If the ongoing impeachment inquiry were to result in the early departure of President Donald Trump, how would his absence affect the 2020 election? In that unlikely event, who would be the replacement Republican candidate? It has suddenly become a relevant issue, argued Bill Weld, the former Massachusetts governor who has emerged as Trump’s leading—and entirely long-shot—Republican challenger….
Read more »
Campus & Community
She dreams of falling walls and better cities
Claire Coletti dreams of cities that are welcoming and affordable for everyone. Coletti, who has earned undergraduate and master’s degrees in architecture at Northeastern, has come to see her search for inclusive architecture from the perspective of her transgender identity. “One of the reasons why I’m so passionate about this is that I do have…
Read more »
Artificial intelligence can reflect human bias but it can also help undo it
Algorithmic predictions are ubiquitous these days—think of Amazon recommending a book based on past purchases. More controversial use arises when algorithms incorporate not just personal history, but information about people generally, blurring the lines of personal causation and broad, population-level trends. More and more decisions are made using machine learning algorithms, which, in theory, can…
Read more »
From ‘never again’ to again and again
Northeastern will host a series of events next week in remembrance of the Holocaust and the Rwandan genocide of 1994, and to bring awareness in order to help prevent future genocides. Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Week, which runs April 1-5, continues the university’s annual tradition of remembering the Holocaust, and reflecting on its significance and…
Read more »
How a ‘crazy’ idea became a Boston-wide student theater festival
Tiffany Jieting Yu had a big idea. She wanted to start a theater festival for young, emerging playwrights, actors, and directors that wasn’t exclusive to just one institution or college—something that she couldn’t find anyone else doing. “Is this crazy?” she texted a friend. “Yes. But DO IT,” came the reply. That was in November….
Read more »
This sensor won’t save the whale with 88 pounds of plastic in its stomach. But it might help the rest of us
This past weekend, a young Cuvier’s beaked whale washed up on the Philippine island of Mindanao with 88 pounds of plastic crammed into its stomach. The emaciated animal likely died of dehydration and starvation, unable to get any food past the mass of plastic bags, rice sacks, and tangled nylon ropes. Scientists have estimated that 8 million metric…
Read more »
Brexit ‘is a British problem,’ not a European Union problem
It was a new take on the college course, and it offered a different take on Brexit. In a lecture streamed live from NCH at Northeastern in London and viewed by participants in an agile “pop-up” course on the Boston campus, Northeastern political science professor Mai’a Cross offered a view on Brexit that’s not often present in…
Read more »
How pancakes helped explain the effects of the US Embargo on Cuba
Katrina Haase never expected she’d be so excited to see a carton of eggs. But when the Northeastern student, a month into her co-op in Cuba, saw someone walking down her street with a dozen and a half eggs, she ran outside to ask where he’d gotten them. She dashed off to the grocery store…
Read more »
Winners of the 2018-19 Outstanding Teaching Awards
It is with great pleasure that we announce the winners of the CSSH 2018-19 Outstanding Teaching Awards: Chris Parsons, Assistant Professor, Department of History. With this award, the college recognizes Chris Parsons as an innovative and passionate teacher who challenges his students to examine the connections between historical studies and the world today. His courses…
Read more »
Here’s what criminologists are missing when they predict crime rates
Criminologists have long contended that the prevalence of poverty, unemployment, and low-wage jobs in disadvantaged communities can help predict crime rates there. In recent years, they have also begun to explore the relationship between prison cycling, or the flow of people in and out of the prison system, and crime. Eileen Kirk, a doctoral student at Northeastern,…
Read more »