Susan E Swanberg

Interests

Research

Propaganda, misinformation, disinformation, exaggeration, and plagiarism in science journalism; history of science journalism. "The overarching theme of my academic research is identifying revealing and placing in context the histories that chronicle our nation's past scientific adventures and misadventures. As a science journalism historian, I have identified, examined, and documented important histories relevant to the aforementioned themes. I study how our scientific past has evolved because it is only be engaging with history and understanding how and why our scientific successes and failures came to pass, that we will be able to promote good science and enact evidence-based science policy. Journalism, that first draft of history, opens a window onto the annals and accounts of our scientific progress, problems, and paradigm shifts."

Teaching

science journalism, environmental journalism, media law

Courses

Scholarly Contributions

Chapters

• Swanberg, S. E. (2024). "Interviewing Nature: The Dangers and Delights of the Pathetic Fallacy and Anthropormorphism in Nature Writing and Environmental Journalism". In The Literary Journalist as Naturalist(pp 255-279). online version published in 2024; hardcover ©2025: Springer Nature - part of the Palgrave Studies in Literary Journalism. doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-56634-9
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  This book is a scholarly anthology that proposes a deep discussion about the multiple ways in which narrative journalism has portrayed nature, human interactions with nature, the global actions and the consequences of activities that have either attempted to explore it, exploit it, harness it, dominate it, and protect it. This essay collection offers an academic framework for literary journalistic narratives about nature and includes the study of long form journalism originated in different corners of the world, all exploring human-non human-nature interactions in all their power, finitude, peril and urgency.
• Swanberg, S., & Mellor, F. (2024). “MAKING DEMOCRACY SAFE”: The development of US science journalism in the 1920s. In Insights on Science Journalism(pp 15-32). doi:10.4324/9781003326724-3
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  When science journalism first emerged as a specialist news beat in 1920s America, it did so in the context of concerns about a widening gap between scientists and the public. In 1921, a new wire service, the Science Service, tried to address the problem by employing specialist science writers - both women and men - to produce accessible science news that was sold on to newspapers. During the same period, leading newspapers also began investing in science reporting. Most notably, The New York Times frequently ran exclusives on science-related topics thanks to the personal interests of its managing editor, Carr Van Anda. This chapter considers the distinctive contributions of both Science Service and The New York Times in establishing science journalism as a specialist beat. That this was possible was due to changing attitudes about the social purpose of science following World War I, which led many prominent figures to view science as a driver of social change. The new science journalism was predicated on the shared values this entailed, an ideological commitment that, at its worse, led Science Service to promote eugenic propaganda and that continued to influence science journalism through the following century.
• Swanberg, S. E. (2020). Borrowed Chronicles: New York Times Science Journalist, William L. 'Atomic Bill' Laurence and the Reports of a Hiroshima Survivor. In LEGACIES OF THE MANHATTAN PROJECT Reflections on 75 Years of a Nuclear World (essay/book chapter was subjected to two levels of peer review - internal and external). Washington State University Press.
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  Abstract William L. Laurence, New York Times science journalist from 1930 until he retired in 1964, wrote about the birth of the Atomic Age. Laurence, who was embedded with the United States War Department for nearly four months in 1945 writing press releases and articles about the Manhattan Project, returned to the Times after the war ended. In 1946 he won a Pulitzer Prize for eleven of his articles about the atomic bomb – all published in the Times – including an eyewitness account of the bombing of Nagasaki. Laurence already stands accused of being a War Department propagandist and cheerleader who was complicit in U.S. efforts to conceal the impact of radiation sickness on survivors of the Hiroshima bombing. This essay reveals William L. “Atomic Bill” Laurence’s previously unrecognized appropriation of the writings of another author and places his conduct in its historical, legal, and ethical contexts.
• Swanberg, S. E. (2006). Telomeres in Aging: Birds. In Handbook of Models for Human Aging(pp 339–349). Elsevier.
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  This chapter describes the use of avian species as model organisms for research in telomere biology and aging. Cellular or replicative senescence is often utilized as a model for the aging process because of the hypothesis that cellular aging recapitulates organismal aging. A genomic alteration associated with cellular or replicative senescence in a variety of organisms, including the chicken, is the shortening of telomeres. Telomere arrays have been examined in a wide sampling of avian species, including chicken, using fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). A PCR-based technique that can be used to compare the abundance of telomere repeats is quantitative real-time PCR (Q-PCR). This technique quantifies the fold difference between telomere-repeat copy number in an experimental sample compared to a reference DNA sample. Real-time fluorescence-based PCR and RT-PCR have emerged as powerful methods for examining gene expression patterns in many contexts. In traditional PCR, an amplicon, which accumulates after a predetermined number of cycles, is analyzed by gel electrophoresis.

Journals/Publications

• Swanberg, S. E. (2024). Revisiting Disney's The Living Desert: A documentary or a wildlife fable in a mythical desert?. International Journal of Disney Studies, 1(1), 91-107.
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  This article examines Walt Disney’s 1950s-era Academy Award-winning wildlifefilm, The Living Desert, the first full-length feature film in Disney’s True-LifeAdventures series. Using a historical case study approach, the nature and signifi-cance of the film and its narrative’s impact on the public’s understanding of andconnection to the natural world are explored. Although the film was produced 70years ago, its impact is still felt in the wildlife and nature films of today. The arti-cle addresses several questions: Where does The Living Desert’s narrative fall on acontinuum of authenticity? How accurately does the film describe the relationshipbetween human and non-human life? And how might the film’s authenticity (orlack thereof) have impacted the public’s understanding of nature, its inhabitantsand the environment?
• Swanberg, S. E. (2021). "Under the Influence: The Impact of Johannes A. Siemes, SJ's Eyewitness Report on John Hersey's 'Hiroshima.". Literary Journalism Studies, 13(2), 130-148.
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  August 6, 2020 marks the passage of seventy-five years since the bombing of Hiroshima. It is fitting, therefore, to re-examine well-known, little known, and forgotten details that influenced John Hersey’ classic work of literary journalism, Hiroshima. Hersey often noted that Thorton Wilder’s fictional morality tale, The Bridge of San Luis Rey, inspired the plot device he used in Hiroshima. Similarities between the two works include a catastrophic event, a focus on the handful of disaster victims whose alternating tales are woven together, and lingering questions about morality and decency. The Bridge of San Luis Rey connection is not the whole story, however. Hiroshima was also influenced by the reportage of a German Jesuit priest, Father Johannes (John) A. Siemes, S.J., versions of whose eyewitness account from Hiroshima appeared in Time, The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, Jesuit Missions, a report by the Manhattan Engineer District and other publications. Where The Bridge of San Luis Rey is rich in metaphor and lush language, Hiroshima reflects the unadorned language of Father Siemes’ report. Siemes, mentioned by Hersey in the last pages of Hiroshima, also appeared in two U.S. propaganda films The Atom Strikes! and Tale of Two Cities, recounting observations from his Hiroshima report. A published scholar, historian, and professor of philosophy at Sophia University in Tokyo, Siemes resided at a Jesuit novitiate on the outskirts of Hiroshima at the time of the bombing. Here the provenance of Siemes’ eyewitness account and the nature of its influence on Hersey and Hiroshima are explored.
• Swanberg, S. E. (2021). "Well-Bred and Well-Fed: Science Service Covers Eugenics: 1924-1966". American Journalism, 38(2), 202-230. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/08821127.2021.1912754
• Swanberg, S. E. (2020).

  "Wounded in Mind: Science Service Writer, Marjorie Van de Water, Explains World War II Military Neuropsychiatry to the American Public" 

  . Media History, 26(4), 472-488. doi:10.1080/13688804.2019.1652582
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  Marjorie Van de Water covered psychology and sociology for Science Service, an American news organization for the popularization of science. During her tenure as a writer for Science Service, Van de Water reported about developments in American military neuropsychiatry, wartime morale, and related topics. Her articles appeared in a Science Service publication, The Science News-Letter, and in mainstream American newspapers. In 1942, Van de Water was recruited to collaborate on Psychology for the Fighting Man, a military-sanctioned basic psychology book for World War II service members. Van de Water also contributed to two additional books on wartime psychology—Psychology for the Returning Serviceman and Psychology for the Armed Services, a military neuropsychiatry textbook. This article examines Van de Water’s acknowledged body of work on military neuropsychiatry and her dual roles as a Science Service journalist and an interpreter of American military neuropsychiatric policy.
• Swanberg, S. E. (2019). "''The Way of the Rain' : Towards a conceptual framework for the retrospective examination of historical American and Australian 'rain follows the plow/plough' messages". International Review of Environmental History 5(2): 67-96 (2019), 5(2), 67-95. doi:10.22459/IREH.05.02.2019.03
• Swanberg, S. E. (2020). Wounded in Mind: Science Service Writer, Marjorie Van de Water, Explains World War II Military Neuropsychiatry to the American Public. Media History, 26(4), 472-488. doi:DOI: 10.1080/13688804.2019.1652582
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  Marjorie Van de Water covered psychology and sociology for Science Service, an American news organization for the popularization of science. During her tenure as a writer for Science Service, Van de Water reported about developments in American military neuropsychiatry, wartime morale, and related topics. Her articles appeared in a Science Service publication, The Science News-Letter, and in mainstream American newspapers. In 1942, Van de Water was recruited to collaborate on Psychology for the Fighting Man, a military-sanctioned basic psychology book for World War II service members. Van de Water also contributed to two additional books on wartime psychology—Psychology for the Returning Serviceman and Psychology for the Armed Services, a military neuropsychiatry textbook. This article examines Van de Water’s acknowledged body of work on military neuropsychiatry and her dual roles as a Science Service journalist and an interpreter of American military neuropsychiatric policy.
• Swanberg, S. E., O'Hare, T. H., Robb, E. A., Robinson, C. M., Chang, H., & Delany, M. E. (2010). Telomere biology of the chicken: a model for aging research. Experimental gerontology, 45(9), 647-54.
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  Division-dependent telomere shortening correlating with age triggers senescence on a cellular level and telomere dysfunction can facilitate oncogenesis. Therefore, the study of telomere biology is critical to the understanding of aging and cancer. The domestic chicken, a classic model for the study of developmental biology, possesses a telomere genome with highly conserved aspects and distinctive features which make it uniquely suited for the study of telomere maintenance mechanisms, their function and dysfunction. The purpose of this review is to highlight the chicken as a model for aging research, specifically as a model for telomere and telomerase research, and to increase its utility as such by describing developments in the study of chicken telomeres and telomerase in the context of related research in human and mouse.
• Maezawa, I., Swanberg, S., Harvey, D., LaSalle, J. M., & Jin, L. (2009). Rett syndrome astrocytes are abnormal and spread MeCP2 deficiency through gap junctions. The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 29(16), 5051-61.
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  MECP2, an X-linked gene encoding the epigenetic factor methyl-CpG-binding protein-2, is mutated in Rett syndrome (RTT) and aberrantly expressed in autism. Most children affected by RTT are heterozygous Mecp2-/+ females whose brain function is impaired postnatally due to MeCP2 deficiency. While prior functional investigations of MeCP2 have focused exclusively on neurons and have concluded the absence of MeCP2 in astrocytes, here we report that astrocytes express MeCP2, and MeCP2 deficiency in astrocytes causes significant abnormalities in BDNF regulation, cytokine production, and neuronal dendritic induction, effects that may contribute to abnormal neurodevelopment. In addition, we show that the MeCP2 deficiency state can progressively spread at least in part via gap junction communications between mosaic Mecp2-/+ astrocytes in a novel non-cell-autonomous mechanism. This mechanism may lead to the pronounced loss of MeCP2 observed selectively in astrocytes in mouse Mecp2-/+ brain, which is coincident with phenotypic regression characteristic of RTT. Our results suggest that astrocytes are viable therapeutic targets for RTT and perhaps regressive forms of autism.
• Swanberg, S. E., Nagarajan, R. P., Peddada, S., Yasui, D. H., & LaSalle, J. M. (2008). Reciprocal co-regulation of EGR2 and MECP2 is disrupted in Rett syndrome and autism. Human molecular genetics, 18(3), 525-34.
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  Mutations in MECP2, encoding methyl-CpG-binding protein 2 (MeCP2), cause the neurodevelopmental disorder Rett syndrome (RTT). Although MECP2 mutations are rare in idiopathic autism, reduced MeCP2 levels are common in autism cortex. MeCP2 is critical for postnatal neuronal maturation and a modulator of activity-dependent genes such as Bdnf (brain-derived neurotropic factor) and JUNB. The activity-dependent early growth response gene 2 (EGR2), required for both early hindbrain development and mature neuronal function, has predicted binding sites in the promoters of several neurologically relevant genes including MECP2. Conversely, MeCP2 family members MBD1, MBD2 and MBD4 bind a methylated CpG island in an enhancer region located in EGR2 intron 1. This study was designed to test the hypothesis that MECP2 and EGR2 regulate each other's expression during neuronal maturation in postnatal brain development. Chromatin immunoprecipitation analysis showed EGR2 binding to the MECP2 promoter and MeCP2 binding to the enhancer region in EGR2 intron 1. Reduction in EGR2 and MeCP2 levels in cultured human neuroblastoma cells by RNA interference reciprocally reduced expression of both EGR2 and MECP2 and their protein products. Consistent with a role of MeCP2 in enhancing EGR2, Mecp2-deficient mouse cortex samples showed significantly reduced EGR2 by quantitative immunofluorescence. Furthermore, MeCP2 and EGR2 show coordinately increased levels during postnatal development of both mouse and human cortex. In contrast to age-matched Controls, RTT and autism postmortem cortex samples showed significant reduction in EGR2. Together, these data support a role of dysregulation of an activity-dependent EGR2/MeCP2 pathway in RTT and autism.
• Nagarajan, R. P., Nagarajan, R. P., Patzel, K. A., Patzel, K. A., Martin, M., Martin, M., Yasui, D. H., Yasui, D. H., Swanberg, S. E., Swanberg, S. E., Hertz-Picciotto, I., Hertz-Picciotto, I., Hansen, R. L., Hansen, R. L., Van de Water, J., Van de Water, J., Pessah, I. N., Pessah, I. N., Jiang, R., , Jiang, R., et al. (2008). MECP2 promoter methylation and X chromosome inactivation in autism. Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 1(3), 169-78.
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  Epigenetic mechanisms have been proposed to play a role in the etiology of autism. This hypothesis is supported by the discovery of increased MECP2 promoter methylation associated with decreased MeCP2 protein expression in autism male brain. To further understand the influence of female X chromosome inactivation (XCI) and neighboring methylation patterns on aberrant MECP2 promoter methylation in autism, multiple methylation analyses were peformed on brain and blood samples from individuals with autism. Bisulfite sequencing analyses of a region 0.6 kb upstream of MECP2 in brain DNA samples revealed an abrupt transition from a highly methylated region in both sexes to a region unmethylated in males and subject to XCI in females. Chromatin immunoprecipitation analysis demonstrated that the CCTC-binding factor (CTCF) bound to this transition region in neuronal cells, consistent with a chromatin boundary at the methylation transition. Male autism brain DNA samples displayed a slight increase in methylation in this transition region, suggesting a possible aberrant spreading of methylation into the MECP2 promoter in autism males across this boundary element. In addition, autistic female brain DNA samples showed evidence for aberrant MECP2 promoter methylation as an increase in the number of bisulfite sequenced clones with undefined XCI status for MECP2 but not androgen receptor (AR). To further investigate the specificity of MECP2 methylation alterations in autism, blood DNA samples from females and mothers of males with autism were also examined for XCI skewing at AR, but no significant increase in XCI skewing was observed compared to controls. These results suggest that the aberrant MECP2 methylation in autism brain DNA samples is due to locus-specific rather than global X chromosome methylation changes.
• van de Lavoir, M., Diamond, J. H., Leighton, P. A., Mather-Love, C., Heyer, B. S., Bradshaw, R., Kerchner, A., Hooi, L. T., Gessaro, T. M., Swanberg, S. E., Delany, M. E., & Etches, R. J. (2006). Germline transmission of genetically modified primordial germ cells. Nature, 441(7094), 766-9.
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  Primordial germ cells (PGCs) are the precursors of sperm and eggs. In most animals, segregation of the germ line from the somatic lineages is one of the earliest events in development; in avian embryos, PGCs are first identified in an extra-embryonic region, the germinal crescent, after approximately 18 h of incubation. After 50-55 h of development, PGCs migrate to the gonad and subsequently produce functional sperm and oocytes. So far, cultures of PGCs that remain restricted to the germ line have not been reported in any species. Here we show that chicken PGCs can be isolated, cultured and genetically modified while maintaining their commitment to the germ line. Furthermore, we show that chicken PGCs can be induced in vitro to differentiate into embryonic germ cells that contribute to somatic tissues. Retention of the commitment of PGCs to the germ line after extended periods in culture and after genetic modification combined with their capacity to acquire somatic competence in vitro provides a new model for developmental biology. The utility of the model is enhanced by the accessibility of the avian embryo, which facilitates access to the earliest stages of development and supplies a facile route for the reintroduction of PGCs into the embryonic vasculature. In addition, these attributes create new opportunities to manipulate the genome of chickens for agricultural and pharmaceutical applications.
• van de Lavoir, M., Mather-Love, C., Leighton, P., Diamond, J. H., Heyer, B. S., Roberts, R., Zhu, L., Winters-Digiacinto, P., Kerchner, A., Gessaro, T., Swanberg, S., Delany, M. E., & Etches, R. J. (2006). High-grade transgenic somatic chimeras from chicken embryonic stem cells. Mechanisms of Development, 123(1), 31-41.
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  Male and female embryonic stem (ES) cell lines were derived from the area pellucidae of Stage X (EG&K) chicken embryos. These ES cell lines were grown in culture for extended periods of time and the majority of the cells retained a diploid karyotype. When reintroduced into Stage VI-X (EG&K) recipient embryos, the cES cells were able to contribute to all somatic tissues. By combining irradiation of the recipient embryo with exposure of the cES cells to the embryonic environment in diapause, a high frequency and extent of chimerism was obtained. High-grade chimeras, indistinguishable from the donor phenotype by feather pigmentation, were produced. A transgene encoding GFP was incorporated into the genome of cES cells under control of the ubiquitous promoter CX and GFP was widely expressed in somatic tissues. Although cES cells made extensive contributions to the somatic tissues, contribution to the germline was not observed.
• Swanberg, S. E., & Delany, M. E. (2005). Differential expression of genes associated with telomere length homeostasis and oncogenesis in an avian model. Mechanisms of ageing and development, 126(10), 1060-70.
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  Telomere-binding proteins, their interaction partners and transcription factors play a prominent role in telomere maintenance and telomerase activation. We examined mRNA expression levels of tankyrase 1 and 2, TRF1 and 2, c-myc, TERT and TR in Gallus domesticus, the domestic chicken, by quantitative real-time PCR, establishing expression profiles for three contrasting cell systems: the pluripotent gastrula, differentiated embryo fibroblasts and transformed DT40 cells. All seven genes were up-regulated in DT40 cells compared to telomerase-negative CEFs and a majority of the genes were also up-regulated in the gastrula relative to CEFs. Surprisingly, we found TERT and TR transcripts in CEFs, albeit at low levels. TRF1 was down-regulated in the six CEF cultures by the time of culture growth arrest. A marked increase in the TRF2:TRF1 ratio occurred at or near senescence in all of the CEF cultures studied, with the most elevated ratio found in a short-lived culture in which TRF1 mRNA levels decreased two-fold and TRF2 levels increased 21-fold. This culture also showed highly reduced, degraded telomeres by Southern blot analysis. These data suggest that genes involved in telomere maintenance and telomerase induction are expressed differentially in pluripotent, differentiated and transformed cell systems.
• Swanberg, S. E., Payne, W. S., Hunt, H. D., Dodgson, J. B., & Delany, M. E. (2004). Telomerase activity and differential expression of telomerase genes and c-myc in chicken cells in vitro. Developmental dynamics : an official publication of the American Association of Anatomists, 231(1), 14-21.
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  This study examined telomerase activity and gene expression profiles for three genes in Gallus gallus domesticus: telomerase reverse transcriptase (chTERT), telomerase RNA (chTR), and c-myc. Expression of these genes was studied in chicken embryonic stem (chES) cells, chicken embryo fibroblasts (CEFs), and DT40 cells using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Our results establish that, relative to transcription levels in telomerase-negative CEFs, chTERT and chTR are up-regulated in telomerase-positive chES cells. Transcription levels of chTERT, chTR, and c-myc are dramatically up-regulated in telomerase-positive DT40 cells, relative to CEFs and chES cells. These results are consistent with a model in which telomerase activity is up-regulated in proliferating embryonic stem cells requiring stable telomeres to endure multiple rounds of cell division; down-regulated in differentiated, lifespan-limited cells; and dramatically up-regulated in immortalized, transformed cells for which uncontrolled proliferation is correlated with c-myc dysregulation and telomerase activity.
• Delany, M. E., Daniels, L. M., Swanberg, S. E., & Taylor, H. A. (2003). Telomeres in the Chicken: Genome Stability and Chromosome Ends. Poultry Science, 82(6), 917-926. doi:10.1093
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  Telomeres are the complex nucleoprotein structures at the termini of linear chromosomes. Te- lomeric DNA consists of a highly conserved hexanucleo- tide arranged in tandem repeats. Telomerase, a ribo- nucleoprotein of the reverse transcriptase family, specifies the sequence of telomeric DNA and maintains telomere array length. Numerous studies in model organisms es- tablished the significance of telomere structure and func- tion in regulating genome stability, cellular aging, and oncogenesis. Our overall research objectives are to under- stand the organization of the telomere arrays in chicken in the context of the unusual organization and specialized features of this higher vertebrate genome (which include a compact genome, numerous microchromosomes, and high recombination rate) and to elucidate the role te- lomeres play in genome stability impacting cell function and life span. Recent studies found that the chicken ge- nome contains three overlapping size classes of telomere arrays that differ in location and age-related stability: Class I 0.5 to 10 kb, Class II 10 to 40 kb, and Class III 40 kb to 2 Mb. Some notable features of chicken telomere biology are that the chicken genome contains ten times more telomeric DNA than the human genome and the Class III telomere arrays are the largest described for any vertebrate species. In vivo, chicken telomeres (Class II) shorten in an age-related fashion and telomerase activity is high in early stage embryos and developing organs but down-regulates during late embryogenesis or postnatally in most somatic tissues. In vitro, chicken cells down-regu- late telomerase activity unless transformed. Knowledge of chicken telomere biology contributes information rele- vant to present and future biotechnology applications of chickens in vivo and chicken cells in vitro.
• Swanberg, S., & Delany, M. (2003). Dynamics of telomere erosion in transformed and non-transformed avian cells in vitro. CYTOGENETIC AND GENOME RESEARCH, 102(1-4), 318-325.

Presentations

• Swanberg, S. E. (2024, April).

  Invited panelist – “Sustaining Arizona’s Communities through Historical Newspapers,” April 12, 2024.
  https://tinyurl.com/5n8psrck

  . “Sustaining Arizona’s Communities through Historical Newspapers,”. Campus event: University of Arizona Libraries.
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  A symposium to learn about Arizona's historical newspapers! Hear from students, scholars, and librarians about the importance of preserving these rich resources and how to use them in your research and communities. Hosted by the University of Arizona Libraries and the University of Arizona Public History Collaborative, this free symposium will be held in person and on Zoom. Registration for in person attendance is required by April 5 and by April 10 for online attendance.
• Swanberg, S. E. (2021, February). "Ester Blenda Nordstrom: Sweden's Henry David Thoreau?". 42nd Southwest Popular/American Culture Association Conference (SWPACA2021). Albuquerque, New Mexico: Southwest Popular/American Culture Association (SWPACA2021).
• Swanberg, S. E. (2021, May 22, 2021 (virtual)). "Ester Blenda Nordstrom: En Tidningskvinna Bland Tidningskvinnor (A Newswoman Among Newswomen)". The fifteenth International Conference for Literary Journalism Studies (IALJS-15]. Virtual: International Assiciation of Literary Journalism Studies.
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  Literary journalists traverse media by employing a variety of techniques and methods or by breaching traditions and reforming genres. This work-in-progress presentation explores the writings of early twentieth-century Swedish journalist, travel writer, adventurer and novelist, Ester Blenda Nordström (1891-1948). Nordström revolutionized Swedish journalism by transgressing the gender norms of her day – at times travelling alone on the back of her motorcycle or hitchhiking. Nordström recorded her adventures in newspapers, magazines and books. Identified as Sweden’s first undercover journalist, Nordström is best known for her investigative reporting on the dismal lives of female domestic servants in rural Sweden. Curious about the reasons why young Swedish women were leaving their homes in droves, crossing the ocean and settling in the United States, Nordström assumed a secret identity and answered an advertisement seeking a servant to help on a farm in Sweden’s Sörmland. Nordström worked as a maid for thirty days, recording her experiences “without exaggerations and embellishments.” Nordström’s reportage was republished in 1914 under the title En Piga Bland Pigor (A Maid Among Maids). Nordström wrote about Kamchatka, which she visited during her brief marriage to Swedish entomologist, René Edmond Malaise. She also wrote about her experiences as a teacher in Lapland and her travels throughout the United States. In her work, which is not widely available in English, Nordström used many of the devices of literary journalism including immersion, scene-by-scene construction and recording a subject’s status life.
• Swanberg, S. E. (2021, October 9, 2021). "'Eugenics Sifted: Waldemar Kaempffert of the New York Times Examines the American Eugenics Movement". American Journalism Historians Association Annual Meeting - Research in Progress Presentation. Virtual: American Journalism Historians Association (AJHA).
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  This Research in Progress presentation will briefly consider The New York Times’ (NYT) early coverage of the American eugenics movement – including NYT articles that endorsed or promoted the movement – followed by a comparison of those articles with several editorials about eugenics authored in the succeeding decades by Waldemar Kaempffert, an experienced science journalist hired by the NYT in 1927 to editorialize about science. The ultimate goal of this research is to illustrate the NYT’s transformation from a newspaper that promoted the American eugenics movement to a news source that employed a critical, evidence-based, but easily understandable approach to the subject; to identify and characterize Kaempffert’s role in that transformation; and to examine the eugenics debate in the context of early-to-mid-twentieth-century science journalism.
• Kolodij, N., & Swanberg, S. E. (2020, February). University of Arizona Planetary Art Exhibitors Explain Their Use of Art to Communicate with the Public About Science. Southwest/American Popular Culture Association Conference. Albuquerque, New Mexico: SWAPCA.
• Swanberg, S. E. (2018, August). "Farming Outside the Lines: Rain Follows the Plow in 21st Century Art and Popular Culture". 4S SYDNEY TRANSnational STS. Sidney, Australia: Society for the Social Studies of Science.
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  Note: This paper pushed my "rain follows the plow" (RFTP) research theme forward by including research on settlement-era South Australia. The same dynamic, including promotion of the RFTP trope to promote settlement of arid lands and the resurgence of the trope in 20 & 21st century art a music, apparently was at play in South Australia.AbstractFarming Outside the Lines: Rain Follows the Plow in 21st Century Art and Popular Culture Climate change misinformation and disinformation have influenced policy decisions at important moments in history, including the recent U.S. retreat from the Paris Climate Accords. It’s imperative, therefore, that we reexamine and learn from historical episodes where faulty environmental information was disseminated and relied upon. One such example involved a pseudoscientific 19th century notion encapsulated by the phrase “rain follows the plow.” This belief maintained that cultivation of arid lands west of the 100th Meridian in the United States would increase the evaporation of moisture, boost precipitation and effect a permanent change in the climate. Based upon this ‘theory,’ settlement and intensive farming of arid lands beyond the 100th Meridian was encouraged, leading to the Dust Bowl’s human and environmental catastrophes. “Rain follows the plow” was also invoked in South Australia to justify settlement of lands beyond Goyder’s Line, which delineated the limits of reliable rainfall. In the U.S. and Australia, the notion that cultivating arid lands increased rainfall played out in the press, in scientific circles, in government and in the lives of those convinced the maxim was true. In the last decade, “rain follows the plow” has emerged as an ironic trope or cautionary tale in print journalism, the visual arts, music and song. This paper revisits the origins of the phrase and examines the significance of its resurgence in journalism, the arts, music and popular culture narratives.
• Swanberg, S. E. (2018, February). "Rain Follows the Plow: A Debunked Nineteenth Century Theory of Climatology Persists as a Trope in U.S . Popular Culture". Southwest Popular/American Culture Association 39th Annual Conference. Albuquerque, New Mexico: Southwest Popular/American Culture Association.
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  This presentation examined the historical belief that became prominent during settlement of the United States Great Plains. This belief, which maintained that cultivation of the Great Plains would induce a change in the climate from arid to moist, was encapsulated by the phrase "rain follows the plow." This phrase was used to promote settlement of the arid lands west of the 100th meridian. Although the "rain follows the plow" belief was proven long ago to be untrue and unscientific, 21st century musicians and artists have appropriated the trope as an apocalyptic meme with which to warn audiences they should take action on global climate change or risk the disaster that took place when gullible homesteaders believed government representations about the environment and homesteaded on the Great Plains.
• Swanberg, S. E. (2018, May). Preserving the Desert Bighorn Sheep: A Literary Journey. 13th Conference for Literary Journalism Studies. Vienna, Austria: International Association of Literary Journalism Studies.
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  This presentation discussed the literary style of 19th-20th century writings concerning the bighorn sheep.
• Swanberg, S. E., & Swanberg, S. E. (2018, March). "Psychological Armor: The Science Service Warns Against the Dangers of Propaganda in its Science News-Letter (1929-1965). Joint Journalism and Communication History Conference (JJCHC) in 2018. New York City: AJHA and AEJMC.
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  Note: This conference paper was revised and published in Journalism Studies in November of 2018. The Science Service, established in 1921 by newspaper magnate, Edward Willis “E.W.” Scripps, and prominent biologist, William E. Ritter, was a science news syndicate founded with the express mission of encouraging the public to develop a scientific habit of mind (Bennet, 2013). As Edwin E. Slosson, Ph.D. noted in the organization’s prospectus, “[t]he success of democratic government as well as the prosperity of the individual may be said to depend upon the ability of the people to distinguish between real science and fake, between the genuine expert and the pretender” (Slosson, 1921). The Service acted as a liaison between scientists and the public, disseminating by subscription to news agencies, articles about scientific research papers written in non-technical language. The Service, its bulletins and newsletters left an indelible mark on the field of science journalism, setting a standard by which scientists and journalists would interact and placing its science stories in well-respected U.S. newspapers. The Service was committed to remaining independent and avoiding the use of propaganda. Slosson maintained that the service would not promulgate propaganda “unless it be propaganda to urge the value of research and the usefulness of science.” As war loomed again in the 1930s, the Service began to publish articles about propaganda in its Science News Letter including: “Propaganda Analysis May Protect You Against It” (Van de Water, 1937) and “Ten Commandants Offered For Propaganda Protection - Psychologist Experts in This Field Issue Warning and Suggestions for a Psychological Armor” (Science News Letter, 1939). Between 1929 and 1965 forty-two Science News Letter articles focused on the dangers of propaganda and strategies by which the public could recognize and battle propaganda’s “insidious assault against intelligence” (Van de Water, Science News Letter, October 8, 1938). The newsletter’s anti-propaganda crusade was most active between 1929 and 1941, fell largely silent after the United States entered World War II, and became active again after the war ended. This paper identifies, examines and places in context, selected Science News Letter articles on propaganda published during three critical periods: before the U.S. entered WWII, from Pearl Harbor until the war ended, and the post-war period from late 1945 until 1965 when the Science News Letter was subsumed into its successor publication, Science News, and the Science Service became known as the Society for Science and the Public.
• Swanberg, S. E. (2017, March). "Borrowed Chronicles: New York Times Science Journalist, William L. "Atomic Bill" Laurence". Legacies of the Manhattan Project: Reflections on 75 Years of a Nuclear World - conference. Washington State UniversityTri-Cities: Hanford History Project.
• Swanberg, S. E. (2011, Fall). Transcription of TERRA from Avian Telomeres. Departmental Seminar. University of California, Davis: Animal Science Department.

Poster Presentations

• Swanberg, S. E., O'Hare, T. H., & Delany, M. E. (2011, May). Transcription of TERRA from Avian Telomeres. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Meeting on Telomeres and Telomerase. Cold Spring Harbor: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
• Maezawa, I., Swanberg, S. E., LaSalle, J. M., & Jin, L. (2009, Spring). Rett Syndrome Astrocytes are Abnormal and Spread the MeCp2 Deficiency State Through Gap Junctions. Annual Meeting of the American Society for Neurochemistry. San Antonio, Texas: American Society for Neurochemistry.
• Swanberg, S. E., Nagarajan, R. P., & LaSalle, J. M. (2007, November 3, 2007). Early Growth Response Gene 2 (EGR2) is Dysregulated in Autism and Rett Syndrome Brain. Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting. San Diego, California: Society for Neuroscience.

Reviews

• Swanberg, S. E. (2024. "Alarm Calls and Other Echoes of a Once and Future World" (Book Review Essay)(pp 194-210).
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  Book Review Essay Referencing 6+ works. Works discussed: Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future by Elizabeth Kolbert. New York: Crown/Penguin Random House Group, 2021. Hardcover, 256 pp., USD$21.49. Paperback edition with afterword published 2022 by Crown Trade (New York). Page references are to the 2021 edition. Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out? by Bill McKibben. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2019. Hardcover, 304 pp., USD$12.19. The Uninhabitable Earth: Life after Warming by David Wallace-Wells. New York: Tim Duggan Books/Crown Publishing Group/Penguin Random House LLC, 2019. Hardcover, 320 pp., USD$22.14. Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law by Mary Roach. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2021. Hardcover, 320 pp., USD$21.49. Trace: Memory, History, Race, and the American Landscape by Lauret Savoy. Berkeley, California: Counterpoint Press, 2016. Hardcover, 240 pp., USD$25. Plus, an antidote against despair: The Nature of Desert Nature edited by Gary Paul Nabhan. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2020 (Southwest Center Series).
• Swanberg, S. E., & Roby, M. (2020. "Fact or Fiction? Researchers Examine Our Shared Concern"(pp 209-211). Literary Journalism Studies, Vol 12, No. 1.
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  This book review, co-authored with UA graduate student, Matthew Roby, reviews The Oxford Handbook of the Science of Science Communication (2017)edited by Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Dan Kahan, and Dietram A. Scheufele.
• Swanberg, S. E. (2019. "Crux of the Matter: Renewing an Acquaintance with John Hersey," Review of "Mr. Straight Arrow: The Career of John Hersey, Author of Hiroshima."(pp 175-178).
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  Academic book review of "Mr. Straight Arrow: The Career of John Hersey, Author of Hiroshima."
• Swanberg, S. E. (2017. "The Limits of Memory and Vicissitudes of Truth" review of Kept Secret: The Half-Truth in NonFiction(pp 139-141).
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  The essays compiled in Kept Secret: The Half-Truth in Nonfiction, edited by Penn State Harrisburg assistant professor Jen Hirt and University of Louisiana adjunct instructor Tina Mitchell, inhabit a land bounded on one side by the limits of recall and on the other by the confines of truth. At the heart of each essay resides a secret—concealed or revealed, hoarded or shared. The author interviews, incorporated within the anthology, frequently unmask the writers’ hidden impulses. The result is a compendium you’ll want to visit and revisit, reading first to uncover the mysteries at the surface and then to discern the enigmas below.

Others

• Swanberg, S. E. (2023, spring 2023). "A Jewel of a Tale from Pinnacles National Park," Your American West, Spring 2023, 5-7 (A science-for-the-public article about genetic identification of a wildflower found at Pinnacles National Park.). Your American West.
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  "A Jewel of a Tale from Pinnacles National Park," Your American West, Spring 2023, 5-7 (A science-for-the-public article about genetic identification of a wildflower found at Pinnacles National Park.)
• Swanberg, S. E. (2021, June & Dec. (double issue)). "Nuclear Shadows: Hersey’s 'Hiroshima' Revisited," review of Fallout: The Hiroshima cover-up and the reporter who revealed it to the world by Lesley M. M. Blume.
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  The seventy-fifth anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima reminded us yet again of the global and humanitarian significance of the catastrophic nuclear attack that ended World War II. In her book, Fallout: The Hiroshima cover-up and the reporter who revealed it to the world, Lesley M. M. Blume – journalist, historian, and best-selling author – examined what she called “the backstory of how John Hersey got the full story about atomic aftermath when no other journalist could….” (5). Fallout, published less than sixteen months after Jeremy Treglown’s Mr. Straight Arrow: The Career of John Hersey, Author of Hiroshima, is more circumscribed in scope than Mr. Straight Arrow, which was reviewed in this journal in 2019. Where Mr. Straight Arrow focused on Hersey’s entire career as a writer, spanning his life from childhood to his last winters in Key West, Fallout focused on the circumstances surrounding the reporting, writing, and publication of “Hiroshima.” NOTE: Literary Journalism Studies issued this announcement concerning the volume in which this is to be published - "Please note: Because of fact-checking and citation-checking difficulties, which are directly related to the pandemic, our next issue will be a double issue comprising Vol. 13, No. 1 (June 2021) and Vol. 13, No. 2 (December 2021). If all goes well, this double issue will be posted sometime in December 2021. Thank you for your patience and understanding. —Bill Reynolds, Editor, LJS" Unfortunately, as of February 12, 2022, this double issue has still not been issued. I have been in contact with one of the journal's editor/fact-checkers who assures me that this (and another article of mine that has been accepted by the journal) will be published in one of the issues that normally would have been published in 2021. The editor told me the following: "Hi back, Susan, Not a bother. In truth I am checking the proofs of your Hersey study as I write. I was nearing the finish when I ended my day yesterday. Today should wrap it up, if all goes as planned. The book review proofs are in from Bill. They will be the last in line, but your review of Blume’s book is included for this issue. So, yes, I would say you can list both as new publications “forthcoming.” These years have been interesting, to say the least! I will definitely be cheering with everyone when we can finally celebrate the pandemic’s end! Best, Marcia"
• Swanberg, S. E. (2017, August). "Swanberg on Her Research on John Hersey and Hiroshima Eyewitness, John Siemes, S.J.". Intelligencer.