News
Study reveals common mutation linked to autoimmune diseases may protect people from viral infections
New research from the University of Kansas shows a “risk gene” linked to higher odds of developing autoimmune diseases such as diabetes or lupus may also provide a survival advantage fighting viral infections like coronavirus.
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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.
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.