News

‘Body Politics 2013’ Staged March 29-30 at UMass Amherst

AMHERST, Mass. – “Body Politics 2013,” an award-winning original production by and about women of color, will be performed Friday and Saturday, March 29-30 at 8 p.m. in the Campus Center Auditorium at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
 
Presented by the Women of Color Leadership Network, a program of the Center for Women & Community at UMass Amherst, “Body Politics” explores a range of contemporary issues including the intersection of social identities, cultural appropriation, discrimination and racism, manifestations of internalized oppression, sexuality and violence, as well as

‘Contact Between Adoptive and Birth Families: What Works?’ Conference at UMass Amherst on April 11 and 12

AMHERST, Mass. – Adoption researchers from around the world, with practice professionals and adoptive families will gather on Thursday and Friday, April 11 and 12, for the fifth annual New Worlds of Adoption Conference at the University of Massachusetts Amherst to explore the theme,“Contact between Adoptive and Birth Parents: What Works?”   
 
The 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. conference will meet in the Student Union Ballroom and is open to all interested families, practitioners, researchers, school staff and policy makers.
 
More than 200 people are expected to attend the forum, which will offer

UMass Amherst, Town of Amherst Agree on New Measures to Improve Public Safety This Spring

AMHERST, Mass. – The University of Massachusetts Amherst and the Town of Amherst today agreed on a set of measures to improve public safety this spring, including funding for two additional ambulances, joint police patrols and a joint, police mobile field force designed to prevent large-scale disturbances.
 
“The university is committed to working with the town to ensure that the safety and civility of our shared community is protected,” said John Kennedy, vice chancellor for university relations.

Artist Tim Rollins Joins with Springfield Middle School to Create Works for 'Du Bois in Our Time' Exhibit at UMass Amherst

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Renowned artist Tim Rollins and members of his collective, Kids of Survival (K.O.S.), will conduct a special residency/workshop March 26-28 with middle school students and teachers at Springfield’s Renaissance Public School.
 
Sponsored by the University Museum of Contemporary Art (UMCA) at UMass Amherst, the project will combine lessons in reading and writing with the production of works of art. In a process Tim Rollins and K.O.S.

Penn State Scholar Speaks on 'Living with the Legacies of Violence in the Jim Crow South' on March 28 at UMass Amherst

AMHERST, Mass. – Pennsylvania State University professor Nan Woodruff will present the Five College History Annual Lecture on Thursday, March 28 at 4 p.m. in the Cape Cod Lounge of the Student Union at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
 
Woodruff’s lecture is titled “Living with the Legacies of Violence in the Jim Crow South: Memory, Trauma and the Civil Rights Movement.”
 
The event is free and open to the public.

University of Chicago Professor Discusses Politics and African-American Literature at UMass Amherst

AMHERST, Mass. – Kenneth Warren, professor of English literature at the University of Chicago, will speak on “Reflections on Politics and African American Literature” on Thursday, April 4 from 4-6 p.m. in 904-08 Campus Center at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
 
The Fairfax M.

Robot-Delivered Speech and Physical Therapy a Success in UMass Amherst Test

AMHERST, Mass. – In one of the earliest experiments using a humanoid robot to deliver speech and physical therapy to a stroke patient, researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst saw notable speech and physical therapy gains and significant improvement in quality of life.
 
Regarding the overall outcome, speech language pathologist and study leader Yu-kyong Choe says, “It’s clear from our study of a 72-year-old male stroke client that a personal humanoid robot can help people recover by delivering therapy such as word-retrieval games and arm movement tasks in an enjoyable and

UMass Amherst Institute Receives $1.6 Million NIH Award to Support Graduate Students in Biomedical Research

AMHERST, Mass. – A newly formed institute at the University of Massachusetts Amherst that serves as a campus-wide umbrella to coordinate diversity initiatives in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) has received a four-year, $1.6 million award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to fund one-year internships for post-baccalaureate students from underrepresented groups interested in biomedical and biobehavioral research.
 
Sandra Petersen, director of the STEM Diversity Institute (SDI) and professor of veterinary and animal sciences, is the principal investigator of

New UMass Poll Shows Strong Support for Increased Minimum Wage and Assault Weapons Ban

 
Fifty-one percent view President Obama favorably, Speaker Boehner unfavorably
 
AMHERST, Mass. – The results of a new national UMass Poll released today show strong public support for an assault weapons ban and a broad consensus in favor of a higher federal minimum wage. Additionally, President Barack Obama enjoys high personal favorability, while Speaker John Boehner is viewed as equally unfavorable.
 
Respondents were asked about a variety of topics, including which issues they viewed as most important, about how favorably they view various government officials, and their personal views

UMass Amherst Researchers Reveal Mechanism of Novel Biological Electron Transfer

AMHERST, Mass. – When researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst led by microbiologist Derek Lovley discovered that the bacterium Geobacter sulfurreducens conducts electricity very effectively along metallic-like “microbial nanowires,” they found physicists quite comfortable with the idea of such a novel biological electron transfer mechanism, but not biologists.
 
“For biologists, Geobacter’s behavior represents a paradigm shift.

Pages