RESEARCH General 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005

TOPICS: Arts | Children | Education | Government | Health | History | Home & Garden |Humanities| Law | Sociology | Theater |World Affairs

ARTS
American Lit: American literary history is being made at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign – literally, figuratively and frequently. (12/13/05)

Industrial Design: Academic conference proceedings aren’t typically regarded as must-read page-turners. But “IMPACT,” a limited-edition, illustrated book documenting an industrial design conference held last spring at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is reportedly turning heads in the design world. (12/12/05)

Imagining America: You won’t need a Ph.D in art history to appreciate a new documentary and companion book on 20th-century American art by Jonathan Fineberg and John Carlin. The only prerequisite required of those tuning in or turning the pages of “Imagining America: Icons of 20th Century American Art” is a genuine interest in the American experience. (12/8/05)

Documentaries: Today, the term “documentary” usually brings to mind video exposés of corporate or political wrong-doing. Or perhaps the exploits of a near-extinct indigenous species struggling to survive in some remote locale. And while such films may have mass appeal, they more typically are relegated to the margins of popular culture. But it hasn’t always been this way, according to Jordana Mendelson, a professor of art history at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. (11/29/05)

Video art: To observers of cultural phenomena, the dawn of the 21st century may not necessarily be the best or worst of times. But it could be among the most culturally confused and conflicted eras to emerge in recent history, considering society’s mass-fascination with reality TV programs and Web cams, on one hand; and, on the other, its ever-present obsession with security, fueled by global fears of terrorism. (10/14/05)

Opera Premiere: Fifty years after the death of Romanian composer and musician George Enescu, his opera “Oedipe” – based on the Oedipus myth – will have its American premiere, at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. (9/28/05)

'Expressive-art' classes: As an art educator and researcher, Julia Kellman has long been aware – from her academic’s box-seat vantage point – that art can impact people’s lives in profound ways. But for the past four years, she’s witnessed the phenomenal power of art-making from the perspective of a director who is on stage, engaging in an ongoing, intimate dialogue with the actors. (7/26/05)

Composition: As Lance Armstrong pedals on in pursuit of his seventh consecutive Tour de France championship title, Wes Alexander is cheering on the celebrated cyclist/cancer survivor with a title of his own: a song title, that is. (7/19/05)

Editing Software: What Hollywood studios call censorship and copyright infringement, software companies call freedom and parental choice. Any wonder that the legal issues raised by new film software is winding up in the courts and before Congress? (6/29/05)

Computer Music: For nearly a half century, composers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign – often in collaboration with scientists and engineers – have been making music and music history within the soundproof walls of the School of Music’s Experimental Music Studios. (6/20/05)

Summer Jazz Fest: The in-house jazz talent at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign combines forces with guests artists June 16 through 19 to present the 2005 Summer Jazz Festival at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. (6/9/05)

I space: Two new exhibitions are on view through June 4 at I space, the Chicago gallery of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. (5/9/05)

Music Exhibits: Two exhibits exploring a changing and challenging America as depicted by Tin Pan Alley have opened at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. (4/27/05)

Landscape paintings: Those curious enough to look beneath the surface of 19th-century landscape paintings may find that there is more than meets the eye, according to Rachael Z. DeLue, a professor of art history at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and author of a new book, “George Inness and the Science of Landscape” (University of Chicago Press). (3/24/05)

Architectural Photos: Photographs by James Warfield, the ACSA Distinguished Professor in Architecture Emeritus at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, will be on view March 14 through April 8 at the U. of I. (2/28/05)

I space: Sculpture, drawings and installation work will be on view in two new exhibitions March 4 through April 2 at I space, the Chicago gallery of the Univeristy of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. (2/24/05)

'Protracted Symposium:' Kinesiologists regard walking as a good starter activity for couch potatoes just easing into an exercise regimen. For others, walking is simply a logical means of getting from Point A to Point B. (2/18/05)

Cranes for Peace: When Japan House director Kimiko Gunji embarks on a tour of Japan next month, she’ll be doing more than just chaperoning a group of tourists. She’ll be directing a personally planned peace mission. (2/16/05)

Sousa Events: The Sousa Archives and Center for American Music at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, in collaboration with the University Bands, is celebrating the campus’s rich music legacy with free public events on Feb. 19 and 20 (Saturday-Sunday). (2/10/05)

Carr Visitiing Author: Fiction writer Dan Chaon will launch this semester’s Carr Visiting Authors Reading Series at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. (2/3/05)

Caribbean poetry: Like the mangoes that splash across his beloved spiritual home in the islands of the Caribbean, the poems in Laurence Lieberman’s latest collection are colorful, lush, seductive and rich with cultural and restorative qualities. (2/2/05)

American art: Local audiences will get the chance to preview a PBS documentary co-created by art historian Jonathan Fineberg during a campus screening on Feb. 9. (2/1/05)

Sketch art: James Warfield is giving new meaning to the phrase “picture window.” (1/26/05)

I space: Work by architects and architecture students will be featured in three exhibitions Feb. 4-26 at I space, the Chicago gallery of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. (1/26/05)

Art from the mundane: Ordinary materials – from paper cups and pencil stubs to tires, twist ties and playing cards – are transformed into extraordinary art in a new exhibition at the University of Illinois’ Krannert Art Museum. (1/19/05)

CHILDREN
TV Ads: For young Americans, the “food landscape” in television advertising is packed with junk food, according to a new study. (8/24/05)

Methamphetamine effects: In its destructive effect on rural families and their children, methamphetamine may be in a class of its own, based on the first study from an ongoing research project in seven Central Illinois counties, conducted by researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. (2/2/05)

EDUCATION
College Credit: College is becoming a requirement for more and more jobs.
But are the programs in place to motivate and move more kids from high school to higher education? Are those programs serving the students who need them? Are the programs getting the needed oversight? (11/17/05

Institutional Review Boards: University Institutional Review Boards, which oversee research involving human subjects, need to be revamped to avoid the “mission creep” that is threatening academic freedom and restricting research on the nation’s campuses, according to a report by University of Illinois researchers and scholars. (11/9/05)

Science in Class: The effort to teach “intelligent design” in public schools is not the first time that “science” has been enlisted for a cause in the classroom, according to a University of Illinois legal scholar. (10/28/05)

Teacher Initiative: New teachers in Illinois will get help where they need it, and access to mentoring from veteran and National Board Certified teachers. Administrators will get advice on supporting new teachers during their first crucial years in the classroom. (8/15/05)

Teens and the Web: What adults don't know about teens' use of the Internet and other high-tech services could fill a book. And has. (7/27/05)

Math education: A survey of middle school girls reveals that their self-confidence in math suffers when their parents believe the gender stereotype that holds that math is a male domain and when the parents give unsolicited help with homework. (7/26/05)

Governing boards: Stanley O. Ikenberry, president of the University of Illinois from 1979 to 1995 and currently the Regent Professor at the U. of I.’s Institute of Government and Public Affairs, says governing boards “need to be re-examined and reformed” in order to reaffirm and strengthen the public character of public universities. (7/5/05)

Stress relief: With final exams just around the corner, stress levels are rising for college students everywhere. But at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, students in kinesiology professor Weimo Zhu’s class are riding out the tension in the “horse position” – a meditative posture characterized by slightly bent knees and outstretched arms. (4/19/05)

Brain Awareness Day: Scientists from the Neuroscience Program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will host their fifth annual Brain Awareness Day from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., May 1 (Sunday), at the Orpheum Children’s Science Museum in Champaign. (4/19/05)

TV-turnoff week: Students at Urbana Middle School are being encouraged to turn off their televisions for one week at the end of April. They’re also learning how to be wiser about what they watch, with help from teachers, administrators and the College of Communications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. (4/13/05)

Private vs. public schools: Students do better in private schools, according to common wisdom – and some well-regarded data now more than two decades old.
But a recent study of standardized math scores in more than 1,300 public and private schools says the opposite may be true, according to Sarah and Christopher Lubienski, education professors at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. (4/11/05)

Online Master's in Ed: All education is global. At least that’s the perspective of a new online master’s degree program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The new “Global Studies in Education” program, near the end of its first semester, aims to give educators resources and skills for teaching in an age of “global interconnectivity,” says education professor Fazal Rizvi, the program’s director. (4/4/05)

Homework help: Your child has a homework assignment, doesn’t understand it and is acting helpless. So what’s a parent to do? Help, but stay loving and make the process fun, say researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. (3/14/05)

GOVERNMENT
Beyond Katrina rescue: While post-Katrina rescue and evacuation operations continue to be the priority in New Orleans, urban planning expert Rob Olshansky says now also is the time to be staging the next phase of the city’s disaster-recovery plans. (9/2/05)

Governing boards: Stanley O. Ikenberry, president of the University of Illinois from 1979 to 1995 and currently the Regent Professor at the U. of I.’s Institute of Government and Public Affairs, says governing boards “need to be re-examined and reformed” in order to reaffirm and strengthen the public character of public universities. (7/5/05)

Social Security: Social Security is not “in crisis,” “unsustainable,” or even “bankrupt” – words that President George W. Bush has used to rally support behind his campaign to alter the retirement and insurance program – according to an article by a law professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. (5/13/05)

Disaster-relief research: In a new and novel study, scientists are looking to
nature – specifically, to ants, bees and viruses – for ways to improve human collaboration during disaster relief efforts. (3/1/05)

HEALTH
Abuse and eating disorders: Women who were victims of childhood sexual abuse have long been assumed to be at a higher risk for eating disorders. The results of research, however, have been mixed, with some studies showing a link and others none.(12/19/05)

Medicare: “A prescription for confusion” is how Richard L. Kaplan, a professor of law at the University of Illinois, characterizes the new drug benefit, whose enrollment period begins today for Americans aged 65 years and older. (11/15/05)

Exercise: Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who study the effects of exercise on aging point to new findings that may inspire people to get up, get out and get moving on a regular basis. The research team, led by kinesiology professor Edward McAuley, found that previously sedentary seniors who incorporated exercise into their lifestyles not only improved physical function, but experienced psychological benefits as well. (10/10/05)

Walking: Hands down, walking is the easiest, most efficient and inexpensive form of physical activity known to promote human health, according to Weimo Zhu, a professor of kinesiology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Yet a large proportion of the U.S. population does not walk regularly and lives a sedentary lifestyle, he said. (9/28/05)

Stress relief: With final exams just around the corner, stress levels are rising for college students everywhere. But at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, students in kinesiology professor Weimo Zhu’s class are riding out the tension in the “horse position” – a meditative posture characterized by slightly bent knees and outstretched arms. (4/19/05)

Active Seniors: Puzzles, brain-teasers, games and creative problem-solving. For many, they’re a fun diversion, but could they also help keep seniors mentally vibrant as they age? One researcher, Elizabeth Stine-Morrow, thinks maybe they could, and has been trying out her theory this school year with a new program called Senior Odyssey. (4/18/05)

Eating: Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign report dramatic evidence of the importance of visual cues in the control of food intake in the current issue of Obesity Research, a leading nutrition journal. (3/24/05)

Methamphetamine effects: In its destructive effect on rural families and their children, methamphetamine may be in a class of its own, based on the first study from an ongoing research project in seven Central Illinois counties, conducted by researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. (2/2/05)

HISTORY
Lewis and Clark Exhibition: Lewis and Clark traveled 4,000 miles over more than two years on their epic journey west. But, says the curator of a new exhibition celebrating the 200th anniversary of their odyssey, they weren’t often blazing trails. Far from it. (9/27/05)

HOME & GARDEN
Kudzu in Illinois: “Many people are not aware that kudzu has been found in Illinois,” said George Czapar, an extension educator at the Springfield Extension Center of the University of Illinois. In collaboration with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Czapar is monitoring kudzu in Illinois and is part of an effort to slow the spread of the creeping vine. (10/20/05)

Ambassador Program: Dr. Hugo C. Avalos, a small-town physician who has been retired for nearly four years, is helping the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Urbana-Champaign tackle a series of challenges facing the medical profession. (7/11/05)

Disaster-relief research: In a new and novel study, scientists are looking to
nature – specifically, to ants, bees and viruses – for ways to improve human collaboration during disaster relief efforts. (3/1/05)

Methamphetamine effects: In its destructive effect on rural families and their children, methamphetamine may be in a class of its own, based on the first study from an ongoing research project in seven Central Illinois counties, conducted by researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. (2/2/05)

HUMANITIES
Andrei Codrescu's literary works: Andrei Codrescu, the prolific poet-novelist-essayist and widely recognized radio celebrity, has given his collection of Romanian books, periodicals, films and other materials to the Library of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The Library has more than 10 million volumes, making it the largest public university collection in the world. (5/20/05)

Tourism: In his new book, "Culture on Tour: Ethnographies of Travel" (University of Chicago Press), Edward Bruner, a pioneer in the field of ethnographic tourism studies, explores how tourists process their tourism experiences. and other neglected and nuanced aspects of tourism. (5/11/05)

GSLIS-EU Conference: Scholars representing disciplines as diverse as architecture, urban planning, science, technology, cultural studies and library and information science – will gather May 6-8 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for a conference on “European Modernism and the Information Society: Informing the Present, Understanding the Past.” (4/18/05)

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
EU Day: The state of the European Union will be considered during EU Day activities April 12 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. (4/4/05)

LAW
Parental Liability: Increasingly, parents are being held responsible for the misdeeds of their offspring. While much of the new legislation has been driven by high-profile violent crimes, such as the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado by two teenagers, the parents of shoplifters or Internet music downloaders can find themselves sued for damages. (12/12/05)

Managed Care: The rise of managed health care has brought into focus a clash between federal and state jurisdiction over the regulation of health maintenance organizations, legal scholars at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign conclude. (12/1/05)

Medicare: “A prescription for confusion” is how Richard L. Kaplan, a professor of law at the University of Illinois, characterizes the new drug benefit, whose enrollment period begins today for Americans aged 65 years and older. (11/15/05)

Pregnancy and substance abuse: Under a legal theory known as fetal rights, more than 20 states have enacted laws that target women for actions taken during pregnancy. What began as legislation requiring hospitals to report an expectant mother’s crack-cocaine use has expanded to laws that punish women for drinking alcohol that may harm the fetus they are carrying. (11/8/05)

Zoning Regulations: At first glance, a Texas sodomy law would seem to have little in common with neighborhood zoning ordinances, but a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the former could have a strong impact on the latter, a University of Illinois legal scholar argues. (11/1/05)

Science in Class: The effort to teach “intelligent design” in public schools is not the first time that “science” has been enlisted for a cause in the classroom, according to a University of Illinois legal scholar. (10/28/05)

Unincorporated businesses:The rapid expansion of non-incorporated businesses, such as limited liability companies (LLCs) and limited liability partnerships (LLPs), raises questions ranging from government regulation to professional ethics, according to the latest issue of the University of Illinois Law Review. (8/22/05)

Battered women: Answering critics of the “battered woman syndrome,” a University of Illinois expert argues that the claims made by victims of domestic violence are a legitimate extension of the longstanding rules of self-defense. (8/15/05)

Litigious Japan: It’s a cliché that has outlasted its value – the picture of Japan as a culturally harmonious country whose inhabitants value peace and consensus over the clash of lawsuits and lawyers.
Subjecting the question to empirical study, Tom Ginsburg, an Illinois professor of law, and Glenn Hoetker, an Illinois professor of business administration, report that Japan’s turn to litigation can best be attributed to an increase in the number of judges and lawyers and the economic downturn that struck the country after 1990. (7/21/05)

Blackstone commentaries: After five years of looking, the University of Illinois College of Law has acquired the first American edition of Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Law, completing its collection of original Blackstone editions. (7/15/05)

Health care: Conventional wisdom holds that malpractice lawsuits are the bane of modern medicine, with high insurance premiums driving doctors from the profession and the threat of lawsuits discouraging health-care employees from reporting and correcting medical mistakes.

Examining these claims in a lengthy article in the Cornell Law Review and a shorter article in Regulation, a University of Illinois health-law scholar finds most of the assertions to be without factual basis. (7/14/05)

Editing Software: What Hollywood studios call censorship and copyright infringement, software companies call freedom and parental choice. Any wonder that the legal issues raised by new film software is winding up in the courts and before Congress? (6/29/05)

Elderly drivers: Senior citizens not only drive more these days, but have sped past teenagers as the age group with the highest number of traffic accidents per mile.

These and other sobering statistics highlight the need for changes in state driver’s license renewals to address the risks that elderly drivers pose to other drivers and themselves, David Rosenfield writes in the current issue of the Elder Law Journal, published by the College of Law at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. (6/15/05)

SOCIOLOGY

THEATER

WORLD AFFAIRS
Russia info access: On Friday (July 15) a dozen or so Americans are going to Russia, openly in search of “Soviet secrets and Russian revelations.” (7/12/05)