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Category: Arts & Humanities

Wisconsin professor joins team of art experts to authenticate a possible long-lost Van Gogh

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Wisconsin Public Radio

Susan Brantly is a professor in the German, Nordic and Slavic department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. A few years ago, she got a call from art research firm LMI Group asking her to lend her expertise in reading and analyzing 19th-century Scandinavian literature to help authenticate an artwork.

“I didn’t know initially what the call was about — that there was some painter or another,” Brantly told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today.” “And then came the reveal [that it was Van Gogh], and I just was grinning from ear to ear. I couldn’t have been happier. I thought, ‘Oh, this is too cool for words.’”

These young men were sucked into the manosphere. Here’s how they found a way out.

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USA Today

“If you are constantly consuming this content and you are isolated and women are responsible for the bad things that are happening to you, it’s very dehumanizing, right?” said University of Wisconsin-Madison public affairs professor Mariel Barnes, whose research focuses on backlash to gender equality and the manosphere. “You don’t see women as humans anymore, or as peers or as friends, and that dehumanization gives you permission to treat them as less than human.”

Science on our sleeves: the research that inspires our tattoos

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Nature

Liz Haynes, an biologist in the Department of Cell and Regenerative Biology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, also got a tattoo to mark a pivotal moment in her scientific career. The image, of the plant she studied in her undergraduate laboratory, serves as a reminder of the positive experience and the lessons she learnt from her mentor at the time.

“One of the things that I took away was that I really wanted to be that for someone in the future, help show them the pathway on this career, help guide them into grad school, influence them positively and really give them a home in the lab,” she explains.

UW Varsity Spring Band Concert is coming to the Kohl Center

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WMTV - Channel 15

The University of Wisconsin Madison’s annual Varsity Spring Band Concert is scheduled for Friday, April 11 and Saturday, April 12.

Happening at the UW-Madison Kohl Center, the Badger Band will feature many varieties of music for all ages. Including, “Music of Ariana Grande” “Country Favorites” “Music of Michael Jackson,” “Space Badgers,” “If You Want To Be A Badger,” the signature Badger finale and of course, “On Wisconsin!”

UW-Madison freshman publishes his first New York Times crossword, after trying for 3 years

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Wisconsin State Journal

For UW-Madison freshman Ryan Mathiason, the 40th time’s the charm.

The 19-year-old business major studying actuarial science didn’t know that most people give up on submitting crossword puzzles to the New York Times after a handful of rejections. For three years, Mathiason kept submitting puzzles, only to wait weeks to get told no.

Hamel family wines redesigned its labels, much to Wisconsin’s sadness

Posted on
Forbes

This previous label, which debuted on the 2010 vintages, featured Hamel Family Wines in cursive and an image of a badger. The badger reflects two things, Hamel says. Badgers are found in their Sonoma vineyards, and Hamel, his father and his grandfather all graduated from the University of Wisconsin in Madison, and Bucky badger is not only the school mascot, but Wisconsin is considered the Badger State.

‘This building has to go’: Evers visits Chadbourne Residence Hall, Mosse Humanities to hear student concerns

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The Daily Cardinal

Gov. Tony Evers visited the University of Wisconsin-Madison Thursday, touring Chadbourne Residence Hall and the Mosse Humanities Building to hear student concerns about the building and to highlight his 2025-27 Executive and Capital Budget investments.

‘Endless series of contradictions’: Girls open up about complicated relationships with social media

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Wisconsin Public Radio

Kate Phelps thinks the way society talks about how young girls use the internet is too simplistic. A big part of that, she says, is because culture spends a lot of time scrutinizing pre-teen girls, but we rarely talk to them about their experiences. Phelps, a University of Wisconsin-Madison women and gender studies researcher, wanted to change that.

Her new book, “Digital Girlhoods,” is based on her conversations with 26 different girls between the ages of 10 and 13 — an age group often referred to as “tweens” — about their feelings about social media.

Indigenous ribbon skirts make a modern statement

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Madison Magazine

R​​ibbon skirts — once reserved for ceremonies across many tribal traditions — are showing up in everyday spaces on a new generation of Indigenous women. Miinan White, McKenna Metoxen and Ava Belisle attend the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where they’re building community around the garment. “When I was little, I only had like two or three [ribbon] skirts,” says White, whose mother taught her to sew them. Now White, Metoxen and Belisle are filling their closets.

The three young women all hold leadership positions for Wunk Sheek, a UW–Madison campus organization founded in 1968 that promotes Indigenous identity, culture and history.

Drawing on Dutch masters, NY exhibit explores Christians painting themselves into Purim parable

Posted on
The Times of Israel

“It’s tempting to take these great figures of history, these creative and brilliant individuals, and see in them what we want to see,” said Steven Nadler, author of “Rembrandt’s Jews” and a professor of philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “With Rembrandt, it’s not just tempting, it’s also comforting, to see him as a friend of the Jews at a particular historical period when Jews did not have a lot of friends in many places.”

Wisconsin Film Festival announces 170 films in 8 days this April

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The Cap Times

The Wisconsin Film Festival is presented by the University of Wisconsin–Madison Department of Communication Arts and is now entering its 26th year. Ben Reiser, director of operations, said Madison has supported the festival’s growth.

“The film-going community in Madison has embraced it as a chance to see all these films that you do hear about from other film festivals,” Reiser said, and particularly, “as a chance to see them in movie theaters.”

From the field to the classroom: UW athletes read with Madison second graders

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The Daily Cardinal

Student athletes at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have visited second grade classrooms in the Madison school district every Monday since September 2024 as part of the Role Model Reading Program, a partnership between the Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD) and the 2nd & 7 foundation created by Badgers head football coach Luke Fickell.

The Chimamanda effect: Nigerians’ delight at first novel in a decade from their beloved daughter

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The Guardian

The publishing industry was also influenced by Adichie’s style, says Ainehi Edoro, founder of literary blog Brittle Paper and associate professor of English at University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“Before her, African fiction often came packaged with a kind of ethnographic weight – expected to ‘explain’ Africa to a western audience,” she says. “But Adichie’s work wasn’t performing ‘Africanness’ for an outsider’s gaze; it was literary, intimate, contemporary. She helped shift expectations – both in publishing and among readers – so that the next wave of African writers didn’t have to over-explain, dilute or justify their stories.”

Wisconsin’s Forgotten Olympian: The first Black Olympic medalist and the secret he kept

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TMJ4

Poage was born in Missouri in 1880 but moved to La Crosse, Wisconsin, as a child. He was a standout student and athlete in high school. Then he went to the University of Wisconsin-Madison for college. He was the first African American on the team and the first to win a Big Ten championship. He graduated in 1904. Shortly after, he competed in the St. Louis Olympics, where he won two medals. He was also sponsored by the Milwaukee Athletic Club.

Rule breaker investing: Pet Perks, Vol. 2

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The Motley Fool

Let’s move to pet perk number 2. This one’s a little bit quicker hitting. I was reminded that I got it from Jordan Ellenberg, the mathematician and the academic at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who joined me for Authors in August in 2023. His book “How Not To Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking” is where pet perk, number 2, comes from. I’m going to quote him in a sec, but here it is, essentially. As you get richer as a person, as you get richer as an investor, you’re able to take more risk and that is indeed a pet perk.

Madison-area theater companies build buzz with Sondheim series

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The Capital Times

“A Little Night Music,” featuring a vocal quintet, is University Opera’s choice, running March 14-16 in Shannon Hall. With a story by Hugh Wheeler, the 1973 “Little Night Music” was inspired by an Ingmar Bergman film about an aging actress, Desiree (Madison Barrett), and what happens when her married lovers converge at her mother’s estate for a very dramatic “weekend in the country.”

We asked Wisconsin Puerto Ricans to share their favorite songs from Bad Bunny’s album, here’s what they said

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Jorell Meléndez-Badillo, an assistant professor of history at University of Wisconsin-Madison, knows the album better than the average listener.

That’s because he’s the mastermind behind the visualizers highlighting Puerto Rican history that accompany each track on the album. Bad Bunny’s team reached out to Meléndez-Badilloafter his book “Puerto Rico: A National History” published last year.

John Green discusses tuberculosis, health inequities during Shannon Hall lecture

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The Badger Herald

Author John Green visited the University of Wisconsin’s Shannon Hall at Memorial Union on Feb. 18 to talk about the upcoming release of his new book, “Everything is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection.” Green was introduced by professor of pediatrics at UW’s School of Medicine and Public Health Dr. James Conway.

Beyond Bad Bunny: 5 essential Puerto Rican history reads

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Los Angeles Times

Dubbed his “most Puerto Rican album ever,” the record was released with 17 informative visualizers that outlined key moments in Puerto Rican history. Each installment was written by professor Jorell Meléndez-Badillo of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who used his own academic book, “Puerto Rico: A National History,” as a reference.

A UW-Madison historian’s work became a key feature of Bad Bunny’s new album. Here’s how

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Jorell Meléndez-Badillo, an assistant history professor, revived the Puerto Rican history course at the University of Wisconsin-Madison last spring. It hadn’t been taught in seven years, and the university planned to cut it, he said.

This year, he’s teaching Puerto Rican history to a global audience

‘It infuriates me’: why the ‘wages for housework’ movement is still controversial 40 years on

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The Guardian

Callaci, a professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has written a book, Wages for Housework, which chronicles the radical 1970s feminist campaign that argued for recognition of the economic value of domestic labour. In truth, she explains, it was a recipe for revolution, designed to smash capitalism and its underpinning myth that women just love keeping house so much they’ll do it for nothing.

26 books that teach young kids about diversity, inclusion, and equality

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Pop Sugar

Luckily, there’s still plenty of children’s literature that can aid in the process, though children’s literature itself has long suffered from a lack of diverse representation. The University of Wisconsin-Madison has tracked the number of children’s books by or about Black and Indigenous people and other people of color since 2018, and while the numbers have mostly increased, it remains much harder to find children’s books that are widely representative than it should be.