(Commentary by Angel Adams Parham, sociology professor and senior fellow at UVA’s Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture; subscription may be required) Excellence and diversity can coexist with an education in the classics. The classics should be elevated and broadened, diversified through context and accumulated knowledge. And they have much to teach us, with a proven record of lifting the performance of students, especially the disadvantaged.
The song begins with a phone ringing and a recorded voice. It’s the title track from a new album called “1-800-Mix-Tape,” 15 original songs composed and performed by students at UVA’s Rap Lab. “You have reached the voice mail box of 1-800-Mix-Tape. You have reached the voice mail box of … You have reached the voice mail box of…” The course was taught by rapper and professor A.D. Carson, whose doctoral dissertation was also a mix tape.
(Commentary by Stanley Stepanic, assistant professor of Slavic languages and literatures) If you’re an active social media user, perhaps you’ve noticed a surge in posts recently about paprika, reflective shaving glasses and castle hospitality in Transylvania. One hundred twenty-five years after its initial publication, Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” is having a resurgence.
Here’s a glimpse at 11 of the female athletes who have shaped UVA’s 2021-22 season, plus a Notre Dame transfer who’s thrilled she’s “coming home.”
The No. 7 University of Virginia men’s tennis team (28-5) defeated No. 8 Kentucky (26-9) by a 4-0 score in the final of the 2022 NCAA Men’s Tennis Team Championship on Sunday at the Khan Outdoor Tennis Center in Champaign, Illinois. This is the fifth NCAA championship for the program and the 31st overall team title for the Virginia athletics department.
Credited with discovering and reporting the flaw on March 12 is Tamjid Al Rahat, a fourth-year Ph.D. student of computer science at the University of Virginia, who has been awarded $5,000 as part of Google's bug bounty program.
Getting out into nature, into green spaces and bodies of water, improves human well-being. The Biophilic Cities Project at the University of Virginia created a nature pyramid including at least some daily interaction with nature to “de-stress, find focus, and lighten mental fatigue.”
(Subscription may be required) The University of Virginia will celebrate the Class of 2022 during a weekend of festivities. The centerpiece of the celebration – Final Exercises – will be held on the Lawn for the first time since 2019.
During the 1910s and early 1920s, “news coverage was pretty uniformly hostile to the motorist,” says University of Virginia historian Peter Norton, whose book “Fighting Traffic” examines the automobile’s arrival in urban America. Citing the many letters to the editor that criticized urban cars, Norton says that “the newspapers were reflecting the popular perception that the car is inherently hazardous in cities.”
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear a case that could have major implications for defendants who challenge their convictions for crimes that are no longer considered crimes. This lawsuit was filed by the UVA School of Law’s Supreme Court Litigation Clinic.
(Commentary by Peter Norton, associate professor of history in the Department of Engineering and Society) Autonomy is supposed to make rides in Tesla’s planned robotaxis affordable and safe. Don’t bet on it.
The embattled Montpelier Foundation Board of Directors on Monday took a step toward structural parity in electing 11 new members from a list of 20 nominees submitted last month by the Montpelier Descendants Committee. Among the new Montpelier board members overseeing the plantation of President James Madison are Nicole Thorne Jenkins, the John A. Griffin Dean of the McIntire School of Commerce, and Ian H. Solomon, dean of the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy.
Madeline Velez recently finished her third year at the University of Virginia. She will continue working toward completing her nursing degree and required certifications before transitioning to Officer Development School – eventually commissioning as a Navy nurse.
A team of University of Virginia third-year students is developing a website where consumers could upload questionable videos and photos to check if they are fake. Two of those students, Ahmed Hussain and Sam Buxbaum, studying computer science and physics, won the top prize at the Innovative Discovery Science Platform competition.
(Commentary) Fear helps us survive, after all. And it can’t do its job if we don’t listen to it. “Fear is a highly adaptive emotion that alerts us to potential dangers in our environment so we can protect ourselves,” Bethany Teachman, a researcher at the University of Virginia with a focus on anxiety disorders, told me in an email. “It serves as an essential alarm system to help keep us safe and triggers us to avoid or escape threatening situations.”
A.D. Carson, an assistant professor of hip-hop and the Global South at the University of Virginia, argued that “rap has become a really convenient shortcut” for police work. The problem, Carson said, is how rap itself is perceived. “It’s this notion we have that rap and rappers are especially deviant and especially violent,” Carson said.
The United States hit a tragic milestone last week, surpassing 1 million deaths associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. But on Friday afternoon, there was a positive event at UVA Health. After spending eight months in the hospital with COVID-19, Jim Stewart is heading home, and it's nothing short of a miracle.
Thousands of miles from home, working on a second degree at UVA Law and one of the top 10 discus throwers in the country, Ashley Anumba surprises herself sometimes. “It’s been a journey to say the least,” Anumba said, “Never knew I’d be in this spot, like two years ago prior to COVID. But, I mean, that’s just the way life goes right?”
Nearly 250 years ago, America’s founders declared that everyone has “unalienable rights.” What those rights are has been debated ever since. As the Supreme Court weighs the future of abortion rights, the nation’s divide has come into sharper focus, as growing political polarization plays out in the midterms. UVA politics professor Sidney Milkis joins Judy Woodruff to discuss.
“Certainly, the families who have fewer resources, have fewer options, who aren’t able to pay premium prices are going to be more at risk,” said Ann Kellams, a University of Virginia faculty pediatrician and board president of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine.