He helped create a library full of music and an orchestra to play it, but Ernest Campbell “Boots” Mead was best known for his effort at making students feel like an integral part of their university. Mr. Mead, 95, served as professor of music and former head of the McIntire Department of Music at the University of Virginia and led an effort to establish the UVa Music Library. He died Feb. 13.
It’s been over a year since the publication of a new book about Thomas Jefferson and his slaves. It won rave reviews from many parts of the country, but in Charlottesville the author is still attacked in certain circles.
Hobby Lobby’s argument won a favorable ruling from the 10th Circuit, and other leading legal experts on religious freedom believe that the Greens have a strong case. “Congress explicitly understood RFRA to protect for-profit corporations and their owners,” stated Douglas Laycock, a professor of law at the University of Virginia, in a brief filed on behalf of the Christian Legal Society.
(Book review) I fell into a state of dazed puzzlement at the start of this book, whose first chapter includes a remote century's bitter winter, "sour ale" in an "undercroft tavern," the stink of Newgate Jail, French secret agents, a wild-haired preacher and conversations in Italian and French as well as English. But after spending time with the knights, scholars and whores who populate the 1385 London of Bruce Holsinger's A Burnable Book, the pull of the story asserted itself: The search for a treasonous book of poems triggered labyrinthine plots and subplots that k...
At the University of Virginia, the director of the institute that bears Woodson's name said she feels some ambivalence about how Black History Month is observed in ritualistic ways that "reinforce the status quo, whether intending to do so or not." "It has come to mean let's celebrate how far we've come," said Deborah E. McDowell, the director of the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies. A greater service to Woodson's legacy would be to deal honestly with the very measurable problems that remain, McDowell said.
The world is plagued with "wicked problems" – tightly-knotted problems such as poverty and inequality – that seem to defy solution. But a different way of considering those problems can lead to useful answers to difficult questions, said Andrew King at the University of Virginia's Darden Graduate School of Business. That way is "design thinking," said the senior researcher at the Darden School's Batten Institute.
Bringing the dead to life for a wider audience, however, demands a different alchemy, the rigor of the historian mixed with the imaginative chutzpah of the novelist. In this endeavor, Bruce Holsinger is a gamekeeper turned poacher. A medieval scholar at the University of Virginia, he specializes in culture, religion and literature. If 14th-century Londoners were to come alive, he more than most would know what they might talk about. And language, spoken and written, is at the center of his first novel, “A Burnable Book.”
It is unclear if other Virginia colleges will follow suit. McGregor McCance, a spokesman for the University of Virginia, said the school does not have a “stated policy” regarding gender-neutral housing but accommodates similar living arrangements on a case-by-case basis.
A Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on the life and legacy of Thomas Jefferson will be launched on Monday, February 17, in commemoration of US Presidents’ Day. Free online access is offered to Chinese audiences and their worldwide counterparts.
Peter S. Onuf tells people upfront that he is not “a Jefferson worshiper.” The University of Virginia scholar, who teaches a free online course on Thomas Jefferson that will debut Monday, is struck by the paradox of a slave-owning Founding Father who espoused liberty. Onuf’s own political sympathies lie with the party that opposed the nation’s third president.
The younger you marry, the higher the risk of divorce, according to Bradford Wilcox, director of The National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia. “Marrying young is difficult in our society, unless you’re embedded in a supportive community, like a religious group,” Wilcox says.
Marriage is linked with numerous health benefits that simply cohabiting doesn't seem to provide. Now, research suggests the reason why — the brain links "just" living together with a lack of commitment and can't relax. "We really pay close attention to when it's safe to let down our guard and to outsource our stress response to our social networks," said study researcher Jim Coan, a psychologist at the University of Virginia.
While exact numbers on second and third marriages are hard to come by, the share of Americans having them is significantly higher than it was before the 1960s, and has generally plateaued since then, according to W. Bradford Wilcox, a sociology professor at the University of Virginia who studies marriage trends.
In the 1950s around 3 percent of Americans checked the “none” box in surveys asking about religious affiliation. Now 20 percent of the population does so. Moreover, these so-called “nones” are heavily represented in elite culture. A recent report on family life from the University of Virginia’s Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture identifies parents they call the “engaged progressives.” Representing 21 percent of parents, this group is the most highly educated and most influential. It overlaps with the nones. Fewer than 20 percent in this group go...
The president's new college rating system is going to be difficult to implement, say Awilda Rodriguez, a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and Andrew P. Kelly, director of the Center on Higher Education Reform. President Obama announced a plan last fall to distribute federal aid based on a federal college rating system that would measure access, affordability and student achievement. Those scoring higher in the rankings would receive more federal aid dollars.
While the RGA will likely still outraise the Democratic Governors Association, it will have to contend with a motivated union political machine that combined with the DGA actually accounted for more outside spending than the RGA in 2012. And money certainly doesn’t guarantee success at the ballot box. “You can’t just buy these elections,” said Kyle Kondik, a political analyst at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics. “There are all sorts of other factors that go into it.” The early read on 2014 elections is that the Democrats are better pois...
The University of Virginia Glee Club celebrated its annual SingFest Saturday night. The event featured nine different a cappella groups performing for a standing room only crowd in McLeod Hall. The event is also the club's biggest community service project of the year. All proceeds from the show are donated to the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank.
On Wednesday, when University of Virginia Law School Innocence Project Legal Director Matthew Engle spoke to Coker, he noticed a change. “There was a sense of optimism that I’ve not heard in the four years I’ve been working with him,” Engle said. “He really sees the sex offender registry as something that has been holding him back,” Engle said. “That was really the first time I’ve heard excitement in his voice and hope for the future now that this is finally done.”
Cruz, Walker and Christie are among the top tier of GOP candidates looking to run for the White House in 2016, according to Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics. The early trips to Florida are about getting exposure in a donor-rich swing state and gauging potential interest in their candidacies, Sabato said. “It is all about the money right now,” Sabato said.