The Conversation

Mexico elects first female president − but will that improve the lot of country’s women?

Written by Xavier Medina Vidal, Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of the Center for Mexican American Studies, University of Texas at Arlington

President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum celebrates historic win.AP Photo/Marco Ugarte

Mexico will have its first woman president following a landmark vote on June 2, 2024.

After an election period marred by violence, ruling Morena party candidate Claudia Sheinbaum, a former Mexico City mayor, emerged as the victor with about 60% of the vote – a...

Online shoppers behave differently after chatting with staff of the opposite gender, new research shows – here’s why businesses should be paying attention

Written by Yoonseock Son, Assistant Professor of IT, Analytics, and Operations, University of Notre Dame

In a digital world where people are mere pixels on a screen, gender bias can show up in unexpected forms. That’s what our research team found in a field experiment published in the Journal of Operations Management.

When people are online, anonymity and physical detachment embolden them to behave in biased ways, previous work has shown. As...

School boards, long locally focused and nonpartisan, get dragged into the national political culture wars

Written by Kathleen Knight Abowitz, Professor of Educational Leadership, Miami University

The Ann Arbor Public Schools board discusses a resolution calling for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war on Jan. 17, 2024, in Ann Arbor, Mich. AP Photo/Joey Cappelletti

In more than 90% of U.S. public school districts, school board elections are nonpartisan and have been for centuries. But that long tradition may well be changing – and...

Anti-abortion rights activists navigate a new, post-Roe landscape, as state bans mean they can ‘save babies’

Written by Anne Whitesell, Assistant Professor, Political Science, Miami University

An anti-abortion rights advocate places a sign in front of an abortion clinic in Phoenix on April 18, 2024. Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images

It’s been nearly two years since the Supreme Court announced its Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling overturning federal protection for the right to an abortion, marking a...

Returning a 170-year-old preserved lizard to Jamaica is a step toward redressing colonial harms

Written by Alex A. Moulton, Assistant Professor of Geography and Environmental Science, Hunter College

Zoologist Elizabeth Morrison receives the Jamaican giant galliwasp from Mike Rutherford, a curator at the University of Glasgow, on April 22, 2024. Jane Barlow/PA Images via Getty Images

Museums often celebrate new acquisitions, especially something rare or historic. In April 2024, scientists from the Natural History Museum of Jamaica and The...

Perception of campus police is more negative among students from minority groups

Written by Christopher R. Dennison, Associate Professor of Sociology, University at Buffalo

Student views of campus police may be affected by societal views of law enforcement more broadly.steved_np3 via Getty Images

Racial, ethnic and self-identified sexual minorities possess more negative views of campus police compared with nonminorities.

That’s the key finding from a new study in which we analyzed data from approximately 400...

Why do astronomers look for signs of life on other planets based on what life is like on Earth?

Written by Cole Mathis, Assistant Professor of Complex Adaptive Systems, Arizona State University

Hunting for life on other worlds isn't easy.Victor Habbick Visions/Science Photo Library via Getty Images

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 do astronomers look for signs of life on other planets based on how life is on...

Why the future of democracy could depend on your group chats

Written by Nathan Schneider, Assistant Professor of Media Studies, University of Colorado Boulder

Is your social media group a budding democracy or someone's fiefdom?John Trumbull's painting, Declaration of Independence, plus emoticons

I became newly worried about the state of democracy when, a few years ago, my mother was elected president of her neighborhood garden club.

Her election wasn’t my worry – far from it. At the time, I...

Prenatal supplements fall woefully short in providing crucial nutrition during pregnancy – and most women don’t even know it

Written by Mary Scourboutakos, Family Medicine Resident and Nutrition Expert, Eastern Virginia Medical School

Prenatal supplements are not the insurance plan that many doctors believe them to be.SDI Productions/E+ via Getty Images

If there’s one thing doctors agree on, it’s that all of their pregnant patients should take prenatal supplements. As a result, about 3 in 4 expecting mothers follow their doctor’s advice.

But even though...

Who gets to decide what counts as ‘disorder’?

Written by Jess Reia, Assistant Professor of Data Science, University of Virginia

Police drag away a tent from a pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of California, Irvine on May 15, 2024.Leonard Ortiz/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images

As a scholar of urban governance and data policy, I viewed the responses to protests on U.S. campuses as about more than threats to academic freedom and freedom of...