MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Middle Tennessee State University faculty and staff recently provided the media with their perspectives on various issues, including the 2024 elections, poetry, skeletal remains and the importance of Sunshine Laws.

• Dr. John Vile, Honors College dean, talked with The Daily News Journal about the problems of partisanship in local elections. Read the Feb. 29 article.

• Kent Syler, political science professor, talked with the Chattanooga Times Free Press March 1 about the drop in early voting numbers for the March 5 primary. Read the article.

Syler talked about primary voting and what it means for the presidential race in this March 3 article from The Tennessean. Read his comments.

• Dr. Bryanna Licciardi, English lecturer, was featured by The Coil literary press on Medium for her new poetry book, “Fish Love.” Read the March 5 article.

• Dr. Ben Stickle, criminal justice professor, talked with Radio Canada about the prevalence of porch piracy. Read the article from March 6.

Stickle was featured in a March 28 article by Cheddar.com about porch pirates. Read the article.

• Dr. Benjamin Jansen, assistant professor of finance, talked with WalletHub March 6 about online savings accounts. Read his comments.

• Ken Paulson, director of the Free Speech Center, wrote an editorial in The Tennessean March 6 about “Sunshine Laws” and the importance of keeping government records public. Read his commentary and watch a video interview with Tennessean opinion editor David Plazas.

• Dr. Paul Eubanks, anthropology professor, and his students were part of an excavation at historic Cragfont mansion in Sumner County, Tennessee. Watch the interview from March 6.

• Amie Whittemore, director of MTSU Write, was featured March 6 in The Clarion for her poetry reading. Read about the event.

• MTSU President Sidney A. McPhee wrote a guest editorial for The Tennessean about the value of a college degree. Read his commentary published March 18.

• Sekou Franklin, political science professor, talked with WKRN-TV about the lack of gun reform on March 27 as the community reflected on the one-year anniversary of Nashville’s Covenant School shooting that took the lives of six people at the private Christian academy. Watch the video.

Franklin was also spotlighted April 2 in Political Science Now, a publication of the American Political Science Association, for a panel he will participate in on April 15 about preparing students for the 2024 election. Read the article.

• Professor Emeritus Hugh Berryman, founder of MTSU’s Forensic Institute for Research and Education, was featured on radio station WGNS-AM/FM for his lecture on burned skeletal remains. Listen to the interview.

• Retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Keith Huber, senior advisor for veterans and leadership initiatives at MTSU, gave a presentation on leadership at the Gallatin Economic Development Agency’s GEAR Program meeting April 2. Watch a short excerpt from the presentation and a brief interview from the city of Gallatin.

— Nancy DeGennaro (Nancy.DeGennaro@mtsu.edu)