A ‘different kind of wonder’
The European Renaissance’s engagement with the Arctic is a little-known chapter of history but a relevant one today, when the region once again has become a site of anxious attention.
Pablo Miguel Sierra Silva Receives Inaugural President’s Ferrari Humanities Research Award
The assistant professor of history is the first recipient of the award, which will support research for his forthcoming book, In the Wake of the Raid: Piracy, Captivity and the 1683 Raid on Veracruz.
Ethicists: COVID-19 pandemic a ‘wake-up call’
Philosophy faculty explore moral dilemmas presented by the crisis and how they intersect with larger structural questions.
A team effort helped bring Christina Krewson ’21 home from locked-down Peru
A coalition of leaders in federal government and from the nation’s universities work together to charter flights for students stranded by a quickly imposed travel restriction.
One of the world’s oldest globes is ready for its close-up
Rochester professor Gregory Heyworth and his Lazarus Project colleagues have created a 3-D model of one of the treasures of the New York Public Library, the Hunt-Lenox Globe, one of the first globes to show the New World — and to warn “Here be dragons.”
How can understanding stories help in the American border crisis?
“It’s in our best interest to make sense of the US and Mexico as places that receive and places that send—that goes for both countries,” says associate professor of history Ruben Flores, who will host acclaimed writer Valeria Luiselli in the latest Humanities Center Public Lecture Series.
Multispectral imaging unlocks a Smithsonian treasure’s secrets
This tiny book was acquired by the Smithsonian in 1925. It’s made up of 147 folios of parchment, or treated animal hide, stitched together. The “over text”—the visible text—is of an Armenian prayer book, suspected to date from the 15th century. But there is also an “under text”—a work that was erased to recycle the parchment for the over text. The Smithsonian has turned to University of Rochester professor Gregory Heyworth and his Lazarus Project to help solve the mystery of what that long-ago effaced text might be.
Rochester historian takes a role in preserving world cultural heritage
Peter Christensen, an associate professor of art and art history at the University of Rochester, has a new role as a juror advising the United Nations in its work designating UNESCO World Heritage sites.
How journalist Masha Gessen and Rochester scholars examine the marginalization of communities
Journalist and activist Masha Gessen will discuss marginalization during this year’s Humanities Center Public Lecture Series. But the subject is also central to the work of several Rochester scholars.
How do physical spaces help create community?
In her highly visual, multi-year project “Fertile Ground,” cultural anthropologist Kathryn Mariner is researching placemaking in the city of Rochester, and her focus on how community is formed is shared by this year’s Humanities Center lectures.