UW In The News

Is Russia interfering in Guatemala’s anti-corruption commission? The real story might surprise you.

On April 27, the U.S. Congress’s Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, also known as the U.S. Helsinki Commission, held a hearing about alleged Kremlin pressures on the United Nations Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), a hybrid legal body that investigates and tries high-level corruption cases.

Rachel A. Schwartz is a PhD candidate in political science at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

#BlackandHooded celebrates advanced degrees while making political point

Using social media, two University of Wisconsin-Madison alums have created a movement among African-American students in higher education that has two goals: one academic, the other political.

UW-Madison alums start a movement with #BlackandHooded pride

It’s graduation season, and UW-Madison alums Anthony Wright and Brian Allen are promoting #BlackandHooded to black recipients of advanced degrees, inviting them to share photos celebrating their accomplishments.

Ketamine Stirs Up Hope—and Controversy—as a Depression Drug

Quoted: In certain circles, they’re held in high esteem. Clinicians interested in ketamine-assisted psychotherapy often seek them out for training. And Charles Raison, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, sees merit in the couple’s approach.

As Young People Leave Rural Areas, What Is Dating Like For Those Who Choose To Stay?

Wisconsin’s rural counties saw an estimated 9 percent fewer 20- and 30 year-olds in 2010 than they would have if their population from 2000 had remained static, according to data from the Applied Population Lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. That’s compared to a statewide average loss of less than 1 percent. And looking at just 20 year olds, that figure jumps to a loss of 34 percent in rural counties.

Safety experts say Missouri would be brainless to repeal helmet law

Noted: The National Conference of State Legislatures says helmets saved an estimated 1,630 lives in 2013. The organization, citing a 2009 report by the University of Wisconsin Medical School, also says several studies have proved the obvious, that medical costs from motorcycle crashes are higher for riders without helmets.

Global trade

Marco Werman speaks with Menzie Chinn about tariffs and global trade.

Will Starbucks’s Implicit-Bias Training Work?

One training, developed by Patricia Devine and colleagues at the Prejudice and Intergroup Relations Lab at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, looks at bias as a habit that can be broken. Their approach—which I’ve written about before—consists of a couple of hours of modules based on what the researchers see as three essential elements of an antibias intervention: awareness of the problem, motivation to do something about it, and strategies for what to do.

Editorial: Driverless cars will save lives and money

UW Origins Project Explores How Scientists Research Our Beginnings

UW-Madison’s recently released Origins project links together different academic fields to paint a picture of how scientists research Earth’s and mankind’s beginnings.

Will the Social Media Loopholes Be Closed Before the Midterm Elections?

(also published in the Council on Foreign Relations)

Young Mie Kim, a journalism professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, collected controversial Facebook ads displayed over a six week-period before the 2016 elections. She found that one-half of groups purchasing these ads not only failed to file a report with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), but also had no IRS or online footprint indicating who they were.

How to Talk to Kids About Money

Research out of the University of Wisconsin–Madison found that by age three, kids can understand basic money concepts, such as value or exchange.

Study: Fewer Young Girls Giving Birth In US

Quoted: “The average age of a girl getting her menstrual cycle is 12 years old. But it can happen as young as 9,” said Dr. Jasmine Zapata, a pediatrician and preventive medicine resident at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health. Zapata said it can be both physically and emotionally hard for pregnant girls and its important to go beyond just teaching abstinence, as some politicians, including President Donald Trump, have advocated.

Undocumented Immigration Doesn’t Increase Violent Crime

A new study from the University of Wisconsin-Madison refutes the assertion that more undocumented immigrants in the U.S. correlate to an increase in violent crime.

Waisman Center New Director Talks Mission, Research

The Waisman Center has a new director. The organization at UW-Madison is one of only 14 Eunice Kennedy Shriver Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Centers in the country. The new director Qiang Chang is our guest. He discusses current research on autism and Rett syndrome and explains how research and clinical service connect. Plus learn about the promise stem cell research holds for degenerative diseases such as ALS.

Program filling the need for doctors in rural Wisconsin

Quoted: “Twenty-six out of 72 counties in Wisconsin don’t have any Ob-Gyn’s,” said Jody Silva, the rural residency program manager for the University of Wisconsin.

Top Colleges Push To Recruit More Low-Income Students

High-achieving, low-income students make up just 3 percent of enrollment at elite colleges. This week, 100 top U.S. universities are vowing to do something about it. Chancellor Blank is interviewed.

Some day passengers might travel 700 mph underground thanks to UW students’ efforts

Some day, if billionaire inventor Elon Musk’s idea comes to fruition, humans will travel from city to city via Hyperloop.

Married Millennials Are Keeping Separate Bank Accounts

Quoted: When today’s young adults do decide to get married, many of them are further along in their careers, with a better sense of who they are, and what they contribute to their workplace. One 29-year-old I talked to, a medical resident in San Francisco, told me that for those who believe one’s bank account offers a clear reflection of a person’s work ethic or success, it can be hard to cede control. “It’s about wanting to maintain one’s sense of identity, individuality, and autonomy,” said Fenaba Addo, an assistant professor of consumer science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Vel Phillips, Milwaukee Civil Rights Icon, Has Died at 94

Phillips spent her life fighting for the freedom of marginalized people in the state of Wisconsin. She was the first black woman to graduate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School in 1951, according to the university. (She even has a building named after her on campus.) After graduating, Phillips won a seat on the Milwaukee Common Council in 1956, another first, both for a woman and an African-American, according to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

Tribal Forests More Diverse, Sustainable Than Surrounding Forests

New research shows tribal forests in northern Wisconsin have older trees, and better plant diversity and tree regeneration than surrounding state or national forests. Researchers with Dartmouth College and the University of Wisconsin-Madison published their findings in a recent issue of the journal Ecology and Society.

Great Lakes book next Go Big Read selection at UW

UW-Madison names new director of Morgridge Center for Public Service

The Arb through the ages

Once a farm, almost a subdivision, the UW Arboretum has never been static.

Text of 1990 Speech by Barbara Bush

Noted: The speech was ranked No. 47 on a list of the top speeches of the century in 1999. The list, compiled by researchers at the University of Wisconsin and Texas A&M University, was based on a survey of scholars who ranked speeches by social and political impact and rhetorical artistr

Majority of divisive Facebook ads bought by ‘suspicious groups’: study

One in six of those groups was linked to Russia, according to a University of Wisconsin-Madison study here, and the identities of the rest of the 122 groups that are labeled “suspicious” are still unknown, an indication of the influence of “astroturf” or shell companies in U.S. politics.

How Russian Facebook Ads Divided and Targeted US Voters Before the 2016 Election

When Young Mie Kim began studying political ads on Facebook in August of 2016—while Hillary Clinton was still leading the polls— few people had ever heard of the Russian propaganda group, Internet Research Agency. Not even Facebook itself understood how the group was manipulating the platform’s users to influence the election. For Kim, a professor of journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the goal was to document the way the usual dark money groups target divisive election ads online, the kind that would be more strictly regulated if they appeared on TV. She never knew then she was walking into a crime scene.

Humorology makes community stronger for 70 years

For 70 years a UW-Madison institution has been changing the community for the better. Humorology, the largest student run nonprofit in the state, pits original mini musicals against one another in the spirit of philanthropy.

UW-Madison partnership marks 3 years of outreach on the city’s South Side

An exercise class for older women and bringing people of color into research on Alzheimer’s disease. Classes for the Odyssey Project, the successful yearlong program designed as a pathway for low-income people to attend college. Community space for the African American Breastfeeding Alliance of Dane County, Urban League of Greater Madison and Madison Area Technical College. Those are among the offerings of the UW South Madison Partnership, which recently celebrated its third year providing services on Madison’s South Side. The university’s courses, clinics and research programs take place at its facility in Villager Mall, 2312 S. Park St., which also has space available for community groups.

Paul Ryan Returns to a State Still Recovering From Recession

Quoted: “Wisconsin’s economy is kind of just slugging along,” said Steven Deller, an economist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “We weren’t hit as badly by the great recession, but our recovery has been painfully slow.”