Tag College of Letters & Science

Selig to give Taylor lecture

March 26, 2012

Major League Baseball Commissioner Allan H. "Bud" Selig will be on campus next month, giving a lecture called, "Talking Baseball: The Challenges of Communicating in Turbulent Times."

Woodwind-piano duo competition winners to perform March 25

March 23, 2012

The School of Music’s annual woodwind-piano duo competition was held last Sunday and the judges named two winning duos and a third with honorable mention.

Badger Varsity Band and “Dukes of Hazzard” star celebrate the 1970s

March 22, 2012

The Badger Band is preparing to celebrate the 1970s during the annual Varsity Band Concert, April 19-21.

Prison reading groups liberate minds, UW grad students find

March 21, 2012

Jose Vergara, a graduate student in the UW–Madison Department of Slavic Languages and Literature, remembers how the Oakhill Correctional Institution inmates in his reading and writing group reacted to a short story called "Blue Notebook #10," by Daniil Kharms.

UW-Madison graduate programs ranked among best by U.S. News and World Report

March 12, 2012

Several UW–Madison graduate programs are ranked among the nation’s best in the 2013 edition of U.S. News and World Report’s “Best Graduate Schools.”

Film festival finds environmental stories in unexpected places

March 7, 2012

From Cold War bunkers in Albania to the night skies over Manhattan, Tales from Planet Earth will offer a broad - and often surprising - exploration of the environment.

Celebrating music from Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula

February 27, 2012

The School of Music's piano department, in association with the Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Studies program, is staging "Carnival: Celebrating Music from Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula" on Saturday, March 3 at noon in Morphy Recital Hall.

From Adam’s housecat to zydeco: After five decades, Dictionary of American Regional English completed

February 23, 2012

What is a Maine-born doctor to do when a patient in Pennsylvania complains, “I’ve been riftin’ and I’ve got jags in my leaders?” Consult the Dictionary of American Regional English to learn that the patient has been belching and experiencing sharp pains in his neck. After nearly five decades of work at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, the fifth volume of the dictionary, covering Sl to Z, is now available from Harvard University Press.

Hunger Meal to raise awareness of social inequality and poverty

February 23, 2012

At the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Hunger Meal, sponsored by students from the La Follette School of Public Affairs, whether you get a gourmet dinner, rice and beans, or something in between will be determined the same way many receive their lot in life: by chance.

Two UW–Madison researchers awarded prestigious Sloan Fellowships

February 22, 2012

Two members of the University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty are among 126 scientists from around the country who have been awarded prestigious Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowships.

Anthony Shadid: A journalist’s life remembered, a legacy that lives on

February 17, 2012

The world knew Anthony Shadid as a two-time Pulitzer Prize winning journalist who covered the Middle East. The University of Wisconsin–Madison knew Shadid when he was just a young journalism student on deadline for the Daily Cardinal.

Mother of pearl tells a tale of ocean temperature, depth

February 16, 2012

Nacre -- or mother of pearl, scientists and artisans know, is one of nature's amazing utilitarian materials.

UW-Madison explores creation of College of the Arts

February 16, 2012

For the first time in several decades, the University of Wisconsin–Madison is considering the addition of a new college, the College of the Arts.

Howard Zimmerman, pioneer in organic chemistry, dies at 85

February 16, 2012

Howard Zimmerman, a professor of chemistry from 1960 until his retirement in 2010, died on Saturday, Feb. 11 as a result of a fall.

Lovelorn liars leave linguistic leads

February 13, 2012

Online daters intent on fudging their personal information have a big advantage: most people are terrible at identifying a liar. But new research is turning the tables on deceivers using their own words.

Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter to speak at UW–Madison about post-9/11 security

February 13, 2012

Dana Priest, author and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who writes about intelligence and counterterrorism, will speak at UW–Madison on Tuesday, Feb. 28, about the rise of the post-9/11 security state in the U.S.

Forest and Hawks named 2012 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Faculty Fellows

February 10, 2012

Katrina Forest, professor of bacteriology, and John Hawks, associate chair of Anthropology, have been selected by the Institute for Biology Education as Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Faculty Fellows for 2012.

Metabolic “breathalyzer” reveals early signs of disease

February 6, 2012

The future of disease diagnosis may lie in a "breathalyzer"-like technology currently under development at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Maurice Meisner, historian of modern China, dies at 80

February 2, 2012

Maurice Meisner, Harvey Goldberg Professor Emeritus of History, passed away at home in Madison on Monday, Jan. 23. He was 80.

UW English professor urges environmental writers to “tell stories no one else can tell”

January 31, 2012

In his new book, "Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor," UW–Madison English professor Rob Nixon asks: how can environmental writers craft emotionally involving stories from disasters that are slow-moving and attritional, rather than explosive and spectacular?