Society & Culture

During the mid-19th century, a series of grand hoaxes captured the American imagination: the Great Moon Hoax, the Cardiff Giant, and the fantastical creatures of P. T. Barnum. Joan Saab, an associate professor of art history and visual and cultural studies, examines the relationship between seeing and believing.

Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League and former mayor of New Orleans, will deliver the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemorative Address. The event has been rescheduled and will now be held on Monday, February 29.

Kaija Straumanis ’12 (MA), a graduate of Rochester’s literary translation program and now editorial director at Open Letter, speaks about her work with Latvian writer Inga Ābele.

In December, the Susan B. Anthony Institute for Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies will host a conference examining the nexus of sex and gender studies, Jewish studies, American studies, and media studies themes that run through the show.

A new study shows that values of social responsibility and caring for others decrease between the ages of 10 to 16. These decreases, however, are in concert with feelings of decreasing support from their parents, schools, and friends.

Journalist and professor Pamela Newkirk will deliver two lectures in February, discussing the case of Ota Benga and the media's coverage of the Black Lives Matter movement.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.”