Pollinators in Pop Culture with Codey Mathis (Oct. 27)

In recent years, insects of all kinds have been gaining attention in media and our pop culture, from video games to news articles about murder hornets. While this may seem like a boon to entomologists, it frequently leads to misinformation and further deepens the negative sentiments that the general public has towards these important invertebrates. In this talk, Codey Mathis discusses the pros and cons of having more attention paid to pollinators and pollinator-adjacent insects, the “good” and the “bad” of how these insects are portrayed in society and ways to improve the messaging for all ages.

Codey Mathis is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Entomology at Penn State University. Her research focuses on improving our understanding of plant-pollinator communities to better inform the conservation of these important insects, as well as critically evaluating existing monitoring methodologies. Mathis received her master’s in miology at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania where she studied pollinator communities in timber harvests, and her bachelor’s in fisheries and wildlife at Oregon State University. She is from the Pacific Northwest and enjoys hiking with her beagle, reading books about epic fantasy, science history and laments the lack of realistic bee Pokémon.