News
Study of ‘spatial synchrony’ using long-term data exposes ecological trends and could boost conservation, farming
New research from the University of Kansas in Ecology Letters reveals study of spatial synchrony over a long enough timescale leads to better testing of ideas, improved statistical results and new conceptual realms for understanding ecology, conserving species and farming more profitably.
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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.
Thu, 02/13/2025
Spencer Museum’s new exhibition highlights how 'Bold Women' have changed art and society
Opening Feb. 18 at the Spencer Museum of Art, “Bold Women” explores how women have pushed the boundaries of art and spurred social and cultural change across generations and geographies. The exhibition showcases more than 75 works of art by nearly 50 artists in a variety of mediums including photography, video, installations, textiles, paintings and sculpture.
Mon, 02/03/2025
Artist’s guide to digital weaving blends old, new technology
As Poppy DeltaDawn, KU assistant professor of visual art, sees it, “RATIO: Digital Weaving to Change the World” is her first take on a more cross-disciplinary approach to the possibilities and implications of the digital hand-loom.
Wed, 01/29/2025
Film festival to pay tribute to Kevin Willmott’s vision
A festival of films made by Kevin Willmott during his days at the University of Kansas will pay tribute to the professor emeritus of film & media studies.
Wed, 01/22/2025
'Bright Circle’ illuminates role of women in American intellectual tradition
A University of Kansas researcher sketches the lives of "Five Remarkable Women" who founded America’s first homegrown literary, philosophical movement before being overshadowed by the male writers they inspired.
Wed, 01/15/2025
Authors unearth layers of meaning in ‘West Side Story’
New perspectives in “The Cambridge Companion to ‘West Side Story'” surprise even its co-editor, a KU professor emeritus of music who has made a career out of studying the Broadway musical.
Fri, 01/10/2025
Film aims to build support for trauma care in Africa
Documentary focuses on doctors struggling to meet demand for trauma care in Africa, and efforts of KU Med Center doctor, colleagues to help
Wed, 11/06/2024
New book details sustainable home design, construction methods
A new book featuring Dan Rockhill — a proponent of D.I.Y. architecture education — shows builders how Studio 804 builds sustainably. The book details East Lawrence homes built by the School of Architecture & Design classes of 2022 and 2023.
Thu, 10/31/2024
New book argues Enlightenment was merely a modern concept, not a historical movement
In a new book, J.C.D. Clark, distinguished professor emeritus of British history at the University of Kansas, provides a critical historical analysis of the Enlightenment. He writes that the degree of commonality between social and intellectual movements in the Enlightenment has been overstated for polemical purposes, calling for a fundamental reconsideration of the term.
Tue, 10/08/2024
Designer adjusts set of ‘Lady Day’ until it’s just right
Rana Esfandiary, assistant professor in the University of Kansas Department of Theatre & Dance, researched the jazz age to create a set for "Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill," opening Oct. 8 at KCRep.
Thu, 09/19/2024
Graphic guide makes music therapy accessible
A new book from a University of Kansas associate professor of music serves as an illustrated introduction to the field of music therapy for beginners, covering definitions, methods and theories.
Fri, 09/06/2024
KU English professors awarded NEH grant for 2025 AI, digital literacy institute
KU researchers received an NEH Institutes for Advanced Topics in the Digital Humanities grant to fund their project, AI & Digital Literacy: Toward an Inclusive and Empowering Teaching Practice, an in-person institute administered in partnership with the National Humanities Center, in June 2025.
Tue, 09/03/2024
Re-creations of 1870s railway photos reveal profound change to Kansas, Colorado plains
A fascinating new book chronicling transformation on the plains of Kansas and western Colorado uses repeat photography — contemporary re-creations of 1870s photos — to reveal startling changes to the landscape.
Wed, 08/28/2024
Spencer Museum’s ‘Native Fashion’ exhibition explores diversity, ingenuity of Indigenous style and dress
“Native Fashion,” which opens Sept. 1 at the Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas, explores the diversity and ingenuity of wearable artworks produced by Native people from the 19th century into today.
Thu, 08/15/2024
New book explores how punk virus continues to infect new generations
Nearly 50 years after its creation, punk rock “manifests and mutates across the arts, infecting culture, lifestyles and even national heritage,” said Iain Ellis, KU lecturer in English and author of a new book on the music form.
Tue, 07/16/2024
Researcher fleshes out portrait of English nobleman Esmé Stuart
Although he was a confidant of Britain's King James I and he succeeded his brother as Duke of Lennox, history seemed to have forgotten Esmé Stuart. So a KU professor delved into old records to learn more about him.
Mon, 07/15/2024
New book reveals how roads and vehicles transformed colonial societies across Africa
In a new book, Andrew Denning, associate professor of history at the University of Kansas, uncovers how vehicles and the roads they traveled upon began to transform societies across 19th and 20th century Africa … but rarely in the manner colonizing Europeans expected.
Wed, 07/10/2024
Kansans help expand trombone repertoire with new recording
A new recording by KU School of Music faculty members Michael Davidson and Ellen Sommer also features contributions from musicians and music educators from across the state.
Mon, 07/08/2024
‘Overlooked’ peoples’ influence on Colonial Spanish America examined in new book
Robert Schwaller, professor of history, co-edited a new book titled “Overlooked Places and Peoples: Indigenous and African Resistance in Colonial Spanish America, 1500-1800.” It offers new insight into how and why the inhabitants of these places responded contentiously or cooperatively to Spanish colonialism.
Tue, 06/25/2024
Globe-trotting trumpet professor featured in Spanish Olympics fanfare
Musical talent, hard work and networking take Stephen Leisring around the world — recently to Madrid, where he played first trumpet on a piece for Radio Television Española's upcoming coverage of the Paris Olympics.
Thu, 06/06/2024
KU Libraries announce 2024 Whayne Scholars; visiting researchers’ presentations set for June 26
Alyssa Cole, assistant professor of African American studies at the University of Florida, and Brooke Thomas, African American history postdoctoral scholar at Pennsylvania State University, are the recipients of the 2024 Alyce Hunley Whayne Visiting Researchers Travel Award from KU Libraries. They will visit KU from June 24 to 27 with a joint public presentation at 3 p.m. June 26 in the Johnson Room.
Tue, 06/04/2024
Lifelong learner is intergenerational visual art educator, advocate
Liz Langdon joined the faculty of KU's Department of Visual Art when she was 65 after an extensive career in art education. She writes of the "long hill" she has climbed and vistas yet to conquer for a chapter in a new book titled "Art Education and Creative Aging: Older Adults as Learners, Makers, and Teachers of Art."
Tue, 05/28/2024
Spain still struggles over interpretation of its Golden Age
To understand the separatist movements and other political forces that threaten to break Spain apart, it is instructive to see how all sides spin the nation’s Golden Age literary heritage today. That is the premise of the new book “The Currency of Cultural Patrimony: The Spanish Golden Age” by KU author Robert Bayliss.