Illinois Featured Content

A new book by electrical and computer engineering professor Rakesh Kumar examines how a country’s culture and society influence its adoption of new technologies and vice versa – using India as a case study. 

'Navalny is a very clever character. He’s gamed out the different scenarios. His own life and health will be protected, because it would make a terrible impression if he died in prison,' says professor Richard Tempest.

With the prospects of a more sympathetic U.S. president taking office in 2025, Putin almost certainly won’t seek an off-ramp this year from the war in Ukraine, says U of I international relations expert Nicholas Grossman.

Any legislative action on comprehensive immigration reform will face significant headwinds in the Senate, says Lauren R. Aronson, director of the Immigration Law Clinic at Illinois. 

Speech and hearing science professor Laura DeThorne on the need to broaden public perceptions of autism to take into account individuals’ unique experiences, skills and strengths

Nearly 75% of undergraduate women in physics who responded to a survey reported having experienced at least one type of sexual harassment – mostly gender harassment – in their field. 

Historians warn that deep-seated racial divides in America make political healing a challenging path.

Illinois Natural History Survey wildlife ecologist Thomas J. Benson describes the factors that lead birds to collide with windows and actions that can reduce bird window-strike fatalities.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances are widespread, long-lasting and extremely difficult to remove from the environment. 'It seems that everywhere we look for PFAS, they turn up,' says U of I chemist John Scott.

Runoff from Midwestern farms is a major contributor to a vast 'dead zone' in the Gulf of Mexico where excess nutrients cause algae to overpopulate, suffocating other aquatic life. U of I researcher Lowell Gentry looks at possible solutions.

'When the International Criminal Court issues an arrest warrant, it means that the prosecutor has proved to the court that there are grounds to believe that international crimes have been committed and that the people named in the warrant are responsible...' 

Refusing to provide additional aid to Ukraine may diminish the U.S.’s reputational soft power within NATO and with non-allied countries, according to sociology professor and demographer Cynthia Buckley. 

Professor Robert Lawless, a leading consumer credit and bankruptcy expert, discusses the potential for a surge in consumer bankruptcy filings due to the coronavirus pandemic.

'The one-sidedness of the entire process, where no one has presented alternative perspectives or cross-examined witnesses, hasn’t helped its cause,' says elections expert and Illinois political science professor Brian Gaines.

Russian president Vladimir Putin weathered a recent insurrection by the Wagner mercenary group, but the crisis has damaged his standing, said Illinois professor of Slavic languages and literatures Richard Tempest.

A new state law that expands the eligibility for law enforcement jobs to non-U.S. citizens such as DACA participants is mostly aspirational since DACA recipients can’t legally possess firearms, says Professor Lauren R. Aronson.

Cutting the payroll tax could represent the middle-class tax cut that Trump campaigned on, said University of Illinois law professor and tax expert Richard L. Kaplan.

The U of I's Veterinary Diagnostic Lab has played a key role in diagnosing coronavirus infection in animal species in zoos across the country. This is important work for understanding the virus’s behavior and its broad host range, Wang says.

The debate surrounding the independent state legislature theory in a case the U.S. Supreme Court is considering is a lopsided one, says Law dean Vikram Amar. An originalist approach of interpreting the Constitution should lead to its rejection.

'Inaugural addresses usually emphasize the humility of the new president as they face the profound responsibilities of the office. Trump does not do so. In fact, he says he was “saved by God” to make America great again.'

The brewing Russia-Ukraine conflict will have significant consequences for U.S. interests in Eastern Europe, said U of I international relations expert Nicholas Grossman. He talks about the many ways the situation could play out.

U of I sociology professor Kevin Leicht is co-leading the development of a software app that will alert clinicians to medical misinformation circulating on social media so they can address it with patients if they choose.

The Protecting the Right to Organize Act would be the most significant revision of U.S. labor law since 1947, says Michael LeRoy, an expert in labor law.

With the small number of swing states in play, national polls will be of limited value, says University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign political science professor Brian Gaines. 

The controversial practice of civil asset forfeiture gets a well-deserved bad rap, says U. of I. law professor and criminal law expert Kenworthey Bilz.

Many businesses are closed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, and some building managers have shut off water and air conditioning to conserve resources. That could cause a problem.

A single-payer health care system such as Medicare for All could expand access to care at equivalent costs – or less – to most consumers, according to health policy expert Thomas O’Rourke.

With the Paris Olympic Games beginning later this month, classics professor Dan Leon discusses how the original Games looked thousands of years ago in Olympia. 

Vaccine passports strike the right balance between letting life go on for those vaccinated against COVID-19 while still being realistic about the ongoing public health crisis in the U.S., said bioethics expert Jacob Sherkow.

'As racial resentment increases, support for All Lives Matter increases and support for Black Lives Matter decreases. This relationship persisted even when we controlled for factors such as political conservatism,' says study leader Stewart Coles.

Deciding in advance what one’s boundaries will be — and whether to discuss political issues at all — can be helpful prior to spending holidays with people who have vastly different political ideologies.  

Illinois physics professor and 2003 Nobel Prize winner Anthony Leggett talks about the landmark physics discovery of superfluidity on its 80th anniversary

Internet gambling won’t be legal for much longer after the Department of Justice reversed a controversial 2011 ruling, says professor John W. Kindt, a leading national gambling critic 

The outlook for Syria’s future is mixed, but there are reasons to be optimistic, says Rana B. Khoury, a professor of political science who studies comparative and international politics, with a focus on the Middle East. 

Legal scholar Jacob Sherkow argues that the state of California’s proposal to manufacture and distribute insulin at cost could be a game-changer for curbing out-of-control price increases, but there are hurdles to overcome first.

Maria Rodas, an expert in consumer behavior and brand management, speaks about the enduring popularity of Super Bowl advertisements. This year, the network broadcasting the game has sold several 30 second spots for a record-high $7 million.

Marginalized workers can face either the stress from losing work, or the stress from having to work in situations where they are at increased risk of being exposed to COVID-19.

June 5 marks a half-century since Robert Kennedy’s assassination, in the midst of his presidential campaign and a tumultuous 1968 that also claimed civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

A bill under consideration in the Illinois Legislature could have a transformative effect on history curricula – and kids – in public schools, according to the U of I's Leslie K. Morrow

Professor Julie Dowliing says not having a citizenship question will improve response rates, but more than a year of news coverage about this topic will have an impact.

Professor Kashif A. Ahmad, who has taught online courses for a decade, offers his best practices for creating online courses.

Illinois physics professor Liang Yang discusses the significance of the recent neutrino detection in Antarctica and what it means for the future of observational astronomy

Illinois State Water Survey engineer Sally McConkey explores the factors that support – and the methods for measuring – county-level community resilience in the face of disaster.

Organized labor has fared considerably better during the Biden administration than it did during the Trump years, and would likely be better off under a Kamala Harris presidency, says Robert Bruno, a labor expert at Illinois. 

There’s nothing new about political protest in sports, but recent athlete-led game boycotts or strikes following the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, seemed to set a new standard.

News coverage of the Vietnam War did not have the effect on popular support that many believe, says a University of Illinois researcher.

Brazil has elected a far-right candidate, Jair Bolsonaro, as its new president. This has many of his opponents concerned about the future of Brazil’s democracy, just three decades old

'A meteorite bigger than the State Farm Center hit near the present-day Village of Glasford, a little ways southwest of Peoria. It created a 2.5-mile-wide crater that we now call the Glasford structure.'

John F. Kennedy was known for his eloquence as a public speaker, perhaps more than any modern president. But what made him so effective?

Professor Damarys Canache talks about the Biden administration’s decision to ease sanctions on Venezuela, the migration crisis and the upcoming 2024 Venezuelan presidential election.