Dr. Andrew Binder

Over the course of the next few months the CRDM blog will periodically feature a Q + A with one of our outstanding faculty members. We take classes with them and work with them on scholarly projects, but now we’d like to learn more about what else they’re doing. We’ve talked with David Rieder, Jessica Jameson, Chris Anson, Matt May, David Berube, Susan Katz, Maria Pramaggiore, Susan Miller-Cochran, Robert Schrag, Carolyn R. Miller, Brad Mehlenbacher, R. Michael Young, Jason Swarts, Adriana de Souza e Silva, Elizabeth Craig, and Victoria Gallagher, and we recently caught up with Andrew Binder, Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication and associate director of the Public Communication of Science and Technology (PCOST) Project.:

What are you reading?

This past weekend I finished The Walking Dead: Compendium One, which collects the first 8 volumes of the ongoing comic book series. (The comic presents graphic situations they could never translate to television, which—compared to the AMC show—makes it infinitely more interesting.) Current novels include A Hologram for the King by Dave Eggers and Les Particules élémentaires by Michel Houellebecq. In the academic realm, I am finishing up Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. And a number of books and articles on risk.

What classes are you teaching?

In July I’m travelling to Peru for two weeks to help teach the IGERT course “Genetic Pest Management in Developing Countries.” Part of the course will involve a two-day conference in Lima hosted by Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, which will feature guests from other Latin American countries that are developing genetically modified mosquitoes. Should be a fascinating mix of interdisciplinary perspectives on issues of transgenic organisms.

This fall I’m looking forward to piloting a CRDM course, “Empirical Social Science Methods for Digital Media Research,” and teaching the second iteration of an undergraduate course on “Mass Media and Politics.”

What are you writing about?

This week, I’m submitting a book proposal that further develops the ideas I explored in my doctoral dissertation regarding public opinion of science & technology, the social dynamics of risk perception, and media discourse about high-risk research. There are also a number of other articles to be written using those same data, which I hope to complete this summer.

What are you listening to?

With June 16 marking the 15th anniversary of OK Computer, I’ve been listening to that quite a bit lately. Otherwise, it’s been a reliable rotation of North Carolina blue grass (e.g., Steep Canyon Rangers, Chatham County Line, Doc Watson, the Avett Brothers’ Emotionalism), 1990’s/2000’s hip hop (e.g., Jurassic 5, Tribe Called Quest, Wu Tang Clan’s Enter the Wu-Tang), and Glenn Gould’s performance of Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier.

And I’m about to start selectively re-listening to the CBC podcast series “How to Think About Science” (http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/episodes/2009/01/02/how-to-think-about-science-part-1—24-listen/).

What are you watching?

Euro 2012. NASA’s video compilation of the recent transit of Venus (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z9rM8ChTjY&feature=plcp). The $5 comedy specials of Louis CK and Aziz Ansari. And re-watching the complete series Mr. Show.

About these ads