Features

Abby and Maribel

The visionaries see brighter days in Peru

Young CU Boulder alumni have launched a summer empowerment program for adolescent girls in Peru who dream of career and community service. Partnering with other nonprofits in Peru, the team has helped the young women move closer to realizing their dreams.

Like-minded discourse breeds extremism

Like-minded discourse breeds extremism

“The results of two experiments demonstrate that people underestimate how much a brief group discussion polarizes their partisan attitudes,” Keating said in her study summary. But perhaps worse, people appear to be unaware when this occurs.

Wildfire in Colorado Springs

Humans, wildfires forge a ‘socioeconomic pathology’

"What does forest management do to the frequency, size and intensity of wildfires? What happens when people think about the impact of their houses on forests and forest fires? Does it change the rate they build housing (and the type of materials they use) in the wildland urban interface?" Researchers grapple with these questions.

Stephen Graham Jones

Author has Mongrels on the brain

The story of a nascent werewolf and his flawed family has been percolating inside of Stephen Graham Jones since he was 12 years old.

News

Cameron Keith

Tenacious tyke, 10, tackles National Spelling Bee

Cameron Keith is a consummate word guy. He’s also 10 years old. Cameron made it to the semifinals in the 2016 Scripps National Spelling Bee and was poised to advance to the finals when he was asked to spell “noncompos.”

The grave’s a fine—but restless—place

The grave’s a fine—but restless—place

Scott G. Bruce has been hanging around ghouls and the graveyard, literally and figuratively, for a long, long time. The CU Boulder historian is indulging his fascination for restless spirits with a collection of translated ghost and zombie stories written between the time of the Roman Empire and the Renaissance, and teaching History 4803, “Ghost Stories in the Western Tradition from the Romans to the Renaissance” this semester.

Tiffany Beechy

Medieval monks had a great sense of humor

Medieval literature is a treasure trove of weird linguistic surprises that defy classification and explanation, and University of Colorado Boulder English professor. Tiffany Beechy delights in these linguistic curiosities, even if she can’t quite explain why they’re all there.

CU launches exhaustive study of student-athletes’ health

CU launches exhaustive study of student-athletes’ health

In what may be a first-ever exhaustive health study of intercollegiate student-athletes, a team of CU Boulder researchers will gauge not only athletes’ fitness but also their general well-being.

Donors

Surveyors in China

Geologist's work spans globe, philanthropy helps students

Dale Grant’s career and travel have spanned the world—and included jobs in eastern China and Saudi Arabia—and now his geology training helps quickly alert the world where, how big and how damaging severe earthquakes are. Now, the man who says he’s “always been a Buff” has moved to establish a significant scholarship for geological sciences students with his estate.

Student in for the long haul for the love of education

Student in for the long haul for the love of education

Statistically speaking, you wouldn’t expect Alma Hinojosa to do a study-abroad program in Israel while studying English at CU Boulder and working to become a lawyer dedicated to improving the U.S. public-education system. She was born in Durango, Mexico, and reared in Aurora, Colo. She was brought here at age 4 by parents who “every day invest sweat and tears” to give their daughters a shot at the American Dream.

 Ketchum Building

Remembering professors, supporting students

Legendary political-science Professor Edward Rozek was born in Poland, fought with the British against the Nazis, immigrated to the United States, went to Harvard, became a conservative icon at CU Boulder and passed away in 2009. He lives on in the newly renovated Ketchum Building.

Alumni

Building bridges between perilous homes and new horizons

Building bridges between perilous homes and new horizons

As part of her graduate studies, CU Boulder alumna Jamie Pledger performed psychological testing and provided counseling for international refugees. Her observations do not fit neatly into popular narratives about refugees from war-torn places like Iraq

Gail Nelson

Securing the world with books, not Berettas

Gail Nelson has advice for anyone pondering a career in intelligence in an extraordinarily complex 21st-century global landscape: Read, read, and then read some more, particularly classical literature and foreign-intelligence histories. And while you’re at it, become an expert in the geopolitics and cultures of one region in the world, says Nelson, who earned his PhD in political science in 1979 and has had a distinguished career in the intelligence community.

smart gun

Alum leads effort to bring ‘smart guns’ to market

Margot Hirsch believes that Americans should be able to buy guns equipped with “smart-gun” technology—weapons that include a safety feature that allow them to fire only when activated by authorized users—and the CU Boulder alumna now leads a nonprofit organization dedicated to this free-market strategy.

Teju Ravilochan

Solving the world’s biggest problems, one entrepreneur at a time

Teju Ravilochan wants to solve the world’s biggest problems, one entrepreneur at a time, and he has helped create a global enterprise to advance that mission. The University of Colorado Boulder graduate is CEO and co-founder of the Unreasonable Institute, a non-profit international training center that provides business programs for early stage entrepreneurs focused on creating positive social and environmental change.

Jade Cooley

Alumna studies climate change in groundbreaking Antarctic research

CU Boulder alumna Jade Cooley begins her science talks to students throughout Washington by saying, “My name is Jade, and I once set off explosives in Antarctica for science. Now I’m going to tell you about glaciology.” Cooley, a physics graduate, spent six weeks conducting research and camping on Antarctica’s Ross Ice Shelf last November.

Alum wins presidential early career award

Alum wins presidential early career award

Tina Goldstein, associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh and a CU Boulder alumna, has won the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. Goldstein is one of a select group of researchers chosen by President Barack Obama to receive this honor.

Kudos

The pain of partition

The pain of partition

Scholar Deepti Misri explores gender violence in post-colonial India in Kayden Award-winning book. In many cases, she argues, anti-minoritarian violence intends to convey a message.

Valerio Ferme

Advocating for the humanities, Italian-style

Valerio Ferme, professor of Italian and associate dean for the arts and humanities at CU Boulder, believes that a liberal arts education not only prepares students to adapt to a constantly shifting economic landscape, but also enriches their human experience.

Sculpture by Carissa Samaniego

Art students recognized in international competition

CU Boulder graduate art students Benjamin McQuillan and Carissa Samaniego took home honorable mentions this summer for their sculptures from the International Sculpture Center’s 2016 Outstanding Student Achievement competition.

Beckwith

‘You can create your own cognitive cocoon’

Francis Beckwith, the 2016-17 Visiting Scholar in Conservative Thought and Policy, is now on campus teaching courses, arranging the appearance of guest speakers on campus. Beckwith fielded five questions about his book, his appointment and the state of political discourse.

PHD

Humanities center strategizes for next-gen PhD

The Center for Humanities and the Arts at CU Boulder has been awarded one of 28 National Endowment for the Humanities planning grants to explore “The Next Generation Humanities PhD.”