News Bureau

The Cline Center for Advanced Social Research and an interdisciplinary team of University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign experts have developed a nationwide registry on the use of lethal force by police officers in the U.S., identifying more than 23,000 incidents between 2014-2021.

The American Ornithological Society’s decision to rename birds that were named after people will allow us to consider how we remember historical figures and acknowledge the oppression in our nation’s history, says University of Illinois history professor David Sepkoski, who studies how biological and environmental sciences interact with culture.

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker recently announced new funding to support communities working to preserve and celebrate their unique cultural heritage. The “State Designated Cultural District” initiative will provide $3 million to selected cultural districts to aid such efforts. U. of I. anthropology professor Helaine Silverman, whose work focuses on the ways that nations and communities create and deploy cultural heritage as a means of building identity and attracting tourism, spoke to News Bureau life sciences editor Diana Yates about the new program and its implications for the state.

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign English professor Janice Harrington has written a children’s biography of pioneering Black botanist Charles S. Parker, “Rooting for Plants: The Unstoppable Charles S. Parker, Black Botanist and Collector.”

The 15-millionth volume in the collection of the University Library is a copy of Walter of Henley’s 13th-century work “Hosbondrye,” one of the most influential works on agriculture and land management in the Middle Ages.

Naomi Oreskes, a leader in examining efforts to undermine the scientific truth on the causes of global warming, will give a Center for Advanced Study MillerComm lecture on how free market ideology is preventing action on climate change.

History professor Rosalyn LaPier, an enrolled member of the Blackfeet Tribe of Montana and Métis, talks about the history of the bison and their connection to Indigenous people in the new Ken Burns documentary “The American Buffalo.”

Joanne Lee Molinaro, known as “The Korean Vegan,” gained fame through her TikTok videos and now is a best-selling cookbook author. She’ll be on campus at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts as part of the PYGMALION Festival.

New research led by Bo Zhang, a professor of labor and employment relations and of psychology at Illinois, points to a better way of assessing noncognitive abilities such as personality and career interests.

African American studies professor Bobby J. Smith II tells the overlooked story of how food was used as both a weapon and a tool of resistance during the Civil Rights Movement in his new book “Food Power Politics: The Food Story of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement.”

University of Illinois English professor Jamie L. Jones examines the massive energy transition from whale oil to fossil fuels and the continuing influence of the dying industry of whaling in her new book “Rendered Obsolete: The Afterlife of U.S. Whaling in the Petroleum Age.”

A new law requiring Illinois public schools to teach Native American history will help students learn about the Indigenous people who originally occupied the land, as well as the contemporary Native American community in the state, says Illinois history professor Rosalyn LaPier.

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.

Comparative and world literature professor Eric Calderwood wrote about the diverse meanings attributed to al-Andalus and the enduring cultural influence it has today.

Illinois history professor Yuridia Ramírez and Latina/Latino studies professor José de la Garza Valenzuela have been awarded 2023 American Council of Learned Societies Fellowships.

Hong Kong was a battleground for the competing ideologies of China, Taiwan and the U.S. in the post-World War II period. The conflict drove the expansion and transformation of the Hong Kong media, says history professor Po-Shek Fu.

Educators need to help students understand and use artificial intelligence language tools in appropriate ways to prepare them for a future in which their use is commonplace, says English and information sciences professor Ted Underwood.

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.

One year into the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the most likely outcome is a stalemate, despite the mounting cost in blood and treasure, said Edward A. Kolodziej, Emeritus Research Professor of Political Science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and an expert in international relations and global politics.

A series of eight videos available online highlights the research of University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign history professor Craig Koslofsky on ways of marking and understanding skin in the early modern world.

Ryan Cordell, a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign professor of information sciences and of English, is leading a project to examine how stories of racial violence circulated in late 19th century and early 20th century newspapers and how those stories relate to trends in contemporary social media.

The New Philadelphia National Historic Site in western Illinois, commemorating the first U.S. town to be legally founded by African Americans, is the nation’s newest national park. Several University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign professors were among those leading the effort seeking national park status for the site.

The Jan. 8 insurrection in Brazil’s seat of government was styled after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, says Jerry Dávila, the Lemann Chair in Brazilian History at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and executive director of the Illinois Global Institute.

Anthropology professor Erin Riggs has been awarded a 2022 National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship.

English professor Gillen D’Arcy Wood’s Oceans 1876 project makes a treasure trove of 19th-century marine data accessible to help scientists better understand how our oceans have changed and how to protect them.

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.

History professor Robert Morrissey wrote in his new book, “People of the Ecotone,” about how the ecology of the tallgrass prairie shaped the culture and created unique opportunities for the Indigenous people who lived there.

Architecture professor Paul Hardin Kapp writes about how the women of Natchez, Miss., preserved their city’s antebellum architecture and created our image of the Old South.

While all of the “Big Five” personality traits – agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion, neuroticism and openness – are related to experiencing stress, neuroticism showed the strongest link, according to research co-written by Bo Zhang, a professor of labor and employment relations and of psychology at Illinois.

The message sent by voters this midterm election? Candidates matter, since most voters assess candidates in multiple ways, not only according to party label, says University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign political science professor Brian Gaines.

The “Reclaiming Stories” project aims to reconnect members of the Miami and Peoria tribes with their artistic tradition of hide painting and to center Indigenous knowledge in interpreting the practice.

Horror films let us “choose the shape of our fears and then to face up to those fears,” said English professor Jim Hansen.

The Black Death was killing people in Asia more than a century before it was seen in Europe, according to new evidence put forth in a special issue of “The Medieval Globe.”

The Cline Center for Advanced Social Research and an interdisciplinary team of University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign experts have developed a statewide registry on the use of lethal force by police officers in Illinois.

Counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan and the war in Ukraine underscore the importance of unmanned aircraft to future military capabilities, said University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign political scientist Nicholas Grossman, the author of “Drones and Terrorism: Asymmetric Warfare and the Threat to Global Security.”

It’s unlikely that the ongoing Jan. 6 committee hearings will resonate with the public as much as the Watergate hearings did 50 years ago, says University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign political science professor Brian Gaines.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine directly challenges the security order established by the Western democracies after World War II, said Edward A. Kolodziej, Emeritus Research Professor of Political Science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and an expert in international relations and global politics.

The increasing number of bills aimed at limiting transgender rights is part of the rise in authoritarianism in the U.S., said Toby Beauchamp, a professor of gender and women’s studies.

History professor Eugene Avrutin explores the history of racism in Russia over the past 150 years, from a society that was relatively free of racial violence to the elevation of whiteness under President Vladimir Putin’s rule.

Following a pandemic, workers historically have recognized the value of their labor and become unwilling to accept poor wages and working conditions, said Carol Symes, a history professor who specializes in medieval studies.

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign materials science and engineering professor Nancy Sottos and history professor Maria Todorova have been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the oldest honor societies in the nation.  They are among 261 new members elected to the academy this year in recognition of their accomplishments and leadership in academia, the arts, industry, public policy and research.

The Saving Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Online project aims to preserve digital records when web servers and physical records and objects are at risk of being destroyed by Russian attacks on Ukraine.

“Rare Stuff,” the debut novel of comparative and world literature professor Brett Ashely Kaplan, features themes of Jewish identity and loss.

The racial health disparities experienced by minority populations in the U.S. during the COVID-19 pandemic ought to be concerning for everyone, said Wendy K. Tam Cho, a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign political scientist who’s an expert in data-driven social research.

Linguistics professor Ryan Shosted and computer science professor Neal Davis are providing resources that they hope can shed light on the dialect and culture of late 19th-century Utah, as well as help answer other research questions.

The damage sustained by Ukraine will require years of rebuilding efforts, says Illinois sociology professor and demographer Cynthia Buckley.

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.

Benjamin Bross used the public square and historic events that took place there to explain the emergence and evolution of Mexican identities over time.

The large-scale infrastructure needed to attract private investment in solar energy makes it more vulnerable to climate extremes, said urban and regional planning professor Sean Kennedy.

Director Guillermo del Toro and screenwriter Kim Morgan will screen a black-and-white version of their Oscar-nominated movie “Nightmare Alley” at the 22nd Annual Roger Ebert’s Film Festival, co-founded and hosted by Chaz Ebert and also known as “Ebertfest.” Director Terry Zwigoff also will attend with his cult classic film “Ghost World.” Previously announced participants are directors Azazel Jacobs and Ramin Bahrani.