Education (Colleges & Universities)
Here's a look at documents from public, private and community colleges in the U.S.
Featured Stories
University at Buffalo: Study - Quick, Pain-free Breast Imaging System Shows Promise in Early Clinical Tests
BUFFALO, New York, July 11 -- The University at Buffalo (State University of New York) issued the following news release:
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Study: Quick, pain-free breast imaging system shows promise in early clinical tests
Automated scan takes less than a minute and produces AI-powered, clear 3D images
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BUFFALO, N.Y. -- A breast scan for detecting cancer takes less than a minute using an experimental system that combines photoacoustic and ultrasound imaging, according to a study in IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging.
The system does not require painful compression like mammography. Instead, patients
... Show Full Article
BUFFALO, New York, July 11 -- The University at Buffalo (State University of New York) issued the following news release:
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Study: Quick, pain-free breast imaging system shows promise in early clinical tests
Automated scan takes less than a minute and produces AI-powered, clear 3D images
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BUFFALO, N.Y. -- A breast scan for detecting cancer takes less than a minute using an experimental system that combines photoacoustic and ultrasound imaging, according to a study in IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging.
The system does not require painful compression like mammography. Instead, patientsstand and gently press their breast against an imaging window.
In tests involving four healthy individuals and 61 breast cancer patients, it produced clear, artificial intelligence-powered 3D images of common breast cancer subtypes such as Luminal A, Luminal B and Triple-Negative Breast Cancer.
"Our system, which is called OneTouch-PAT, combines advanced imaging, automation and artificial intelligence -all while enhancing patient comfort," says the study's corresponding author Jun Xia, PhD, professor in the University at Buffalo's Department of Biomedical Engineering.
He stresses that "more work is needed before it can be used in clinical settings, but we're excited about OneTouch-PAT's potential to augment current imaging methods and help fight this terrible disease."
Additional authors include researchers in the UB Department of Biostatistics; the UB Department of Computer Science and Engineering; the Department of Breast Imaging and the Department of Surgery, both at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center; and Windsong Radiology.
The work was supported by the National Institutes of Health.
Breast cancer is among the leading causes of death for women worldwide. Early detection - most commonly through mammograms and ultrasound - has helped save countless lives.
But each technique has limitations. Mammography is widely available and relatively inexpensive, but it's less accurate among women with dense breast tissue, involves radiation and is painful. Ultrasound, which is often used in conjunction with mammography, is better with dense breast tissue, but it can produce false positives and its quality is reliant upon the skill of the sonographer.
Other tools such as MRI are effective but expensive, time-consuming and not widely available.
Xia and colleagues have been studying photoacoustic imaging, which works by emitting laser pulses that cause light-absorbing molecules to heat up and expand. This in turn creates ultrasound waves that allow medical professionals to detect blood vessels that often grow more in cancerous tissues.
Typically, these systems require a sonographer to manually scan the breast, or they rely on separate devices for photoacoustic imaging and ultrasound imaging.
OneTouch-PAT combines both scans automatically - in other words, there is no potential for operator error - with the patient in the same standing position. The device performs a photoacoustic scan first, followed by an ultrasound scan, then repeats this pattern in an interleaved way until the entire breast is covered.
The system then processes the data using a deep learning network to improve image clarity. Depending on the computing power in this step, this may take only a few minutes. Ultimately, the research team found that OneTouch-PAT provides a more in-depth and clearer view of breast tumors compared to photoacoustic and ultrasound imaging systems that are operator-dependent.
For example, its 3D images showed unique vascular patterns by cancer subtype. That includes richer and more prominent tumor-associated blood vessels in Luminal A and Luminal B cancers, and high-intensity spots that correspond to the chaotic and abnormal blood supply often seen in Triple-Negative Breast Cancers.
OneTouch-PAT could be especially helpful for women with dense breast tissue, who are often more difficult to diagnose and at higher risk. This is because the system's ultrasound component excels at detecting suspicious lesions and the photoacoustic imaging captures blood vessel growth around those lesions to provide additional information about potential malignancy and tumor type. Both techniques are less affected by tissue density.
While the results are promising, Xia says, more studies are needed across a broader population to continue to validate OneTouch-PAT. The team is planning additional studies to include benign lesions and improve data extraction methods. The researchers also aim to add more sensors and more robust imaging tools for improved accuracy and speed.
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Original text here: https://www.buffalo.edu/news/releases/2025/07/pain-free-breast-imaging-system.html
Swimming in the Deep: MSU Research Reveals Sea Lamprey Travel Patterns in Great Lakes Waterways
EAST LANSING, Michigan, July 11 (TNSjou) -- Michigan State University issued the following news:
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Swimming in the deep: MSU research reveals sea lamprey travel patterns in Great Lakes waterways
Why this matters:
* Invasive sea lampreys prey on most species of large Great Lakes fish such as lake trout, brown trout, lake sturgeon, lake whitefish, ciscoes, burbot, walleye and catfish. These species are crucial to Great Lakes ecosystems and to the region's fishing industry.
* Understanding how sea lampreys migrate can inform management and conservation strategies, such as developing methods
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EAST LANSING, Michigan, July 11 (TNSjou) -- Michigan State University issued the following news:
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Swimming in the deep: MSU research reveals sea lamprey travel patterns in Great Lakes waterways
Why this matters:
* Invasive sea lampreys prey on most species of large Great Lakes fish such as lake trout, brown trout, lake sturgeon, lake whitefish, ciscoes, burbot, walleye and catfish. These species are crucial to Great Lakes ecosystems and to the region's fishing industry.
* Understanding how sea lampreys migrate can inform management and conservation strategies, such as developing methodsto catch the invasive fish that don't involve dams, which reduce river connectivity, or lampricide, a pesticide that some communities and groups prefer not to use.
* The Great Lakes fishing industry is worth $7 billion and provides 75,000 jobs to the region. Reducing the amount of sea lamprey in waters is crucial for the industry's well-being and the economic vitality of the Great Lakes.
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How do you catch an invasive fish that's solitary, nocturnal and doesn't feed on bait?
Researchers in the Michigan State University College of Agriculture and Natural Resources are one step closer to figuring it out.
In a study published in the Journal of Experimental Biology and funded by the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, Kandace Griffin, a fisheries and wildlife doctoral student, and Michael Wagner, professor in the MSU Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, found that sea lampreys -- a parasitic fish considered an invasive species in the Great Lakes region of the U.S. -- follow a clear pattern of staying in the deepest parts of a river.
These findings are important for informing sea lamprey management strategies, conservation of fish species native to the Great Lakes and protecting the region's $7 billion fishing industry and the 75,000 jobs it provides.
"We wanted to know how sea lampreys are making their movement decisions when migrating," Griffin said. "Are they guided by certain environmental cues? Are they moving through areas that are safer? How can we potentially exploit those decisions or maybe manipulate them into going somewhere that they don't want to go, like pushing them into a trap."
The primary methods used to control sea lamprey are dams that block them from entering waterways and lampricide, a species-specific pesticide that targets lamprey larvae.
"Dams create a lot of challenges for conserving river ecosystems: They block all the other fish that are moving up and down in the system. Even though lampricide is proven to be safe and effective, there are communities that are uncomfortable with its use going into the future," Wagner said. "Figuring out the right way to fish sea lamprey would decrease its population, lower reproduction rates and provide managers with the opportunity to match their control tactics to the community's needs."
To track lamprey movements, Griffin and Wagner used a method called acoustic telemetry, which involved using sound emitted from a surgically implanted tag to track the movement of 56 sea lampreys in the White River near Whitehall, Michigan.
Griffin likened acoustic telemetry to GPS.
"There's a tag that emits sound and has a unique transmission with a unique identification code, so I know exactly which fish is going where," she said. "The receivers are listening for that sound and then calculating the time it reaches each receiver. We used this information to triangulate the position of the sea lamprey and analyzed it to find out how they're using the river's environmental traits to make decisions on where to swim."
Of the 56 lampreys studied, 26 of them (46%), consistently chose the deepest quarter of the river.
"For nearly 20 years we have been discovering how sea lampreys migrate along coasts and through rivers. Now, thanks to Kandace's work, we know where their movement paths come together near a riverbank -- the perfect place to install a trap or other fishing device," Wagner said. "That knowledge can be used to find similar sites across the Great Lakes basin."
Right now, a fishing device designed to catch bottom-swimming, solitary, nonfeeding, nocturnal sea lamprey doesn't exist.
However, Wagner notes there are places around the world -- including Indigenous communities in the U.S. -- where people have fished migratory lampreys of various species for hundreds of years and could help inform the creation of such a mechanism.
"We have recently had a proposal funded to scour the Earth in search of knowledge, both scientific and traditional, about how to capture migrating lampreys and similar fishes," Wagner said. "We want to talk with the communities of people who have histories fishing these animals and use this information, along with other data we've gathered, to conceive a device that could be used to fish sea lampreys."
Griffin views the new intel on lamprey migration patterns as a way to inform fishing practices to complement some of the existing control methods.
"Hopefully, we can use this as a supplemental control method to the use of the barriers or dams," she said. "We have societal pressure to remove barriers to enhance river connectivity, and some barriers are failing. Open water trapping is another way that we could try to still combat the invasive sea lamprey problem here but also promote river connectivity and other conservation goals for other species."
Wagner shares the same perspective.
"When a community, or the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, or the governments of Canada and the U.S. come in and say, 'We'd really rather be able to control this river with something other than lampricide,' we want to be able to be able to provide 360-degree solutions that specify where to fish, when to fish and how to fish using fully prototyped and tested equipment," he said. "We want our science to help solve real-world problems."
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Original text here: https://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2025/swimming-in-the-deep-msu-research-reveals-sea-lamprey-travel-patterns-in-great-lakes-waterways
Idaho State University, College of Eastern Idaho Collaborate to Grow Programs in Response to Statewide Shortage
POCATELLO, Idaho, July 11 -- Idaho State University issued the following news:
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Idaho State University, College of Eastern Idaho Collaborate to Grow Programs in Response to Statewide Shortage
Idaho State University and College of Eastern Idaho have announced a strengthened partnership intended to provide increased educational experiences and access for students in Idaho Falls and eastern Idaho.
This enhanced collaboration reaffirms a shared commitment to advancing academic opportunities, enhancing student success, and creating seamless pathways for transfer mobility for students.
The
... Show Full Article
POCATELLO, Idaho, July 11 -- Idaho State University issued the following news:
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Idaho State University, College of Eastern Idaho Collaborate to Grow Programs in Response to Statewide Shortage
Idaho State University and College of Eastern Idaho have announced a strengthened partnership intended to provide increased educational experiences and access for students in Idaho Falls and eastern Idaho.
This enhanced collaboration reaffirms a shared commitment to advancing academic opportunities, enhancing student success, and creating seamless pathways for transfer mobility for students.
Theagreement commits both schools to working toward improved and expanded articulation pathways in high demand fields including education, engineering, business, health sciences, nursing, and associate's degree to bachelor's degree programs, with room for future growth as well.
These pathways will be supported by the development of course transfer equivalencies, ensuring that transferred courses meet equivalent content, quality, and rigor. The institutions will also work on reverse transfer opportunities to maximize credit completion for students.The partnership between ISU and CEI will also enable students to receive enhanced advising and career mentoring as they make their course selections. ISU Idaho Falls and CEI advising departments will work together to ensure seamless transfer processes and ISU advisors will be consistently stationed on the CEI campus, making support more accessible than ever for students planning their future.
The partnership also prioritizes the expansion of nursing education, recognizing the critical need to address workforce demands in healthcare. ISU commits to increasing BSN (Bachelor of Science in Nursing) completion opportunities by dedicating additional faculty to the Eastern Idaho region, providing enhanced and improving facilities to support nursing education and other fields in health professions.
"This collaboration is driven by our shared vision of empowering citizens in eastern Idaho with greater access to higher education, fostering innovation, and supporting the development of a highly skilled workforce," said ISU President Robert Wagner. "Clear articulation pathways and seamless transfer opportunities support student mobility and access while increasing opportunities to meet the workforce needs of our communities."
CEI President Lori Barber is heartened by this partnership.
"When we collaborate, everyone wins, especially the students," Barber said. "At CEI, we believe every student, no matter where they live, deserves a clear path to a meaningful career. This collaboration with Idaho State University opens doors for our students, especially in critical fields like nursing, and ensures they can pursue their dreams close to home and at an affordable cost. It's about meeting students where they are and helping them go further than they imagined."
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Original text here: https://www.isu.edu/news/2025-spring/-idaho-state-university-college-of-eastern-idaho-collaborate-to-grow-programs-in-response-to-statewide-shortage.html
Hidden in Plain Sight, a UVA Research Gem on the Eastern Shore
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Virginia, July 11 -- The University of Virginia issued the following research news:
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Hidden in plain sight, a UVA research gem on the Eastern Shore
By Zeina Mohammed
Growing up on Virginia's Eastern Shore with an interest in coastal science, Cora Ann Baird was unaware she was living so close to a leading research center focused on her home's coastline.
Decades later, she helps run it.
The University of Virginia's Coastal Research Center in Oyster hosts the Virginia Coast Reserve Long-Term Ecological Research project that began in the mid-1980s, about the time Baird was
... Show Full Article
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Virginia, July 11 -- The University of Virginia issued the following research news:
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Hidden in plain sight, a UVA research gem on the Eastern Shore
By Zeina Mohammed
Growing up on Virginia's Eastern Shore with an interest in coastal science, Cora Ann Baird was unaware she was living so close to a leading research center focused on her home's coastline.
Decades later, she helps run it.
The University of Virginia's Coastal Research Center in Oyster hosts the Virginia Coast Reserve Long-Term Ecological Research project that began in the mid-1980s, about the time Baird wasborn. She is now the research center's site director.
Environmental sciences professors Karen McGlathery and Max Castorani lead the VCR LTER program, which investigates the ecological impacts of the world's largest seagrass restoration effort, which has brought back vast undersea meadows that disappeared nearly a century ago. The team works to understand how the re-emergence of seagrass, which has been successfully restored across almost 14 square miles, shapes the coastal bay ecosystems and the organisms that live there, including many fish and shellfish species.
"Seagrass was very abundant in the coastal bays between the barrier islands and the mainland for decades, probably for centuries, until the 1930s, when the seagrass became locally extinct because of disease," Baird said. "So, there's an entire generation or two that doesn't remember seagrass being out here."
In the late 1990s, a few observant watermen noticed a bit of seagrass and alerted the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, where researchers were already working on restoring seagrass in the Chesapeake Bay - kickstarting a collaborative effort among UVA, VIMS and The Nature Conservancy to accelerate its recovery.
For nearly 40 years, the National Science Foundation has funded the VCR LTER project to study the ecology of Virginia's coastal bays - among 26 projects comprising the Long-Term Ecological Research program. Decades of research have allowed scientists to establish baseline data, so they can determine when changes are happening in the ecosystem and predict future trends, according to Baird.
"Out here, there's so much less human influence, so when we start to see patterns, it's much easier to attribute them to regional and global phenomena," Baird said. "Without as much local input, it's easier to see the big picture."
Since 2012, the research team has tracked how seagrass restoration affects fish in the region. They catch, measure and release fish that live in the seagrass to assess the effects of restoration and environmental change. Each June, the team samples the meadows, pulling large nets across the water and counting the fish they find.
In addition to generating new discoveries, the research creates training opportunities for students at UVA and beyond. This year, UVA environmental sciences doctoral candidate Luke Groff is helping out.
Groff has spent the past four summers at UVA, living and working on the Eastern Shore and studying another potential benefit of the restored meadow - how seagrass and algae capture sedimentary blue carbon in the seafloor.
Castorani, who leads the fish project, explains that seagrass meadows serve as important nurseries for young fish, offering shelter until they grow large enough to avoid predators. The team regularly finds dozens of species in the meadow, including anchovies, perch, croaker, pipefish, sea bass and the occasional seahorse.
"Restoration doesn't just bring back the seagrass - it brings back the fish, too," Castorani said. "A decade of data shows we catch six times more fish where seagrass has been restored."
Christopher Oxley, another doctoral student in environmental sciences, is helping collect fish this summer for the first time. He is also assisting Castorani on a separate project studying oyster reefs The Nature Conservancy has restored. Before coming to UVA, Oxley worked with oysters and other invertebrates as an undergraduate at Texas A&M University at Galveston.
"It's been a great way to spend time with other students in the department and meet people outside of UVA," he said. "My current research also focuses on oyster reefs, so having the chance to work in the seagrass meadows has been interesting."
McGlathery, who has led the VCR LTER project for two decades and directs UVA's Environmental Institute, emphasized the value of long-term science in understanding and addressing coastal change.
"Sustained research helps us see what's changing, why it matters, and how we can respond," she said. "These insights are key to supporting resilient communities that depend on healthy coastal environments."
Like many people, Baird said she was eager to leave home as a teenager and spent years researching on the West Coast and in Costa Rica before finding her way back home. She said she's grateful to be able to bring her expertise to her community.
"Growing up here was magical, which is almost certainly why I went into coastal science," she said. "The fact that I can pursue this career that I'm really excited about at home, because there is this world-class research center here, is really cool."
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Original text here: https://news.virginia.edu/content/hidden-plain-sight-uva-research-gem-eastern-shore
Georgia State Mathematicians Reveal Factors Driving Gun Sales in America
ATLANTA, Georgia, July 11 (TNSjou) -- Georgia State University issued the following news:
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Georgia State Mathematicians Reveal Factors Driving Gun Sales in America
By Amanda Head
As gun sales in the United States continue to soar, researchers at Georgia State University have uncovered insights into what drives Americans to buy firearms. A new study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) Nexus journal reveals the complex interaction among media coverage, social media activity and firearm purchases.
Led by Igor Belykh, a Distinguished University Professor of
... Show Full Article
ATLANTA, Georgia, July 11 (TNSjou) -- Georgia State University issued the following news:
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Georgia State Mathematicians Reveal Factors Driving Gun Sales in America
By Amanda Head
As gun sales in the United States continue to soar, researchers at Georgia State University have uncovered insights into what drives Americans to buy firearms. A new study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) Nexus journal reveals the complex interaction among media coverage, social media activity and firearm purchases.
Led by Igor Belykh, a Distinguished University Professor ofApplied Mathematics at Georgia State, the research team -- including Kevin Slote, a Ph.D. student in Georgia State's mathematics and statistics doctoral program; Kevin Daley, a recent graduate; and co-authors from New York University (NYU) and the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) -- analyzed daily data from 2012 to 2020. Their study explores how gun-rights organizations and regulation advocates influence short-term firearm purchases through social media activity and media coverage.
The study found that social media activity by both sides directly affects gun buying behavior, often triggering purchases within days of posts. Media coverage of violent crime also plays a role, as it spurs discussions among these organizations, further influencing public sentiment toward gun ownership.
While fear of mass shootings and new gun regulations are often cited as factors for impulsive gun purchases, the research indicates that social media lobbying by anti-regulation groups and targeted media coverage are more influential factors in driving firearm acquisitions. Personal safety concerns drive many gun buyers more than reactions to mass shootings or potential legislative changes.
The team used PCMCI+, a novel statistical technique, to capture real-time interactions among media, social media (specifically X, formerly known as Twitter) and FBI background checks. This method provided insights into how daily media coverage and social media posts shape decisions to purchase firearms in ways that previous, monthly data analyses had not revealed. Primarily, the team monitored results from X but plans to use other platforms in the future.
"We found this complex, interwoven web of media and social media variables and how it influences people's decision to buy guns," said Slote. "It's not as simple as people just reacting to news about mass shootings or gun laws."
Belykh added, "Our findings suggest that efforts to reduce gun purchases might be more effective if they focus on addressing fear of violent crime rather than mass shootings."
Looking ahead, the research team plans to use similar research methods and apply them to TikTok to explore a younger generation's views on mass shootings. "We're going to look at how a younger demographic's opinions about mass shootings affect these same variables," Slote said.
The study is part of WE-SAFE, a collaborative National Science Foundation-funded project involving NYU, the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Georgia State University and Northeastern University aimed at engineering a safer American "firearm ecosystem."
For policymakers and public health officials, this research provides valuable insights into the complex factors driving gun sales in the United States. By understanding these dynamics, more effective strategies for gun violence prevention may be developed without infringing on Second Amendment rights.
The full study, "How advocacy groups on Twitter and media coverage can drive US firearm acquisition: A causal study," is available in PNAS Nexus (https://academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/advance-article/doi/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgaf195/8160866?searchresult=1).
For more information about the WE-SAFE project, visit https://wp.nyu.edu/we_safe/.
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Original text here: https://news.gsu.edu/2025/07/10/georgia-state-mathematicians-reveal-factors-driving-gun-sales-in-america/
Georgia Institute of Technology: 'Biochar' Can Naturally Clean the Pollution That Rain Washes Off Georgia's Roads
ATLANTA, Georgia, July 11 (TNSjou) -- The Georgia Institute of Technology issued the following news:
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'Biochar' Can Naturally Clean the Pollution that Rain Washes Off Georgia's Roads
A new study shows how the material made from leaves and branches that collect on forest floors can be mixed with local soil to filter out road grime before it reaches waterways.
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A charcoal-like material made from leaves and branches that collect on forest floors could be a cheap, sustainable way to keep pollution from washing off roadways and into Georgia's lakes and rivers.
Engineers at Georgia Tech and
... Show Full Article
ATLANTA, Georgia, July 11 (TNSjou) -- The Georgia Institute of Technology issued the following news:
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'Biochar' Can Naturally Clean the Pollution that Rain Washes Off Georgia's Roads
A new study shows how the material made from leaves and branches that collect on forest floors can be mixed with local soil to filter out road grime before it reaches waterways.
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A charcoal-like material made from leaves and branches that collect on forest floors could be a cheap, sustainable way to keep pollution from washing off roadways and into Georgia's lakes and rivers.
Engineers at Georgia Tech andGeorgia Southern University have found that this biological charcoal, or biochar, can be mixed with soil and used along roadways to catch grimy rainwater and filter it naturally before it pollutes surface water.
Their tests found the biochar effectively cleans contaminants from the rainwater and works just as well in the sandy soils of the coastal plain as in the clays of north Georgia. Their biochar-soil mixture can be easily substituted for expensive material mined from the earth that's typically used on roads.
Though they focused on Georgia, the researchers said the findings could easily apply across the U.S., providing a simple, natural way to keep road pollutants out of water sources. They published their approach in the Journal of Environmental Management.
Learn about their system on the College of Engineering website (https://coe.gatech.edu/news/2025/07/biochar-can-naturally-clean-pollution-rain-washes-georgias-roads).
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Original text here: https://news.gatech.edu/news/2025/07/10/biochar-can-naturally-clean-pollution-rain-washes-georgias-roads
Candler Lectures to Address Responses to Christian Nationalism
ATLANTA, Georgia, July 11 -- Emory University's Candler School of Theology issued the following news:
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Candler Lectures to Address Responses to Christian Nationalism
Candler School of Theology will host four public lectures across two days this fall, offering conversations to help church leaders respond faithfully to the challenges and opportunities posed by the growing Christian nationalism movement in the U.S.
"Pastoral Leadership in a Time of Christian Nationalism" will be held at Candler September 24-25 and will feature lectures by four experts whose work explores the intersections
... Show Full Article
ATLANTA, Georgia, July 11 -- Emory University's Candler School of Theology issued the following news:
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Candler Lectures to Address Responses to Christian Nationalism
Candler School of Theology will host four public lectures across two days this fall, offering conversations to help church leaders respond faithfully to the challenges and opportunities posed by the growing Christian nationalism movement in the U.S.
"Pastoral Leadership in a Time of Christian Nationalism" will be held at Candler September 24-25 and will feature lectures by four experts whose work explores the intersectionsof religion, politics, and culture: Tim Alberta, award-winning journalist, best-selling author, and staff writer for The Atlantic magazine; Kristin Kobes Du Mez, historian and author of the New York Times bestseller Jesus and John Wayne; Katherine Stewart, investigative journalist and author of three books on the anti-democratic movement in the U.S.; and Matthew D. Taylor, senior scholar at the Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies in Baltimore.
The event will also include speaker Q&As, a panel discussion featuring Candler faculty, and a chapel service. The lectures are free and open to the public, with advance registration required. A livestream option will be available for those who register to attend virtually.
Learn more and register.
The idea for the lectures grew from the Early Career Pastoral Leadership Program at Candler, which helps alumni who are in their first decade of pastoral ministry live into their potential as public theologians. The program has sponsored four cohorts of pastors across eight years.
Assistant Dean of Methodist Studies Brett Opalinski 98T, who will lead the final cohort this fall, says the growing trend of Christian nationalism has been at the forefront of conversations throughout the life of the program.
"Pastors are leading in contexts where the priorities of faith are being merged into the wider priorities of political power, becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish," he says. "When religion and state, faith and politics, are intersecting in so many ways, pastoral ministry is both a challenge and opportunity."
The two-day event was conceived to bring leading voices on Christian nationalism into the conversation, not only to explain the movement but to explore what pastors can do to expand dialogue and strengthen common ground in their churches and communities.
"This pivotal moment gives pastors an opportunity to re-articulate and live into the priorities and values of Jesus, as well as minister effectively and faithfully in communities impacted by political polarization," says Opalinski. "We felt it was important to open the conversation to those beyond the bounds of our cohorts."
About the speakers
Tim Alberta served as chief political correspondent for Politico before joining The Atlantic as a staff writer in 2021. He is the author of two New York Times bestsellers: The Kingdom, The Power, and The Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism (HarperCollins, 2023) and American Carnage: On the Front Lines of the Republican Civil War and the Rise of President Trump (Harper Collins, 2019). In 2024, he won a National Magazine Award for his profile of Chris Licht, the chairman of CNN Worldwide, and his work has been featured in dozens of publications, including Sports Illustrated and Vanity Fair. The son of an evangelical pastor, Alberta appears regularly as a commentator on American television programs and speaks on politics, culture, and religion at forums around the world.
Kristin Kobes Du Mez is a New York Times bestselling author, professor of history at Calvin University, and a research fellow at the University of Notre Dame's Center for Philosophy of Religion. She holds a PhD from the University of Notre Dame and her research focuses on the intersection of gender, religion, and politics. She has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Religion News Service, and Christianity Today, and has been interviewed on NPR, CBS, and the BBC, among other outlets. Her most recent book is Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation (Liveright, 2020).
Katherine Stewart is an investigative journalist who has covered the rise of the anti-democratic movement for over 16 years. She has authored three books, including the recent New York Times bestseller Money, Lies, and God: Inside the Movement to Destroy American Democracy (Bloomsbury, 2025) and The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism (Bloomsbury, 2020), which won first place in the nonfiction books category from the Religion News Association and formed the basis of the 2024 documentary feature God & Country, produced by Rob Reiner. Stewart's writing appears in The New York Times, New Republic, Religion News Service and others.
Matthew D. Taylor is the senior Christian scholar at the Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies in Baltimore, where he specializes in American Christianity, American Islam, Christian extremism, and religious politics. He is the author of The Violent Take It by Force: The Christian Movement that is Threatening Our Democracy (Broadleaf, 2024), and Scripture People: Salafi Muslims in Evangelical Christians' America (Cambridge, 2023). Taylor holds a PhD in religious studies and Muslim-Christian relations from Georgetown University and an MA in theology from Fuller Theological Seminary. He also serves as an associate fellow at the Center for Peace Diplomacy in New Orleans, where he works on preventing religion-related violence surrounding U.S. elections.
Event schedule
Wednesday, September 24
11:00 a.m.: Public Lecture: Kristin Kobes Du Mez, "Jesus and John Wayne and the Evangelical Reckoning"
Followed by a Q&A with Du Mez and Jonathan Strom, Mary Lee Hardin Willard Dean of Candler
4:00 p.m.: Public Lecture: Tim Alberta, "A Ringside Seat to Messianic Revolution"
Followed by a panel discussion with Alberta and James T. and Berta R. Laney Professor in Moral Leadership Robert M. Franklin, Jr., Associate Professor of American Religious History Alison Greene, Associate Professor of Latinx Communities Jonathan Calvillo, and Professor of Christian Ethics and Conflict Transformation Ellen Ott Marshall
Thursday, September 25
11:05 a.m.: Chapel service with Matthew D. Taylor, "'Render unto Caesar': Preaching the Gospel in an Era of Christian Power"
Followed by a talkback with Taylor
4:00 p.m.: Public Lecture: Katherine Stewart, "Inside the Movement to Destroy American Democracy"
Followed by a Q&A with Stewart
Register for "Pastoral Leadership in a Time of Christian Nationalism."
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Original text here: https://candler.emory.edu/candler-lectures-to-address-responses-to-christian-nationalism/
