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Announcing the 2020-2021 Mellon University Press Diversity Fellows

The University of Chicago Press, the University of Washington Press, the MIT Press, Cornell University Press, the Ohio State University Press, Northwestern University Press, and the Association of University Presses (AUPresses) today announce the recipients of the 2020-2021 Mellon University Press Diversity Fellowships. These fellowships are generously funded by a four-year, $1,205,000 grant awarded to the University of Washington Press from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support the continued development and expansion of the pipeline program designed to diversify academic publishing by offering apprenticeships in acquisitions departments. This second grant builds on the success of the initial 2016 grant from the Mellon Foundation, which funded the first cross-press initiative of its kind in the United States to address the marked lack of diversity in the academic publishing industry. Please join us in welcoming the 2020-2021 Mellon University Press Diversity Fellows: Rebecca Brutus graduated in May from Ithaca College, where she majored in Writing and minored in Theater Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies. At Ithaca College she served as Senior Nonfiction Editor at the literary magazine Stillwater and as a tutor in the Writing Center. She was also involved with ZAP, a student-run volunteer program that organized panels to […]

The post Announcing the 2020-2021 Mellon University Press Diversity Fellows appeared first on The Chicago Blog.

Activists Want To Defund The Chicago Police Department

Block club members and residents in black neighborhoods may not trust the police, but they work with them because of public safety concerns.

Host: Lisa Labuz
Reporter: Natalie Moore

Graduating In A Changing Chicago

Rafael Galarza was a shy boy when he started out at school, speaking little English. Now this star student is graduating as valedictorian, in the middle of a changing Chicago neighborhood.

Host: Melba Lara
Reporter: Sarah Karp

Chicago Class Of 2020 Radio Graduation Speech

“I'm not afraid to make my voice heard” — 2020 grads share their take on graduating amid a pandemic and protests, and how they’ve changed.

Host: Lisa Labuz
Producer: Kate Grossman

Illinois’ Governor Hired 35 Job Seekers Off A ‘Clout List’

A WBEZ investigation reveals the long list of applicants that Illinois Democratic Party boss Mike Madigan urged Governor J.B. Pritzker to employ after taking on the office.

Host: Greta Johnsen, Lisa Labuz
Reporter: Dan Mihalopoulos

Music Helped This Middle School Graduate Get Past Bullying

Kevin had a really hard time last school year with bullying. We hear from him, and the music teacher who helped him through it, Matthew Jones-McCann.

Host: Mary Dixon
Reporter: Adriana Cardona Maguigad

Read an Excerpt from “Plague Years: A Doctor’s Journey Through the AIDS Crisis”

Plague Years is an unprecedented first-person account of the AIDS epidemic. Physician Ross Slotten provides an intimate yet comprehensive view of the disease’s spread alongside heartfelt portraits of his patients and his own conflicted feelings as a medical professional, drawn from more than thirty years of personal notebooks. In telling the story of someone who was as much a potential patient as a doctor, Plague Years sheds light on the darkest hours in the history of the LGBT community in ways that no previous medical memoir has. His moving memoir ensures that these dark hours will not be forgotten, and in honor of Pride Month, we’re sharing an excerpt from the opening chapter. In the beginning Tom and I weren’t the only AIDS doctors in town. There were a handful of others, like the two Davids at Illinois Masonic Hospital, Bernie B. at Rush, Tom C. at Northwestern, Michael B. at Weiss Hospital, and a few others who didn’t survive the early days of the epidemic. As gay men, we felt that it was our duty to serve the gay community, which bore the brunt—and continues to bear the brunt—of the AIDS crisis, not only in Chicago but elsewhere in the United States, […]

The post Read an Excerpt from “Plague Years: A Doctor’s Journey Through the AIDS Crisis” appeared first on The Chicago Blog.

The University of Chicago Press Stands in Solidarity with Protests Against Racial Injustice

While the University of Chicago Press’s authors and partnerships span the globe, we are based on the South Side of Chicago, in a community that has experienced decades of state-sanctioned violence—the violence of poverty, of unequal access to health care and education, of police brutality. This community includes our neighbors, our co-workers, our family, our fellow citizens. We stand together in love and solidarity, as we do with the millions of people who have marched to remind us that Black lives matter. But this is not enough. As a university press, our mission is to publish ideas that make a positive difference in the world and this includes giving voice to those who have been silenced. Throughout our history, we have had an important role in supporting authors whose work sheds light on racial and social injustice. Our recent anti-racism and social justice resource lists of books and journal articles speak to this long-held commitment to publish works that foster public understanding and engage the vital issues of our time. We pledge to find new ways to amplify work by Black and other historically underrepresented scholars and encourage research that offers critical insight into the racial disparities and other injustices […]

The post The University of Chicago Press Stands in Solidarity with Protests Against Racial Injustice appeared first on The Chicago Blog.

Everybody at a Time like This Should Keep Animals: Read an Excerpt from “The Great Cat and Dog Massacre”

During these strange quarantine months, many of us have been seeking comfort in our animal friends, who have been our companions in isolation and our sense of hope and distraction. In this excerpt from The Great Cat and Dog Massacre: The Real Story of World War II’s Unknown Tragedy, Hilda Kean looks at a time during the War when we similarly marveled at our pets’ remove from the larger events of the world. In a letter penned in March 1940, the English author, journalist, and criminologist Fryniwyd Tennyson Jesse attempted to explain the mood of wartime London to American friends by incorporating her two cats into the narrative: I watch [our cats] with a sense of relaxation and pleasure because they know nothing about war. I think everybody at a time like this should keep animals, just as royalties and dictators should always keep animals. For animals know nothing of politics, nothing of royalty, nothing of war unless, poor creatures, they also, knowing not why, are wounded and killed. By situating animals as apart from (human) politics, albeit included in the suffering of war that embraced animal and human alike, Tennyson Jesse suggested that animals conveyed a particular quality needed […]

The post Everybody at a Time like This Should Keep Animals: Read an Excerpt from “The Great Cat and Dog Massacre” appeared first on The Chicago Blog.

Chicago Graduate Learns The Power Of Her Own Voice

When Fenton High School senior Malien Tingpalpong joined the speech team, she didn't know she'd find a lifelong friend in Melissa Feinberg.

Host: Mary Dixon
Reporter: Susie An

Life Interrupted: Finding Purpose Through A Pandemic

Miguel Blancarte, Jr. is a resident of Chicago's Little Village neighborhood. In the middle of the pandemic, he decided to make a big career change in service of his community.

Host: Melba Lara
Producer: Lynnea Domienik

Chicago Watches For Another COVID-19 Outbreak

After reopening amid protests, Chicago health officials are watching for a surge in COVID-19 cases. Here's how they're preparing.

Host: Melba Lara, Lisa Labuz
Reporter: Kristen Schorsch

First-Generation Graduates Honor Family Sacrifices

College graduate who are the first in their family to earn a degree share the triumph and heartache of graduating online amid protests and a pandemic.

Host: Mary Dixon
Reporter: Kate McGee