Latest news with #BrynMawrCollege
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
New Research and Teaching Initiative to Map the Religious and Spiritual Infrastructure of the Future
Made possible by a $3.9 million grant from the Templeton Religion Trust, this three-year, multi-faceted initiative aims to map the religious and spiritual infrastructure of the future. BRYN MAWR, Pa., May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- A $3.9 million grant from the Templeton Religion Trust to Bryn Mawr College will support a three-year, multi-faceted initiative to map the religious and spiritual infrastructure of the future. The project focuses on three interlocking arms in research, public engagement, and professional pipeline development. New research will focus on religious change related to congregational closures, spiritual innovation, and changes in religious leadership in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and a fourth city to be named soon. "Sir John Templeton was intensely interested in the dynamics of religious innovation and change," said Templeton Foundation Chief Grants Officer W. Christopher Stewart, Ph.D. "This project is the first major attempt to map these emerging spiritual infrastructures, expanding the possibilities for discovery, growth, and human flourishing." Alongside several research projects, the project team will facilitate media and public education on the topic. In partnership with the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), the project will also provide fellowships for Ph.D. students in relevant fields across the country, building institutional partnerships that create a pipeline of new leaders knowledgeable about the rapidly changing American religious landscape. Designed by Wendy Cadge, President and Professor of Sociology at Bryn Mawr College, the project will be led by Cadge in collaboration with Jonathan Anjaria, Professor of Anthropology at Brandeis University, Kraig Beyerlein, Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for the Study of Religion and Society, University of Notre Dame; Penny Edgell, Professor of Sociology, University of Minnesota; Amy Lawton, Researcher of Religion and Society, Bryn Mawr College; Diane Winston, Professor of Journalism and Communication and Knight Chair in Media and Religion, University of Southern California; and Robert Wuthnow, Professor of Sociology Emeritus and former director of the Princeton University Center for the Study of Religion at Princeton University. Edgell will also edit a new volume to serve as a complement to Wuthnow's The Restructuring of American Religion: Society and Faith Since World War II (1989, Princeton University Press). "I'm thrilled to partner with so many amazing colleagues and institutions to bring this project to life," said Cadge. "So much is changing in American religious and spiritual life so quickly that it is essential for scholars and the broader American public to keep up and to continue to educate the next generation to understand these important transitions." In partnership with the Religion News Service (RNS) the project will also raise public awareness about innovation and the "spiritual infrastructure" emerging in communities today, countering media focuses on religious decline and disaffiliation. "American news media tells two stories about religion: it's in decline and it's all about politics," said Diane Winston. "But our research will tell a different story: Americans are experiencing new ways to serve, celebrate, and come together--and religion is far from dead." "American news media tells two stories about religion: it's in decline and it's all about politics," said Diane Winston. "But our research will tell a different story: Americans are experiencing new ways to serve, celebrate, and come together--and religion is far from dead." The project will also focus on building a strong pipeline of leaders prepared to continue work in the changing religious and spiritual infrastructures inside and outside of the academy. In November 2025, ACLS will launch the first of two national fellowship competitions for Ph.D. students working in related fields across the country. Jonathan Anjaria, Professor of Anthropology and Faculty Director of Professional Development at the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences at Brandeis University, will work closely with ACLS in developing this fellowship. Up to 20 fellowships will be awarded in 2026 and 2027 based on a highly competitive, peer-reviewed process. Fellows will be placed with a partner organization and be part of a year-long cohort that includes in-person and virtual workshops and educational events featuring some of the researchers and journalists involved in the other arms of this project. These fellows will gain practical experience in how their research skills can be applied outside of academia. "While PhD students' scholarly activities have the potential to make an impact in the world, most doctoral programs do not offer students the opportunity for internships," said Anjaria. "This unique program will enable students to use their research and communication skills to address practical problems, while showing potential future careers related to the study of religion." "ACLS is excited to partner with the Templeton Religion Trust and ACLS members Brandeis University and Bryn Mawr College on this important project," said ACLS Senior Program Officer Desiree Barron-Callaci. "This work is a wonderful example of how doctoral studies can support important research about growth and change in communities, facilitate positive, socially impactful work based on this learning, and make this valuable research visible to the field as well as to our communities." For more information about Identifying and Advancing the Spiritual Infrastructure of the Future visit About Templeton Religion Trust Templeton Religion Trust (TRT) is a global charitable trust chartered by Sir John Templeton in 1984 with headquarters in Nassau, The Bahamas. TRT has been active since 2012 and supports projects as well as storytelling related to projects seeking to enrich the conversation about religion. TRT is always seeking more spiritual information, more "benefits of religion," and more spiritual growth. About Bryn Mawr College Since its founding in 1885, Bryn Mawr College has been the preeminent college for women interested in the pursuit of wisdom necessary to challenge the world's expectations. The Bryn Mawr College community has repeatedly broken barriers to achieve greater equity through exceptional academics and a deep dedication to learning. Its more than 35 undergraduate majors span the humanities, sciences, social sciences, and arts. Two co-educational graduate schools offer selective master's and Ph.D. programs across the Arts, Sciences, and Social Work, and the Postbaccalaureate Premedical Program is one of the most successful in the nation for placing students into medical school. Bryn Mawr is dedicated to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility, which serve as the engine for excellence and innovation, helping pave the way for gender equity and inspiring brilliant minds who find life-long community as part of the college. About the American Council of Learned Societies Formed a century ago, the [American Council of L earned Societies (ACLS) __title__ American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS)] is a nonprofit federation of 81 scholarly organizations. As the leading representative of American scholarship in the humanities and interpretive social sciences, ACLS upholds the core principle that knowledge is a public good. In supporting its member organizations, ACLS expands the forms, content, and flow of scholarly knowledge, reflecting its commitment to diversity of identity and experience. ACLS collaborates with institutions, associations, and individuals to strengthen the evolving infrastructure for scholarship. About Brandeis University Brandeis University is a top-tier private research university with a focus on undergraduate education. The university was founded in 1948 by the American Jewish community as a nonsectarian institution at a time when exclusionary practices prevented equal access to some of the nation's best universities. Named for Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis, the university embraces the values of academic excellence, critical thinking, openness to all and a commitment to making the world a better place. Located just west of Boston in Waltham, Massachusetts, Brandeis is a member of the Association of American Universities, which represents the leading research universities in the United States and Canada. Brandeis' distinguished faculty are dedicated to the education and support of about 3,600 undergraduates and more than 2,000 graduate students. Media Contact Heather Mangrum, American Council of Learned Societies, 2126971505, hmangrum@ Matt Gray, Bryn Mawr College, 610.526.6528, mgray@ View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE American Council of Learned Societies Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
CT legend Katharine Hepburn springs to life in ‘Tea at Five' at Ivoryton Playhouse
Carlyn Connolly knows the challenge she accepted by starring in 'Tea at Five' at the Ivoryton Playhouse as Hollywood icon Katharine Hepburn in the same part of Connecticut where the legendary actress grew up and lived for most of her life. Connolly is appearing as Hepburn in the one-woman play by Wethersfield native Matthew Lombardo at the Ivoryton Playhouse on the same stage where Hepburn performed in 1931. The legend is that Hepburn, who became an actress while at Bryn Mawr College, came home for the summer and convinced Milton Stiefel, who opened the Ivoryton Playhouse just a year before in a former union meeting house in the Ivoryton section of Essex, to let her be in one of her productions. With characteristic chutzpah, Hepburn angled for larger roles than she would otherwise be considered for by arguing that her friends and family would fill the auditorium. 'Tea at Five' takes place in Hepburn's Connecticut home, the Fenwick estate in Old Saybrook. The same town that now boasts the Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center, which also houses a museum of Hepburn memorabilia. 'Tea at Five' has other local roots. It had its world premiere in 2002 at Hartford Stage starring Kate Mulgrew as Hepburn and later came to The Bushnell in Hartford on tour. Other Lombardo works that premiered in Connecticut include 'High,' which starred Valerie Harper at TheaterWorks Hartford in 2010 and the original one-act done by TheaterWorks in the early years of its 'Christmas on the Rocks' holiday show that became the Dr. Seuss parody 'Who's Holiday.' Connolly has done two previous shows at the Ivoryton Playhouse, 'The Great Gatsby' and 'Cabaret.' She feels the aura of the historic venue, a summer stock theater where stars from Marlon Brando to Groucho Marx to Ethel Waters appeared in plays and musicals from the 1930s into the '70s. In the '80s and '90s the theater was run by a summer repertory company, the River Rep. It became a year-round theater around 25 years ago under the leadership of Jacqueline Hubbard, who is directing 'Tea at Five.' 'I come to this area two to four times a year,' Connolly said, describing both Hepburn and the playhouse as iconic. 'She actually performed on the Ivoryton stage. She was part of this community. She described Fenwick, her home, as her paradise. This is an intrinsically Connecticut story.' While the play takes place entirely at Fenwick, its two acts take place over 40 years apart. In the first act, a young Hepburn has retreated to Connecticut after the failure of several back-to-back films. She wonders if she still has a career. In the second act, Hepburn is a bonafide Hollywood legend but is also presented as a survivor of a difficult relationship with her longtime romantic partner and frequent co-star Spencer Tracy, of countless struggles to assert herself when dealing with producers and others in the movie industry and of a recent traffic car crash which requires her to wear a cast on her leg. Connolly also notes that 'a hurricane has come through in the interim' between the acts. Connolly said she and Hubbard agreed not to do a close impersonation of Hepburn — the subject of countless impressions by stand-up comedians throughout her long career. Instead, they decided to go with 'an embodiment of the flavor' of the singular Hepburn, capturing her attitude without resorting to mimicry. The costume for the second act 'will exemplify her later-in-life style,' Connolly said. There'll be 'some make-up to show how she's aged, but we don't want to force it, just suggest it.' Connolly studied for the role by seeing every one of Hepburn's 43 films and reading several major biographies about her. She watched the films out of order, starting with one of Hepburn's biggest hits 'The Philadelphia Story' and 'working backward' toward her earliest work. In those early films, Connolly saw evidence of Hepburn's real-life rebelliousness. 'Being buried in an ensemble piece, even one like 'Stage Door,' was something she fought against. Her move to more distinctive roles that stood out from the others was by her own design.' Connolly said watching two 1935 Hepburn releases, 'Sylvia Scarlett' and 'Alice Adams,' on the same day was revelatory. ''Sylvia Scarlett' was the last film where she was really leaning into her boyish side, while in 'Alice Adams' she's playing this stereotypical beautiful young woman. Both these movies were flops. I really enjoyed watching them back to back.' Later in Hepburn's long career, 'she goes from playing a marriageable leading lady to a series of spinsters. You see that as well as how the cinema changes over the years' from colorful comedies like 'The Madwoman of Chaillot' to grittily realistic adventures like 'The African Queen,' which Hepburn insisted be filmed on location, Connolly said. Connolly furthered her research into Hepburn's life by getting to know the Old Saybrook area and visiting The Kate. 'I loved seeing those items of hers and reading actual letters she wrote.' The curator of the Hepburn exhibits at The Kate will be doing some talkback events following certain performances of 'Tea at Five.' Outside of her embodiment of Hepburn, Connolly has been developing a one-woman show of her own, a 50-minute musical called 'Thursdays at 4:15,' written by Andre Catrini, that has been presented at some cabaret theater spaces. This summer, she will appear in the world premiere of the musical 'Edvard' about the artist Edvard Munch at the Vineyard Playhouse in Massachusetts. But for now, Connolly is Katharine Hepburn. 'This is a once in a lifetime thing for me,' she said. 'It's a great challenge. There are people around here who knew her. I want to really do it well. I want to do her proud. She looked for challenges, too.' 'Tea at Five' by Matthew Lombardo, directed by Jacqueline Hubbard, runs May 15 through June 8 at the Ivoryton Playhouse, 103 Main St., Ivoryton. Performances are Wednesdays at 2 p.m., Thursdays and Fridays at 7:30 p.m., Saturdays at 2 and 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. $60, $55 seniors, $25 students.
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Where does vanilla flavoring come from? Probably not beaver butts.
Are there beaver secretions in your vanilla ice cream? News articles or food influencers on social media might have you believe that castoreum, a yellow, syrupy substance from the castor sacs near a beaver's anus, is used as everyday vanilla flavoring, disguised as 'natural.' According to some of these sources, beaver castor is an ingredient in everything from vanilla ice cream to strawberry-flavored oatmeal. But experts say this couldn't be further from the truth. While people have used castoreum for medicinal purposes and, yes, to flavor perfumes and foods since ancient times, there's almost nothing in the grocery store today that contains castoreum. 'It turns out that the stuff is incredibly expensive, because it's rare; there's no way it's in your ice cream,' says Michelle Francl, a chemist at Bryn Mawr College who studies the science of food. According to Francl, in 2020 about 16 million pounds of vanilla extract —collected from vanilla orchids, a large group of flowering plants—was produced worldwide, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization. That said, castoreum still exists in niche products such as bäversnaps, a Swedish liquor, according to the 2022 book Beavers: Ecology, Behaviour, Conservation, and Management by Frank Rosell and Róisín Campbell-Palmer. In total, the U.S. consumes less than 292 pounds a year of castoreum, castoreum extract, and castoreum liquid, according to the latest edition of Fenaroli's Handbook of Flavor Ingredients. To harvest castoreum, trappers kill beavers and remove their castor glands, which are dried and crushed. They then use alcohol to extract castoreum, similar to how vanilla is removed from the plant to make your vanilla ice cream, Francl says. Read more about the history of vanilla. For over 2,000 years, people have turned to castoreum to cure all sorts of maladies, including fevers, stomach issues, and mental illnesses. The secretions were also used in soaps and creams, and at one point was added to cigarettes to enhance the scent. Hippocrates even wrote about castoreum's healing properties in 500 B.C. 'By the Roman period, it was a stock part of people's pharmacopeia,' says Francl. Castoreum's popularity as medicine likely has something to do with its chemical makeup. According to the 2022 book, castoreum can contain more than 75 different chemical compounds—an unusually high diversity. The molasses-like material also contains salicylic acid, or aspirin, which can alleviate pain. Castoreum also has fatty acids like those in expensive skin creams. And some of its molecules are structurally similar to vanillin, the compound in vanilla orchids that's responsible for the trademark vanilla taste. Learn more about how vanilla is produced in São Tomé and Príncipe. Unfortunately, the demand for castoreum came at a cost. It was a byproduct of the centuries-long fur trade, which decimated North American and Eurasian beaver populations, nearly rendering both species extinct by the 16th century in Europe and the 19th century in North America. Castoreum plays a vital role in beavers' everyday lives. To mark their territory, both beaver species deposit mud piles on the ground and excrete castoreum on top. This serves the threefold purpose of elevating the odor, adding moisture to the scent to make it more potent, and protecting the smell from rising water levels, according to Dietland Müller-Schwarze in his 2011 book The Beaver: Natural History of a Wetlands Engineer. While both males and females have castor sacs, adult males in a family are most likely to leave scent markings in strategic locations—like the pathways of other beavers—to send the message that this land is taken. Indeed, when Campbell Palmer smells castoreum in her research in Great Britain, she knows right away 'there's probably two families here, and they're telling each other, 'This is the line. This is my boundary,'' says Campbell-Palmer, head of restoration at Beaver Trust, a U.K.-based organization dedicated to increasing Eurasian beaver populations. Read how beavers are bouncing back in Sweden. 'It's a very distinctive smell, castoreum…it's kind of musky, but sweet,' says Campbell-Palmer. 'Even if you don't see beavers about, you know they're there.' Related beavers can also recognize their family members' individual castoreum scents, which is also a useful tool for Campbell-Palmer. When she wants to trap and relocate a family of beavers, she can extract one animal's castoreum and put it in a humane trap to attract its relatives. 'They're doing very well in Britain,' Campbell-Palmer adds. 'They're adapting readily.' The North American species is also rebounding, thanks to habitat preservation and hunting controls. If castoreum were ever to appear in something you ate, Francl says not to worry. 'When we're thinking about food, what really matters is the structures of the molecules,' says Francl. 'It doesn't matter whether it comes from bear or it comes from beaver, it's the same molecule—it does the same thing.' The U.S. Food and Drug Administration classifies castoreum as 'generally regarded as safe,' and a 2007 safety assessment published in the International Journal of Toxicology concluded that 'a long historical use of castoreum extract as a flavoring and fragrance ingredient has resulted in no reports of human adverse reactions.' 'I would try it,' Francl says. But 'probably not in ice cream.' This story was originally published on October 1, 2013. It has since been updated.
New York Times
28-02-2025
- Health
- New York Times
Tea Leaves Can Steep Away Lead, Study Finds
Tea leaves pull heavy metals from water, significantly lowering the amount of lead and other dangerous compounds that people may be unknowingly drinking, a new study found. Recent research has highlighted potential applications for used tea leaves, from biofuels to gluten-free cookies. But the new study shows a public health benefit from something that countless people are already doing. About five billion cups of tea are consumed each day around the world, according to one estimate. 'You can see the implications,' said Vinayak Dravid, a materials scientist at Northwestern and an author of the study, which was published this week. 'How often do we touch billions of people?' In many countries, the water used to steep tea is contaminated with lead from aging pipes. In the United States, nine million homes get their water through pipes that contain lead, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Lead is especially dangerous to children. Exposure can lead to developmental delays and behavioral issues. Dr. Dravid and his team tested how different types of tea — black, white, oolong, green, rooibos, herbal, loose leaf and plain old Lipton — behaved in water with varying amounts of lead. The tea was then allowed to steep for variable periods of time. Afterward, the scientists measured how much lead remained in the water. Compounds called catechins in tea leaves act like 'little Velcro' hooks to which lead molecules latch, said Michelle Francl, a chemist at Bryn Mawr College and the author of a book on the chemistry of tea. Dr. Francl also said that the 'ridges and valleys' of the tea leaves provided the necessary surface area for that interaction. While those properties have been known for some time, Dr. Dravid and his colleagues were the first to look at the lead-detoxifying powers of a single cup of tea. They found that black tea leaves became wrinkled after roasting and were thus best equipped to absorb heavy metals. 'Green tea and black tea had fairly equivalent amounts of metal absorbed,' said another author, Benjamin Shindel, who was a doctoral candidate at Northwestern while working on the study. White tea, on the other hand, undergoes a much more gentle preparation. Its leaves remain smooth, offering less surface area from which to draw heavy metals from water. Herbal tea enthusiasts may be disappointed to learn that chamomile tea does a poor job of heavy-metal filtering, too, probably because it is made with chamomile flowers, not tea leaves. Still, these distinctions between different types of tea were not the most relevant factor. 'It's much more important how long you're brewing the tea for,' Dr. Shindel said. The researchers found that steeping a cup of black tea for five minutes could remove 15 percent of lead from the water, which is helpful, but there is 'no safe level' of lead exposure, according to the E.P.A. 'With lead and other contaminants, any decrease is meaningful to some extent, especially if you have a lack of resources or infrastructure that would already remediate some of these problem materials,' said Caroline Harms, who was an undergraduate student of Dr. Dravid at Northwestern while working on the study. The longer the steeping time, however, the more bitter the resulting tea. Last year, Dr. Francl caused a minor international scandal by suggesting that adding salt to tea could mitigate its bitterness. But even that controversial chemistry hack has its limits. 'It's not really drinkable after 10 minutes of steeping tea, and no amount of salt is going to help that,' she said. Some samples in the study had to be steeped for 24 hours, which would render the tea undrinkable. The study's authors said they were less motivated to make public health prescriptions for policymakers than to study a hidden benefit of a global habit. The researchers estimated that a country where people drank large amounts of tea would have about 3 percent less lead ingestion from the water supply than a (hypothetical) identical country that did not drink any tea. 'How wonderful,' said Henrietta Lovell, the founder of the Rare Tea Company. Ms. Lovell, who supplies teas to exclusive restaurants, pointed out that tea had been used in China for medicinal purposes for thousands of years. 'The more I learn about tea, the more fabulous and fascinating it becomes,' Ms. Lovell said. Dr. Francl believes that the new findings could eventually pave the way to a scalable method of making sure people aren't ingesting heavy metals. 'Given that clean water is such a global issue,' she said, 'if there was a way to take this proof of concept and tweak it to produce potable water at the end, that would be pretty good.'
CBS News
26-02-2025
- Health
- CBS News
Pennsylvania professor concerned about Trump administration's plan to cut medical research funding
After growing concerns, a federal judge has put a temporary hold on the Trump administration's plan to reduce medical research funding. But the National Institutes of Health has lost jobs and there's a slow down on administrative actions. Doctors say millions of people take medications that resulted from years of research. And there are currently hundreds of potential new treatments in the pipeline. The pending research cuts have many worried, including a Montgomery County professor who depends on the research. Equations are always running through Michelle Francl-Donnay's mind at a Bryn Mawr College, where she's a chemistry professor. Francl-Donnay says her ability to move and work depends on a drug she takes for Parkinson's disease. Without it, she says writing a simple equation on a board would be impossible. The drug L-Dopa is the standard of care for treating the degenerative disease. "Without it, I would be disabled," Francl-Donnay said. "For me, it's really given me back my life." The drug is made from a molecule she admires, calling it magic. But it took years of research to develop. "Research isn't something where you know, oh, I'm gonna design a drug and make the molecule and I know automatically what this will do," she said. "It's sort of like wandering around and exploring new worlds." Those research worlds are bracing for funding cutbacks as the Trump administration wants to slash what White House spokesperson Kush Desai calls wasteful spending. "Contrary to the hysteria, redirecting billions of allocated NIH spending away from opaque administrative expenses means there will be more money and resources available for legitimate scientific research, not less," Desai said. Francl-Donnay disagrees. "We'll lose a whole generation of ideas and thoughts and drugs and treatments," Francl-Donnay said. She's angry about the pending research cuts that she thinks will impact millions of families. "Shingles, Crohn's disease, cancer, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's. The things that change lives are what's happening in these labs," she said. "Without it, we wouldn't have those treatments. And those touch really everybody." And it's not just treatments at stake, she's worried that life saving cures could be lost too. Understanding that science and medicine are complicated and advances take time, she's hoping time doesn't run out.
