John Kerry ’66 was the featured speaker at the Class Day ceremony on May 18. He was introduced by two of the events co-chairs: Nia Holston and Josh Rubin. Here is a transcription of his address. (more…)
Top bosses are expert storytellers who tell versions of the same four stories to keep ahead of the game, experts have found. Researchers from Exeter, Newcastle and Strathclyde universities have discovered four powerful messages are built into the often subtle and sometimes self-deprecating stories leaders tell about themselves.
The messages are about defying the odds, staying the course, succeeding through talent and giving back to society. The overall effect of this image-enhancing cocktail is to legitimise their positions as captains of industry.
Storytelling has long been recognised as a way leaders such as Winston Churchill or Steve Jobs maintained legitimacy. However, this research goes further, revealing how and why these stories are such a potent way of keeping stellar careers on track. (more…)
This year a series of events around the world will celebrate the work of Alan Turing, the father of the modern computer, as the 100th anniversary of his birthday approaches on June 23. In a book chapter that will be published later this year, mathematician Robert Soare, the founding chairman of the University of Chicago’s computer science department, will propose that Turing’s achievement was artistic as well as scientific.
Soare, the Paul Snowden Russell Distinguished Service Professor in Mathematics and Computer Sciences, has played a leading role in computability theory — the field that Turing founded and which is devoted to determining how effectively complex mathematical problems can be solved. In Mathematical Logic in the 20th Century, Gerald Sacks ranked a paper Soare published in the Annals of Mathematics as one of the century’s 31 most important papers in mathematical logic, including computability theory. (more…)
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — With the season for political oratory hard upon us, how does the rhetoric of this year’s crop of presidential contenders measure up?
“So far none of the Republicans stands out as a great orator,” said Sara Forsdyke, an associate professor of classical studies and history at the University of Michigan College of Literature, Science & the Arts (LSA).
“And while President Obama has delivered some great speeches in the past, his oratory has gone downhill recently. I was quite disappointed in his jobs speech to the joint session of Congress.” (more…)
