Skip to main content

Features

When his dreams of directing theater fizzled, Art Johnston ’75 MFA instead took up the fight for queer rights in Chicago. Together with his husband, Pep Peña, he co-founded Sidetrack, an innovative gay bar that’s now the largest in the Midwest, and lobbied for passage of groundbreaking civil rights laws that have made Chicago a welcoming place for the LGBTQIA+ community.

Get to know Johnston

Art Johnston sits on a barstool in Sidetrack. He is smiling and looking slightly away from the camera to his left. Behind him is a neon sign displaying the name Sidetrack.
University Archives is home to documents, artifacts and mementos that showcase the rich history of Northwestern and its community, “items that will help people better understand the University we love,” says University Historian Kevin Leonard ’77, ’82 MA. The collections span 25,000 linear feet and include everything from a limited-edition Northwestern University Barbie to a real taxidermized wildcat.

Explore the archives

Man walking down a hallway in Northwestern's Archives Vault
We all want to give children the best possible foundation. Northwestern researchers and alumni across disciplines are working hard to understand how kids learn best, what tools and activities can bolster their development, and how families can use that information to help children reach their full potential.

Check out their advice

Illustration of a parent and child looking at a leaf falling

View Finder

Winter 2024
Driven to capture rare and unexpected images of fragile landscapes, Los Angeles-based photographer Josh Anon has had his share of awe-inspiring encounters with wildlife around the world. Anon, a Roblox product lead by day, has captured images of penguins, polar bears, walruses and much more.

See his photos

penguins on ice in antarctica
Sheinelle Jones, co-host of the “3rd Hour of Today,” is one of a handful of Black women helming a national TV broadcast. And she thinks it’s important for people to see her full self: accomplished, Black, a woman, a mother, a daughter, a wife, a volunteer, a pray-er, a proud Midwesterner, and a human who embraces joy, who sometimes falters, sometimes loses her nerve — but persists nonetheless.

Get to know Jones

Sheinelle smiles big with a microphone
Artificial intelligence is all around us. And if AI is not already in your doctor’s office, you can bet it’s coming soon — with the potential to create major improvements in our health care and well-being.

Explore the feature

Geometric illustration featuring futuristic wheelchairs and doctors
Fourth-year doctoral candidate Tabor Whitney ’22 MA spends several months each year in Los Tuxtlas, Mexico, collecting feces samples from mantled howler monkeys. The feces may contain clues about the monkeys’ physical condition and could aid Whitney in developing a “health index welfare assessment,” a tool that provides metrics that conservationists can use to make decisions about the endangered creatures.

Learn more about Whitney’s research

A monkey sits atop a tree branch.
The 2023 Northwestern Alumni Medal recipients — Roberta Buffett Elliott ‘54, Chris Galvin ’73, ’77 MBA and Charles S. Modlin Jr. ’83, ’87 MD — are leaders in philanthropy, business and health care.

Meet the medalists

Roberta Buffett Elliott sits smiling with her hands on her lap.
With unfailing energy and laser-sharp focus on institutional improvement, Michael Schill, Northwestern’s 17th president, plans to continue the University’s “rapid and steep” ascent to become one of the nation’s top universities. And now, in addition to maintaining the University’s high academic standards, he has a clear goal: building Northwestern’s athletic department into a national model for integrity and student well-being.

Get to know Northwestern’s 17th president

President Schill sits in a chair with his legs crossed, glancing to the left and smiling.
As President Michael Schill wrapped up his first few months in office, Northwestern Magazine talked with him about higher education’s role in creating a compassionate community, his favorite books and what he values most in his human — and canine — companions.

Meet President Schill

Schill on Schill