For the Record provides information about recent professional activities and honors of University of Delaware faculty, staff, students and alumni.

Recent publications, presentations and service include the following:

Publications

Julie L. McGee, associate professor of Africana studies and art history, contributed the lead essay to a new publication on work by artist Whitfield Lovell.  Whitfield Lovell: Deep River has been published by Eakins Press Foundation.

Presentations

On May 19, 2023, The Great Courses released a new 12-lecture course, “Propaganda and Persuasion,” taught by UD’s Dannagal G. Young, professor of communication and political science. “The Great Courses are extraordinarily selective and a sign you are a go-to at the international level,” said Kami Silk, Rosenberg Professor and chair of the  Department of Communication. Young designed the course to help students become smarter and healthier consumers of information. The course explores the tools of effective communication and equips students with insights to recognize persuasion and propaganda in politics, advertising, relationships, public health and social media. The lecture series begins with a historical account, from Aristotle to the postwar Mad Men advertising era. Using social science frameworks, Young explains why people respond to certain kinds of persuasion and how storytelling techniques create meaning and disarm readers and listeners. Young explores the ethics of persuasion in today’s era of digital communication and social media. The course concludes with a look at recent political campaigns and the effects of conspiracy theories and misinformation.

Service

The Institute for Public Administration’s (IPA) Delaware Center for Civics Education (DCCE) in partnership with the Delaware Civics Education Coalition (DCEC), conducted a mock school-board election for students in Delaware’s middle and high schools on May 8, 2023. Students in grades 4-12 in the state of Delaware visited the mock election site to review candidate profiles and cast their vote. This activity aimed to educate students about the voting process in an engaging and hands-on way. Fran O’Malley, director of DCCE, led this initiative with support from Grace Donohue, an Honors student in the 4+1 Master of Public Administration program and research assistant with IPA. Donohue developed the mock candidate information and identified key issues. The Delaware mock school election took place on May 8-9, in conjunction with the real Delaware School Board elections, which were held on May 9, 2023. The Delaware Center for Civics Education is a program of the University of Delaware’s Institute for Public Administration, a research and public service center in the Joseph R. Biden, Jr. School of Public Policy and Administration.

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