
Faculty couple reflects on the challenges—and surprises—of pandemic life
For history professors Molly Ball and Pablo Sierra Silva, adjusting to online teaching and caring for three young children has been a learning experience.

Will COVID-19 finally spur a revamp of US health care?
The coronavirus pandemic “has exposed the limits of such an individualistic approach” to health care, writes University health policy historian Mical Raz in the Washington Post.

How do you slow a pandemic like coronavirus?
A University health policy expert says the United States is “lagging miserably” behind other countries in its response to the coronavirus. “The major concern is that we will see a large number of critically ill people at the same time, overwhelming our medical system response,” she says.

How do you bring a castle home with you?
How do you convey a 91,000-square-foot castle with more than 160 rooms on the Ghana coast, back to Rochester, so at any time you could take a virtual tour as if you were really there? Or study the castle’s structure brick by brick?

The US is fighting an unwinnable war in Afghanistan
In a New York Times video op-ed, Lyle Jeremy Rubin, a history PhD candidate at the University of Rochester, and four other American veterans argue that the nation’s longest war is not winnable.

Separating children from their families must be last resort
In an essay published in the American Journal of Public Health, associate professor of history and practicing hospitalist Mical Raz writes that apart from extreme cases of imminent physical harm, “suboptimal families are better for children than removal.”

Reel time: Richard Fischoff ’68 had big role in popular movies
Richard Fischoff ’68 didn’t star in Kramer vs. Kramer, Sleepless in Seattle, The Big Chill, or Fatal Attraction. But the veteran Hollywood producer and executive played a major role in those movies becoming box office hits.

Native Americans, government authorities, and reproductive politics
In her book, historian Brianna Theobald traces the long history of efforts by federal and local authorities to manage the reproductive lives of Native families, and the widespread activism that arose as a result.

Calling Medicare ‘socialized medicine’ is a well-worn scare tactic
Conservatives have scared Americans into supporting higher health care costs, while shying away from expanding access, writes associate professor of history Michal Raz in a Washington Post op-ed.

Why Biden’s record players won’t solve poverty
“Biden was voicing a deeply flawed theory that arose during the 1960s and that blamed parents, especially mothers, for the struggles of poor children and children of color,” writes associate professor of history Mical Raz in a Washington Post op-ed.