Society & Culture
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.
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.
Susan B. Anthony Center calls for ‘extra 80’ to mark Equal Pay Day
The University’s Susan B. Anthony Center has organized an initiative to mark Equal Pay Day, a national effort to promote pay equity for women of all backgrounds, and people of all races.
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.
‘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.
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.
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.
Ice cream and entrepreneurship in Manhattan’s Chinatown
Christina Seid ’02 mixes it up at the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory, bringing new flavors to her family’s deep Chinatown roots.
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.
‘This vacuum in our education is more than a matter of polite regret’
Vera Micheles Dean served as the founding director of the University’s Non-Western Civilizations program, one of the first such interdisciplinary programs for undergraduates in the country.