A hurricane, tornado or flood that destroys homes and property goes beyond individual harm. Entire communities suffer.
In the aftermath of an event like Hurricane Sandy, which devastated the New York-New Jersey shore in fall 2012, we naturally ask how people can rebuild their lives. But on a broader level: what makes one community or region better at responding to a natural disaster and surviving its aftermath?
As a kid, Rick Cleary learned early on that a career as a professional athlete wasn’t going to add up. Luckily, he had a pretty good backup plan.
“I’ve always loved both math and sports,” he says. “I wasn’t too good at sports. I was good at math.”
Cleary would eventually land on his high school cross country team – and parlay endless hours with The Sporting News into a life in statistics. With a PhD in the subject from Cornell University, he joined Bentley’s Mathematical Sciences faculty in 2001.
Some cultural critics slam the mixing of art and economics, insisting that commerce cheapens creativity. For Ben Aslinger, that intersection is where things start to get interesting.
“Everything is economic in the long run,” says the assistant professor in Bentley’s English and Media Studies Department. “Our system of commodity exchange and payment actually creates the conditions for creativity.”
For Daniel Marrano ’13, the history of Bentley University is much more than the stuff of dusty documents and yellowed news clippings.
“Basically, my whole family has gone to Bentley,” he says of a clan that includes his mother, father and two siblings. “I’ve always been interested in the history of the school, because it’s part of my own history.”
Most college seniors spend a good deal of time pondering their own future. For Ryan Miamis ’12, it was just as important to consider the future of the ground beneath his feet.
Working with Professor of English and Media Studies Gesa Kirsch, Miamis spent the 2011-2012 academic year studying how urban dwellers might develop a “land ethic.” That is, a guiding philosophy for making decisions about land: using it, preserving it, changing it and more.
Scam artists — the only criminals we refer to as artists — are quite clever at taking advantage of whatever is capturing public interest. Obamacare is no exception, particularly as data is collected during the October 1 launch of the initial open enrollment period.
The cover of a recent Chronicle Review sums up academic reaction to a new book by linguist Dan Everett. Rendered in caricature, Bentley’s dean of arts and sciences exchanges scowls with the man who has dominated the field for some 50 years.
“Angry Words,” reads the headline. “Is Noam Chomsky’s reign over linguistics at an end?”
Everett chuckles at the illustration but answers the question with a serious “yes.”
What will be the tipping point for national legal recognition of gay marriage? Politicians, scholars, activists, and historians can all disagree but one thing is certain: the Supreme Court cannot avoid at least the first significant step toward that tipping point this month.
In working to bring technology to developing countries, people often think big: classroom computer systems, state-of-the-art farm equipment, and the like. But Bentley’s Alina Chircu says the key to technological advancement may come in a much smaller package.
The associate professor of information and process management has spent five years studying how technologies are adopted in emerging economies such as India and China. Her research identifies a staple of everyday life in the developed world — the cellphone — as a prime conduit in the process.
I am a baby boomer, one of the many Americans approaching their dream retirement age. I am also one of the many baby boomers who has a little panic attack every time I look at my retirement accounts and my exposure to the whims of the stock market.
One of the questions that I often get as a financial planner (and one that I ask myself) is: Should I take money out of my retirement account to pay off the remaining balance on my home’s mortgage?
The answer: It may make you feel good, but it is an expensive decision.