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...
2020-09-11 - Editor's note: Samantha Boyle is a student writer for the College of LAS Office of Communications and Marketing. She is taking a mix of online and in-person classes. Like many other students at the University of Illinois, I was not expecting to start my senior year of undergrad partially or even possibly fully online. I was looking forward to going from building to building and...
2020-09-11 - Twelve faculty members have taken new leadership positions in departments and other academic units within the College of LAS. Leadership changes within academic units are normal during the start of the new school year. The College of LAS has more than 600 faculty in almost 70 departments, programs, schools, centers, and other academic units. “Our new executive officers in the College of LAS...
2020-09-10 - The University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign’s 2020 enrollment is 52,331, surpassing last year’s record of 51,196, a status administration officials attribute to greater demand for the university’s online graduate programs. In response to the global COVID-19 pandemic, fall semester instruction is a mixture of face-to-face, hybrid, and online courses. Of that campus total, the College of...
2020-09-09 - Public monuments are built to represent an idea—and this year, in particular, the ideas of the past have been put under the microscope. Following the killing of George Floyd, protesters in the United States and around the world have toppled or defaced many statues of controversial historical figures whose thoughts and actions were harmful to Black and Indigenous populations. Statues of Jefferson...
2020-09-01 - We're living during a tense, divisive, and dangerous time. How do we get to a brighter future? A. Naomi Paik sees a path, and it’s lit by clear-sighted analysis of how we got here. She studies immigration, imprisonment, and how some of our most hotly debated problems reach back to the foundations of U.S. history. Title: Professor, Departments of...
2020-09-01 - There’s nothing new about political protest in sports, but the recent athlete-led game boycotts or strikes following the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, seemed to set a new standard. Historian Adrian Burgos Jr. specializes in the history of minority participation in sports as a professor of history at the University of Illinois, Urbana-...
2020-08-28 - Ramona (Russell) Pogue Borders graduated from the University of Illinois in 1948 while her dear friend Peggy (Young) Ruff earned her degree from the Department of Mathematics in 1975. However, no matter the years, the two have a loyal friendship that is based on honesty and giving – two priorities that have led Borders to make an estate gift to benefit the Altgeld Hall renovation.