
Rock history remembers David Bowie
David Bowie, who died Sunday at the age of 69, wasn’t the first performer to create an alter ego. But as music professor and director of the Institute for Popular Music John Covach explains, the difference with Bowie was how his personas would change over the years, sometimes shifting drastically.

Papers of World War II spy, friend of Mahatma Gandhi now fully available to the public
In her formative years, Joan Bondurant dreamt of a career in music. Instead, she became a spy. Now, in time for what would have been her 97th birthday, the Joan V. Bondurant Papers are fully processed at the River Campus Libraries and are available to scholars across the globe.

Archaeologist to discuss West Africa’s slave castles
Syracuse University professor and author Christopher R. DeCorse will discuss how archaeology has shown that African cultures were both transformed and maintained throughout the Atlantic World.

Data mining Instagram feeds can point to teenage drinking patterns
By extracting information from Instagram images and hashtags, computer science researchers have shown they can expose patterns of underage drinking more cheaply and faster than conventional surveys.

New book novelizes rise and fall of Rochester’s infamous mediums
Rochester Knockings: A Novel of the Fox Sisters, a new book published by the University’s Open Letter Press, details the rise and fall of the infamous 12 and 15-year-old mediums who convinced the world they could communicate with dead.

American Studies lecture explores religious doubt and modernity
Christopher White, associate professor of religion at Vassar College, will give the talk, “Doorways to Invisible Dimensions: Claude Bragdon’s Other-Worldly Art, the ‘Fourth Dimension’ and Modern Forms of Enchantment.”

2015 Lewis Henry Morgan lecture explores Native American water rights in the Everglades
Anthropologist Jessica Cattelino uses ethnographic research in the Everglades to examine the cultural politics of water, and the ways that Everglades residents—including Seminole Indians and non-Seminole farmers and ranchers, water managers, and environmentalists—value water.

Annual Stanton/Anthony conversations event to focus on domestic violence and health
“Instead of thinking about the effects of intimate partner violence in an isolated kind of way, we need to look at it across the lifespan and across the developmental stages,” says keynote speaker Dr. Tasneem Ismailji.

Cultural critic Gerald Early to discuss race, community at Humanities Center inaugural lecture
The University will celebrate the opening of its Humanities Center this fall with an inaugural talk by Gerald Early, a leading authority on race and American culture.

Confidence in parenting could help break cycle of abuse
Psychologists at the University’s Mt. Hope Family Center have found that mothers who experienced more types of maltreatment as children are more critical of their ability to parent successfully.