News
Study measures behavioral markers of alliance in support groups, viability of machine learning in mental health
A study from the University of Kansas and University of Southern California measured which nonverbal behaviors indicate that people are forming connections in a support group, particularly in virtual groups. The researchers also examined the feasibility of using machine learning in support groups.
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Tue, 11/18/2025
KU filmmaker’s new series captures stories, traditions of the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska
Rebekka Schlichting, assistant professor of the practice at the William Allen White School of Journalism & Mass Communications, released the series “Baxoje Basics” this past month. Her episode “In Honor of Pete Fee” captured the last interview with the revered elder of the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska.
Wed, 10/15/2025
History of Japan’s signature beverage sake shared in new book
Eric Rath, professor of history at the University of Kansas, explores the evolution of Japanese sake from homebrew to flavored varieties, while tracing its cultural significance and global rise, in his new book, “Kanpai: The History of Sake.”
Wed, 10/01/2025
Everything old is new again on latest Draper Family Band recording
A University of Kansas School of Music professor’s multigenerational band is back at it with a second album of original songs. Brandon Draper dusted off old material and wrote new works, as well, for for the Draper Family Band’s new album in a blues-rock vein.
Wed, 10/01/2025
Lawrence creatives among recipients of 2025 Rocket Grants for community-driven art projects
Charlotte Street and the Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas have announced the 10 recipients of the 2025-2026 Rocket Grants awards, a re-granting program of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
Mon, 09/29/2025
New book examines how ‘bookish’ language of Shakespeare’s England influenced today’s society
In a new book, Jonathan Lamb, professor of English at the University of Kansas, reveals how the broad lexicon of book-related words in the newly print-savvy era of Shakespeare’s England taught cultures how to think, contemplate and describe the world.
Wed, 09/24/2025
Director brings urgency to production of ‘Silent Sky’
University of Kansas lecturer Michelle Miller enlisted a KU astrophysicist colleague to fire up the cast of “Silent Sky,” to be staged Oct. 3-5 at University Theatre. The play about pioneering woman astronomer Henrietta Swan Leavitt and overcoming sexism in the scientific workplace is still relevant today, according to Miller.
Tue, 09/09/2025
US military’s destructive relationship with the Pacific Ocean explored in new book
A new book edited by Andrew Isenberg, Hall Distinguished Professor of American History at the University of Kansas, focuses on the military’s actions in the Pacific Ocean from World War II through the Vietnam War, offering essays on the inextricable relationship between the natural world and human warfare.
Tue, 09/09/2025
KU design professor lets students in on book cover illustration job for big publisher
Matt Cook’s yearlong illustration project for Simon & Schuster comes to fruition with the release of the children's science fiction book “Press 1 for Invasion,” by J.A. Dauber. The KU professor allowed his students to watch the steps along the way.
Mon, 09/08/2025
Male monarchs throughout history portrayed as ‘mother’ figures, new research reveals
In a new article, Luis Corteguera, a professor of history at the University of Kansas, introduces the concept of “king as mother,” using biblical and classical sources and evidence from nature to explore gendered metaphors meant to shape the perception of male rulers across early modern Europe.
Fri, 09/05/2025
Osage artist wants to engage viewers in conversation
Norman Akers’ paintings on display at Temple Contemporary’s Edgar Heap of Birds Family Gallery raise issues of indigeneity, even as their surfaces beguile the viewer. They are the fruit of Akers’ spring 2025 residency in Philadelphia.
Fri, 08/29/2025
Spanish celebrity couple from last century embraced power of myth
A KU researcher’s journal article on the union of literary critic and journalist Enrique Gómez Carrillo and performance artist Raquel Meller is part of a larger study of a period “obsessed with female artists.” Margot Versteeg's new work is part of a book project about late 19th and early 20th century women performance artists in Spain.
Thu, 08/28/2025
Charlotte Street award show draws on artist’s Asian heritage
In the current exhibition of Charlotte Street Visual Artist Award winners at the University of Kansas’ Spencer Museum of Art, Merry Sun has constructed three monumental sculptures referencing Chinese architecture and migrant identity.
Wed, 08/20/2025
Curator links Spencer Museum of Art, community in upcoming exhibitions
The work Sydney Pursel has been doing behind the scenes as curator for public practice at the Spencer Museum of Art will come to fruition with two upcoming exhibitions: “My Mother's Tongue Ties Me Together,” opening Aug. 26, and “Iⁿ‘zhúje‘waxóbe: Return of the Sacred Red Rock,” opening Sept. 9.
Thu, 08/14/2025
Research pins down skills that make a good music therapist
Two University of Kansas researchers are co-authors of the new work “Defining Music Therapy Musicianship: An Analysis of Music Therapists’ Clinical Work.” In it, they write that musical flexibility and responsiveness to clients are more important than instrumental skill.
Thu, 07/31/2025
Art historian brings to light Korean Buddhist temple design, decoration
A University of Kansas art historian’s new paper focuses on details of 18th-century Korean Buddhist temple design. Maya Stiller writes that like their contemporaries in Europe during Baroque or Rococo periods, Korean Buddhist artisan-monks believed that, when it came to worship structures, more is more, not less.
Mon, 07/28/2025
Renowned medieval scribe’s innovative glossary reveals evolution of languages
In a new book, Misty Schieberle, professor of English at the University of Kansas, focuses on 15th-century scribe and poet Thomas Hoccleve, whose trilingual glossary combines a variety of sources in innovative ways.
Wed, 06/25/2025
Author follows Japanese bells under sea, around world in new book
Where does the triangular relationship among dragons, bells and water come from, and how has it been portrayed and explained through the centuries? Sherry Fowler, professor in the Kress Foundation Department of Art History at the University of Kansas, explores those questions in “Buddhist Bells and Dragons: Under and Over Water, In and Out of Japan.”
Mon, 06/02/2025
Researchers sue New Jersey to obtain DNA evidence in Lindbergh baby kidnapping case
Jonathan Hagel, an assistant teaching professor of history at the University of Kansas, is a plaintiff in a case against the state of New Jersey about the handling of the Charles Lindbergh archive. The lawsuit seeks to force the state police to allow DNA testing on envelopes used to send a series of ransom notes in the infamous Lindbergh baby kidnapping case and trial.
Wed, 05/28/2025
KU composer creates choral music to match ‘mystical’ texts
Kansas City's Te Deum choir will feature works by Forrest Pierce, professor of composition at the University of Kansas School of Music, in concerts May 31 and June 1 in the Greater Kansas City area.
Wed, 05/21/2025
KU contributor to new book lays out rules of 'The Rise of the K-Superzombie'
Paul Scott, University of Kansas professor of French, sees zombie television shows influencing the successful resistance to martial law in South Korea during a 2024 attempted coup. Scott has penned a chapter titled “Neither Human nor Monster: The Rise of the K-Superzombie” in the new book “The Post-Zombie: Essays on the Evolving Undead.”
Tue, 05/13/2025
New play-within-a-play examines storytelling ethics of theatrical community
In a new play-within-a-play by Darren Canady, professor of English at the University of Kansas, a misguided director determines to put on an all-white production of Ntozake Shange’s 1976 play “for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf.”
Thu, 05/08/2025
Scholar inspires more plans to memorialize site of Emmett Till tragedy
Over the past decade, Dave Tell has become one of the nation’s leading academic experts on the commemoration of the 1955 lynching of Black teen Emmett Till in Money, Mississippi. Now, one of his scholarly articles has inspired a new collaboration titled “Artist’s Project: Memorializing a Site of Sensitivity in Mississippi: Redemption and Reconciliation in the Shadows of Emmett Till.”
Wed, 04/23/2025
Professor mentors as she shepherds 'Family Sideshow' through world premiere at KC Melting Pot Theatre
Nicole Hodges Persley has a sense of fulfillment on many levels as she works on her last play as artistic director of the Kansas City Melting Pot Theatre. She is directing a cast of four in the world premiere of Brysen Boyd’s tragicomic drama, “Family Sideshow,” opening May 1.
Tue, 04/01/2025
Multimedia art project pays tribute to vanished Topeka neighborhood
The “Reclaiming Home: Remembering the Topeka Bottoms” project, led by a University of Kansas professor, includes oral history, art and documentary film components. Events connected to the project begin April 4.
Tue, 04/01/2025
Podcast dramatizes spiritual bridge between Gandhi, MLK
Darren Canady, University of Kansas professor of English, wrote the six-part, three-hour audio drama that is part of the multimedia “Day of Days” project helmed by executive producer Michael Epstein.
Mon, 03/31/2025
Role-playing game RiverBank a new twist on author Kij Johnson's concept
Kij Johnson, associate professor of English, has turned a book inspired by "Wind in the Willows" into a new ‘Cottagecore’ role-playing game
Tue, 03/25/2025
KC musician Eddie Moore makes ‘a happier album’
On “What Makes Us,” pianist Eddie Moore reaches out to the new generation of jazz musicians. The University of Kansas School of Music lecturer launches his latest album March 25.
Tue, 03/11/2025
Relationships with robots drive plot of novel ‘Luminous’
What if you had a robot for a sibling? That concept is the inspiration for a University of Kansas professor's debut science fiction novel, "Luminous," now out from Simon & Schuster.
Wed, 03/05/2025
Large-format photographer gets below the surface in new KC group show
Elise Kirk, KU associate professor of photography, is showing work in "Strange and Familiar Places,” on display through July 20 at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.
Fri, 02/28/2025
Artist Stephen T. Johnson extends family’s legacy in new, three-generation show
Stephen T. Johnson, lecturer in the School of Architecture and Design, carries on his family’s artistic legacy in a new “three-generation” show opening Feb. 28 at the Cider Gallery in Lawrence.