Take a pair of scissors, prepare to use them to cut verb endings, then brace yourself: you are about to embark on a memorable journey into the Spanish language. Archaic as it might seem in our highly technologised world, the pair of scissors is one of the pedagogical tools Judy Hochberg uses in ¿Por qué? as part of her ludic approach to language study. Her approach is both playful and academic, and the linguistic interrogations triggered by her own experiences as a student, researcher and teacher benefit from deftly structured and well-documented answers.

In 2014, Framingham author Elizabeth Fideler was looking for a new book project when she came across an idea she hadn’t previously considered: profiling an individual who was highly accomplished, yet not famous.

“I knew Margaret Pearmain Welch to be a very interesting woman, but after my research, I understood how truly remarkable she was,” said Fideler, a research associate at the Center on Aging & Work at Boston College. “Her story deserved to be told.”

As a young reporter in political Washington in the late 1980s, I noticed that there was a type of person who thrived in the driven, transactional environment of the capital. These were people who somehow, as I thought of it, “enjoyed the game.” I liked interviewing members of Congress and their staffers who conveyed that sense of pleasure in the daily doings of the place.

"This year has been a big one for business news...there are a handful of truly eye-opening business books that are worth your attention. As I do every year, I pored over dozens of books to identify several gems."

“A friend of mine has this absolutely fantastic story that we should all do together.”

"Barbara Kopple heard these words, she tells me, on a phone call last year with producer John Morrissey (American History X). She’s likely heard such preambles before. Kopple has directed documentaries for more than 40 years, from her landmark labor-strike feature Harlan County U.S.A. to her profiles of Woody Allen (Wild Man Blues), the Dixie Chicks (Shut Up & Sing) and the late, eternally great Sharon Jones (Miss Sharon Jones!)"

As 2017 starts to wind down, the amount of high-profile natural disasters that have affected every part of the world this year is shocking. Communities grappled with hurricanes in Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico, wildfires in California and Montana, massive flooding in India and many more.

Last Thursday, longtime environmental reporter Henry Fountain spoke at UNM’S Hibben Center to explain his fascination with disasters and how they radically change the future of the world.

Aaron Sorkin knows that anytime a writer or actor decides to step behind the camera for the first time, the first question is usually whether directing has always been his or her dream. So the Academy Award-winning screenwriter (“The Social Network”) and playwright (“A Few Good Men”) sat down for a recent interview with a preemptive response at the ready.

Read more here. 

Eve Ensler's (SHS '71) internationally famous book The Vagina Monologues is being released in a special anniversary edition with additional, never-before-published monologues. The Vagina Monologues is a stage production consisting of a variety of personal monologues read by a diverse group of women. After its initial premiere more than 20 years ago in New York, the show gained in fame thanks to an all-star production at Madison Square Garden and a television production by HBO. Its hard-hitting text has since been translated into 45 languages and the show performed in more than 100 countries.

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After penning a song to tackle the great white whale, Daniel Emond (SHS '08) re-read the classic Moby-Dick... several times over. What followed were others from Melville’s canon, as well as research trips to Nantucket, New Bedford, and Provincetown, all leading to the development of the double-sided record and musical film, Kill the Whale–A Musical Odyssey of Moby Dick. 

Read more here.