Social Sciences

Experiences on campus, in the nation’s capital and abroad have helped Jonny Vannucci forge a future in politics and diplomacy.

In the golden age of podcasts, Jeremy Morris teaches students there’s far more to the medium than the latest buzzworthy show.

Not all smiles are expressions of warmth and joy. Sometimes they can be downright mean. And our bodies react differently depending on the message a smile is meant to send. Research led by Jared Martin, a psychology graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, shows that smiles meant to convey dominance are associated with a physical reaction - a spike in stress hormones - in their targets. On the other hand, smiles intended as a reward, to reinforce behavior, appear to physically buffer recipients against stress.

Economics alumni Fran Ulmer’s career took her from UW–Madison to Alaska, where she fell in love with the state.

Students, staff and faculty collaborated to create “Whirling Return of the Ancestors," which highlights one tradition of the Yorùbá people in Western Africa. The gallery came about because of a collaboration between the Art History Department, the Afro-American Studies Department, the School of Human Ecology, the Ruth Davis Design Gallery and students. This is the first exhibit in the Ruth Davis Design Gallery that was formed out of a partnership with other departments at UW, Newell says.

No matter how real virtual reality might seem, humans don’t view it as reality, UW-Madison researchers find.

A new report explores how Black Twitter, Feminist Twitter, and Asian-American Twitter — interact with the news and offers recommendations to strengthen the relationship between journalists and these communities.

A background in spoken word and music has served as a powerful launchpad for junior Jamie Dawson.

“I think the reaction to the song was shock; Curtis had been such a voice for harmony and reconciliation,” says Craig Werner, an Afro-American studies professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the author of Higher Ground: Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin and Curtis Mayfield and the Rise and Fall of American Soul.