Debra J. Rosenthal, John Carroll University Uncommon Courses is an occasional series from The Conversation U.S. highlighting unconventional approaches to teaching. Title of course: Alcohol in American Literature What prompted the idea for the course? I got the idea for the course when I was writing a chapter on the temperance movement in American literature
Robert Goldman, American University The killing of Israeli civilians by Hamas and retaliatory airstrikes on the densely populated Gaza Strip by Israel raises numerous issues under international law. Warring parties are duty-bound to minimize civilian casualties. Ahmad Hasaballah/Getty Images Indeed, President Joe Biden made express reference to the “laws of war” in comments he made at
Eric Gable, University of Mary Washington and Richard Handler, University of Virginia Of all the debate over teaching U.S. slavery, it is one sentence of Florida’s revised academic standards that has provoked particular ire: “Instruction includes how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.” A Black actor in
Shauna Shames, Rutgers University Signs in the hallway during the inaugural Moms For Liberty Summit on July 15, 2022, in Tampa, Fla. Octavio Jones/Getty Images Motherhood language and symbolism have been part of every U.S. social movement, from the American Revolution to Prohibition and the fight against drunk drivers. Half of Americans are women, most
Erica Neuman, University of Dayton The Internal Revenue Service is getting a funding boost thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act, which President Joe Biden signed into law in 2022. The IRS has relied on technology for decades, as this 1965 photo taken in its Philadelphia office shows. US News & World Report Collection/Marion S Trikosko/PhotoQuest
by Jordan Tama, American University School of International Service; Brian Kalt, Michigan State University, and Calvin Schermerhorn, Arizona State University After weeks of speculation over who was going to participate, eight Republican candidates seeking their party’s presidential nomination appeared on stage together in Milwaukee on Aug. 23, 2023, for the first debate of the 2024
Jesus Lizana, University of Oxford; Nicole Miranda, University of Oxford; and Radhika Khosla, University of Oxford Temperatures around the world are soaring. Both California’s Death Valley and China’s Xinjiang region have seen temperatures climb above the 50℃ mark. A blistering heatwave is also sweeping across the Mediterranean, causing temperatures in parts of Italy, Spain, France,
Daniel E Bergan, Michigan State University If you’re going to write to your legislator, do your homework on the issues. digitalskillet/ iStock / Getty Images Plus Suppose you have an issue you are really passionate about – taxes, gun control or some other important policy. You want to do more than vent on social media,
Kevin J. Krizek, University of Colorado Boulder Retractable bollards can be used to signal priority areas on streets for smaller vehicles, cyclists, and pedestrians. Eugene Nekrasov/Getty Images Plus Deadly traffic incidents have declined in most developed countries in recent years. But in the U.S. they’re becoming more common. Deaths in motor vehicle crashes rose more
Brenna Moore, Fordham University When news broke on July 26, 2023, that the gifted Irish singer Sinead O’Connor had died, stories of her most famous performance circulated amid the grief and shock. Irish singer Sinead O’Connor performs at Paradiso in Amsterdam in March 1988. Paul Bergen/Redferns via Getty Images Thirty-one years ago, after a haunting
Nicole A. Cooke, University of South Carolina Despite misconceptions and stereotypes – ranging from what librarians Gretchen Keer and Andrew Carlos have described as the “middle-aged, bun-wearing, comfortably shod, shushing librarian” to the “sexy librarian … and the hipster or tattooed librarian” – library professionals are more than book jockeys, and they do more than
Tarun Gopalakrishnan, Tufts University; Bethany Tietjen, Tufts University, and Seth Owusu-Mante, Tufts University Green banks are starting to draw attention in the U.S., particularly since the federal government announced its first grant competitions under a national green bank program to bring clean technology and more affordable energy to low-income communities. Retrofitting apartment buildings for energy
The progestin-only pill Opill could be available in early 2024. Lucas Berenbrok, University of Pittsburgh and Marian Jarlenski, University of Pittsburgh On July 13, 2023, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a drugmaker’s application for the first daily over-the-counter birth control pill for people seeking to prevent pregnancy. Kwangmoozaa/iStock via Getty Images The pill,
Thomas A. Durkin, Loyola University Chicago and Joseph Ferguson, Loyola University Chicago Former President Donald Trump on his airplane on June 10, 2023, two days after his federal indictment. Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images Lawyer Thomas A. Durkin has spent much of his career working in national security law, representing clients in a
Archon Fung, Harvard Kennedy School and Lawrence Lessig, Harvard University Could organizations use artificial intelligence language models such as ChatGPT to induce voters to behave in specific ways? An AI-driven political campaign could be all things to all people. Eric Smalley, TCUS; Biodiversity Heritage Library/Flickr; Taymaz Valley/Flickr, CC BY-ND Sen. Josh Hawley asked OpenAI CEO
Jeff Inglis, The Conversation Stewart Rhodes, leader of the Oath Keepers, is just one member of a group that seeks to engage in violence against the U.S. government. Philip Pacheco/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the Oath Keepers, was sentenced to 18 years in prison on May 25, 2023, in the wake of
Colleen C. Myles, Texas State University Some scholars say beer and wine – and fermentation in general – helped develop a civilization and shaped culture and landscapes over millennia. Portland, Maine’s Rising Tide Brewery supports ‘economic development, LGBTQ+ rights, BIPOC equality … and stewardship of Maine’s natural environment.’ John Ewing/Portland Portland Press Herald via Getty
Courtney Carignan, Michigan State University Quaternary ammonium compounds can linger on surfaces and in indoor air and dust long after the disinfectant has dried. Guido Mieth/DigitalVision via Getty Image.The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work. The big idea Concerns about unnecessary use of a common class of antimicrobial chemicals used in disinfectants
Matt Williams, The Conversation Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen doesn’t want to look back in anger over a debt deadline missed. Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images Lawmakers have been given notice of a new deadline if they are to avoid a damaging default on U.S. debt: June 1, 2023. If Congress fails to raise the nation’s
Aram Goudsouzian, University of Memphis Harry Belafonte died at the age of 96. AP Photo/Chris Pizzello In May 1963, as civil rights demonstrations rocked the city of Birmingham, Alabama, Harry Belafonte was at a cocktail party in Manhattan, scolding the then-attorney general of the United States. “You may think you’re doing enough,” he recalled telling
Jacob L. Nelson, University of Utah For decades, Fox News thrived because the people behind it understood what their audience wanted and were more than willing to deliver: television news – or what Fox called news – from a populist perspective. Fox is consistently the most-watched cable news channel, far ahead of competitors like MSNBC
Shichun Huang, University of Tennessee ‘Earthrise,’ a photo of the Earth taken by Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders, Dec. 4, 1968. NASA/Bill Anders via Wikipedia Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskidsus@theconversation.com. Will the Earth last forever?
Thomas Godwin, Purdue University A red-letter day? Hardly! iStock / Getty Images Plus Mid-April has arrived. And along with the spring sunshine, that means the often dreaded civic duty of finishing off one’s taxes. It’s an arduous time for many, characterized by navigating increasingly confusing rules to arrive at the best refund possible. For some, it
Sayonnha Mandal, University of Nebraska Omaha Passwords could soon become passé. Effective passwords are cumbersome, all the more so when reinforced by two-factor authentication. But the need for authentication and secure access to websites is as great as ever. Enter passkeys. Passkeys are digital credentials stored on your phone or computer. They are analogous to
Erica Neuman, University of Dayton Dog-walking income is taxable. Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images Do you rent out your home a few weekends a year through Airbnb? Sell stuff on Etsy? Get paid for pet-sitting? If you, like many Americans, make at least US$600 a year with a side hustle of any kind, the way you pay taxes
Meteorologists began warning about severe weather with the potential for tornadoes several days before storms tore across the Southeast and the Central U.S. in late March 2023. At one point, more than 28 million people were under a tornado watch. But pinpointing exactly where a tornado will touch down – like the tornadoes that hit
For many Muslims breaking fast in mosques around the world this Ramadan, something will be missing: plastics. Noorzehra Zaidi, University of Maryland, Baltimore County The communal experience of iftars – the after-sunset meal that brings people of the faith together during the holy month starting on March 22, 2023 – often necessitates the use of
Dan McEvoy, Desert Research Institute After three years of extreme drought, the Western U.S. is finally getting a break. Mountain ranges are covered in deep snow, and water reservoirs in many areas are filling up following a series of atmospheric rivers that brought record rain and snowfall to large parts of the region. Many people
Jay L. Zagorsky, Boston University Over the past decade, vinyl records have made a major comeback. People purchased US$1.2 billion of records in 2022, a 20% jump from the previous year. Not only did sales rise, but they also surpassed CD sales for the first time since 1988, according to a new report from the
Lori Amber Roessner, University of Tennessee “I am a farmer, an engineer, a businessman, a planner, a scientist, a governor, and a Christian,” Jimmy Carter said while introducing himself to national political reporters when he announced his campaign to be the 39th president of the United States in December 1974. As journalists and historians consider
Karen Musalo, University of California College of the Law, San Francisco Anticipating a potential surge of migrants at the southern border, the Biden administration on Feb. 21, 2023, announced a crackdown on those seeking asylum after unlawfully entering the U.S. The proposed rule change – which would see the rapid deportation of anyone who had
Andrew J. Whelton, Purdue University Headaches and lingering chemical smells from a fiery train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, have left residents worried about their air and water – and misinformation on social media hasn’t helped. State officials offered more details of the cleanup process and a timeline of the environmental disaster during a news
Gena R. Greher, UMass Lowell Easy on the ear, perhaps. But the label of “easy listening” often attached to the songs of Burt Bacharach belies the mastery of his talent in crafting perfect moments in music. Yes, Bacharach’s back catalog is filled with memorable, catchy melodies – whether they were written with longtime partner and
Tori Horn, University of Memphis As a therapist who treats people with gambling problems, I’ve noticed a shift over the past few years – not only in the profile of the typical clients I treat, but also in the way their gambling problems develop. In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court made the landmark decision to
Jason Oliver Evans, University of Virginia With religious affiliation on the decline, continuing racism and increasing income inequality, some scholars and activists are soul-searching about the Black church’s role in today’s United States. For instance, on April 20, 2010, an African American Studies professor at Princeton, Eddie S. Glaude, sparked an online debate by provocatively
Herpreet Thind, UMass Lowell The popularity of yoga has grown tremendously in the past decade. More than 10% of U.S. adults have practiced yoga at some point in their lives. Yoga practitioners spend on average US$90 a month, and the yoga industry is worth more than $80 billion worldwide. Yoga mixes physical exercise with meditation
Taylor Grasso, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus Detox diets are often touted as a way to cleanse the body after the excess food and drinks that come with the holidays. These diets promise quick results and can particularly entice people around the new year, when there tends to be a renewed focus on health
Christina Mair, University of Pittsburgh This month, millions of Americans are taking part in “Dry January” in an effort to forgo alcohol for a month and cleanse themselves of the excesses of the holiday season. Alcohol is the most widely used drug in the world, including in the U.S. In 2020, nearly 70% of people
Wendy Tzou, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus Damar Hamlin, a safety for the Buffalo Bills, collapsed on the field during a Monday night football game against the Cincinnati Bengals on Jan. 2, 2023. Medical staff gave Hamlin CPR and shocked him with a defibrillator, restarting his heart’s normal rhythm. News outlets immediately began speculating
Mathew Schmalz, College of the Holy Cross Benedict XVI leaves behind a complex legacy as a Pope and theologian. To many observers, Benedict, who died on Dec. 31, 2022 at the age of 95, was known for criticizing what he saw as the modern world’s rejection of God and Christianity’s timeless truths. But as a
Jabari M. Evans, University of South Carolina For most college football coaches, the move from a mid-major conference to a Power Five conference would be met with widespread praise. Not so for Deion Sanders. When the Pro Football Hall of Famer announced he would be leaving Jackson State University, where he has coached the football
David W. Stowe, Michigan State University In American culture, Christmas is supposed to be synonymous with joy. The familiar carols proclaim this message, with “Joy to the World” resounding in thousands of churches, while its secular counterpart exhorts listeners to have “A Holly Jolly Christmas.” ‘Joy to the World’ may be one of the most
Derek T. Muller, University of Iowa Reps. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., center, and Veronica Escobar, D-Texas, right, take cover as protesters disrupt the joint session of Congress to certify the Electoral College vote on Jan. 6, 2021. Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images Presidential elections are complicated. All 50 states and the District of Columbia
Rachel Diamond, Adler University Preventable failures in U.S. maternal health care result in far too many pregnancy-related deaths. Each year, approximately 700 parents die from pregnancy and childbirth complications. As such, the U.S. maternal mortality rate is more than double that of most other developed countries. The Department of Health and Human Services declared maternal
Rachel Diamond, Adler University Preventable failures in U.S. maternal health care result in far too many pregnancy-related deaths. Each year, approximately 700 parents die from pregnancy and childbirth complications. As such, the U.S. maternal mortality rate is more than double that of most other developed countries. The Department of Health and Human Services declared maternal
Troy Bickham, Texas A&M University Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskidsus@theconversation.com. Why did turkey become the national Thanksgiving go-to dish? Gianna, age 10, Phoenix, Arizona Have you ever wondered why Thanksgiving revolves around turkey and not
By Michael A. Rawlins, UMass Amherst It’s hard for most people to imagine more than 5 feet of snow in one storm, like parts of the Buffalo area saw over the weekend, but these extreme snowfall events sometimes happen along the eastern edges of the Great Lakes. The phenomenon is called “lake-effect snow,” and the
Miriam Seifter, University of Wisconsin-Madison and Adam Sopko, University of Wisconsin-Madison The run-up to Election Day is often a contentious time. In recent years, it has also become a litigious time – parties increasingly turn to courts to resolve disputes about the rules for voting. This year, our research shows a significant uptick of those
Svetla Ben-Itzhak, Air University On Sept. 26, 2022, NASA plans to change an asteroid’s orbit. The large binary asteroid Didymos and its moonlet Dimorphos currently pose no threat to Earth. But by crashing a 1,340-pound (610-kilogram) probe into Didymos’ moon at a speed of approximately 14,000 mph (22,500 kph), NASA is going to complete the
Andrew Newman, Stony Brook University (The State University of New York) If you went to high school in the United States anytime since the 1960s, you were likely assigned some of the following books: Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” “Julius Caesar” and “Macbeth”; John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men”; F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby”; Harper
David Shiffman, Arizona State University Sharks are some of the most ecologically important and most threatened animals on Earth. Recent reports show that up to one-third of all known species of sharks and their relatives, rays, are threatened with extinction. Unsustainable overfishing is the biggest threat by far. Losing sharks can disrupt coastal food webs
Mitchell Nathanson, Villanova School of Law When the Major League Baseball Players Association sent union authorization cards to approximately 5,000 minor league players in an attempt to unionize them, I was both surprised and not surprised at all. If any industry is crying out for unionization, it’s this one. Minor league baseball players are subject
Prakash Nagarkatti, University of South Carolina and Mitzi Nagarkatti, University of South Carolina On Sept. 1, 2022, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention endorsed the use of updated COVID-19 booster shots that are specifically tailored to combat the two most prevalent omicron subvariants, BA.4 and BA.5. The decision comes just a day after the
Jack Burns, University of Colorado Boulder NASA’s Artemis 1 mission is poised to take a key step toward returning humans to the Moon after a half-century hiatus. The mission, scheduled to launch on Monday, Aug. 29, 2022, is a shakedown cruise – sans crew – for NASA’s Space Launch System and Orion Crew Capsule. The
Charles R. Hunt, Boise State University Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate race between Democrat John Fetterman and Republican Mehmet Oz has garnered a lot of media attention recently, thanks to the Fetterman campaign’s relentless trolling of his opponent, mainly for being a resident of neighboring New Jersey rather than the state he’s running to represent. Fetterman has
By W. Larry Kenney, Penn State; Daniel Vecellio, Penn State; Rachel Cottle, Penn State, and S. Tony Wolf, Penn State Heat waves are becoming supercharged as the climate changes – lasting longer, becoming more frequent and getting just plain hotter. One question a lot of people are asking is: “When will it get too hot
By Garret Martin, American University School of International Service Boris Johnson, the now outgoing prime minister of the United Kingdom, had wanted to follow in the footsteps of his idol Winston Churchill and be remembered as a leader of consequence. He aspired to greatness and desired to stay in office longer than the 11 years
By Chris Lamb, IUPUI A woman sitting next to President Calvin Coolidge at a dinner party once told him she had made a bet that she could get him to say more than two words. “You lose,” replied Coolidge, who served as president from 1923 until 1929. During a White House recital, a nervous opera
By Laura Antkowiak, University of Maryland, Baltimore County Experts predict increased economic hardship now that the U.S. Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade in its Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision. Three-quarters of abortion patients in the United States have incomes that place them below or just barely above the federal poverty line
Morgan Marietta, UMass Lowell With its decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol v. Bruen on June 23, 2022, the Supreme Court has announced that the Second Amendment is not a second-class right. The core argument of the decision is that gun rights are to be treated the same as other hallowed rights like
Kris Manjapra, Tufts University The actual day was June 19, 1865, and it was the Black dockworkers in Galveston, Texas, who first heard the word that freedom for the enslaved had come. There were speeches, sermons and shared meals, mostly held at Black churches, the safest places to have such celebrations. The perils of unjust
By D. Brian Blank, Mississippi State University The Federal Reserve on June 15, 2022, lifted interest rates by 0.75 percentage point, the third hike this year and the largest since 1994. The move is aimed at countering the fastest pace of inflation in over 40 years. Wall Street had been expecting a half-point increase, but
By Ekaterina Romanova, University of Florida Since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, public opinion polls have shown Russians overwhelmingly supporting the action, which Russian President Vladimir Putin has called a “special military operation.” The polls show support ranging from 58% to 80% – but my statistical analysis of polling data
Morgan Marietta, UMass Lowell Draft opinions circulated among Supreme Court justices are meant to allow for deliberation and editing before a final version is released. They are not the last word, nor ready for public reaction. But on the evening of May 2, 2022, Politico published a bombshell: a leaked draft of an opinion, written
Matt Williams, The Conversation The phrase “in a historic vote” gets thrown around a lot in journalism – and it isn’t always warranted. But shortly after 2 p.m. EDT on April 7, 2022, a Senate roll call confirmed Ketanji Brown Jackson as the next U.S. Supreme Court justice – the first Black woman to sit
Written by William Hauk – Associate Professor of Economics, University of South Carolina Americans may be tempted to view the war in Ukraine as an unfortunate, but far away, crisis. As an economist, I know the world is too connected for the U.S. to go unaffected. On Feb. 22, 2022, President Joe Biden warned Americans that a Russian
Brian P. McCullough, Texas A&M University and Lance Warwick, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Watching skiers compete almost entirely on artificially made snow at the 2022 Winter Olympics, we found it hard not to think about climate change and what it will mean for the future of the winter sports industry – and who will
Written by Hannah L. Schacter – Assistant Professor of Psychology, Wayne State University Online school during the COVID-19 pandemic was hard on many teens, but new research I co-authored has found a potential silver lining: Students were bullied less during remote instruction than while attending classes in person. We learned this by surveying 388 ninth graders at U.S. high schools.
Aram Goudsouzian, University of Memphis In the summer of 1967, Martin Luther King Jr. introduced the keynote speaker for the 10th-anniversary convention banquet of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Their guest, he said, was his “soul brother.” “He has carved for himself an imperishable niche in the annals of our nation’s history,” King told the
Kristine Nolin, University of Richmond A quick walk down the drink aisle of any corner store reveals the incredible ingenuity of food scientists in search of sweet flavors. In some drinks you’ll find sugar. A diet soda might have an artificial or natural low-calorie sweetener. And found in nearly everything else is high fructose corn
By Frank Dobson, Vanderbilt University On Dec. 26, millions throughout the world’s African community will start weeklong celebrations of Kwanzaa. There will be daily ceremonies with food, decorations and other cultural objects, such as the kinara, which holds seven candles. At many Kwanzaa ceremonies, there is also African drumming and dancing. It is a time