September Pub Talk
Science Pub: “Communication Matters: from Bees to Police Badges“
September 22nd, 2026 | 6:00 – 7:00 p.m.
Sip your favorite brew, while you learn a thing or two! Science Pub is an opportunity to enjoy learning about interesting topics in an informal atmosphere. Just bring your curiosity and a thirst to learn!
Join the Speakers! At Paradise Creek Brewery, downtown location – 245 SE Paradise St, Pullman, the talks will be presented/displayed on the large projection screen in the pub/restaurant area.
See the Facebook event HERE
This month’s speakers:
Join Priya Chakrabarti Basu, Hillary Mellinger, and Brittany Solensten on September 22nd for their pub talk, “Communication Matters: from Bees to Police Badges”.
This pub talk hopes to spark a conversation (pun intended) about communication, whether it is by bees or by officers and community members during traffic stops. Communication has many nuances, particularly when it is done by different species (e.g., bees) or by people who speak different languages. Far from letting language barriers prevent dialogue, however, both bees and humans have unique ways of addressing communication challenges.
Dr. Chakrabarti Basu will talk about the importance of pollinators and how both managed bees and wild bees contribute to our economy and the ecosystem. She will then dive into the intricacies of social bees and the bee hive, underlying some fascinating behaviors and why communication matters in a complex bee world. She will also discuss a part of her research understanding the impacts of stressors on bee behavior.
Then, Dr. Hillary Mellinger and doctoral candidate Brittany Solensten will present their findings on how police navigate language barriers during traffic stops. They analyzed body-worn camera (BWC) footage from 84 traffic stops, 43 of which involved language barriers, as well as fifteen interviews with officers from a medium-sized law enforcement agency in Washington state that serves a predominantly Hispanic community. They will discuss which language tools were used by officers in the BWC videos. They will also share interviewees’ thoughts on helpful strategies versus less productive practices for responding to language barriers, as well as ways that law enforcement agencies, officers, and drivers can come together to navigate language barriers.
Dr. Priya Chakrabarti Basu is an Assistant Professor with research-teaching-extension academic roles at the Department of Entomology, Washington State University. Priya studies the interactive impacts of multiple stressors on bees, for example poor nutrition, pesticides, environmental stressors, pests and diseases. She uses a wide array of multidisciplinary techniques across fields such as physiology, toxicology, functional biology, multiomics-based approaches and neuroethology to address her research questions. In addition to the research community, Priya enjoys teaching and working with stakeholders, policymakers and the general community in protecting bee pollinators. Priya is also a children’s book author to help spread pollinator awareness among young readers.
Dr. Hillary Mellinger is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Washington State University. Her interdisciplinary, mixed-methods research spans three areas: interpreting challenges within the criminal justice and immigration systems, immigration law and policy, and the immigration legal profession. Prior to earning her PhD, she worked as a Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) Accredited Representative at the Tahirih Justice Center, a national nonprofit organization that provides legal representation, social services, and public policy advocacy to immigrant survivors of gender-based violence.
Brittany Solensten is a PhD candidate in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Washington State University. Her dissertation is focused on police officer retention in Washington. Her research interests include policing, traffic enforcement, data analysis, and data management.