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Category: UW-Madison Related

Wisconsin Republican Objects to Professor’s Description of Trump Presidency as ‘Polarized’

Inside Higher Ed

A Republican state lawmaker in Wisconsin complained to a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin at Madison about his description of President Trump — copying the university system’s Board of Regents and president and Madison’s chancellor, along with the state Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee and other groups.

Adam McKay on the Veracity of “Vice”

The New Yorker

In fact, Cheney’s parents were F.D.R. Democrats, and Cheney was pretty indifferent to politics coming into the University of Wisconsin. He definitely started leaning conservative during those years, when there were protests on campus.

How I wrote a song with Bob Dylan: A 57-year collaboration about my home state of Wisconsin

Salon

But in 1961 a young freewheelin’ Dylan made a vital stop in Madison, WI, where he checked out the folk scene and hung out with Marshall Brickman and Eric Weissberg. Brickman became a noted screenwriter, winning an Oscar for cowriting “Annie Hall” with Woody Allen; Weissberg went on to record the “Dueling Banjos” theme for “Deliverance.” Through the Madison folk scene Dylan caught probably one of the most pivotal concerts of his young life — Peter Seeger at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Madison’s black pioneers: An oral history collection captures the good times and bad

Isthmus

Noted: Simms is the editor of Settlin’: Stories of Madison’s Early African American Families, a collection of oral histories published late last year by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press. Simms, 74, grew up in Madison, attending the city’s public schools and later UW-Madison, where she received three degrees, most recently a doctorate in educational administration. She is 15 years younger than her sister, Delores Simms Greene, whose oral history is included in the collection. The age gap proved pivotal to how their respective lives unfolded.

With a towering natural bridge, Pier County Park is worth a detour in the Driftless Area

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Noted: Ableman’s Gorge State Natural Area, on Highway 136 north of Rock Springs, features a nearly mile-long L-shaped cliff of quartzite and sandstone. Nearby is Van Hise Rock, a 15-foot monolith named for geologist and former president of UW-Madison Charles Van Hise, who used the rock to demonstrate how rocks change when mountains are formed.

Farm economic woes not going away anytime soon; time to deal with “new normal”

WI State Farmer

Although “it’s not a fun time to be in the dairy industry, I’m excited about where it could be in 3 months, 3 years, 5 years,” John Goeser told the attendees. A western Sheboygan County dairy farm native, Goeser is the director of nutritional research and innovation for Rock River Labs in Watertown and an adjunct professor of dairy science at UW–Madison.

China’s Looming Crisis: A Shrinking Population

The New York Times

Quoted: Yi Fuxian, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has written that China’s government has obscured the actual fertility rate to disguise the disastrous ramifications of the “one child” policy. According to his calculations, the fertility rate averaged 1.18 between 2010 and 2018.

Tim Tyson: Born Into Dissent

WUNC

Tyson now a senior research scholar at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University and adjunct professor of American Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He will share stories of his early days as an educator in the Department of Afro-American Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and how his Emmett Till book helped bring justice to the black community.

You’ve Already Abandoned Your New Year’s Resolution. Here’s a Better Path to Reach Your Goals.

Not so, according to new research from the Wisconsin School of Business at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Jihae Shin, assistant professor of management and human resources at the school, together with Katherine L. Milkman of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, conducted a series of experiments that challenged the conventional wisdom that holds backup plans in high regard.

Criminalizing first-time OWIs is a tough sell in Wisconsin, but Rep. Jim Ott vows to try

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Noted: Wisconsin’s love affair with booze dates to statehood. Milwaukee has served as home to some of the country’s biggest brewers, including Pabst, Schlitz, Miller and Blatz. The Princeton Review in 2017 rated the University of Wisconsin-Madison as the school with the most beer. And last year the U.S. Centers for Disease Control released a survey in which one in four Wisconsin respondents reported binge-drinking at least once in the past month, the second-highest rate among the states behind only North Dakota.

How economics is trying to fix its gender problem – Study thyself

The Economist

Kasey Buckles of the University of Notre Dame (and one of the mentors) recently reviewed the evidence on what increases the share of women in an economics department. She highlighted a randomised control trial at the University of Wisconsin-Madison which found that workshops on gender bias for faculty responsible for hiring raised the share of women among new hires by 18 percentage points.

Being drew binsky

The New Indian Express

How did it begin? “I majored in Economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I studied abroad, in Prague,Czech Republic. It was my first time abroad and I was like ‘wow, this is cool’. I had a lot of new experiences and met lots of people. I realised I didn’t want a corporate job rather wanted to keep travelling. I got to teach English in Seoul, South Korea, and started a blog for my travel experiences. I worked hard on the blog for two years and struggled for sponsors.

How to Keep Faculty Searches on Track

The Chronicle of Higher Education

Jerlando F.L. Jackson, a professor of higher education at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, remembers when he was a candidate. “I was choosing between here and another place in a very large city,” he said. “I was put in a hotel that had no elevator. Here I am lugging all my luggage up three flights. And it was a very small room.”

Tony Evers picks Obama official, two state lawmakers and two aides for his cabinet

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Noted: For his secretary of the Department of Safety and Professional Services, Evers chose Dawn Crim. She now assists Evers as assistant state superintendent for student and school success. Previously, Crim worked for two decades at the University of Wisconsin System in various rules, including assistant coach for women’s basketball and director of community relations for UW-Madison.

Momo and more Hungry Badger Cafe aims to feed hungry Badgers

Isthmus

Noted: Deepak Shrestha went to school at UW-Madison, but the couple met in Nepal when he was home on summer break. They settled in Madison in 1988, and Archana says her family has felt “really welcome here.” She and her husband both work other jobs — he’s an engineer, she works for UW-Madison’s University Research Park. Adding a restaurant to the mix will keep them busy, but they’re up to the challenge. “We’ll see how it goes,” Archana says.

Dramedy on ice: Frozen Wisconsin is the star of “Aquarians”

Isthmus

The Midwest doesn’t get much film representation. We’ve got Fargo (1996), 2004’s Dawn of the Dead remake, and my favorite of 2017, The Bye Bye Man. Wisconsinite Michael M. McGuire, who attended UW-Madison, adds another Midwestern entry with his first feature film, Aquarians. Shot in various locations throughout Marinette County and Menominee County, the movie succeeds at portraying the harsh Midwestern winter as the desolate, isolated wasteland that it is.

Older than the Packers and still living the good life after more than 100 years

Wisconsin State Journal

Noted: Nordby’s professional life was in orthopedic surgery. He and his classmates graduated a few months early from the UW-Madison Medical School so they could help in the war effort. Nordby spent his time doing surgery in Okinawa, Japan, and in what is now South Korea. When he returned to the States in 1947, he began practicing at Madison General Hospital and later partnered with Dr. H. Lewis Greene in a private orthopedic practice.

‘Settlin” tells a revealing Madison story

Wisconsin State Journal

Noted: Simms started out with two friends to compile a list of people who might share their family’s history, and began her research in 2003, the year after receiving her Ph.D in educational administration at UW-Madison. A lifelong Madisonian and educator, Simms has received many civic honors, and in 1992 was named Wisconsin Elementary Principal of the Year.

A new ‘Uber for Poop’ in Senegal is creating competition to pick up waste from people’s homes

Business Insider

Noted: Lipscomb said she and her team — Terence Johnson at the University of Notre Dame, Laura Schechter at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Jean-Francois Houde at the University of Wisconsin-Madison — did not set out to oversee the system long-term. The professors worked with an NGO and handed the project off to Senegal’s government after finishing their research in 2016.

The Most Millennial Moments of 2018

Washingtonian

Noted: Emma Sarappo reported Sam Alhadeff, a newly minted University of Wisconsin-Madison alum, created a housing résumé to maneuver the veritable Tetris that is the DC housing game. The document extolled his “roommate perks,” like taking calls from his mother into another room, and language skills—he’s a natural at “reading the room.” Alhadeff successfully secured a home and 15 minutes of Washington, D.C. Housing, Rooms, Apartments, Sublets Facebook fame: His post now has over 1,600 likes and almost 200 comments.

19 movies with Wisconsin connections in 2018, from ‘Avengers’ to ‘Aquaman’

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Noted: Vying with Stockhausen for busiest Badger at the movies this year was Carrie Coon. The actress who got her start on stages at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and in Madison-area theater played small but key roles in three movies in theaters this year, also very different: “Widows,” the sci-fi thriller “Kin” and “Avengers: Infinity War” (as one of Thanos’ minions).