On Monday evening, a draft opinion was leaked suggesting that the U.S. Supreme Court is poised to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade case that legalized abortion nationwide.
Landon Schnabel, assistant professor of sociology at Cornell University, is writing a book titled “Is Faith Feminine? What Americans Really Think about Gender and Religion,” which will consider how religion suppresses…
Sri Lanka is facing an economic and political crisis, with protesters taking to the streets of the island nation to demand government action and accountability.
Daniel Bass is manager of the South Asia Program and adjunct assistant professor of Asian studies at Cornell University. His research focuses on Sri Lanka. He says pressure on the current government has not lessened.
Bass says: “The…
Russia has cut off gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria after both refused to meet a demand by Moscow to pay in rubles – and is now threatening to do the same to other countries.
Cristina Florea is an assistant professor and historian of Central and Eastern Europe. She says this move reflects a similar moment in history, offering an opportunity for European economies to break away from…
Sasha Matveeva/Unsplash
People riding the Moscow subway
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin says the U.S. wants to see Russia’s military capabilities weakened. The comments come following a trip to Kyiv, where he and Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Bryn Rosenfeld, assistant professor of government at Cornell University, studies post-communist politics and public opinion. She recently co-authored a…
Emmanuel Macron will retain the French presidency for another five years after defeating Marine Le Pen by 17 percentage points, but Le Pen secured the far right's highest share of the vote yet.
Mabel Berezin is a comparative sociologist at Cornell University whose work explores fascist, nationalist and populist movements in Europe and associated threats to democracy.
Berezin says: “In the…
President Joe Biden is expected to announce an additional $800 million security assistance to Ukraine today following a similarly sized measure earlier this month.
Sarah Kreps is a professor of government at Cornell University and faculty at the Brooks School of Public Policy whose research focuses on the intersection between technology and U.S. foreign and defense policy.
Kreps says: “The…
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Video Still from Patricia Domínguez's “Madre Drone”
Cornell Council for the Arts announces the fifth Cornell Biennial, featuring artworks, installations, and performances addressing the curatorial theme: “Futurities, Uncertain.” Curated by Timothy Murray, CCA Director and Professor of Comparative Literature and Literatures in English, the 2022 Cornell Biennial stages an artistic call and response to counter singular utopic models, colonial…
Mabel Berezin, a comparative sociologist at Cornell University whose work explores fascist, nationalist and populist movements in Europe and associated threats to democracy, comments on the first round of the French presidential election:
"Fear was the dominant emotion among French citizens last week in the countdown to Round One of the Presidential election," says Berezin. "Depending on…
The first round of the French Presidential election is scheduled for Sunday, April 10 and the race between Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron is growing tighter.
Mabel Berezin is a comparative sociologist at Cornell University whose work explores fascist, nationalist and populist movements in Europe and associated threats to democracy.
“In this year of major European elections, France was…
The United Nations General Assembly will take a vote today on expelling Russia from the U.N. Human Rights Council as the country comes under increased scrutiny over the killing of civilians in Bucha, Ukraine.
Cristina Florea, assistant professor and historian of Central and Eastern Europe in the College of Arts & Sciences, says Russia’s continued membership in the Security Council should…
Elon Musk purchased a 9.2% stake in Twitter, making him the company’s largest shareholder, after criticizing the platform’s approach to free speech.
Alexandra Cirone, assistant professor of government at Cornell University and expert on the spread of disinformation online, says Musk’s latest move may have taken into account the failures of former President Donald Trump’s new social media app.
…
The war in Ukraine will likely have an impact on two critical upcoming elections in Europe – one in Hungary, the other in France – as the leaders’ relationships with Russia put pressure on their campaigns.
Mabel Berezin is a comparative sociologist at Cornell University whose work explores the intersection of political institutions and cultural meanings with an emphasis on challenges to…
Excessive and/or illegitimate police violence presents a challenge in every country of the world. The negative societal effects are numerous and consequential: Police violence degrades health outcomes, diminishes the quality of governance, and increases the probability of civil conflict. Despite the global nature of the problem, however, most research on police violence has focused on case…
Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine/Creative Commons license 4.0
Ukrainian refugees enter Poland, March 2022
The Biden administration made two major announcements affecting our refugee and asylum systems today, including the acceptance of up to 100,000 Ukrainians over the next few months.
Maria Cristina Garcia, professor of history and Latina/o studies, is an expert on U.S. migration and refugees.
Garcia says: “Biden’s announcement that the U.S. will admit 100,000 Ukrainian refugees brings to mind…
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Seal of the International Court of Justice.
The Biden administration announced its decision to formally determine that Russian troops have committed war crimes in Ukraine; such decisions are not unusual in a conflict, says Oumar Ba, assistant professor of government in the College of Arts & Sciences. Ba studies the international criminal justice system and is author of the book “States of Justice: The Politics of the International…
The Biden administration has declared repression of the Rohingya population in Myanmar amounts to genocide.
Oumar Ba, assistant professor of government at Cornell, studies the international criminal justice system and is author of the book “States of Justice: The Politics of the International Criminal Court.”
Ba says: “A formal declaration such as that from Secretary Antony Blinken, that a…
The Cornell Center for Social Sciences has announced its 2022 spring grants for faculty. The list of awardees includes faculty from the College of Arts and Sciences.
Douglas Kriner, Government
Presidential Politics in an Era of Democratic Disruption Conference
This conference examines how presidential politics have helped precipitate and in turn been shaped by troubling trends in…
Does language shape thought? Do the languages we speak affect how we live our lives? These are some of the oldest questions in the cognitive and social sciences, and a handful of high-profile research articles in the social sciences have argued that language systematically affects people’s values, beliefs and behaviors.
A new linguistic study, however, sounds a skeptical note, arguing that…
SCDBob/Creative Commons license 2.5
RQ-1 Predator of Italian Air Force
Ukraine has utilized drones in its vigorous defense against Russia’s invasion, and now the Biden administration is sending Switchblades to the country as part of a new $800 million weapons package.
Paul Lushenko, doctoral student at Cornell University, is co-editor of "Drones and Global Order: Implications of Remote Warfare for International Society.” He is a lieutenant colonel in the U.S…
Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona/Unsplash
Ukrainians In London gather outside Downing street in February.
Ukraine’s President Vladimir Zelensky spoke to the U.S. Congress on March 16 in a direct appeal for help as Russia continues its bombardment.
Cristina Florea, assistant professor of history, studies Central and Eastern Europe and says the war might result in new forms of international cooperation.
Florea says: “In his speech, President Zelenskyy no longer insisted on Ukraine joining…
A U.S. national security advisor is expected to meet with a top Chinese diplomat in the first high-level talks between the two countries since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began. The meeting comes as Russia has allegedly asked China for military and economic aid – a claim both deny.
Allen Carlson, associate professor of government and an expert on China, says the issue that matters most…
Russia continued its invasion of Ukraine this week, and disrupted efforts by Ukraine to evacuate citizens from areas where the conflict is most deadly.
Barry Strauss, professor of history and classics at Cornell University and Corliss Page Dean Fellow at the Hoover Institution, is an expert in military strategy.
Strauss says: "In trying to understand Putin and the subject of war crimes…
Andrew; Creative Commons license 3.0
A 9K33 Osa of the Russian Army
As casualties mount in the war waged by Russia against Ukraine, including from the bombing of a maternity hospital in Mariupol on Wednesday, leaders in the U.S. and Europe are forced to consider the scale of Russia’s aggression and whether it constitutes war crimes.
Oumar Ba, assistant professor of government at Cornell University, studies the international criminal justice system and is…
To celebrate its 50th birthday this year, diacritics:A Review of Contemporary Criticism, has launched an anniversary blog series. Board members sent an open call for submissions to the diacritics blog to former contributors, authors, and editors alike.
“The idea was to get people who have contributed to diacritics in the past to talk about their experience with the journal,…
Social media companies are exploring how to counter misinformation related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Twitter just announced it will begin labeling content from Russian state-affiliated media websites.
Sarah Kreps, professor of government and international relations and the director of the Cornell Tech Policy Lab at Cornell University, studies the weaponizing of information and…
Ever wondered how love played out in the ancient world? Or what kind of influence mothers had over the leaders of the Roman Empire?
These questions and more will be answered in the fourth season of “Antiquitas: Leaders and Legends of the Ancient World,” a podcast from Barry Strauss, the Bryce and Edith M. Bowmar Professor in Humanistic Studies, in the Departments of History and Classics in the…
Tim Bowden ’08, MA ’09
O’Toole interviews Venezuelan migrants in a park in the southern Mexico city of Tapachula in February 2022.
Journalist Molly O’Toole ’09 is spending the next several months following what is believed to be the longest active human migration route on the planet. The project, which she aims to chronicle in a book, will trace the path taken by refugees through South and Central America and Mexico to the U.S. border, stretching approximately 9,000 miles through 10 countries.
“These are people who are…
Photo by Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office
Furnas speaking at a December 2021 event in which then-NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio signed a law that will eventually ban fossil fuel combustion in newly constructed buildings, among other provisions.
In late December, then-New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio signed a law that will eventually ban the use of natural gas in new buildings in the five boroughs. Among the supporters at the event—held outdoors despite the chill, like so many during COVID—was a prominent staffer who’d helped spearhead it.
As Ben Furnas ’06, then director of the Mayor’s Office of Climate and Sustainability, told…
Cornell will celebrate the birthday of alumna and Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison MA ’55 from 3-5 p.m. Feb. 18 with a screening of the film “The Foreigner’s Home” (2017), followed by a roundtable discussion. Both events are virtual, free and open to the public. Sign up here.
"The Foreigner's Home” explores Morrison's artistic and intellectual vision through "The Foreigner's Home," her 2006…
In honor of Black History Month, this semester’s Seymour Lecture in Sports History will focus on how media has shaped much of the narrative of black sports history.
The talk, “Reframing Boobie Miles: Racial Iconicity and the Transmedia Black Athlete,” will be given by Samantha N. Sheppard, associate professor of cinema and media studies in the Department of Performing and Media Arts. Sheppard…
China claims the U.S. plans to pay athletes to 'sabotage' the Beijing Winter Olympic Games. Sarah Kreps, professor of government and international relations at Cornell University, studies the weaponizing of information and disinformation. She says the credibility of these claims to the American public doesn’t matter to the Chinese government.
“Anyone familiar with the U.S. political system…
The Spring 2022 Barbara & David Zalaznick Reading Series, beginning Feb. 24, will feature a wide range of artistic styles and voices from around the world. The series, hosted by Cornell’s Creative Writing Program, brings innovative, award-winning authors to read from their work on Cornell’s Ithaca campus. Each reading closes with a live Q&A where students, faculty, and the…
Davis lab/provided
This composite image shows where the selenium atoms reside in the crystal of niobium diselenide, a transition metal dichalcogenide, using conventional scanned tunneling microscopy (left, in grey) and where the electron pairs are observed using scanned Josephson tunneling microscopy (right, in blue).
This Cornell Research story focuses on the work of physics faculty members Katja C. Nowack, assistant professor, and Eun-Ah Kim, professor, who are collaborating with researchers at Harvard University and Stanford University to pursue new superconducting interfaces.
"Electrons in certain situations may pass through a potential barrier even though they lack the energy required to…
Thin-film solar cells made from solution-processed crystalline materials are promising alternatives to silicon wafers, the core component that converts light into electricity in most solar panels today. This Cornell Research story describes the research of professors Lara A. Estroff, Materials Science and Engineering and John Marohn, chemistry and chemical biology, who are working on on processes…
For nearly two years, government professor Suzanne Mettler, PhD ’94, and colleagues have been researching an increasingly worrisome factor in U.S. politics: the stark divide between how urban and rural residents vote, and the ways in which that may impact the democratic process.
Mettler and her five-person team—comprising her co-author, PhD student Trevor Brown, and undergraduate…
Yair Haklai, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Roman Emperor at the Summer Garden
The Russian government said this week that the U.S. rejection of demands over Ukraine has left “little optimism” for a resolution of the crisis. Tensions have soared with Russia over concerns that Moscow is planning to invade Ukraine.
Barry Strauss, an expert in military strategy, says Vladimir Putin’s goal is to break NATO, and this is his moment.
“Vladimir Putin is a shrewd, ruthless…
The E.P.A.'s announcement that it will bolster enforcement and monitoring of air and water quality in disadvantaged communities misses some important points, says Jerel Ezell, professor of Africana studies in the College of Arts & Sciences. An expert in health disparities and social inequality in post-industrial communities, Ezell says the E.P.A.’s top-down enforcement policies don’t…
The Biden Administration appears on the cusp of sending American troops to NATO allies in the Baltics and Eastern Europe as tensions mount with Russia over concerns Moscow is planning to invade Ukraine.
Sarah Kreps, John L. Wetherill Professor and chair of government in the College of Arts & Sciences, focuses her research on the intersection of international politics, technology…
Erik Patel’s fascination with lemurs has the lowliest of origin stories: he first encountered the arboreal primates on a 2000 trip to Madagascar, when he volunteered to gather fecal samples for a fellow grad student’s research project. “I signed up to help collect poo—and I had a great time,” the 2011 PhD alum recalls with a laugh. “And I was blown away by how many different species of lemurs…
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Nordgren watches the Milky Way rise at Big Bend National Park,
"Half the park is after dark.” Astronomer and artist Tyler Nordgren, PhD ’97, coined that neatly rhyming catchphrase to promote his passion project: raising awareness about the nighttime allure of America’s national parks. The story of his work is told in this Cornellians article.
Nordgren aims to spread the word about the wonders that emerge after the sun goes down at national parks,…
Carla DeMello/Provided
The Nobel Prize awarded to Hans Bethe in 1967
How do stars keep on shining? Physicist Hans Bethe solved this cosmic puzzle early on in his over 60-year teaching career at Cornell, earning a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1967 for his theory on the energy production of stars.
Recently, Bethe’s family donated his Nobel Prize medal to Cornell University Library, where it holds a special place among the pioneering physicist’s archived papers kept…
As part of a Cornell Institute of Politics and Global Affairs webinar in March 2021, former President Bill Clinton spoke about the state of democracy, noting that the U.S. was at a “fairly perilous point in our democratic journey—we’re in a dogfight.”
“We’ve always been divided, and we’ll always have differences of opinion,” Clinton said. “But we need to find a way to get enough of each other…
Two recent papers uncover the technological practices that brought human speech and insect feeding behavior under electro-acoustic control in the mid-20th century. Author Owen Marshall is a postdoctoral researcher in the field of media studies in the Department of Science and Technology Studies in the College of Arts & Sciences and the Department of Information Science in the Ann S. Bowers…
David Rassmussen
Larison in the Rocky Mountains on his first assignment for National Geographic in the early 1980s.
During his decades as a filmmaker specializing in nature documentaries, James Larison ’70, PhD ’01, survived a terrifying encounter with a tiger shark in the Great Barrier Reef. He narrowly escaped death in a small plane crash in Alaska’s Bering Sea—and later endured another close call when he and his family were aboard an airliner that made a jarring emergency landing after an engine caught fire…
Beginning in spring 2022, a graduate minor in media studies will be available to students in fields across the Graduate School at Cornell University. Drawing on the Graduate School's long tradition of fostering interdisciplinary study, the new minor is the most recent project of the Media Studies Initiative, which sponsors an undergraduate minor, monthly colloquia, and…
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer promised action on voting rights legislation this week, setting a deadline of Jan. 17 before pursuing procedural changes that may include altering the filibuster.
David Bateman, professor of government at Cornell University, is an expert on congressional politics and author of the book, “Southern Nation: Congress and White Supremacy after Reconstruction.”…
"I remember writing poems in second grade and my teacher reading them aloud in class and the other kids being very jealous; actually, I got beat up by a couple of the bigger kids,” Joseph Bruchac ’64, BA ’65, admits, then adds with a laugh: “As I always say, that was my first experience with hostile literary critics.”
More than seven decades later, Bruchac is still writing—and he has become a…
The Board of Trustees for the Mabati-Cornell Kiswahili Prize for African Literature has announced the 2021 shortlist for the prize.
“The quality of work submitted and breaking of geographical barriers to take literature work beyond African borders is a strong statement that African literature continues to grow dramatically in quantity and in recognition,” said Abdilatif Abdalla, chairman…
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Seal of the International Court of Justice.
The International Court of Justice ordered Azerbaijan on Tuesday to prevent and punish acts of vandalism and desecration affecting Armenian cultural heritage sites in the region.
Professors Adam Smith and Lori Khatchadourian have used high-resolution satellite imagery to monitor and document endangered and damaged cultural heritage in the South Caucasus. Their…
RNA plays several distinct roles in promoting or suppressing the expression of particular genes. In particular, certain RNA strands, called enhancer RNA (eRNA), are thought to promote gene expression rather than coding for protein production themselves. The regulation of RNA and its role in human disease are not fully understood. To identify factors that alter RNA expression, it is critical to…
