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Behind the scenes Graduate student Emma Lundin sitting on a boulder with the forest behind her

Exploring multispecies relationships by walking ‘with’ the forest in Sri Lanka

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – In the rainforests of southwest Sri Lanka, Kosala gets ready in the early, humid morning to guide another group of visitors. I tuck my trousers into my socks and add some drops of lemon oil to my shoes and hands, as Kosala taught me on my first day here. It rained during […]

Behind the scenes Microscope image

Tracking the traffic between our cells

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — We adjust a lens, and a bright constellation swirls into view – points of colored light hung against a deep-hued backdrop. We track them in their courses, their paths arcing around other, larger objects. Though the images look cosmic, they represent a frontier much tinier and closer to home. The glimmering stars […]

Behind the scenes Photo of workers on the slop of Altgeld Hall's roof with the bell tower in the background and tiles piled on wooden planks on the roof.

Renovating historic Altgeld Hall

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The slabs of sandstone that make Altgeld Hall one of the most recognizable buildings on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus have been covered in scaffolding for months. But the results of the renovation work going on there are apparent, as the dark gray stone is restored to a pinkish hue. Standing […]

Behind the scenes Photo of Deke Weaver and other performers holding whale puppets.

‘CETACEAN’ performance shows connections between whales’ environment and humans

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Shafts of sunlight pour through the skylights of the Stock Pavilion on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus, illuminating swirls of dust stirred up as several people on a dirt floor uncoil ropes, pulling them taut and twirling them in circles like lassos. It looks like the setting for a rodeo, but […]

Behind the scenes Photo of a gardener in a sun hat with yellow flowers in the foreground.

Volunteers maintain ‘first gallery’ of flowers outside Krannert Art Museum

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — It’s one of the hottest days of the summer, but a dozen people have gathered with their water bottles, sun hats and gardening tools in front of Krannert Art Museum at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. They’re starting early in the morning, before it gets even hotter, amid blooms of pink, purple, yellow, orange […]

Behind the scenes Kenneth Nixon, left, talks to police recruits about his own wrongful conviction at age 19 for a murder he did not commit.

Changing police culture with stories of wrongful convictions

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – I’m in a room with more than 100 police recruits and I can’t believe what I’m hearing. The future police officers are learning about the devastating consequences of criminal prosecutions gone wrong. These aren’t just abstract stories. More than a dozen exonerees are here to share their stories with the police recruits. […]

Behind the scenes The author, Juliana Soto, holds a sooty ant tanager.

Following in the footsteps of early 20th century naturalist Elizabeth Kerr

WEST OF HONDA, COLOMBIA. – I am walking in a forest and listening to a concert of birdsong at dawn. I pick one song out of the chorus – a fast chatter full of melodious whistles – the sound of the sooty ant tanager.  “Today, we will probably get to know this bird up close,” […]

Behind the scenes Photo of two chimes players moving the levers to play the Altgeld Chimes, seen from below.

Preserving the sound of the Altgeld Chimes

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Early on a sunny Sunday morning, the chimes tower in Altgeld Hall is filling up with people. Students climb the steep staircase to the tower, several of them carrying snacks. They are all chimes players who will perform for a recording of chimes music. Chimesmaster Michael Broussard, a doctoral student in ethnomusicology […]

Behind the scenes Photo shot from overhead of a line of people walking down a circular staircase.

‘Blind Field Shuttle’ brings a new perspective to campus walk

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — It is noon on a cool, gray early spring day on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus. I am breathless, surveying my fellow travelers who, like me, have hiked up a winding staircase to a fourth-floor landing in the Architecture Building. We sit quietly on benches, awaiting instructions from our host, Vancouver-based […]

Behind the scenes Landowners gather in a circle at a field site.

Preserving Illinois forests, one landowner at a time

SOUTHERN ILLINOIS – No matter how many times I do this, I always get nervous. I am demonstrating the proper use of a chainsaw to fell a tree and I want it to go well. After choosing the right tree, a medium-sized box elder, I walk through the steps out loud so that everyone in the […]

Behind the scenes Photo of Tyrone Phillips standing in an empty theater and smiling and gesturing, wearing a White Sox ball cap and a black hoodie.

Returning to Illinois theatre to direct, mentor students

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — It’s a few days before the opening of a new play at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, and the student actors are rehearsing the opening scene. Director Tyrone Phillips is watching from the seats of the theater – a place familiar to him from his days as an acting student at […]

Behind the scenes Greenhouse student worker Eric Sylvester cuts dead branches from a queen sago palm tree.

Nurturing a tropical paradise in the heart of the Midwest

URBANA, Ill. – Lexi Gomez is knee-deep in a pond when I first see her in the U. of I. Plant Biology Greenhouse and Conservatory. A fifth-year senior who will graduate this semester, Gomez dips a net in the dark water to clear the pond of debris fallen from the lush jungle of tropical plants […]

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