2020 hasn’t been easy. A global pandemic, national reckoning on racial inequality and economic crisis have led up to a contentious election season. Psychology professor and department head Adam Butler and family services assistant professor Heather Kennedy are here to help with some ways to cope with stress and anxiety this election season.
The election of 2020 is shaping up to be one unlike any other. With record early voting turnout and increases in absentee ballots due to the pandemic, it’s uncertain whether Americans will know who their next president will be when they wake up on Nov. 4. University of Northern Iowa political science professors Donna Hoffman and Christopher Larimer have been studying elections for years and are frequently sought out by the media for their expertise.
Witches have long been part of popular culture, from “Bewitched” to “Charmed” to the countless children knocking on people’s doors dressed as a witch this Halloween. But those modern myths have dark origins of persecution, prosecution and execution. University of Northern Iowa history professor and department head Jennifer McNabb has studied the causes and consequences of witch hunts for years, publishing articles in journals and writing material for textbooks on Western civilization and European history.
As if 2020 hasn’t been strange enough, this Halloween will feature an unusual celestial treat - the first worldwide blue moon in 76 years.
While a Halloween blue moon comes once about every 19 years to specific time zones (the Midwest last saw one in 2000), the last truly global blue moon was in 1944, according to the Farmer’s Almanac.
Last week, a panel discussion on the intersection of race, policing and social justice was held virtually as part of UNI’s “Cultivating Justice: A 6-Week Quest Toward Racial Equity” series. The series, now in its fourth year, was launched in 2015 in the wake of demonstrations after the police shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.
Growing up in a home where her mother struggled with drug addiction, Yolanda Williams was determined to take a different path. She wanted to be like the teachers and counselors who helped her survive.
Now, in her new role as director of UNI’s Classic Upward Bound program, which helps support marginalized students to successfully complete high school and succeed in college, she’s able to use that life experience and empathy to help others.
New UNI Opera Director Richard Gammon aims to help students become “whole artists” — “fully fledged human beings co-existing on stage” — as he puts it, and his experience creating and directing modern, dance-accompanied operas offers the perfect vehicle to do just that.
Kyle Endres, now associate director of UNI’s Center for Social and Behavioral Research, arrived at UNI this fall after postdoctoral work at Duke and Fordham Universities. His research focuses on a hot topic in electoral politics - how campaigns and interest groups are using data analytics to influence behavior.
Orchestral music has been around for centuries, and Erik Rohde is working to be sure it is around for many more.
As the next step in a career that has seen him perform in recitals and festivals throughout the United States, Europe and Asia as well as lead several well-renowned performing groups, Rohde became UNI’s new orchestra director earlier this year after hearing glowing reviews about the university.
When the pandemic hit, some people turned to baking bread, binge-watching Netflix or endlessly scrolling through TikTok.
University of Northern Iowa doctoral student Glynis Worthington decided to enter a beauty pageant.
It was just the latest in a lifetime of unconventional but successful choices for Worthington, a 59-year-old Cedar Falls resident with a strong aversion to boredom. She beat out competitors decades younger to win the Mrs. Iowa crown last month.
