The first literary festival featuring multiple African languages will take place virtually from Oct. 26 to Nov. 2 as part of Afrolit Sans Frontières, a series of virtual literary festivals for writers of African origin. The festival will take place simultaneously on the Afrolit Sans Frontiéres Facebook page, YouTube and on Twitter via the handle AfrolitSansFro1.
The Trump administration has accused Iran of targeting Democratic voters in an e-mail intimidation campaign seemingly designed to create uncertainty around the U.S. election.
A forensic team in Tulsa, Oklahoma has unearthed 11 coffins while searching for victims of the 1921 massacre in which hundreds of Black residents were killed.
The Senate Judiciary Committee plans to vote on the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court on Thursday, with a possible final vote on her confirmation as soon as Monday, Oct. 26 – a week in advance of the election.
Three collaboratively crafted online performances led by undergraduate women artists of color will be offered Oct. 30–31 by the Cornell University Department of Performing and Media Arts (PMA), Cornell Ambassadors for Media and Performance (CAMP), and Graduate Researchers in Media and Performing Arts (GRMPA). The series, titled “Virtual Vibrance: Making, Shaking, Breaking Performance,” is funded in part by the Cornell Council for the Arts.
The European Commission has launched a new system designed to link national COVID-19 tracing apps across the European Union — starting with Germany’s Corona-Warn-App, Ireland’s COVID tracker and Italy’s immuni. With the system — known as the interoperability gateway — the apps can work in all participating countries.
Thousands continued to protest in Thailand in the wake of an emergency decree issued Thursday by the government limiting gatherings to groups of five and the arrest of key protest leaders. Tamara Loos, professor of history and Thai studies at Cornell University, says the events of this week indicate that Thailand has reached a tipping point, with widespread protests necessitating a response from the regime and monarchy.
On Thursday, a former Mexican defense minister, General Salvador Cienfuegos, was detained in Los Angeles on drug charges. The arrest prompted President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to vow to punish other military officials involved.
Back in high school, Chloe Kalani ’23 was a science nerd — into every science and engineering fair and a member of the science club. But she also loved the humanities. When she came to Cornell, she thought she’d continue on the scientific path, majoring in chemistry and Asian studies and planning to become a technical translator.
A total of 122 readers, plus a number of Cornell musicians, paid tribute to Toni Morrison M.A. ’55 Oct. 8 during a marathon reading of “The Bluest Eye.”
Authorities in Nigeria disbanded a controversial police unit following nationwide protests to end police brutality. The Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) had been linked to several recent cases of kidnapping, murder and extortion that fueled citizens’ outcry over its tactics and government protection.
Christopher Morrison Pierce, a doctoral candidate in the field of physics, has been selected by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for the Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) Program.
Rubin Smith ’21 started volunteering at Cayuga Medical Center (CMC) and the Ithaca Free Clinic way before the COVID-19 pandemic began, but he’s continued that work, spending time three days a week helping patients and visitors at both places.
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry was jointly awarded on Wednesday to Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna for their 2012 work on the development of Crispr-Cas9, a method for genome editing. This is the first time a Nobel Prize has been awarded to two women.
Questions swirl about President Donald Trump’s health status following his COVID-19 diagnosis late last week, even as he left the hospital to greet supporters. Mabel Berezin, professor of sociology at Cornell University and an expert on the history and development of populism and fascism in Europe, weighs in on the president’s public appearance Sunday during treatment and his disregard for public health guidelines:
On Monday, British company Cineworld, which owns Regal Cinemas in the United States, announced it would temporarily close all of its 663 movie theaters in both countries, a move expected to impact 45,000 employees and send the future of the entertainment industry further into uncertainty.
The Carl Sagan Institute is getting a boost from an unexpected source: Fiat Chrysler Automotive’s ad for its new plug-in hybrid, Jeep’s Wrangler 4XE. The ad features the late Carl Sagan’s famous “Pale Blue Dot” monologue and images -- and for every view of the ad on Jeep’s Youtube channel, a donation will be made to the Carl Sagan Institute (CSI).
As a psychology double major at Cornell University, Mahnoor Azim Tiwana ’20 has a keen interest in studying the human psyche. Inspired by her second major in performing and media arts and minor in fine arts, Tiwana turned an artistic lens on the study of the mind for her original play “keepsakes.”
President Trump and others in the White House testing positive for COVID-19 has raised questions about what impact the news will have on coronavirus messaging.
President Donald Trump will debate former Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday evening in Cleveland, Ohio. Chris Wallace of Fox News will moderate the matchup and announced the debate will include discussion of the Supreme Court, COVID-19, economy, race and violence, and election integrity.
Following the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, President Trump nominated Judge Amy Coney Barrett on Saturday to the Supreme Court. Barrett, a federal appeals court judge, is a religious conservative and draws criticism from Democrats for her positions on healthcare and abortion.
Protests continued in Thailand on Friday after parliament failed to reach an agreement on possible constitutional reforms. Demonstrators have been taking to the streets since July in an effort to pressure parliament to limit the powers of the country’s monarchy. Tamara Loos, professor and chair of history, says that the rallies highlight how Thai society has changed its approach to politics, and the monarchy:
Xianwen Mao, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, has been recognized for his innovations in imaging nanoscale systems by the New York Academy of Sciences and the Blavatnik Family Foundation.
On Sept. 23, the mayor of Louisville, Kentucky declared a state of emergency for the city in advance of the attorney general’s announcement regarding possible charges against the police officers involved in the killing of Breonna Taylor in March.
The Cornell Center for Historical Keyboards (CCHK) presents a full program of virtual events for the fall 2020 semester, comprised of two distinct series: "Music as Refuge," beginning Sept. 23; and "Beethoven and Pianos: Off the Beaten Path," beginning Oct. 2.
"I have had such good friendships with faculty and staff and have been universally impressed by the caliber of people I’ve had the chance to work with,” said Katherine Gemmell.
On Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump will host leaders of Israel, United Arab Emirates and Bahrain at the White House in a ceremony to mark the normalization of relations between Israel and the two Gulf countries. The deal, which the Trump administration has described as a pivotal step towards peace in the Middle East, signals a shift amongst Arab countries, traditionally wary of siding too close to Israel.
Faculty members planning this year’s Cornell Celebrates Toni Morrison series have spent considerable time discussing how to handle, for a general audience, the brutal language of racism and scenes of sexual violence in “The Bluest Eye.”
An international team of researchers has discovered the presence of the chemical compound phosphine in the atmosphere of Venus — a discovery that could indicate some form of life on the hot planet. They describe their findings in the journal Nature Astronomy.
In the wake of the largest anti-government protests in Thailand since 2014, the Thai King Vajiralongkorn reinstated his Royal Noble Consort, Sineenat Wongvajirapakdi, after having demoted her in October of 2019. Tamara Loos, professor and chair of history, says that the King’s treatment of Sineenat represents one of the many reasons why protestors in Thailand have targeted the monarchy for reform:
When a shortened on-campus spring semester necessitated the cancellation of in-person events, theatre students in the Cornell University Department of Performing and Media Arts (PMA) did what they do best: they got creative. The team behind the popular semiannual student-run Festival24 quickly changed course and produced an online iteration of the event: Festival24.0.
Name and title: Erin Stache, Assistant Professor, Chemistry & Chemical Biology Academic focus: Polymer chemistry and sustainability Current research project: Depolymerization of commodity polymers Previous positions:
Name and title: Jerel Ezell, Assistant Professor, Africana Studies and Research Center Academic focus: Health disparities and social inequalities Current research project:
Name and title: Isabel M. Perera, Assistant Professor, Government Academic focus: Health, labor and social policy, in comparative and historical perspective Current research project:
Name and title: Helena Aparicio, Assistant Professor, Linguistics Academic focus: I use a combination of experimental and computational methods to study how humans process and interpret language. Current research project:
Name and title: Laura Niemi, Assistant Professor, Psychology Academic focus: Moral psychology, social psychology, cognitive science, psychology of language Current research project: I study how people judge each other, make morally relevant decisions, and live out their values.
Name and title: Imane Terhmina, Assistant Professor, Romance Studies Academic focus: Francophone African literature and culture, postcolonial theory, affect theory, political philosophy, petrofictions/eco-topias, Afropolitanism Current research project:
Name and title: Todd Hyster, Associate Professor, Chemistry & Chemical Biology Academic focus: Biocatalysis and organic synthesis Current research project:
