A joint study conducted by the School of Medicine and the School of Social Work examined the effectiveness of remote therapy during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. The researchers found that remote therapy improved engagement, mitigated symptoms and reduced repeated hospitalizations.

Researchers at the Tulane National Primate Research Center found that a vaccine currently being developed induces a robust and long-lasting immune response against SARS-CoV-2 in nonhuman primates, similar to the protection provided by the Moderna vaccine. The study evaluated five different adjuvants, or ingredients added to vaccines, to determine which provides the most protection from the virus in nonhuman primates.

Richard Velkley, professor of philosophy in the School of Liberal Arts, has published Sarastro’s Cave: Letters From the Recent Past (Mercer University Press, 2021). This epistolary novel is a departure from Velkley’s other published works on the history of modern philosophy. Sarastro’s Cave is created from letters written by a fictional professor of history at a Southern university before he mysteriously disappears. A reviewer said that the novel is “a philosophic tour de force — witty, intellectually absorbing, and in the end deeply moving.

David Marcello, adjunct professor of law and executive director of The Public Law Center at Tulane Law, is the editor of the International Legislative Drafting Guideline (Carolina Academic Press, 2020). The book includes a foreword by James L. Dennis, U.S. Circuit Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and articles by 18 speakers from the annual two-week International Legislative Drafting Institute, which Marcello has organized and conducted since 1995.

The newest class of Tulane students entering this fall represents the most academically qualified students to be admitted to the university and the most diverse class to date. This is the fifth year in a row that the incoming class has broken admissions records for qualifications and diversity reach. About 26% of the admitted students — more than one in four — identify as Black, Indigenous or people of color, up from 17% in 2016. The average ACT score rose as well, to a range of 31–34 this year as compared to 29–32 five years ago.

Raven Ancar, a School of Liberal Arts student majoring in sociology and digital media practices, has filmed and directed a feature-length documentary, The Veil, about the experience of Black students on Tulane’s campus. In January 2019, during her first year at Tulane, Ancar filmed several sit-down interviews with fellow students to explore W. E. B. Du Bois’ notions of “the veil” and “double-consciousness,” as presented in his 1903 book The Souls of Black Folks. Ancar’s film probes topics of diversity, inclusion, racism and white supremacy culture.

“Here’s what I think people at the top of the income distribution fear: they fear that if you help people at the bottom, then my share of the pie will be smaller. … But what they fail to realize is, what if the pie is actually bigger?”

School of Architecture professors Tiffany Lin and Emilie Taylor Welty, and Lisa Molix, psychology professor at the School of Science and Engineering, will study how members of the community react to public spaces and monuments that memorialize contentious historical figures and events. They will use their findings to develop the framework for an advanced architecture research studio that examines strategies to bridge the gap between architects and the general public.

Researchers at Tulane and the University of Michigan examined the water-use impacts of individual diets in the United States, while considering regional variations in water scarcity. They found meat consumption is the top contributor to the water scarcity footprint of the average U.S. diet, accounting for 31% of the impacts. The study combines the types and quantities of foods in the diets of individuals, the irrigation water required to produce those foods, and the relative scarcity of water where the irrigation occurs.

Academic Tutoring—Roots of Music, a Tulane student club, organized 100 self-care goody bags for New Orleans kids who are part of Roots of Music. Roots of Music is a nonprofit program that provides music history and theory, instrumental instruction, and ensemble performance preparation for students ages 9–14 from low-income households.