(Commentary) One of my favorite writers, Matthew Crawford, has taken up these questions. Crawford, a political philosopher-turned-motorcycle mechanic-turned research fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia, advocates for human agency in his first book, “Shop Class as Soulcraft.” There, he laments the loss of manual competency after discovering that he derived more satisfaction from wrenching on a bike than from his brief tenure as head of a think tank.
(Subscription may be required) The heartbeat law bans abortion after the fetal heartbeat is detected, allowing individuals to sue anyone who violates the law. A federal judge has halted its enforcement, but Texas is appealing. Lois Shepherd, a health law professor at the University of Virginia, says she expects to see litigation against S.B. 4, noting the Food and Drug Administration allows the medication to be used for up to 10 weeks – not seven.
(Subscription may be required) Siva Vaidhyanathan, director of the Center for Media and Citizenship at the University of Virginia, isn’t convinced that creating a new federal agency would solve the Facebook problem. “People keep going back to the 20th century to try to figure out how to address this phenomenon we’ve never seen in human history,” he said, adding that it was a “regulatory infrastructure that assumes good faith” on behalf of platform companies.
(Commentary; subscription may be required) Siva Vaidhyanathan is a professor at the University of Virginia and foremost expert on the social and cultural implications of Facebook’s political dominance. On a recent podcast with Virginia Heffernan, another media scholar, Siva characterized Haugen’s testimony as equivalent to the smoking gun documents that felled the tobacco industry.
(By Richard Ross, assistant professor of statistics) Teaching courses with high enrollments (more than 200 students in a semester) is a daunting task for a variety of reasons – and giving feedback to students is particularly challenging. One-on-one conferencing is practically impossible, and it seems to me that many students learn just as much from the feedback that I give as they do from completing assessments. Subsequently, these courses pose the question: How can we give meaningful and rich feedback at such a scale?
(Co-written by Helena Zeweri, assistant professor of global studies) Ever since the Taliban recaptured Afghanistan, the question in much of the Western media has been, “What will happen to the women of Afghanistan?” Indeed, this is an important concern that merits international attention. The Taliban has already imposed many restrictions on women. At the same time, however, much of the Western media coverage appears to be reinforcing the idea that the U.S. military intervention helped expand the rights for Afghan women, while erasing the impact of years of resulting corruption and violence on ...
The University of Virginia Department of Drama has canceled its production of “Diversity Awareness Picnic,” its first scheduled presentation of the new 2021-22 season.
Doctors at UVA Health are encouraging people to screen their breasts for any sudden changes. The most common clinical symptom of breast cancer, according to Dr. Carrie Rochman, is a palpable lump. “Other signs of breast cancer can be related to the skin overlying a lump in the breast,” she said. “It might look thickened, it might look red, and there might even be changes on the surface on the nipple.” The doctor says getting a mammogram can be intimidating, but it’s worth it.
The UVA Medical Center is putting more than $30 million into merit raises and pay increases in the next fiscal year to reward and retain current workers and improve recruitment of new employees, according to an official.
(Editorial) More good news from higher education: In the face of nursing shortages, Piedmont Virginia Community College will expand its nursing program. PVCC offers a two-year curriculum in practical nursing. The expansion is made possible by a $300,000 gift from an anonymous donor and another $400,000 from the UVA Medical Center.
UVA researchers say reducing mortality risk among obese individuals is better achieved by increasing physical activity than working to lose weight. “When you go from not being fit at all to being even slightly fit, you see large reductions in your risk of disease,” contributing researcher and UVA kinesiologist Siddhartha Angadi said.
The University of Virginia-led project will seek to 3-D print high-temperature parts made of previously unused niobium alloys, which could enable huge time and cost savings for more complex geometries. The hopes are that these proposed 3-D printing capabilities will eventually be applied to scramjets – a class of hypersonic jet engine in which combustion takes place in supersonic airflow.
(Subscription may be required) Immigration plays an outsized role in fueling the growing divide between Americans, especially where political beliefs and values are concerned, according to a newly published survey of Joe Biden and Donald Trump voters. The research was conducted by the UVA Center for Politics and Project Home Fire, an initiative aimed at “identifying and addressing the social, political, and psychological divides” between those who cast their ballot for Trump and those who moved to elect Biden.
(Video) University of Virginia’s “Sabato’s Crystal Ball” managing editor Kyle Kondik discusses a new effort to explore U.S. political polarization.
(Commentary) It appears that Virginia has turned the corner on the Delta variant. According to the weekly update from the UVA Biocomplexity Institute Friday, its COVID-19 model indicates that “cases have peaked and are in gradual decline.”
A painting honoring the late Otto Warmbier has been returned to UVA’s Theta Chi Fraternity. The painting was returned Friday morning, found on the front doorstep of the fraternity's house, with an apology note. Warmbier died shortly after being released from North Korean custody in 2017. The note left with the painting said in part: "This was taken out of utter stupidity…We recognize how inconsiderate this act was."
The University of Virginia is looking at its energy use, and finding ways to better use its buildings.
The word “slut” scrawled at the end of the manuscript for John Steinbeck’s seminal novel “The Grapes of Wrath” – thought by some to have been written there after the manuscript was placed in the UVA Library archives – may have been explained, thanks to a handful of Swedish academics.
The Commonwealth of Virginia Campaign kicks off each October. The CVC is a statewide initiative that works to maximize the power of state employees and agencies. The University of Virginia is one participant that donates to many nonprofits in the state. “It’s the largest annual workplace giving drive, which is pretty great. It helps over 900 charities and not for profits,” UVA chief creative officer, Matt Weber said.
An annual charity campaign has gotten underway across Virginia. The Commonwealth of Virginia Campaign launched earlier this week, giving employees of state agencies a way to donate to community nonprofits through payroll deductions or other means. According to a release, UVA has historically been the largest-contributing state agency, with employees giving nearly $1 million each year to nonprofits.