Justification of violence: How the rage of rural White Americans became a growing threat to democracy
By Thomas F. Schaller, Professor of Political Science, University of Maryland, Baltimore County Rural white voters have long enjoyed outsize power in American politics. They have inflated voting power in the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House and the Electoral College....
Fortress Russia: Putin managed to mute the impact of sanctions with help from friends like China and Iran
By Keith A. Preble, Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science, Miami University; Charmaine N. Willis, Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science, Skidmore College Almost two years after the West responded to the Russian invasion in Ukraine with a...
Targeting Beauty: Why Russia’s brutality aimed beyond destroying lives to also obliterate Ukrainian culture
By Ian Kuijt, Professor of Anthropology, University of Notre Dame; Pavlo Shydlovskyi, Associate Professor of Archaeology, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kiev; and William Donaruma, Professor of the Practice in Filmmaking, University of Notre Dame War does not...
Blue Eye Samurai: What the Netflix anime series gets right and wrong about Japan’s Edo-period
By Ruth Starr, Lecturer in History of Japanese art and architecture, Trinity College Dublin Netflix’s Blue Eye Samurai is an anime series set during the opening decades of Japan’s Edo period (1603–1867), also known as the Tokugawa period. Among other subjects, the...
Nishimura Mako: A unique journey of identity for the only woman invited to join the notorious yakuza
By Martina Baradel, Marie Curie postdoctoral researcher, University of Oxford Nishimura Mako is a petite woman in her late fifties, with flowing hair and a delicate face. But you soon notice that she is no traditional Japanese lady, she is tattooed up to her neck and...
Machizukuri: How decorating Japanese manhole covers created a marketplace for nostalgia
By Martyn Smith, Lecturer in Japanese Studies, University of Sheffield Visitors to Japan are usually primed to look up at the vast skyscrapers, the ornate temple gates, the traditional timber-framed guesthouses. Those who look down at their feet, though, might have...
Great Replacement Theory: How a conspiracy evolved from a series of false ideas to spread hate
By Rodney Coates, Professor of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, Miami University The “great replacement theory,” whose origins date back to the late 19th century, argues that Jews and some Western elites are conspiring to replace white Americans and Europeans with...
The Chinese Century: How the United States has overestimated the rise of China and its power
By Dan Murphy, Executive Director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, Harvard Kennedy School Which country is the greatest threat to the United States? The answer, according to a large proportion of Americans, is clear: China. Half of all...
Punishing the poor: Study examines the relationships between jail conditions and jail deaths
By Jessica L. Adler, Associate Professor of History, Florida International University The family of Samuel Lawrence, one of 10 people to die in Georgia’s Fulton County Jail in 2023, is fighting for answers and accountability. “I got to think about him every day of my...
Pundit proliferation: From public intellectuals to political operatives who profit from spewing opinions
By Mike McDevitt, Professor of journalism and media studies, University of Colorado Boulder Walter Lippmann, who lived from 1889 to 1974, was an early and prime example of the public intellectual as pundit commenting on news of the day. Lippmann, a Pulitzer Prize...
Making love pay: The astonishing rise of LGBTQ+ romance in popular literature
By Christine Larson, Assistant Professor of Journalism, University of Colorado Boulder; and Ashley Carter, PhD Student in Journalism, University of Colorado Boulder A major transformation is underway in Romancelandia. Once upon a time, romance novels from major U.S....
Self-test kits for HIV were designed to empower those at risk but may not lead to actual HIV treatment
By Oluwafemi Atanda Adeagbo, Assistant Professor of Public Health, University of Iowa; Engelbert Bain Luchuo, Senior Research Associate, University of Johannesburg; and Oluwaseun Abdulganiyu Badru, Ph.D. Candidate in Community and Behavioral Health, University of Iowa...
