Students gathered Thursday, March 6, at a Challahbration event at Madison Hillel, at University of Wisconsin-Madison. Challah-making sessions happen on Thursdays.
IN PICTURES: Challah making at UW-Madison
The Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle
Category: Arts & Humanities
‘Funny Because It’s True’ chronicles the history, local impact of The Onion
The Daily Cardinal
The University of Wisconsin-Madison in the 1980s was the perfect breeding ground to create the self-described “single most powerful and influential organization in human history.”
Walking tour illuminates Ho-Chunk history at UW-Madison
The Daily Cardinal
When former University of Wisconsin-Madison director of tribal relations Aaron Bird Bear was hired in 2003, he was shocked at the lack of representation and resources for Native American students. He saw Native American students’ need for support.
Here’s what red pill, misogyny and other manosphere terms mean
USA Today
University of Wisconsin-Madison public affairs professor Mariel Barnes, whose research focuses on backlash to gender equality and the manosphere, says the manosphere started to coalesce online around 2008 and grew with the rise of blogging websites.
These young men were sucked into the manosphere. Here’s how they found a way out.
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.”
Memorial Union welcomes back iconic sunburst chairs
WMTV - Channel 15
On Wednesday, April 16, the Memorial Union will welcome back the famous orange, yellow and green starburst chairs to the terrace.
Science on our sleeves: the research that inspires our tattoos
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 Marching Band, Jordy Nelson, bike parade, national anthem singer announced for NFL draft festivities at Lambeau
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The NFL has announced a round of entertainment and other activities planned for the draft in Green Bay, but specifics are still to come on some on concert performers and other participants.
The Wisconsin cartographer who mapped Tolkien’s fantasy world
Wisconsin Public Radio
Mark is now an assistant professor of geography at the University of Oregon. He spent spring break this year in Wisconsin, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Robinson Map Library. For a week, he covered the library in fantasy maps as he worked to scan and digitize the collection.
Irish Gaelic is an ‘endangered’ language. This UW-Madison class is helping keep it alive
The Daily Cardinal
Growing up, University of Wisconsin-Madison Language Sciences Instructor Rebecca Shields was always curious about her Irish heritage.
In 2021, inspired by her heritage and extensive study of linguistics, Shields embarked on a journey to teach Irish Gaelic at UW-Madison.
Wisconsin writer turns his ‘lifelong obsession’ of researching cultural icons into new book
Wisconsin Public Radio
Wisconsin author Dean Robbins’ new book “Wisconsin Idols: 100 Heroes Who Changed the State, the World, and Me” is a collection of essays about notable people who have a connection to Wisconsin, either because they lived in Wisconsin or had a significant experience while passing through.
Legendary UW Marching Band director dwells on ‘Moments of Happiness’
The Cap Times
“I was blessed with 50 years of having fun — not everyone has,” enthused the 88-year-old Leckrone, who retired in 2019. “I’m still a ham at heart.”
UW Varsity Spring Band Concert is coming to the Kohl Center
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
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.
Former UN ambassador talks diplomacy, foreign policy amid protest interruptions
The Daily Cardinal
Former United States Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield shared tips on conducting conservations on current geopolitical events and addressed the rapid change in U.S. foreign policy under the Trump administration with a packed Shannon Hall audience Tuesday night.
Federal cut to Fulbright sparks uncertainty for future of UW’s lesser-taught languages
The Daily Cardinal
Hillary Jones Henry faced tough choices when he received his February stipend for teaching Swahili at the University of Wisconsin-Madison six days late, receiving one-fourth of the promised amount.
Two UW-Madison students with immigrant roots build community through campus jobs, clubs
The Daily Cardinal
How two students from immigrant backgrounds find community and support at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Like learning in a garage: UW-Madison wants Humanities Building gone
The Cap Times
UW-Madison administrators have long wanted to tear down the Humanities Building for a host of reasons. The facility has faced problems since before it opened in the late 1960s, including costly construction, design cuts and poor acoustics.
“This is a life now:” Q&A with MFA candidate Andrew Chi Keong Yim on poetry, place, and practice
Madison 365
Born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, Yim is the current Martha Meier Renk Distinguished Graduate Fellow in Poetry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and will be graduating in May.
Hamel family wines redesigned its labels, much to Wisconsin’s sadness
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.
One week until the Wisconsin Film Festival
NBC-15
Showings will be at the UW Cinematheque, Music Hall, Chazen Museum of Art, The Marquee, Barrymore Theater, Bartell Theater and Flix Brewhouse.
Explore abolition and art at UW-Madison symposium
WKOW - Channel 27
A two-day symposium exploring abolition, visual culture, and performance studies is set to take place in Madison on April 11 and 12.
‘This building has to go’: Evers visits Chadbourne Residence Hall, Mosse Humanities to hear student concerns
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
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.
LOUD to host Wisconsin Conference of Latino Arts and Culture
Madison 365
Featured artists and speakers include Armando Ibarra, a professor in the School for Workers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Indigenous ribbon skirts make a modern statement
Madison Magazine
Ribbon 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
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.”
New book reveals the true history of The Onion
Wisconsin Public Radio
The satirical newspaper The Onion was started by UW-Madison students in 1988 and became a comedy institution. We talk to Chad Nackers, editor-in-chief of The Onion, and Christine Wenc, author of of the new book “Funny Because It’s True: How The Onion Created Modern American News Satire.”
Madison writer Patrycja Humienik embraces ‘the absurdity of writing poems’
The Cap Times
After school and work took her from Illinois to Colorado and Washington, Humienik returned to the Midwest for a two-year poetry MFA program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She graduates this May.
Errol Morris’ new Netflix documentary takes on Manson, mind control, and the CIA
Slate
Interview with UW alum Errol Morris.
Women’s History Month: Celebrating prominent women artists of UW
Badger Herald
March marks Women’s History Month and a time to honor the contributions made by women far and wide, here and now. The University of Wisconsin’s history is made up of countless accomplished women.
Wisconsin Film Festival announces 170 films in 8 days this April
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
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.
‘Mickey 17’ and ‘Rule Breakers’ are among the new movies in Milwaukee theaters this week
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
New movies on streaming services: “Chaos: The Manson Murders”: Oscar-winning filmmaker and University of Wisconsin-Madison grad Errol Morris (“The Fog of War”) takes his own deep dive into alternate theories around the murders committed by Charles Manson and his followers. On Netflix March 7.
The Chimamanda effect: Nigerians’ delight at first novel in a decade from their beloved daughter
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.”
Midwest Print Showcase celebrates young printmakers
Badger Herald
Dailey, a junior at UW, has shown his own printmaking pieces at shows affiliated with UW. But, the Midwest Print Showcase allows him to present his works to a larger audience while promoting the artwork of his peers.
Wisconsin’s Forgotten Olympian: The first Black Olympic medalist and the secret he kept
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
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.
2-time Super Bowl champ takes the stage in UW-Madison play
Wisconsin State Journal
The play, written by one of the giants of 20th-century theater, August Wilson, opens on the UW-Madison campus with a preview Thursday. Hicks plays Seth Holly, the owner of a Black boarding house in Pittsburgh where many different lives intersect in a search for identity and wholeness.
Madison-area theater companies build buzz with Sondheim series
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.”
Author John Green at UW-Madison: ‘All true stories are hopeful’
The Capital Times
“ I don’t know if I’m alone in this, but I find it very hard to think about anything else at the moment,” the best-selling author told a packed crowd of students and community members at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Shannon Hall on Tuesday.
2025 Milwaukee Film Festival will screen only at Oriental and Downer theaters
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The first titles announced for the 2025 film festival include: “Separated,” University of Wisconsin-Madison alum and Oscar winner Errol Morris’ 2024 documentary examining the impact of the federal government’s family separation policies at the border in 2017 and 2018.
‘Every Brilliant Thing’ a spotlight moment for lovable nerd James Carrington
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
He earned his bachelor’s degree in theater with an acting specialty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. A formative experience there was being one of the few undergrads cast in director Norma Saldivar’s production of “A Streetcar Named Desire.”
We asked Wisconsin Puerto Ricans to share their favorite songs from Bad Bunny’s album, here’s what they said
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
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.
No one throws a righteous tantrum like Carrie Coon
The Washington Post
She trained as an actor, getting her master of fine arts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and spent years performing in regional theater, traveling back and forth between Chicago and cities in Wisconsin.
Meet the UW–Madison professor that collaborated with Bad Bunny
Madison Magazine
Jorell Meléndez-Badillo tells the story of Puerto Rico’s colonial history in the visuals for the Grammy Award-winning rapper’s new album.
Beyond Bad Bunny: 5 essential Puerto Rican history reads
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.
UW professor’s collaboration with Bad Bunny highlights Puerto Rican history
Daily Cardinal
Jorell Meléndez-Badillo contributed to 17 videos based on Puerto Rico’s history for the artist’s most recent album.
A UW-Madison historian’s work became a key feature of Bad Bunny’s new album. Here’s how
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
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
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.
Former UW Choral Union members, director reflect on its 130-year end
Daily Cardinal
The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music disbanded the Choral Union in 2023 after 130 years. For those impacted, the memories are hard to shake.
See some of the art filmmaker David Lynch created at Wisconsin’s Tandem Press
Wisconsin Public Radio
While living in Madison, Lynch connected with Tandem Press, a printmaking studio and gallery that is affiliated with the art department within the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
UW-Madison brings Bollywood to Wisconsin
Wisconsin State Journal
Saturday night was a Bollywood blockbuster come to life at UW-Madison’s Shannon Hall, set to a cinematic soundtrack of jingling jewelry and rapturous applause.
Independent student art exhibit draws printmakers from across Midwest
The Daily Cardinal
When trying to submit his work to open-call art shows, University of Wisconsin-Madison junior Bryce Dailey often faces financial barriers. Shows typically require artists to pay a whole host of fees — from entry fees to shipping fees — making these opportunities inaccessible to young up-and-coming artists like himself.
‘Come and Gone’ and back again
Madison Magazine
Amid a globetrotting career, UW theater professor Baron Kelly takes on August Wilson at home.
Independent student art exhibit draws printmakers from across Midwest
Daily Cardinal
Organized by UW-Madison student Bryce Dailey, the Midwest Print Showcase features the artistic talent of up and coming printmakers throughout the Midwest.
Chazen exhibit highlights Latinx photographers
Badger Herald
‘You Belong Here’ exhibit at Chazen Museum of Art explores diaspora through Latinx photography.
Historic hotel in New York City introduces round table to a new generation
Forbes
What started as an impromptu lunch (at two square tables pushed together; the round table came a year later) proved to be such delicious fun that the group returned at 1 p.m., and practically every day thereafter, inviting new lunch companions, until it dissolved in the early 1930s,” wrote University of Wisconsin history professor Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen in the New York Times.