Private support from alumni and friends plays an increasingly important role at UW-Madison.
In the College of Letters & Science, gifts make great things happen and continue ourtradition of excellence.
Private support helps us keep rising star faculty at UW-Madison, offer more scholarships to students in need and seed new research and creative programs.
Lewis Friedland, a professor in the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication, has received a grant from the Morgridge Center for Public Service to support service learning and community-based research. Friedland, one of eight grant recipients across campus, receieved $14,500 for two years for his Madison Commons project. The Madison Commons, a [...]
As young Gary Sandefur galloped his horse Thunder through the dusty outskirts of Madill, Okla., the open plains seemed to stretch forever. Madill, a little town in rural southeastern Oklahoma where everybody knew everybody, was the sort of place where a kid who loved the outdoors could thrive. Sandefur grew up fishing with his father [...]
Two faculty members in the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s College of Letters & Science have received Hilldale Awards. Hilldale Awards, which honor contributions to teaching, research and service each year, are based on UW-Madison’s four divisions: biological sciences, physical sciences, social studies, and arts and humanities. The awards are sponsored by the Hilldale Fund, which supports [...]
It’s no surprise that UW-Madison students want to make the world a better place — and ideally make a career out of doing good, too. That can be a tall task, though. But many talented alumni have trod this path before, and that’s the focus of an upcoming career panel on “Languages and Social Justice.” “Doing [...]
For the second straight year, clinical associate professor Michelle Quinn and a group of graduate students from the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders assisted in literacy efforts in Guatemala over winter break. Quinn and eight bilingual graduate students – Rose Heckenkamp, Kaylee Cullen, Allison Petska, Nicole Breunig, Ruby Braxton, Amanda Murphy, [...]
The wonderful news is: People banded together to help ensure a stronger future for the University of Wisconsin–Madison. From around the world, and from just next door, friends of the university embraced a new multimedia annual giving campaign called Share the Wonderful — and enabled it to exceed its $10 million goal. The campaign generated $10.2 million [...]
It’s not as if Allison Gilmore was dead set on attending law school. But, as a Legal Studies and Sociology major at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, she figured it was merely the next logical step. Her experience last summer shattered that preconception. Gilmore is also pursuing a certificate in Criminal Justice and, as such, needed [...]
Ten years ago, a group of University of Wisconsin-Madison journalism students wanted to show how Wisconsin extends beyond the stereotypes of cheese curds and green and gold. Since then, Curb magazine has featured everything from Sheboygan surfers to the state’s top 10 employers in the annual publication that encourages readers to step “beyond the curb” and discover [...]
Professor of Classics William Aylward is set to lead a new archaeological expedition of Troy next year. Thanks to an anonymous unrestricted gift to the College of Letters & Science, Aylward is able to involve students like Geoffrey Ludvik in his exploration of the famous ancient city. “I’ve always wanted to be an archaeologist,” said [...]
Tapan Sharma says the Great People Scholarship he received thanks to funding from the College of Letters & Science’s Board of Visitors didn’t just supporting his education. It’s inspired him to give back in the future. Sharma, from Marshfield, Wisconsin, was one of 10 L&S Board of Visitors Great People Scholars in 2012. Watch the [...]
Robert Mathieu, an astronomy professor currently on sabbatical, was on the Faculty Senate’s University Committee in 2008 when he and Chair Ann Hoyt led the Faculty-Staff Great People Scholarship Campaign. Faculty and staff members helped kick-start the Great People effort, generating more than $2 million in gifts and matches from the UW Credit Union and [...]
A gift of $750,000 from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, announced in July, will help the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s eight Area Studies centers deal with challenges they will face as the U.S. Department of Education dramatically reduces funding for National Resource Centers (NRCs) across the country. UW-Madison is one of only three institutions in the [...]
Presented with the opportunity to hire six new professors, John Coleman, chair of the Department of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, faced “a little bit of a puzzle.” The new faculty lines allowed him to fill teaching gaps in one of the country’s top political science departments. To put competitive offers on the [...]
“Everyone should watch this talk!” Those are the most popular words framing blog posts about Sir Ken Robinson’s popular TED Conference presentations. When the charismatic cultural visionary strides onto the Forum stage in the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery Town Center on Sunday, Sept. 30 to deliver the keynote talk for the 2012 Wisconsin Science Festival, [...]
Wow. Wacky. Witty. Winter. Whimsical. Wonderful. That’s UW-Madison. Our alumni have stories, photos and memories. And we want to hear about that wonderful. For the first time ever, the University is launching a new multi-media effort to encourage alumni to support their alma mater through an annual gift.
After a rousing debut last fall, the Wisconsin Science Festival returns for its second year this Sept. 27-30 with an even bigger and bolder schedule of people, music, art and explosions bringing the wonders of science to life for all ages. In addition to returning crowd favorites such as dancing scientists, the physics of football [...]
After a rousing debut last fall in Madison, the Wisconsin Science Festival is encouraging supporters of learning and science from around the state to help expand the festival during its second year by staging local events this Sept. 27-30. “We are planning an even bigger and bolder schedule of people, music, art and explosions this [...]
Five UW-Madison students and one recent graduate are spending five weeks at an archaeological dig in Israel this summer.
Financial support from scholarships enables students like Amanda Detry, a senior from Green Bay majoring in English and history, to explore the many opportunities the UW has to offer. Amanda found her niche in the College of Letters and Science Honors Program and Writing Fellows programs. Both experiences gave her a sense of place at [...]
After growing up in the heat of Mississippi and Louisiana, Dorothy Pearson (’60 MSSW L&S, ’73 PhD L&S) felt the cool breeze off Lake Michigan in June and sensed it was the wind of change. The year was 1958, and Pearson had just graduated from Southern University. She was on vacation in Milwaukee visiting a [...]
What is a Maine-born doctor to do when a patient in Pennsylvania complains, “I’ve been riftin’ and I’ve got jags in my leaders?” Consult the Dictionary of American Regional English to learn that the patient has been belching and experiencing sharp pains in his neck. After nearly five decades of work at the University of [...]
In 1940, there weren’t any laptops in dorm rooms or mainframes at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The Department of Computer Sciences – one of the oldest in the nation – would not celebrate its first birthday for another 24 years. But things were starting to change in information studies, technology and science. It was a gradual change and it left an impact on Robert Holtz who studied at UW-Madison and graduated with a BS’40, MS’43 in electrical engineering.
The journey wasn’t easy. Early Japanese immigrants faced scorn from “xenophobic groups bent on rolling up the welcome mat,” Samuel O. Regalado said while delivering “One Base at a Time,” the January 24 Selig Distinguished Lecture in Sport and Society at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Like other migrants before them, the first generation, known as [...]
How baseball helped Japanese Americans develop an identity and bond with America will be addressed in the Selig Distinguished Lecture in Sport and Society on Tuesday, Jan. 24, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Spoiler alert. If you haven’t seen the film “Inglorious Basterds,” you may not want to keep reading.
Dean Gary Sandefur is proud to honor Professors Patricia Devine (Psychology), Bob Kaiser (Geography) and Ken Mayer (Political Science) with the 2011-12 Leon D. Epstein Distinguished Faculty Research Awards. The Faculty Research Awards provide flexible research funding for three faculty each year in the College. Congratulations to our faculty! Epstein was a professor political science and [...]
The Max Kade Institute for German-American Studies (MKI) has been named the recipient of a prestigious National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Challenge Grant to support the MKI Library Project. The award, which provides the Institute with $300,000 to be matched over the next four years on a three-to-one basis, will go toward an endowment for a librarian/archivist position, the [...]
Fourth year senior Lorena Barbosa-Mireles recently received a $5,000 scholarship from Dr. Pepper and was profiled in a new video. Lorena, who is majoring in Social Work, was selected as a recipient because of her outstanding community service. Her work on campus highlights some of the amazing ways our students are living the Wisconsin Idea. [...]
Whenever she appears on a popular statewide Wisconsin Public Radio offering, Joan Houston Hall can sense the hunger people have for regional sayings and their meanings. “Every time I’m on ‘The Larry Meiller Show,’ the phone lines are full, and people are so excited,” said Hall, chief editor of The Dictionary of American Regional English. “Their calls will start with comments like ‘There’s this phrase my grandmother used to say….’ It’s so vital to them.”
An investment in investigative journalism is paying off for student interns, an acclaimed newspaper and the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
Going green is a popular movement among University of Wisconsin-Madison students. Some rank their love for the environment so high that it affects where they choose to live on campus. Students can opt to “go green” by becoming a resident of the new GreenHouse Residential Learning Community in Cole Hall. GreenHouse opened in 2010 and [...]
Little compares to grilling brats in the summer for Wisconsinites. Unless, of course, preparing fish caught in Wisconsin waters. Thanks to the initiative of UW-Madison student Jannet Arenas along with help from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR), a new generation of youngsters is partaking in one of Wisconsin’s time-honored outdoor traditions.
Two years ago, when Anna Volodarskaya received an email from Hillel at the University of Wisconsin-Madison about a weeklong “Jewish music camp,” she thought it sounded intriguing.
Theodore “Ted” Cohen (’60 BS, ’61 MS, ’66 PhD L&S) authored five novels that share his life experiences—facts wrapped in fiction—that many Badgers will recognize.
The Department of Astronomy will welcome Dr. Alyson Brooks as its first Grainger Post-Doctoral Fellow this fall. Brooks is a theoretical astrophysicist whose interests include galaxy formation and evolution, galactic structure, galactic chemical evolution, stellar abundances, and cosmological N-Body+SPH simulations of galaxies.
News via our partners at the UW Foundation Eric Ellis is a freshman from Sandwich, Illinois, about 60 miles straight west of Chicago, and his graduating high school class numbered 180. Ellis is a music major attending the University of Wisconsin-Madison in part thanks to a merit scholarship from the School of Music Alumni Association. [...]
On September 24, 2010, the School of Journalism and Mass Communication dedicated the newly-refurbished Room 2195 Vilas to Professor Emeritus James L. Hoyt. Room 2195 is the infamous room where Journalism 202: Introduction to Mass Communication is taught to incoming students. A formerly outdated classroom, Room 2195 now lives up to it’s new name: The [...]
“Major 20th-Century Private Sculpture Collection Goes to Chazen Museum of Art” The museum announced the gift of the renowned Terese and Alvin S. Lane Collection, comprising more than 70 sculptures and 250 preparatory drawings by artists including Jean Arp, Alexander Calder, Louise Nevelson, Pablo Picasso, and David Smith, among other modern masters.
The Pathways to Excellence Program Board of Visitors, made up of prominent friends and alumni of the College of Letters & Science, has established the Bill Cronon Fund for Pathways to Excellence. Cronon (BA’76, English & History) has been a professor at UW since 1992.
The newly renovated and restored Washburn Observatory won a Madison Trust for Historic Preservation 2010 Award in the category of Civic Rehabilitation. The observatory, built 1878, was rehabilitated for modern office use and is now the home of the L&S Honors Program.
Spring Break is all about crazy parties on beaches in Mexico, right? Wrong. A group of undergraduate students in the University of Wisconsin-Madison Academic Advancement Program proved that spring break can be fun in different ways.
Professor Suzette Spencer (Afro-American Studies) has received a Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation (WWNFF) Career Enhancement Fellowship for 2010-2011.
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded more than $1.8 million to the University of Wisconsin-Madison to support postdoctoral fellowships in the humanities, history and humanistic social sciences.
Four L&S faculty have been awarded development grants from the Provost’s office.
The Communication Arts Department was pleased to host a special event on October 15, 2009 to honor the distinguished UW alumnus Walter Mirisch.
The Center for the Humanities has received a $125,000 grant from the A.W. Mellon Foundation in support of Interdisciplinary Workshops in the Humanities.
David Baum, professor and Chair in the Department of Botany, will receive a 2009 Hamel Family Letters & Science Faculty Fellow award.
The National Science Foundation awarded a $6.7 million grant to The Center for Limnology and primary investigator Steve Carpenter to continue its North Temperate Lakes Long-Term Ecological Research program (NTL-LTER).
Two anonymous donors also made a commitment of $20 million in support of the School of Music’s future performance center on the northwest corner of University Avenue and Lake Street.
The Department of Theatre and Drama held their annual awards banquet on Friday, May 8, 2009.
