A&S in the News- May 21-27, 2016

  1. Learning English can bring academic success
    Tuscaloosa News – May 22
    For some students, walking into a classroom for the first time is also the first time they are brought into American culture. Six years ago, Danica Gutierrez left Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, with her family to come to the United States. She neither spoke nor read English at the time. After a couple of months, she began to slowly grasp the language, but her arrival in Tuscaloosa marked a turning point for her … Rafael Alvarez, a professor at the University of Alabama, has provided translation assistance to the school since 2008, doing everything from taking phone calls from parents to translating certain assignments for the students to take back home. “When I first came here to the U.S. 22 years ago, it was really hard for me to adjust to a new language and culture,” Alvarez said. “I guess it’s just a way to give back to the community.”
  2. Astronomer explores universe through remote-controlled telescope
    Phys.org – May 24

    Access by the astronomers at The University of Alabama to the Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope in the Canary Islands will benefit both research and students at UA. Dr. William Keel, UA professor of astronomy and astrophysics, represents UA on the managing board of a 12-institution consortium called the Southeastern Association for Research in Astronomy. He recently obtained some of the first data with the recently reopened Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope through SARA, which operates the telescope.
  3. An Archive of Fugitive Slave Ads Sheds New Light on Lost Histories
    Smithsonian – May 24
    For hundreds of years, some of the best sources of information about life under slavery in the United States came from autobiographies published by former slaves. From Frederick Douglass to Solomon Northup, these narratives shed light on the horrors and atrocities suffered by millions of people with mundane regularity … They wanted to provide as much detail about their appearance, their life story, how they carried themselves, what they were wearing,” Joshua Rothman, a historian at the University of Alabama, tells Smithsonian.com. “Each one of these things is sort of a little biography.”

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