Sculpture Professor James Maurelle doesn’t work on one project and then move on to the next. His process flows freely. “I surround myself with materials and objects and work on them all at the same time. I’m like the eye of the hurricane. That's how I've developed over the years,” he says. “It's the closest thing to freedom that I've embodied in my entire life.”

Maurelle, Clark’s first full-time sculpture professor, explains why he’s passionate about using recycled objects and the magic of keeping child-like play in artistry. 

Challenge. Change. is produced by Andrew Hart and Melissa Hanson for Clark University. Listen and subscribe on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Find other episodes wherever you listen to podcasts.

Award season is upon us, and three screen studies professors are sharing their favorite films of 2023 ahead of the Oscars. 

“The Killer,” “Bottoms,” and “Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning” were last year’s cinematic standouts for professors Hugh Manon, Jed Samer, and Soren Sorensen. The three are hosts of the Clark podcast “Recommended For You,” and bring their film expertise — and opinions — to this episode of Challenge. Change.

“I was coming into this call being like ‘Bottoms’ and ‘Mission Impossible’ are the same movie,” says Samer. “Maybe the truth of 2023 is that we are not going to the movies for the plot.”

“If you don't like ‘Bottoms,’ you might need to investigate whether you have a sense of humor. It's the same thing with ‘Mission Impossible,’” adds Manon. “If you don't like this, then maybe you don't like movies.”

The Oscars air on Sunday, March 10, at 7 p.m. EST on ABC. “Mission Impossible” has been nominated for Achievement in sound and Achievement in visual effects. 

Challenge. Change. is produced by Andrew Hart and Melissa Hanson for Clark University. Listen and subscribe on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Listen to episodes of RFU on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

High school students have been told time and time again that they need consistent good grades and a host of extracurriculars to stand out in the college application process. This mindset, however, can lead students to fixate on quantity over quality and miss out on experiences that help develop character and values.

This is why the Making Caring Common project wants to infuse messages about the common good into the college admissions process. Making Caring Common, a project of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, works with families, educators, and communities to develop children’s gratitude and sense of care for others.

Emily Roper-Doten, vice president for undergraduate admissions and financial assistance, and Brennan Barnard, the college admissions program advisor of Making Caring Common, discuss the role of compassion in college admissions. Barnard thinks a shift toward mastery over traditional grades could help. Mastry learning is a strategy at the Khan Lab School, where Barnard is the director of college counseling and alumni. 

Roper-Doten asks Barnard what he believes students lose when they solely focus on bulking out a resume. “They're thinking more about outcomes than they are process,” he says. “It’s dichotomous thinking rather than contemplating ‘who am I’ and ‘who could I be in a community?’”

Challenge. Change. is produced by Andrew Hart and Melissa Hanson for Clark University. Listen and subscribe on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Find other episodes wherever you listen to podcasts.

Throughout decades of studying relationship health, psychology Professor James Córdova has learned that couples often wait five or six years to seek help addressing difficulties in their partnership. This delay runs contrary to the attention most people give other aspects of preventative care such as annual physical exams and regular dental cleanings. Córdova wants more people to learn that relationship quality has an intrinsic impact on physical health. Distressing feelings cause a physiological response as stress hormones are released into one’s bloodstream. 

“One of the most significant sources of stress in our lives is a relationship that isn't going well,” he says. “People who are in really distressed relationships are aging faster and they're sick more often.” Even limited preventative care can make a lasting difference. To that end, Córdova created the Relationship Checkup, previously called the Marriage Checkup, 25 years ago. It’s a proactive model applied during couples counseling that identifies partners’ strengths and leverages them to reduce stress within the relationship.

“We know from 25 years of research that the effect is sustainable,” he says. “A checkup once a year is sufficient to improve the quality of relationship health, both in the short term and for the long term.” 

Challenge. Change. is produced by Andrew Hart and Melissa Hanson for Clark University. Listen and subscribe on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Find other episodes wherever you listen to podcasts.

If love is a battlefield, evolution has given animals and insects the tools for competition. Peacocks boast flashy tails and birds sing to capture the attention of mates, meanwhile, elks and dung beetles use antlers and horns, respectively, to fight off other males during courtship.

These traits, which can vary widely within the same species, have long fascinated biology Professor Erin McCullough. “Sexual selection, or competition over mates, is responsible for many of the biggest, flashiest, most colorful, and conspicuous traits that we find in the animal kingdom,” she says. 

What’s puzzling, however, is that these traits can make species more susceptible to predators, seemingly at odds with natural selection “Reproduction is the currency that really matters,” says McCullough. “It doesn't matter if an individual lives forever — or if it lives a whole lot longer than its peers — if it never succeeds in attracting a mate, because then it won't leave any of its genes to the next generation.”

Challenge. Change. is produced by Andrew Hart and Melissa Hanson for Clark University. Listen and subscribe on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Find other episodes wherever you listen to podcasts.

Many people consider masculinity an inner essence or set of specific personality traits that define manhood. Psychology Professor Michael Addis has a different understanding. His research indicates masculinity is a performance one makes to reinforce gender in alignment with societal and cultural norms.

“There's no doubt that many of the things that boys and men have been taught to do to perform their masculinity can be harmful to themselves and to people of other genders as well,” says Addis.

Men who avoid being vulnerable in their relationships to appear masculine can live for decades with no emotional support, he says. Increased isolation could contribute to rising suicide rates among U.S. men ages 40 to 55.

“There's a whole range of positive experiences related to emotional awareness, intimacy, and connections with other people,” says Addis. “All of these things are helped by letting go of the pressure to be a certain way because of your gender.”

Challenge. Change. is produced by Andrew Hart and Melissa Hanson for Clark University. Listen and subscribe on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Find other episodes wherever you listen to podcasts.

At his family’s Chinese restaurant, a young Curtis Chin was encouraged to talk to strangers.  The Detroit eatery, called Chung’s, was founded by Curtis’s great-grandfather in 1940 and drew diners from all walks of life, including then-Mayor Coleman Young, Hollywood stars, drag performers, and sex workers.

Chung’s closed in 2000, but the restaurant comes back to life in Chin’s memoir, “Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant.” The author-filmmaker shares the joys of being a “Chinese restaurant kid” during a discussion with Associate Provost and Dean of the College Betsy Huang, English Professor Jeff Noh, Chloe Yau ’24, a Community, Youth, and Education Studies major, and Zabrina Richards ’25, a political science major.

“Everybody goes to a Chinese restaurant. It’s one of the places where you can go and see people from a different race, socioeconomic background, class background, religious background, sexual orientation,” Chin says. “As a kid, I got to see all of Detroit. It was wonderful as a writer, as a creative person, to have that shape me as a kid.” 

Chin also shared musings on family, identity, coming out, and getting famous during a conversation with the wider campus community. The visit was part of Chin’s national book tour.

Challenge. Change. is produced by Andrew Hart and Melissa Hanson for Clark University. Listen and subscribe on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Find other episodes wherever you listen to podcasts.

During their first year at Clark, political science majors Ruthie Brian ’24, Beiyna Chaparian ’24, and Anna Walker ’24 took a course that called for comic books rather than textbooks. In the First-Year Intensive course Comic Books and Politics with Professor Ora Szekely, students used superhero tropes as a vehicle to analyze historical and contemporary politics. 

The course made such an impression on Brian, Chaparian, and Walker that the three took the concept and created an independent study for their senior year. They’ve been poring through comics and watching the latest superhero movies, exploring how the plots engage with global and national issues such as racial justice and immigration. As women and people of color portray more superheroes, a larger audience can see their lives reflected in the storylines, Chaparian says. 

“Having depth in characters and representation is important,” she says. “Watching ‘Ms. Marvel,’ I saw things that I could relate to in terms of what my family looks like and how my culture affects my identity.” Despite progress in representation, comics still contain disparities. The students have found that women superheroes typically have endured more trauma than their male counterparts, Walker says. Even the battle scenes display a gender imbalance.

“The idea of who has the right to violence is very fascinating to me,” Walker says. “Women's violence is often on a smaller scale, or more social, compared to the massive wipeout of cities that we see in comics and movies like ‘The Avengers.’” These combat scenes are an avenue for the trio to analyze the motives behind war. “No one considers themself evil,” Brian says. “People are going to justify their actions with either religion or another belief they hold.”

Challenge. Change. is produced by Andrew Hart and Melissa Hanson for Clark University. Listen and subscribe on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Find other episodes wherever you listen to podcasts.

We're taking a winter break and will return with new episodes in January. We hope you have a lovely and bright holiday season. As always, thank you for listening, and don't forget subscribe!

See you in 2024.

While English Professor Dianne Berg analyzed true crime’s portrayal of mothers, sociology Professor Shelly Tenenbaum taught courses on global genocide in prison classrooms, leading ethical debates amongst her students.

As Rabbi Joshua Franklin ’06, M.A. ’07, challenged his congregation to guess who wrote a sermon he delivered (answer: Chat GPT) and debated whether artificial intelligence can comprehend empathy, philosophy Professor Wiebke Deimling went to the movie theatre to see “Barbie” and unravel why a fictional doll was having “irrepressible thoughts of death.”

It all happened in 2023. The Clark community has chronicled research, passions, and discoveries on Challenge. Change. On this episode, co-producers Melissa Hanson and Andrew Hart share clips of intriguing interviews recorded throughout the year.

Episodes featured include: 

• Debate and Discourse in the Prison Classroom with Professor Shelly Tenenbaum
• Rabbi Joshua Franklin ’06 on Artificial Intelligence and Empathy
• The Portrayal of Mothers in True Crime and Popular Media with Professor Dianne Berg
• Sci-fi, Immigration, and Representation with Professor Betsy Huang
• Ed Greig '23 vs. PAX East 2023
• Professor Cailin Marcel Manson and the Collective Power of Performance
• Coming of Age Stories and Confronting Divided Loyalties with Professor Spencer Tricker
• Barbie's Existential Crisis and the Philosophy Behind it with Professor Wiebke Deimling
• Queerness and Food are an Edible Delight for Professor Elizabeth Blake
• To Teach or Not to Teach Shakespeare with Professor Justin Shaw

Listen and subscribe on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Find other episodes wherever you listen to podcasts. Email us with your suggestion for future episodes.