Black trans theorist Da’Shaun Harrison used to sign their emails with “Revolutionary Love.” It was a play on “Black Love,” which they understood to convey a commitment to freeing the Black community from oppressive societal conditions and structures. So, this sign-off subtly signaled, “I’m with you.” But Harrison stopped doing this because Revolutionary Love started to mean something deeper, something closer to sacrifice and death.
It’s not every day that you are able to leaf through the pages of a manuscript that was created nearly 500 years ago. However, the Manuscripts by Candlelight event held in The Great Hall of Rush Rhees Library on November 1 changed that--for a magical, one-night experience. The goal was to make samples from the extensive manuscript collection of the Rossell Hope Robbins Library accessible to the wider community.
During Meliora Weekend 2023, comedian Hasan Minhaj opened his performance in the Louis Alexander Palestra with some University of Rochester crowd work. At one point, he marveled at Rochester’s motto, Meliora saying, “You actually believe it,” with disbelief and admiration in his voice.
It’s an understandable reaction for someone outside the University community.
Digital preservation activities work to advance the mission of the University of Rochester in accordance with the University's vision and values.
Alan Valentine, a former president of the University of Rochester (1935–1950), said, “A university library is—or should be—the geographic and spiritual heart of the cultural life of a university.” The University’s libraries have lived up to the sentiment behind this quote as sources of knowledge, catalysts of research, and facilitators of collaboration. But these things don’t just happen.
Doing research is about asking questions, and researchers at the University of Rochester ask a lot of questions. For example, can artificial intelligence help create sustainable energy sources? Scientists at Rochester’s Laboratory for Laser Energetics are part of a team that thinks machine learning models will help design high-performing implosions that move us closer to creating fusion energy sources.
Although it has become synonymous with the United States Supreme Court case Brown vs. the Board of Education, which deemed racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional, the phrase “with all deliberate speed” characterizes the entire civil rights movement.
The Ask the Archivist column in the Summer 2023 Rochester Review answered a question from an alumnus wondering why the cover of the first issue of Review in 1923 used a seal with the date 1851 when the University was founded in 1850. You can read the article here.
