Recent News
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Back-to-school meets future-ready: New academic programs at Rochester
The range of recently launched degree programs reflects what students, the workforce, and the world need and want to become ever better.
Professors of religion, writing, and biomedical engineering recognized for teaching excellence
Whitney Gegg-Harrison, Jack Downey, and James McGrath approach undergraduate teaching at Rochester in distinctive ways that resonate with their students.
Jack Downey: Family tragedy channeled into a passion for social justice
The associate professor of religion helps shape the perspectives of his undergraduates not only at the University, but also at area prisons.
The ethics of dark tourism
Julia Granato crisscrossed Europe to study human bone collection and display sites. Now she’s pondering what it means to display and visit human remains.
Rochester’s college-in-prison program becomes western New York’s prison education hub
The Mellon Foundation has renewed its support for the Rochester Education Justice Initiative with an additional three-year, $1 million grant.
Emil Homerin: An American religion scholar remembered
A leading scholar of Sufi poetry and mysticism, Emil Homerin is remembered by his students and colleagues for his enthusiasm and generosity
University prison education initiative awarded major grant from Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
The University's cornerstone prison education initiative receives a $1 million grant from the Mellon Foundation to expand and further develop its programming.
Colleagues remember history professor emeritus Dean A. Miller
Friends and colleagues are remembering Dean A. Miller, a professor emeritus of history with a secondary appointment in religion and classics, for his 30-year career at Rochester, and for his scholarship, character, and generosity.
Saving the lost text of a Torah scroll
Professor Gregory Heyworth and his digital media students are using different wavelengths of light to reveal illegible text that could create a sacred, tangible link with Jewish congregations lost to the Holocaust.
An academic understanding of hate
Listening to the news, it can feel as though acts of violence—particularly violence inspired by bigotry and hate—are on the rise, and unfortunately the numbers back that up. How are we to make sense of this rise? Three Rochester researchers sat down for an academic conversation about hate and intolerance, discussing reactions to recent incidents of hate, important lessons from history, and the psychology of stereotypes and intolerance.