Meanwhile, economics professor Paul Shea weighed in on American personal savings rates for Marketplace<\/em> and the newest issue of The Atlantic<\/em> includes a deep dive by Tyler Austin Harper, assistant professor of environmental studies, into the secret world of extreme fishing. Wetsuit required. Read below to learn more and get links to coverage of other faculty members in the news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The fourth novel by Lecturer in English Jessica Anthony ’96, The Most<\/em>, made the National Book Foundation’s longlist of 10 books for its 2024 Fiction prize. The news was featured in numerous outlets, including The Washington Post<\/a><\/em>, Vulture<\/a><\/em> and The New Yorker<\/a><\/em>, along with People<\/em> magazine<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here’s what the National Book Foundation<\/a> had to say about Anthony’s book:<\/p>\n\n\n\n “This year\u2019s Fiction Longlist features two titles that interrogate the role of gender in marriage, in sex, and in artmaking. On an unusually warm Sunday in November, housewife, mother, and former tennis champion Kathleen Beckett puts on her old, red bathing suit, enters her apartment complex\u2019s semi-abandoned pool, and refuses to come out. Set over the course of eight hours, Jessica Anthony\u2019s The Most<\/em> paints an intimate portrait of marriage in the late 1950s \u2014 and the secrets, expectations, and lost loves that tells the story of one seemingly unremarkable couple and a larger cultural moment.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n The finalists will be announced Oct. 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For more on Anthony’s much-lauded novel, and her insights into her craft, see earlier coverage from Bates News<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marketplace<\/em> tapped into Dowling Family Professor of Economics Paul Shea’s expertise for a story about news from the Bureau of Economic Analysis on consumer savings rates dipping to the lowest rate in more than two years<\/a>. The savings rate in July was only 2.9 percent, while at the same time consumer spending increased.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The spending part is a sign of a strong economy,” Marketplace<\/em>‘s story read. “But the data shows we\u2019re continuing to buy stuff while not putting money away. You can see the problem here.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n Paraphrasing Shea’s reassurances, Marketplace<\/em> reporter Caleigh Wells wrote “it\u2019s not that saving rates are frighteningly low, it\u2019s just that they\u2019re coming down from when they were\u00a0really high early in the pandemic, when people had money to spend and nothing to spend it on. Now things are different.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then she quoted Shea directly: “The average household is, in a way, normalizing. They\u2019re starting to move towards more normal levels of debt.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Writing for the blog Researching Sociology<\/em>, Dana Professor of Sociology Francesco Duina and colleague Cary Wu share revealing findings about how Americans perceive economic inequality<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Historically in America, across party lines, the richer one was, the less worried they were about income inequality. \u201cIn 1987, for instance, poorer Democrats and Republicans [both] perceived income differentials to be too big,\u201d the scholars write.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But now, party affiliation plays a huge role in how people view income inequality. Across all income levels, \u201cthose who identify as Democrats care a great deal about income inequality while those who identify themselves as Republicans…care a lot less.\u201d But \u201cconcern [about income inequality] among poorer Republicans has actually dropped over time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n For the blog post, the scholars drew from their recent article, authored with two other colleagues, in the journal Socius<\/em><\/a>, \u201cPolitical Polarization and the Dynamics Between Actual Income and Perceived Income Inequality in the United States, 1987 to 2021.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Published prior to President Joe Biden dropping out of the presidential race, the Portland Press Herald<\/em> checked with John Baughman<\/a>, associate professor of politics, and other Maine politics scholars about the fraught race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Baughman spoke to comparisons to the 1968 election, when incumbent Lyndon Johnson declined to seek a second term. While comparisons to the 1968 election are valid, today’s political climate is driven more by negative partisanship than in the past, Baughman said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI don\u2019t want to overplay how fraught politics are today in light of what was happening then with Vietnam and civil rights, but I think there is one thing different now that is important to consider, and that\u2019s the role of negative partisanship in driving behavior of voters.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tyler Austin Harper, an assistant professor of environmental studies who is a contributing writer at The Atlantic<\/em>, writes about his penchant for fishing for striped bass at night, in a wetsuit, in<\/em> the water, not on<\/em> it<\/a>. Eighty nights a year no less. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This despite some expert guidance he got when first getting into the sport of “wetsuiting” a few years ago: “The advice I received from another fisherman was simply: Don\u2019t<\/em>.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wetsuiting is a form of saltwater fishing that involves wearing a wetsuit and wading or swimming out to offshore rocks \u2014 almost exclusively at night, often during storms \u2014 to access deeper water or faster currents than can be reached in traditional waders. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For Harper, the quarry is striped bass, a popular gamefish that migrates every spring, mostly from the Chesapeake and Delaware bays, to as far north as Maine, and back down again in the fall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Harper, who also has an interest in politics, wrote in another piece, in July, that he was initially skeptical about the video call for White Dudes for Harris<\/a>, a group of voters supporting the Kamala Harris presidential campaign. Democrats have \u201cpeddled condescending, divisive, and often bizarre rhetoric in the name of \u2018anti-racism.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSo imagine my shock when I found myself, slowly but surely, charmed by the White Dudes for Harris call.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Still, he writes, the \u201cWhite Dudes\u201d name \u201crisks solidifying the public\u2019s impression that the Democratic Party is for overeducated elites with laptop jobs and performative progressive politics. That is a shortsighted move \u201cwhen the GOP is on its way to achieving a multiracial working-class coalition, cobbled together with increasing shares of Black and Hispanic voters driven by male defections from the Democratic coalition.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Harper’s other recent writing for The Atlantic<\/em> includes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Paul Schofield, an associate professor of philosophy whose research focuses on moral and political philosophy, writes frequently on the issue of homelessness. Last month Schofield was quoted in a Seattle Met<\/em> story about a retired history professor, J.M. Simpson, whose photography focuses on the homeless communities<\/a> in Washington state. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The writer of the article had learned about Simpson\u2019s work via a thread Schofield had posted on X<\/a> in April, lauding the photographer and sharing some of his photographs. The thread has over 24,000 likes and three million views. In the story, the writer quotes extensively from Schofield\u2019s response to Simpson\u2019s work:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s easy to imagine them having friends and having dreams and having things that they care about just as a result of sitting there with the photo for a few minutes,\u201d noted Schofield, whose writing on homelessness had caught Simpson\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s got to be something about him that brings this out,\u201d Schofield concluded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mary F. Pols<\/p> \n\t\t\t\tmpols@bates.edu<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/p>
\n\n\n\nJessica Anthony ’96 <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
National Book Foundation announces the longlist for the 2024 National Book Award for Fiction \u2014 People<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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\n\n\n\nPaul Shea<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Americans are spending a lot and not saving much. Economists aren\u2019t too worried. Yet \u2014 Marketplace<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nFrancesco Duina<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Who cares about inequality, and what should we do if we want less of it? \u2014Researching Sociology<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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\n\n\n\nJohn Baughman<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Maine political scholars see no precedent for divisive, unpredictable presidential race \u2014 Portland Press Herald<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nTyler Austin Harper<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Inside the dangerous, secretive world of extreme fishing \u2014 The Atlantic<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
White Dudes for Harris’ was a missed opportunity \u2014 The Atlantic<\/em> <\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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\n\n\n\nPaul Schofield<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
‘These people are looking back at us’ \u2014 Seattle Met<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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