Larry Mintz: Associate professor and director, Art Gliner Center for Humor Studies; American studies
Expertise: American popular culture and American humor with an emphasis on television, standup comedy, popular literature and theaterMintz says:
- On humor and love: "We use humor as a necessary antidote or mild corrective, balancer for sentimentality. Males, especially, are uncomfortable expressing sentiments of love. Humor makes it easier."- On male-female humor: "The bulk of male-female humor is very negative. I like to tell my classes that it is easy for marital to become martial with just the blink of an 'i.' As far back as Rip Van Winkle, marriage has been portrayed as a trap for men and oppression for women."
Credentials: Editor of Humor, International Journal of Humor; Oversees the annual International Humor Conference each July.
Robin Sawyer: Professor and acting chair for the department of public and community health
Expertise: Human sexuality
Sawyer offers what he calls "a pair of quotes that capture the essence of at least one outlook on love, sex and relationships:"
"Love is like an hourglass with the heart filling up as the brain empties." - Jules Renard"Love is the self-delusion we manufacture to justify the trouble we take to have sex." - Dan Greenburg
Credentials: Nationally known for his expertise on human sexuality, Sawyer has given presentations at more than 350 universities and colleges around the U.S. He has authored two textbooks and written and produced four films on sexuality.
Melinda Chateauvert: Undergraduate studies director in the Afro-American studies program; public affairs director for the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom Foundation, a national political advocacy and lobbying group
Expertise: Sexuality, including sexual expression, gender, race and sexuality, public sex, sex laws
Chateauvert Says:
- "Sexual freedom is the next human rights issue. Attitudes toward alternative forms of sexual expression are changing. That's because sexual practices and behaviors once closeted and condemned are becoming normal with access to urban communities, the Internet and specialized social events."- "Sexual freedom is a human rights issue because love, caring and communion allow us to celebrate, create and explore the full variety of life's joys."
Credentials: Chateauvert's research projects include a study of the labor and labor consciousness among workers in the commercial sex industry, and a comparative political analysis of various campaigns to change laws regulating sexuality and gender identity.
Sheri Parks: Associate professor of American studies
Areas of Expertise: Popular American aesthetics with a special focus on culture, family and gender. She can answer questions about the origin of holidays. She is particularly interested in the role of mass media in the lives of families.
Parks Says:
- "Popular culture, thanks to a heavy dose of advertising, has come to define how we feel about our relationships and how we measure ourselves during holidays like Valentine's Day. For example, if there's no card that reflects how we feel, then we feel sad. The cards have become the benchmark for the day."- "If popular culture defines what counts as romance, and we accept that, then it says something about our relationships."
Credentials: Along with her work at Maryland, Parks is a popular radio host and a mother. Her radio show, Media Matters, won the 2001 Friends of Children Award from the National Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
John Robinson: Professor of Sociology; College of Behavioral and Social Sciences
Areas of Expertise: The impact of the mass media and the Internet on society; time use; societal trends, social change and social science methodology
Robinson Says:
- About the Internet's impact on sex: "(Recent data shows that) lower sexual frequency was found with each (age) group's increased use of the Internet. The group that seemed most affected were those under age 35 and married, suggesting a 'Not tonight, honey, I have email,' pattern of interaction."
Credentials: Directs the Internet Scholars Program and the Americans' Use of Time Project. He is the co-author of Sex, Church And The Internet based on data from a General Social Survey of Internet users done in 2000.
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