2026-02-26
- Insect-human hybrids provide the scares at the 2026 Insect Fear Film Festival at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.The festival, which is hosted by the Entomology Graduate Student Association, takes place Feb. 28 at Foellinger Auditorium. It is free and open to the...
2026-02-26 - The Trump administration recently ordered the National Park Service to remove interpretive signs that discuss slavery at Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, following an executive order issued last year stating that public monuments should not “inappropriately disparage Americans” and instead “focus on the greatness of the achievements and progress of the American people...
2026-02-25 - Meet Jasmin Patrón-Vargas (BA, '11, Latina/Latino studies and gender and women's studies) an assistant professor of teaching, learning, and culture at Texas A&M University. She earned her MEd in education policy studies at the University of Illinois Chicago in 2015 and her PhD in curriculum, instruction, and...
2026-02-23 - The College of LAS will recognize seven individuals during the 2026 alumni awards celebration in April. This year's honorees are researchers, philanthropists, and political thinkers who have made incredible impacts in their fields and communities.
2026-02-23 - City development is increasingly associated with creating “smart cities” that use technology for managing city services, home construction and attracting resources. But those strategies come with negative consequences to a city’s poor residents, said David Wilson, a professor of geography...
2026-02-23 - A multi-disciplinary team of faculty researchers from the University of Illinois has been awarded a Sawyer Seminar grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to study the challenges to democracy and academic freedom confronting US universities now. This is the first time in the 30-year history of the Sawyer Seminar Program that Illinois faculty have won this prestigious humanities award....
2026-02-20 - The Raphael Kiam Economics Learning Center was recently renovated to be more inviting and accommodating to students.Located in the lower level of David Kinley Hall, the ELC is a space for economics students to receive tutoring and study. Before the...
2026-02-20 - As one might expect on a bitterly cold Thursday evening, the bar fills up early. Conversations overlap, beer is served, glasses clink. Then things get interesting. Someone sets up a projector. As the crowd jockeys for a good view, in walks Charles Gammie, an Illinois astronomy and physics professor who was part of the effort that ...
2026-02-19 - The way Latino Americans’ identity is represented on demographic forms can undermine their fundamental sense of belonging in the U.S., says new research by psychology professor who studies how people navigate exclusion and discrimination.Across four experiments that surveyed more than 1,300 Latino participants before and after the 2020 and 2024...
2026-02-18 - The College of LAS has selected 19 professors, graduate students, lecturers, and advisors as the recipients of this year’s teaching and advising awards.“It is a privilege to celebrate these remarkable educators and advisors who fulfill our educational mission within the College of LAS,” said Venetria K. Patton, the Harry E. Preble Dean of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. “From...
2026-02-13 - A University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty member has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering.Christopher Burcham, a professor of the practice in the department of chemical and biomolecular engineering, is part of the Class of 2026 for the prestigious engineering body....
2026-02-06 - When history professor Leslie J. Reagan entered her graduate program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison she and the other students in her cohort were told it was unlikely they would ever get an academic job. The field of women's history was virtually nonexistent at the time and the hiring of historians at an extreme low. Now, after 33...
2026-02-06 - In 1945, 855 women of color (mainly African Americans) in the newly formed 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion were deployed to Birmingham, England, during World War II. Commanded by then-Major Charity Adams, the 6888th’s mission was to clear a massive backlog of mail that had accumulated in warehouses during the war. The lack of mail delivery for soldiers and family members at home...
2026-02-06 - Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have reported a breakthrough in nickel catalysis that harnesses a rare oxidation state of nickel that has proved challenging to control yet is highly valued for its potential to facilitate important chemical reactions.The researchers, led by Liviu Mirica, a professor of chemistry at...
2026-02-03 - Poet Ángel García examines his disrupted family lineage in his new collection of poetry, seeking answers about where he came from and trying to fill the many gaps in his family’s story.“Indifferent Cities” is the second book by García, a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign...
2026-01-30 - While scientists have long known that living in a disadvantaged neighborhood is associated with biological symptoms of accelerated aging, emotional distress accounts for a significant portion of these effects, researchers found in a recent study.“Consistent with a chains-of-risk framework — the theory that later-life health conditions are triggered by sequential, linked exposures earlier in...
2026-01-30 - Asef Bayat is a sociology professor and the Catherine and Bruce Bastian Professor of Global and Transnational Studies at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign with expertise in global social movements and revolutions in the Middle East. A native of Iran, Bayat spoke with News Bureau research editor Sharita Forrest about the mass protests...
2026-01-30 - New psychoactive substances, originally developed as potential analgesics but abandoned due to adverse side effects, may still have pharmaceutical value if researchers could nail down the causes of those side effects. A new study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign used deep learning and large-scale computer simulations to identify structural differences in synthetic...
2026-01-15 - The first year of President Trump’s second term has ushered in host of policy changes to higher education, research funding and priorities. Kelvin Droegemeier, professor of climate, meteorology and atmospheric science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, directed the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy from 2019 to 2021....
2026-01-15 - What accounts for the number of partisan gerrymandering efforts midway through the 10-year census cycle? Brian J. Gaines is a professor of political science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the Honorable W. Russell Arrington Professor in State Politics at the U of I System’s Institute of...
2026-01-14 - A collaboration between Princeton University engineers and entomologists at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign began with the researchers chasing grasshoppers in a hot parking lot. Their eventual focus on the hindwings of one species of grasshopper, Schistocerca americana, the American grasshopper, is inspiring a new approach to untethered gliding flight. The scientists...
2026-01-09 - The College of Liberal Arts & Sciences is providing undergraduates a valuable, behind-the-scenes opportunity that offers a glimpse at how a major academic unit works. Called the Peter and Joan Hood Internship, this year’s intern, Colette Roth, is right in the middle of it and describes how the position is preparing her for a career in higher education. Named for and supported by...
2026-01-07 - Filmmaker Ken Burns’ new documentary — a six-part series on the American Revolution — aired on PBS in November and is now streaming. The documentary describes the American Revolution as “a war for independence, a war of conquest, a civil war and a world war,” and it aims to provide “an...
2026-01-07 - Last December marked the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth (she was born Dec. 16, 1775) and fans of her novels have been celebrating with tea parties, brunches, and balls. Her novels — including “Sense and Sensibility,” “Pride and Prejudice” and “Emma” — enjoy immense popularity. They are the subject of numerous academic studies and TV and film adaptations. Justine S. Murison is the...
2026-01-06 - Miguel Ángel Galindo (MA, ’91, Spanish; PhD, ’97, Spanish) and Nerea Muguerza (MA, ’98, Spanish), longtime resident directors of the Illinois in Granada program in Granada, Spain, recently returned to the University of Illinois for their first visit in a decade.The...