Videos

Digital Media and the Egalitarian Classroom

Candace Vogler, associate professor of philosophy at The University of Chicago, examines how virtual classrooms help her overcome common pedagogical issues. Faced with large class sizes and oftentimes timid students, Vogler discovered that online discu...

Creoles, Pidgins and the Evolution of Languages

Salikoko S. Mufwene, professor and former chair of the department of linguistics at the University of Chicago, looks at some of the issues surrounding the evolution of English. Drawing on material in his book, 'The Ecology of Language Evolution,' Mufwe...

Civil Rights and Military Tribunals

Can military tribunals protect the rights of the accused and offer fundamentally fair trials? What role, if any, will there be for review by civilian courts? These and other questions were taken up at a January 17, 2002, panel discussion at the Univers...

Carnal Ignorance

Is sex (or love) a lie? In her book 'The Bedtrick: Tales of Sex and Masquerade,' Wendy Doniger explores the 'bedtrick' (where one partner in coital love is disguised as another) in mythology, literature and popular culture. Here, she examines Shakespea...

Capital Punishment in the U.S.: A Forum on Death-Penalty Issues

In this lively debate, four leading experts discuss reasons why the US still retains the death penalty at a time when many other countries in the world have abandoned capital punishment. This forum introduces many of the socio-economic, racial and lega...

Athanasius Kircher and the Egyptian Oedipus

German Jesuit archaeologist, mathematician, biologist and physicist Athanasius Kircher (1602-80) lived by Plato's maxim, 'Nothing is more beautiful than to know everything.' For Kircher, this meant studying everything from the meaning of Egyptian hiero...

Astrology in Ancient Rome: Poetry, Prophecy and Power

The study of a little-known Roman poet, Marcus Manilius, provides a window on to Roman attitudes about astrology. Far from being simple folk beliefs, prophecy and divination were an important part of the state religion, and Roman rulers drew upon mythi...

Assessing the Economic Impact of September 11

Corporate executives and market watchers have cited 'the post-September 11 climate' as a reason for layoffs, poor corporate earnings and other financial setbacks. But have the attacks and their aftermath had any long-term effect on the U.S. economy? No...

Archaeology and National Identity in Israel

After the establishment of Israel in 1948, archaeology became a search for national origins--for material evidence of an ancient Israelite kingdom embedded in the modern state. In an excerpt from Facts on the Ground: Archaeological Practice and Territo...

Ancient Greek Love Magic

In researching ancient Greek love magic--charms and spells that were used to produce desire or affection--University of Chicago classics professor Christopher Faraone found two very distinct magical traditions at play. The spells used by men against wo...