Fordham News

What does it take to be a true leader in troubling times? Fordham Law School Dean Matthew Diller recently sat down with Tania Tetlow, Fordham University's new president, to discuss their own unique styles of leadership, the crucial role lawyers have in solving the hard problems of our democracy, and how to prepare law students for a career “in the service of others.” An edited and condensed version of this interview appears in the latest issue of Fordham Lawyer alumni magazine, but we wanted...

Sarah Goldfeather on violin and Paul Kerekes on piano perform senior Elizabeth Galbo's composition.

Just 26 years ago, President Bill Clinton signed the anti-gay Defense of Marriage Act into law. Today, gay marriage is legal in all 50 states, and the idea that gender is more than a simple binary is gaining acceptance around the country. Efforts to lift up and support people who identify as non-binary are very much ongoing though, and so over the last few months, Fordham News spoke to members of the community who have had insights to share on the topic of gender, either because of their...

The concept of artificial intelligence has been with us since 1955, when a group of researchers first proposed a study of “the simulation of human intelligence processes by machines.” At the same time, it seems like not a day goes by without news about some development, making it feel very futuristic. At Fordham, it’s the purview of professors from a variety of fields. Damian Lyons is a professor of computer science on the faculty of arts and sciences. R.P. Raghupathi is a professor of...

As summer arrives, and the trend lines for vaccinations and Covid deaths in the United States head in opposite directions, it feels like freedom is finally within reach. But let’s face it: The pandemic has taken its toll. We’re not the same people we were 15 months ago. So now, what? To help us use the lessons of the recent past to move forward in the future, we sat down with Kirk Bingaman, a professor of pastoral mental health counseling at Fordham's Graduate School of Religion and...

On March 23 the Ever Given, a ship the length of the Empire State Building, ran aground in the Suez Canal, causing a traffic jam of epic proportions in one of the busiest shipping routes on the planet. When it did this, it revealed a $20 trillion sector of the worldwide economy that otherwise functions behind the scenes. The Ever Given was freed after six days, but Lawrence Brennan, a retired U.S. Navy Captain who served aboard the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier and now teaches admiralty and...

To say these are challenging economic times is an understatement. As Covid-19 vaccines are slowly being distributed, the promise of a revived economy seems closer than ever. Not so fast, though, as experts warn that life in the United States will probably not return to normal until the fall. And yet in spite of all of the uncertainty, entrepreneurs are still founding new companies. The Fordham Foundry, a business incubator based at the Gabelli School of Business, has continued to stage...

On January 21, 900,000 Americans filed new unemployment claims, adding to the 16 million who were claiming benefits at the beginning of the month, and a sign that the COVID-19 pandemic is still very much a threat to the economy. A second round of stimulus checks was issued by the Federal government in December, and a third round of checks is possible now as well. Closer to home, former presidential candidate Andrew Yang is hoping his embrace of universal basic income, or UBI, will help him...

The vaccines are here! This month, residents of long-term health care facilities and frontline workers such as nurses and doctors began receiving the first COVID-19 vaccine approved by the FDA, and a second vaccine is expected to be rolled out in the coming weeks as well. That’s the good news. The bad news is, the coronavirus pandemic will still be with us until spring, as authorities work to distribute the vaccines to the nation’s 300 million-plus residents, some of whom may not be...

Dean McKay, a professor of psychology at Fordham, specializes in anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder, and the connections between anxiety and disgust. With winter approaching and potentially leading to more isolation, we thought it would be a good time to talk to him about what we can do to cope effectively during what is likely to be a traumatic time.

The 2020 presidential election was always going to be challenging, and then the COVID 19 pandemic added a new wrinkle to the mix. Mail-in voting has been embraced as a way to keep voters safe from the pandemic, and although many States have successfully held elections via mail and vote, there are real questions about how to expand it to the rest of the nation. Monika McDermott, a professor of political science and the director of Fordham's Master's Program in Elections and Campaign...

On July 29 of this year, President Trump bragged on Twitter that he had "rescinded the Obama-Biden AFFH Rule," a reference to the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule, which was passed by the Obama Administraton in 2014. With that, the issue of housing in American suburbs became an issue in the 2020 presidential campaign. Although the suburbs of today bear little resemblance to their cookie predecessors like Levitown, Long Island, they are still, in important ways, resistant to...

Of all the honors a business professor might snag, an Emmy would seem to be one of the least likely. But Clarence Ball III did just that in 2014, when he won one for the documentary “Looking Over Jordan: African Americans and the War.” That same year, he joined the faculty of the Gabelli School of Business as a lecturer in communications and media management, and in addition to teaching communications theory and corporate communications, he has worked as the college’s interim director of...

Last year, a full 35 percent the United States population was 50 years old or older. And when it comes to jobs, crossing that Five-O mark brings some very unwelcome challenges. In 2018, a survey by the AARP found that nearly one in four workers 45 or older have been subjected to negative comments about their age, and 3 in 5 workers have seen or experienced age discrimination in the workplace. Carole Cox, a professor at Fordham’s Graduate School of Social Service, has spent her career...

The 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is probably best known for what is in the fourth and final section, which spells out the way the president of the United States can be removed from office if they’re alive but unable to fulfill the duties of the office. But the second section—which clarifies the process for replacing a vice president—is actually worthy of consideration as well, now that President Trump has become the third president in the country’s history to be impeached, and is...

In this bonus track, Daniel Alexander Jones explains what the term Afromystical means, and why it's so important to understanding his alter ego, "Jomama Jones."

If you visit the Fordham Theatre webpage, you'll find classes with titles such as acting; theater history; flying solo; and young, gifted and black, all offered by one Daniel Alexander Jones. And indeed, if you sign up for these classes, Jones, a member of the faculty since 2008, will artfully guide you through your paces in these aspects of stagecraft. If, however, you visited the Connelly Theater, Joe’s Pub, or any of the myriad theaters where Jones has performed over the last decade,...

These days, there’s almost no aspect of commerce that hasn’t been radically transformed by technology. Uber lets you summon a privately driven car to chauffer you, Seamless let you order takeout without ever speaking to a soul, and thanks to Airbnb, you can sleep in another person’s bed. But the shift to having everything at your fingertips at the tap of an app hasn’t been without its bumps. Ride-sharing apps have been blamed for worsening traffic congestion, Amazon has been accused of...

In 2016, more countries experienced violent conflict than any time in the previous 30 years. From Yemen, Syria, and Venezuela to Myanmar, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ukraine, violence has become a more common answer to resolving disputes, and one of the consequences has been that more people are displaced around than globe since World War II. Needless to say, the world needs more peace makers. The United Nations is one organization that tries to fill the void; it currently maintains...

In 2009, Fordham and the FBI committed to bringing together the world’s best and brightest experts on law enforcement and computer science. Every 18 months, the International Conference on Cyber Security, or ICCS as it’s known, has convened leaders from academia, the private sector, and government to the University’s Lincoln Center campus. Past conferences have featured the heads of the CIA and the NSA, and this year’s gathering, which took place from July 22 to 25, concluded with remarks by...