Faculty Research in the News

External media reporting on faculty research 

Nicholas Mathew (Music) breaks down the origins and stories behind national anthems

August 8, 2024
Patrick Ferrell

For over a century, the modern Olympics have brought athletes from around the world together to compete and celebrate. Victors, whether they’re gymnasts flying across the balance beam or casually cool pistol shooters, are awarded coveted bronze, silver and gold medals. But one of the top honors of the Games is to stand atop the podium as the gold medalist’s national anthem plays and their country’s flag is raised.

With more than 300 medal events at the 2024 Paris Games, there’s perhaps no other time when audiences will hear as many national anthems from across the globe. Behind...

https://news.berkeley.edu/2024/08/08/watch-a-uc-berkeley-professor-break-down-th…

Guardian: What lies beneath: the growing threat to the hidden network of cables that power the internet

August 8, 2024
Jonathan Yerushalmy

It was the opening days of 2022, in the aftermath of a huge volcanic eruption, when Tonga went dark. The underwater eruption – 1,000 times more powerful than the bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima – sent tsunami waves across Tonga’s nearby archipelago and blanketed the island’s white coral sands in ash.

The strength of the Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha’apai eruption severed internet connectivity with Tonga, causing a communication blackout at just...

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/aug/09/what-lies-beneath-th…

NPR: It's Been a Minute with Poulomi Saha

January 26, 2024

LISTEN HERE

Brittany chats with Professor Poulomi Saha about America's obsession with cults. With so many shows choose from, cult documentaries could now be seen as their own genre. But what might our fascination with cults reveal about society's shortfalls?

https://www.npr.org/2024/01/26/1197954632/its-been-a-minute-draft-01-26-2024

KQED Forum: "Why do Cults Fascinate Us?" with Poulomi Saha

November 30, 2023

LISTEN HERE

In the last several years, a cult industrial complex has emerged to capitalize on Americans’ fascination with groups such as Jonestown, the Manson Family, the Branch Davidians, and the Rajneeshpuram community in Wasco County, Ore., argues UC Berkeley professor Poulomi Saha. But in her highly sought-after class called Cults in Popular Culture, they emphasize that it’s important to look beyond the sensational examples and recognize...

https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101895177/why-cults-fascinate-us-with-uc-berkeley…

Berkeley Voices: A language divided

April 5, 2024
Anne Brice, Berkeley News
LISTEN TO THE PODCAST HERE.

There are countless English varieties in the U.S. There's Boston English and California English and Texas English. There's Black English and Chicano English. There's standard academic, or white, English. They're all the same language, but linguistically, they're different.

"Standard academic English is most represented by affluent white males from the Midwest, specifically Ohio in the mid-20th century," says UC...

https://news.berkeley.edu/2024/04/05/berkeley-voices-a-language-divided

Berkeley News: Middle school students explore musical treasures from special Berkeley collections

May 2, 2024
Anne Brice and Grant Kerber, Berkeley News

It isn’t every day that we get to interact with musical treasures from the 16th and 17th centuries, held in a special UC Berkeley collection. But last week, Berkeley public middle school students got to do just that.

The students, hosted by Berkeley Music Professor Nicholas Mathew, began their visit at one of the campus’s Noon Concerts, free weekly performances presented every semester in Hertz Concert Hall by the Department of Music. The concert series began more than 70 years ago in...

https://news.berkeley.edu/2024/05/02/middle-school-students-visit-music-departme…

Berkeley Voices: One brain, two languages

April 16, 2024
Anne Brice, Berkeley News

For the first three years of Justin Davidson's childhood in Chicago, his mom spoke only Spanish to him. Although he never spoke the language as a young child, when Davidson began to learn Spanish in middle school, it came very quickly to him, and over the years, he became bilingual.

Now an associate professor in UC Berkeley's Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Davidson is part of a research team that has discovered where in the brain bilinguals store language-specific sounds and sound sequences. The research project is ongoing....

https://news.berkeley.edu/2024/04/16/berkeley-voices-language-in-the-brain