2020-10-30
- With careers ranging from novel-writing to emergency medicine, overseeing U.S. national science policy, managing the central bank of China, clean energy, and preventing drug abuse, 10 alumni from the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences have named recipients of the college’s 2020 annual alumni awards.
The winners have been honored during LAS...
2020-10-29 - Statistics reveal that the poor in general are punished more frequently and severely for their crimes than the wealthy. A psychology professor at Illinois has found, however, that when it comes to evaluating the moral character of those who have committed crimes, the wealthy are judged more harshly than the poor. Sean Laurent said that many people...
2020-10-28 - During the shutdowns, social distancing, and fear of the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s easy to become isolated. That’s why the College of LAS has used this unusual time to provide students with an opportunity to reach out and make the pandemic easier to overcome. The College of LAS has created COVID-Corps: Actions for Solutions (...
2020-10-27 - The Class of 2020 was much like any other of the graduating classes before it— eager, inspired, and prepared to change the world. This class, however, will long be remembered for how they were forced to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic that closed the university and brought their time on campus to an early end. They adapted to learning from home to finish their degrees, however, and even without a...
2020-10-27 - From witnessing airplanes stuck in the mud to hearing predictions that Champaign and Urbana would soon unite into one city, the University of Illinois has played host to several memorable presidential visits since the early 1900s. In fact, more than half of the U.S. presidents elected since 1911 have visited Urbana-Champaign before, during, or after their presidency, with several of them...
2020-10-27 - We’d all like to think we’re rational beings who arrive at our political views strictly through logic. That anyone faced with the same obvious facts would reach the same obvious conclusion. But according to Aleksander Ksiazkiewicz, professor of political science, that might not be the case. “It turns out that political attitudes and behaviors have a...
2020-10-26 - Let’s rewrite a little bit of recent history. Let’s pretend that the first presidential debate on September 29 was a picture of civil discourse, and that President Donald Trump never fell ill with COVID-19 and that the second debate went on as planned. In this alternate reality, would the presidential debates have made a difference on Election Day? Probably not, said two professors who study...
2020-10-23 - Born in Guam and having lived in Korea, Kuwait, and the U.S., Ann Lee Joe (BA, ’96, anthropology) has had a lifelong interest in international experiences. “With the opportunities that (Illinois) offered, I studied abroad to explore other cultures and languages,” she said. “I studied abroad in Korea and Costa Rica. I speak English,...
2020-10-23 - Two Illinois professors have been named geospatial fellows for the Geospatial Software Institute (GSI) Conceptualization Project, which aims to study the spread and impact of COVID-19 and offer solutions to vulnerable populations it has affected. Ruby Mendenhall and Andrew J. Greenlee comprise a list of 16 researchers from 13 universities with projects aimed at addressing issues related to...
2020-10-22 - The banyan fig tree Ficus microcarpa is famous for its aerial roots, which sprout from branches and eventually reach the soil. The tree also has a unique relationship with a wasp that has coevolved with it and is the only insect that can pollinate it. In a new study, researchers identify regions in the banyan fig’s genome that promote the development of its unusual aerial roots and...
2020-10-20 - For 100 years, the Altgeld Chimes have provided a soundtrack for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus. The chimes’ 10-minute concerts between classes feature songs ranging from “Illinois Loyalty” to movie themes, and from hymns to pop songs. Starting Oct. 25, a weeklong series of concerts will celebrate the...
2020-10-19 - Perhaps it’s coincidence—and perhaps not—that two of the most symbolic moments in the history of the Altgeld Chimes have come during some of the hardest times in campus history. Look back to early 1920. A student fundraising drive to purchase chimes for Altgeld Hall had come to a halt. What started out in 1914 as a campaign to create a class memorial for the ages had lost its energy in a...
2020-10-14 - For many U of I students, pastries and coffee are one way to soothe the mind after hours of studying. That, along with their own fond memories of coffee-making college days, is what prompted a pair of former students to revive several Espresso Royale locations in Champaign-Urbana when COVID-19 threatened to shut them down. After the chain announced last April that it would close all of its...
2020-10-12 - Baseball is America’s game. But for more than a century it’s also been the game of Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, and many others in Latin America. It’s also been the game of immigrants who came to the U.S. from those places and their descendants. “They brought baseball with them. It was not part of their Americanization, it was a part of who they were,” says University of Illinois Urbana-...
2020-10-08 - Socialism has become a divisive word in American politics. Former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders brought its tenets into mainstream discussion, and polls indicate that younger Americans are becoming more open to the concept, but polls also indicate that older Americans remain staunchly opposed. Socialism, said history professor Maria Todorova, has become an “ideological boogeyman.” It’s...
2020-10-07 - As a way to amplify voices of expertise on pressing issues, a national program called the Public Voices Fellowship will allow professors from across the country to pair up with journalists and learn more about how to discuss ideas with a broad audience. Four of the professors are from the College...
2020-10-02 - How do you find the words to describe the moments and perceptions that shape your life? This is what Janice Harrington helps others do. The award-winning poet, author, and professor of English talks about teaching poetry, shares one of her own poems, and explains one of her favorite lines: “Yes, I can.” How do you teach poetry? What advice do...
2020-09-30 - Daily life in Beirut is subject to violence and an ever-changing series of disruptions – a reality that residents refer to as “al-wad” or “the situation.” Ghassan Moussawi – an ethnographer and a professor of gender and women’s studies and of ...
2020-09-23 - In breast cancer tumors, a molecule produced when the body breaks down cholesterol hijacks the myeloid immune cells that normally arm T cells to fight cancer, a new study in mice found. Instead, the hijacked myeloid cells disarm the T cells and even tell them to self-destruct. By inhibiting the enzymes that make that molecule, researchers slowed the cancer’s progression and boosted the efficacy...
2020-09-22 - With research interests ranging from migration to hip hop, and personal backgrounds ranging from Texas to Tajikistan, more than 40 new faculty members in almost 25 departments joined the College of LAS this fall. Their experiences as new faculty members have been different than any before them. They have spent the first few weeks of the semester teaching and researching under campus safety...
2020-09-21 - As a national correspondent for ESPN, Michele Steele is at home whether she is on the sidelines during a Monday night NFL game or behind the anchor desk on SportsCenter. Based in Chicago, the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences alumna has covered some of the biggest stories in sports. Degree: BA, ’00,...
2020-09-21 - Editor's note: This commentary by Don Wuebbles, the Harry E. Preble Professor of Atmospheric Science, originally appeared in the News-Gazette. From 2015 to early 2017, Wuebbles was...
2020-09-18 - David Wright wrote the real-life story of Richard Etheridge, the only Black man to lead a lifesaving crew along the Outer Banks of North Carolina in the late 19th century, and his crew’s heroic rescue efforts during a hurricane. In his latest work, Wright – an English professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign – imagined Etheridge as a...
2020-09-14 - Since July, the University of Illinois has conducted more than 300,000 COVID-19 tests on students, faculty, and staff to provide a safe environment for a mix of online and in-person classes on campus. The rapid, saliva-based tests, which are being administered at 17 sites across campus, were developed at the university. In August, the university validated its laboratory-developed test under...
2020-09-14 - Ten alumni from the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences have named recipients of the college’s 2020 annual alumni awards. Their professions range from novel-writing to pharmaceutical development, overseeing national science policy, emergency medicine, and managing the central bank of China. The winners will be honored during LAS Impact 2020...