The Conversation

More mass shootings are happening at grocery stores – 13% of shooters are motivated by racial hatred, criminologists find

Written by Jillian Peterson, Professor of Criminal Justice, Hamline University

Racial hatred is a factor in 13% of mass shootings at grocery stores.John Normile/Getty Images

An apparently racially motivated attack at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, resulted in 10 deaths on May 14, 2022, with the teenage suspect allegedly targeting Black shoppers in a prominently African American neighborhood.

Mass public shootings in which...

Enforcing unprecedented subpoenas for GOP lawmakers turns on complex legal precedent going back centuries

Written by Jennifer Selin, Co-director, Washington Office, Carl Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy, Wayne State University

Will House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy attempt to defy subpoena?Drew Angerer/Getty Images

An attempt to force five Republican lawmakers into providing information to the House panel probing the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol is unlikely to end with the subpoenas issued May 12, 2022.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and the four other Republican...

A shrinking fraction of the world's major crops goes to feed the hungry, with more used for nonfood purposes

Written by Deepak Ray, Senior Scientist, University of Minnesota

Harvesting soybeans in Mato Grosso, Brazil. Brazil exports soybeans and uses them domestically to make animal feed and biodiesel.Paulo Fridman/Corbis via Getty Images

CC BY-ND

Rising competition for many of the world’s important crops is sending increasing amounts toward uses other than directly feeding people. These competing uses include...

US schools are not racially integrated, despite decades of effort

Written by Pedro A. Noguera, Dean, USC Rossier School of Education, University of Southern California

Court-ordered desegregation has happened in the U.S. as recently as 2015, when a federal judge issued a desegregation order to the Cleveland, Miss., school district.AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis

Nearly seven decades after the U.S. Supreme Court’s unanimous landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954, the court’s declared goal of...

What is 'personhood'? The ethics question that needs a closer look in abortion debates

Written by Nancy S. Jecker, Professor of Bioethics and Humanities, School of Medicine, University of Washington

Debate about abortion is often a debate about rights -- but whose?AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana

Controversy over abortion reached a fever pitch on May 2, 2022, when the leaked draft of a U.S. Supreme Court majority opinion was published by Politico. If the draft’s key points are reflected in the final ruling, this would strike down Roe v. Wade, a...

A court case against migrant activists in Italy offers a reminder – not all refugees are welcome in Europe

Written by Eleanor Paynter, Postdoctoral Associate in Migrations, Einaudi Center for International Studies, Cornell University

As many European countries welcome Ukrainians fleeing war, recent charges against a migrant advocate in Rome offer a reminder that popular anti-migration sentiments persist across Europe.

Andrea Costa, the president of Rome-based migration nonprofit Baobab Experience, was recently acquitted on charges of facilitating illegal migration – a...

Why a US task force is recommending anxiety screening in kids 8 and older

Written by Elana Bernstein, Assistant Professor of School Psychology, University of Dayton

Anxiety is the most common mental health problem affecting U.S. children.Brian A. Jackson/iStock via Getty Images

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force issued a draft statement in April 2022 recommending screening for anxiety in children and adolescents between the ages of 8 and 18. This recommendation – which is still open for public...

How to brainstorm brilliant ideas in teams – without sliding into 'groupthink'

Written by Sabrina Habib, Associate Professor of Visual Communications, University of South Carolina

Creativity is among the most in-demand skills in the workplace.

It’s not surprising that top multinational companies are looking to hire inventive thinkers: Research shows that creativity can drive innovation and resilience in organizations.

Tech giant Google has grown by innovating the way we all use the internet. Electric car maker Tesla...

Abortion funds are in the spotlight with the likely end of Roe v. Wade – 3 findings about what they do

Written by Gretchen E. Ely, Professor of Social Work and Ph.D. Program Director, University of Tennessee

Most women helped by these charities are in their 20s.Damir Khabirov/iStock via Getty Images Plus

Donations to abortion funds are reportedly surging following the leak of a draft U.S. Supreme Court abortion decision that signaled the imminent end of legal abortion in much of the country.

There are at least 90 of these funds – donor-funded,...

Say hello to Sagittarius A*, the black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy

Written by Chris Impey, University Distinguished Professor of Astronomy, University of Arizona

This image shows Sagittarius A*, the black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy. EHT Collaboration, CC BY-SA

On May 12, 2022, astronomers on the Event Horizon Telescope team released an image of a black hole called Sagittarius A* that lies at the center of the Milky Way galaxy. Chris Impey, an astronomer at the University of Arizona, explains...