North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is expected to travel to Russia for talks with Vladimir Putin over the possible sale of arms to support Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
David Silbey is an associate professor of history at Cornell University specializing in military history, defense policy and battlefield analysis. He says Putin’s turn to North Korea is a sign of the…
The government of Chile announced a national search plan to find the remains of people who disappeared under the country’s military rule from 1973 to 1990.
Raymond Craib, the Marie Underhill Noll Professor of American History in the College of Arts & Sciences, focuses on modern Latin America and is author of "The Cry of the Renegade: Politics and Poetry in Interwar Chile."…
Military officers in Gabon seized power on Wednesday, putting President Ali Bongo under house arrest, shortly after the Central African state's election body announced he had won a third term.
Nicolas van de Walle, the Maxwell M. Upson Professor of Government in the College of Arts & Sciences, studies the democratization of Africa and the politics of economic reform. He notes…
Do you think you’ve seen the greatest films of all time? Do you have a go-to "cult" film? How about a favorite Disney movie?
No matter, a trip to Cornell Cinema this semester gives you the chance to see any of these, as well as a tribute to silent film star Anna May Wong and some of the most inspiring new films from the past year.
“What I am most excited about this semester is that we’re…
Chris Kitchen
Through archival research and interviews, Modica is gathering information from childcare workers.
In the second half of the 20th century, women joined the labor force in large numbers, creating a need, in many families, for childcare – and raising questions about assigning a value to such care.
“How do you transform unwaged labor into wage work on a large scale?” said Justine Modica, Klarman Postdoctoral Fellow in history in the College of Arts and Sciences. “How do we take something that…
Provided
Lesly Morocho, center, works with her class in Singapore.
Sometimes it’s hard for Cornell students to accomplish all that they want to do during the summer.
They want an experience that will help them move forward with their career or grad school plans, but they also need to have a paying job so that they can help with expenses or fulfill their financial aid requirements.
That’s where Summer Experience Grants come in. A fund established in 2019 by…
Patrick Shanahan
Blythe Wong '25 feeds some of the thousands of Poecilia parae fish in Mudd Hall.
This summer, Blythe Wong ’25 has been “fishing for answers” to understand how genes and hormones shape the way organisms look and behave, working with thousands of tiny Poecilia parae fish swimming in the aquariums of Ben Sandkam’s lab in Mudd Hall. Sandkam in an assistant professor in the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior in the College of Arts & Sciences.
Wong has not…
George Gull
At the July 15 "Gas-trophysics Across the Universe" symposium, Ann Martin Ph.D. '11 introduces Gordon Stacey, professor of astronomy.
Graduate students studying astronomy in the College of Arts and Sciences have a new source of support, thanks to an endowment established in memory of eminent astronomer Riccardo Giovanelli, who passed away in Dec. 2022 at the age of 76. The Riccardo Giovanelli Graduate Student Support Fund will provide annual support to graduate students in the Department of Astronomy.
“Graduate students are…
Patrick Shanahan
Aidan Goldberg '25 looks at the collection of A.D. White memorabilia in the Cornell Library Rare and Manuscript Collection.
Two older women keep watch from paintings on one wall of the former library at the A.D. White House and Aidan Goldberg ’25 is on a quest to find out who they might be.
That’s just one of the historical mysteries Goldberg is solving as he spends the summer putting together a history of the house, which was the home of Cornell’s first president, then housed the university’s art collection and…
During Andy Warner’s ’06 junior year study abroad in Lebanon, the country’s government collapsed after the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. There were street protests and flashes of political violence and bombings, but Warner never thought about coming back home. Instead, he started drawing comics, lots of them.
“None of the international students were leaving. When you…
A rendering of the Fred Young Submillimeter Telescope
More than 80 scientists and engineers (20 online) participated in the fourth annual meeting of the CCAT Consortium on June 20-22 on Cornell’s campus. CCAT Observatory Inc. is a Cornell-led international consortium that is building the Fred Young Submillimeter Telescope (FYST) that is currently being assembled in Germany.
When FYST is completed, it will be installed near the summit…
ESA/Hubble
Artist's impression of supernova 1993J, an exploding star in the galaxy M81 whose light reached us 21 years ago
NASA has selected 14 U.S.-based researchers to join the Ultraviolet Transient Astronomy Satellite (ULTRASAT) science team, among them Anna Y. Q. Ho, assistant professor of astronomy in the College of Arts and Sciences. She has also been appointed co-chair of the gamma ray bursts working group.
Ho and the others chosen will pursue science investigations that will contribute to Israel’s first…
Provided
Denise Rose, right, worked with other Cornell students on a study of mental health in India.
On a typical day this summer, Denise Rose ’25 visits with residents of indigenous communities in Kotagiri, India, talking about their mental health concerns and the resources available to them.
“I plan to pursue a master’s of public health degree, so this hands-on experience and research is great preparation for future projects,” said Rose, a biology and society major in the College of Arts …
Headway/Unsplash
Using data to make policy decisions
How can policy makers better use data to make decisions? With a National Science Foundation (NSF) Grant, three Cornell economists in the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S) will develop innovative methods for data-driven policy choices.
Jörg Stoye, professor of economics, Chen Qiu, assistant professor of economics, and Jose Luis Montiel Olea, associate professor of economics and Fellow of…
Jesse Winter
Students and alumni met for a summer networking event June 26 in New York City.
Students and alumni from the College of Arts & Sciences gathered in late June for a series of networking events, helping students explore careers in health care, finance, law, politics/government and media.
The Arts & Sciences Career Connections Committee (ASCCC) hosts events during summer and winter breaks. The summer events are in-person networking events and traditionally take place…
Three Arts & Sciences faculty members have been selected as finalists for the Falling Walls Science Breakthroughs Summit 2023.
Among the 30 finalists in the social sciences and humanities category are:
Lori Khatchadourian, associate professor of Near Eastern studies and anthropology, and Adam T. Smith, Distinguished Professor of Arts and Sciences in Anthropology, for their…
Jesse Winter
Natalie Arimah '19, left, and Jen Maclaughlin were able to connect this month at a student-alumni networking event in New York City.
Natalie Arimah ’19 used to think that she would go to med school or law school, find the right job and stay there forever. But now, she’s gaining confidence and realizes that she’s in charge of her own career. If a job isn’t challenging her or fitting in with her goals in life, she’s not afraid to find something else.
Behind her all the way is Jen Maclaughlin, director of Career Development…
Provided
Olivia Ochoa enjoys a break in Dupont Circle in Washington, D.C. She's working this summer with the Migration Policy Institute.
A total of 135 students in the College of Arts & Sciences are able to take on unpaid or minimally-paid summer experiences this year with help from the College’s Summer Experience Grants (SEG).
Students will be traveling as far as Ecuador or staying on campus to join a research lab for these experiences, which help them make decisions about their majors and future career goals.
“As a…
An open access book, “Performing Prowess: Essays on Localized Hindu Elements in Southeast Asian Art from Past to Present” published in May. A hardcover edition will be published in Thailand later this year.
Hindu art is abundant and vibrant in Southeast Asia, from peninsular Thailand to the island of Bali, a tradition that has continued unbroken for more than 1,500 years, said Wannasarn (Saam) Noonsuk, Ph.D. ’12 – and Cornell is a key center of scholarship in the field.
“Cornell has been a powerhouse in Southeast Asian Studies and very strong in art history,” said Noonsuk, who is now an…
Listening to Michael Poll play Bach on guitar, it’s easy to hear the expertise he pours into his playing.
What’s not as evident to the audience member: the myriad decisions Poll makes while preparing the piece–which Johann Sebastian Bach wrote for lute–for performance on the guitar. There are technical challenges to be overcome between instruments, aesthetic differences between centuries, and…
Provided
A scene from Austin Bunn’s new short film “Campfire.”
“Campfire,” an original short film by Associate Professor Austin Bunn, won the Provincetown International Film Festival’s "best queer short" award this month – its third award this summer. The Provincetown award makes the film eligible for an Academy Award nomination.
The film tells the story of a married dairy farmer who travels to a gay campground in the Endless Mountains of Pennsylvania to…
The British Empire was not created through military might alone, historian Robert Travers points out in a new book; subsuming existing bureaucracy was another way the East India Company consolidated power in India starting in the 1770s.
In “Empires of Complaints: Mughal Law and the Making of British India, 1765-1793” Travers, professor of history in the College of Arts and Sciences, shows…
Provided
An illustration depicting Asakusa District in Tokyo, a thriving movie theater and entertainment area in early twentieth century Japan.
As soon as a new media technology emerges – for instance ChatGPT or a virtual reality headset – a discourse starts up, as enthusiasts expound on its uses while skeptics write op-eds about perceived threats.
“We’re in an era where it seems that new media and media technologies that kind of freak us out emerge constantly,” said Andrew Campana, assistant professor of Asian studies in the…
Twenty-three faculty members in the College of Arts & Sciences were recently honored with endowed professorships approved by the Cornell Board of Trustees, continuing the college’s priority to recognize and support faculty excellence.
With these new appointments, the number of A&S faculty appointed to endowed professorships since fall 2018 has reached 66.
“These endowed…
Andreas Praefcke/Creative Commons license 3.0
Main Reading Room, Library of Congress (Jefferson Building), Washington, D.C.
Historian Tamika Nunley can see the U.S. Supreme Court through the window of her office in the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., where she is serving as the Cary and Ann Maguire Chair in Ethics and American History this summer. It’s a great vantage point, she said, not only for looking out at landmarks of American government, but also for reflecting on the ways laws and judgements have…
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI
In this image of Stephan’s Quintet, a visual grouping of five galaxies from the James Webb Space Telescope, sparkling clusters of millions of young stars and starburst regions of fresh star birth are revealed. Sweeping tails of gas, dust and stars are being pulled from several of the galaxies due to gravitational interactions. Most dramatically, Webb captures huge shock waves as one of the galaxies, NGC 7318B, smashes through the cluster.
Among astronomical topics, gas can be underappreciated, says astronomer Martha Haynes; yet the stuff that powers stars and generates storms on Jupiter is a key to understanding the universe.
"Gas fills the space between the planets, between the stars and between the galaxies,” said Haynes, Distinguished Professor of Arts and Sciences in Astronomy in the College of Arts & Sciences. “Gas…
Patrick Shanahan
The 'Software Pirates' win the group costume contest: (l-r) Chris Christensen, Savannah Relos, and Zora Blitz
The normally staid plaster casts in Klarman Hall’s Groos Family Atrium were draped in fishing nets on June 7, while a skeleton in manacles grinned from the lectern. A pirate skull and cross bones banner leered down from the second floor at the people gathered for the annual College of Arts & Sciences staff appreciation picnic, while “What do you do with a drunken sailor?” blasted from the…
Breakthrough Listen / Danielle Futselaar
An artist's conception of an alien device that generates repetitive signals.
The Breakthrough Listen Investigation for Periodic Spectral Signals (BLIPSS), led by Akshay Suresh, Cornell doctoral candidate in astronomy, is pioneering a search for periodic signals emanating from the core of our galaxy, the Milky Way. The research aims to detect repetitive patterns, a way to search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) within our cosmic neighborhood.
The researchers…
In the beginning there wasn’t anything of notice, writes psychologist Shimon Edelman in his new book “The Consciousness Revolutions: From Amoeba Awareness to Human Emancipation.” But as soon as a cell was born, according to Edelman’s view, consciousness came into being. All it took, he says, was a cell membrane to create basic conditions for consciousness: differentiation from the outside world,…
