L&S News

Shawn Francis Peters couldn’t believe his luck. After writing 2012’s The Catonsville Nine: A Story of Faith and Resistance in the Vietnam Era (Oxford University Press), the instructor in UW-Madison’s Integrated Liberal Studies Program was searching for an intriguing Upper Midwest-based true-crime subject when Harry Hayward entered his life.

Quoted: “Almost everybody comes back,” says Catalina Toma, associate professor of communication science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Social networking sites tap into what makes us human: we like to connect with others.”

Barry Burden, director of the University of Wisconsin’s Elections Research Center , finds his students and fellow academics puzzled when he uses the hard G in speeches and lectures. “Sometimes a person will ask, ‘What word did you just say? What is that word?’” Mr. Burden said.

Quoted: "What Wisconsin gave the nation was the model where you could take a very tiny electoral margin and act as if you had won an overwhelming victory, and the other side had no say at all.”

History grad Mike Matucheski blends creativity and a love of tradition with scientific rigor to produce award-winning cheeses for Sartori Cheese Company.

A new study suggests that compassion meditation training may reduce the distress a person feels when witnessing another’s suffering. It may also improve their ability and likelihood to respond with compassion.

Quoted: “Self-criticism can take a toll on our minds and bodies,” said Dr. Richard Davidson, founder and director of the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he also teaches psychology and psychiatry.

The #Blackandhooded hashtag, which has since gained traction across the world and spurred offshoots including a website and scholarship fund, was created last year by University of Wisconsin-Madison alumni Anthony Wright and Brian Allen.

"That negative connotation that's associated with being black and in the hood is kind of what sparked our interest to change the negative narrative into a positive one," said Wright, 

Quoted: He may have an explosive temper; he may even have access to guns. “But if he hasn’t come right out and said, ‘I’m going to kill someone tomorrow,’ or ‘I’m going to kill myself,’ you’re not going to be able to involuntarily hospitalize him,” says Michael Caldwell, a psychologist at the University of Wisconsin who works with dangerous young men at a juvenile treatment center in Madison.