By Rodney Coates, Professor of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, Miami University
Enslaved people were not just enslaved physically, but mentally as well. as widespread laws in the South barred enslaved people from receiving an education.
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By Nathaniel Warner, Associate Professor of Environmental Engineering, Penn State
Lisa Emili, Associate Professor of Physical Geography and Environmental Studies, Penn State
Raymond Najjar, Professor of Oceanography, Penn State
Researchers have long known that plastic pollution reaches the ocean. But how much plastic is trapped, and where, before it reaches the ocean is far less understood.
As professors of environmental engineering, geography and environmental studies, and oceanography at Penn State, we recently…
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By Kaitlyn Rabe, Lecturer in Geopolitics, The Ohio State University
Western forces have largely beat a hasty retreat from Africa’s coup-prone Sahel region in recent years.
In 2022, French forces departed Mali as insurgents made incursions into the capital, Bamako. A United Nations peacekeeping mission also left, with the security void filled by Russian…
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By Emily Setty, Associate Professor in Criminology, University of Surrey
Perhaps the greatest danger is not that restrictions fail, but that they succeed just enough to convince us that the work is done.
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By Darby Saxbe, Professor of Psychology, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Dads today are spending dramatically more time with their kids than they did a generation ago. But there’s a less encouraging trend tucked into this development.
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By Martha E. Walls, Associate Professor, History, Mount Saint Vincent University
Cornelia Schneider, Professor, Education, Mount Saint Vincent University
YouTuber Jesse Ridgway’s post about his family’s decision to terminate a pregnancy due to a Down syndrome diagnosis has sparked debate about the persistence of eugenics narratives.
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By Mosekama Osia Mokhele, Lecturer, Nelson Mandela University
Andiswa Mvanyashe, Senior lecturer in Languages and Literature, Nelson Mandela University
In an age of instant communication, it is easy to assume that everyone receives disaster warnings. Smartphones buzz, sirens sound, alerts flash across screens. But for millions of people who speak minority or Indigenous languages, the message often stops short.
South Africa has 12 official languages, but disaster warnings are still sent out almost entirely in English and Afrikaans. Emergency SMS alerts, radio broadcasts, and social media posts are issued regularly, but these are one…
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By Oludayo Tade, Professor of Sociology (Criminology, Victimology and Security Studies), University of Ibadan
Banditry is widespread in Nigeria. It has been defined as “a loose collection of various criminal groups involved in kidnap-for-ransom, armed robbery, cattle rustling, rape and sexual violence, pillage and attacks on traders, farmers and travellers, particularly in Nigeria’s northwest region”.
This criminal activity has caused deaths, displacement, destruction of property and widespread fear. In…
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By Robert T. Nyamushosho, Assistant Professor, Queens College, CUNY
For more than a century, Great Zimbabwe has stood at the centre of a powerful story about the Zimbabwe culture. This remarkable African civilization flourished in southern Africa during the Middle Ages, constructing more than 200 dry-stone palaces, locally known as madzimbahwe (houses of stone).
These towering monuments, immense gold wealth, and an array of exotica including glass beads and glazed…
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By Seirian Sumner, Professor of Behavioural Ecology, UCL
Most of my ecology and evolution undergraduates have never held a pair of binoculars or looked at a bug through a magnifying glass. They don’t know how to use a key to identify a plant or insect, let alone why they should bother. They struggle to name common garden birds. They expect to learn about biodiversity from behind the safety of a computer screen. Fieldwork is considered a luxury or an inconvenience, depending on your tolerance to rain.
It’s not the students’ fault. Ecology and evolution offerings in the biology school curriculum are slim pickings: blink and you miss them among…
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