News

Alumna Melissa Theil leads effort to memorialize Sherman, Texas lynching

TWU alumna Melissa Thiel is leading an effort to install a historical marker for the lynching of George Hughes and the Sherman Riot of 1930. Thiel’s effort to commemorate Sherman’s painful past has stalled — caught between resistance by some of the town’s White leaders and a rising desire among residents to confront old racial wounds.
Although she has approached her project with a certain indomitability, “I picked a doozy,” Thiel said. “I was naive, and I didn’t think the pushback I’d get would get to this level.”

Thiel earned her master's in history and was part of TWU's public history program.

WFAA features Clare Brock, PhD, as expert in Texas power grid reform coverage

Its spectacular collapse during February’s record-smashing winter storm revealed how unprepared our power system was to handle days of below-freezing temperatures.  The public rightly demanded answers, and more importantly, swift action from Austin

To help manage the legislative storm, the Texas energy sector hired lobbyists. Hundreds of them. 

“There's an old adage that, if you're not at the table, you might be on the menu,” said Dr. Clare Brock, a Texas Woman’s University political science professor in Denton, and expert on lobbying. 

Clare Brock, PhD, discusses Texas voter restriction legislation with The Guardian

Texas lawmakers are locked in a fight over legislation that would further restrict voting access, as Republicans lean on procedural moves to avoid public testimony and keep eleventh-hour negotiations behind closed doors.

"There’s not really a big problem with election fraud, right? That’s not actually a huge problem that we need to solve. But the public thinks it is, because they’ve been told that it is,” said Clare Brock, PhD, an assistant professor of political science at Texas Woman’s University.

History & Political Science student Sheryl English elected to Denton ISD school board

Sheryl English, a Denton real estate agent and History & Political Science student at Texas Woman’s University, has been elected to fill Place 2 on the Denton ISD school board.

As part of the May election, voters selected who would fill two school board seats for full three-year terms. All places on the Denton school board are at-large, meaning all eligible voters within the school district can vote in each race.

Dr. Lo discusses use of suicide prediction models for minoritized groups in MedPage Today

Asked for her perspective, Celia Lo, PhD, chair of the Department of Sociology at Texas Woman's University in Denton, who was not involved with the study, told MedPage Today that her own research on mental health utilization and treatment showed that certain minoritized groups may seek primary medical care as opposed to specialty care for mental health issues because of these historical barriers.

"You don't have accurate enough information to be inputted in this kind of model," Lo said. "The data [for white patients] will be a lot more reflective of the clinical needs of their mental health."