Research

I am a baby boomer, one of the many Americans approaching their dream retirement age. I am also one of the many baby boomers who has a little panic attack every time I look at my retirement accounts and my exposure to the whims of the stock market.

One of the questions that I often get as a financial planner (and one that I ask myself) is: Should I take money out of my retirement account to pay off the remaining balance on my home’s mortgage?

The answer: It may make you feel good, but it is an expensive decision.

Anyone looking for vivid lessons on women’s lives – from the impact of the beauty culture to wage inequalities to domestic violence – will find them in The Penguin Atlas of Women in the World (Penguin Books, 2009) by Professor and Chair of Global Studies Joni Seager.

Now in its fourth edition, the atlas uses eye-catching maps to present otherwise dry data. Previous iterations earned Outstanding Reference Book honors from the American Library Association and won the Chicago Geographical Society's Publications Award.

Malaria, that ancient scourge, survives. Over the past century, as sanitation and medical advances have conquered or controlled other diseases, malaria has resisted eradication. In 2010, the disease infected about 219,000,000 people and killed 660,000, almost all in developing countries.

Why?

Sometimes, a hearty collaboration starts with something as simple as a good lunch.

Three years ago, Bentley Assistant Professor of Finance Irving Morgan (left) had a research paper starting to simmer. He ran into Fred Ledley in the faculty cafeteria and asked the professor of natural and applied sciences to review some initial findings. Ledley liked what he saw, and suggested working together at some point.

It was a dark sky above Illinois that literally opened up a universe for Bentley faculty member George Fishman.

“I was fascinated, and not just in terms of memorizing the names of celestial objects. I really wanted to study astronomy and understand our place in the universe,” he recalls of that night 26 years ago.

A hurricane, tornado or flood that destroys homes and property goes beyond individual harm. Entire communities suffer.

In the aftermath of an event like Hurricane Sandy, which devastated the New York-New Jersey shore in fall 2012, we naturally ask how people can rebuild their lives. But on a broader level: what makes one community or region better at responding to a natural disaster and surviving its aftermath? 

Have you ever taken ginger to sooth an upset stomach or been needled by an acupuncturist? These and other forms of traditional Chinese medicine have found favor with a surprising number of U.S. adults. Surprising, too, is the intertwined history of medical traditions in the East and West.

Assistant Professor of History Bridie Andrews-Minehan is well acquainted with the opposing and inseparable nature -- the yin and yang – of the two traditions.  As she puts it: “There is no way to draw a boundary between Western medicine and Chinese medicine, in either direction.”

Books and more books are stacked on shelves and in piles around the office of Accountancy Department assistant Christine Nolder. But there is one she keeps close at hand: a tattered paperback copy of The Philosophy of Auditing, published in 1961 by the American Accounting Association.

History, it is said, is written by the winners. At the dawn of the modern era, those authors were the great colonial powers. The nations of Europe, and later the United States, fired up the machines and know-how of the Industrial Revolution and carved out economic empires across the world.

A new book by Associate Professor of History Cyrus Veeser tells another side of the story.

One of the most inspiring moments in the American political process is the inauguration of a president, with its peaceful transfer of power and the president’s promise to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution.” I am unfailingly moved by the majesty and simplicity of the ceremony, and reminded how much students can learn from the study of our Constitution.