Health and Medicine

Media discussion of race and class in the wake of Hurricane Katrina has done the country a great disservice by oversimplifying and distorting what is fundamentally a very complex problem, according to a sociologist who recently published a major study of the residential segregation of jobless black, Asian and Hispanic men in urban communities.

The effect of military culture on women's lives -- from the experiences of servicewomen in Iraq, to human rights violations against women, to the plight of homeless female veterans -- will be examined at a conference to be held Sept. 15 and 16 in the Center for the Arts Screening Room on the University at Buffalo North (Amherst) Campus.

While the victims of Hurricane Katrina have begun to grieve by expressing their anger at the shortcomings of relief efforts intended to help them, they can not yet mourn the losses they have incurred because they themselves are still struggling to survive, says Thomas T. Frantz, a University at Buffalo professor who is an expert on bereavement counseling and grief education.

While Louisiana and Mississippi residents struggle to evacuate, to relocate and -- above all else, to survive -- many of the youngest among them face years of recovery from a variety of traumas Hurricane Katrina has dispersed upon them.

Intestinal diseases like diarrhea and dysentery, along with outbreaks of West Nile virus, are likely to occur because of floodwaters affecting New Orleans and other areas along the Gulf Coast in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, according to microbiologist Iain Hay at the University at Buffalo.

The hundreds of thousands of Gulf coast residents left homeless by Hurricane Katrina have not only lost their homes, possessions and possibly loved ones, they also have lost their sense of security, says Hilary Weaver, associate professor of social work at the University at Buffalo.

"Nasty social behavior" is very common following the first 48 hours of a disaster, according to University at Buffalo professor Charles Ebert, Ph.D., who teaches the course, "Disasters: analysis of natural and human-induced hazards."

Reports of widespread looting in New Orleans following the tragic flooding of the historic city sound less like actual criminal activity than desperation, according to a forensic psychologist at the University at Buffalo.

If you log on to eBay or murderauction.com these days, you will find a variety of "murderabilia" on sale for anywhere from $5 to $10,000. This might seem ghoulishly commercial, but it is just one manifestation of America's century-long obsession with serial killers. This compulsive preoccupation and its use in American culture is the subject of a new book by UB's David Schmid.

Findings from a collaboration between scientists at the University at Buffalo's Research Institute on Addictions (RIA) and George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., have established the importance of distinguishing between feelings of shame and guilt when providing treatment for substance abuse and in developing substance-abuse prevention programs.