Professor of Political Science, University of Maryland, Baltimore County I am professor of political science at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. I started at UMBC in 1998, shortly after completing my PhD at the University of North Carolina in 1997. I am the author of The Stronghold: How Republicans Captured Congress but Surrendered the White House, Whistling Past Dixie: How Democrats Can Win Without the South, and co-author (with fellow UMBC political scientist Tyson King-Meadows) of Devolution and Black State Legislators: Challenges and Choices in the Twenty-First Century. Along with Paul Waldman, I am author of White Rural Rage: The Threat to American Democracy (Random House, 2024). A former political columnist for the Baltimore Sun, I have published commentaries in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The American Prospect, Politico, and The New Republic, and have appeared on ABC News, MSNBC, The Colbert Report, National Public Radio and C-SPAN. Since 2004, I have given lectures on American elections in 19 countries on behalf of the U.S. State Department.
Research Fellow, Biosciences, University of Exeter I am interested in the complex interactions that govern collective behaviour, ecology, and self-organisation within social insects. My research centres upon the intersection between fundamental investigations of colony functioning, and applied work in ecology and epidemiology. I use ants, honeybees, bumblebees and termites as models to assess network dynamics, with a focus on the role of interindividual heterogeneity. Currently, I am studying honeybee epidemiology and genetics, the dynamics of parasite-pathogen interactions within insect colonies, collective decision-making in ants, and the detection and behavioural classification of invasive hornets using artificial intelligence. The central aim of my research is to leverage an understanding of the rules underpinning complex systems; both to solve real-world challenges, and enhance mechanistic knowledge at a variety of scales. I value social insect models, as they provide tractable and fascinating tools with which to investigate applied and fundamental questions in biology.
Professor of Communication, Flagler College Professor Halcomb earned her Ph.D. in Mass Communication Law & Policy from Bowling Green State University, where her dissertation assessed Action for Children’s Television and the FCC. She earned an M.A. in Mass Communication from Bowling Green University and a B.S. in Mass Communication from Miami University. Her areas of specialization and research include new media regulation; mass communication law and ethics; international broadcasting; and children and the media.
Stipendiary Lecturer in Biology, University of Oxford I am the lead tutor for biology students in Christ Church College. The global decline of pollinators, linked to the loss of native ecosystems, constitutes a serious threat to ecosystem function and human food security. There is a dearth of empirical research combining data about landscape, pollinator behaviour, and pollen flow, and yet this information is essential for effective management and conservation plans. My research aims to improve our understanding of how bee behaviour is impacted by the spatial and temporal distribution of resources, and how this in turn affects pollen dispersal. The aim is to provide guidance that will help to protect pollinators, the plants they pollinate, and pollination services in human-modified landscapes. I am also a member of the Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food.
Research fellow, Deakin University Thomas Corbin is a Research Fellow at the Center for Research in Assessment and Digital Learning (CRADLE) at Deakin University. He works primarily on Generative AI with a particular focus on what appropriate assessment design means in the context of AI.
