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  • In "Next of Kin: The Family in Chicano/a Cultural Politics" (Duke University Press, 2009), Richard T. Rodrguez, a professor of English and of Latina/Latino Studies at Illinois, explores the competing notions of la familia found in movement-inspired literature, film, video, music, painting and other forms of cultural expression created by Chicano men.  Click photo to enlarge

    Book Corner: Exploring the Chicano/a family and its political and cultural history

    As both an idea and an institution, the family has been at the heart of Chicano/a cultural politics since the Mexican American civil rights movement emerged in the late 1960s. In "Next of Kin: The Family in Chicano/a Cultural Politics" (Duke University Press, 2009), Richard T. Rodríguez, a professor of English and of Latina/Latino Studies at Illinois, explores the competing notions of la familia found in movement-inspired literature, film, video, music, painting and other forms of cultural expression created by Chicano men.

  • Book Corner: Hidden history of male nervous illness explored

    Over the course of several centuries, Western masculinity has successfully established itself as the voice of reason, knowledge and sanity - the basis for patriarchal rule - in the face of massive testimony to the contrary. In a new book, "Hysterical Men: The Hidden History of Male Nervous Illness" (Harvard University Press, 2008), Mark S. Micale challenges this vision of the stable and secure male by examining the central role played by modern science and medicine in constructing and sustaining it.

  • "Making Samba," written by Marc Hertzman, a U. of I. professor of Latin American history, traces the history of Brazil's original samba. It was published by Duke University Press in 2013.  Click photo to enlarge

    Book Corner: Historian traces the making of samba in Brazil

    The U.S. and Brazil have a few things in common. Both are continent-spanning nations that began as European colonies. Both have a history of African slavery. And both developed iconic music with strong roots in their respective black communities.

  • UI anthropology professor Alma Gottlieb and creative writing professor Philip Graham reflect on their third stay with the Beng people of Ivory Coast in their new travel memoir, "Braided Worlds" (University of Chicago Press).  Click photo to enlarge

    Book Corner: Intimate profile of the Beng people reveals relationships, connections

    Travel authors often showcase the foreign lands they visit with colorful descriptions of the food and tourist attractions they encounter. Books of this genre depict abbreviated and relaxing trips.

  • Book Corner: Latinos and the Media

    The U.S. media features Latina stars such as Jennifer Lopez and Eva Longoria, but that same media often reinforces the image of Latinos as eternal foreigners, always having to prove they belong.

  • In his new book, "The 1,000-Year Flood: Destruction, Loss, Rescue and Redemption Along the Mississippi River" (Globe Pequot Press, 2010), Stephen J. Lyons, assistant to the chancellor for communications at the UI, looks at a town devastated and rebuilt and puts into context the history of the region and the people who have lived there for generations.  Click photo to enlarge

    Book Corner: Living along the flood-prone Mississippi River

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -Nearly every year, areas of the Midwest are subjected to massive flooding. Sandbags are filled and stacked, FEMA arrives and there is a discussion of whether this is a 500-year flood, a 1,000-year flood, or just another flood typical of the summer season.

  • "Febris Erotica: Lovesickness in the Russian Literary Imagination" (University of Washington Press), was written by Valeria Sobol, a UI professor of Slavic languages and literatures.  Click photo to enlarge

    Book Corner: Notion of lovesickness in Russian literature explored

    The idea that love - especially the unrequited variety - and the passion associated with it could render one physically ill goes way back on the cultural-historical timeline. According to Valeria Sobol, a UI professor of Slavic languages and literatures, scholars have traced the concept of "lovesickness" all the way back to the Greeks.

  • "The Realisms of Berenice Abbott: Documentary Photography and Political Action," by Terri Weissman was published by the University of California Press in 2010.  Click photo to enlarge

    Book Corner: Photographer Berenice Abbott profiled in author's first book

    Terri Weissman's first book has generated considerable buzz for the undervalued photographer it profiles. "The Realisms of Berenice Abbott: Documentary Photography and Political Action" was published in January as the winner of the 2010 Phillips Book Prize. It has been excerpted in Scope, the new magazine started by former Gravitas editor Ian Garrick Mason, and also in Berfrois, a scholarly news aggregation website.

  • "Paradoxes of Prosperity: Wealth-seeking Versus Christian Values in Pre-Civil War America," by Lorman A. Ratner, Paula T. Kaufman and Dwight L. Teeter Jr. (UI Press) seeks to explore the social tensions between morality and monetary prosperity.  Click photo to enlarge

    Book Corner: Pre-Civil War social paradoxes explored

    The years leading up to the Civil War were a time of immense economic growth, however, some Americans worried that the booming industrial and commercial expansion came at the price of American values such as honesty, hard work and dedication to the common good.

  • "A Tale of Two Revolts: India 1857 and the American Civil War," by Rajmohan Gandhi, was published by Penguin Books India.    Click photo to enlarge

    Book Corner: Tying together revolts in the U.S. and India

    The two revolts occurred almost back-to-back in the mid-19th century, in India and the U.S., but no one had studied the two together, says Rajmohan Gandhi, a research professor in the Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at Illinois.

  • Book Corner: Women’s stories that guided their lives

    Every person has a narrative compass - one or more stories that have guided their lifework.

  • Gilberto Rosas, a professor of anthropology and of Latina/Latino studies, is the author of "Barrio Libre: Criminalizing States and Delinquent Refusals of the New Frontier," published by Duke University Press. Rosas' book examines how the elimination of obstructions to trade and free markets has contributed to the genesis of this delinquent group known as Barrio Libre.  Click photo to enlarge

    Book Corner: Writer profiles alienated youth on the U.S./Mexico border

    Many make their living by crawling through the sewers beneath the border cities of Nogales, Mexico, and Nogales, Ariz., and mugging migrants seeking new lives in the United States. Some of these young men and women, who call themselves Barrio Libre ("Free Hood"), traffic in drugs in the desolate deserts where more than 5,000 people trying to enter the U.S. have died.

  • Image of the book cover for "Justice at Work: The Rise of Economic and Racial Justice Coalitions in Cities.”

    Book examines role of racial justice work in progressive policy changes

    Grassroots organizing efforts strengthen their campaigns for economic policy changes by collaborating with racial justice groups, says urban planning professor Marc Doussard in his new book “Justice at Work: The Rise of Economic and Racial Justice Coalitions in Cities.”

  • Book looks at transnational labor force and how immigrants revitalize a small Midwest town

    Many immigrants coming to the U.S. for factory jobs are taking advantage of opportunities in small towns like Beardstown, rather than big cities. In her new book, “Global Heartland,” published this month by Indiana University Press, University of Illinois urban and regional planning professor Faranak Miraftab looks at how this workforce is produced for the global labor market, how the workers maintain their lives and families on low-wage jobs, and how they’ve transformed the places they now call home.

  • Photo of Kevin T. Leicht

    Book: Professional jobs have changed – but not for the better

    The new book “Crisis in the Professions: The New Dark Age” examines the social, political and economic forces that are changing the practice and public perceptions of elite professions such as law, medicine and higher education.

  • Book tells story of integrated Illinois town founded by former slave

    A new book by Illinois information sciences professors Gerald McWorter and Kate Williams-McWorter tells how a former slave founded an integrated town in western Illinois that became a station on the Underground Railroad.

  • Varying patterns of social, emotional and learning problems are associated with increases in verbal, physical and relational aggression and substance use among adolescent boys, according to a new study led by social work professor Kevin Tan.

    Boys with social difficulties most susceptible to early substance use, study finds

    Boys who enter sixth-grade with co-occurring social skills, anxiety, learning and conduct problems are at the greatest risk of developing aggressive behavior and using substances by the end of eighth grade, a new study found.

  • Connections between the University of Illinois and Brazil go back more than a century, and today involve a broad cross-section of academic disciplines. Recent and ongoing research collaborations number more than 90 and involve dozens of the country's higher education institutions and research institutes.

    Brazilian studies gets broad attention at Illinois

    Think Brazil and you might think beaches, rain forest, the 2016 Olympics – all far removed from central Illinois. Yet the University of Illinois is perhaps the most comprehensive center of Brazilian studies in the U.S.

  • Leaving the EU, as Great Britain is attempting to do, is difficult by design, says Illinois political science professor Kostas Kourtikakis, who teaches and studies EU politics.

    'Brexit' is coming – or maybe not. Why is this happening?

    An Illinois political science professor explains some of the forces behind “Brexit” and why it’s so difficult.

  • The British Empire, in its heyday, faced a lot more war, protest and insurgency than is often acknowledged in the common rise-and-fall narrative, says U. of I. historian Antoinette Burton, in "The Trouble With Empire."

    British Empire was a world of trouble, says historian in a new book

    The British Empire was not the model of peace and stability, the “Pax Britannica,” as it’s often portrayed. Dissent and disruption were the rule, not the exception, according to Antoinette Burton, in her new book "The Trouble With Empire."

  • While bullying tends to peak at age 13-14 and decline sharply as youth progress through high school, boys who are gay/bisexual are bullied at significantly higher rates than their heterosexual peers after leaving school, suggests a new study by Joseph P. Robinson, left, and Dorothy Espelage, both faculty members in the College of Education.

    Bullying 'gets better' for most - but not all - teens, study says

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Bullied teens often are assured that "it gets better." And a new study suggests that bullying does, indeed, tend to decline as teens progress through high school and move toward adulthood.

  • Business owners should go 'green' in rebuilding after disasters

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - When tornadoes, floods and other natural disasters unleash their furies on communities, the losses can be especially devastating for small-business owners with limited budgets and flimsy safety nets. But when the skies clear, and the cleanup and rebuilding begins, savvy owners may actually find a silver - or "green" - lining beneath the rubble and ruin.

  • Two Indian corn plants standing in the sun.

    Cahokia's rise parallels onset of corn agriculture

    Corn cultivation spread from Mesoamerica to what is now the American Southwest by about 4000 B.C., but how and when the crop made it to other parts of North America is still a subject of debate. In a new study, scientists report that corn was not grown in the ancient metropolis of Cahokia until sometime between A.D. 900 and 1000, a relatively late date that corresponds to the start of the city’s rapid expansion.

  • Social work professor Venera Bekteshi has found that a bout with cancer can be the catalyst for growth and healing in mother-daughter relationships.

    Cancer and treatment side effect: Stronger mother-daughter ties

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - A bout with cancer can be the catalyst for growth and healing in mother-daughter relationships, suggests a new study by a University of Illinois social work professor.

  • Headshot of Rana Hogarth

    Can historical racism in medicine help explain current racial differences in medical care?

    Acquiring new medical knowledge and assessing health are not as objective as people think, said history professor Rana Hogarth, who is the adviser for a new series of podcasts by the Science History Institute in Philadelphia to explore issues of racism in science and medicine.

  • Photo of social work professor Doug Smith standing outside the School of Social Work

    Cannabis use lower among Illinois teens living in ZIP codes with medical dispensaries

    Teens who live in Illinois ZIP codes with medical cannabis dispensaries are significantly less likely to use the drug, researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign found in a new study.

  • Technology can be our friend in sustaining close relationships, but it depends on how we use it, says communication professor John Caughlin.

    Can relationships flourish through tech alone?

    Technology can be our friend in sustaining relationships now lacking in face time due to COVID-19, but it depends on how we use it, says John Caughlin, a communication professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

  • Leia Kedem

    Can you really be both overweight and malnourished?

    A Minute With...™ Leia Kedem, Illinois Extension's 'Moderation Maven'

  • "Really existing capitalism" is "turning the Internet against democracy," says communication professor Robert McChesney, in his new book "Digital Disconnect."

    Capitalism and democracy not compatible on the Internet, author says

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Two decades into the digital age, the Internet is now "enmeshed in the fabric of nearly every aspect of life," says University of Illinois communication professor Robert McChesney. In ongoing debates about its influence and future, there are, he says, celebrants and skeptics.

  • Casualties get scant attention in wartime news, with little change since World War I

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The human costs of America's wars have received scant attention in daily war reporting - through five major conflicts going back a century - says an extensive and first-of-its-kind study of New York Times war coverage being published this month.

  • Image of the interior of the cave and the massive trench with people standing at different levels and looking into the trench. The cave is dark and you can see the grid of guidelines used to plot the location of items found in the dig. There are bright worklights overhead.

    Cave excavation pushes back the clock on early human migration to Laos

    Fifteen years of archaeological work in the Tam Pa Ling cave in northeastern Laos has yielded a reliable chronology of early human occupation of the site, scientists report in the journal Nature Communications. The team’s excavations through the layers of sediments and bones that gradually washed into the cave and were left untouched for tens of thousands of years reveals that humans lived in the area for at least 70,000 years – and likely even longer.

  • Portrait of Jessica Brinkworth, standing facing the camera and smiling. She is outdoors on the U. of I. campus.

    Cell-autonomous immunity shaped human evolution

    Every human cell harbors its own defenses against microbial invaders, relying on strategies that date back to some of the earliest events in the history of life. Understanding this “cell-autonomous immunity” is essential to understanding human evolution and human medicine, researchers report.

  • Changes in the Middle East, driven by a Facebook generation

    A Minute With™... sociologist Asef Bayat and education professor Linda Herrera

  • Changes in White House documents raise concern about rewriting history

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - There were 45 nations in the "Coalition of the Willing" when the U.S. invaded Iraq.

  • Checks and balances, presidential power the topics of Nov. 29 Cline Symposium

    Constitutional checks and balances and the power of the presidency will be topics of a speech and roundtable Nov. 29 at the U. of I.

  • Residents who repurposed vacant lots through Chicago’s Large Lot Program reported in a new study that the projects made their neighborhoods safer, quieter, friendlier places to live. The study was co-written by U. of I. scholars, from left, postdoctoral researcher Douglas A. Williams; natural resources and environmental sciences professor Carena J. van Riper; graduate student John Strauser; and recreation, sport and tourism professors Alessandro Rigolon and William P. Stewart.

    Chicago's Large Lot Program sowing change in inner-city communities

    Chicago's Large Lot Program is promoting positive changes in inner-city neighborhoods by allowing residents to buy and repurpose vacant lots that have been plagued by crime and other problems, U. of I. researchers found.

  • A groundbreaking new study by Jesse Helton, a faculty member in the Children and Family Research Center in the School of Social Work, indicates that the risk and degree of physical abuse varies according to the child's type and level of disability - and those at greatest risk of maltreatment may be those with average functioning or only mild impairments.

    Child abuse risk tied to type, degree of disability, study finds

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Researchers have long known that children with disabilities are at increased risk of being abused by their caregivers. But a groundbreaking new study by Jesse Helton, a faculty member in the Children and Family Research Center in the School of Social Work at the University of Illinois, indicates that the risk and degree of physical abuse varies according to the child's type and level of disability - and those at greatest risk of maltreatment may be those with average functioning or only mild impairments.

  • photo of Daniel Berry Spending 35 or more hours weekly in nonparental child care may have significant developmental benefits for children from chaotic home environments, suggests a new study of 1,200 children led by education professor Daniel Berry.

    Children from chaotic homes benefit from time in child care, study finds

    Children in poverty from chaotic homes have better cognitive, social and behavioral outcomes if they spent 35 or more hours weekly in child care.

  • African American children who have mainly African American friends may be viewed as "cool" and more popular by their classmates - but white students who affiliate mostly with other white students may be perceived less positively, according to a new study co-authored by education professor Philip C. Rodkin.

    Children view same-race friendships differently for blacks, whites

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - African American children who have mainly African American friends may be viewed as "cool" and more popular by their classmates - but white students who affiliate mostly with other white students may be perceived less positively, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Illinois.

  • Child-welfare study shows recovery coaches can help reunite families

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - On any given day, as many as 70 percent of the Illinois children in foster care are in that situation, at least in part, because their parents abuse drugs or alcohol. Only a small percentage will ever be reunited with their parents.

  • Child-welfare web site gives caseworkers first-time access to data

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Child-welfare caseworkers tend to focus on daily crises.

  • Ian Brooks, the director of the Center for Health Informatics

    CHIME in Illinois puts students to work on COVID-related data science projects

    An international public health initiative connects students and public health agencies with data-information needs.

  • Recreation, sport and tourism professor Carla Santos, right, and graduate student Grace Yan found that Chinatowns project an unrealistic image of China, but it's an image that residents and visitors mutually negotiate satisfactorily.

    Chinatowns project unrealistic image of China, study shows

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - University of Illinois doctoral student Grace Yan was born and raised in China, but when she visited Chicago's Chinatown to collect data for a study on identity and ethnicity issues related to tourism in that neighborhood, what she found was largely unfamiliar.

  • Latina/Latino studies professor Julie Dowling co-chairs a national advisory committee for the U.S. Census Bureau.

    Citizenship and the census: What happens now?

    An Illinois professor who studies how Latinos deal with the census responds to the Supreme Court’s decision on the citizenship question.

  • The social and cultural revolution in the South that the Civil War triggered was just as dramatic and ultimately more important, says historian Bruce Levine.

    Civil War at 150: Bringing down the 'House of Dixie' set off a revolution

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The American Civil War not only was a series of monumental struggles on the battlefields, it also was a revolution behind the lines - a profound upending of the social order that played out in the South through the four years of the war, says University of Illinois historian Bruce Levine.

  • Photos of the carnage from Gettysburg and other Civil War battles shocked many who saw them, but also provided a way to manage grief and trauma, says communication professor Cara Finnegan. At left, dead Confederate soldiers in the "slaughter pen" at the foot of Little Round Top at Gettysburg.

    Civil War photos gave carnage a wide view, but also aided the grieving

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Anyone with a passing interest in the Civil War has seen the photos of the battlefield dead. There are the rows and fields full of corpses from battles such as Antietam and Gettysburg (which will mark its sesquicentennial July 1-3). There are the faces and the expressions.

  • Climate change could be impetus for wars, other conflicts, expert says

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Hurricane season has arrived, sparking renewed debate regarding possible links between global warming and the frequency and severity of hurricanes, heat waves and other extreme weather events.

  • Clinic provides needed services while fulfilling research

    One of the advantages of living in a community that’s home to a major research university is access to resources that would otherwise likely be available only in a large, urban area. The Audiology and Speech Clinic, operated by the UI’s department of speech and hearing science, is just such a resource for residents of Central Illinois.

  • Clothing industry led the way in seeing kids as consumers, scholar says

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - "It takes a village to raise a child" may be a popular ideal. "It takes a marketplace to raise a child" may be closer to today's reality, says Dan Cook, the author of an upcoming book on the history of the clothing industry and the rise of the "child consumer."

  • Portrait of Gratton and Fabiani

    Cocoa flavanols boost brain oxygenation, cognition in healthy adults

    The brains of healthy adults recovered faster from a mild vascular challenge and performed better on complex tests if the participants consumed cocoa flavanols beforehand, researchers report.