The Conversation

Ukraine's foreign fighters have little in common with those who signed up to fight in the Spanish Civil War

Written by Sebastiaan Faber, Professor of Hispanic Studies, Oberlin College and Conservatory

A woman hugs a Polish volunteer before he crosses the border to go and fight against Russian forces.AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu

When an aging Abe Osheroff recalled why, as a 21-year-old kid from Brooklyn’s Brownsville neighborhood, he had volunteered to join the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War in 1936, he framed it as a personal,...

Ukraine is benefiting from generous donations – and many other global causes need help, too

Written by Jessica Eise, Assistant Professor of Social and Environmental Challenges, The University of Texas at San Antonio

A Yemeni mother holds the tiny foot of her malnourished child in 2021. Mohammed Hamoud/Getty Images

Ukraine’s resistance to Russia has captivated the world, dominating social media and the news since the Feb. 24, 2022, invasion. With this attention has come a massive outpouring of financial support.

Ordinary people, governments, corporations an...

Russia’s no longer a ‘most-favored nation’: 5 questions about the coveted trading status answered

Written by Charles Hankla, Associate Professor of Political Science, Georgia State University

Russian-made goods will likely cost more in Western liquor stores if most-favored-nation status is removed. AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar

The U.S., the European Union, Japan and Canada are further severing Russia from global markets by removing a coveted trading designation over its war in Ukraine. Known as most-favored-nation status, it generally...

Why Crimean Tatars are fearful as Russia invades Ukraine

Written by Brian Glyn Williams, Professor of Islamic History, UMass Dartmouth

Crimean Tatars gathered for a rally commemorating the 70th anniversary of Stalin's mass deportation, in Simferopol, Crimea, on May 18, 2014. AP Photo/Alexander Polegenko

As Vladimir Putin’s forces wage a brutal war against Ukraine, the Crimean Tatars living in Russian-occupied Crimea and on the Ukrainian mainland feel particularly threatened...

How does the immune system mobilize in response to a COVID-19 infection or a vaccine? 5 essential reads

Written by Amanda Mascarelli, Senior Health and Medicine Editor

The COVID-19 pandemic has taught most people more than they ever expected to know about immunology.Membio/iStock via Getty Images Plus

Heading into the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic, many of us have become amateur immunologists, having conversations at the dinner table and in the grocery store aisle about mRNA vaccines, variants, breakthrough...

From healthy births to sustainable management, 5 essential reads on the fascinating and complex vagina

Written by Leah Samuel, Health + Equity Editor

The vagina is a muscular tube that can maintain itself and be beneficial to babies.magicmine/iStock via Getty Images Plus

As the most common route for arriving into the world, the human vagina has, of course, existed for as long as there have been people. Despite the name, however, it’s not so much a “sheath” – the Latin...

AI maps psychedelic 'trip' experiences to regions of the brain – opening new route to psychiatric treatments

Written by Galen Ballentine, Resident in Psychiatry, SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University

Psychedelics have been the subject of a recent surge of interest in their potential therapeutic effects.metamorworks/iStock via Getty Images

For the past several decades, psychedelics have been widely stigmatized as dangerous illegal drugs. But a recent surge of academic research into their use to treat psychiatric conditions is spurring a recent...

'I have a need': How Zelenskyy's plea to Congress emphasized shared identity with US

Written by Karrin Vasby Anderson, Professor of Communication Studies, Colorado State University

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addresses the U.S. Congress.Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Speaking from his nation’s capital of Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed a joint session of the U.S. Congress as Russian shells continue to bombard the city.

In the historic event on March 16, 2022, Zelenskyy sought to persuade U.S....

How AI helped deliver cash aid to many of the poorest people in Togo

Written by Emily Aiken, Doctoral Student of Information, University of California, Berkeley

Mobile devices are becoming ubiquitous in Africa.Godong/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work.

The big idea

Governments and humanitarian groups can use machine learning algorithms and mobile phone data to get aid to those who need it most during a humanitarian crisis, we found in...

How weapons get to Ukraine and what's needed to protect vulnerable supply chains

Written by Vincent E. Castillo, Assistant Professor of Logistics, The Ohio State University

Ukrainian soldiers move U.S.-made Stinger missiles that were shipped from Lithuania to Kyiv, Ukraine, on Feb. 13, 2022.Sergei Supinsky/AFP via Getty Images)

Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, invoking King in his virtual address to Congress on March 16, 2022, said he has a need. “We need you right...