Author: TheConversation

By Matthew Miller, Professor of Health Sciences and Epidemiology, Northeastern University; and Deborah Azrael, Director of Research, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health School shootings in the U.S. are national tragedies, and the toll they take in lives cut short and traumatized distinguishes the U.S. from other high-income countries. But there is another way that guns are killing American children, and in far greater numbers: suicide. Between 2011 and 2020, the most recent decade for which data is available, 14,763 children ages 5-17 died by suicide in the U.S. – a rate of approximately four deaths every day....

By Amanda Baughan, PhD Student in Computer Science & Engineering, University of Washington In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, I had an unfortunate Saturday routine. I would wake up in my studio apartment and immediately turn to my phone, telling myself that I would get breakfast after quickly checking Twitter. An hour or so later, I would look up and realize what time it was – and how ravenous I had become. I had become totally absorbed in looking at memes, snark and the 24 hour news cycle. This experience sparked an idea: What if, instead of...

By Stephen J. Neville, PhD Student of Communication & Culture, York University, Canada; and Natalie Coulter, Associate Professor of Communication Studies, and Director of the Institute for Research on Digital Literacies, York University, Canada In many busy households around the world, it is not uncommon for children to shout out directives to Apple’s Siri or Amazon’s Alexa. They may make a game out of asking the voice-activated personal assistant (VAPA) what time it is, or requesting a popular song. While this may seem like a mundane part of domestic life, there is much more going on. The VAPAs are...

By Carlos A. Suárez Carrasquillo, Senior Lecturer in Political Science, Center for Latin American Studies, University of Florida; and Fernando Tormos-Aponte, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Pittsburgh Five years after Hurricane Maria wreaked havoc on Puerto Rico, Hurricane Fiona has killed at least four people, caused widespread flooding and left hundreds of thousands of residents without water or power. Maria caused extensive damage to Puerto Rico’s power grid in 2017 that left many residents without electricity for months. Rebuilding it has been hampered by technical, political, and financial challenges. Other factors have hindered efforts to recover from Maria,...

By Jean Lantz Reisz, Supervising Attorney, USC Immigration Clinic and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Law, University of Southern California The unexpected arrival of approximately 50 Colombian and Venezuelan migrants on Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, on September 14, 2022, has prompted legal questions about how and why, exactly, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis chartered planes to drop them in this unlikely destination. The move is part of a broader campaign by Republican politicians to transport large numbers of migrants to liberal states and cities. Since then, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker has activated 125 National Guard members to help distribute food and other...