L&S News  Author: L&S News

Through powerful words and personal reflection, students examine the impact of a liberal arts education in an annual essay contest. Read excerpts from this year's first place winner Justine Jones and runner up Anna Blasco. 

Phi Beta Kappa is the nation’s oldest academic society honoring the liberal arts and sciences. Founded in 1776 at the College of William and Mary, ΦΒΚ stands for freedom of inquiry and expression, disciplinary rigor, breadth of intellectual perspective, the cultivation of skills of deliberation and ethical reflection, the pursuit of wisdom, and the application of the fruits of scholarship and research in practical life.

Eight members (two from L&S) of the University of Wisconsin–Madison community have been selected by the University Staff Awards Selection Committee to receive the 2017 University Staff Recognition Award. 

UW-Madison alumnus Matthew Desmond has won the Pulitzer Prize for his book, “Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City.” It’s the story of eight Milwaukee families faced with losing their homes. It’s also a powerful analysis of a little-known epidemic affecting people across the country living in poverty.

Since graduating with degrees in French Language and African Languages and Literature, Kate Thornborough’s career has taken off. Read more about her life since graduation. 

Young-adult author Angie Stanton (BS’98, Journalism) dove deeply into University of Wisconsin history while researching her latest novel. Waking in Time, published in spring 2017 by children’s publisher Capstone, follows college freshman Abbi Thorp as she accidently starts traveling backward in time on the UW–Madison campus.

Mike Leckrone has a secret. Eagle-eyed fans may be wondering why the iconic band conductor has been missing from University of Wisconsin sporting events, especially NCAA basketball tournaments. “I had double-bypass heart surgery,” explains Leckrone, 80.

From its founding in 1983 until its unceremonious closing in 2010, Smart Studios bore witness to the rise and fall of alternative rock’s heyday. The Madison recording studio founded by Butch Vig ’80 and Steve Marker ’89 — members of the band Garbage — helped to create and capture the sounds of some of the most influential bands of a genre, including their own: Depeche Mode, Killdozer, Korn, L7, Nine Inch Nails, Nirvana, The Smashing Pumpkins, and U2.

Twelve faculty members have been chosen to receive this year’s Distinguished Teaching Awards, an honor given out since 1953 to recognize the university’s finest educators. Nine of those faculty members teach in the College of Letters & Science.