News Bureau

U. of I. sociology professor Tim Liao's analysis of the protest slogans about the federal COVID-19 vaccine-or-test mandate in November 2021 found three distinct themes.

A U. of I. specialist on Middle Eastern politics explains why Kurds often feel they have “no friends but the mountains,” why they’re a political threat to Turkey’s president and motivations for the recent Turkish attack on the Kurds in Syria.

Despite public-awareness campaigns about the potential health risks of smoking while pregnant, more than 15% of low-income women in Illinois may be lighting up anyway, a new study suggests.

An American Indian studies professor tells a story of Hopi runners who ran with and often beat the world’s best.

With both tourism and casual “hookup” sex on the rise among college-age adults, there’s an urgent need for sexual health campaigns aimed at young female tourists who are sexual risk-takers, University of Illinois scholar Liza Berdychevsky suggests.

An Indigenous languages collective at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is helping local Maya learn to read and write Q’anjob’al and working with interpreters for the community.

U. of I. scholars are coordinating online parenting seminars and activities for students and staff members at two Illinois school systems that will explore the role of social and emotional learning in healing racial wounds. 

Physicians played a key role in defining racial differences in the age of slavery, planting ideas that have carried to the present day, says a U. of I. historian in a new book.

In a new paper, scientists suggest that efforts to understand human cognition should expand beyond the study of individual brains. They call on neuroscientists to incorporate evidence from social science disciplines to better understand how people think.

A Minute With™... LeAnne Howe, a professor of American Indian Studies

The history of Latinos in baseball is the subject of a new documentary, “Playing America’s Game,” which premieres Saturday, May 21, on the Big Ten Network. A production of BTN and the University of Illinois, the film profiles U. of I. history professor Adrian Burgos Jr., a leading expert on Latino baseball history.

U.S. counties with higher income inequality faced higher rates of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the earlier months of the pandemic, according to a new study led by University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign sociology professor Tim Liao. Counties with higher proportions of Black or Hispanic residents also had higher rates, the study found, reinforcing earlier research showing the disparate effects of the virus on those communities.

A new book by University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign journalism professor Nikki Usher examines the market failure of local newspapers in the context of larger U.S. problems such as rising social inequality, geographic polarization and political discord. In “News for the Rich, White, and Blue: How Place and Power Distort American Journalism,” Usher posits that newspapers are becoming more focused on serving wealthy, white and politically liberal news consumers.

Responders who assist people after disasters are at increased risk of mental health problems, and interventions are needed to support them, a study found.

News reports, social media campaigns such as #MeToo are raising awareness of sexual misconduct and helping survivors find their voices, says educational psychologist Anita Hund

The Earned Income Tax Credit aids millions of Americans each year, lifting many out of poverty – but spacing it out in multiple payments could significantly reduce recipients’ dependence on payday loans and borrowing from friends and family, along with other benefits, suggests a recent University of Illinois study of a pilot program in Chicago.

Even in the face of evidence to the contrary, the effects of misinformation persist and can’t be wholly erased, says a new paper co-written by U. of I. psychology professor Dolores Albarracin.

Speech and hearing science professor Laura DeThorne and doctoral students Henry Angulo and Veronica Vidal discuss how the neurodiversity movement recognizes autistic individuals’ unique experiences, skills and strengths, and resists the medicalization of autism.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - In the early days of the Internet, some scholars once predicted a lessening of racism and race-based discrimination in online interactions thanks to the anonymity and race-neutral nature of the medium. But according to a new study published by a University of Illinois professor who studies race and the Internet, adolescents are increasingly experiencing both individual and vicarious discrimination online, which in turn triggers stress, depression and anxiety.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - If you build it, they will come ... with wallets bulging, eager to exchange greenbacks for peanuts, popcorn, hot dogs and beer, and T-shirts and ball caps with team logos.

U. of I. researchers, local clinicians and volunteers are providing pop-up COVID-19 testing clinics in Rantoul, Illinois, to essential workers and other high-risk residents, and are exploring the behavioral factors behind infection clusters.

Diagnoses of suicidal ideation and depression increased dramatically among pregnant Black women from 2008-2018, according to a study led by University of Illinois social work professor Karen Tabb Dina.

A new book, "Dangerous Ideas on Campus: Sex, Conspiracy and Academic Freedom in the Age of JFK," explores how the prevailing moral values of the 1960s affected protections for scholars at the U. of I.

The Cline Center for Advanced Social Research’s Coup d’État Project initially categorized the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as an “attempted dissident coup.” But that classification has evolved to include the additional classification “attempted auto-coup d’état,” said Scott Althaus, the center’s director and a professor of both political science and communication at Illinois.

Liliane Windsor, a professor of social work at the University of Illinois, has been named a Health Policy Fellow by the National Academy of Medicine and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Jake Bowers, a University of Illinois political science professor, has been appointed to a White House team that’s applying insights from social and behavioral science to improve access to federal programs. Bowers began his stint with President Obama’s year-old Social and Behavioral Sciences Team (SBST) last month.

History professor Teri Chettiar said emotional well-being was seen as a key factor for a stable democracy in the period following World War II.

A key message coming through about COVID-19 is that older folks face much greater danger, but what does that suggest to the young? Cabral Bigman, a communication professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, talks about the challenge of “social comparison frames” in an epidemic.

University of Illinois archivist Susanne Belovari won the 2020 Sophie Coe Prize for her work on the forgotten history of Viennese cuisine.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Access to assistive technologies (AT) may be a critical factor in the employment success of persons with spinal cord injury or disease (SCID), according to researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

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.

New research focuses on a fundamental human habit: When trying to explain something (why people give roses for Valentine’s Day, for example), we often focus on the traits of the thing itself (roses are pretty) and not its context (advertisers promote roses). In a new study, researchers found that people who tend to focus on “inherent traits” and ignore context also are more likely to assume that the patterns they see around them are good.

Illinois scientists are helping power plants run more efficiently, designing better, longer-lasting batteries, finding new ways to target cancerous tumors, and developing robots that can aid in construction, in agricultural fields and even inside the human body.

A Minute With™... John Murphy, a professor of communication and an expert on presidential rhetoric

A new study finds that 21-month-old infants can distinguish between respect-based power asserted by a leader and fear-based power wielded by a bully.

In a study of U.S. adults’ social media activity and polarization of their views on the Black Lives Matter movement, communication professor Stewart Coles found that people low in racial resentment who expressed themselves more frequently on these media were less supportive of BLM.

A new study shows that age-related differences in brain health – specifically the strength of connections between different regions of the brain – vary with fitness level in older adults.

Public transit systems offering broad coverage of stops and routes may still underserve the communities that rely on them the most, according to a new University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign study. The study, by former civil and environmental engineering student Dale Robbennolt and Applied Research Institute senior research scientist Ann-Perry Witmer, applies contextual engineering to help determine lapses in equity in public bus transportation access using data from the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District as a case study.

University of Illinois social work professor Ryan Wade explores the prevalence and impact of racialized sexual discrimination on sexual networking websites used by gay or bisexual men of color.

No matter how one feels about current U.S. immigration policies, they did not come out of the blue but are based in a long history, says A. Naomi Paik, an Asian American studies professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She lays out aspects of that history in a new book.

A project that is underway in East St. Louis, Illinois, is investigating strategies for overcoming barriers to COVID-19 testing and vaccination among more than 548 medically and socially vulnerable residents of St. Clair County.

Hong Kong’s nearly four-month protest is only the latest in a series, all centered on concerns about retaining freedoms and gaining the right to choose the city’s leadership, says University of Illinois history professor Poshek Fu, a Hong Kong native and specialist on modern China. The current protest movement is notable, however, for its social media-driven, guerrillalike tactics, its longevity and the international attention it has received.

Posting videos about intimate relationships to social media platforms may affect offline relationships, according to a case study of the “couch guy” video by Emily Mendelson, a graduate student at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

University of Illinois Extension educator Kathy Sweedler, whose focus area is consumer economics, spoke recently with News Bureau education editor Sharita Forrest about what teens can gain from summer jobs.

The use of electronic cigarettes has increased by 65 percent among sophomores and by 45 percent among seniors in Illinois high schools over the past two years, according to this year's Illinois Youth Survey.

The holidays are a time we focus on those in need and heap scorn on the Scrooges and Mr. Potters who don’t. But how well do we understand poverty, in either the U.S. or globally? Illinois sociologist Brian Dill addresses some misconceptions.

Professor of human development and family studies Kelly Tu discusses ways parents can help children cope with the changes and uncertainty brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Many of the adults living in Chicago's South Lawndale neighborhood are first-generation immigrants, raised in Latin American communities where people feel close to nature, leave their doors wide open to their neighbors and the outdoors is an extended space for socializing with the community.

A doctoral student found that the vetting process for refugees seeking U.S. admission was long and intense.

The state legislative district map that was signed into law earlier this summer by Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker was based on population estimates rather than official U.S. Census data, rendering it vulnerable to legal challenges, said University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign political science professor Brian Gaines.