(Podcast) Last week, the country of Haiti was rocked by the assassination of its controversial president, Jovenel Moïse – yet another shock for a Haitian political system that was already in a state of crisis. Some are calling for foreign intervention, a controversial proposal with which Haiti has a long and difficult history. To discuss these developments, Scott R. Anderson sat down with UVA professor Robert Fatton Jr., a native of Haiti and a widely published expert on Haitian politics.
Time after time, both policy roads — disorder through foreign inaction, or risky foreign intervention — though seemingly distinct, have led to the same destination for Haiti: an eroding political and economic order that many Haitians consider unbearable. “The state has literally almost completely vanished,” said Robert Fatton, a Haitian-born political scientist at the University of Virginia. “And to some extent this is because of the pattern of assistance that was given to Haiti.”
Statues weren’t the only symbols of white supremacy in Charlottesville. Jalane Schmidt, a UVA professor of race and religion, thinks a lot about this in her work. She is the director of the Memory Project at UVA, which aims to promote research, develop curricula and programming and create opportunities for public engagement to address issues of public memory, memory conflict and memory politics in the wake of the white supremacist violence that came to Charlottesville in August 2017.
(Subscription required) As sea levels rise, salt water pushes in from the ocean and permeates the ground, a process called saltwater intrusion. This process can cause the ground to shift, which can imperil the structural integrity of a high-rise building. Salt water also can deteriorate foundations not built to withstand it. That seawater slowly soaks into the concrete, bringing with it chloride ions that penetrate into reinforced steel bars inside. The steel corrodes and expands, effectively breaking the concrete from the inside out, said John Scully, a corrosion specialist at the University ...
Andrew Abbott became the first UVA baseball player to be selected in the 2021 MLB Draft on Monday. Later in the day, three of his teammates, including two more pitchers, also were drafted. Abbott was selected in the second round by the Cincinnati Reds, who picked him with the No. 53 overall pick. Pitchers Griff McGarry and Mike Vasil also were drafted Monday. Junior third baseman Zack Gelof moved closer to realizing his professional dreams as well, hearing his name called with the 60th overall pick.
That stagnation in federal spending contributed to the largest out-migration of residents Virginia has seen since the 1920s, with more residents leaving for other Southern states than coming in from the Northeast, according to UVA’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service.
COVID-19 cases are rising in Prince William County and across the state this week, likely because of the more contagious Delta variant, which is “likely dominant in Virginia or will be soon,” according to UVA’s Biocomplexity Institute.
The University of Virginia has announced that it will soon stop buying single-use plastics. It’s part of a broader sustainability trend across institutions of higher learning, and it could pose a sales opportunity for promotional products companies. … Promo companies that serve institutions of higher education should be thinking about reusable alternatives that schools will need in the months and years ahead, such as tote bags, drinkware, compostable takeout containers and reusable straws.
UVA’s George Rogers Clark statue was removed Sunday. The Racial Equity Task Force recommended this last summer and the UVA Board of Visitors approved it in September. UVA will assemble a committee, including local indigenous communities, that will offer a recommendation about what's ideally next for George Rogers Clark.
UVA’s Karsh Institute of Democracy will hold a two-day event in September to talk about the future of democracy. The UVA Democracy Biennial will take place Sept. 24 and 25 online and in person at the John Paul Jones Arena.
The Los Angeles Chargers are in trouble if Justin Herbert ever throws a meaningful pass to Alex Stern. You’ll be forgiven for not knowing who Stern, a UVA graduate, is or even what position he plays. Just know that he is someone who could prove instrumental in the Chargers becoming a perennial playoff contender once again. A year after drafting Herbert with the sixth overall pick, the team recently hired Stern, who spent the 2020 season as an analytics intern on UVA’s football team, as a data analyst.
After teaching science and Spanish at Virginia schools for nearly a decade, Erica Tharrington is changing her career completely. The dramatic change was inspired by a very tough personal loss, and now she’s turning heartbreak into healing for others.
It was but one tumultuous year in a brilliant life that has persisted for another highly productive, rewarding 51 years. Yet this is the year that weighs on his heart and mind, the year that prompted Duncan Clarke to write a book. Whether or not he expected to arrive at any great truths, he did imagine it would help get his story off his chest. The thing is, researching and writing and building a story into a book tends to bring it back into focus as if it’s breaking news. Clarke had earned his bachelor’s degree at Clark University, his Juris Doctor at Cornell University, and his Ph.D. in poli...
Undergraduate advisers at the University of Virginia told Joe Jamison to create a business based on his passions, so that’s exactly what he did. It wasn’t cookies, coffee or clothes that stoked his fire, however. It was the effort to help others better enjoy life.
Donovan Jones was taught that the Civil War began over state rights and not slavery in an AP U.S. History class at Cosby High School in Chesterfield County. Now a fourth-year student at the University of Virginia, Jones recalls questioning the lesson at the time in his Advanced Placement class as one of the few Black students in a mostly white, politically conservative class. He said his teacher danced around the question to adhere to the curriculum.
“After petitioning for this statue to come down over five years ago, I still believe that they all must come down,” said Zyahna Bryant, who was a student at Charlottesville High School when she wrote the 2016 petition that ultimately led to the statues’ removal. Bryant, now a third-year University of Virginia student majoring in sociology and a civil rights activist and organizer, said more symbols like the statues should be removed. “We must not continue to offer platforms and dedicate space to honor white supremacy and the legacies of those who fought to uphold it,” she said in a statement. ...
The most recent removal push focused on the Lee monument began in 2016, thanks in part to a petition started by a black high school student, Zyahna Bryant. A lawsuit was quickly filed, putting the city’s plans on hold, and white supremacists seized on the issue. “This is a crucial first step in the right direction to tell a more historically accurate and complete story of this place and the people who call this place home. The work did not start here and it will not end here,” Bryant, now a student at the University of Virginia, said in a statement.
The most recent removal push focused on the Lee monument began in 2016, thanks in part to a petition started by a Black high school student, Zyahna Bryant. “This is well overdue,” said Bryant, who’s now a student at the University of Virginia. “No platform for white supremacy. No platform for racism. No platform for hate.”
One person celebrating the removal of the statues was Zyahna Bryant, who was a high school student in 2016 and started a petition to remove Lee’s statue. “We must not continue to offer platforms and dedicate space to honor white supremacy and the legacies of those who fought to uphold it,” Bryant, now a third-year University of Virginia student, said. “This is a crucial first step in the right direction to tell a more historically accurate and complete story of this place and the people who call this place home.”
“Republicans still see his endorsement as extremely valuable, and he remains a draw at his rallies,” said Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, adding that all GOP candidates had no choice but to pay attention to the losing 2020 candidate. “Trump remains extremely visible for an ex-president,” he said.