NIU Today

What is the appropriate role of women in political life? Are women fundamentally different than men? How does “femininity” qualify or disqualify women from political participation? These questions have been debated for millennia, going back to Plato and the ancient Greeks. But award-winning NIU Department of Political Science professor Andrea Radasanu says the topic has...

Famously dubbed the “God particle,” the Higgs boson took thousands of scientists nearly five decades to discover, at a cost that one journalist estimated at $13.25 billion. Over the past 18 months, there has been plenty of hype about “the Higgs,” beginning with the boson’s discovery in 2012 at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN...

Just weeks after receiving formal designation as an “Innovation and Economic Prosperity University,” NIU has received one of the nation’s top awards for regional economic development. The Association for Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) on Tuesday announced NIU as the winner of APLU’s inaugural “Place” award for “excelling in community, social, and cultural development work.”...

The National Science Foundation has awarded a $218,000 grant to NIU anthropologist Giovanni Bennardo to lead an international team of scholars in a research project that examines the cultural models of nature held by primary food producers in world regions affected by climate change. The project involves 15 scholars and six graduate students from 10...

Nine panels of old photographs depicting NIU’s rich history greeted visitors to the Carl Sandburg Auditorium for the inauguration of President Doug Baker. Called “Made by History,” the photo exhibition covers topics such as the physical campus, colleges, student life, athletics, prominent visitors, “communiversity” and, of course, NIU presidents. Wade Duerkes, a photographer for NIU...

Northern Illinois University and DePaul University are teaming up to offer an anthropology of NGOs conference Tuesday, Nov. 19, and Wednesday, Nov. 20, at DePaul University’s Loop Campus. The purpose of this conference is to assess, define, refine and invigorate the field of NGO studies as it applies to the anthropological community. More than 130...

Ashley, a junior majoring in public health at NIU, is looking for a particular type of experience. “I have the people skills, but I need more experience in the health field,” she says. “I want to be a physician’s assistant, so I’m looking for something that will provide patient contact hours.” Ashley can find exactly...

Two current NIU students and one alumna have been nominated for awards from the Chicago/Midwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, the organization that sponsors the Emmy® Awards in television production and performance excellence. Candice Beasley and Jorge Rodas, NIU students in the Department of Communication, and Lauren Scott, a 2013...

The Northern Illinois University Chemistry Club invites the public to its fall 2013 Chemistry Demo Night at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 25, in Faraday Hall 143. The theme  will be “When Chemistry Gets Spooky,” and experiments will highlight the more crowd-pleasing aspects of chemistry – explosions, fire and bright and colorful reactions. “The demo night...

Retired NIU English instructor Ildikó Carrington wasn’t a bit surprised when Alice Munro was named recipient of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature earlier this month. “I am delighted that she won it,” Carrington says. Back in 1989, Carrington wrote the first American book-length critical study of the Canadian writer’s works. Titled “Controlling the Uncontrollable:...

Be a part of history as Northern Illinois University celebrates the inauguration of President Douglas D. Baker on the afternoon of Wednesday, Nov. 13. The inauguration is the highlight of a four-day-long set of activities in conjunction with Baker’s installment as NIU’s 12th president. President Baker brings a rich background in business, organizational management and...

The government shutdown was resolved last week, but it wasn’t soon enough to save a multimillion-dollar NIU research project in the Antarctic. The National Science Foundation, which was funding the research, has notified NIU scientists and two participating graduate students that their planned Antarctic research season to begin in January has been canceled. Earlier this...