Features
Hired in June 2021 as the first Black chief curator at the Guggenheim, Naomi Beckwith oversees the museum’s collections, exhibitions, publications, and curatorial programs and archives. And, importantly, she strives to create a more inclusive collection that reflects the diverse community the contemporary art museum serves.
When Erin Gilchrist started digging through hundreds of 16 mm film and VHS recordings of Northwestern musical performances, she discovered some unexpected gems. Take the Second Annual Hoffnung Festival, a spoof of classical music concerts that in April 1980 featured a Northwestern University Symphonic Wind Ensemble performance on three vacuums, a floor cleaner and four rifles. “That was not at all what I expected,” says Gilchrist, a digital curation and metadata assistant.
For six years, journalist and professor Thrasher followed the case of Michael Johnson, a gay Black man in St Louis who was sentenced in 2015 to more than 30 years in prison for not disclosing his HIV-positive status to his sexual partners. Thrasher has reported on policing, LGBTQ rights, racism and HIV/AIDS for more than a decade, pursuing controversial stories and even helping change the law.
Video games are artistic at their core — and rapidly evolving as a medium. Northwestern alums have been in the industry since its very early days, creating new, immersive experiences that tell stories in innovative ways.
Most LGBTQIA individuals face challenges when trying to access high-quality care, leading to poorer health outcomes. Northwestern researchers are coming together to study these communities, remove barriers to care, and develop groundbreaking interventions to improve health.
In 13 years as Northwestern University president, Morty Schapiro transformed the campuses, expanded international opportunities and supported faculty research — all while diversifying the student population. The University also faced financial challenges and several controversies, as well as an unprecedented pandemic.
Northwestern alumni are applying their journalism training to podcasting. Whether they’re transporting us to faraway places, helping us understand all sides of a complex situation or digging into a single story to shed light on broader social issues, these alumni are delivering diverse, compelling experiences straight to your earbuds.
Dwight White II’s new mural in the renovated Black House is about what you can see — and so much more.
In August 2020 the Washington Football Team named the 38-year-old Jason Wright the franchise’s president, making him the first Black president in NFL history. His combination of on-the-field NFL experience and corporate boardroom chops made him an ideal candidate to guide the team’s cultural and business transformation.
The effects of insufficient or poor-quality sleep go far deeper than our energy level the next morning. Sleep is a key component of our cardiovascular, metabolic and cognitive health, and at Northwestern, sleep research and circadian science — long regarded as disparate fields — come together to help us better understand how sleep can improve our health.
