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student playing soccer alone on the quad.
Society & Culture
April 5, 2019 | 04:16 pm

Why do new college students need alone time?

Spending time alone isn’t necessarily bad, especially for first-year college students. A new study shows that having a positive motivation for seeking solitude can be a predictor for successful adjustment to college life.

topics: Edward Deci, featured-post-side, research finding, Richard Ryan, self-determination theory, Thuy-vy Nguyen,
illustration from medieval text shows two characters singing and dancing, along with a dancing dog
Society & Culture
April 2, 2019 | 04:41 pm

Has the Renaissance warped our view of the Middle Ages?

The picture of the Middle Ages as “awful, smelly, stinky, [and] dangerous” is not accurate, says medievalist and University of Pennsylvania professor David Wallace, this year’s Ferrari Humanities Symposia visiting scholar.

topics: Department of English, Department of Rare Books Special Collections and Preservation, events, featured-post-side, Ferrari Humanities Symposia, Memorial Art Gallery, River Campus Libraries,
painting of a sad court jester.
Society & Culture
March 27, 2019 | 01:27 pm

Fools who speak truth to power

Late-night satire may be enjoying a heyday, but fools who speak truth to power are nothing new. In her latest book, professor emerita of history Dorinda Outram looks at how court jesters were much more than just a floppy hat.

topics: book authors, Department of History, Dorinda Outram, research finding,
portrait of Mary Calderone
Society & Culture
March 25, 2019 | 10:46 am

‘Your sexuality is yourself, as the total person you are’

The latest Rochester Women profile looks at the life of Mary Calderone ’39M (MD), a pioneering advocate for sex education who was both celebrated and vilified for her work during a time a great cultural division over sexuality and feminism.

topics: alumni, diversity, featured-post, Rochester Women, School of Medicine,
close up of a finger print with lines pointing to patterns.
Society & Culture
March 20, 2019 | 01:12 pm

Can we trust forensic evidence?

In the final lecture in this year’s Humanities Center series, UCLA law school dean Jennifer Mnookin discusses the troubling role faulty forensic science continues to play in the criminal justice system.

topics: events, Humanities Center,
close up of hands hammering a nail, with a thumb covered in bandages and bent nails all around.
Society & Culture
March 19, 2019 | 04:27 pm

How to fail properly and often

Julia Maddox, director of the University’s Barbara J. Burger iZone in Rush Rhees Library, talks about creating a safe space for students to try things, and fail, while reducing the pressure to have to succeed all the time.

topics: Barbara J. Burger iZone, Julia Maddox, River Campus Libraries,
the White House in the background, with a metal fence in the foreground, signalling the idea of a divide.
Society & Culture
March 12, 2019 | 01:21 pm

Watching for ‘bright lines’ during the Trump presidency

In a study spanning the first 18 months of the Donald Trump presidency, the non-partisan Bright Line Watch research group found large areas of agreement as to what constitutes critical democratic principles, but little agreement over which have been violated.

topics: Department of Political Science, featured-post-side, government, Gretchen Helmke, research finding,
a child and his father sit on opposite ends of a couch, turning away and not speaking to each other.
Society & Culture
February 19, 2019 | 11:34 am

When parenting teens, keep calm and don’t carry on

In a new study, Rochester psychologists found that mothers and fathers who were less capable of dampening down their anger are more likely to resort to harsh discipline aimed at their teens, and that fathers in particular were not as good at considering alternative explanations for their teens’ behavior.

topics: Department of Psychology, featured-post, Melissa Sturge-Apple, Mt. Hope Family Center, parenting, Patrick Davies, research finding, School of Arts and Sciences, teenagers,