Although the jury is still out on whether reincarnation can be proven scientifically, one researcher has taken upon himself to study the phenomenon. Dr. Ian Stevenson, a former professor of psychiatry at the UVA School of Medicine, has dedicated most of his career to studying so-called past lifers. Through his research, Stevenson claimed to have found more than 3,000 case studies of possible reincarnation.
Travis County has hired UVA law professor Adeola Ogunkeyede as the first person to lead its public defender office. Until last year, the county was the largest U.S. jurisdiction without an office to handle cases for poor adults accused of crimes. She currently heads the Civil Rights and Racial Justice Program at UVA’s Legal Aid Justice Center.
Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Sabato's Crystal Ball, a non-partisan political newsletter produced at UVA’s Center for Politics, suggested Buttigieg's success could be short-lived. He believes Buttigieg, to really transform himself into a real contender, will need to win New Hampshire next Tuesday, a tough challenge considering Sanders’ perceived lead there. "Assuming he wins Iowa – maybe he will, maybe he won't – maybe that leads to a breakthrough, " Kondik said. "Because otherwise, if he sputters out of New Hampshire, I don't know if there's anywhere for him to go."
J. Miles Coleman, associate editor of Sabato's Crystal Ball, said this year's issues with the new voting app may be what kills the Iowa caucus. "It's probably from every poll we've seen it's going to be a really close race," he said. "What has been interesting is a number of candidates last night declared that they had won, and it's really been a master class in how campaigns spin these types of things."
The Fralin Museum of Art at the University of Virginia has received a gift of nearly $1.6 million from Dr. Carol R. Angle. In creating this endowment, UVA matched this gift by adding additional funds totaling nearly $800,000 through its Bicentennial Professors Fund. The endowment supports and names the museum’s academic curator position, the Carol R. Angle Academic Curator.
Working from home is increasingly common in Virginia according to a new study. Roughly a quarter of a million people telecommute – up 43% since 2010. The Internet and cell phones are nothing new, but employers are finally beginning to see how easy those technologies make it for people to work from home. “A lot of people do that indirectly – you know, checking e-mail from home,” says Hamilton Lombard, a researcher at UVA’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service.
Last year, an estimated 262,428 people lived in the Lynchburg metropolitan area, up from the 252,634 people recorded in the 2010 census, according to estimates released this month by the Weldon Cooper Center, a UVA research organization that tracks the state’s demographic changes.
Medicaid expansion reduced the numbers of low-income residents without insurance in the Diabetes Belt, according to a study referenced in a news release from UVA Health.
A UVA Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service researcher finds Virginia one of the hotbeds in the nation for people working from home. Hamilton Lombard, a research specialist for the center’s Demographic Research Group, finds between 2010 and 2018, telecommuting in Virginia grew by 43%.
In 2018, a collaboration between the University of Virginia and Virginia Tech found that meningeal lymphatic vessels, which connect the brain and the immune system, could be targeted for Alzheimer’s and age-related dementia.
The caucus system, a staple of the American political process for more than two centuries, may have taken a fatal blow Monday with the epic fail in Iowa. “It’s a mess in more ways than one,” Larry Sabato, director of UVA’s Center for Politics, said. “If this were a primary, we’d have a larger turnout AND the damn results would be known by now.”
As archival research accelerates and 1920s-era writing is freed from copyright restrictions, it’s likely that more rediscovered works are on the way. UVA English professor Marlon Ross has his eye on black newspapers of the era, including The Chicago Defender and The New Amsterdam News. “A lot of these published poetry, short stories – all kinds of materials from people who we don’t remember,” he said.
(Commentary by Allison Wright, executive editor of Virginia Quarterly Review, who also teaches journalism at UVA) Since its release earlier this month, the Netflix docuseries, “Cheer,” has introduced millions of viewers to 21st-century cheerleading, a decidedly more dynamic, athletic variant of the activity than FDR – our first, but not last, cheerleader in chief (Harvard College) – could have envisioned.
Virginia's drought without a vote in the Associated Press men's basketball ended on Monday – at one week. Last Monday marked the first time since Jan. 6, 2014, that UVA failed to get a single vote in the AP poll. After upsetting then-No. 5 Florida State 61-56 a day later, the Cavaliers got a vote back in the new poll – and also bumped the Seminoles down three spots to No. 8 in the country in the new top 25.
Moderate Georgia voters subjected to endless attack ads for the Senate seat might be turned off from voting for Republicans, said J. Miles Coleman, associate editor for UVA’s Crystal Ball website. “As a party, you always want to give the perception that you are united and not fractious,” he said. “This kind of creates a narrative that goes against that.”
Former Vice President Joe Biden, who has consistently led national polls and polls near the front in the early primary states including Iowa, would certainly be happy to come in first. But he doesn’t have to, said Kyle Kondik at UVA’s Center for Politics.
Jalane Schmidt, a UVA professor who regularly leads historic tours of the downtown Confederate statues, said, “As I walked into the Capitol today, I noticed a Thomas Jefferson quote, ‘Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government,’” Schmidt said. “We are well-informed, trust us.”
Hanford’s recap of 50 years of disputed pedagogy sometimes veered toward the technical – a digression onto the subject of “orthographic mapping” required a few minutes of explanation – but her characterization of the conflict was broadly held by other experts at the summit. Emily Solari, a professor of reading education at the University of Virginia, noted that the newfound press interest in literacy had shone a light on a divided field.
Many experts criticized the Iowa caucus process and questioned whether it should be the opening election event of the year. Larry Sabato, who runs the UVA Center for Politics, tweeted congratulations to “ALL the candidates,” joking that they would get a “shiny participation trophy” in lieu of any real results.
Analysts were offering criticism and assessing the fallout late Monday and early Tuesday after results from Iowa’s Democratic presidential caucuses weren’t released as planned. “As far as I’m concerned, the first contest will now be New Hampshire,” said Larry Sabato, director of UVA’s Center for Politics, in an email. “Iowa has fumbled its chance.”