The Conversation

3 things I learned from delivering medical aid to a remote part of Puerto Rico

Written by Asa Oxner Myers, Assistant Professor, Internal Medicine, University of South Florida

The author, distributing medications at a shelter in Villalba, Puerto RicoElimarys Perez-Colon, CC BY-SA

I belong to a group called Doctors for Puerto Rico.

We have been dispatching medicine and small teams of medical staff to the island, in coordination with local health authorities since two-and-a-half weeks after Hurricane Maria. When we started,...

The long, strange history of dieting fads

Written by Melissa Wdowik, Assistant Professor of Food Science and Human Nutrition, Colorado State University

Another day, another diet.Yuriy Maksymiv/Shutterstock

“Of all the parasites that affect humanity I do not know of, nor can I imagine, any more distressing than that of Obesity.”

So started William Banting‘s “Letter on Corpulence,” likely the first diet book ever published. Banting, an overweight undertaker, published...

Does American culture shame too much – or not enough?

Written by Peter Stearns, University Professor of History, Provost Emeritus, George Mason University

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The word “shameless” is being tossed around an awful lot these days, which might speak to what many see as the country’s increasingly coarse, vitriolic political discourse. Perhaps, the thinking goes, American culture could use a dose of shame and humility.

But what about people harassed on social media, like Walter Palmer,...

Rather than being free of values, good science is transparent about them

Written by Kevin Elliott, Associate Professor in Lyman Briggs College, Fisheries & Wildlife, and Philosophy, Michigan State University

It's good for scientists to work in glass laboratories.Len Rubenstein, CC BY

Scientists these days face a conundrum. As Americans are buffeted by accounts of fake news, alternative facts and deceptive social media campaigns, how can researchers and their scientific expertise contribute meaningfully to the conversation?

There is a common perception...

Latino elites are paying the California dream forward

Written by Jody Agius Vallejo, Associate Professor of Sociology and American Studies and Associate Director of the Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration at USC, University of Southern California – Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

A small – but powerful – Latino middle class has emerged in California, led by elites like State Senator Kevin de Leon.AP Photo/Jae C. Hong

American Latino economic elites have incomes and wealth in the top five percent of earners. Some own multi-million-dollar companies or work as corporate executives. Latino politicians –...

One American woman's life in revolutionary Russia

Written by Julia L. Mickenberg, Associate Professor of American Studies, University of Texas at Austin

Female protesters in Petrograd (now St Petersburg) in 1917 on International Women's Day. Wikimedia Commons

Anna Louise Strong, a journalist from Friend, Nebraska, was thrilled by what she heard about the Russian Revolution in 1917.

Although she is almost wholly unknown today, Strong was a household name in her time. She lived in the Soviet Union...

Two big problems with American voting that have nothing to do with Russian hacking

Written by Sascha Meinrath, Director of X-Lab; Palmer Chair in Telecommunications, Pennsylvania State University

Who gets to vote?Mikko Lemola/Shutterstock.com

Over the past year, the public discussion on election security and integrity has focused on concerns about foreign meddling in U.S. elections. The evidence is still coming in about which countries did what to influence both the public and the election itself. The American people have been left with a...

Taxpayers are subsidizing hush money for sexual harassment and assault

Written by Peter J. Henning, Professor of Law, Wayne State University

The secret settlements that leave the reputations of alleged sexual abuse perpetrators intact are also tax-deductible.Lisa S./Shutterstock.com

Many of the recent stories about sexual abuse claims against disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly and other powerful actors, journalists and executives mention...

Improving women's lives through energy: What Rick Perry got right and wrong

Written by Michael E. Webber, Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Deputy Director of the Energy Institute, University of Texas at Austin

Refugee women from Darfur, Sudan return to their camp in eastern Chad with wood for their households in 2011.European Commission DG ECHO, CC BY-SA

On Nov. 2, U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry clumsily stated that fossil fuels could help prevent sexual assaults on vulnerable women in Africa. “When the lights are on, when you have light, it...

Why social media may not be so good for democracy

Written by Gordon Hull, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Director of Center for Professional and Applied Ethics, University of North Carolina – Charlotte

Some of the Facebook and Instagram ads used in 2016 election released by members of the U.S. House Intelligence committee. AP Photo/Jon Elswick

Recent revelations about how Russian agents inserted ads on Facebook, in an attempt to influence the 2016 election, present a troubling question: Is Facebook bad for democracy?

As a scholar of the social...