Education (Colleges & Universities)
Here's a look at documents from public, private and community colleges in the U.S.
Featured Stories
What Makes Concussions So Dangerous? UNLV Expert Weighs In
LAS VEGAS, Nevada, March 19 -- The University of Nevada Las Vegas campus issued the following news:
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What Makes Concussions So Dangerous? UNLV Expert Weighs In
Physical Therapy professor Dustin Clow shares insight on the impact of concussions and how to best treat them.
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Taking a punishing hit on the football field or soccer pitch; having your head jostle around during a car accident; experiencing a fall from a ladder.
An estimated 3.8 million concussions occur each year throughout the U.S. as a result of sports and non-sports activities. While their severity can fluctuate based
... Show Full Article
LAS VEGAS, Nevada, March 19 -- The University of Nevada Las Vegas campus issued the following news:
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What Makes Concussions So Dangerous? UNLV Expert Weighs In
Physical Therapy professor Dustin Clow shares insight on the impact of concussions and how to best treat them.
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Taking a punishing hit on the football field or soccer pitch; having your head jostle around during a car accident; experiencing a fall from a ladder.
An estimated 3.8 million concussions occur each year throughout the U.S. as a result of sports and non-sports activities. While their severity can fluctuate basedon a number of factors, more than half go unreported. And their elusiveness to medical imaging makes proper diagnosis and recovery all the more important.
"You can see a broken leg or a broken arm on an image, but the brain doesn't look any different from a concussion," said Dustin Clow, a physical therapy professor within UNLV's School of Integrated Health Sciences. "Because there is no single test to confirm a concussion, it becomes a clinical diagnosis based on how the patient is feeling and signs the healthcare provider can see."
Clow has been a physical therapist for nearly 15 years and has been a board-certified sports specialist since 2020. He says that if, following a hit to the head, you're experiencing common concussion symptoms like dizziness and headaches, it's best to see a medical professional.
The Danger of Concussions
When a person suffers a concussion, they experience a mild form of brain injury, resulting in a transient loss of function to certain parts of the brain. Clow says that, from a physiological perspective, concussions place individuals at-risk of having a more serious injury as a result.
"Concussions affect your balance, vision, tolerance for activity, focus, and your ability to react. And all of these things increase the risk of other, unrelated injuries," he said. "If your brain isn't able to process the way it used to before the concussion, you may not be able to do what you need to do to function on a daily basis."
Each concussion is different and can impact the brain in multiple ways, depending on which part of the brain is injured. A provider will typically conduct a few different tests to determine if a person is concussed, including balance evaluations, reaction-time tests, and computerized neurocognitive exams.
"What makes it scary is that repeated concussions can cause permanent changes in the brain," he said. "We have correlational research that shows multiple concussions are related to chronic traumatic encephalopathy."
Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, or CTE, is a neurodegenerative disorder that can develop after multiple impacts or blows to the head, leading to the destruction of brain cells which can alter behavior and mental abilities over time.
While concussions can inhibit our ability to physically perform at our maximum level, Clow said the potential long-term impact of concussions can include reduction in cognitive and motor function. This can be especially apparent for athletes suffering from repeated head injuries.
"If I see a ball flying at my face, do I process the fact that the ball is flying at my face quickly enough to do something about it?" he said. "If I can't process things the way I used to, and I'm not recovering completely, I could get more injuries that hinder my ability to do what I've always done."
Non-Sports Concussions
While millions of sports-related concussions are reported each year, older populations endure some of the highest rates of concussions from the impact of falls.
People aged 75 and older had the highest numbers and rates of traumatic brain injury-related hospitalizations and deaths, accounting for nearly a third of related hospitalizations and a quarter of all related deaths.
As Clow points out, head injuries can often go overlooked among this population as more noticeable physical injuries often coincide with accidents and falls.
"An older person can suffer a fall and break their arm or hip and suffer a concussion, but we mostly focus on the broken bones instead of the possible brain injury if it doesn't show up on a scan," he said.
Treating a Concussion
For those diagnosed with a concussion, Clow says it is critical to take it easy for the first 48 hours, including getting plenty of sleep.
"Day three is when you want to start reintegrating activity, but monitor your symptoms to make sure you're not overdoing it," he said. "The old school way was to lock that person in a dark room until they felt better. That's no longer the case as we can't shut ourselves down or ignore the concussion, but we have to be in touch with our symptoms."
Most concussions will be healed in about three-to-four weeks, Clow says, with as many as half recovering in approximately 10 days. Those with a history of migraines should allow more time to recover.
Clow adds that those who have suffered multiple concussions may have more complex symptoms and can also take longer to recover. The biggest change with multiple concussions likely involves imaging.
"Most concussions do not require imaging but concussions that have been going on for a long time, or someone with multiple concussions is more appropriate for imaging from their physician to check for any structural changes to the brain," he said. "You can have mild impact but really bad symptoms, and the opposite is also true. Over the past 20 years, we've seen a much more active rehab process but during those first two days it is critical to take it nice and easy."
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Original text here: https://www.unlv.edu/news/article/what-makes-concussions-so-dangerous-unlv-expert-weighs
University of Pennsylvania: When Bone Behaves Like a Sponge
PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania, March 19 -- The University of Pennsylvania issued the following news on March 18, 2026:
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When bone behaves like a sponge
Penn Engineers in the Tertuliano Lab have developed a nanoengineered 3D-printed scaffold for observing how cells feel force.
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Bone may look solid, but at the scale of the cells that live inside it, it behaves more like a sponge.
Every step, jump, or stretch compresses bone's porous structure, pushing fluid through microscopic channels and bathing embedded cells in a complex mix of mechanical strain and flowing liquid. For decades, mechanobiologists
... Show Full Article
PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania, March 19 -- The University of Pennsylvania issued the following news on March 18, 2026:
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When bone behaves like a sponge
Penn Engineers in the Tertuliano Lab have developed a nanoengineered 3D-printed scaffold for observing how cells feel force.
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Bone may look solid, but at the scale of the cells that live inside it, it behaves more like a sponge.
Every step, jump, or stretch compresses bone's porous structure, pushing fluid through microscopic channels and bathing embedded cells in a complex mix of mechanical strain and flowing liquid. For decades, mechanobiologistshave known this environment exists, but they haven't had a way to recreate it in the lab.
Now, Ottman Tertuliano, AMA Family Assistant Professor in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, and his lab at Penn's School of Engineering and Applied Science, have built a platform that does exactly that. In a study (https://www.cell.com/biophysj/abstract/S0006-3495(25)03446-0) published in Biophysical Journal and led by postdoctoral fellow Kailin Chen and graduate students Alexander Bolanos Campos and Mistica Lozano Perez, the team has introduced a nanoengineered, 3D-printed scaffold that allows scientists to simultaneously control and observe solid deformation and fluid flow around living cells.
Using nanoscale 3D printing, the Tertuliano Lab fabricated porous, architected scaffolds with features comparable in size to the bone cells themselves. These structures aren't just placeholders, they are carefully designed environments that mimic the physical geometry and mechanical behavior of bone.
Cells seeded into these scaffolds don't float or spread randomly. Instead, they template themselves onto the architecture, wrapping around struts, aligning their cytoskeletons and forming focal adhesions that mirror the underlying structure. Even without mechanical loading, this behavior was striking.
"Within a couple of days these cells organized their internal skeleton in 3D to mimic that of the architectured scaffolds, a single biological cell mimicking a structural unit cell," says Tertuliano. To quantify what was happening, the researchers combined experiments with simulations of fluid-structure interactions. They also collaborated with Arnold Mathijssen, assistant professor in biophysics at the School of Arts & Sciences, to directly measure fluid flow at microscopic scales, validating that the engineered system behaved as predicted.
"By putting tiny particles in the 3D-printed microstructures, you can measure the streamlines and flow speeds inside," says Mathijssen. "Our lab works on fluid dynamics of biological systems, so this collaboration was a perfect fit to leverage our skills."
What they observed surprised them. Under cyclic loading, the previously ordered cellular architecture fell apart. Actin fibers became disorganized. Focal adhesions lost their elongated shape. Cells no longer aligned cleanly with the scaffold geometry.
Read more at Penn Engineering (https://www.seas.upenn.edu/stories/when-bone-behaves-like-a-sponge-a-new-platform-for-observing-how-cells-feel-force/).
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Original text here: https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/penn-engineering-when-bone-behaves-sponge
Scientists Discover Bee Species That Depends on Texas Shrub
PULLMAN, Washington, March 19 (TNSjou) -- Washington State University issued the following news release:
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Scientists discover bee species that depends on Texas shrub
By Seth Truscott, College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences
Entomologists have discovered a new species of mining bee that has an unusually tight relationship with cenizo, the official state shrub of Texas.
Silas Bossert, assistant professor in Washington State University's Department of Entomology, worked with colleagues in Texas and Kansas to identify and describe the new mining bee, Andrena cenizophila.
... Show Full Article
PULLMAN, Washington, March 19 (TNSjou) -- Washington State University issued the following news release:
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Scientists discover bee species that depends on Texas shrub
By Seth Truscott, College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences
Entomologists have discovered a new species of mining bee that has an unusually tight relationship with cenizo, the official state shrub of Texas.
Silas Bossert, assistant professor in Washington State University's Department of Entomology, worked with colleagues in Texas and Kansas to identify and describe the new mining bee, Andrena cenizophila.Published in the Journal of Melittology (https://doi.org/10.17161/jom.vi141.24606), their findings offer new insights into the diverse group of native pollinators.
The new bee species' name, "cenizophila," means lover of cenizo, the native Texas purple sage, also known as Texas Ranger. Field observations and analysis of pollen found on specimens revealed that Texas Ranger is likely the bee's sole pollen source.
"To our knowledge, this bee is the only mining bee in the world that is specifically focused on this one particular kind of shrub," said Bossert, lead author of the study. "The only pollen that we found on this bee is from flowers of purple sage."
Found in southwestern Texas and the central state of Coahuila in Mexico, this solitary, ground-dwelling bee is less than an inch long. Melittologist Jack Neff of the Central Texas Melittological Institute first collected the bee decades ago, but he and other experts had not classified and named it until now.
"Jack realized he couldn't identify it as anything known," Bossert said. "It didn't match any of the existing subgroups. Without genetic information, we weren't sure where it fit."
To find its place in the mining bee family tree, researchers performed detective work on the bee's DNA, body parts, and use of floral resources. Bossert broke off three legs from a female specimen to extract DNA and sequence its genome.
Features including antennae, body shape, and the male reproductive organ, combined with genetic information, placed the specimen as most closely related to a central Mexican mining bee.
In its native habitat, Texas purple sage bursts into a mass bloom that lasts about a week following rains. These blooms can happen multiple times throughout the year, but the peak is in late spring.
"Andrena cenizophila needs to get all the food for its brood during the main bloom," Bossert said. "That tight window is very unusual for a bee. What does it do during the rest of the year?"
A bee systematist, Bossert studies how bee species are related. Getting those relationships right is vital for properly naming, cataloging, and understanding species.
"The names we give to organisms should reflect their evolutionary history," Bossert said.
Taxonomic housekeeping, as he calls it, helps bring order to our understanding of the natural world.
At 1,800 species and growing, the mining bees are one of the largest genera of animals on Earth.
WSU's M.T. James Entomological Collection, a museum of more than 3 million arthropods, will now house two of the new mining bee's paratypes -- representative specimens used and mentioned in the original description of the species.
"These are among the most valuable specimens, the originals used to describe the species," Bossert said.
Should other researchers collect a similar insect, they will be able to compare it with these paratypes to help with identification. Other specimens will be deposited in the entomology collection of the Smithsonian Institution.
"Congratulations to Dr. Bossert and his partners for their discovery," commented Raj Khosla, Cashup Davis Family Endowed Dean of WSU's College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences. "I am excited to see this newly described species join the James Collection at WSU, where entomologists are combining new technology with traditional techniques to help us better know the world we share with insects."
With as many as 200 new bee species described annually, Andrena cenizophila is not alone in its novelty. And mysteries remain. Researchers have yet to find a cenizophilanest. Learning how the bee develops and feeds its young could reveal more about the life cycle of this unique pollinator.
"There's still a lot to be discovered," Bossert said.
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Original text here: https://news.wsu.edu/press-release/2026/03/18/scientists-discover-bee-species-that-depends-on-texas-shrub/
S.D. State University: Revisiting the LA Fires
BROOKINGS, South Dakota, March 19 -- South Dakota State University issued the following news:
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Revisiting the LA fires
By Addison DeHaven
Researchers in South Dakota State University's Geospatial Sciences Center of Excellence utilized satellite data to better understand how destructive wildfires swept through Los Angeles in January 2025.
A severe drought, powerful Santa Ana winds and a not-fully-extinguished brushfire combined to create the most destructive wildfire in the history of Los Angeles in early 2025. The Palisades Fire, which fully ignited on Jan. 7, destroyed Los Angeles'
... Show Full Article
BROOKINGS, South Dakota, March 19 -- South Dakota State University issued the following news:
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Revisiting the LA fires
By Addison DeHaven
Researchers in South Dakota State University's Geospatial Sciences Center of Excellence utilized satellite data to better understand how destructive wildfires swept through Los Angeles in January 2025.
A severe drought, powerful Santa Ana winds and a not-fully-extinguished brushfire combined to create the most destructive wildfire in the history of Los Angeles in early 2025. The Palisades Fire, which fully ignited on Jan. 7, destroyed Los Angeles'Pacific Palisades neighborhood, killing 12 people and burning 6,800 homes and buildings.
A second wildfire, the Eaton Fire, burned simultaneously in the Los Angeles area and was equally destructive. This fire, which also began on Jan. 7, killed 19 people and destroyed 9,000 buildings in the Altadena community.
Combined, the 2025 LA wildfires are considered the second deadliest and destructive in state history, trailing only the 2018 Camp Fire in Northern California.
The deadly, destructive and extreme nature of these wildfires have prompted researchers to reexamine what happened. What characteristics made this fire so deadly? How did it spread so quickly? What can we learn from this disaster to improve evacuations and prevent future deaths?
A joint project from South Dakota State University's Geospatial Sciences Center of Excellence, the University of Maryland's Center for Environmental Science, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Satellite Applications and Research has leveraged fire and emission observations from multiple satellites to address these key questions.
"Using satellite images, we investigated how fast the fires spread, how intensely they burned, and how much smoke pollutants they released," said Fangjun Li, assistant research professor at SDSU and a lead author on the study.
The fires were so destructive and dangerous because of how quickly they spread after ignition. According to the team's findings, both the Palisades and Eaton fires burned nearly 80% of their total area within the first 24 hours. The Santa Ana winds, which reached speeds of 90 miles an hour, made the fires extremely difficult to contain.
"These wildfires, driven by hurricane-like winds, spread at a pace that far outstrips traditional planning timelines, leaving limited time for safe evacuation and firefighting response," said Xiaoyang Zhang, SDSU Distinguished Professor and co-director of the Geospatial Sciences Center of Excellence.
The Palisades Fire was first reported at 10:30 a.m. on Jan. 7. By 3 p.m., the fire had grown rapidly to cover over 1,200 aces. Spreading at a maximum rate of 2.3 miles per hour, the fire destroyed nearly the entire Pacific Palisades neighborhood in just five hours. The rate at which the fire spread created an extremely hectic evacuation situation. Many roads became gridlocked, and people had to abandon their cars to escape the flames.
"Fast-moving flames and heavy smoke under extreme wind conditions can also seriously impair visibility, hinder traffic and limit firefighting efforts on the ground and from the air," Zhang said.
The intensity in which the fires burned were also of interest to the researchers. Interestingly, the Palisades Fire burned more intensely at night and were stronger than natural vegetation fires. During the day, the situation reversed, the researchers found. The daytime residential fire was less intense than daytime forest fires. The hillside neighborhoods, temperatures and the amount of "live fuel" available -- like landscaping and wood fences -- all played a role in the spread and intensity of the fires.
"Fire intensities in residential areas were markedly high," Li noted.
By fusing data from different satellites, the researchers were able to reconstruct the wildfires and gain valuable insights into their spread and intensity. The remote sensing tools the researchers utilized may help in improving future evacuation planning and firefighting operations.
"For destructive wildfires in or near the residential areas, timely information on fire extent, spread rate and direction, intensity and smoke emissions at intervals of a few minutes to one hour is critical for safe evacuation, firefighting operations, utility management and downwind air quality advisories," Li said.
Improving evacuations will be critical for states like California as wildfires have become more destructive and severe in the last few decades. Between 1972 and 2018, the number of acres burned each year has increased by a factor of four while the average area of forests burned each summer has grown by nearly eightfold. Property destruction has reached nearly $1 billion annually as a result, and that number is expected to increase in the future.
The results of this work underline the need for early and coordinated evacuation planning, especially in residential areas prone to wildfires.
The study, titled "Fire Spread, Intensity and Emissions Observations by Multiple Satellites: The Southern California Wildfires of January 2025," was published in the journal AGU Advances in February 2026. Contributing authors include Maryland's Mark Cochrane and Shobha Kondragunta as well as SDSU's Shuai An.
Funding for this research was provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
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Original text here: https://www.sdstate.edu/news/2026/03/revisiting-la-fires
Making an 'Acoustic Tractor Beam': Showing How Sound Can Remotely Reprogram Material Stiffness
ANN ARBOR, Michigan, March 19 (TNSjou) -- The University of Michigan issued the following news:
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Making an 'acoustic tractor beam': Showing how sound can remotely reprogram material stiffness
An international research team including members from the University of Michigan, the University of California San Diego and Le Mans University has demonstrated that sound can remotely control how a material behaves.
The team showed for the first time that specific frequencies of acoustic waves can reliably move localized features in a material known as mechanical kinks. These kinks determine whether
... Show Full Article
ANN ARBOR, Michigan, March 19 (TNSjou) -- The University of Michigan issued the following news:
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Making an 'acoustic tractor beam': Showing how sound can remotely reprogram material stiffness
An international research team including members from the University of Michigan, the University of California San Diego and Le Mans University has demonstrated that sound can remotely control how a material behaves.
The team showed for the first time that specific frequencies of acoustic waves can reliably move localized features in a material known as mechanical kinks. These kinks determine whetherdifferent regions of the material are soft or stiff.
Xiaoming Mao
"This opens the door to future technologies where you can remotely tune configurations and functionalities deep inside a material without cutting it open," said Xiaoming Mao, professor of physics and leader of the U-M cohort working on the study.
The research, which was published in the journal Nature Communications, was supported by federal funding from the U.S. Army Research Office and the U.S. Office of Naval Research. The Laboratory of Acoustics at Le Mans University also operates under the supervision of the French National Center for Scientific Research, or CNRS.
Kinks act as boundaries between two distinct internal states of a material. Mechanical kinks, in particular, mark where a material deforms. They appear, for example, where metals permanently bend or where DNA strands separate.
Materials scientists have long been interested in controlling kinks because moving one can reshape how a material behaves, but doing so has proven difficult. In most materials, kinks encounter energy barriers that pin them in place.
Nicholas Boechler
Although previous studies have shown it is possible to move kinks using sound waves, the resulting motion was typically chaotic and difficult to predict, said co-author Nicholas Boechler, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at UC San Diego. In the new study (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-68688-7), the team used theoretical, computer and physical models to show that sound can control kinks in a controllable manner.
"You can send a small pulse, and the kink moves a little. Send another pulse, and it moves a little more. It's basically a remote control for the material's internal state," Boechler said. "We've essentially made an acoustic tractor beam that moves a kink and changes the way a material feels--while creating gradients of stiffness--on demand."
Based on the team's theoretical and computational work, the researchers showed that a key feature is that moving the material's mechanical kink must not cost energy. It's a rare feature, but one that's achievable in what are known as metamaterials, which are engineered materials whose behaviors are dictated more by their structure than their composition. In this modeled material without energy barriers, the researchers were able to use sound waves not just to move the kink, but do so predictably and step by step.
The team also built a life-sized experimental model to demonstrate. The physical model consisted of a chain of stacked, rotating disks connected by springs, where each disk represents an atom and the springs mimic atomic bonds. One disk, arranged differently from the rest, represents the kink.
When short pulses of acoustic waves were sent into the structure, the kink was pulled toward the sound source, moving a few disks at a time. Each additional short burst of vibration nudged the kink a little farther. When longer vibrations were applied, the kink was continuously pulled across the entire length of the chain, effectively flipping which side of the chain was soft and which was stiff.
"Right now, this is a toy model," Boechler said. "If something like this could be made into a real material, you could imagine structures that adapt on the fly--materials you can reprogram using sound."
The project's U-M contingent also included Kai Sun, professor of physics, along with Nan Cheng and Francesco Serafin, who served as a doctoral student researcher and a postdoctoral researcher, respectively. The U-M group contributed to the theory behind kink behavior in the model system and are continuing to explore that phenomenon in more disordered metamaterials.
Georgios Theocharis, a CNRS scientist, was the team lead at the Laboratory of Acoustics at Le Mans University.
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Original text here: https://news.umich.edu/making-an-acoustic-tractor-beam-showing-how-sound-can-remotely-reprogram-material-stiffness/
Indiana University Media School: Adesokan's New Novel 'South Side' Explores Identity, Displacement, and Search for Belonging
BLOOMINGTON, Indiana, March 19 -- Indiana University Media School issued the following news on March 18, 2026:
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Adesokan's new novel 'South Side' explores identity, displacement, and search for belonging
Lily Saylor
Akinwumi Adesokan, professor of comparative literature, cinema and media studies, and editor-in-chief of Black Camera, published his novel, "South Side," in May 2025.
As a writer and scholar, Adesokan's research explores how media, culture, and storytelling evolve across borders, especially within Black, diasporic, and postcolonial traditions. That same perspective carries
... Show Full Article
BLOOMINGTON, Indiana, March 19 -- Indiana University Media School issued the following news on March 18, 2026:
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Adesokan's new novel 'South Side' explores identity, displacement, and search for belonging
Lily Saylor
Akinwumi Adesokan, professor of comparative literature, cinema and media studies, and editor-in-chief of Black Camera, published his novel, "South Side," in May 2025.
As a writer and scholar, Adesokan's research explores how media, culture, and storytelling evolve across borders, especially within Black, diasporic, and postcolonial traditions. That same perspective carriesinto "South Side", a fictional work that reflects his deep engagement with global narratives, identity, and the ways stories travel and connect communities.
His latest novel follows a young writer, Abel Dankor, who was born in international waters in the 1930s and therefore does not belong to any one country -- he is stateless. Dankor travels across the globe, meeting and forming connections with individuals from countries around the world.
When Dankor is in the process of naturalizing as a citizen to a fictional West African country, Mande, he learns that his mentor, Sir Koroma Fouta, passed away. Following this devastating news, Dankor meets a woman, Valeria, and begins a romance with her.
Adesokan said there are several takeaways he hopes readers get from his novel.
"It's a story about somebody who is privileged in the sense that he can move around the world, but he's also not privileged because he doesn't have a country," Adesokan said about the main character, Dankor. "National identity, racial or gender identity, is never stable, and we should not take our position in the world for granted. There are many people in the world who are even less privileged than this author."
As well as lessons about privilege, Adesokan also emphasized the aspect of connectedness, despite people's differences or geographic location.
"He [Dankor] moved around the world, and everywhere he went, he was always finding people to help him," Adesokan said. "I want to put across how connected we are and how in very unexpected places, we find the kind of companionship that we never imagined, and it's important to live with kindness when you meet people and to treat people with kindness, and not take people for granted."
"South Side" has been in the works for Adesokan since 2006, when he originally wrote it as a short story and decided to develop that into a novel. After several years of writing and revising drafts, Adesokan had a fleshed-out story that provided more insight into his character's backstory.
By 2017, Adesokan had written "South Side" and spent the following years working on finding editors and publishers until the novel was published in 2025.
Adesokan has published other books, including his 2004 novel "Roots in the Sky" and "Everything is Sampled: Digital and Print Mediations in African Arts and Letters," which examines the shifting modes of production and circulation of African artistic forms since the 1980s.
"South Side" is the second novel that he has published. "Everything is Sampled," an academic monograph, does share some similarities to "South Side," however.
"They have something in common in the sense that some aspects of the writerly life depicted in the novel are also touched upon in passing in a chapter of 'Everything Is Sampled,'" Adesokan said.
Adesokan said a lesson he learned from writing "South Side" had to do with treating strangers with kindness.
"Love and kindness are some of the gifts we can give to others, especially strangers who are in need of home, a place to build or rebuild their lives," Adesokan said. "Also, that the more of such things we do, the better enhanced our personalities become."
PEN America featured Adesokan's novel in its annual compilation of member publications that highlights books published by its members. "South Side" was published by Parresia Publishers and is available for purchase in its online bookstore.
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Original text here: https://mediaschool.indiana.edu/news-events/news/item.html?n=adesokans-new-novel-south-side-explores-identity-displacement-and-search-for-belonging
CalState-Long Beach: From the LBSU Track to Olympic Ice, Bobsledder Azaria Hill Hits New Speed
LONG BEACH, California, March 19 -- California State University Long Beach campus issued the following news on March 18, 2026:
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From the LBSU track to Olympic ice, bobsledder Azaria Hill hits new speed
By Andrew Edwards
"Make 'em say your name."
The words echo inside the mind of Olympian Azaria Hill '20. Since the days of running her heart out on a Long Beach State track or those of speeding down an icy bobsled run, her former coach's motto reverberates within Hill's mental soundscape.
"My time at Long Beach, good times, bad times, whether I won or didn't win, those definitely helped
... Show Full Article
LONG BEACH, California, March 19 -- California State University Long Beach campus issued the following news on March 18, 2026:
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From the LBSU track to Olympic ice, bobsledder Azaria Hill hits new speed
By Andrew Edwards
"Make 'em say your name."
The words echo inside the mind of Olympian Azaria Hill '20. Since the days of running her heart out on a Long Beach State track or those of speeding down an icy bobsled run, her former coach's motto reverberates within Hill's mental soundscape.
"My time at Long Beach, good times, bad times, whether I won or didn't win, those definitely helpedshape me to be resilient and determined and have that grit," Hill said. "Now, finally having made an Olympic team and competing at the Olympics, there was just that motto that she had that still rang in my head: 'Make 'em say your name.'"
Hill, who recently returned to the United States from competition at the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, is a sprinter-turned-bobsledder. She and teammate Kaysha Love advanced to the final heat of the two-woman bobsled event, claiming fifth place.
Previously, Hill spent three seasons with Long Beach State's track and field team. She helped claim LBSU's first Big West conference title in women's track and field in 2018 and still holds a share of the school record in the 4x100 relay.
"Each relay, each anchor leg, she got better, and better and better," said Track and Field Director LaTanya Sheffield, whose motto still motivates Hill. "In major competition, she was never afraid."
Olympic aspirations
Hill comes from a family with an exceptional athletic tradition. Both of her parents, boxer Virgil Hill Sr. and runner Denean Howard-Hill, are Olympic medalists. The same is true of Hill's aunt, runner Sherri Howard.
Growing up in Santa Clarita, Hill decorated her bedroom with pictures of world-class athletes, including her mother and aunt. Unbeknownst to her at the time, her future Long Beach State coach also appeared on her wall; a coincidence made possible by Sheffield and Howard-Hill both competing in the 1988 Summer Games in Seoul.
"I remember taking my visit to Long Beach State and meeting Coach Sheffield," Hill said. "She had so much energy, it just changed the atmosphere, the aura, the everything. I was like, 'Yeah, this is definitely where I want to make home.' Also, the fact that she competed with my mom in the Olympics and knew my mom, it just felt like home away from home."
Sheffield quickly recognized Hill's potential.
"We always knew this was what her plan was," Sheffield said. "To be an Olympian. Period."
Sheffield herself was the head coach for the U.S. women's track and field team during the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
Hill's Long Beach State career began in 2017. She competed in sprints and relays while earning a bachelor's degree in kinesiology. Hill earned Academic All-Conference honors from the Big West in 2019 and 2020 and looks back on her studies as a major asset.
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I remember taking my visit to Long Beach State and meeting Coach Sheffield. She had so much energy, it just changed the atmosphere, the aura, the everything. I was like, 'Yeah, this is definitely where I want to make home.' Also, the fact that she competed with my mom in the Olympics and knew my mom, it just felt like home away from home.
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"The academic aspect of Long Beach State University has benefited me tenfold," Hill said. "It's helped me in knowing more about the body and knowing more about the mental aspect of what I do as an athlete in recovering and rest."
COVID-19 prevented Hill from running for Long Beach State in 2020. She spent 2021 at University of Nevada Las Vegas, where she met her bobsledding teammate, before switching from track to bobsled.
Looking ahead
Long Beach State has a proud record of athletes and coaches going to the Olympics, although summertime competitors outnumber those who play in the snow and ice. Hill is the fourth Beach athlete to go to the Winter Games. Figure skaters Kenneth Shelley and JoJo Starbuck went to the Olympics in 1968 and 1972, and Karlos Kirby, another bobsledder, went in 1992 and 1994.
Hill plans to continue bobsledding, and her current focus is training to pilot the sleds while serving in the Army World Class Athlete program. Longer term, she is interested in starting a business focused on helping athletes prevent and recover from injuries.
She is also thinking about future travel. Ideally to the French Alps in 2030.
"I'm looking to do another quad and try to make that 2030 Olympic team and hopefully come back with some hardware," Hill said.
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Original text here: https://www.csulb.edu/news/article/the-lbsu-track-to-olympic-ice-bobsledder-azaria-hill-hits-new-speed
