Baylor in the News – March 3-9, 2024

Contact: Baylor University Media & Public Relations, 254-710-1961
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Note: The opinions expressed in these articles do not necessarily reflect those of the University.

WACO, Texas (March 10, 2024) – Baylor University researchers and faculty experts were featured in national and local media stories about the blessings and challenges of being a Black leader in today’s divided and often volatile ministry environment, daylight saving time’s impact on medical malpractice and new research that finds that friendships can influence our financial well-being for the better.

March 3, 2024

Waco Tribune-Herald: Spring lecture looks at Texas Gov. Pat Neff's Baylor years

Alan Lefever, Ph.D., director of the Texas Baptist Historical Collection and adjunct lecturer at Baylor’s Truett Seminary, will give Historic Waco’s spring lecture about former Texas Governor and Baylor President Pat Neff, from his prankish undergraduate years to 15 years as an iron-fisted president.

March 4, 2024

Chemical & Engineering News: Mona Minkara advocates for accessibility in science

Northeastern University professor Mona Minkara, Ph.D., discusses her experience being blind in science and the tools that might help other researchers with disabilities. Dr. Minkara was among the scientists who collaborated with Baylor biochemist Bryan Shaw, Ph.D., on making scientific visualizations into tactile tools that diversify the ways the scientists can process information.

March 5, 2024

The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education: Baylor University Breaks Ground on New Memorial to Enslaved Persons

Baylor University has broken ground on a new Memorial to Enslaved Persons on its campus. The new memorial, located on Founders Mall, will serve as a testament to the enslaved people who were instrumental in building the original Baylor campus in Independence, Texas.

KWTX-TV (CBS/Waco): Degrees of Science: April 8th Total Solar Eclipse

VIDEO: Baylor astrophysicist Barbara Castanheira Endl, Ph.D., assistant professor of physics, sits down with KWTX meteorologist Brady Taylor to discuss the April 8 Total Solar Eclipse and what viewers can expect to see during the event.

The Dallas Morning News: Why Texas refused $450 million to help feed 3.8 million hungry kids this summer

Jeremy Everett, D.Min., founder and executive director of the Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty, was interviewed for this opinion piece about the logistical challenges that led Texas to decline federal money that would have helped provide food for low-income Texas children this summer. BCHP evaluated several of the trial runs of the Summer EBT program, which Everett said is an excellent tool in the fight against hunger.

The Wall Street Journal: Gen Z on Marriage: In This Economy?

In this Future View column on marriage, Baylor management major Parker Elder is among the college students who discuss whether getting married is an outdated tradition.

March 6, 2024

Christianity Today: Conversations on Faith, Mission, and Black Leadership

VIDEO: Daniel Lee Hill, Ph.D., assistant professor of theology at Baylor’s Truett Seminary, was among the Black evangelical leaders who participated in a roundtable discussion that explored the blessings and challenges of being a Black leader in today’s divided and often volatile ministry environment.

The Christian Century: Days of wanting

Baylor theological ethicist Jonathan Tran, Ph.D., associate dean in the Honors College, writes about his family coming to America at the end of the American war in Vietnam and his struggles during his “days of wanting.” He ties that into Easter, “this beginning and end to our days of wanting and homelessness and lost brothers and found identities, that we will find our end in the One who has no end.”

MarketWatch: Want to build wealth? You’ll improve your chances by befriending a specific type of person, science says.

New research from Baylor’s Hankamer School of Business, Binghamton University and the University of Southern California finds that friendships can influence our financial well-being for the better. Joshua Thornton, Ph.D., assistant professor of finance at Baylor, is one of the coauthors of the case study released by the National Bureau of Economic Research.

American Academy of Sleep Medicine: Medical malpractice incidents are more severe during daylight saving time

Medical malpractice incidents are more severe during the months of the year when daylight saving time is observed in the U.S., according to a new study in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine that examined three decades of malpractice claims. Baylor sleep researcher Michael K. Scullin, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology and neuroscience, served as principal investigator.

March 7, 2024

Patheos: Baylor’s Reckoning Has Begun: Memorial To The Enslaved

Rev. Dr. Malcolm Foley, Ph.D., special advisor to the president for equity and campus engagement at Baylor, writes about Baylor breaking ground on a memorial to the enslaved persons who built Baylor’s original campus, a “significant physical representation that clearly declares that racialized chattel slavery is incompatible with and in fact, contrary to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

Baptist Standard: Consider worship through lens of autism, researcher urges

If churches want autistic individuals and their families to feel welcomed and supported, they must reconsider worship “through the lens of autism,” researcher Armand Léon van Ommen said at a recent community talk hosted by Baylor’s Truett Seminary and the Baylor Collaborative on Faith and Disability.

March 8, 2024

Baylor Connections: Beth Allison Barr, Ph.D.

AUDIO: Beth Allison Barr, Ph.D., is a history professor, bestselling author and faculty-in-residence at Baylor. In this Baylor Connections, Barr shares insights from her book The Making of Biblical Womanhood, takes listeners inside the experience of living in community with students and examines how the distinct roles she serves on campus enliven her work and scholarship.

Baptist News Global: Baylor Religion Department expands, diversifies and thrives

Baylor University’s Department of Religion has changed dramatically in faculty and academic direction, featuring a wide diversity of educators and researchers exploring the history of the Baptist movement from its many angles and corners as well as the state of the denomination and Christianity in the world today.

Waco Tribune-Herald: Lester Gibson papers unveiled at Baylor University

The papers of Lester Gibson, the first Black representative elected to the McLennan County Commissioners Court, will be housed in the Baylor Collections of Political Materials at the W. R. Poage Library. Gibson’s family chose Baylor as repository of items discovered in his office at the McLennan County Courthouse and elsewhere following his retirement. The article quotes Jeff Pirtle, director of The Texas Collection and University Archive at Baylor. 

March 9, 2024

Waco Tribune-Herald: Emotional impact of a total eclipse: Psychologists and eclipse chasers share their experiences

Baylor University psychologists and psychology students, led by Wade Rowatt, Ph.D., interim chair and professor of psychology, will study the phenomena of emotional responses to the total solar eclipse. Rowatt and his team will conduct surveys of people who witness the April 8 eclipse as well as some laboratory experiments with people viewing Google Earth virtual reality recreations of the 2017 eclipse.

WPR (NPR/Wisconsin): To the Best of Our Knowledge: Examining the role of Southern Baptist women

AUDIO: Beth Allison Barr, Ph.D., The James Vardaman Endowed Professor of History at Baylor, is interviewed about her book, The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth. Barr’s research focuses on women and religion in medieval and early modern England.

ABOUT BAYLOR MEDIA & PUBLIC RELATIONS

Baylor's Office of Media and Public Relations (M&PR) supports the University's Illuminate strategic plan as a top Christian research university by focusing on faculty research and expert opinions, innovative teaching, major awards and recognition, and community involvement. Through its media training workshops, the Baylor M&PR team develops faculty experts to effectively communicate the impact of their research or speak as subject-matter experts into national trends and conversations with media outlets, through Hot Topics and on the Baylor Connections podcast. Our faculty expert directory is available on the M&PR website.

ABOUT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY

Baylor University is a private Christian University and a nationally ranked Research 1 institution. The University provides a vibrant campus community for more than 20,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating University in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 100 countries to study a broad range of degrees among its 12 nationally recognized academic divisions.