Of ‘Offensiveness’ On ‘Real Time’

This articles is in response to comedian Sarah Silverman's more thoughtful response, during an episode of HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, on the offense taken by some Reed students regarding the showing of Steve Martin's King Tut video during Hum 110.

UPROXX

My Old School

Ethan Epstien ’10 is an associate editor at The Weekly Standard. He's also written for the Wall Street Journal, National Journal, Slate, City Journal. He holds a BA in history from Reed College and chimed in on the recent protests.

The Weekly Standard

Universities Tell Students: We Run Campuses, Not You

The University of Oregon and Reed College are highlighted in this extensive piece on administrative responses to student protests.

Daily Beast

Why Everyone Should Learn About Western Civilization

Author Michele Nijhus ’87 wrote an opinion piece that began: “My alma mater is, for better or worse, the undergraduate equivalent of a cult film: Most people have never heard of Reed College, and the few who have really like to argue about it.”

The Atlantic

Details show tax bill isn't really about competitiveness or workers

Prof. of Economics Kim Clausing explains to The Hill how the House tax cut will make the country less competitive.

The Hill

IT, ‘Like Electricity,’ Is Now Everywhere

Information technology is pervasive in everything we do in so many ways, says Marty Ringle, chief information officer at Reed College and a founder and former chair of Educause. Like electricity, that’s what technology in education has become. He talks about his long history with the organization and how tech in teaching has changed on campuses since Educause started, in the 1970s.

The Chronicle of Higher Education

The Surprising Revolt at the Most Liberal College in the Country

Activists are disrupting lectures to protest "white supremacy," but many students are taking steps to stop them.

The Atlantic

Poetry and Science Collide In The Work Of Samiya Bashir

Creative Writing Prof. Samiya Bashir on OPB Radio’s State of Wonder. Bashir talks about her latest release, Field Theories. Her website describes her third book of poems as wending its way through quantum mechanics, chicken wings and Newports, love and a shoulder’s chill, melding blackbody theory (idealized perfect absorption, as opposed to the white body’s idealized reflection) with real live Black bodies.

OPB Radio

Class Struggle: How Identity Politics Divided a Campus

Joe Kolman ’77 wrote a second story about the protests.

Spiked Online

How a Quarter of Cow DNA Came From Reptiles

Reed Prof. of Bio Sarah Schaack explains how it can be easy to miss a step in a gene’s history.  

The Atlantic

Colleges won't apply new sexual-assault guidelines

This story on the new Department of Education directive regarding Title IX features VP of Students Mike Brody discussing Reed’s approach.

Portland Tribune

The ‘fish missionary’ who changed what we eat, one Alaskan salmon at a time

Obit of Jon Rowley '69 and his work to market copper river salmon among other things.

Washington Post

Some retirees are rethinking Florida, post Irma

Prof. of Economics Jon Rork contributes to a CNBC story on retirees rethinking Florida, post Hurricane Irma.

CNBC

Prof. Mark Burford Adds Context to Chuck Berry’s “Promised Land.”

Prof. Mark Burford contributes to an article that follows the route of  Chuck Berry’s 1964 hit “Promised Land” that chronicles the African-American experience in the 20th century.

The New York Times

Kip Berman of The Pains of Being Pure at Heart talks new album, dad life and his love for Chicago

Kip Berman ’02, front man of The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, talks about studying “ancient religion” at Reed, songwriting, and his musical influences.

Chicago Tribune

Prof. Paul Gronke visits with OPB's Think Out Loud to discuss election reform.

Professor of political science Paul Gronke and former Oregon Secretary of State Phil Keisling discuss election reform.

OPB Radio

How Reed Grew International Population in Challenging Year

Reports on how Reed increased international student diversity despite the White House travel ban.

Inside Higher Ed

From High School Dropout to College at 30: One Woman’s Path to Success

NBC News Digital reporter and 2012 Reed grad Mary Emily O'Hara explains what she learned navigating the college admissions process as an adult.

NBC News

Praise for Reed’s Anti-Rankings Stance

How to Raise an Adult author Julie Lythcott-Haims hails Reed for its stance on college rankings at the New York Times Higher Ed Leaders Forum (17:00).

The New York Times (Youtube)

On a Portland Train, the Battlefield of American Values

Nicholas Kristof provides commentary on the murder of 23-year-old recent Reed College graduate Taliesin Myrddin Namkai Meche ’16 and 53-year-old Army veteran. 

The New York Times

Three Men Stood Up to Anti-Muslim Attack. Two Paid With Their Lives.

The harrowing story of Taliesin Myrddin Namkai Meche ’16 who lost his life protecting two teenage girls and from a hateful and violent racist.

The New York Times

Curb the Use of Overseas Tax Havens? Yes! But How?

“There’s a lot of evidence that the holiday created no jobs and did not lead to any additional investments,” said Kimberly Clausing, an economist at Reed College.

The New York Times

From Yemen with love: Reed professor's coffee sign brews a global friendship

Professor of English and Humanities Lucia Martinez’s support of Yemeni people engendered a kind response.

The Oregonian

"Bookmarks: 'Book of Joan' movie, buzz for Reed alumna, new NW field guide

Reed College graduate Julianne Pachico's get a nice mention for her debut novel, The Lucky Ones

Oregonian

Psych Prof. Called As Expert Witness in Murder Case

Prof. Daniel Reisberg, an expert in eye-witness identification, testified on behalf of a man who was convicted in part as a result of doubtful police procedures.

Idaho Statesman

Reed College’s Cooley Gallery Featured on State of Wonder

The only Portland artist-in-residence, Ryan Woodring, has work in the group exhibition “ICONOCLASTIC” at Reed College’s Cooley Gallery

OPB Radio

Reed Prof.'s Novel, 'My Abandonment,' Will be a Movie Starring Ben Foster

Professor of Creative Writing Peter Rock’s novel My Abandonment is being made into a movie. Shooting began in April.

The Oregonian

Professor of Political Science Darius Rejali Penned an Op Ed for the LA Times

Prof. Rejali lays out the social science on how Donald Trump's pro-torture rhetoric could help bring abuse to a neighborhood near you.

LA Times

Reed Dropped Its Admission Fee, Students Push Ivies to do the Same

Vice President of Financial Aid and Admission Milyon Trulove is quoted extensively in this article that got picked up by more than 30 news outlets.

Associate Press

The Land of Rain

In January, High Country News hosted two students from Reed College to see the inner workings of a news magazine and the magazine published the stories they wrote.

High Country News

Reed Linguist Explains Jackie Kennedy’s Strange, Elegant Accent

Professor of Linguistics Kara Becker features prominently in this article about why Natalie Portman’s accent in Jackie is spot-on.

Vox

Professor of Economics Kimberly Clausing helps explain Border Adjustment Tax.

“Unless the dollar appreciates quickly and countries don’t fix their exchange rates, at least in the short run you’re going to be paying more for all that stuff,” Clausing says.

Los Angeles Times