Molly Callahan - News @ Northeastern

Brenna Thornton, who studies theater, works on a flower crown in the costume shop at Northeastern. Photo by Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University

Streamed plays, radio dramas, and more in store for Northeastern theater

With the pandemic in mind, “all of our productions this semester are non-traditional,” says Antonio Ocampo-Guzman, chair of the theater department.

by Molly Callahan October 29, 2020

Marc Carlson, who’s on co-op on Northeastern’s arboretum, inspects a Japanese maple hybrid, also known as an Acer palmatum. Photo by Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University

At school, at work, and at home among the trees

Marc Carlson knows every nook and cranny of campus from walking it day in and day out as part of his co-op on the campus arboretum. Carlson works for Chuck Doughty, who oversees the university’s landscaping. The pair starts each week by walking the campus to survey which of the arboretum’s 1,400 trees and roughly 120 different plant species are flourishing, and which may need a little TLC.

by Molly Callahan October 28, 2020

Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett speaks during a confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Oct. 14, 2020 on Capitol Hill in Washington. AP Photo by Susan Walsh, Pool

Amy Coney Barrett is poised to continue Antonin Scalia’s legacy on the Supreme Court

The Senate is expected to squeak out a vote to send Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court today. Her confirmation, says Dan Urman—who teaches a course at Northeastern on Constitutional law and the modern U.S. Supreme Court—could represent the biggest ideological shift on the court in decades.

by Molly Callahan October 23, 2020

Clockwise from left: Joanna Weiss, editor-in-chief of Experience magazine, moderates the latest Civic Experience event with Steve Kornacki, national political correspondent for NBC and MSNBC; Sean Trende, senior elections analyst for RealClearPolitics; and Sabrina Siddiqui, a national politics reporter for the Wall Street Journal. Screenshot by Northeastern University

The US is less than 2 weeks away from Election Day. Here’s what to watch for.

“This is the pandemic election. It’s a whole different world,” said Sabrina Siddiqui, national politics reporter for the Wall Street Journal, and one of three politics experts who participated in the latest Civic Experience event at Northeastern on Wednesday.

by Molly Callahan October 21, 2020

A protestor holds up a sign during the U.S. Youth Climate Strike at Columbus Circle in New York on March 15, 2019. AP Photo by Anthony Behar/Sipa USA

Climate change has made history this election cycle. But how will it fare in November?

With this week’s debate canceled, the only presidential debate so far featured the longest discussion of climate change of any such showdown to date. But there’s still a long way to go, says Jennie C. Stephens, dean’s professor of sustainability science and policy at Northeastern.

by Molly Callahan October 14, 2020

Jennifer Alajandro wears a facemask as she cleans and disinfects a booth at Silver Diner in Washington on June 22, 2020. The nation's capitol AP Photo by Carolyn Kaster

How has COVID-19 transformed the ‘forgotten front line’?

How has the disease affected the people who work in grocery stores, hotels, or restaurants? Paul Fombelle, associate professor of marketing at Northeastern, considers these employees the “forgotten front line,” and seeks to learn more about how their jobs and lives have changed over the last six months.

by Molly Callahan October 14, 2020

Changing culture is the first step toward erasing racial boundaries

Culture is more than what we watch, read, and listen to. The movies, TV shows, theater, books, music, or podcasts we consume shape how we understand ourselves and the world in which we live, according to a panel of Northeastern faculty who spoke during the third installment of the university’s Racial Literacy series.

by Molly Callahan October 13, 2020

Antonio Ocampo-Guzman, associate professor and Chair of Department of Theatre, teaches a Hybrid NUflex class. Photo by Ruby Wallau/Northeastern University

Onstage and online, the show goes on in the Theatre Department

Acting, says Antonio Ocampo-Guzman, chair of the Theatre Department at Northeastern, is perpetually inventing the next moment. His practice in the art is perhaps partially what drew him back to the university’s Boston campus this fall, for a chance to invent the next moment, week, semester, year, with his students and colleagues.

by Molly Callahan October 6, 2020

Proud Boys gather in Portland, Ore., at Delta Park on September 26, 2020, in support of Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse and Aaron 'Jay' Danielson who was shot dead by an antifascist protester during the ongoing Black Lives Matter protests in the city. Photo by Alex Milan Tracy/AP Images

Was ‘stand back and stand by’ a rallying cry for the Proud Boys? Here’s how to deflate extremist fringe groups.

Intended or not, President Donald Trump’s remark that the Proud Boys, a group of far-right extremists, should “stand back and stand by” was taken up by members as a rallying cry. “If Trump said something that the Proud Boys saw as validation of them, it doesn’t matter what he meant. It matters how they perceived it,” says Gordana Rabrenovic, assistant professor of sociology who studies intergroup violence and conflict.

by Molly Callahan October 5, 2020

President Donald Trump, left, and Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden, right, with moderator Chris Wallace, center, of Fox News during the first presidential debate on Sept. 29, 2020, at Case Western University and Cleveland Clinic, in Cleveland, Ohio. AP Photo by Patrick Semansky

Did anyone really win the first presidential debate?

Tuesday’s debate between Republican incumbent Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger Joe Biden was marked more by what it wasn’t—a coherent advocacy of policy differences—than what it was. The showdown was nearly 90 minutes of cross-talk, interruptions, and shouting that “both men probably lost,” said Nicholas Beauchamp, assistant professor of political science at Northeastern University.

by Molly Callahan September 30, 2020

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