Category Society & Culture
UW-Madison among top producers of Fulbright students
Eighteen students from the University of Wisconsin–Madison accepted Fulbright awards for academic year 2018-2019, placing the university at No. 15 among research institutions.
Posting to Brussels sprouts novel tech-French course
The Division of Continuing Studies created about 30 customized courses last year, covering a disparate range of topics from dealing with dementia for nursing-home staff to distance learning and writing in the workplace.
Wisconsin Experience Summer Launch gives freshmen a head start
The program allows incoming freshmen to earn credit toward their degrees, meet other students, and learn about UW–Madison resources before the start of fall semester.
New exhibition seeks to connect WWI’s “staggering losses” with modern medicine
Drawing on Ebling Library's vast collection of health sciences materials, a new exhibition entitled "Staggering Losses: World War 1 & the Influenza Pandemic of 1918" seeks to tell the story of WWI, its impact on modern medicine, and the forgotten people who fought in it. We talked with Micaela Sullivan-Fowler, a librarian at Ebling who curated the exhibition, about what she learned and why people should still care about WWI.
Student-driven oral history project marks 50th anniversary of Black Student Strike on campus
"13 demands" recounts the Black Student Strike of February 1969 through the memories of more than two dozen people who organized, participated in or witnessed it. The protest, surging and ebbing over roughly two weeks, was among the largest in the university’s history.
Get Social: Lady Liberty returns
Nothing spruces up a frozen lake like a life-size replica of the top of the Statue of Liberty.
SSTAR Lab examining solutions for making higher education more affordable
The SSTAR Lab’s mission is to use applied academic research to guide, support, and partner with practitioners whose work aims to improve educational opportunities and outcomes for current and future college students.
Q & A: NPR’s Ayesha Rascoe on journalism, free time, and the day she won’t forget
Ayesha Rascoe reports on the White House for NPR. She’ll be on campus at the University of Wisconsin–Madison as the spring 2019 Public Affairs Journalist in Residence from Feb. 11-14.
Study: No race or gender bias seen in initial NIH grant reviews
“Absence of bias here does not mean there is no bias in the entire review process,” says psychology professor Patricia Devine.
Awards honor creativity through music, dance, more
The UW–Madison Awards in the Creative Arts honored everything from a dance work to a recording of new music to a multi-channel, multi-screen video artwork examining the philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
UW-Madison mourns renowned sociologist Erik Olin Wright
Wright was a giant in the field of contemporary Marxian sociology. He wrote 15 books and more than 100 research papers, many focused on class and capitalism.
As climate heats up, rising rainfall averages hide crop-killing droughts
Research performed in the Ethiopian highlands shows that even in years with above average rainfall, crops can be severely reduced by drought early in the growing season, when seeds must sprout and get established.
Students extend winning streak in fashion industry competition
UW–Madison students cleaned up in a prestigious national competition sponsored each year by the YMA Fashion Scholarship Fund — the fashion industry’s premier competition for gifted young designers, merchandisers, retailers and business majors.
New initiative to boost middle class in Dane County announces finalists
Three finalists were chosen to pitch their ideas in Phoenix on Jan. 29. Schmidt Futures has committed to further support the efforts of at least one team from each of the four partnering universities.
Bortin’s landmark in journalism saw Russia open up
UW–Madison alumna Meg Bortin went from being a non-journalism major to becoming a correspondent and editor at Reuters and the International Herald Tribune. In 1992, she helped found the first independent English language daily newspaper in Russia: The Moscow Times.
‘Lands We Share’ exhibit helps give farmers a voice
A collaboration of faculty and students at four UW campuses, the traveling exhibition and public dialogue tour focuses on the intersection of farming, land, ethnic culture and history in Wisconsin.
Viola sonata to have world premiere at UW–Madison
Composer and music educator John Harbison, winner of both a MacArthur Fellowship “genius” grant and a Pulitzer Prize in composition, has created a new work for Sally Chisholm, violist with the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Pro Arte Quartet, that will have its world premiere in February at UW–Madison.
Ada Deer: A lifetime of firsts
Deer, a 1957 graduate, went on to become the first female chair of Wisconsin's Menominee Indian Tribe as well as a national leader in Indian affairs.
A Capitol and Very Wisconsin Idea Video game teaches state history in schools
Thanks to a new educational video game — “Jo Wilder and the Capitol Case” — created by UW–Madison’s Field Day Lab and Wisconsin Public Television (WPT), learning about Wisconsin history, is “really cool,” a student says.
Chazen installation documentary premieres Dec. 20
'Behind the Canvas,' premiering at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 20 on Wisconsin Public Television, highlights artist Jim Dine’s latest contribution to the Chazen Museum of Art: a mural exploring the art of classical antiquity that took more than two years to make and ship from France.